So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see who gets it.” They did this to fulfill the Scripture that says, They divided My clothes among themselves, and they cast lots for My clothing. And this is what the soldiers did. John 19:24 HCSB
Thebrownhouse.net reports that according to Josh McDowell’s More Than A Carpenter Jesus fulfilled 60 major prophesies about the Messiah. These prophecies came from the Old Testament, the most recent of which was written over 400 years before Jesus was born. Genesis 3:15 prophesies the birth of Jesus. Psalm 41:9 and Zechariah 11:12-13 foretell of the betrayal and death of the Messiah. A book entitled Science Speaks, by Peter W. Stoner examines the probability of any man fulfilling eight of the 60 prophecies. The odds of this occurring are 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. Stoner considers only 48 prophecies of the 60 that Josh McDowell claims were fulfilled by Jesus and states, “We find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10^157.
In today’s Scripture reference, we find the actions of the Roman soldiers fulfilled the prophecy found in Psalm 22:18. Note that Jesus quoted the first verse of Psalm 22 while hanging on the cross, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” This probably referred to the Psalm of David with which people would have been familiar. This was not a cry of doubt from Jesus, but rather an urgent appeal to God. Jesus willingly took the sins of the world upon Himself and suffered the burden of our sins. At that moment God turned away from His Son because He is a Holy God and can not be a part of the sin. What is amazing is that these verses in Psalm 22 were written over 800 years before the first crucifixion.
Challenge: There is no doubt Jesus is who He said He was – the Son of God. Accept Him as your personal Lord and Savior. It is as easy as A-B-C. A-Admit you are a sinner. B-Believe that Jesus is the Son of God, He died for your sins, and rose from the dead and lives today. C-Confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior.