44 Prophecies About Jesus Christ

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So I lost track of time and wasn't able to write up my post regarding the Old Testament prophecies of Christ's birth, life, death, resurrection, and return.  However I found an article that outlines 44 accounts of prophecy about Jesus Christ in chart form by About.com's Mary Fairchild.  It's really cool!  Definitely check it out!

But here are some prophetic scriptures in the Old Testament that blow me away:

Jesus' Betrayal Prophesied

Zechariah 11:12-13 "I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.  And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord."

Fulfilled in Luke 22:47-48 and Matthew 26:14-16

Jesus' Death

Isaiah 53:4-7  

⁴ 

"Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

    stricken by him, and afflicted.

⁵ 

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶ 

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

    each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all."

Fulfillment in scripture is found in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.

Jesus' Resuxrrection

Psalm 49:15

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

Fulfillment in the scripture is in Matthew 28, Luke 24, John 20, and Mark 16.

Empathy

As a new teacher in a Christian elementary school, I found myself running to my teaching mentor, Margaret, daily (actually, multiple times throughout the day) with concerns and requests for advice in dealing with my little ones.  One thing she taught me was that ethics must always be the first lesson in a classroom, and empathy is the basis for driving the ethics you teach.  Children have a hard time seeing past their own needs and wants.  It's hard to empathize with the kid you've just swiped a jumprope away from when you NEEDED that jumprope ... thus lack a of empathy.  Humans are selfish and self-consumbed by nature, which is why empathy must be the grounding point for everyone's spiritual life and personal lessons.

What is empathy?  I used to just equate it with sympathy, but although the words are linked they are not really the same.  I believe sympathy is more of a detached feeling, while empathy combines feeling and identification.  1 Peter 1:22 says, "... love one another deeply, from the heart."  For me, that line is one of many from the Bible that embodies the act of empathy.  When you love "deeply, from the heart" you will also identify with each other "deeply, from the heart."

Although I understand empathy and I strive to love in that way, I still find myself lacking in love for others.  I still chose to love some and not love others.  I withhold my empathy from those that I don't feel deserve it ... but did I deserve the love that Jesus showed me?  Jesus identified with me in my selfish, sinful state.  He became my sin, so that I can have the opportunity to be free of it.  WOW!  In light of that, I can definitely empathize and love deeply someone that seems unfit to love.

The act of withholding empathy can be great or small.  Obviously I have a hard time identifying with a mass murderer, but how hard is it to identify with someone who always seems to have some sort of petty, physical ailment that they are complaining about?  HARD.  Their pettiness becomes a reason to withhold empathy because I unfairly reach the conclusion that they do not deserve a listening ear.  Reacting this way is completely unfair and unloving and unlike my Savior.

Within the context of 1 Peter 1:22-23, Peter is explaining that the deep love from the heart is evidence of our salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  He says in the first part of the verse, "Now you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.  For you have been born again ..."

Empathy is huge for us!  It's almost impossible without the Holy Spirit at work within us!  We need to challenge ourselves to deep love and empathy for those we pettily push aside.  No more justifying that action as deserved ... take a moment to relate, identify, listen and LOVE.