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Born to Die
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
But much transpired between His birth and His death that's not mentioned in these creeds and statements of faith. In Genesis 12:3 the Lord said to Abram when he was 75 years old: "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." And in ch. 17:4-5, twenty-four years later, the Lord changed his name to Abraham, saying he would be the father of many nations... even though he and his wife were childless! He then fathered Ishmael and Isaac, who in turn fathered the Ishmaelites, the Edomites, and the Israelites, among others.
One of those descendants was Israel's King David, whose ancestors included Tamar, the pagan wife of Judah's sons Er and Onan who both died, so she enticed her father-in-law. The next pagan ancestor of King David was Rahab the harlot from Jericho, and the next after her was the pagan Ruth who married Boaz. David himself had that sordid affair with the pagan woman Bathsheba, then had her husband Uriah the Hittite murdered. All four of these women are listed in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. King David wrote that prophetic Psalm 22 (21 in the Septuagint):
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (v. 1).
"All those who see Me mock Me. They insult Me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
'He trusts in the Lord; let Him deliver Him; let Him rescue Him, since He delights in Him'" (vv. 7-8).
"They open their mouths wide against Me, lions tearing prey and roaring.
I am poured out like water. All My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within Me.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought Me into the dust of death.
For dogs have surrounded Me. A company of evil-doers have enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet.
I can count all of My bones. They look and stare at Me.
They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for My clothing" (vv. 13-18).
"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the Lord's. He is the ruler over the nations" (vv. 27-28).
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Then we come to the prophet Isaiah:
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (7:14).
"The voice of one who cries, Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord; make level in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain:
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it" (ch. 40:3-5).
"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen, in whom My soul delights: I have put My Spirit on Mim; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles" (ch. 42:1 & 6).
"Now says the Lord who formed Me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, and that Israel be gathered to Him (for I am honorable in the eyes of the Lord, and My God is become My strength);
yes, He says, It is too light a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give You for a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My salvation to the end of the earth" (ch. 49:5-6).
"I gave My back to the strikers, and My cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
For the Lord God will help Me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed.
He is near who justifies Me; who will bring charges against Me? Let us stand up together: who is My adversary? Let him come near to Me" (ch. 50:6-8).
"Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
Like as many were astonished at You (His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men),
so shall He startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard they shall understand" (ch. 52:13-15).
"He was oppressed, yet when He was afflicted He did not open His mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people?
They made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death; although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
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.
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant justify many; and He shall bear their iniquities" (ch. 53:8-11).
"Arise, shine; for Your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen on You.
For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise on You, and His glory shall be seen on You.
Nations shall come to Your light, and kings to the brightness of Your rising" (ch. 60:1-3).
"The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me; because the Lord has anointed Me [the Messiah] to preach good news to the humble; He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn" (ch.61:1-2).
"For I know their works and their thoughts: the time comes, that I will gather all nations and languages; and they shall come, and shall see My glory.
I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape from them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, who have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the nations" (ch. 66:18-19).
These Old Testament prophecies were veiled to the Jews, but these passages come to life for believers in Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Lord's promise to bless all nations of the earth. They depict a Man coming in gentleness, preaching good news to the humble, healing the broken-hearted, and comforting all who mourn, but then He would be led to the slaughter like a lamb to make His soul an offering for sin, to justify many by bearing their iniquities. The result will be that His chosen among the Gentiles will preach the good news among all the nations. And that is precisely what happened! He was born to die... so that we might not die eternally but live forever with Him.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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