XII. The Appointed Time Of The Messiah
Because the Messiah descends from the line of David, a genealogy must be demonstrated through David. Since genealogy records were stored in the Temple during the Second Temple period and that Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, an argument can be made that the Messiah, Yeshua or another, had to come before the destruction of the Second Temple. Even improvements in DNA mapping may not be sufficient to restore a complete lineage back to David for any future individual claiming to be the Messiah. Further, the prophecy of Malachi cannot be fulfilled absent a Temple, as it is written, “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the LORD you are seeking will come to his temple” (Mal 3:1).
Jewish tradition holds that man will exist on the earth for a maximum of 6000 years, beginning with Adam, before the arrival of the Messiah. The Jewish Talmud further subdivides the six thousand years into three separate 2000 years periods (Sanhedrin 97)
First 2000 years – Desolation
Second 2000 years – Torah flourished
Third 2000 years – Messianic era
The Jewish Talmud records the following commentary in relation to this matter.
Kattina said: Six thousand years shall the world exist, and one [thousand, the seventh], it shall be desolate, as it is written, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Abaye said: it will be desolate two [thousand], as it is said, After two days will he revive us: in the third day, he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. It has been taught in accordance with R. Kattina: Just as the seventh year is one year of release in seven, so is the world: one thousand years out of seven shall be fallow, as it is written, ‘And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,’ and it is further said, ‘A Psalm and song for the Sabbath day’, meaning the day that is altogether Sabbath — and it is also said, ‘For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past’. The Tanna debe Eliyyahu teaches: The world is to exist six thousand years. In the first two thousand there was desolation, two thousand years the Torah flourished; and the next two thousand years is the Messianic era, (Sanhedrin 97a)
According to Jewish thought, the Messiah can come anytime before the year 6000 if the righteousness of the nation merits it.
“Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked, ‘It is written (Isa 60:22) “in its time” and is written, “I will hasten it”. He answered, “If they merit it, I will hasten it (HASHEM will bring the promised redeemer before the appointed time). But if they do not merit it, he will nevertheless come at the appointed time."‘"
What would the nation have to do to “merit” the arrival of the Messiah. The Jewish Sages determined that if the nation of Israel would keep the Sabbath perfectly for two consecutive Sabbaths, then “I will hasten it” would follow. Therefore it follows in Jewish tradition that the hastening of the Messiah can be accomplished through righteous behavior.
The Talmud further teaches that the Messiah should have come at the beginning of the last two thousand years (around the beginning of the first century). According to the Jewish calendar, the world is in year 5769-70 (2009), but there is an inconsistency with the Gregorian calendar of 165-190 years making the possible dating of the calendar to as late as 5934-5959, making the days of the Messiah very near. Regardless of the time the Messiah returns, He will come for each one of us at the time of our death.
Orthodox Jews and Gentile believers in Yeshua are in agreement. The Messiah is coming for each and everyone of us, as it is written, “I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth” (Job 19:25). Among the fourteen ways Maimonides list for a Jew to lose their share in the world to come is for a Jew to deny the resurrection of the dead and the coming of the Messiah.
So the only question that really matters in our life remains, “Is Yeshua, who suffered as Messiah the son of Joseph, returning as Messiah the son of David, or in the words of John the Baptist, “Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”
(Matt 11:3).
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In the beginning, God created man to have fellowship with the creator. In the garden, Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One tree brought life, the other tree brought death. Unfortunately, when given the choice, Adam and Eve chose death instead of life.
Over two thousand years later, the law was given, and it came with the same choices, as it is written,
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice and hold fast to him” (Deut 30:19-20).
Again, not everyone chose life. After saving the people out of the land of Egypt, the LORD subsequently destroyed all those who did not believe.
Four thousand years after Adam, Yeshua came to the nation proclaiming,
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
A third time in the history of the world, the choice was given, and continues to this day, life or death. The foundational principle of man’s free determination dictates that each person is responsible to make this decision on their own behalf, life or death? This choice is not made for us, but must be made by us, as Joshua has said…
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Josh 24:5)
Choosing life begins with three steps. First a person must learn of the LORD, His unfailing love, and His promises through His word, as it is written,
"Open my eyes that I may perceive the wonders of Your teaching" (Psa 119:18, JPST)
The word of God is the way to life, as the Sages quoted Amos to summarize the entire Torah saying, “Seek the LORD and live” (Amos 5:6).
Second, a person is called to repent (teshuva), as it is written, “Repent and live!” (Ezek 18:32). Repentance, by definition, causes a person to turn (shuv) from a direction that leads to death and to a path leading toward the LORD, as it is written…
“When you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and with all your soul…then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you” (Deut 30:2-3)
Knowledge and Repentance, by the LORD’S design, lead to faith, prayer, and action, as Habakkuk came and established the entire Torah in one commandment,
“The righteous will live by faith“ (Hab 2:4).
This faith will be established by placing our trust in a single Jew, Yeshuah, and living a life in obedience to the commandments of God that flow from that trust. As Messiah son of Joseph, Yeshua both offered His life to redeem our life from sin and He stands as our representative before God. For there is one and only one God, and one mediator also between God and men, Yeshua the Messiah (1 Tim 2:5). Yeshua said of Himself,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6-7)
This passage draws on the pattern of the Temple High Priest, who alone could approach God above the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. This one person was appointed by God as a representative for the entire nation to reconcile the nation to God. The Priest could only approach God after he first offered sacrifice for himself and then for the people. The High Priest then becomes a pattern of the Messiah, our Redeemer, as a single pathway to reconcile the Jew and the Gentile to God the Father.
Yeshuah is the prophet whom Moses foretold, as is written, “you shall listen to him” (Deut 18:15). He is the Servant of the LORD who “bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:12). Yeshua is returning as the son of David, to reign as King on the throne of David forever and our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was both a King and priest of God Most High (Gen 14:18). As a High Priest…
“Salvation (Yeshua) is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)
Therefore, believe the words of Moses and “choose life” (Deut 30:19) because,
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17).
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The Messiah Our Redeemer: Part 11 of 12
XI. Moses, The Prophets, And The Law
Most people who profess faith in Yeshua as Messiah use the apostolic writings as the sole resource for arguing their faith in Yeshua. Although these writings record the fulfillment of the prophetic promises found in scripture, they must be examined and understood in the context of the entire writings of faith. The Bible must be seen as a book that is both progressive and cumulative in revelation from God. To view the apostolic writings in a framework that stands independent from the original Jewish text is comparable to erecting a roof on a structure that lacks a foundation or walls. The resulting configuration is incomplete, lacks proper function, and the benefits fall well short of the original design intent.
We know from the apostolic text, that two men met the resurrected Yeshua on the road to Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13). These men initially failed to recognize Yeshua until He began teaching from “Moses and all the Prophets” to explain “all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Notice that the standard Yeshua used to explain his calling and purpose was not the apostolic texts, which had not yet been written, but “Moses and all the Prophets”. For Yeshua said of Himself,
“Everything must be fullfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44)(Matt 26:56).
This description covers the entire Jewish text, referred to as the Tanakh, which is an acronym for the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Neviim), and the other writings (Ketuvim). This was to fulfill what was written by the Psalmist,
“Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come – as it is written about me in the scroll” (Psa 40:7).
When discussing the authority of Yeshua to Jews, Paul rests his case exclusively on the Law and the Prophets.
"I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles." (Acts 26:22-23) (Acts 28:23-24)
The Law and the Prophets are the source of Paul’s proclamations for good reason. The words of Moses have the greatest authority in Rabbinic thinking because Moses spoke with the LORD “face to face” (Ex 33:11). The Prophets wrote based on “visions and dreams” (Num 12:6-8), while the Psalmists are considered to be Godly men reflecting on the attributes of God.
In the course of His ministry, Yeshua told the parable of a rich man and a beggar who both died. The beggar was carried to Abraham’s side, while the rich man ended up in Hades where he was in torment. The rich man could see the beggar with Abraham and called to him for relief.
"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:25-16:31)
Believers in Yeshua must not be ignorant of the words and the promises contained in the Jewish text for they stand as the foundation of all we believe. The words of Yeshua reinforce the necessity of knowing Moses and the Prophets to develop a saving faith in the Messiah. Therefore, the Gentile must be thoroughly knowledgeable with the text and the Jew must return to the Tanakh to find faith in the Messiah (Gal 3:24) because, “if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”.
Twice while Yeshua was on the earth, a voice from heaven (God the Father) proclaimed Yeshua as Messiah. At the baptism of Yeshua, “a voice from heaven said, ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’" (Mark 1:11). Hidden to the average reader is the specific nature of this proclamation. The proclamation is actually the combination of three statements from the Tanakh.
“You are my Son” (Psa 2:7)(Writings)
“whom I love” (Gen 22:2)(Moses-Law)
“with you I am well pleased” (Isa 42:1)(Prophets)
Notice how the voice from heaven draws on the entire Tanakh to testify that Moses, the Prophets, and the other writings proclaim Yeshua as the Messiah. A second proclamation from the LORD occurred on a mountain where Yeshua was transfigured, before Moses and Elijah, into a glorified body. While transfigured…
“a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (Matt 17:5).
Again, the proclamation is a compilation of multiple verses from the Tanakh.
“This is my Son” (Psa 2:7)(Writings)
“ whom I love” (Gen 22:2)(Moses-Law)
“with him I am well pleased” (Isa 42:1)(Prophets)
“listen to him!” (Deut 18:15)(Moses-Law)
The first part of the proclamation is identical to the words spoken from heaven at the baptism of Yeshua (Matt 3:15). The addition of the phrase “Listen to him!” is a reference to the prophecy of Moses who said, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” The voice from heaven is proclaiming Yeshua as the prophet foretold by Moses.
It can be stated with absolute certainty and total confidence that Yeshua kept the entire law (Torah) and taught others to do the same (Luke 18:18-23). To transgress even one commandment would be to sin, as it is written by the apostle James,
“whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10)
Any sin would have disqualified Yeshua from being the sinless sacrifice, the spotless Lamb, the law required. In addition, there is evidence Yeshua kept the oral traditions of the Jewish elders that had been built as hedges around the law, except when those traditions came in direct conflict with the commandments of God (Mark 7:4-8).
The life of Yeshua is a demonstration that it is possible to live a life in complete obedience to the law when a person’s relationship is “one” with God. Yet, because men fail to achieve this level of intimacy with God, He is compelled to say, “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (Zech 3:9). It is ultimately the mercy of the LORD and not the works of the law that justify men in the sight of God.
