The common formula, “that it might be fulfilled,” means that the event recorded took place in order that the purpose of God announced in the prophecy might be accomplished.  The prophecy was not the main thing, but the purpose of God contained in it.  For the accomplishment of this purpose, and thus of the prophecy which revealed it, God’s truth was pledged.  In the same way are to be understood the words of John (chap. 12:39, 40):  “Therefore they could not believe because that Esaias saith again, He hath blinded their eyes,” etc.  The hinderance to their belief lay not in the prophecy, but in that which the prophecy announced.

6.  Of the prophecies quoted, some refer immediately to Christ.  Such are the following:  “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Matt. 22:44, from Psa. 110:1); “The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 7:21, from Psa. 110:4); “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth,” etc. (Acts 8:32, 33, from Isa. 53:7, 8); “A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear,” etc. (Acts 3:22, 23; 7:37, from Deut. 18:15, 18, 19).

7.  Others refer ultimately to Christ, but under a type.  An undeniable example is the following:  “A bone of him shall not be broken” (John 19:36, from Exod. 12:46; Numb. 9:12); words originally spoken of the paschal lamb, which was the type of Christ, and now fulfilled in the great Antitype.  Again, we read in Hosea (chap. 11:1):  “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt;” words which Matthew quotes as fulfilled in Christ (chap. 2:15).  It was the purpose of God, namely, that the history of Israel, God’s first-born son (Exod. 4:22, 23), in his national childhood, should foreshadow that of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.

To the same class belongs apparently the following citation:  “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:  thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.”  Heb. 2:6-8, from Psa. 8:4-6.  It seems impossible to deny that the immediate reference of the psalm is to man’s exalted dignity and high prerogatives as the lord of this lower world.  But, as the writer to the Hebrews argues, the words have no complete fulfilment in man considered apart from Christ.  It is in the person of Christ alone that the high destiny of human nature finds its full realization.  He is made Lord of all, and “crowned with glory and honor” for himself and for all his disciples also, who shall reign with him in glory for ever.  We add one more example from Heb. 1:5, where the writer quotes and applies to Christ the words of Nathan to