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I. THEY SHALL SMITE THE JUDGE OF ISRAEL WITH A ROD UPON THE CHEEK.
A. Micah is probably best known for his prophecy of the birthplace of Jesus for this comes into prominent play in the New Testament when the wise men came to Herod to seek the place of the birth of the king of the Jews.
B. This prophecy of the Judge of Israel being smitten is only one of the many prophecies that were made concerning the events of the crucifixion and death of the Messiah.
C. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church:
1CO 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
1CO 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
1CO 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
D. When Peter on the day of Pentecost was speaking to the Jews concerning the death of Jesus he referred to it as being by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
E. The death of Jesus was no fluke of history, no accident, but a part of the determined plan of God to reveal His love to man.
1PE 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers;
1PE 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1PE 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
II. Let us look at some of these prophecies.
A.
Micah 5:1 They shall smite the Judge of Israel with rods upon the cheek. There are other prophecies concerning His being smitten.
1. Zech said, "Smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered."
2. Isaiah prophesied of His back being smitten. 50:6 I gave My back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting.
B. What does the record of the gospels tell us?
1. Mark tells us in 14:27 that Jesus said to His disciples, "All of you will be offended this night because of Me, for it is written, Smite the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered."
2.
Mark 14:65 And some began to spit on Him and to cover His face and buffet Him and to say unto Him, Prophesy; and the servants did strike Him with the palms of their hands."
3.
Mark 15:19 "And they smote Him on the head with a reed and did spit upon Him.
4. Luke tells us in 22:63 that the men that held Jesus, mocked Him and smote Him, and when they had blindfolded Him they struck Him on the face, and said to Him, "Prophesy and tell us who struck you."
C. Let us back up for a moment and first look at the prophecies of the rejection of the Messiah from the beginning.
1. First it was prophesied that he would be betrayed by a friend.
a.
Psa.41:9 "My own close friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against Me.
b. Jesus said in
John 13:18 as He was talking with His disciples at the last supper, "I speak not of all of you for I know who I have chosen: but that the scripture might be fulfilled, one of them that ate bread with Me has lifted up His heel against Me. Then Jesus said, "One of you will betray Me."
c. When Judas led the soldiers into the garden to arrest Jesus, Jesus addressed him as friend.
Matt.26:50
2. The prophet Zechariah said, 11:12,13 "And I said to them, If you think good, give Me My price; and if not forbear. So they weighed for My price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto Me, cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord."
a. Matthew tells us his gospel 27:3 that Judas who betrayed Him when he saw that He was condemned, repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. And they said. What is that to us, it's your problem. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed and went out and hung himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces and said it is not lawful for us to put it back into the treasury because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel and bought with the money a potters field to bury strangers in.
D. Looking at the prophecies concerning His trial.
1. He would not speak up in His own defense.
Isa. 53:7 "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.
2. Matthew tells us 27:12 "And when He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said unto Him, "Do you hear all the things they are accusing you of?" And He answered not a word, so that the governor marvelled greatly.
3.
Isa. 50:6 prophesied, "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting."
a. In
Isaiah 53:5 the prophet said, "And with His stripes we are healed.
b.
Matt. 27:6 tells us that Pilate when he had scourged Jesus turned Him over the to Jews to be crucified.
c.
Matt. 26:67 declares concerning the treatment of Jesus when He was being tried before the High Priest, "Then did they spit in His face and buffet Him." Then in 27:30 Matthew tells us concerning the soldiers, "And they spit upon Him and they took a reed and smote Him on the head."
4. The gospels tell us of the horrible beatings that Jesus took.
a. Luke tells us 22:64 that they blindfolded Him and began to strike Him on the face.
b.
Matt. 27:29 speaks of the crown of thorns that was pressed upon His head, and of His being hit on the head with a reed.
c. This must have left His face an ugly mess.
d. Isaiah prophesied, 52:14 that His face was so marred that you could not recognize Him as a man. In 53:2 he said, "And when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him, but He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.
E. Prophecies concerning His death on the cross.
1.
Ps. 37:16 "They pierced My hands and My feet."
2.
Zech. 12:10 In his prophecy of the future return of Jesus said, "They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced."
3.
Isaiah 53:12 declares that He made intercession for the transgressors.
4.
Luke 23:34 Tells us that when they came to the place where they crucified Jesus, "Then said Jesus, Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
5.
Isa. 52:13 declares "Behold My servant shall deal prudently He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high."
a. The New International version translates that verse, more literally. "My servant shall be high and lifted up, and highly exalted."
b. Jesus said to His disciples in
John 12:32 "And I if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me." John tells us that Jesus was referring to the manner of death He would die. Same words of Isaiah.
c. Paul tells us that because He was obedient unto death God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name."
Phil.2:9
6.
Psalm 22 begins with the words. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? The psalmist goes on to perfectly describe the conditions of a person who suffers death by crucifixion." This was close to a thousand years before the Romans devised this method of putting people to death.
7. Jesus had said in
John 3:14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."
8.
Psa.22:18 declared, "They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture."
JOH 19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also [his] coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
JOH 19:24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
9.
Psalm 22:7,
8 declares, All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him let Him deliver Him seeing He delighted in Him.
a. Notice the phrase "They shake the head."
Matt. 27:39 says, "And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads."
MAT 27:41 Likewise also the chief priests mocking [him], with the scribes and elders, said,
MAT 27:42 He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
MAT 27:43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
MAT 27:44 The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Oh yes,
Isa.53:12 said, "He has poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors."
10.
Psa. 69:21 declared, "In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.
a.
Mat.27:47,
8 He tells us that when Jesus cried from the cross, "I thirst" that one of the soldiers ran and took a sponge and filled with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave it to Him to drink.
11. Matthew tells us in 27:45 that when Jesus was crucified that from the sixth hour or noon there was darkness over the whole land.
Amos had prophesied, 8:9,10 "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth on a clear day, and I will turn your feasts into mourning, (incidentally) Jesus was crucified on the feast day of Passover) and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only Son.
12. John in speaking of the crucifixion declared,
JOH 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.
JOH 19:32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
JOH 19:33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
JOH 19:34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
JOH 19:35 And he that saw [it] bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
JOH 19:36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
JOH 19:37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
a. He already mentions that this is a fulfillment of prophecy.
Psa. 34:20 declares, "He keepeth all His bones; not one of them is broken."
Zech. 12:10 declared that they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced.
E. Finally the prophecy concerning His burial.
1. Matthew tells us:
MAT 27:57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
MAT 27:58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
MAT 27:59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
MAT 27:60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
ISA 53:9 And He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death.
Isaiah said that God made His soul and offering for sin, that He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. That all of us like sheep had gone astray, we had turned every one of us to our own ways, and God had laid on Him the iniquities of us all.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