Most people who profess faith in Yeshua as Messiah use the apostolic writings as the sole resource for arguing their faith in Yeshua. Although these writings record the fulfillment of the prophetic promises found in scripture, they must be examined and understood in the context of the entire writings of faith. The Bible must be seen as a book that is both progressive and cumulative in revelation from God. To view the apostolic writings in a framework that stands independent from the original Jewish text is comparable to erecting a roof on a structure that lacks a foundation or walls. The resulting configuration is incomplete, lacks proper function, and the benefits fall well short of the original design intent.
We know from the apostolic text, that two men met the resurrected Yeshua on the road to Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13). These men initially failed to recognize Yeshua until He began teaching from “Moses and all the Prophets” to explain “all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Notice that the standard Yeshua used to explain his calling and purpose was not the apostolic texts, which had not yet been written, but “Moses and all the Prophets”. For Yeshua said of Himself,
“Everything must be fullfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44)(Matt 26:56).
This description covers the entire Jewish text, referred to as the Tanakh, which is an acronym for the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Neviim), and the other writings (Ketuvim). This was to fulfill what was written by the Psalmist,
“Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come – as it is written about me in the scroll” (Psa 40:7).
When discussing the authority of Yeshua to Jews, Paul rests his case exclusively on the Law and the Prophets.
"I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles." (Acts 26:22-23) (Acts 28:23-24)
The Law and the Prophets are the source of Paul’s proclamations for good reason. The words of Moses have the greatest authority in Rabbinic thinking because Moses spoke with the LORD “face to face” (Ex 33:11). The Prophets wrote based on “visions and dreams” (Num 12:6-8), while the Psalmists are considered to be Godly men reflecting on the attributes of God.
In the course of His ministry, Yeshua told the parable of a rich man and a beggar who both died. The beggar was carried to Abraham’s side, while the rich man ended up in Hades where he was in torment. The rich man could see the beggar with Abraham and called to him for relief.
"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:25-16:31)
Believers in Yeshua must not be ignorant of the words and the promises contained in the Jewish text for they stand as the foundation of all we believe. The words of Yeshua reinforce the necessity of knowing Moses and the Prophets to develop a saving faith in the Messiah. Therefore, the Gentile must be thoroughly knowledgeable with the text and the Jew must return to the Tanakh to find faith in the Messiah (Gal 3:24) because, “if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”.
Twice while Yeshua was on the earth, a voice from heaven (God the Father) proclaimed Yeshua as Messiah. At the baptism of Yeshua, “a voice from heaven said, ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’" (Mark 1:11). Hidden to the average reader is the specific nature of this proclamation. The proclamation is actually the combination of three statements from the Tanakh.
“You are my Son” (Psa 2:7)(Writings)
“whom I love” (Gen 22:2)(Moses-Law)
“with you I am well pleased” (Isa 42:1)(Prophets)
Notice how the voice from heaven draws on the entire Tanakh to testify that Moses, the Prophets, and the other writings proclaim Yeshua as the Messiah. A second proclamation from the LORD occurred on a mountain where Yeshua was transfigured, before Moses and Elijah, into a glorified body. While transfigured…
“a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (Matt 17:5).
Again, the proclamation is a compilation of multiple verses from the Tanakh.
“This is my Son” (Psa 2:7)(Writings)
“ whom I love” (Gen 22:2)(Moses-Law)
“with him I am well pleased” (Isa 42:1)(Prophets)
“listen to him!” (Deut 18:15)(Moses-Law)
The first part of the proclamation is identical to the words spoken from heaven at the baptism of Yeshua (Matt 3:15). The addition of the phrase “Listen to him!” is a reference to the prophecy of Moses who said, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” The voice from heaven is proclaiming Yeshua as the prophet foretold by Moses.
It can be stated with absolute certainty and total confidence that Yeshua kept the entire law (Torah) and taught others to do the same (Luke 18:18-23). To transgress even one commandment would be to sin, as it is written by the apostle James,
“whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10)
Any sin would have disqualified Yeshua from being the sinless sacrifice, the spotless Lamb, the law required. In addition, there is evidence Yeshua kept the oral traditions of the Jewish elders that had been built as hedges around the law, except when those traditions came in direct conflict with the commandments of God (Mark 7:4-8).
The life of Yeshua is a demonstration that it is possible to live a life in complete obedience to the law when a person’s relationship is “one” with God. Yet, because men fail to achieve this level of intimacy with God, He is compelled to say, “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (Zech 3:9). It is ultimately the mercy of the LORD and not the works of the law that justify men in the sight of God.
The Messiah Our Redeemer: Part 10 of 12
OUR REQUIRED RESPONSE TO GOD
X. Repent And Live For The Kingdom Of God Is Near
Shortly before his death, Moses spoke these words to the people of Israel.
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. (Deut 30:1-5)
The words written by Moses tell of a future time when the scattered people of Israel will “return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and all your soul”. The word “return” comes from the Hebrew word “shuv”, which is a form of the Hebrew word “teshuva”. From “teshuva”, we derive the English word “repent”. The ministry of John the Baptist (Matt 3:2) and Yeshua (Matt 4:17) were both announced by a single word, “Repent”. Specifically…
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matt 4:17)
This proclamation was calling the people of Israel to fulfill the prophecy spoken by Moses. As Ezekiel proclaimed…
“Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and new spirit…For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” (Ezek 18:30-32).
If the people had responded in the days of Yeshua, then the promised re-gathering would have occurred and the words of Moses fulfilled. The people would have been gathered from “the most distant land under the heavens” and made “more prosperous and numerous” than the fathers. In other words, the prosperity of the nation would have become unparalleled in the history of Israel even when considering the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This time of great prosperity will still occur because the prophecy remains, but the opportunity at the first appearing of Yeshua was lost to that generation. Yeshua expressed His great desire to carry out this re-gathering leading to restoration of the nation and unprecedented prosperity when He said,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt 23:37).
In scripture, the Jew is often called to “Repent”, while the Gentile is first called to “Believe”. The difference comes from the positional relationship of each person with God. The Jews are blessed among all people on the earth because “they have been entrusted with the very words of God” (Rom 3:2). As Moses has written:
"For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. "It is not in heaven, that you should say, ' Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.” (Deut 30:11-14)
Gentiles are largely ignorant of the knowledge of God, “excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Gentiles fail to have a relationship with God because they do not know God, while Jews can know of God, but fail to be obedience to His calling. Thus a Jew is called to “Repent” and a Gentile is first called to “Believe”. The first century Rabbi Eliezer told his disciples, “Repent one day before you die.” His disciples asked, “How does a person know what day he will die on?” The rabbi replied, “That’s why you have to repent every day, just in case you die tomorrow.” (Shabbat 153a).
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The word “teshuvah” has a much richer meaning than simply an acknowledgement of sin. Teshuvah involves the physical turning around and walking in a direction away from the act that causes sin and separation. The fall feasts (Sept-October) of Rosh HaShanah (Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), mark an annual time of repentance for the individual and the nation of Israel during a time period referred to as the “Days of Awe”. By Jewish tradition, the gates of heaven are opened at this time and God is even more receptive than normal to the repentant heart of each man and woman who earnestly seeks forgiveness both from God and from our fellow man.
These festivals are also seen to foreshadow the harvest, at the end of days, when God will resurrect the dead and judge the world separating the righteous from the unrighteous, as Daniel has written…
"As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened." (Dan 7:9-10).
By Jewish tradition three books are opened on Rosh HaShanah and remain open until Yom Kippur. The “Book of Life” contains the names of the righteous (Psa 69:28) who “share in the tree of life and in the holy city” (Rev 22:19). During the ten Days of Awe, a repentant heart can move God to write one’s name in the Book of Life, while an unrighteous person is “blotted out of the Book of Life” (Psa 69:28). In the future, on Yom Kippur, the books will be closed forever and our eternal judgment sealed, as the apostolic writers have testified, “if anyone’s name (Is) not found written in the book of life, he (is) thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15).
But what of the man who does not repent? “Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I.” (Job 34:33). For to the one who repents, the prophets have said, “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares the LORD.” (Isa 59:20). But to those who do not repent it is written, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:3).
The Jewish writing of the Midrash Rabbah records a story from the Jewish Sages drawing on the example of the weekly Sabbath to illustrate the fate of one who does not repent in this life.
“Consider two wicked men who associated with one another in this world. One of them made repentance before his death, while the other did not make repentance. It was found that the one stands in the company of the righteous, while his fellow stands in the company of the wicked. When the latter saw the former he said, ‘Woe is me. Is there then favor shown here? I and he both of us were robbers, both of us were murderers together, yet he stands in the company of the righteous, while I stand in the company of the wicked.’ The angel said to the man in Gehena, ‘You fool, you also had the opportunity of repenting and did not take it.’ When he heard this he said to him, ‘Permit me to go and repent now.’ The angel answered him and said, ‘You fool, do you not know that this world is like the Sabbath and the world from which you have just come is like the eve of the Sabbath. If man does not prepare his meal on the eve of the Sabbath, what shall he eat on the Sabbath.’”
The daily Jewish prayer called the “Amidah” calls the worshipper to repentance by both acknowledging our sin, “Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned; pardon us, O our King, for we have transgressed…” and instilling within us an attitude of repentance.
“Bring us back, O our Father, to Your Instruction; draw us near, O our King, to Your service; and cause us to return to You in perfect repentance. Blessed are You, O LORD, who is merciful and always ready to forgive.”
There is evidence that Yeshua derived the “LORD’S prayer”, found in the apostolic text, as a shortened version of the daily Amidah prayer.
The Amidah states a truth found in scripture, the LORD is “merciful and always ready to forgive”. Yet this forgiveness requires each person to repent because neither Jew nor Gentile are saved by the lineage of our birth. Therefore,
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you — even Yeshua. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” (Acts 3:19-21).
X. Repent And Live For The Kingdom Of God Is Near
Shortly before his death, Moses spoke these words to the people of Israel.
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. (Deut 30:1-5)
The words written by Moses tell of a future time when the scattered people of Israel will “return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and all your soul”. The word “return” comes from the Hebrew word “shuv”, which is a form of the Hebrew word “teshuva”. From “teshuva”, we derive the English word “repent”. The ministry of John the Baptist (Matt 3:2) and Yeshua (Matt 4:17) were both announced by a single word, “Repent”. Specifically…
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matt 4:17)
This proclamation was calling the people of Israel to fulfill the prophecy spoken by Moses. As Ezekiel proclaimed…
“Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and new spirit…For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” (Ezek 18:30-32).
