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HOW TO POINT TO MOSHIACH IN YOUR RABBI 'S BIBLE
c COPYRIGHT 1995 ARTISTS FOR ISRAEL INTERNATIONAL
Download an ancient
Orthodox Jewish Mahzor
published by the Hebrew Publishing Company.
Notice particularly MahzorJ.pdf.
Also notice MahzorA.pdf, particularly
noting the last page (page
71) of that pdf file, the middle
part of that last page, specifically the
Hebrew in smaller type, especially
the word before "SAR HAPANIM". Also on
page 17 [two key words "yichud Qudsha,
the unification of the Holy
One, or the Holy Unity"] in mahzorA.pdf,
note the following "BEHOLD I PREPARE MY MOUTH TO
THANK AND PRAISE MY CREATOR IN THE NAME
OF THE HOLY UNITY, BLESSED IS HE,
AND HIS SHECHINAH [I.E. THE RUACH HAKODESH]
BY THE HAND OF HIM WHO IS
HIDDEN AND CONCEALED [I.E. YESHUA SAR
HAPANIM FOUND ON PAGE 71 IN
MAHZORA.PDF] IN THE NAME OF ALL ISRAEL"
NOT A
MESSIANIC BAAL TESHUVA YET BECAUSE YOU STILL HAVEN'T
OBEYED MOSHIACH AND HAVEN'T YET MADE ZIKH GE'TOYVL'T IN
DER MIKVE? AND DON'T UNDERSTAND
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DOING HERE?
ARE YOU AN ANTI-MOSHIACH ACTIVIST? NO WONDER
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Not long ago a Bible believer got into a debate with an august
representative of an organization self-styled as some sort of
"Supreme" U.S. Rabbinical Court. This rabbi was standing in front
of some television cameras attempting to "excommunicate" American
Jewish people because of their Messianic faith. This is a true
story.
The Debate in a Nutshell
In short, the debate went something like this.
The rabbi said to the Bible believer, "Are you a Jew?"
The Bible believer replied, "Was Ruth a Jew?"
The rabbi asked, "Are you a missionary?"
The Bible believer replied, "Are you a missionary?"
The rabbi shouted, "I most certainly am not!"
The Bible believer asked, "If you are not a missionary, then
why have you rabbis lawlessly wrested authority from the kohanim (priests) and are now missionizing Jewish people away from a
faith squarely founded on true Biblical apocalyptic Torah
Judaism as taught by the Jewish Bible?" The rabbi said (without
challenging the truth of the indictment), "Because the
priesthood became corrupted by the Romans, and then the
Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E." The Bible believer said, "One kohen (priest) was not corrupted and his temple was not
destroyed." The rabbi paused and looked at the Bible believer
quizzically. . . "Which one was that?"
The Bible believer said, "The Messiah-Priest that King David
foretold in Psalm 110,[1] the portentous priest Zechariah also
identified with the name of Moshiach (Messiah) in Zechariah [2]
[3]--the very name Ezra called Yeshua (Aramaic form of Yehoshua) in the book of Ezra!"[4] (See end notes referred to by
bracketed numbers for all Scripture citations.) He paused again,
swallowing hard. A little bit later in the debate he wiped a
tear from his right eye. He couldn't refute the Biblical
argument, a position he had never heard before, apparently, and
one for which he had no answer. What follows is a more complete
presentation of the Biblical argument.
The Jewish Bible Must Interpret Itself
The history of the Exodus is given to us in the Torah of Moses.
There we read that a whole rebellious generation passed away
leaving only a righteous remnant of two holy survivors of the
Exodus to inherit the promised life in the Holy Land: Yehoshua (or Joshua--the Aramaic form is Yeshua--see Nehemiah 8:17) and Caleb.
