It is certain that many of the above references, especially the ones referring to Christ's lowliness and suffering, would not have been considered references to the Messiah at all until after Christ's Coming. Of course, now the references to Christ can be reconciled and understood in the light of the New Testament. The fact that He is the "desire of all nations" does not, in our minds, preclude the fact that he was also "despised of the people". But, before the coming of Christ, this could simply not be imagined. For those living before Christ, there would be no way of understanding how the different references to the Messiah that we now recognize - references to both His transcendent glory and dominion, and also to His humiliation and suffering - could be reconciled. Therefore only references to the Christ that seemed to harmonize with others would be kept in the body of prophecy. And with clear references to the greatness of their coming Messiah and Savior, and no clear references otherwise, any verse which seemed to run counter to that image, would no doubt have been understood as referring to someone else. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that all accounts in the New Testament seem to indicate that in the thinking of the time, the Messiah was to triumph, both spiritually and physically. A suffering Messiah, despite the fact that there were many references that He would suffer, was not imagined. God had warned of His suffering, but no one understood (12:6)

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