If the people had responded in the days of Yeshua, then the promised re-gathering would have occurred and the words of Moses fulfilled. The people would have been gathered from “the most distant land under the heavens” and made “more prosperous and numerous” than the fathers. In other words, the prosperity of the nation would have become unparalleled in the history of Israel even when considering the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This time of great prosperity will still occur because the prophecy remains, but the opportunity at the first appearing of Yeshua was lost to that generation. Yeshua expressed His great desire to carry out this re-gathering leading to restoration of the nation and unprecedented prosperity when He said,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt 23:37).
In scripture, the Jew is often called to “Repent”, while the Gentile is first called to “Believe”. The difference comes from the positional relationship of each person with God. The Jews are blessed among all people on the earth because “they have been entrusted with the very words of God” (Rom 3:2). As Moses has written:
"For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. "It is not in heaven, that you should say, ' Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.” (Deut 30:11-14)
Gentiles are largely ignorant of the knowledge of God, “excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Gentiles fail to have a relationship with God because they do not know God, while Jews can know of God, but fail to be obedience to His calling. Thus a Jew is called to “Repent” and a Gentile is first called to “Believe”. The first century Rabbi Eliezer told his disciples, “Repent one day before you die.” His disciples asked, “How does a person know what day he will die on?” The rabbi replied, “That’s why you have to repent every day, just in case you die tomorrow.” (Shabbat 153a).
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The word “teshuvah” has a much richer meaning than simply an acknowledgement of sin. Teshuvah involves the physical turning around and walking in a direction away from the act that causes sin and separation. The fall feasts (Sept-October) of Rosh HaShanah (Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), mark an annual time of repentance for the individual and the nation of Israel during a time period referred to as the “Days of Awe”. By Jewish tradition, the gates of heaven are opened at this time and God is even more receptive than normal to the repentant heart of each man and woman who earnestly seeks forgiveness both from God and from our fellow man.
These festivals are also seen to foreshadow the harvest, at the end of days, when God will resurrect the dead and judge the world separating the righteous from the unrighteous, as Daniel has written…
"As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened." (Dan 7:9-10).
By Jewish tradition three books are opened on Rosh HaShanah and remain open until Yom Kippur. The “Book of Life” contains the names of the righteous (Psa 69:28) who “share in the tree of life and in the holy city” (Rev 22:19). During the ten Days of Awe, a repentant heart can move God to write one’s name in the Book of Life, while an unrighteous person is “blotted out of the Book of Life” (Psa 69:28). In the future, on Yom Kippur, the books will be closed forever and our eternal judgment sealed, as the apostolic writers have testified, “if anyone’s name (Is) not found written in the book of life, he (is) thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15).
But what of the man who does not repent? “Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I.” (Job 34:33). For to the one who repents, the prophets have said, “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares the LORD.” (Isa 59:20). But to those who do not repent it is written, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:3).
The Jewish writing of the Midrash Rabbah records a story from the Jewish Sages drawing on the example of the weekly Sabbath to illustrate the fate of one who does not repent in this life.
“Consider two wicked men who associated with one another in this world. One of them made repentance before his death, while the other did not make repentance. It was found that the one stands in the company of the righteous, while his fellow stands in the company of the wicked. When the latter saw the former he said, ‘Woe is me. Is there then favor shown here? I and he both of us were robbers, both of us were murderers together, yet he stands in the company of the righteous, while I stand in the company of the wicked.’ The angel said to the man in Gehena, ‘You fool, you also had the opportunity of repenting and did not take it.’ When he heard this he said to him, ‘Permit me to go and repent now.’ The angel answered him and said, ‘You fool, do you not know that this world is like the Sabbath and the world from which you have just come is like the eve of the Sabbath. If man does not prepare his meal on the eve of the Sabbath, what shall he eat on the Sabbath.’”
The daily Jewish prayer called the “Amidah” calls the worshipper to repentance by both acknowledging our sin, “Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned; pardon us, O our King, for we have transgressed…” and instilling within us an attitude of repentance.
“Bring us back, O our Father, to Your Instruction; draw us near, O our King, to Your service; and cause us to return to You in perfect repentance. Blessed are You, O LORD, who is merciful and always ready to forgive.”
There is evidence that Yeshua derived the “LORD’S prayer”, found in the apostolic text, as a shortened version of the daily Amidah prayer.
The Amidah states a truth found in scripture, the LORD is “merciful and always ready to forgive”. Yet this forgiveness requires each person to repent because neither Jew nor Gentile are saved by the lineage of our birth. Therefore,
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you — even Yeshua. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” (Acts 3:19-21).
The Messiah Our Redeemer: Part 9 of 12
IX. Why Did The Messiah Have To Die?
We understand from scripture that death entered into this life because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Death was propagated by the subsequent sin of each person for it is written,
“we all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isa 53:6).
Although difficult to comprehend in our present decaying body, death was given as a blessing from the LORD. For without death, mankind would be condemned to eternal life in this body with sin as our constant companion. This remains the state of the fallen angels who cannot be redeemed, but are held in darkness awaiting the “judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). Each man would await the same eternal fate unless the LORD provided a plan for restoration of man back to a sinless state to stand in the presence of God.
In the recorded history of the Bible, blood has been required as the means to atone for sin and bring about the restoration of fellowship back to God. In the Garden of Eden, “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Gen 3:23). This act is seen as the first recorded shedding of blood in scripture, from the animals who provided coverings, to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve who had previously been clothed in the glory of the LORD.
A pattern of blood atonement for sins was established and then repeated in scripture. Noah build an altar to offer sacrifice after he was preserved through the flood (Gen 8:20). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all careful to approach God by means of blood. Jacob struggled with God on the mountain at the place of the future temple and would not let the angel of the LORD go until he received a blessing. “Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome’” (Gen 32:28). At this place, Jacob built an altar to God “who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone” (Gen 35:3).
Around four thousand years ago, the LORD used blood to make a covenant, an everlasting agreement with Abram. By the conditions of the covenant the LORD promised Abram offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands of the seashore (Gen 15:4). To fulfill his obligation under the terms of the covenant, Abram was required to “walk before me (the LORD) and be blameless” (Gen 17:1).
The term “covenant” can literally be rendered “to cut a covenant” because the act of making a covenant involved the splitting of animals to form a “blood path” (Gen 15:9-11). The act was a demonstration of the solemn nature of the agreement and a testimony to the pending judgment on either party who would break the agreement. For this reason, “Terror and great darkness fell upon him (Abram)” (Gen 15:12) when Abram realized that his inability to walk “blameless” before the LORD would result in certain death. At this very moment in history, a miracle is recorded in scripture.
“It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces” (Gen 15:17).
Although both Abram and God were required to walk the blood path, scripture tells us that the two parties to pass between the animals were first a “smoking oven” and then a “flaming torch”. The LORD is represented by the “smoking oven” because the greater party in a covenant relationship is always the first to walk the blood path.
Abram should have been the second party to walk the blood path. However, the Jewish Sages observed that fire, a “flaming torch”, was never used in scripture to represent man, only to represent God. For example, the LORD appeared to Moses as “flames of fire from within a bush” (Ex 3:2), the “pillar of fire” (Ex 13:31) that lead Israel by night, and as a “consuming fire on top of the mountain” (Ex 24:17). Somehow, the word of God is communicating to us, that the LORD walked the blood path as both the greater and lessor party of the covenant.
The consequences of the LORD’S action was unprecedented at the time and difficult to fully comprehend even today. If Abram was not blameless, then the LORD, and not Abram, would be held accountable and suffer the penalty of Abram’s failure. On that day, the LORD sentenced Himself to suffer for the sins of Abram. As spoken by Isaiah…
Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isa 53:10-12)
It was the offering of Isaac that foreshadowed the future death of Yeshua. Isaac was the loved son (Gen 22:2) born miraculously to Abraham. The son of the promise went with Abraham to Mount Moriah, to the same place where the future Temple would stand. The word for the description of Isaac, as he went with Abraham, is “lad” (Gen 22:5-KJV). The Hebrew word is “naar”, which is best understood as an unmarried youth or eligible bachelor. By Jewish tradition, Isaac was thirty-six years old, derived in part by the age of Sarah when she became pregnant (90), and the age at her death (127), which is told immediately following the offering of Isaac (Gen 23:1). In this light, Isaac becomes the willing sacrifice, carrying the wood of the offering on his back (Gen 22:6-NAS), just as Yeshua carried His own cross (Luke 23:26). Isaiah then submitted to the binding by his 137 year old father, just as Yeshua submitted to the will of the Father saying, “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 26:39).
Isaac was spared by the voice from heaven, but the faith of Abraham was viewed as if he had offered Isaac and the blood that would have been given as if it had been given. The offering of Isaac became sufficient for the LORD to swear an oath to Abraham saying,
“I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed My voice” (Gen 22:16-18).
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When Moses originally received the law, He sprinkled blood on the altar, on the Book of the Covenant, and on the people proclaiming, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Ex 24:8). At the completion of the tabernacle, at the conclusion of the book of Exodus we read…
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Ex 40:34-35)
As soon as the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle, it became impossible, even for Moses, to enter. As the Book of Exodus concludes, we are left with a paradox, how can sinful man approach a sinless God? The answer is revealed at the beginning of the very next book, Leviticus, the Book of the Levites. Leviticus sets forth a pattern of “offerings” man was commanded to follow in order to “draw near” to God. Many of the offerings required blood, as Moses wrote…
"For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." (Lev 17:10-11)
The apostolic writings summarize the words of Moses in this manner,
“The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Heb 9:22)
Even the seven annual feasts of Israel – Passover (Peasch), Unleavened Bread, First fruits, Pentecost (Shavuot), Trumpets (Rosh HaShannah), Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Tabernacles (Shavuot) – all required the shedding of blood.
