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Discover the ancient prophecies that foretold the Messiah!
In this episode, Jimmy Akin journeys through the Old Testament, unpacking the Torah’s hidden clues—like the First Gospel in Genesis 3:15—and the crystal-clear visions from Isaiah and Micah of a righteous, eternal King born in Bethlehem who brings global peace.
Get ready for a thrilling biblical detective story that reveals how these ancient hopes point straight to Jesus!
TRANSCRIPT:
Coming Up
Centuries before Jesus was born, the prophets were already describing him.
He would be a king from Bethlehem, a descendant of David, and he would reign forever in a world at peace.
But where did the hope for a Messiah come from?
Let’s get into it!
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Howdy, folks!
We’re in our second year of the podcast now, and you can help me keep making this podcast for years to come—and get early access to new episodes—by going to Patreon.com/JimmyAkinPodcast
Setting the Stage
Before we look at the prophecies themselves, let’s set the stage.
The story we’re about to tell unfolds across more than 1,000 years, so it helps to lay the events out on a timeline.
The period we’re concerned with starts with the Exodus, when God brought Israel up out of Egypt, back in the 1200s B.C.
Now, historically, many people have held that the Torah—the first five books of the Bible—were written by Moses, and on that dating, that would place these books in the 1200s B.C. also.
But the books do not claim to have been written by Moses. They do claim to contain material that goes back to Moses, and I think that’s correct; they do.
However, they show signs of having been written later. If you’d like me to do an episode about the dating of the Torah, just let me know in the comments.
In contrast to the traditional proposal for when the Torah was written, many skeptical scholars have proposed a much later date.
And some scholars think the Torah didn’t reach its final form until the Persian period—maybe around 400 B.C.
My own proposal is closer to the traditional view than the skeptical one.
About 200 years after the Exodus, Israel reached its high point under David, who reigned about 1010 to 970 B.C., and his son Solomon, who reigned about 970 to 931 B.C.
It was right around this time, around the time of David or Solomon, that I propose that the Torah—the first five books of the Bible—was written, say, somewhere near 1000 B.C.
After Solomon, the kingdom divided, and up in the north a king named Omri—who conquered Moab—reigned from about 885 to 874 B.C.
Then came the great prophets. Isaiah and Micah both prophesied in the 700s B.C., roughly 200 years before the exile.
Then the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and carried many of the people off into exile, in 587 B.C.
The exile ended when Cyrus the Great let the people go home, in 538 B.C., under a descendant of David named Zerubbabel.
With that timeline in mind, let’s see where the hope for a Messiah first shows up.
Looking for the Messiah in the Torah
As we mentioned in Episode 87, after the Babylonian exile, the Jewish people were hoping for a future son of David to take the throne.
But before we look at the clear, explicit prophecies of the Messiah, I want to look at three passages in the Torah—the first five books of the Bible—that have often been read as messianic prophecies.
They’re a little trickier than people sometimes realize, so they’re worth handling carefully.
The First Gospel
The first passage is right at the beginning of the Bible.
In Genesis 3, the serpent has just gotten Adam and Eve to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit, and God turns to the serpent and says, in verse 15:
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
Now, the very last book of the Bible—Revelation—identifies the serpent with Satan.
In Revelation 12, John sees a vision of a heavenly woman who gives birth to a child who is clearly Christ, and the two of them are threatened by a great red dragon, in verse 9:
Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
So in both passages we have the same cast: a woman, her child or seed, and a serpent, all locked in a conflict.
And since Revelation tells us the woman’s seed is Christ and the serpent is Satan, it’s natural to read Genesis 3:15 in that light, as a prophecy of Christ’s conflict with the devil.
In Christian circles, Genesis 3:15 even got a special name—the Protoevangelium, a Latin term that means = First Gospel.
And that understanding is correct: it’s the first announcement of the gospel in Scripture.
But we need to be a little careful here, because that’s not the obvious meaning of the passage.
Taken just on its own terms, Genesis 3:15 reads like an explanation of the age-old hostility between humans and snakes.
Snakes are down on the ground, so they strike at the part of us they can reach—our feet and our heels—and we defend ourselves by going after their heads.
