Amazing Prophecies from the Bible

A Monthly Feature to Build Our Faith

One of the greatest prophecies ever given in the Bible is about the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. This amazing prophecy is a great way to have confidence in what the Lord has done for us on the Cross. Let’s briefly examine this prophecy together.

The entire history of Crucifixion in the Bible is thrilling. Crucifixion, as a means of punishment, was really invented by the Persians and put into place in the ancient world about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The Old Testament never directly mentioned this form of punishment, nor did the Bible proscribe it as a form of capital punishment.

However, the Bible does speak indirectly about Crucifixion in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 where it states, “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.”

This amazing verse from the Old Testament becomes a prophecy of the Crucifixion of our Lord in the New Testament. The passage from Deuteronomy tells us that anyone who is “hung on a tree” is under “God’s curse” and that such a person is not allowed to be left hanging on the tree, but MUST be buried the SAME DAY!

As we turn to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul quotes from this verse in Galatians 3:13 when he states, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’”. The Apostle Paul is letting us know that the verse in Deuteronomy 21 was fulfilled by Jesus’ death on the Cross for our sins. The Lord Jesus died on the tree to take away God’s curse from our lives and grace us with life eternal.

And yet, this amazing prophecy from Deuteronomy 21 is also seen to come to its fullness in another incredible detail. Our Lord was crucified and buried the same day. According to John 19:31 we hear, “Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down”. As a result of this amazing prophecy from Deuteronomy, our Lord’s body was taken down immediately after His death and buried by Joseph of Arimathea (see John 19:38) the SAME DAY !!!

The reason all of this is so exciting is that people virtually NEVER died the same day they were crucified. Crucifixion was designed to be a slow, painful death. It was not uncommon for men to live for days on crosses and have the birds or wild animals eat their flesh. Some individuals were literally left for a few weeks until their flesh rotted right on the cross. The fact that our Lord died and was buried a few hours later was a miracle of God’s amazing prophecy from Deuteronomy 21. Our Lord died on time and was buried on time……..THE SAME DAY, just a Deuteronomy had predicted. Deuteronomy 21 told us 1400 years earlier that a law was placed into the Bible to deal with a future MAN, Who would come under God’s curse by being hung on tree and buried the same day. WOW!!! That single verse from Deuteronomy outlined, in a way we could never imagine, the exact details of the Cross and our Lord’s burial and what would happen as a result of it for our lives.

As we head toward the Christian celebration of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord, what a wonderful thing to know the whole story was a wonderful fulfillment of an amazing prophecy of the Bible. May the Lord use this amazing prophecy to greatly build and encourage our lives for His glory.