Isaiah is called the Messianic prophet because his prophetic references that speak of the life of Christ far outnumber any of the other Old Testament prophets. There are twenty-two direct references to the prophet Isaiah that are quoted in the New Testament and many other quotes, perhaps at least one hundred that also speak of the life and ministry of Jesus, the Christ. This next series will delve into the New Testament verses that are directly linked to Isaiah.
Isaiah continually points to Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, driving this point home. The New Testament directly quotes Isaiah twenty-two times; the Gospels quote Isaiah fourteen times; Acts quotes him three times, and finally, Paul’s letter to the Romans quotes Isaiah five times. Clearly, Isaiah deserves the title “The Messianic Prophet.”
The next passage that speaks of the word of Isaiah being fulfilled is found in John’s gospel which reads, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” John 12:38.
The passage quotes from Isaiah 53:1 and is one of the Servant songs, each of which speak of Jesus as the ultimate Servant and the Messiah of Israel. John had previously written in John 1:11 that Jesus came to His own, and His own did not receive Him; speaking of the Jewish people who would not believe in Him. This verse is followed by a promise that, “to those who did receive Him, to those He gave the right to become children of God” John 1:12.
In my last blog, I began to look at the prophecies in Isaiah which have their fulfillment in Christ. We continue the study with Matthew 13:14 which states, “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which states:
14. Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them.”
Isaiah is called the Messianic prophet because his prophetic references that speak of the life of Christ far outnumber any of the other Old Testament prophets. There are twenty-two direct references to the prophet Isaiah that are quoted in the New Testament and many other quotes, perhaps at least one hundred that also speak of the life and ministry of Jesus, the Christ. This next series will delve into the New Testament verses that are directly linked to Isaiah.
A common metaphor of a vineyard or garden recurs often throughout the Bible. In fact, the word vineyard occurs 104 times in all: 84 times in the Old Testament and 22 times in the New Testament. The closely related word, garden, occurs 63 times bringing the total of these two words to 145 uses in both the Old and New Testaments.
