The Old Testament is continually pointing to the Messiah. Something that stands out to many people is how specific some things are, and how perfectly Jesus Christ fulfilled them. In the hundreds of years between the Prophets and the coming of Christ, many things in the world could have changed and made some prophecies impossible to fulfill. Christ was killed by a Roman method of execution that would have been impossible to predict, and it shows how incredible God’s plan of salvation is.
Christ in the Old Testament
And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)
God is giving Zechariah a prophecy about Israel’s eventual return to where they belong. After rejecting God over and over again, God is giving them what they want. Yet in the midst of this, God still gives them hope that they will turn in repentance after realizing what their rejection has meant. This prophecy seems to use poetic language to describe how they’ve violently rejected God, yet we see that God chose the picture of Israel “piercing” Him for a reason.
Fulfilled in the New Testament
There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. (John 19:18)
Yet one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. (John 19:34)
Roman crucifixion involved driving a large nail through the wrists and feet of a criminal and letting them hang until they suffocated under their own weight. It was slow, agonizing, and cruel. The condemned could hang there for hours, and it would be difficult to look and see if someone was dead or just motionless. One way to check for life would be to stab them and see if they reacted.
Christ could have been beheaded, crushed, suffocated, or fed to lions. There are countless ways our Savior could have been killed, yet His death involved being pierced in His wrists and feet, as well as being stabbed in His side. Israel rejected their Messiah and sent Him to the cross, yet all of this was according to God’s plan.
Just as God will restore His relationship with Israel in the future, God offers us a way to restore our relationship with Him today. All of this is done through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. By removing our sin, He also brings hope to those who have lived in rebellion against God. When we turn to Christ for salvation, we also turn to a life that no longer rejects God.