This is paradigmatic history, for it provides a prophetic model
as a sign of things to come, as does the prophecy about Moshiach found in the reference to the two ominous olive trees in the book
of Zechariah 4.[5] In fact, Yehoshua (or Joshua) is himself a
sign of the Moshiach, as we shall see. The fact that the Aramaic form
of Yehoshua or Joshua is Yeshua [see Nehemiah 8:17] will prove
very significant later when we see that the Tanakh teaches this
name is to become Moshiach's personal name. "Joshua/Yeshua" is
indeed one of the portentous and ominous names of "anshei mofet"
("sign-men) in the Hebrew Scriptures.[2]" A rabbi might challenge
this and say, "This is like telling an American that something
which happened to the Pilgrims is paradigmatic of American
history. Or, again, this is like saying that George Washington
is a prophetic sign of the last and greatest American President!
Why is one necessarily the predictive model of the other?"
Why? Because the Jewish Bible must be allowed to interpret
itself. And, in the Jewish Bible, Yeshayah (Isaiah) 49:8 [6]
infers that Yehoshua or Joshua/Yeshua is in fact a sign of the Moshiach. Therefore, if anyone wants to argue, let him argue
with G-d and his holy Word in the writing of his holy prophet, Isaiah.
It was Joshua who assigned the land of the promised inheritance
to the individual tribes and families. Isaiah 49:8 alludes to this
activity. This key verse infers that King Moshiach, the Servant
of the L-rd, is the new Joshua, for in his own person the Moshiach will bring the promised new life for the people, which is their
covenant inheritance.
Or a rabbi might say, "If in fact it is the one you say who is
the Prince of Peace, the new Joshua, as it were, to bring the
people out of the Golus (Exile) and into the land of eternal
Sabbath rest, then where is all the world peace the Prophets said
the Moshiach would bring?" Answer: G-d did not promise peace to
a world that rejects him, Rabbi. But those who receive the spiritual bris milah (covenant of circumcision) and the justification peace the Moshiach brings are in actuality raised
to a new spiritual existence with Moshiach in anticipation of the Olam HaBa (the World to Come), and in anticipation of the
Resurrection Age and its peace. But how can we have the latter
if we refuse the former? How can we have the Olam HaBa of Moshiach if we reject Moshiach's Brit Chadasha life in the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit)?
To continue, Bamidbar (Numbers) 34:19 [7] tells us that Caleb
was from the Moshiach's tribe, the tribe of Judah. Caleb in the
history of the Torah is thus a continuing sign-man or mofet man
(mofet is Hebrew for sign or omen or portent [2]) of the remnant
of one, the King Moshiach of the tribe of Judah, indicated before
Caleb in places like Bereshis (Genesis) 49:10 [8] and after
Caleb in several places in the Jewish Bible, as we shall see.
This righteous-remnant-of-one motif reappears later in the
Servant Songs of Yeshayah (Isaiah) chapters 42-53, where an idealized
Israel is called Yeshurun [9] and then is seen in counterpoint to
a suffering, dying and death-conquering Moshiach, the Servant of
the L-rd. [10] Proof of this last statement will be offered
presently, when we see how the Jewish Bible ties all these
prophetic strands together. Yehoshua is a Symbol of King Moshiach Yehoshua (Joshua, Yeshua) is called "the servant of the L-rd"
in the book of Joshua. [11] Like Caleb, Joshua is also a sign-
man, an ominous mofet of the King Messiah, for Joshua is an agent
of chessid (undeserved, unmerited mercy e.g. in the case of the
prostitute Rahab) and of wrath and judgment or condemnation, in
the holy war of G-d against the seven wicked nations in the
Promised Land. The prophet Daniel, who also speaks of both the chessid of chayei olam (eternal life) as well as judgment and
condemnation,[12] gives us a glorious apocalyptic picture of this
coming King, this Moshiach of the Clouds.[13] Furthermore, Devorim (Deuteronomy) 18:15-19 [14] foretells the prophet like
Moses that G-d will raise up in the Promised Land, the Prophet- Moshiach.
A rabbi might interrupt right here and say, "Wait! This
reference to a Moses-like prophet who is to come is not
necessarily referring to the Moshiach!" Again, let the Jewish
Bible interpret itself: Yeshayah (Isaiah) [15] infers that the Moshiach will be a new Moses. Therefore, don't argue with man,
argue with G-d's Holy Word. Argue with Isaiah 42:15-16; 49:9-10.
