River of Prophecy

All this was done that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child . . . ."
Matthew
1:22-23

Recommended Reading Matthew 1:18-25

Have
you ever taken a flight that followed the course of a river? Looking down, the
landscape changed and the river twisted and turned, but the waters kept flowing
in one direction till they reached the sea. That's how we feel studying the
subject of Jesus in both Old and New Testaments. The river of
redemption irrigates the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation. The birth of our
Lord in Bethlehem was no blip on the screen; it was a pre-planned event, the
details of which are clearly foretold.

The New Testament begins
in Matthew 1 by tracing our Lord's genealogy through the entire Old Testament,
all the way back to Abraham. Then Matthew refers to Isaiah 7:14, the prediction
about the virgin birth. Then in Matthew 2, we're reminded of the prediction
about Bethlehem in Micah 5:2. And so it goes. Matthew's gospel contains nearly
130 quotations and allusions from the Old Testament, showing that Jesus was the
promised Messiah. One of Matthew's most telling phrases is, "that what was
spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled."

Jesus preexisted, His
birth was preplanned, and His glory was established from before the foundation
of the world. That's our Savior!

Jesus is God,
spelling himself out in language that men can understand.
S. D.
Gordon

Powered by ScribeFire.