The messianic meaning is also really there, but it’s a deeper layer that we can only see clearly once Revelation makes the connection.
This points to the difference between what’s in the Literal Sense of a text and what’s in its Spiritual Sense.
In the literal sense of Genesis 3:15, it contains a prophecy about the conflict between humans and snakes that has been going on throughout history.
In its spiritual sense, it contains a prophecy about the conflict between the Messiah and the devil.
We’ll dig into how that kind of two-level prophecy works in another episode.
For now, just notice the practical upshot: With someone who accepts the book of Revelation, Genesis 3:15 is a perfectly good messianic prophecy.
But don’t be surprised if someone who doesn’t accept Revelation as Scripture doesn’t recognize the prophecy.
The Scepter Out of Judah
The second Torah passage comes from Genesis 49.
Here the patriarch Jacob is on his deathbed, making predictions about his twelve sons and the tribes that would come from them.
He passes quickly over his first three sons, noting their sins, but then he gets to Judah and says, in Genesis 49:
Genesis 49:8-10
Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s whelp;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down, he lurked as a lion,
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Both Jews and Christians have understood the statement that the scepter shall not depart from Judah “until he comes to whom it belongs” as a reference to the Messiah.
And that’s reinforced by the statement that says this ruler will receive “the obedience of the peoples”—so he’s a ruler whose reach extends beyond Israel to the Gentiles.
But there’s a catch, and it has to do with when Genesis was written.
As we said, on the traditional view, Genesis was written by Moses, before the time of King David.
On a skeptical, modern view, it was edited and published after the Babylonian exile.
My own view is that it was probably written around the time of King David.
Now, if the skeptical scholars are correct and the Torah reached its final form after the exile—when there was no Jewish king—then it’s possible that this passage pointed to a future, messianic king in the mind of the original author.
That would make the messianic prophecy part of the literal sense of the text.
But if the book was written back in the time of Moses or David, it could be taken in another way.
The passage might be a prophecy of the rise of the Davidic monarchy itself, with the “obedience of the peoples” being the homage that Gentiles paid to David and his successors.
Now, the prophecy could still include the Messiah—especially in the deeper, spiritual sense—but it doesn’t nail it down as clearly as we might like.
So, like Genesis 3:15, the passage is not as clear a Messianic prophecy as some of the others we’ll come to.
A Star Out of Jacob
The third Torah passage is in Numbers 24.
Here, a pagan prophet named Balaam has been hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel, but every time he opens his mouth, a blessing comes out instead.
At one point, in Numbers 24:17, he says:
Numbers 24:17
A star shall come forth out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab,
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
The star and scepter rising out of Israel has been understood, both by Jews and Christians, as a reference to a future Messiah.
In fact, this passage had an impact in later history.
In the early second century A.D., a Jewish leader named Simon started a rebellion against the Romans, and he came to be called Simon bar Kokhba—or = Simon son of the Star—in reference to this very verse.
Unfortunately for him, the revolt failed, and afterward people started calling him Simon bar Koziba or = Simon son of the Lie—because he turned out to be a failed Messiah.
So the star really was a recognized symbol of the Messiah in this period, and there is a messianic prophecy here.
But, just like with the last passage, we run into the question of when it was written.
If the Torah wasn’t finalized until after the exile, then it could be a prediction of a future, messianic ruler in the literal sense of the text.
But if was written in the time of Moses or David, it could simply refer to one of the Israelite kings.
The passage doesn’t even mention the tribe of Judah; it just says “Jacob” and “Israel,” the names for the nation as a whole
As it happens, both King David and the northern king Omri conquered Moab, so either of them could fit.
So once again, this verse may not contain a messianic prophecy in the literal sense of the text, though there is one there in the spiritual sense.
All three of these passages thus do contain messianic prophecies—but they aren’t as clear as we might want, and the messianic meaning may belong to that deeper, spiritual layer rather than the surface of the text.
Fortunately, there are other passages where the coming of a future, Davidic Messiah is simply unmistakable.
