Wisdom 2:12, 17-20
The wicked say:
Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.
Mark 9:30-32
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
God is outside space and time.
And thus the incarnation, persecution, mocking, and death-by-crucifixion of Jesus, the Son of God, had been amply foretold in the Old Testament. The concordance of the above passages from the New (Mark 9) and Old Testaments (Wisdom 2) is but one example.
Here are some more:
Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Numbers 24:17
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
Micah 5:2
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Jeremiah 23:5
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
Zechariah 9:9
behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Zechariah 11:12
So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
Psalm 22:1, 16, 18
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
they pierced my hands and my feet.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
And yet, despite the concordances of Old and New Testaments, so many then and now obdurately refuse to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God.
When Jesus came to the Israelites, and despite all His miracles — walking on water; calming a stormy sea; multiplying a few fishes and loaves to feed thousands; healing the blind, lame and the sick; resurrecting Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus from the dead; casting demons from the possessed — most of them not only rejected Him, they had Him executed.
How perverse is that!
So today, when you hear His voice, be not “hard of face and obstinate of heart” (Ezekiel 2:4).
Listen.
And open your heart, mind and soul to Him.
What do you have to lose?
May the peace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord be with you,
~E