The immediate (not final) fulfillment of the Deuteronomy 18:15-19 prophecy is Yehoshua (Joshua/Yeshua). The Sages (Avot 1:1) tell us that Moses accepted the Torah from Sinai and
transmitted it to Joshua/Yeshua. Not only that, Joshua/Yeshua is
indeed a Moses-like prophet, because it was to Joshua and not to
Moses that G-d gave the revelation of the boundaries of the
tribal portions of Eretz Yisrael. Moses died in the wilderness because
he angered G-d, but Joshua led the people victoriously to the
promised new life in the Holy Land. Thus, Joshua (the Aramaic
form of whose name is Yeshua--see Nehemiah 8:17) is a prophetic
sign of the King Moshiach, the ruler from among his brethren who,
like Moses and Prince Joseph, the Savior in Egypt, would lead
Israel's true faithful remnant all the way from the rebellious
unbelief resulting in death in the wilderness to the eternal
salvation and Messianic deliverance foreshadowed in the book of
Joshua.
That the rabbis were not ignorant of the Messianic
interpretation of the Torah given above is shown in the Midrash on the Psalms (translated by Rabbi William Braude, Yale University
Press, 1959, Volume 1, pages 4-7). In this rabbinic work we find
David explicitly likened to Moses and, on the same page, Devarim (Deuteronomy) 18:15 is quoted, `A prophet will the L-rd thy G-d
raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me (Moses)."[14] That Deuteronomy 18:15, then, is a
Messianic prophecy fulfllled ultimately in the Moshiach, the Son
of David, should be clear enough. Confirmation comes in II
Samuel [16] and in Isaiah,[17] which tell us that David's "house" will
bring the Moshiach, and also in Ezekiel, which gives us the title
of Moshiach, "David my Servant". [18]
The deduction of the thoughtful, then, is that Rashi's interpretation of Deuteronomy 18:19 [14] is all the more
frightening. According to Rashi, the text of this passage means
that unbelievers will be put to death. So it is no light thing
to refuse to believe in the divine clues to the identity of the Moshiach set forth in the Tanakh. That is why the following
material should be read prayerfully, with careful study of each
Biblical reference in the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, and Writings
of the Hebrew Bible). Tanakh-refusers, take heed!
Attempting to Evade the Jewish Bible Is Futile
Those who use the Holocaust to justify either their atheism or
their tendency to devalue the authority of the Jewish Bible
should remember that Satan, not G-d, is the author of Nazism and anti-
Semitism. But when Jewish men like Karl Marx and Trotsky laughed
at the Biblical prospect of a future punishment (in spite of the
doctrine of Gehinnom or hell indicated by texts like that of
Daniel [12]), and when they ridiculed Holy Scripture like Deuteronomy 18:19 [14], such folly (by more than a few who were
ostensibly Jews) contributed, in league with the universal
Marxist cry for bloody revolution, to give many Europeans dangerous
misperceptions about the Jewish people as a whole. The erroneous
but nonetheless terrifying specter of Tanakh-rejecting Jews in
control of the Communist Parties together with the Right-wing
European reaction to this, fueling latent Western anti-Semitism,
helped provide Hitler with his demonic opportunity and Satanic
rationale.
And, pardon the Biblical Jewish expression, but it was
particularly here that many of the clergymen of the world and
even many of the rabbis of the shul were all too often worthless
prophetic "watch dogs," as it says, "mute [watch] dogs that
cannot bark," that "lie around and dream."[19] While the coming storm of
"the time of trouble for Jacob"[20] threatened ominously on the
horizon, many of the clergymen of the world and many of the
rabbis of the shul spent more effort meditating on extra-Biblical
thought than on the Jewish Prophets. G-d says, "I am against the
shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will
remove them from tending the flock."[21] The point is not that
proper rabbinic Biblical exegesis and homiletics would have
averted the Holocaust or that the 6,000,000 somehow could have
escaped Hitler's Satanic trap. The point is that prophets and
preachers are given by G-d for giving warning, and the warning is
in the Jewish Scriptures and not in the tradition or theology of
men. And woe to the preacher, Jewish or not, who does not preach
the Jewish Scriptures. This also applies to those who claim to
know the Moshiach but do not love his ancient people and pay only
empty lip service to the task of feeding his Jewish lambs the
pure milk of the Word of G-d.
