Yeshua said to them “This is what
I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written
about me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled”….”Here
is what it says: the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on
the third day; and in His name repentance leading to forgiveness of sins
is to be proclaimed to people from all nations, starting with Yerushalayim
“ (Luke 24:44, 46 & 47 Complete Jewish Bible)
Believers in Yeshua compare the
above scripture with the basic Jewish concept of Messiah: He would be a
descendent of King David, He would come and restore Israel and gather Israel
back to its land from the four corners of the earth, defeat her enemies,
bring her people to full observance of Torah, and bring world peace. The
traditional Jewish response to Yeshua as Messiah is that He did not do
these things; therefore, He is not the Messiah. Is there a way to resolve
these conflicting positions? The answer lies in the belief that the
New Covenant does not contradict, but completes and confirms the Tenach.
As a Jew, one of the reasons that
I had a difficult time accepting Yeshua as my Messiah because I was told
that if you believed in Jesus, you were no longer Jewish, but a Christian.
I did not understand or accept the Messiahship of Yeshua until I met Messianic
Jewish believers who explained that Jesus was Jewish, and He was the Promised
One throughout the Tenach, who came to atone for my sins and restore me
to a right relationship with the God of my fathers. However, for years
the question remained: how can I reconcile the traditional Jewish view
of Messiah and Yeshua’s words in Luke 24:44, 46-48? I now understand that
there is an overarching bridge that connects Yeshua’s words as Messiah
and the traditional Jewish view. They are not mutually exclusive (as the
rabbis believe) but are part of the promise that God gave to our forefathers
beginning in the Torah and throughout the Tenach, and are continued and
expanded upon in the New Covenant.
In the Tenach, we read such words
as oath, word, and blessing to convey God’s promise. In the New Covenant
the word-promise or to promise is used over 67 times. This promised plan
of God’s is at the heart of Scripture. Beginning with Adam and Eve, God’s
blessing is the promised seed (Genesis 3:15) which then came through the
individual, Abraham, and through his family to Isaac and then Jacob. Through
Jacob, God’s people would become Israel. His twelve sons would become the
twelve tribes. Israel would be God’s instrument through which He would
reveal Himself. Also through them the promised Messiah would come and the
world would be blessed. In Genesis 49:8-12 Jacob on his deathbed passes
the promise to one of his sons, Judah. Several blessings are given to Judah:
he would rule over Israel, he would defeat his enemies, he would be like
a lion. Also, the kingship and rulership would reside in Judah until it
is given to “the one whom it belongs”. With this prophecy given to
Judah in Genesis 49:8-12, the promised seed first transmitted through the
tribe of Judah will be ones who will rule as kings over Israel.
Although there were many prophets
in Israel, there was only one Moses. Moses said that God would raise up
a prophet like him (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). Moses is called God’s
servant (Numbers 12:6-8). This prophet whom God would raise up would have
a ministry similar to Moses: he would have to be a mediator between God
and the people, a lawgiver, a miracle worker, and an Israelite. He would
enjoy an unusual intimate fellowship with God as Moses did.
There is one other unconditional
promise that God makes with King David (2 Samuel 7:12-16). God speaks to
David about a particular descendent of his. In Psalm 110 we learn God invites
the one whom David calls “my Lord” to “sit at my right hand until I make
your enemies a footstool for your feet.” And, “you are a priest forever
in the order of Melchizedek.” This same person is addressed, first as a
king and then as a priest. As king, this person is invited to sit at the
right hand of God (vs.1). He is appointed by God and will hold an
eternal office.
In Psalm 2 King Messiah is
depicted as a son to whom God gives the nations as an inheritance. God
tells the people to rejoice in who Messiah is and what He will do. They
should do homage (worship) to the Son before it is too late, and He judges
them.
The Prophets also speak of
the Messiah, as future King David (Hosea 3:1-5; 9:11-15) whom the people
of Israel will come to; and that David’s house and kingdom will be restored
in the future. This future king will not only be from David’s physical
lineage; he will also be born in the same town. David was from Bethlehem
(Micah 5:1-4). Therefore the Messiah could not be born anywhere except
Bethlehem.
The next promise given in
scripture is about the Servant of the Lord. We find this Servant of the
Lord mentioned 20 times in Isaiah 40 -53. Twelve of those times the nation
of Israel is mentioned as the servant (Isaiah 41:8-10; 44:1-3, 21; 45:4).
Even though Israel is collectively called the Servant, there is a singular
servant – an individual who has a mission from God to Israel and to the
nations. We will see that it is God, Himself, who is behind this servant,
and God will make sure that the mission of His servant will be accomplished.