The law established a pattern of offerings where the animal sacrificed substituted for the individual and received the judgment due the individual. The law commanded the individual, not the priest, to lay hands on the animal offered. By laying hands on and sacrificing the animal (Lev 1:4-9), the individual was witnessing the gravity of their sin and acknowledging that they were worthy of the same fate. This pattern was repeated by Aaron for the entire nation of Israel during the feast of Yom Kippur…
"When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites — all their sins — and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.” (Lev 16:20-22)
Through the laying on of hands, the offered animals received the sins of the individual and the nation. In return, the individual and the nation received the spotless, sinless nature of the animals offered. The sacrifice became a substitution, the just for the unjust, the sinless animal for the sin of the individual and nation. Suddenly the imagery of Isaiah becomes unmistakable in connecting the death of Yeshua the Messiah to the Temple sacrificial system…
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isa 53:5)(1 Pet 2:24)
The apostolic writers were drawing a direct comparison to the Temple sacrificial system when they referred to the offering of Yeshua in this way…
"He (God) made Him (Yeshua) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor 5:21).
Consider the observations of the Jewish Sages in the forty years following the death of Yeshua until the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. The Talmud records four supernatural signs that occurred after Yeshua’s crucifixion in 30 CE, leading priests to conclude that God was no longer accepting, but rejecting their sacrifices and the sins of the Temple and nation were accumulating toward judgment. (Talmud, Yoma 39B).
The first sign involved the lots cast for the two goats on Yom Kippur (Lev 16:7-8). It was considered a sign of God’s favor that the lot for God, identifying which goat to sacrifice, came out in the High Priest’s right hand. It had consistently been this way up until the time of Yeshua’s death. During the forty years after Yeshua death, up until the destruction of the Temple, the lot for God came out in the left hand.
The second sign involved the scarlet cord tied to the door of the Temple. As a priest led away the goat for Azazel, the scarlet cord always turned white to show that God had removed Israel’s sin as the goat traveled deeper into the wilderness. This cord stopped turning white after Yeshua’s crucifixion, a sign seen by the rabbis that sins were not being removed, but were accumulating against the Temple and the nation of Israel.
The third sign involved the Golden Lampstand. Priests lit the lampstand every evening to burn during the night. Every morning, one lamp still glowed while the others had burned out. This lamp, on the western end of the menorah closest to the Holy of Holies, burned the entire day even though it had no more oil. Daily, it provided fire for re-lighting the other lamps. After 30 CE, the lamp stopped its miraculous burning (Talmud, Menahoth Tractate). The light of the world, as Yeshua had proclaimed himself, had departed.
The fourth sign involved the heavy Temple doors. From 30 to 70 CE, the doors would open supernaturally. Terrified priest believed judgment was coming. But like the tearing of the Temple veil from top to bottom at the crucifixion of Yeshua (Matt 27:51), this may have just been another sign that the Temple and Holy of Holies were now accessible to the nations.
We understand from scripture that death entered into this life because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Death was propagated by the subsequent sin of each person for it is written,
“we all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isa 53:6).
Although difficult to comprehend in our present decaying body, death was given as a blessing from the LORD. For without death, mankind would be condemned to eternal life in this body with sin as our constant companion. This remains the state of the fallen angels who cannot be redeemed, but are held in darkness awaiting the “judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). Each man would await the same eternal fate unless the LORD provided a plan for restoration of man back to a sinless state to stand in the presence of God.
In the recorded history of the Bible, blood has been required as the means to atone for sin and bring about the restoration of fellowship back to God. In the Garden of Eden, “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Gen 3:23). This act is seen as the first recorded shedding of blood in scripture, from the animals who provided coverings, to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve who had previously been clothed in the glory of the LORD.
A pattern of blood atonement for sins was established and then repeated in scripture. Noah build an altar to offer sacrifice after he was preserved through the flood (Gen 8:20). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all careful to approach God by means of blood. Jacob struggled with God on the mountain at the place of the future temple and would not let the angel of the LORD go until he received a blessing. “Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome’” (Gen 32:28). At this place, Jacob built an altar to God “who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone” (Gen 35:3).
Around four thousand years ago, the LORD used blood to make a covenant, an everlasting agreement with Abram. By the conditions of the covenant the LORD promised Abram offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands of the seashore (Gen 15:4). To fulfill his obligation under the terms of the covenant, Abram was required to “walk before me (the LORD) and be blameless” (Gen 17:1).
The term “covenant” can literally be rendered “to cut a covenant” because the act of making a covenant involved the splitting of animals to form a “blood path” (Gen 15:9-11). The act was a demonstration of the solemn nature of the agreement and a testimony to the pending judgment on either party who would break the agreement. For this reason, “Terror and great darkness fell upon him (Abram)” (Gen 15:12) when Abram realized that his inability to walk “blameless” before the LORD would result in certain death. At this very moment in history, a miracle is recorded in scripture.
“It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces” (Gen 15:17).
Although both Abram and God were required to walk the blood path, scripture tells us that the two parties to pass between the animals were first a “smoking oven” and then a “flaming torch”. The LORD is represented by the “smoking oven” because the greater party in a covenant relationship is always the first to walk the blood path.
Abram should have been the second party to walk the blood path. However, the Jewish Sages observed that fire, a “flaming torch”, was never used in scripture to represent man, only to represent God. For example, the LORD appeared to Moses as “flames of fire from within a bush” (Ex 3:2), the “pillar of fire” (Ex 13:31) that lead Israel by night, and as a “consuming fire on top of the mountain” (Ex 24:17). Somehow, the word of God is communicating to us, that the LORD walked the blood path as both the greater and lessor party of the covenant.
The consequences of the LORD’S action was unprecedented at the time and difficult to fully comprehend even today. If Abram was not blameless, then the LORD, and not Abram, would be held accountable and suffer the penalty of Abram’s failure. On that day, the LORD sentenced Himself to suffer for the sins of Abram. As spoken by Isaiah…
Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isa 53:10-12)
It was the offering of Isaac that foreshadowed the future death of Yeshua. Isaac was the loved son (Gen 22:2) born miraculously to Abraham. The son of the promise went with Abraham to Mount Moriah, to the same place where the future Temple would stand. The word for the description of Isaac, as he went with Abraham, is “lad” (Gen 22:5-KJV). The Hebrew word is “naar”, which is best understood as an unmarried youth or eligible bachelor. By Jewish tradition, Isaac was thirty-six years old, derived in part by the age of Sarah when she became pregnant (90), and the age at her death (127), which is told immediately following the offering of Isaac (Gen 23:1). In this light, Isaac becomes the willing sacrifice, carrying the wood of the offering on his back (Gen 22:6-NAS), just as Yeshua carried His own cross (Luke 23:26). Isaiah then submitted to the binding by his 137 year old father, just as Yeshua submitted to the will of the Father saying, “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 26:39).
Isaac was spared by the voice from heaven, but the faith of Abraham was viewed as if he had offered Isaac and the blood that would have been given as if it had been given. The offering of Isaac became sufficient for the LORD to swear an oath to Abraham saying,
“I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed My voice” (Gen 22:16-18).
******************************************************************
When Moses originally received the law, He sprinkled blood on the altar, on the Book of the Covenant, and on the people proclaiming, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Ex 24:8). At the completion of the tabernacle, at the conclusion of the book of Exodus we read…
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Ex 40:34-35)
As soon as the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle, it became impossible, even for Moses, to enter. As the Book of Exodus concludes, we are left with a paradox, how can sinful man approach a sinless God? The answer is revealed at the beginning of the very next book, Leviticus, the Book of the Levites. Leviticus sets forth a pattern of “offerings” man was commanded to follow in order to “draw near” to God. Many of the offerings required blood, as Moses wrote…
"For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." (Lev 17:10-11)
The apostolic writings summarize the words of Moses in this manner,
“The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Heb 9:22)
Even the seven annual feasts of Israel – Passover (Peasch), Unleavened Bread, First fruits, Pentecost (Shavuot), Trumpets (Rosh HaShannah), Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Tabernacles (Shavuot) – all required the shedding of blood.
The law established a pattern of offerings where the animal sacrificed substituted for the individual and received the judgment due the individual. The law commanded the individual, not the priest, to lay hands on the animal offered. By laying hands on and sacrificing the animal (Lev 1:4-9), the individual was witnessing the gravity of their sin and acknowledging that they were worthy of the same fate. This pattern was repeated by Aaron for the entire nation of Israel during the feast of Yom Kippur…
"When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites — all their sins — and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.” (Lev 16:20-22)
Through the laying on of hands, the offered animals received the sins of the individual and the nation. In return, the individual and the nation received the spotless, sinless nature of the animals offered. The sacrifice became a substitution, the just for the unjust, the sinless animal for the sin of the individual and nation. Suddenly the imagery of Isaiah becomes unmistakable in connecting the death of Yeshua the Messiah to the Temple sacrificial system…
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isa 53:5)(1 Pet 2:24)
The apostolic writers were drawing a direct comparison to the Temple sacrificial system when they referred to the offering of Yeshua in this way…
"He (God) made Him (Yeshua) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor 5:21).
Consider the observations of the Jewish Sages in the forty years following the death of Yeshua until the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. The Talmud records four supernatural signs that occurred after Yeshua’s crucifixion in 30 CE, leading priests to conclude that God was no longer accepting, but rejecting their sacrifices and the sins of the Temple and nation were accumulating toward judgment. (Talmud, Yoma 39B).
The first sign involved the lots cast for the two goats on Yom Kippur (Lev 16:7-8). It was considered a sign of God’s favor that the lot for God, identifying which goat to sacrifice, came out in the High Priest’s right hand. It had consistently been this way up until the time of Yeshua’s death. During the forty years after Yeshua death, up until the destruction of the Temple, the lot for God came out in the left hand.
The second sign involved the scarlet cord tied to the door of the Temple. As a priest led away the goat for Azazel, the scarlet cord always turned white to show that God had removed Israel’s sin as the goat traveled deeper into the wilderness. This cord stopped turning white after Yeshua’s crucifixion, a sign seen by the rabbis that sins were not being removed, but were accumulating against the Temple and the nation of Israel.
The third sign involved the Golden Lampstand. Priests lit the lampstand every evening to burn during the night. Every morning, one lamp still glowed while the others had burned out. This lamp, on the western end of the menorah closest to the Holy of Holies, burned the entire day even though it had no more oil. Daily, it provided fire for re-lighting the other lamps. After 30 CE, the lamp stopped its miraculous burning (Talmud, Menahoth Tractate). The light of the world, as Yeshua had proclaimed himself, had departed.
The fourth sign involved the heavy Temple doors. From 30 to 70 CE, the doors would open supernaturally. Terrified priest believed judgment was coming. But like the tearing of the Temple veil from top to bottom at the crucifixion of Yeshua (Matt 27:51), this may have just been another sign that the Temple and Holy of Holies were now accessible to the nations.