To illustrate this point, if one's loved one is standing on the
train tracks, one may not be able to prevent disaster, but one
certainly cannot justify not even shouting, "Here comes the
train!" The Tanakh speaks about the Holocaust "train" coming in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah and many other places, but there is a
famine of hearing the Word of G-d, because preachers and rabbis
have not carried out their responsibility to preach the Word,
especially the word of warning regarding the coming Messianic
tribulation.
Those who say they are "orthodox" because they ascribe to the
"Principles of the Faith" of Maimonides should remember that
Maimonides didn't exposit the pure Torah and the Prophets;
Maimonides attempted to syncretize Biblical and Aristotelian
thought. Are we required to believe that this Maimonidean hybrid, even if it contradicts the Jewish Bible, is, in any sense of the
word, "representative" of Judaism?
Instead of preaching the pure apocalyptic Torah Judaism of
Moses and the Prophets, the clergymen of the world and the rabbis of
the shul have too often retreated to the liberal seminaries and
the Talmudic yeshivas. Instead of warning the Jewish people
(like Jeremiah and Esther's Mordecai) of the coming tribulation, the
blind go leading the blind, even in the face of Satan's yawning
pit. Thank G-d that Jeremiah foresaw the end-time fulfillment of
the true trans-cultural Judaism of Moshiach and the
eschatological leaders that G-d would raise up in the latter days: "Then I
will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you
with knowledge and understanding"[22].
Are not terrifying Torah readings like Deuteronomy 18:19 [14]
and 28:15-68 [23] with their horrifying modern historical
illustrations enough to wake up anyone, even liberal clergymen,
even their liberal congregants, even "orthodox" clergy and
rabbis?
At just this point someone might try to "strain out a gnat,"
charging us with misconstruing the Biblical context. Someone
might then "swallow the camel" by pretending that this betrayal
of the Jewish Bible by religious leaders has not happened or that
there have not been horrendous consequences. Or someone might
smile and say, "I don't believe that G-d would allow people
to throw themselves into eternal torment in Gehinnom. Nor, for
that matter, do I believe that the Bible, with its absolutes,
means what it says." Marx didn't believe Biblical absolutes,
either. Neither did Trotsky, nor Hitler, nor Pontius Pilate.
[24] Would you like to share their willfully wicked opinion (and their
company) forever? Here a rabbi might say, "If there is anyone
`willfully wicked,' it is those so-called `church members' who
stood by silently as Jews went to the Holocaust." True, but Corrie ten Boom (see The Hiding Place, Fleming Revell, 1971)
didn't stand by silently. Nor did others. As far as the fate of
those who died in the Holocaust is concerned, G-d knows those who
are His. You can be sure of that. And as far as the true
followers of Moshiach are concerned, it is clear that there are
"weeds" marked for Gehinnom, even among the "wheat" of Moshiach's true followers (see Mt.13:24-30; 7:21-23, etc). All will have
to stand before the Moshiach (Rom.14:10), who endured his own personal Holocaust for the salvation of his Jewish people. But
we're dealing with a different problem here. We're dealing with
the issue of the reality of a Holy G-d and the reality of Satanic
evil and hellish curses, using the Holocaust to refute scoffers
and doubters, and with all severity urging everyone, Jew and non-
Jew alike, clergyman and rabbi alike, to take a more serious look
at the Biblical Moshiach in the Tanakh, knowing that many will
casually ignore the Word and not even deign to look up the Tanakh references cited here, so willfully wicked is the world.
