OT Prophecies...

Kind of a random thought today, but here goes...

We all know the story of how Jesus had His beard pulled out of his cheek. You remember, it says that in Matthew... I mean in Mark... or was it Luke... must be John... Nope. None of those places tell us that Jesus had His beard pulled out. It is Isaiah 50:6 that says that. It is an Old Testament prophecy about Jesus giving His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. At the same time it is also Isaiah saying these things...

Another illustration: Psalm 22. The Psalm begins with "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This was quoted by Jesus on the cross. Then, reading through the Psalm, we find that these very words could have been spoken by Jesus on the cross, including the piercing of His hands and feet - even though crucifixion wasn't even invented yet! He speaks of parting His garments, about the people mocking Him, and saying, He trusted God, let Him deliver Him, etc.

But, then we get to Psalm 69:9. John 2:17 says that the first part of this verse referred to Christ, "For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up..." when Jesus overthrew the tables in the temple. And then Romans 15:3 says the second half of this verse was referring to Christ, "The reproaches of them that reproached me fell on thee." Ok, great, no problem.

So, let's go a verse earlier, Psalm 69:8. "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children." That's neat that it doesn't say, "my Father's children." Mary did have other children with Joseph, and Jesus was not accepted among them (confirmed by John 7:5). Besides, can you imagine growing up with someone that never did anything wrong... I'm sure my brothers felt the same way growing up with me, but that's another story.

So, we go another verse earlier, Psalm 69:7. "Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face." Jesus on the cross did take shame (Heb 12:2) and reproach.

A verse earlier, Psalm 69:6. Nothing too special, just a request that those that wait on the Lord not be ashamed for my sake.

A verse earlier, Psalm 69:5. "O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee." Uh oh... I think we are now back to David only here, and not Jesus any more... Ok, I don't 'think' I am sure. Jesus never sinned.

Ok, so my question is this. How can we determined when the context of a prophecy that was fulfilled ceases talking about the prophecy and is only talking about the immediate context? Or, another more specific question, How do we know that Jesus had His beard pulled out? What if Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah stopped before or started after that phrase?

Just a random thought I had...