The Messiah Our Redeemer: Part 8 of 12
VIII. Israel And The Messiah Are One
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” (Isa 42:1)
The identity of “my servant”, has been a point of contention between Jews and Christians for centuries. While Christians identify the Servant as Yeshua the Messiah, Judaism identifies the Servant as the nation of Israel. Both interpretations have merit and are a demonstration of the frequent inseparability between the Messiah and the nation that bore him.
I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." (Ps 2:7-9)
So whom do you think the Psalmist is referring to in the preceeding passage when he said “You are my Son, today I have become your Father”? Most Jewish believers in God the Father would say, “Israel” because the nation is called in the Torah “my firstborn son” (Ex 4:22). Yet, in the apostolic text, Yeshua is referred to as “the firstborn of creation” (Col 1:15) and “the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). However, Hosea appears to be referring to the nation and citing the Exodus event when he wrote, “When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). Yet, the apostolic writers quote this passage in reference to the time Yeshua was carried out from Egypt following the death of Herod the Great (Matt 2:15). You get the picture. The same prophecy often has different interpretations.
At times in prophecy, the identity of the Messiah and Israel overlap to the point of being inseparable. The Messiah is the quintessential Israelite. What befalls Israel also befalls the Messiah. Therefore the nation of Israel can often be substituted into passages seen as Messianic, while at the same time, the Messiah can be also be inserted into passages previously seen by some as only referring only to the nation of Israel. We understand that even the name “Israel” represents both the individual Patriarch Jacob, and the physical descendants from him.
This understanding helps to explain why both Jew and Gentile can look at a passage of prophecy in scripture and one see fulfillment in Yeshua the Messiah, while the other sees the nation of Israel. The classic prophecy of contention is the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Because all translations from the original language are translated through the theological eyes of the translators, shown below is the Jewish Publication Society’s version to remove any perceived bias of other translations.
1 Who can believe what we have heard? Upon whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he has grown, by His favor, like a tree crown. Like a tree trunk out of arid ground. He had no form or beauty, that we should look at him; no charm, that we should find him pleasing.
3 He was despised shunned by men, A man of suffering, familiar with disease. As one who hid his face from us, He was despised, we held him of no account.
4 Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, our suffering that he endured. We accounted him plagued, Smitten and afflicted by God;
5 But he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed.
6 We all went astray like sheep, Each going his own way; and the LORD visited upon him The guilt of all of us.
7 He was maltreated, yet he was submissive, He did not open his mouth; Like a sheep being led to slaughter, Like a eve, dumb before those who shear her, He did not open his mouth.
8 By oppressive judgment he was taken away, Who could describe his abode? For he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment.
9 And his grave was set among the wicked, And with the rich, in his death – Though he had done no injustice And had spoken no falsehood.
10 But the LORD chose to crush him by disease, That, if he made himself an offering for guilt, He might see offspring and have long life, And that through him the LORD’s purpose might prosper.
11 Out of his anguish he shall see it; He shall enjoy it to the full through his devotion. My righteous servant makes the many righteous. It is their punishment that he bears;
12 Assuredly, I will give him the many as his portion, He shall receive the multitude as his spoil. For he exposed himself to death and was numbered among the sinners. Whereas he bore the guilt of the many and made intercession for sinners. (Isa 53:1-12, JPSTanakh)
Gentile and Jew have argued back and forth for centuries about the true interpretation of this prophecy. Gentiles hold this passage as a vivid description of Yeshua’s sacrificial substitutional death “like a sheep being lead to slaughter…he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment” and “he made himself an offering for guilt”. Jewish interpretation generally hold to the views expressed by Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yizchaki, 1040-1105 CE), that references to “he” are speaking of the nation of Israel. This interpretation ignores the verse calling him a “man of suffering”. Following the interpretation of Rashi, the frequent use of “we”, “our”, and “us” must be seen as the “Gentiles nations”, but then who is “we”? Has Isaiah disassociated himself from the Jewish people and place himself among the Gentiles in this narrative? Not likely. Finally, Rashi’s interpretation forces “my people” (verse 8) to be seen as the Gentile nations. This view runs contrary to the predominant use of the term in the Jewish text as a reference to the nation of Israel. The clearer understanding of the passage is to view one individual, the Messiah, as substituting and receiving the punishment due the nation for the sins of the nation.
Probably one of the most telling examples of the differences between the Jewish and Christian positions on this chapter can be seen by comparing the fifth verse. Consider the theological undercurrent behind each of the following translations.
New International Version: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
English Standard Version: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”
JPS Tanakh Version: “But he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed.”
Jewish Bible, Stone Edition: “He was pained because of our rebellious sins and oppressed through our iniquities; the chastisement upon him was for our benefit, and through his wounds, we were healed.”
What stands as a notable difference in the translations is how “my servant” (Isa 52:13) suffered. Was he “pierced and crushed”, “wounded and crushed”, or “pained and oppressed”? Even without knowing, a person could probably guess which translation comes from believers and which comes from those who do not believe in Yeshua as Messiah. Therefore short of reading the original language, it is always good to be consult multiple versions when studying any given verse in scripture.
The book of Daniel teaches us that prophecy can hold imagery, but at the same time its fulfillment can be very literal. When presented with multiple options for the interpretation of any prophecy, the believer should always gravitate to the most literal fulfillment possible. The covenant given to Abraham came with literal promises of land, prosperity, and blessing for the nation that cannot be allegorized to another (Gen 12:1-3). The LORD further told Abraham,
“Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as salves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” (Gen 15:13-14).
In time, this prophecy received a literal fulfillment as the nation was enslaved in Egypt (Ex 12:40-41). After the Exodus, Moses foretold of a future time when the Jewish nation would be scattered among the nations finding “no resting place for the sole of your foot” (Deut 28:65) and “left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven” (Deut 28:62). In time, this prophecy received a literal fulfillment that continues even into today. Yet, the Jewish people await the literal fulfillment of the re-gathering of the nation foretold by Moses (Deut 30:1-5).
While the nation of Israel has clearly suffered unprecedented persecution for centuries, the most literal interpretation of Isaiah’s prophecies would be of an individual suffering, disfigured, humiliated, and publicly displayed in a Roman crucifixion. As Isaiah has written…
See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness — so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. (Isa 52:13-15)
The Psalmist spoke of a similar fate when he said…
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. (Psa 22:14-18).
Written 1000 years before the perfection of crucifixion by the Romans in the years proceeding the first century, this Psalm of David accurately describes the process of crucifixion. The victim was publicly displayed with hands and feet pierced in a manner that pulled apart the bones as the muscles gave out. The victim succumbed to death either by loss of blood or suffocation, unable to breathe by the continuing compression on the lungs from the weight of the hanging body. This is the most literal fulfillment of the Psalm and Isaiah passages. Further, a significant, if not majority, of early Rabbinical interpretations understood Isaiah 53 as referring to the Messiah, while Rashi’s interpretations are 1000 years removed from the timeframe.
In addition, the heart of Isaiah’s writings about “My Servant” (Isa 42:1) are seen in the Targum Yonatan, not as the nation, but as “My Servant the Messiah” (Isa 42:1). “My servant” must be the Messiah, not the nation, for the following passage to make sense. How can the nation restore itself? Only the King of Israel (Messiah) has the power and authority from God to gather and restore the nation.
"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." This is what the LORD says — the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel — to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." (Isa 49:6-7)
It is not the nation, but the Messiah whom Isaiah prophesized when he wrote:
For a child has been born to us, A son has been given us. And authority has settled on his shoulders. He has been named “The Mighty God is planning grace, The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler” – In token of abundant authority and of peace without limit upon the throne and kingdom, that it may be firmly established in justice and in equity now and evermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts shall bring this to pass. (Isa 9:5-6, JPS Tanakh)
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” (Isa 42:1)
The identity of “my servant”, has been a point of contention between Jews and Christians for centuries. While Christians identify the Servant as Yeshua the Messiah, Judaism identifies the Servant as the nation of Israel. Both interpretations have merit and are a demonstration of the frequent inseparability between the Messiah and the nation that bore him.
I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." (Ps 2:7-9)
So whom do you think the Psalmist is referring to in the preceeding passage when he said “You are my Son, today I have become your Father”? Most Jewish believers in God the Father would say, “Israel” because the nation is called in the Torah “my firstborn son” (Ex 4:22). Yet, in the apostolic text, Yeshua is referred to as “the firstborn of creation” (Col 1:15) and “the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). However, Hosea appears to be referring to the nation and citing the Exodus event when he wrote, “When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). Yet, the apostolic writers quote this passage in reference to the time Yeshua was carried out from Egypt following the death of Herod the Great (Matt 2:15). You get the picture. The same prophecy often has different interpretations.
At times in prophecy, the identity of the Messiah and Israel overlap to the point of being inseparable. The Messiah is the quintessential Israelite. What befalls Israel also befalls the Messiah. Therefore the nation of Israel can often be substituted into passages seen as Messianic, while at the same time, the Messiah can be also be inserted into passages previously seen by some as only referring only to the nation of Israel. We understand that even the name “Israel” represents both the individual Patriarch Jacob, and the physical descendants from him.
This understanding helps to explain why both Jew and Gentile can look at a passage of prophecy in scripture and one see fulfillment in Yeshua the Messiah, while the other sees the nation of Israel. The classic prophecy of contention is the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Because all translations from the original language are translated through the theological eyes of the translators, shown below is the Jewish Publication Society’s version to remove any perceived bias of other translations.
1 Who can believe what we have heard? Upon whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he has grown, by His favor, like a tree crown. Like a tree trunk out of arid ground. He had no form or beauty, that we should look at him; no charm, that we should find him pleasing.
3 He was despised shunned by men, A man of suffering, familiar with disease. As one who hid his face from us, He was despised, we held him of no account.
4 Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, our suffering that he endured. We accounted him plagued, Smitten and afflicted by God;
5 But he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed.
6 We all went astray like sheep, Each going his own way; and the LORD visited upon him The guilt of all of us.
7 He was maltreated, yet he was submissive, He did not open his mouth; Like a sheep being led to slaughter, Like a eve, dumb before those who shear her, He did not open his mouth.
8 By oppressive judgment he was taken away, Who could describe his abode? For he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment.
9 And his grave was set among the wicked, And with the rich, in his death – Though he had done no injustice And had spoken no falsehood.