Clearer Prophecies of a Future King
The Babylonian Exile ended the line of Davidic kings, but hopes for a restored line rose when Cyrus the Great let the Jewish people go back home.
The Jewish leader at the time was a man named Zerubbabel, and he was actually a descendant of David.
So at least now there was a Davidic ruler over the Jewish people again.
But Zerubbabel was only a governor, not a king, so it wasn’t clear how he related to the promise God had given David or an enduring dynasty—and no new line of Davidic kings came from him.
However, there had been clear prophecies of an ideal, future king, and these went back hundreds of years.
Isaiah’s Ideal King
The prophet Isaiah lived in the 700s B.C., two centuries before the Babylonian exile.
A lot of his messages were about events in his own day, but he also looked ahead to a coming age, ruled by an ideal Davidic king
Isaiah 9 says:
Isaiah 9:6-7
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government will be upon his shoulder,
and his name will be called
“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom,
to establish it, and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Now, Isaiah is clearly talking about a descendant of David here, because he says this king will reign “upon the throne of David.”
So, like the other Davidic kings, this one will be one of the Lord’s anointed—one of the messiahs.
But this king is in a completely different category.
He’s given extraordinary titles—“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Unlike the other kings, he rules with perfect justice, in a time of peace, and he reigns “from this time forth and for evermore.”
This is not your average Davidic king—not even close to the ones reigning in Isaiah’s own lifetime.
This is an ideal king, one who far surpasses all the others.
He wouldn’t just be a messiah—he would be the Messiah.
And Isaiah tells us more about him.
Isaiah 11 says:
Isaiah 11:1-5
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
Jesse was the father of David, so this new king—this “shoot” or “branch” of Jessee—will be a descendant of Jesse.
He’ll be a new David, full of wisdom and the knowledge of God’s will.
And he reigns in a time of astonishing peace. As Isaiah 11 continues:
Isaiah 11:6-10
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall feed;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples;
him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.
So this isn’t just a change of government—it’s an international religious renewal, where “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
And the messianic king is the center of it all, standing “as an ensign to the peoples,” the one whom “the nations shall seek.”
As you can see, Isaiah offers us much clearer, much more explicit prophecies of the Messiah, where the prophecies are part of the literal rather than just the spiritual sense of the text.
Born in Bethlehem
Isaiah wasn’t the only prophet describing this future king.
His contemporary, the prophet Micah, added an important detail in Micah 5, verse 2:
Micah 5:2
You, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
And so Micah tells us the Messiah would come from Bethlehem—the very same town that David came from.
This suggests that the coming Davidic king—the Messiah—will also be from Bethlehem.
A Portrait of the Coming King
Now, both Isaiah and Micah were prophesying about 200 years before the Babylonian exile.
So, long before the exile even happened, there was already a prophetic tradition describing an ideal king who would one day come.
Put their prophecies together, and you get a remarkably specific portrait.
He would be born in Bethlehem.
He would be a descendant of David.
He would rule righteously.
He would rule in a time of peace.
He would oversee a time of religious renewal.
He would be sought by the Gentiles.
And he would have a kingdom that would never end.
This king would be utterly different from—and far superior to—every Davidic king who came before him.
Conclusion
So, to sum up, the Jewish hope for a Messiah didn’t come out of nowhere.
There are messianic prophecies, including in the Torah—like the first gospel in Genesis 3:15, the scepter out of Judah, and the star out of Jacob—though those passages need to be handled with care.
They aren’t the clear and convincing kind of prophecies that are undeniable.
There are unmistakable prophecies of Isaiah and Micah describing a coming Davidic king who would be born in Bethlehem, reign in righteousness and peace, and draw all the nations to himself.
The picture had already begun to form, centuries before Jesus.
But there are more prophecies about the Messiah—and more ideas about him—that we haven’t even looked at yet.
So we’ll be discussing those in future episodes.
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And if you enjoy this content, you can find more in my book Evidence for Christ: How We Know That Jesus Is the Messiah.
In it, I build the whole case step by step—what the Messiah was supposed to be, and how Jesus fits the bill.
Be sure and get a copy.
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Thank you, and I’ll see you next time
God bless you always!