THE JUDGE Took a Beating

Old Testament prophecy fulfilled by Jesus.

He would be struck on the head.

The prophet Micah lived and preached about the same time as Isaiah and Hosea. Those men of God warned people of both Israel (northern 10 tribes of the divided kingdom), and Judah (southern two tribes) to turn from the sin of idolatry and turn to the Lord.

God gave these prophets the words to say about the current issues that faced them. And God also gave them prophesies that would take place hundreds of years later.

Micah was the prophet that foretold that the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). It is a well-known verse in the Old Testament. But the verse that precedes this one also contains a prophecy of an event that would come after the birth of Jesus-about 33 years after.

 “Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops; they have laid siege against us;

with a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.” Micah 5:1.

Now recall the night Jesus was arrested. He had been dragged before Caiaphas, and Herod, and Pilate. He was stripped, mocked, and a crown of thorns shoved down on His head. Then Matthew gives us a detail in 27:30, “And they spat on Him,

and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head.”  

Huge, angry Roman soldiers spit on the prisoner they had in their clutches. They took a tall, thin tough grass plant and beat Jesus all over His head.  Jesus fulfilled even this part of the cup of suffering He was willing to drink. He fulfilled the prophecy Micah wrote about.

That night, the soldiers did not know they were hitting THE JUDGE on the cheek, as Micah wrote.

Jesus taught in Matthew 25:31-46 that He, the Son of Man, would one day come in His glory, sit on a glorious throne, and judge each and every person.

This event is still in the future to us. But when that day comes-and it will come-Jesus, the Messiah, THE JUDGE, will separate the righteous from the unrighteous.

Carla Killough McClafferty