10 But the LORD chose to crush him by disease, That, if he made himself an offering for guilt, He might see offspring and have long life, And that through him the LORD’s purpose might prosper.
11 Out of his anguish he shall see it; He shall enjoy it to the full through his devotion. My righteous servant makes the many righteous. It is their punishment that he bears;
12 Assuredly, I will give him the many as his portion, He shall receive the multitude as his spoil. For he exposed himself to death and was numbered among the sinners. Whereas he bore the guilt of the many and made intercession for sinners. (Isa 53:1-12, JPSTanakh)
Gentile and Jew have argued back and forth for centuries about the true interpretation of this prophecy. Gentiles hold this passage as a vivid description of Yeshua’s sacrificial substitutional death “like a sheep being lead to slaughter…he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment” and “he made himself an offering for guilt”. Jewish interpretation generally hold to the views expressed by Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yizchaki, 1040-1105 CE), that references to “he” are speaking of the nation of Israel. This interpretation ignores the verse calling him a “man of suffering”. Following the interpretation of Rashi, the frequent use of “we”, “our”, and “us” must be seen as the “Gentiles nations”, but then who is “we”? Has Isaiah disassociated himself from the Jewish people and place himself among the Gentiles in this narrative? Not likely. Finally, Rashi’s interpretation forces “my people” (verse 8) to be seen as the Gentile nations. This view runs contrary to the predominant use of the term in the Jewish text as a reference to the nation of Israel. The clearer understanding of the passage is to view one individual, the Messiah, as substituting and receiving the punishment due the nation for the sins of the nation.
Probably one of the most telling examples of the differences between the Jewish and Christian positions on this chapter can be seen by comparing the fifth verse. Consider the theological undercurrent behind each of the following translations.
New International Version: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
English Standard Version: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”
JPS Tanakh Version: “But he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed.”
Jewish Bible, Stone Edition: “He was pained because of our rebellious sins and oppressed through our iniquities; the chastisement upon him was for our benefit, and through his wounds, we were healed.”
What stands as a notable difference in the translations is how “my servant” (Isa 52:13) suffered. Was he “pierced and crushed”, “wounded and crushed”, or “pained and oppressed”? Even without knowing, a person could probably guess which translation comes from believers and which comes from those who do not believe in Yeshua as Messiah. Therefore short of reading the original language, it is always good to be consult multiple versions when studying any given verse in scripture.
The book of Daniel teaches us that prophecy can hold imagery, but at the same time its fulfillment can be very literal. When presented with multiple options for the interpretation of any prophecy, the believer should always gravitate to the most literal fulfillment possible. The covenant given to Abraham came with literal promises of land, prosperity, and blessing for the nation that cannot be allegorized to another (Gen 12:1-3). The LORD further told Abraham,
“Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as salves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” (Gen 15:13-14).
In time, this prophecy received a literal fulfillment as the nation was enslaved in Egypt (Ex 12:40-41). After the Exodus, Moses foretold of a future time when the Jewish nation would be scattered among the nations finding “no resting place for the sole of your foot” (Deut 28:65) and “left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven” (Deut 28:62). In time, this prophecy received a literal fulfillment that continues even into today. Yet, the Jewish people await the literal fulfillment of the re-gathering of the nation foretold by Moses (Deut 30:1-5).
While the nation of Israel has clearly suffered unprecedented persecution for centuries, the most literal interpretation of Isaiah’s prophecies would be of an individual suffering, disfigured, humiliated, and publicly displayed in a Roman crucifixion. As Isaiah has written…
See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness — so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. (Isa 52:13-15)
The Psalmist spoke of a similar fate when he said…
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. (Psa 22:14-18).
Written 1000 years before the perfection of crucifixion by the Romans in the years proceeding the first century, this Psalm of David accurately describes the process of crucifixion. The victim was publicly displayed with hands and feet pierced in a manner that pulled apart the bones as the muscles gave out. The victim succumbed to death either by loss of blood or suffocation, unable to breathe by the continuing compression on the lungs from the weight of the hanging body. This is the most literal fulfillment of the Psalm and Isaiah passages. Further, a significant, if not majority, of early Rabbinical interpretations understood Isaiah 53 as referring to the Messiah, while Rashi’s interpretations are 1000 years removed from the timeframe.
In addition, the heart of Isaiah’s writings about “My Servant” (Isa 42:1) are seen in the Targum Yonatan, not as the nation, but as “My Servant the Messiah” (Isa 42:1). “My servant” must be the Messiah, not the nation, for the following passage to make sense. How can the nation restore itself? Only the King of Israel (Messiah) has the power and authority from God to gather and restore the nation.
"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." This is what the LORD says — the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel — to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." (Isa 49:6-7)
It is not the nation, but the Messiah whom Isaiah prophesized when he wrote:
For a child has been born to us, A son has been given us. And authority has settled on his shoulders. He has been named “The Mighty God is planning grace, The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler” – In token of abundant authority and of peace without limit upon the throne and kingdom, that it may be firmly established in justice and in equity now and evermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts shall bring this to pass. (Isa 9:5-6, JPS Tanakh)
The Messiah Our Redeemer: Part 7 of 12
VII. Messiah, The Son Of David
"Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matt 11:3)
This statement from the apostolic text is not the wavering of John the Baptist’s faith in Yeshua, but more likely John was reflecting a concept established in first century rabbinical thinking. Even though the possibility of two Messiahs was held in concept, the predominant expectation of the people in first century Israel was for a “Messiah, the Son of David” who would free the nation from the bondage of Roman oppression. This is reflected in the conversation recorded between Yeshua and the Pharisees.
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Yeshua asked them, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied. (Matt 22:41-42)
The term “The Son of David”, was used first by Solomon (Prov 1:1), and came to be associated not only with the descendants of David, but as a title for the specific individual from the line of David who would “reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever” (Isa 9:7).
The Messiah, Son of David, has become the sole image and the expectation for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. Maimonides, the great middle ages codifier of Jewish law, summarized the general Jewish belief in the Messiah as follows:
King Messiah will arise in the future and will restore the kingship of David to its ancient condition, to its rule as it was at first. And he will rebuild the Temple and gather the exiled of Israel. And in his days all the laws will return as they were in the past. They will offer up sacrifices, and will observe the Sabbatical years and the jubilee years with regard to all the commandments stated in the Torah. And he who does not believe in him, or he who does not await his coming, denies not only the (other) prophets, but also the Torah and Moses our master. For, behold, the Torah testifies about him (the Messiah), as it is written, (Deut 30:3-5), “then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will proper you and multiply you more than your fathers”. (Maimonides Hilkhot M’lakim)
Within this passage of Maimonides are some of the primary reasons given for the national rejection of Yeshua as the Messiah, Son of David. Yeshua has not yet…
Reconstructed the Temple,
Gathered the Exiles,
Restored the kingship of David, nor
Restored the commandments stated in the Torah.
The aspects described by Maimonides are all responsibilities of the king of Israel. It was the king of Israel (Solomon) who first built the Temple. It is the king who has the power to sit on the throne, to gather the exiles, and to impose the Torah on the nation. Yet, Yeshua did not reign as king on the earth when he first appeared, but suffered at the hands of the Gentiles (Mark 10:33). So the question that should be asked, “If Yeshua lived and died as ‘Messiah, Son of Joseph’, can He also return in glory as ‘Messiah, Son of David’?”
Can it be possible, that a person who suffered and was thought to be dead, may actually be alive, and will return as king to gather the nation and restore the kingship of David? We again need look no farther than the story of Joseph. The story of Joseph is actually two stories divided in the middle by the story of Judah and Tamar. Because the story of Judah and Tamar seems to interrupt the narrative of Joseph, the Sages came to see this story as having special significance relating to the lineage of the Messiah. History bears this out as King David descended from the line of Judah and Tamar and the promise is given to David of one who will reign on the throne of David forever.
On either side of the Judah-Tamar story is Joseph. Joseph appears as the favored son of his father who suffers unjustly at the hands of his brothers and the Gentiles. Sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph is thought to be dead by Jacob and probably his brothers. After the Judah-Tamar story, Joseph’s life is much different. He is given the signet ring of Pharaoh and made to ride in a chariot as Pharaoh’s second-in-command, while men proclaimed, “Bow the knee!” (Gen 41:31, NASB). The brothers of Joseph were unaware of these events supposing, as their father had, that “Joseph is no more” (Gen 42:36).
Yet, while the brothers of Joseph were suffering under the burden of the famine, Joseph was being glorified in the land of Egypt. As the years of the famine followed, Joseph’s brothers came before him bowing down to him as Joseph had seen in his dream years earlier (Gen 37:9-11). In Joseph, we have the example of one individual who has gone from a position of suffering to a position of total authority, second only to Pharaoh. Through Joseph came the gathering, the salvation, and the glory of the nation.
There are incredible parallels in the story of Joseph to Yeshua. The rejection of Joseph by his brothers was all part of God’s plan to bring salvation not only to the family of Jacob, but also to the entire world, as it was spoken by Joseph,
"Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." (Gen 50:19-21)
In the same way, the rejection of Yeshua by the nation of Israel was part of God’s plan to bring the salvation of God to the entire world (Rom 11:25-26).
The original rejection of Joseph brings no chastisement from Joseph at his reunion with his brothers, but only tears. Three times we are told that Joseph wept upon seeing his brothers. The third time, “He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it…Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph!’” (Gen 45:2-3). In a similar manner, “When He (Yeshua) approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it” (Luke 19:41). From the cross Yeshua said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). After the pattern of Joseph, there will only be rejoicing at the reunion of Yeshua and the nation of Israel, as it is written in the apostolic text,
“Did they (Israel) stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to Gentiles…But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!” (Rom 11:11-12)
In the story of Joseph, the nation of Egypt can be seen as Gentiles already receiving blessings through their relationship with Joseph. When Pharaoh hears that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials rejoiced, just as there will be much rejoicing among the Gentiles when the Messiah is revealed and the nation of Israel accepts Him and enters into a relationship with Him. When news reaches the Patriarch, he is referred to as “Jacob”. Upon hearing the news, the spirit of Jacob is revived as disbelief is turned into faith. Upon believing, he is now called “Israel”, as it is written, “And Israel said, ‘I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive” (Gen 45:28). When the nation of Israel comes to Egypt, they are given the best of the land and possessions, just as the prophets have spoken of a future time for Israel when, “Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations” (Isa 60:10-11).