God calls him My Servant and My Chosen who is to carry out God’s purposes
and plan. This servant will be humble and gentle. He will come to the weak,
the humble and the hurting. He will bring justice to the nations and establish
Torah (Law). God will give the servant as a covenant to the people and
a light to the nations. The “light to the nations” refers to Isaiah 9:1-6,
where a great light shone out of darkness. What was this light? Nothing
less than the birth of the son of a servant who had the names of God, and
who was born of the virgin (Isaiah 7:14) to bring righteousness and God’s
kingdom to earth.
Isaiah 50:4-11 speaks about
the suffering of the servant and his rejection. But God will intervene
on the servant’s behalf and vindicate him, and all that do not listen to
the servant will perish. In Isaiah 53:4-6 we see that the Servant
died for us. He made atonement for our sins through His sufferings, God
laid on him the sin of us all. In this whole passage the words God laid
upon him sin offering, remind us of our iniquities for which He is cut
off or killed (v.8-9). Then (v: 10-12) we see His offspring and prolong
His days, as was said in Psalm 16:10, that God would resurrect him from
the dead. People will come to know Him (the servant) because of what the
servant has done for them. He will save them and make them righteous, and
justify them before God. Why? Because the servant bore their iniquities.
The rabbis saw that scripture portrayed
two different pictures of King Messiah. One would conquer and reign and
bring Israel back to the land by world peace and bring the fullness of
obedience to the Torah. They called him Messiah ben David. The other picture
is of a servant who would die and bear Israel’s sin that they refer to
as the “leprous one” based on Isaiah 53. They called him Messiah ben Joseph.
In Daniel 9:24-26 the Messiah would be cut off before the destruction of
the second Temple. There is, in rabbinical thought, the belief that Messiah
ben Joseph will carry and bear Israel’s sins and that he would be killed
in the battle of Gog and Magog by the evil king, Armilus (a lie created
by Satan himself). Then Messiah Ben David will come and kill Armilus and
resurrect Messiah ben Joseph from the dead. An excellent source for further
study on this is Raphael Patai’s book the Messiah Texts: Jewish Legends
of Three Thousand Years. I now understand that the king and the servant
are one and the same in Yeshua
Once, when I brought up the
idea of a suffering servant to a class in a conservative Jewish synagogue,
the teacher said this can not be true because there is no such concept
in Judaism. Later, the rabbi of the synagogue told the teacher that what
I had said about the suffering servant as Messiah ben Joseph was true.
I wonder why the suffering servant concept is not part of modern
Jewish theology of Messiah?
I believe Yeshua is the Messiah
is because He is the suffering servant of God who died. No other historical
figure in Jewish history has had such an impact upon the world. God spoke
to the patriarchs and King David that through their seed (the nation of
Israel) would come, the one who would bring blessings to the nations and
be a light to the nations and they would see God’s salvation. As a famous
Messianic Jew of the 19th century said:
“Perhaps, too, in this enlightened
age, as his mind expands, and he takes a comprehensive view of this period
of progress, the pupil of Moses may ask himself, whether all the princes
of the house of David have done so much for the Jews as that prince who
was crucified on Calvary. Had it not been for Him, the Jews would have
been comparatively unknown, or known only as a high Oriental caste which
had lost its country. Has not He made their history the most famous in
the world? Has not He hung up their laws in every temple” Has He not vindicated
all their wrongs? Has not He avenged the victory of Titus and conquered
the Caesars? What success did they anticipate from their Messiah? The wildest
dreams of their Rabbis have been far exceeded. Has not Jesus conquered
Europe and changed its name into Christendom
. . . The whole of the new world
is devoted to the Semitic principle and its most glorious offspring, the
Jewish faith, and the time will come when the vast communities and countless
myriad of America and Australia, looking upon Greece, and wondering how
so small a space could have achieved such great deeds, will still find
music in the songs of Zion and still seek solace in the parables of Galilee.”
These may be dreams, but
there is one fact which none can contest. Christians may continue to persecute
Jews, and Jews may persist in disbelieving Christians, but who can deny
that Jesus of Nazareth, the Incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the
eternal glory of the Jewish race?” (Benjamin Disraeli – “Lord George Bentinck:
A Political Biography)
I believe that the oath that
God spoke to Abraham is fulfilled in Yeshua, the child of the promise.
He is the promise that is prophesied in the Tenach and fulfilled in the
New Covenant. Yeshua has brought redemption to the whole world and
every year, as I light the Shamesh candle of the Hanukkah menorah, I celebrate
that he is the light and glory of Israel.