"But wait," you say. "Now you're bringing in original sin (`Willfully wicked'), aren't you? I don't believe in it! What
kind of G-d would let the whole of humanity corrupt itself?" Read Psalm 51:5,10 [25] on natural, fallen, human depravity and the
needed spiritual bris milah of regeneration and complete inward
spiritual change. G-d is perfect and He created mankind good in
His perfect image. It was no fault of G-d's that a free humanity
used its freedom (both primordially and perennially) to corrupt
itself. G-d has fully revealed a new humanity not only in the
historic people (in whom his Word has been enfleshed), but also
in his incorruptible, G-d-mediating, Word. The Holy One of Israel
commands us to yield to the new creation of his personal Word,
his Moshiach, by a new spiritual birth into Moshiach's new humanity,
the people of the Malchut HaShomayim (the Kingdom of Heaven).
"What about the good and innocent people who never even heard
about the Moshiach?" you ask.
This is a loaded question, assuming as it does (and the Jewish
Bible does not) that good and innocent people exist, and, since
they presumeably are so good and innocent, don't need to hear
about any Redeemer anyway, really, since they are not themselves
sinful either in what they do or in what they are, and do not
need redemption from sin's bondage and penalty. See, however, Psalm
14:3, which says, "there is no one that does good."[26] Think
about it. If you are not unfaithful to your wife, you do not
appreciate the loaded question, "When will you stop being
unfaithful to your wife?" Do you think G-d appreciates the loaded
question, "When will G-d stop punishing the innocent?" G-d has
freely chosen to give his Word to us that we might faithfully
communicate his Word to others. If we refuse to believe the
Jewish Bible, if we refuse to communicate it to a lost and dying
world, is it G-d's fault or our fault that our own disobedient
unbelief causes a "famine of hearing the word of the L-rd"? [27]
"All this is just the same old message," you say. "It's the
tired old message that has led to so much anti-Semitism." Don't
confuse the message with the messengers! Many rabbis have also
been less than responsible messengers and yet this fact gives no
warrant to throw out the Jewish Bible and its message. Not all
who say they are followers of the Moshiach are true believers in
fact. Those who claim to follow the Moshiach ought to live as
He lived.[28] The fact that religious men have failed only proves
that religion is not enough. What is needed is a new spiritual
birth and the sanctifying power of divine love and wisdom.
Unlike men, this will never fail, for what is from G-d cannot be
defeated. Also, if anyone claims to be a follower of Moshiach and yet hates the Jewish people (or any other people), this very fact
throws his salvation into question, for it says somewhere, "He
who loveth not...abideth (remains in) death." Yehoshua is a Prophetic Sign of the Servant of the L-rd Yehoshua is called "the servant of the L-rd" in the book of
Joshua [11]. And Bamidbar (Numbers) [29] calls him "the man in
whom is (the) Spirit", making His person a prophetic sign of the
one who is to come, the Servant of the L-rd filled with "My
Spirit" (Isaiah 42:1 [30]). This one who is to come will bring
His Torah. [31] The Moshiach's Torah or teaching will be presented
shortly in what follows.
