Happy Lord’s Day, dear friends! I pray you find joy as you celebrate this Christmas season. One reason joy can be celebrated is because the Old Testament clearly predicted the coming of the Messiah, and that prophesy was fulfilled in the New Testament! Our friends at One for Israel have a special take on backwards and forward prophecy. Read carefully, then rejoice in the glory of the Lord!

"His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed" (Psa 72:17; KJV). The importance of this verse for biblical theology cannot be overstated. Psalm 72 is rightly considered to be a psalm about the Messiah. This psalm not only looks to the future, it also is deeply rooted in the past. It prophesies and interprets simultaneously. Psalm 72:17 says that all the nations of the earth will be blessed in and through the Messiah. This words of this prophecy have been taken nearly verbatim from Genesis, God's promise to bless all nations through Abraham and his seed (Gen 12:3; 18:18; 28:14). To be clear, Psalm 72 provides us with a very obvious Messianic interpretation of earlier Scripture. Paul's commentary on the seed in Galatians 3:16, therefore, is not a reading backwards of the Christian faith back onto the pages of the Old Testament. Rather, it is a reading of the Old Testament that correctly and ultimately leads those with eyes to see to Jesus! "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as referring to many, but rather to one, 'And to your seed,' that is, Christ" (Gal 3:16).