The Promised Child - Messiah

A Child Is Born:

Our leaders had failed. They allowed the people to stumble into idolatry, which was the path to doom. King Ahaz, in his pursuit of military alliances, was sending a message to the people that there was no God in Judah who would watch over his people. Ahaz’s behavior indicated his belief that the future of the nation depended upon the alliances he could forge and the cunning he could exercise in the political arena.

King Ahaz had forgotten the words of King David who came before him:

Behold, He who keeps Israel, neither slumbers nor sleeps. (Psalm 121:4)

The future of the nation appeared grim. When the leaders fail, the people are without hope. Where does a people go when they cannot trust their leaders? Societies throughout the ages have been faced with this problem of leadership without a mandate. A nation without sound leaders is left to drift in a sea of tyranny and folly.

Against that backdrop Isaiah declared that God himself would intervene in the future of the nation, and the prophet directs our focus—away from the dealings of kings and princes—to the activities of children.

Chapters 7-10 of Isaiah have been called, “The Book of Immanuel.” This portion has also been referred to as “The Discourse of the Three Children.” The three children mentioned are: Shear-Yashuv (Isaiah 7:3), Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14, 8:8,10) and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isaiah 8:1,3,4).

What are some passages in the Hebrew Bible that talk about the Messiah?

A deliverer

Yes, Moses did speak of a deliverer to come. Tucked into the midst of the summary of the Law in the eighteenth chapter of Devarim (Deuteronomy), talking about the punishment of false prophets, Moses made a remarkable prophecy:

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like unto me from the midst, of your brethren. Him you shall hear.”

What did Moshe Rabeynu mean when he said, “like unto me”? Did this mean that the Prophet who would come would be an older man? (Moses was eighty years old when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt.) Did it mean that the Prophet would be hot-tempered and impatient? (Certainly Moses was that way.) Did it mean that the Prophet would be trained in the ways of Egyptian royalty? The answer to all of the above is “No.” The text describes how that Prophet would be like Moses, as it recalls the experience of a nation that has been memorialized and burned into our consciousness.

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.'”And the LORD said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good.

‘I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

‘And it shall be [that] whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require [it] of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18,19)

How have Jewish commentators interpreted that prophecy? Most contemporary commentators believe that Joshua and other prophets fulfilled the Scripture. However, this was not always the case. The late Rachmiel Frydland, in his book, What the Rabbis Know About the Messiah, pointed out: “Rabbi Levi Ben Gershon (RALBAG), of the fourteenth century, identified the Prophet as Messiah.” He went on to give RALBAG’s commentary:

‘A Prophet from the midst of thee.’ In fact, the Messiah is such a Prophet as it is stated in the Midrash of the verse, ‘Behold my Servant shall prosper’ (Isaiah 52:13).…Moses, by the miracles which he wrought, brought a single nation to the worship of God, but the Messiah will draw all peoples to the worship of God.

What proof do you have that Jesus was the Messiah?

This is not to say that all Jewish people rejected the claims of Jesus. Far from that being the case, all the first followers of Jesus were Jews. In fact, the rabbis of that time period and afterwards were well aware of the many Messianic prophecies which Christians claimed were fulfilled in Jesus. So for instance, although the Talmudic rabbis concurred that Isaiah 53 was a prediction of the Messiah, by medieval times the pressure from those who applied this prophecy to Jesus was so great that Rashi, that greatest medieval Biblical scholar, reinterpreted the chapter and said it referred to the nation of Israel. This interpretation is maintained today by many Jewish scholars, though it only dates back to the Middle Ages.

What, then, are some of the credentials of the Messiah?

Only a few can be listed below; there are many others. All of these passages were recognized by the early rabbis as referring to the Messiah:

• Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem: Micah 5:2 (Micah 5:1 in Hebrew Bible)
• Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah: Genesis 49:10
• Messiah would present himself by riding on an ass: Zechariah 9:9
• Messiah would be tortured to death: Psalm 22:1-31
• Messiah would arrive before the destruction of the Second Temple: Daniel 9:24-27
• Messiah’s life would match a particular description, including suffering, silence at his arrest and trial, death and burial in a rich man’s tomb, and resurrection: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Handel’s Messiah – in Hebrew!

You probably knew that Handel’s oratorio is about Jesus. But, perhaps because it is usually sung at Christmas time, music lovers may forget a few important facts. Like the fact that Jesus is Jewish. And that the Jewish prophets predicted the coming of the Messiah, and Handel put their words to music. “Behold a virgin shall conceive” (Isaiah 7:14) and “Unto us a child is born” (Isaiah 9:6) come straight from the Hebrew Scriptures.

But now, listeners are less likely to forget the very Jewish backdrop to this famous oratorio when they hear it in the original language of the Scriptures—Hebrew!

David and Lisa Loden emigrated from the United States to Israel in 1974. David, 76, a former Broadway singer and stage manager, conducted a choir made up of Jewish and Arab (and other) believers in Jesus from all across Israel. The choir performed major choral works. One of the members, Irene Levy, began to talk with Loden about the possibility of performing Handel’s Messiah in the Hebrew language. Levy found two other Messianic Jews who were excellent translators, and the project was birthed.

Loden says the translated version is more faithful to the Hebrew Scriptures than Handel’s.

“The King James Bible, as faithful as it is to the original Hebrew or Greek texts, is still a translation” Loden explains. “Many times the original word-for-word verse from the Hebrew Scriptures is better than the best translation. The richness of the meanings is highlighted in the original language.”

The first public performance of the Hebrew Messiah was at The Pavilion theater in Jerusalem in 2007. Loden sang the bass solo, but then asked permission to produce the Messiah on a more professional basis. It was next performed in May 2010. Loden again sang the bass role, and his daughter, Nava, the soprano. The Israel Chamber Orchestra accompanied the 40-person choir.

Most helpful messianic prophecies along with their New Testament fulfillment's.

After Yeshua (Jesus) was crucified, some of his followers were crushed. They had hoped that he would be the Messiah who would destroy the tyranny of Rome and restore the kingdom of Israel. But their idea of the Messiah was not God’s idea. Yeshua died, but he also rose from the dead, and to his disappointed followers he said:

“How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said!  Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?” And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets…. They said to each other, “Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:25-27 NIV, Luke 24:32 NIV)

“To suffer these things and then to enter his glory.” He had to first die as an atonement for our sins, and then rise from the dead—as the prophets of the Hebrew Bible had said.

We invite you to explore these passages from the Jewish Scriptures and their fulfillments in the life of Yeshua.

Prophecy	Tanach Reference	Fullfilment
The Messiah would be the seed of the woman	Genesis 3:15	Romans 16:20
		Galatians 4:4
		Revelation 12:9
		Revelation 12:17
The Messiah would be the descendant of Abraham through whom all nations would be blessed	Genesis 12:3	Acts 3:24-26
The Messiah would be a willing sacrifice	Genesis 22:1-18	John 3:16
The Messiah would be the coming one to whom the scepter belongs	Genesis 49:10	Luke 2:1-7
		Luke 3:33
		Galatians 4:4
The Messiah would be the Passover lamb	Exodus 12:1-51	John 1:29
		John 1:36
		John 19:33
		John 19:36
		1 Corinthians 5:7-8
		1 Peter 1:19
The Messiah would be lifted up	Numbers 21:6-9	John 3:14-18
The Messiah would be the star coming out of Jacob	Numbers 24:17	Matthew 2:2
		Revelation 22:16