By giving a sufficient number of definite specifications in the Old Testament concerning the coming Messiah, God enabled us to pick out one man from all history, from all nations, from all peoples, and be absolutely sure that one man is the Messiah! As these detailed prophecies are understood it becomes obvious that no other person in the history of the world could fulfill them all, or even a very small percentage of them, other than Jesus.

There are actually 333 predictions concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament, all of which have found fulfillment in Jesus Christ. He is the only person ever born into this world whose ancestry, birth time, forerunner, birthplace, birth manner, infancy, manhood, teaching, character, career, preaching, reception, rejection, death, burial, resurrection and ascension were all accurately prewritten centuries before He was born.

With no variations or aberrations between the Old Testament predictions of the coming Messiah and the New Testament fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth, one instinctively concludes that the hand that drew the image in prophecy molded the portrait in history. This amazing miracle proves that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, that the God of the Bible is the true and living, all-knowing, all-powerful God, and that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, the Son of the living God.

Very early on in the Biblical narrative, God eliminated half of the human race as the immediate parent of the Messiah, at the same time making it clear that Messiah would come as a man and not an angel when He promised that the coming Deliverer would be the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15).

Then God eliminated two-thirds of the nations by indicating that the Messiah would come through Noah's son, Shem, not Ham or Japheth (Genesis 9:26,27; 11:10-27).

Later, still, another choice was made by God. All of the hundreds of nations of the world were eliminated except one, the new nation begun by God Himself when he called Abraham. God divided the nations into two groups—Jews and Gentiles—and separated one small nation—the Jews—that through them the Messiah might come (Genesis 12:1-3; 22:16-18).

Here is a phenomenon of the first magnitude, a record that goes back 1500 years before Christ in which the writer hazards multiple predictions that God would bless Abraham, give him the land of Canaan and bless the world through him and his "seed." Thus the Messianic story unfolds that Messiah must be the seed of a woman, come through the line of Shem, and be the seed of Abraham. This narrowed the search for Messiah to the Jewish race.

Abraham, however, had several sons. Another choice was made, the line narrowed more. Messiah would come through Isaac (Genesis 17:19; 21:12). Since Isaac had two sons, the Messianic line was again narrowed through the clear prediction that the Messiah would come through Jacob, not Esau (Num. 24:17,19). But Jacob had twelve sons, so the Almighty made another choice. The Messiah would come through Judah, not from the other eleven tribes (Genesis 49:10). Next, of the thousands of families in the tribe of Judah, the Lord chose the family of Jesse to bring forth the Messiah (Isaiah 11:1,2). Jesse had eight sons. The divine choice was that Messiah be a descendant of David, Jesse's youngest son (2 Sam. 7:12,13). Of all the many sons of David, the Messiah had to obtain His right to the throne of David through the regal line of Solomon (1 Chron. 28:5).

Yet another most important credential for the Messiah is that He must be born of a virgin. Since the Messiah had to be of the fruit of David's body (Psa. 132:11), this virgin had to be a direct descendant of King David. This "sign" of the virgin birth was a miracle making it very clear that the One who thus came to earth is the Messiah.

But prophecy goes beyond His lineage, to the town where He was to be born. Asia from all the continents, the state of Canaan, the province of Judea, the tiny village of Bethlehem were chosen as the place where Jesus was born.

Finally, the time of Messiah's coming was accurately predicted to the very day in Daniel's prophecy of 70 weeks of years (Dan. 9:24-27). Messiah had to come 483 years after a specific date in Daniel's time. This prediction has been proven to the very day, and points unerringly to Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah the Prince who was cut off by a violent death.

The accuracy of all these predictions is minute; the fulfillments are exact. There were 400 years between the last of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament and their fulfillment in Christ. Many are much older than 400 B.C., being given by a succession of prophets dating back to 1500 B.C. Such time between the predictions and fulfillments assures that the prophecies were not clever guesses. The probability of all these detailed prophecies being fulfilled by chance or coincidence exceeds all the power of numbers to express, or the mind of man to grasp. They were given in the Word of God so that all might know the Messiah when He came. How true are the words of Dr. A. T. Pierson, "There would be no honest infidel in the world were Messianic prophecy studied …nor would there be any doubting disciples if the fact of prediction and fulfillment were fully understood."

—Adapted from The Prophets Still Speak by Fred John Meldau. Used by permission of publisher, The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.