Isaiah 52 offers this amazing prophecy of the risen Jesus:

Isaiah 53 gives us these words about the crucifixion of Jesus: “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”

For Jesus, there was nothing good about good Friday. It is a day of incredible suffering and agony. He knows what is coming. Psalm 22 prophesied in great detail 1000 years before the details of the crucifixion, including his hands and feet being pierced, the soldiers gambling for his clothing, and his haunting question from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

The day before the crucifixion is a heavy day for Jesus. He knows from scripture what is coming. Isaiah 50, written seven hundred years before, forecast that he would be whipped, beaten, spit upon and mocked. All that awaits Jesus the next day.

On this day of holy week, the gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus travels to the nearby town of Bethany. While there, a woman anoints his head with an expensive perfume. In Hebrew culture, anointing someone’s head was a sign they had been set aside for a special task by God. This is an example of extravagant giving.

Psalm 110 was written a thousand years before the time of Christ. Yet it is a prophecy of Jesus in every way. It declares: “The Lord said to my Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand

The prophet Isaiah declares that the coming Messiah will bless all those who worship God and keep his temple as a house of prayer. Seven centuries later, during holy week, Jesus visits the temple to worship. He finds that the merchants have taken over, and desecrated the temple by selling sacrifices to the people.

The Old Testament concludes with several prophecies of hope. One of these is found in Zechariah 9:9 and is given 400 years before Jesus was born. “Rejoice, O people of Zion!