This page should take about 13 to 15 minutes when played without stopping. Topic Part 2 Continued from Why Should I Believe in Jesus. Part 1. Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life and Time of Jesus. Continued. The second part of Zechariah's prophecy is not a vision, but a command by God to Zechariah to do something in the natural. It is a symbolic, prophetic action. Such symbolic actions are common among prophets in the Old Testament, and are usually as a result of God's direction to the prophet. Yeshua the priest is not being crowned king, but rather he is symbolizing a different priest who will be a king. When Zechariah states ''Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch'', He is physically referring, perhaps gesturing, to the High Priest. Yeshua was acting out a picturesque role as the coming Messiah who would be crowned king. Behold! Yeshua! The Branch! The Highest King! The Highest Priest! Note, the word ''name'' has more than one biblical meaning. One is the definition we use today, and the other is the essence of a person, an attribute, or a set of attributes associated with him or her. Here, this older is the only one applicable. ''Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch.'' That priest's name was ''Yeshua''. Today, 2,500 years later the English language pronounces it ''Jesus''. It is the name Jesus went by in His native language, Aramaic. Everyone knew Him as Yeshua. It appears that Zechariah's Yeshua the High Priest would fall into the category of typology. This was a real Yeshua son of Jehozadak, a real priest of the day. He was truly a person who built God's temple in the natural. Yet, in the spiritual sense, he represented the ultimate builder of God's ultimate temple. The visions indicate a few things the priestly Yeshua was not, a king, the Branch, and one who branches out and bears the glory, ruling on His throne. To a student of the Bible, this could indicate Yeshua the priest could be considered a ''type'' of Christ, the priest/king whose reign enlarges, by branching out, one who ''bears the glory''. I believe that this prophecy identifies by name, Jesus Christ the One rightly called the Branch, the Servant, and the Messiah. Jesus is said to be both ''King of Kings'' and ''Great High Priest'' in the New Testament. Note that this Man, the Branch will not merely sit on a king's thrown. He will sit on the LORD's throne according to this prophesy by Zechariah, (assuming you accept the credibility of the many Bible translators who capitalized ''His'', as in ''His throne''). ''His'' mean's ''God's''. I like to see this prophesy as saying Yeshua is both Man and God, ''Immanuel'', God with us as Isaiah predicted. This kind of action prophecy is an easily recognizable form in which God communicated through Old Testament prophets. It always involved a symbolic act pointing to a more profound prophetic message. This was a prophecy with meaning hidden at the time, and would not be understood until later. Some Bible translations spell the word ''Yeshua'' as ''Joshua''. It is the same word in Hebrew. It means ''The LORD is salvation''. It appears that Yeshua the High Priest would fall into the category of typology. This was a real Yeshua the priest. To a student of the Bible, this could mean Yeshua the priest was being used as a prophetic ''type'' of Christ. There are other instances of symbolism and typology in Zechariah's two part prophecy. In the first part of the prophecy (Zechariah Chapter 3) Yeshua the high priest was prophetically called a brand plucked from the fire. Maybe that represented the resurrection of Jesus, in which God the Father snatched Him from the fiery place of His death. In Zechariah's vision Yeshua was clothed in filthy garments (perhaps representing the sins of the whole world, which Jesus took on Himself). God said ''Take away the filthy garments from him. And he said, ''See, I have removed your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with rich robes, let them put a clean turban on his head.'' Perhaps this represents Jesus going through a glorification process as He said just after His resurrection that He would . The stone in Chapter 3 ornamented with seven eyes, might coincide with the Apostle John's vision of Jesus, the lamb who had been slain having seven eyes which are identified as the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth (Revelation 5:6). God will reserve the right to engrave the stone's inscription. What this indicates to me, is that God is making the meaning a secret, until He reveals it. The passage in Revelation 5:6 is the only other passage in the Bible where seven eyes are mentioned, and they belong to Jesus, described by John in a way suggesting the divine attribute of omniscience. Jesus at that instant takes a scroll out of the right hand of God the Father and all heaven erupts in worship. The next line in Zechariah's prophecy says ''I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.'' That is what God did through Jesus on the cross, the lamb that was slain, and through His resurrection. It was that act that will have a direct result one day of ridding the world of evil iniquity. What we have discussed here about Old Testament prophecies predicting Jesus, only scratches the surface of the persuasive prophetic evidence. Few writers put forth as evidence the prophecies by Jesus Himself that were fulfilled after He pronounced them. For example, Matthew 12:38-42 says: ''Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, ''Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.'' But He answered and said to them, ''An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.'' Here Jesus predicts His own death and resurrection, and prophecies that the generation of His time would reject Him. In this passage He also, by the way, proclaims Himself greater than the wisest king known to exist, Solomon''. Jesus also made a prediction that was fulfilled six days afterward: ''And He said to them, ''Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.'' Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, ''Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah''— because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ''This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!'' Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves. Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.'' Again here in Mark 9:1-10, He predicts His death and resurrection. He does so several other times before He is crucified. Jesus predicts the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day Pentecost was to take place ''not many'' days after He leaves the earth and ascends into Heaven. He predicts that the temple in Jerusalem would fall again, with not one stone left upon another, which it did at the hands of Roman soldiers in AD 70. Jesus made many other prophecies that were fulfilled after His death and resurrection. For example, He predicted Peter's means of being led away to martyrdom, the coming persecution of believers, the building of the worldwide Christian church, and the growth of the kingdom of God on earth. For every scriptural claim supporting why a person should want to believe in Jesus, creative people can find a way to question or discredit it. A question never proves anything. Not even a multitude of unanswered questions proves anything. Simarly, the process of discrediting has no credit! No creedence. If something is merely discredited, no proof, one way or another, exists. For example, someone might discredit you in front of others using mere innuendo, without substantiating any of their claims. In the end faith is the answer to being both convinced and saved. You can find out more about faith at our page, ''What Does It Mean To Believe?'' Keep Your Eyes Open for More Evidence to Support Believing Many more points of evidence abound. Here is one that I discovered. About 20 years ago, I felt I needed to be encouraged, so I went to a popular search engine and typed in ''encouragement''. All the sites had been created by Christians, giving wonderful messages of encouragement for all who would read them. Today the search results bring up encouragement by many people of different backgrounds and beliefs. I suspect that is the influence of Christianity rippling through our culture. Of course the Christian messages of encouragement today do more for me than the secular messages, like ''I am deserving of patience and self love''. A nice sentiment, but missing the point of how much God loves us and wants the best for us. Website Theme: All You Need to Do To Be Saved is Believe in Jesus Christ as Your Savior. He Has Already Done the Work to Earn Your Entry into Heaven. To continue to the next Topic, What What Do I Do After Deciding to Believe in Jesus as my Savior, please click the link below.