More Prophecies Foretelling of His Suffering

Jesus met with His disciples the evening after He was resurrected. He said to them: 

"When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.   

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 

And He said, 'Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die 

and rise from the dead on the third day..." Luke 24:44-48 NLT

Have you ever wondered what scriptures Jesus told His disciples foretelling His suffering, death and resurrection? I have wondered and offer a few. They are so poignant, I am in awe as I type them and pray these verses will bless you, as you realize the truth of God's Word from beginning to end.


"And then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures".  Lord I pray that You will open our minds, me and this dear reader, to understand the scriptures, the Old Testament verses that foretell of your suffering, death and resurrection. Help us to see You Lord in all of our reading of Your Word. 

Continuing from the previous post, here are more verses telling about the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.
That evening Jesus reminded His disciples of the time He spoke about Himself from the book of Psalms written by David. Psalm 22 is often referred to as the Psalm of the Cross. Listen to what it says. Can you "hear" the mocking and suffering He experienced? Then it even describes crucifixion, though this Psalm was written a thousand years before crucifixion was used by the Romans.

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken (abandoned) Me?... 

Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, 

'Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him! 

If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him!... 

They have pierced my hands and feet...  

They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing."  

Psalm 22:1, 7, 8, 16, 18 NKJ and NLT

Take a little time to compare these verses in Psalms 22 with their fulfillment in the life of Jesus, found in the gospels (Matthew 27:46, Luke 23:35, Matthew 27:35, 36) Very sobering. How can we ever thank Him enough?

Jesus also told His disciples that night what the prophets wrote about Him. So here is a passage Isaiah foretold of His suffering:

"He was despised and rejected... a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. 

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.  

He was despised, and we did not care. 

Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.  

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. 

He was whipped so we could be healed. 

All of us like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's path to follow our own. 

Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all." 

(Isaiah 53: 3-6, NLT) "

He poured out His soul unto death."  

(Isaiah 53:12, NKJ)

These verses describe not only His physical suffering but the emotional grief He felt from our  rejection of Him. Though we rejected Him, He suffered for us! Yes we were not there, but as part of the human race, we shared in His torment. He carried our weaknesses, He bore our sorrows, He was punished for our wrong doing! Powerful! Poignant! Heart rending!

David also prophecies the resurrection:

"My body rests in safety. 

For you will not leave my soul among the dead 

or allow your holy one to rot in the grave." 

Psalm 16:9, 10 NLT

Zechariah prophecies:

"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem 

the Spirit of grace and supplication; they will look on Me whom they pierced. 

Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only Son, 

and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn." 

Zechariah 12: 10 NKJ, John 19:37

The day will come when God will pour out His Spirit on the Jews. It may already be beginning, as many in Israel are quietly coming to Jesus Christ, their Machiach, Messiah. When they realize who He is and what their people did to Him, they will mourn for Him as their only Son, the time when God sent His Only Son to them.

I hear in this passage the grief in the heart of God.  We see in Abraham what He planned to do and spoke to Abraham, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love... and offer him..." Genesis 22:2 NKJ When God saw that Abraham did not withhold his beloved son, an angel stopped him. He said "... for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." 22:12 NKJ God provided the sacrifice for Isaac, a ram caught in a thicket. Most importantly God did not withhold His Son, His only Son whom he loved. He provided the sacrifice for us all, all of humanity, the Lamb of God, crowned with thorns, Jesus Christ.

Jesus, like Isaac was the Son of the Promise of God, the first born, beloved Son of God. He was also the Son of David, the coming King that would reign forever and ever. (2Samuel 7:12-16, Luke 1:32, 33) Jesus, the promised Son of David came to the nation of Israel and they rejected Him. He wept over the city of Jerusalem, because He knew what they would suffer, because "they did not know the time of their visitation" of their Messiah, of their King. (Luke 19:41-44) Look at that passage above from Zechariah again. God will pour out His Spirit on the house of David, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then they will see and understand who they pierced and mourn for Him, their only Son of David.

It is by His Spirit that we "see",  "hear" and understand God's grace through His Word. That first evening Jesus was with His disciples after His resurrection, "He breathed on them and said... 'Receive the Holy Spirit'". John 20:22 NKJ He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Luke 24:45


Through His Spirit, we have the mind of Christ, as Paul spoke of in I Corinthians 2:7-

"... we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, 

the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 

which none of the rulers of this age knew; 

for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 

But as it is written 

'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man; 

the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' 

(Isaiah 64:4, 65:17)

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches... the deep things of God... no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God... Now we have received, not the spirit from the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God... But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned..." 

1 Corinthians 2:7-14  NKJ

"'Who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach Him?' 

(Isaiah Isaiah 40:13) 

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ."  

1 Corinthians 2:16

Thank you God for Your mysterious hidden plan, the grace and mercy through all the ages toward those who truly believe and open themselves to Your transforming love through Your Spirit. Open our "eyes", open our "ears", our hearts and minds to understand Your Spirit, Your Mind  and the scriptures in the age we live in today.