Let’s notice a prophecy in Isaiah 8:13-14, which reads: “The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel . . .”

This prophecy foretold that “the Lord of hosts” would be “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” So whom did the title or name “the Lord of hosts” refer to? We find the answer in 1 Peter 2:7-8: “To you who believe, He [Jesus Christ] is precious; but to those who are disobedient, [He is] . . . ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’” Peter here tells us that “the Lord of hosts” in whom this prophecy was fulfilled is Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul applies several Old Testament passages about the Lord to Jesus Christ. For example, Joel 2:32 says, “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In Romans 10:9-13 Paul applies this to Jesus Christ: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved . . . For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

And in a prophecy so obvious that we tend to read right over it, Isaiah 40:3 foretold the coming of “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” This is a prophecy of John the Baptist. But for whom was he to prepare the way? It tells us here plainly. John was to prepare the way for “the Lord.”

How was this prophecy fulfilled? Read Matthew 3:3: “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord . . .”’” (see also Mark 1:2-3 and Luke 3:3-4).

John was to prepare the way for the coming of whom? The coming of the Lord. And who was the Lord John prepared the way for? None other than Jesus Christ.