See Midrash Qoheleth on Ecclesiastes 11:8: "The Law which man
learns in this world is vanity compared with the Law of the
Messiah." According to Isaiah, this one who is to come will be
given as a light to the nations [32] and to his own people as a
covenant [32] to be cut off [10] and to sprinkle many nations
[10] with His outpoured life, which G-d gives as an asham (guilt
offering--see Isaiah 53:10 [10]) and kapparah for sin. To
summarize, then, the nation of Israel is given the idealized name Yeshurun ("the upright one") both in the Torah [34] [35] and in
Isaiah, [9] and, in prophecy, the nation of Israel as servant
[35] [37] is placed in counterpoint to an individual, the Servant of
the L-rd Moshiach [30] [38] [10], an eschatological figure,
who will eschatologically restore the nation of Israel to her
true faith and also completely turn around and change the whole
world (see Isaiah 49:5-6.[39])
The Moshiach Is Equated With the Servant
The splendor of the ideal ruler of Israel is described in
Isaiah. [40] [17] Righteousness [17] and a special anointing for
his task [17] characterize both this ideal ruler (called "G-d-
with-us") and the Servant of the L-rd [10] [30], as if to suggest
that they are the same person. The ruler, through the Davidic
covenant, witnesses about G-d's nature and saving purposes to
those outside the covenant,[41] a function that is also assigned
to the Servant. [39] If there is still any question that the two
(the ideal ruler and the Servant) are the same person, the Moshiach, the prophet Zecharyoh (Zechariah) settles the question
in a key text, Zechariah 3:8 [2] a post-exilic prophecy where the Moshiach,
spoken of as "the Branch" (of David), is equated with the
Servant. [2] Not only that, but in the same passage, [2] the post-
Exilic High Priest named Yehoshua or Joshua [Yeshua--Ezra 3:8] is
referred to as a mofet, a portentous sign of Moshiach! And this
later Joshua is, of course, the portentous eschatological figure,
the high priest Yehoshua (Joshua, Yeshua) returning from the
Exile to a nation resurrected from unclean death in the Golus (Exile).
This kohen (priest) brought back from the Golus's unclean death
(Zechariah 3:1-8) is like David's Moshiach-Kohen in Psalm 110---
that is, a kohen Zechariah embues with Messianic portent [3], as
it says:
"And speak unto him, saying, 'Thus speaketh the L-rd of hosts,
saying, "Behold, the man whose name is BRANCH; and he shall
branch out from this place, and he shall build the temple of the
L-rd. It is he who will build the temple of the L-rd, and he
will be clothed with majesty, and he will sit and rule upon his
throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the counsel of peace
shall be between them both."
The Alternative NAME for Yehoshua Is Yeshua! Ezra 3:8 [4] gives the alternative name of this Yehoshua, who is
called a "wondrous sign" of the Moshiach in Zechariah 3:8 [2].
The alternative [Aramaic] name for the same individual, Yehoshua or Joshua, is Yeshua! [4] Yeshayah (Isaiah) 49:8 [6] pointed to
Moses' successor, the ruler who entered the Promised Land, and
gave the portent that in this Yeshua [Nehemiah 8:17 in the Hebrew
Bible says Yehoshua/Joshua is also Yeshua] is an omen of the Moshiach! Zecharyoh (Zechariah) [2] [3] pointed to Aaron's
successor, the high priest who entered the Promised Land from the
Exile, and predicted that in this Yeshua (Ezra 3:8 in the Hebrew
Bible says this Yehoshua/Joshua is also named Yeshua) is an omen
of the Messiah! "Branch" [or "Moshiach"] is his [Yeshua's] name,
it says clearly in Zechariah 6:12.
A rabbi might object here and say, "Yes, but even if the Moshiach's name is foretold to be "Yeshua" in our Hebrew Bible,
that still doesn't prove that your Yeshua is our Yeshua!"
Rabbi, we reply, the Jewish Bible says that many Goyim will
believe in the Moshiach, [8] [31] will be sprinkled by his
priestly sacrifice, [10] and find life in his light. [32] But
the Jewish Bible is also aware of the perennial unbelief of Israel's
leaders [43] and of the fact that the Jewish people would in
large part reject the Moshiach [10] until the latter days. [44] Can
any other "Yeshua" ever fulfill these prophecies better than Yeshua of Nazareth? Furthermore, Daniel foretold that the coming of the Moshiach must precede the fall of the post-exilic Temple (Bais Hamikdash) [45] and must occur 483 years [45] after the decree to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem, [45] referring to Artaxerxes'
decree (see Ezra 7:12-16,[46] 457 B.C.E.), which gets us to
approximately 27 C.E., when Moshiach Yeshua was beginning his
ministry. Which other Moshiach, which other "Yeshua," is there?
