And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself - Luke 24:27.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Copyright 2021 by H.D. Shively
Exploring Messianic prophecies:
Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 53
Jesus established the model by which His disciples are to teach and validate who He is, the Messiah, the long awaited Redeemer of mankind.
We must keep in mind this very important fact: Jesus would not have directed us to search those scriptures if they could not verify the truth of who He is.
The first Messianic prophecy begins with Moses’ writings. In the Genesis account we read of Adam and Eve’s failure. They only had one commandment to obey, but the lust for something more than what they had was stronger than their desire to obey God.
All humans are standing on the same feet of clay, all humans need the forgiveness and redemption from sin that was promised to our first parents in Eden’s garden. The One who is to be the means by which that redemption is received is promised in the third chapter of Genesis.
And I will put enmity between you (the devil) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15).
In this prophecy, the seed, or offspring of the woman will defeat the devil, and in turn the devil will bruise His heel. We are being shown here that the devil’s and sin’s defeat will be instigated through the wounding of the One who is promised to come from the lineage of the woman. That wounding is detailed for us in Isaiah’s prophecy as we shall see.
After God delivers this indictment on the evil one who deceived His children, God illustrates His plan of redemption by covering their nakedness.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD GOD make coats of skins, and clothed them (Genesis 3:21).
Those clothes were made possible by the death of an animal. Thus a sacrifice is made that produces the covering that represents God’s forgiveness. This pattern using sacrifice for the remission of sin is established in Eden’s garden and continues throughout the scriptures until its fulfillment in the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus.
Adam and Eve had attempted to cover their nakedness by sewing fig leaves around their bodies, leaves that would eventually dry up and wither away. In other words, their own efforts to cover their nakedness and sin was worthless. They could only be covered by a sacrifice made by God Himself. The prophet Isaiah must have had this incident in mind when he wrote, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away (Isaiah 64:6).
Any attempt to try and justify ourselves before God by relying on our own faulty righteousness is the equivalent of standing before God in a suit of drafty fig leaves. The only way we can be seen as righteous in the eyes of God is to submit to His plan of Redemption that He instigated in Eden.
The blood from that initial sacrifice that adequately clothed our first parents, flows from Eden like a river through the centuries until it prophetically connects with its future fulfillment by the Messiah’s sacrifice. This sacrifice which is the culmination of God’s plan of redemption for humanity, is described in the fifty-third chapter of the prophecy that was given by God through the prophet Isaiah. In this prophecy he details for us the "bruising" shown to us in Genesis 3:15, of the devils attack on the One whose wounds would accomplish the serpent’s defeat.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand (Isaiah 53:10).
The sacrifice in Eden’s garden that is detailed for us through Isaiah’s pen, comes to its fulfillment on a Roman cross upon a mount called Calvary.
The sacrifice that God made to clothe His first children, now clothes everyone who obeys God’s commandment to eat the fruit of this tree and believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
FREE eBook -
"Why Jesus has to be the Messiah - Understanding the New Covenant and the Hebrew Roots of Christianity"
Author and Bible scholar,
H. D. Shively, directs us back through the centuries to explore the foreshadows and typologies that God has so brilliantly woven through His word to verify “Why Jesus has to be the Messiah.” You will be brought to an understanding of the unique plan of redemption for mankind that God has
orchestrated from the beginning of creation.You will understand how God and the Messiah are unified, and why it is not idolatry to worship God
through Him. You will be escorted through the writings of Moses and the prophets on a journey that leads to only one conclusion -
Jesus is the prophesied Messiah.
Also available in Paperback. Order wherever books are sold. ISBN:9798667887485