Yeshua fulfilled the role as “ben Joseph” during His first appearing as He was literally born son of Joseph, suffered unjustly as Joseph had, and died as foretold by the prophets. Yeshua was even placed in the tomb of a man named Joseph and came out of the grave as Jacob’s son had when they moved his bones from Egypt to Israel. But as “ben Joseph”, Yeshua was not called to fulfill the attributes of the son of David.
In the future at the appointed time, Yeshua will return as Messiah, son of David, to reign over the nation as a King from the line of David to perform what has not yet been fulfilled. Moses, considered the greatest prophet in Jewish history, became a pattern for the two comings of the Messiah by descending twice off Mount Sinai. The first time he came and delivered the Torah to a rebellious people who were in the mist of making a golden calf. The second time he descended with a new copy of the commandments, a set of instructions on how to build the tabernacle after a pattern he had seen of the heavenly reality, and a reminder from the LORD to “observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you” (Ex 31:14).
Even the LORD is said to come twice in scripture, as the prophet has written,
“Let us acknowledge the LORD, let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (Hos 6:3).
The two rains spoken by Hosea are associated with two separate growing seasons in Israel that produce two separate harvests, as celebrated by the spring feasts and fall feasts of the Jewish calendar. Yeshua produced a crop of righteous believers at His first appearing and a second crop will be harvested at His reappearing.
"Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matt 11:3)
This statement from the apostolic text is not the wavering of John the Baptist’s faith in Yeshua, but more likely John was reflecting a concept established in first century rabbinical thinking. Even though the possibility of two Messiahs was held in concept, the predominant expectation of the people in first century Israel was for a “Messiah, the Son of David” who would free the nation from the bondage of Roman oppression. This is reflected in the conversation recorded between Yeshua and the Pharisees.
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Yeshua asked them, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied. (Matt 22:41-42)
The term “The Son of David”, was used first by Solomon (Prov 1:1), and came to be associated not only with the descendants of David, but as a title for the specific individual from the line of David who would “reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever” (Isa 9:7).
The Messiah, Son of David, has become the sole image and the expectation for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. Maimonides, the great middle ages codifier of Jewish law, summarized the general Jewish belief in the Messiah as follows:
King Messiah will arise in the future and will restore the kingship of David to its ancient condition, to its rule as it was at first. And he will rebuild the Temple and gather the exiled of Israel. And in his days all the laws will return as they were in the past. They will offer up sacrifices, and will observe the Sabbatical years and the jubilee years with regard to all the commandments stated in the Torah. And he who does not believe in him, or he who does not await his coming, denies not only the (other) prophets, but also the Torah and Moses our master. For, behold, the Torah testifies about him (the Messiah), as it is written, (Deut 30:3-5), “then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will proper you and multiply you more than your fathers”. (Maimonides Hilkhot M’lakim)
Within this passage of Maimonides are some of the primary reasons given for the national rejection of Yeshua as the Messiah, Son of David. Yeshua has not yet…
Reconstructed the Temple,
Gathered the Exiles,
Restored the kingship of David, nor
Restored the commandments stated in the Torah.
The aspects described by Maimonides are all responsibilities of the king of Israel. It was the king of Israel (Solomon) who first built the Temple. It is the king who has the power to sit on the throne, to gather the exiles, and to impose the Torah on the nation. Yet, Yeshua did not reign as king on the earth when he first appeared, but suffered at the hands of the Gentiles (Mark 10:33). So the question that should be asked, “If Yeshua lived and died as ‘Messiah, Son of Joseph’, can He also return in glory as ‘Messiah, Son of David’?”
Can it be possible, that a person who suffered and was thought to be dead, may actually be alive, and will return as king to gather the nation and restore the kingship of David? We again need look no farther than the story of Joseph. The story of Joseph is actually two stories divided in the middle by the story of Judah and Tamar. Because the story of Judah and Tamar seems to interrupt the narrative of Joseph, the Sages came to see this story as having special significance relating to the lineage of the Messiah. History bears this out as King David descended from the line of Judah and Tamar and the promise is given to David of one who will reign on the throne of David forever.
On either side of the Judah-Tamar story is Joseph. Joseph appears as the favored son of his father who suffers unjustly at the hands of his brothers and the Gentiles. Sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph is thought to be dead by Jacob and probably his brothers. After the Judah-Tamar story, Joseph’s life is much different. He is given the signet ring of Pharaoh and made to ride in a chariot as Pharaoh’s second-in-command, while men proclaimed, “Bow the knee!” (Gen 41:31, NASB). The brothers of Joseph were unaware of these events supposing, as their father had, that “Joseph is no more” (Gen 42:36).
Yet, while the brothers of Joseph were suffering under the burden of the famine, Joseph was being glorified in the land of Egypt. As the years of the famine followed, Joseph’s brothers came before him bowing down to him as Joseph had seen in his dream years earlier (Gen 37:9-11). In Joseph, we have the example of one individual who has gone from a position of suffering to a position of total authority, second only to Pharaoh. Through Joseph came the gathering, the salvation, and the glory of the nation.
There are incredible parallels in the story of Joseph to Yeshua. The rejection of Joseph by his brothers was all part of God’s plan to bring salvation not only to the family of Jacob, but also to the entire world, as it was spoken by Joseph,
"Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." (Gen 50:19-21)
In the same way, the rejection of Yeshua by the nation of Israel was part of God’s plan to bring the salvation of God to the entire world (Rom 11:25-26).
The original rejection of Joseph brings no chastisement from Joseph at his reunion with his brothers, but only tears. Three times we are told that Joseph wept upon seeing his brothers. The third time, “He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it…Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph!’” (Gen 45:2-3). In a similar manner, “When He (Yeshua) approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it” (Luke 19:41). From the cross Yeshua said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). After the pattern of Joseph, there will only be rejoicing at the reunion of Yeshua and the nation of Israel, as it is written in the apostolic text,
“Did they (Israel) stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to Gentiles…But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!” (Rom 11:11-12)
In the story of Joseph, the nation of Egypt can be seen as Gentiles already receiving blessings through their relationship with Joseph. When Pharaoh hears that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials rejoiced, just as there will be much rejoicing among the Gentiles when the Messiah is revealed and the nation of Israel accepts Him and enters into a relationship with Him. When news reaches the Patriarch, he is referred to as “Jacob”. Upon hearing the news, the spirit of Jacob is revived as disbelief is turned into faith. Upon believing, he is now called “Israel”, as it is written, “And Israel said, ‘I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive” (Gen 45:28). When the nation of Israel comes to Egypt, they are given the best of the land and possessions, just as the prophets have spoken of a future time for Israel when, “Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations” (Isa 60:10-11).
Yeshua fulfilled the role as “ben Joseph” during His first appearing as He was literally born son of Joseph, suffered unjustly as Joseph had, and died as foretold by the prophets. Yeshua was even placed in the tomb of a man named Joseph and came out of the grave as Jacob’s son had when they moved his bones from Egypt to Israel. But as “ben Joseph”, Yeshua was not called to fulfill the attributes of the son of David.
In the future at the appointed time, Yeshua will return as Messiah, son of David, to reign over the nation as a King from the line of David to perform what has not yet been fulfilled. Moses, considered the greatest prophet in Jewish history, became a pattern for the two comings of the Messiah by descending twice off Mount Sinai. The first time he came and delivered the Torah to a rebellious people who were in the mist of making a golden calf. The second time he descended with a new copy of the commandments, a set of instructions on how to build the tabernacle after a pattern he had seen of the heavenly reality, and a reminder from the LORD to “observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you” (Ex 31:14).
Even the LORD is said to come twice in scripture, as the prophet has written,
“Let us acknowledge the LORD, let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (Hos 6:3).
The two rains spoken by Hosea are associated with two separate growing seasons in Israel that produce two separate harvests, as celebrated by the spring feasts and fall feasts of the Jewish calendar. Yeshua produced a crop of righteous believers at His first appearing and a second crop will be harvested at His reappearing.
The Messiah Our Redeemer: Part 6 of 12
VI. Messiah, Son of Joseph
The Bible is a book that contains a variety of tensions where a balance must be found between two seemingly irreconcilable truths. Faith and works is one common example. Which is more important or are they of equal importance? The apostolic writer James, reconciled the conflict this way, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 1:18). James then goes on to say that a person’s faith and works should be “one” just as God is “one”.
Another example involves the circumstances surrounding the appearing of the LORD’S Messiah to His people. The Jewish Sages observed that in one place scripture says, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey” (Zech 9:9), while in another place the text says, “I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Dan 7:13). How could both these passages be true when they appear to be irreconcilable? The Talmud reconciled these passages this way…
Rabbi Joseph the son of Levi objects that it is written in one place, “Behold one like the son of man comes with the clouds of heaven”, but in another place it is written “lowly and riding upon an ass”. The solution is, if they be righteous he shall come with the clouds of heaven, but if they not be righteous he shall come lowly riding upon an ass. (Sanhedrin 98a)
As the Sages identified the prophecies about the coming Messiah in scripture, they were faced with two contradictory people. Some passages told of a servant who would reign as king on the throne of David. However, other passages told of a servant who would suffer humiliation and physical harm.
Some of the Sages came to accept the possibility that the scriptures spoke of two different Messiahs. In Rabbinic literature, the first became known as “Mashiach ben Yosef” (Messiah the son of Joseph). This Messiah was associated with a time of victory mixed with hardship and suffering (Talmud b. Sukkah 52a). Then a second Messiah, “Mashiach ben David” (Messiah the son of David), would come and establish God’s kingdom on the earth. Some Sages believed that if the Jewish nation would become completely obedient, then only one Messiah, the son of David, would come. Although two Messiah prototypes were recognized, the Son of David became the central focus of Jewish thought by the first century (Matt 22:41-46).
Yet, the concept of Joseph as a suffering servant remained. For the believer in Yeshua, the comparison is remarkable.
Joseph was sent by his father to check on the welfare of his brothers (Gen 37:13). Yeshua was also sent to speak the words of the Father to the nation (John 14:24).
Joseph was unjustly persecuted by his brothers who, “plotted against him to put him to death” (Gen 37:18). Joseph was then sold to the Ishmaelites (Gen 37:28). “The chief priests and elders of the people…plotted…to seize Yeshua by stealth and kill Him” (Matt 26:3-4). Yeshua was then “handed over to the Gentiles” to be mocked, insulted, flogged and killed (Luke 18:32).
Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver (Gen 37:28). Yeshua was sold for thirty pieces of silver (Matt 26:15), as foretold by Zechariah, “Throw it to the potter – the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter” (Zech 11:12-13).
Joseph was sent to Egypt to prepare salvation for the Jewish people (Gen 50:20). Yeshua means “Salvation” as was written, “you are to give him the name Yeshua, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21), having been foretold by Zechariah, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation” (Zech 9:9).
The heart of Joseph loved and longed for his brothers (Gen 43:30). Yeshua spoke of the nation of Israel in this manner, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt 23:37).
Joseph’s brothers did not recognize Joseph when they saw him because Joseph was disguised, speaking in a foreign language and dressed in clothes, jewelry, and make-up of the Egyptians. Believers in Yeshua have also imposed their own culture on Yeshua making Him into their image and not the image of the Jewish Messiah who walked on the earth.
Joseph’s brothers did not recognize Joseph until he revealed himself. Yeshua will not be recognized by the nation until the LORD “will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zech 12:10).
Joseph showed no animosity towards his brothers, but said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” (Gen 50:20-21). From the cross, Yeshua said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Joseph was called out of the grave three days after Passover when Israel was saved out of Egypt, in accordance with his instructions, “God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up from this place” (Gen 50:25). Yeshua died on Passover, was placed in the grave of a man named Joseph (Matt 27:59-60). He arose on the third day (Luke 24:46), following the pattern of Jonah and the words of Hosea who wrote of the nation, “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us” (Hosea 6:2).
In addition to scripture, the Jewish Sages have further added…
The brothers of Joseph cast lots for Joseph’s coat (Genesis Rabbah 84:8). Of Yeshua, “they divided up his clothes by casting lots” (Matt 27:35), fulfilling the words of the Psalmist, “they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psa 22:18).
Joseph was placed in a cistern for three days and three nights (Testament of Zebulun 4:4). Of Yeshua it was written, “the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt12:40).
Joseph did not drink wine while he was separated from his brothers until he was reunited with his brothers (Genesis Rabbah 93:7). Yeshua said, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt 26:29).
Now comes an interesting twist to the story from the Jewish Sages. They observed that Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, was not with his brothers when they betrayed Joseph. He remained unmentioned until the brothers were forced to take Benjamin to Egypt. In Jewish thought, Benjamin represents the righteous remnant of the nation, not involved in the betrayal. When Benjamin reappears in the story, he receives a portion at Joseph’s table that is five times the amount of anyone else (Gen 43:34)(Gen 45:22).
Later, when Moses blessed the tribe of Benjamin he said, “Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders” (Deut 33:12). The Jewish Talmud interpreted this blessing to mean that the Temple of the LORD would reside in the land of Benjamin because of his righteousness.
Like Benjamin, there always remains a righteous remnant of the nation to be revealed in the latter days, as is written,
“I myself (LORD) will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number” (Jer 23:3).
If Benjamin stands as an example, the nation of Israel will receive a significant blessing from God at the acceptance of the Messiah. As the apostolic author Paul has written of the nation, “If their transgression means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring?” (Rom 11:12).
Finally, the birth of Benjamin can be seen to represent two separate events associated with the Messiah. To Rachel, her son was Ben-oni, “the son my trouble” because she suffered in the delivery and died soon after her son was born. However, to Jacob, his son was Benjamin, “the son of my right hand”, because he brought strength to his father even amidst Jacob’s suffering at the loss of Rachel.
The difficulty and anguish of Rachel’s delivery in seen in scripture to parallel the frequent suffering of the nation, “Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted” (Jer 31:15). The birth of Ben-oni is seen to foreshadow the days leading up to the appearing of the Messiah, often referred to as the “birth pains of the Messiah” and “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer 30:5-7).
If Ben-oni represents the days of suffering associated with the coming of the Messiah, then Benjamin must represent the strength brought to the nation at the revealing of the Messiah. In a similar manner, Yeshua suffered and the nation suffered at His first coming, but Yeshua and the remnant of the nation will be strengthened and glorified at His second coming.
The Bible is a book that contains a variety of tensions where a balance must be found between two seemingly irreconcilable truths. Faith and works is one common example. Which is more important or are they of equal importance? The apostolic writer James, reconciled the conflict this way, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 1:18). James then goes on to say that a person’s faith and works should be “one” just as God is “one”.
Another example involves the circumstances surrounding the appearing of the LORD’S Messiah to His people. The Jewish Sages observed that in one place scripture says, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey” (Zech 9:9), while in another place the text says, “I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Dan 7:13). How could both these passages be true when they appear to be irreconcilable? The Talmud reconciled these passages this way…
Rabbi Joseph the son of Levi objects that it is written in one place, “Behold one like the son of man comes with the clouds of heaven”, but in another place it is written “lowly and riding upon an ass”. The solution is, if they be righteous he shall come with the clouds of heaven, but if they not be righteous he shall come lowly riding upon an ass. (Sanhedrin 98a)
As the Sages identified the prophecies about the coming Messiah in scripture, they were faced with two contradictory people. Some passages told of a servant who would reign as king on the throne of David. However, other passages told of a servant who would suffer humiliation and physical harm.
Some of the Sages came to accept the possibility that the scriptures spoke of two different Messiahs. In Rabbinic literature, the first became known as “Mashiach ben Yosef” (Messiah the son of Joseph). This Messiah was associated with a time of victory mixed with hardship and suffering (Talmud b. Sukkah 52a). Then a second Messiah, “Mashiach ben David” (Messiah the son of David), would come and establish God’s kingdom on the earth. Some Sages believed that if the Jewish nation would become completely obedient, then only one Messiah, the son of David, would come. Although two Messiah prototypes were recognized, the Son of David became the central focus of Jewish thought by the first century (Matt 22:41-46).
Yet, the concept of Joseph as a suffering servant remained. For the believer in Yeshua, the comparison is remarkable.
Joseph was sent by his father to check on the welfare of his brothers (Gen 37:13). Yeshua was also sent to speak the words of the Father to the nation (John 14:24).
Joseph was unjustly persecuted by his brothers who, “plotted against him to put him to death” (Gen 37:18). Joseph was then sold to the Ishmaelites (Gen 37:28). “The chief priests and elders of the people…plotted…to seize Yeshua by stealth and kill Him” (Matt 26:3-4). Yeshua was then “handed over to the Gentiles” to be mocked, insulted, flogged and killed (Luke 18:32).
Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver (Gen 37:28). Yeshua was sold for thirty pieces of silver (Matt 26:15), as foretold by Zechariah, “Throw it to the potter – the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter” (Zech 11:12-13).
Joseph was sent to Egypt to prepare salvation for the Jewish people (Gen 50:20). Yeshua means “Salvation” as was written, “you are to give him the name Yeshua, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21), having been foretold by Zechariah, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation” (Zech 9:9).
The heart of Joseph loved and longed for his brothers (Gen 43:30). Yeshua spoke of the nation of Israel in this manner, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt 23:37).
Joseph’s brothers did not recognize Joseph when they saw him because Joseph was disguised, speaking in a foreign language and dressed in clothes, jewelry, and make-up of the Egyptians. Believers in Yeshua have also imposed their own culture on Yeshua making Him into their image and not the image of the Jewish Messiah who walked on the earth.
Joseph’s brothers did not recognize Joseph until he revealed himself. Yeshua will not be recognized by the nation until the LORD “will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zech 12:10).
Joseph showed no animosity towards his brothers, but said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” (Gen 50:20-21). From the cross, Yeshua said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Joseph was called out of the grave three days after Passover when Israel was saved out of Egypt, in accordance with his instructions, “God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up from this place” (Gen 50:25). Yeshua died on Passover, was placed in the grave of a man named Joseph (Matt 27:59-60). He arose on the third day (Luke 24:46), following the pattern of Jonah and the words of Hosea who wrote of the nation, “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us” (Hosea 6:2).
In addition to scripture, the Jewish Sages have further added…
The brothers of Joseph cast lots for Joseph’s coat (Genesis Rabbah 84:8). Of Yeshua, “they divided up his clothes by casting lots” (Matt 27:35), fulfilling the words of the Psalmist, “they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psa 22:18).
Joseph was placed in a cistern for three days and three nights (Testament of Zebulun 4:4). Of Yeshua it was written, “the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt12:40).
Joseph did not drink wine while he was separated from his brothers until he was reunited with his brothers (Genesis Rabbah 93:7). Yeshua said, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt 26:29).
Now comes an interesting twist to the story from the Jewish Sages. They observed that Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, was not with his brothers when they betrayed Joseph. He remained unmentioned until the brothers were forced to take Benjamin to Egypt. In Jewish thought, Benjamin represents the righteous remnant of the nation, not involved in the betrayal. When Benjamin reappears in the story, he receives a portion at Joseph’s table that is five times the amount of anyone else (Gen 43:34)(Gen 45:22).
Later, when Moses blessed the tribe of Benjamin he said, “Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders” (Deut 33:12). The Jewish Talmud interpreted this blessing to mean that the Temple of the LORD would reside in the land of Benjamin because of his righteousness.
Like Benjamin, there always remains a righteous remnant of the nation to be revealed in the latter days, as is written,
“I myself (LORD) will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number” (Jer 23:3).
If Benjamin stands as an example, the nation of Israel will receive a significant blessing from God at the acceptance of the Messiah. As the apostolic author Paul has written of the nation, “If their transgression means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring?” (Rom 11:12).
Finally, the birth of Benjamin can be seen to represent two separate events associated with the Messiah. To Rachel, her son was Ben-oni, “the son my trouble” because she suffered in the delivery and died soon after her son was born. However, to Jacob, his son was Benjamin, “the son of my right hand”, because he brought strength to his father even amidst Jacob’s suffering at the loss of Rachel.
The difficulty and anguish of Rachel’s delivery in seen in scripture to parallel the frequent suffering of the nation, “Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted” (Jer 31:15). The birth of Ben-oni is seen to foreshadow the days leading up to the appearing of the Messiah, often referred to as the “birth pains of the Messiah” and “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer 30:5-7).
If Ben-oni represents the days of suffering associated with the coming of the Messiah, then Benjamin must represent the strength brought to the nation at the revealing of the Messiah. In a similar manner, Yeshua suffered and the nation suffered at His first coming, but Yeshua and the remnant of the nation will be strengthened and glorified at His second coming.
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