The Davidic Kohen-Moshiach Was Foretold in the Tanakh The "priest of G-d" in Genesis,[47] whom David declares (Psalm
110) to be the establisher of the Messianic order of the Davidic
Priesthood, is Melchizedek. In Psalm 110:4 [1] David refers to
the Moshiach as a "priest forever after the order of Melchizedek"
(and not after the order of Aaron, for the Messiah was to come
from the tribe of Judah and from the lineage of David [16] [48]
and thus be a king-priest like Melchizedek in Genesis [47]).
Therefore, the two ominous olive trees in Zechariah [5] symbolize
the kingly Davidic heir (Zerubbabel) and the priestly overseer of
the Bais Hamikdash, the Jerusalem Temple (Yehoshua [2]) and are
portents of the Davidic ruler/king-priest after the order of
Melchizedek, that is, the coming one, the Moshiach.
The Divine Word took Human Form to Become Our Priestly Healer
The word of G-d came from heaven and tabernacled (pitched his
tent) with Moses. This was the same divine Word who did his work
as an inscriber of thc Ten Commandments into stone. Thus the
holy configuration of the Word in the ark, orbited by ministering
priests and symbolic furnishings, was an earthly replica of the
heavenly pattern of glory shown to Moses on the mountain. [45]
This one and only personal Word of G-d who came from heaven and
revealed his "pattern" of glory to Moses on the mountain, is
worthy of worship (as is the Son of Man; see Daniel [13]). Where
does the Tanakh say that the Word of G-d is worthy of worship?
See Psalm 56:10 [50], which says, "In G-d will I praise his
word." The Word of G-d is the divine agent in creation, as it says "By
the word of the L-rd were the heavens made" (Psalm 33:6 [51]).
Like Moshiach the Judge in Isaiah 42:4,[31] the Word of G-d is
also the divine Word of Judgment who comes at the end of the age
and is personified as the supernatural Moshiach of the Clouds,
"the Son of Man" [Bar Enosh] in Daniel [13] [52].
"Wait," a rabbi might interject. "This you will have to prove
to me from the Tanakh, this notion that the Son of Man is not
only Moshiach but Hashem's Word." Should we be surprised that the
supernatural being which Daniel sees coming from Heaven in Daniel
[13] is a human-like picture of the Moshiach who is also called
"G-d-with-us" in Isaiah 7:14? Should we be surprised that the
supernatural Son Isaiah calls "Mighty G-d" in Isaiah [40] or
should we be surprised that the universal Priest-King that David
calls "my L-rd" in Psalm 110 [1] or that Malachi 3:1 calls "the
L-rd" --should we be surprised that these are also pictures of
G-d's agent of salvation?
"Wait!" says a rabbi. "Psalm 110:1's `Adoni' only means `My
Superior or Master,' lord with a small `l' as in II Samuel 1:10,
etc." Wait, rabbi. Moshiach himself taught that David, the
Great Father of the Messianic dynasty, could hardly call a
descendent or son his superior unless David meant something more-
-see Mt.22:45. Look at Psalm 110:1 again. How could David the
King of Israel, address anyone except G-d as "his superior"? No
one contemporary to David outranked him but G-d! As King of
Israel, only G-d was his lord!
In Joshua 5:13-15 we see an encounter between G-d and man,
where the kind of extremely reverent prostration we see would be
idolatrous before a mere created being. The "Adoni" of Joshua's
question, "What message does Adoni have for his servant?" must
refer to "my L-rd," as we will demonstrate. Moses has a similar
encounter with G-d in Exodus 3:5.
G-d is called Adon kol ha'aretz (Zechariah 4:14), and a
G-d-like aura is created when Joseph is called Adon l'kol Mitzrayim (`lord of all Egypt')(Gen.45:9), especially when it is
said to this Savior-figure, Yosef the prophetic foreshadowing of Moshiach, "You have saved our lives. May we find favor in the
eyes of Adoni" (Gen.47:25). Although Joseph is only a man, his
person in prophecy points to the coming HaMelech HaMoshiach Adoni, and is part of the picture of the Moshiach drawn for us in
the Torah. Moshiach is called HaAdon ("the L-rd") quite unambiguously in Malachi 3:1. David Kimhi (Radak) in his commentary published in
the Mikraot Gedolot Rabbinic Bible explains that Malachi 3:1's
"the lord" (spelled with a lower case "l") is King Messiah, who
will come suddenly--no one knows when. He says that Messiah is
the Messenger of the Covenant referred to in this verse.
