Life of Christ Lesson 7: Prewritten Pathways of the Young Christ Child

Find how some additional Old Testament prophecies came to light and came to fulfillment as the young Christ Child was moved around by the divine hand of His heavenly Father. In this lesson, "Prewritten Pathways," we discuss two journeys made by Joseph and Mary during the early childhood years of Jesus. First, there was their journey from Bethlehem to Egypt (at the direction of a God through a messenger angel to escape the wrath of Herod), and then there was their journey (again at God's direction after the death of Herod) from Egypt to Nazareth. Learn how these divinely orchestrated movements of Jesus fulfilled three Old Testament propecies: Hosea 11:1 (out of Egypt God would call His Son), Jeremiah 31:15 (Rachel would weep over a massacre of infants, which occurred with Herod's "Slaughter of the Innocents"), and Isaiah 11:1 (the coming Messiah would be called a Nazarene). It always perplexed the Old Testament scholars how one Messiah could fulfill all three Messianic prophecies concerning His "origin"! How could He be born in Bethlehem Ephrata (Micah 5:2), be called by God "out of Egypt" (Hosea 11:1), and be called a Nazarene, meaning from Nazareth (Isaiah 11:1)? Well, in Jesus Christ all three prophecies were fulfilled! What other possible "would-be" Messianic candidate would ever be able to fulfill them? Yet, the Jews still await a messiah other than Jesus.