The Fulfillment of Scriptures

I’m impressed by the way that Jesus emphasized the scriptures even in the final days of His life—He was determined to see that the scriptures which had prophesied of the events surrounding His death be fulfilled.  As He taught His apostles on the night of the Passover feast, He said to them, “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18).  He knew the events related to Judas’s betrayal had been foretold in the scriptures.  Later that night as He continued to teach them He prayed to the Father, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12).  Again His thoughts were turned to the fulfillment of the scriptures.  After He then went into the garden and emerged with the apostles, He was met by Judas and the rulers who came to arrest Him.  When Peter drew his sword in defense, Jesus responded, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” (Matt. 26:52-54)  Again, even in this moment after He had already suffered so much and was being unjustly taken, His concern was that the scriptures be fulfilled.  He then spoke to those arresting Him emphasizing the scriptures again: “I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled” (Mark 14:49).  That Jesus would focus so much on the fulfillment of the scriptures in these most important moments of all time surely indicates the focus we too should have on the scriptures and the fulfillment of their prophecies. 

               As the remaining events of that day took place, the gospel writers emphasized further evidences that the scriptures were indeed being fulfilled through those experiences.  After Matthew explained what happened to Judas when he regretted his terrible dead, he connected it with scripture: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me” (Matt. 27:9-10).  When upon the cross, after Mark wrote about the thieves He was among and explained,

“And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors” (Mark 15:28).  Matthew described what happened to Jesus’s garments at the crucifixion and again tied it to scriptural prophecy: “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots” (Matt. 27:35).  Once the Savior was resurrected, He was found on the road to Emmaus and He immediately started teaching about the scriptures and their fulfillment: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:17).  The fulfillment of scriptures was an integral part of the sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Savior and this surely is an indication of the eternal relevance of the scriptures and their prophecies.