COPYRIGHT WARNING

365 Prophecies: Prophecy 78

The Messiah will thirst while on the cross.

Old Testament Prediction:

Psalms 22:15 …My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death.

New Testament Fulfillment:

John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”

Application:

John describes the stunning detail that David recorded, nearly 1,000 years before. While on the cross, Jesus understood that He was fulfilling these Old Testament prophecies from Psalm 22. It appears at this point that Jesus knew the scriptures had been accomplished by Him; in response He said, “I thirst,” in fulfillment of David’s description of the Messiah at verse 15 of Psalm 22: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws.”

Jesus has been awake during the entire night before these events took place. He has not eaten nor received any water in more than 24 hours. Because of the massive blood loss inflicted by His scourging, Jesus body is in an advanced state of dehydration.[1] This process would leave His mouth with extreme dryness and cause His tongue to stick to the inside of His mouth.

It is incredible that David could describe, one thousand years in advance, the specific details of something he had no personal knowledge of—the crucifixion of the Messiah. Not until 520 B.C., would the first crucifixion be recorded in the Bible under King Darius, as noted in the Book of Ezra.[2] Described by the Roman orator, Cicero, as “a most cruel and disgusting punishment,”[3] how is it that David knew such specific details of this event, unless He had received this information, in advance, from God?

David’s description of a man being crucified and the massive dehydration that His body would experience, is quite compelling. This becomes particularly interesting when we consider that Jesus said the precise words from the cross (I thirst) that David predicted the Messiah would utter during His execution.

The following is a list of 17 prophecies from Psalm 22 which describe Jesus’ Crucifixion:

• He will be forsaken by God: Psalm 22:1, Prophecy 71
• Die during the afternoon: Psalm 22:2, Prophecy 72
• He will be despised: Psalm 22:6, Prophecy 73
• Observers disgusted with Him: Psalm 22:7, Prophecy 74
• Observers will mock Him: Psalm 22:8, Prophecy 75
• He will be Born to die: Psalm 22:9-10, Prophecy 76
• Die from a ruptured heart: Psalm 22:13-17, Prophecy 77
• He will thirst: Psalm 22:13-17, Prophecy 78
• Psalm 22:16, Prophecy 79
• His hands and feet, pierced: Psalm 22:16, Prophecy 80
• Naked before the world: Psalm 22:17-18, Prophecy 81
• Clothing gambled for: Psalm 22:18, Prophecy 82
• He will commit Himself to God: Psalm 22:19-21, Prophecy 83
• Destroy the works of the devil: Psalm 22:20-21, Prophecy 84
• The meaning of love, defined: Psalm 22:22, Prophecy 85
• His death wins Him Rulership: Psalm 22:27-29, Prophecy 86
• Eyewitnesses will record this: Psalm 22:30-31, Prophecy 87

Transcendent knowledge

This is compelling evidence that someone with advanced knowledge, knew what Jesus would say, as well as what would transpire during His crucifixion. These specific details require the physical presence of a witness to recorded these events. The only problem with this assumption is that David was not there when Jesus died on the cross. He wrote this description in Psalm 22 about ten centuries before these events took place.

Crucifixion did not exist when David wrote these graphic descriptions, and neither he nor anyone whom he knew—had ever been crucified. This terrible method of execution would not be invented for another 600 years. These facts stand as conclusive evidence that David was writing these words as he was directed by a transcendent being who lives outside of time.[4] A being who knows all the events of human history, conveyed this knowledge of what Jesus would endure 1,000 years later—to the mind of David, so that he could write the words of Psalm 22.

This is the basis and premise for all Bible prophecy: God—who alone knows all things, who made the universe, and who revealed knowledge of human history to specific men—recorded these events well in advance of their occurrence. No other document in history has been able to demonstrate knowledge of future events, with one hundred percent accuracy, except the Bible.

There is only one person in the entire history of the world whom all of these prophecies from Psalm 22, fit—Jesus, the Messiah. The entire panorama of all scripture are centered on Him—whom these predictions were written for. Every verse of scripture found in the Old and New Testaments exist for the specific purpose of demonstrating that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that was written concerning the Messiah.

NOTES:
[1] Gary Robert Fleisher, Stephen Ludwig, (2010). Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 811. ISBN 978-1-60547-159-4.
[2] Ezra 6:11 (King Darius) Also I issue a decree that whoever alters this edict, let a timber be pulled from his house and erected, and let him be hanged on it; and let his house be made a refuse heap because of this.
[3] By Cicero, Licona, Michael (2010). The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach. InterVarsity Press,. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-8308-2719-0
[4] Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me,10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done…