However, the lower case "l" for "lord" will not suffice because
in Zechariah 4:14 and 6:5 (another post-Exilic prophet) Adon kol ha'aretz ("the L-rd of all the earth") uses the same word for Adon ("L-rd") and clearly the L-rd G-d is intended. So it is
tendentious Rabbinic exegesis to assert a lower case "l"
conveniently in one place and a capital "L" in the other.
Because of the way Adoni is used in other places, in Psalm
110:1 we would expect David to say "HaShem said to Adoni haMelech" (as in I Chr.21:3; II Samuel 19:31). By leaving off
"haMelech," David makes "Adoni" ambiguous, with deity a possible
inference and the spelling a reverential capital "L," "the L-rd
said to my L-rd." To which angel did man ever offer worship
(Joshua 5:14)? To what angel has G-d ever said, "Sit at my right
hand"? (See Psalm 110:1 and Hebrews 1:13.)
Originally, the Tanakh was written as a continuous string of
Hebrew letters, without breaks. The scholars known as Masoretes,
who had absolutely no part in determining the consonantal text,
added the vowel points, beginning in the sixth century C.E. They
supplied the variation of pointing added to the consonantal text
to distinguish divine reference (Adonai) from non-divine
reference (adoni). Their opinions are not infallible, however,
because they are not canonical prophets speaking in canonical
Scripture. So if we come across an alef-dalet-nun and the
question arises, "Does it end with the first person common
singular pronominal suffix as in `Adoni' (my lord, master) or, on
the other hand, is it `Adonai' (my L-rd), at that point we must
not assume that the Masoretic pointing is the last word. As a
great Hebrew teacher once said, "Don't let someone else tell you
what to think. Let the Hebrew text tell you. If not, you are
submitting to brainwashing." So we must start with the
consonantal text, the received text of the Hebrew Bible.
For example, the "Sar haTsavah" ("the Prince of the
Host/Army") in Daniel 8:11 is clearly G-d, whereas in Joshua
5:14, the same figure is addressed only as "Adoni" ("my lord"),
according to Masoretic pointing. However, if we are forced to
accept Masoretic pointing in Joshua 5:14, we should, for the sake
of consistency, also be forced to accept Masoretic pointing in Genesis 18:2-3, where the "threeness" aspect of personality of
the One G-d is suggested by the very same ostensibly infallible Masoretic pointing. In Genesis 18:2-3 "shloshah anashim" ("three
men") are called "Adonai" ("L-rd" [i.e. G-d]), using the
intensive plural or plural of majesty in the first person
singular pronominal suffix, "my," which must be translated here
as "my L-rd," just as in Psalm 16:2--"my L-rd." But are the
rabbi's willing to concede this?
Just as, at times, the Malach HaShem (Angel of the L-rd)
cannot be distinquished from the L-rd Himself (see, for example, Exodus 3:2-4 and Judges 6:11-23), so also passages like these
give us the the nearest approach we have in the Tanakh of the
Messianic revelation of the divine Moshiach, HaShem's mighty arm
of power and our L-rd.
Should we be surprised that the Moshiach in the Tanakh is no
mere mortal but G-d's divine agent, himself having the nature of
G-d? Not if we meditate on Isaiah [53] where G-d tells us who it
is that he sends to accomplish his desire and to achieve his cosmic
purposes: his divine agent, his Word! Should we be surprised
that the Word of Hashem overcame death and rose from the grave? Does
not Isaiah [54] tell us that the grass may wither and the flowers
may die and fall, but the Word of our G-d stands forever? Should
we be surprised that G-d has exalted his Word above all authority
and dominion and made him Messianic heir of all things? Study
Isaiah [55] where G-d promises that every "knee will bow and
every tongue will confess," and the context does not omit to deal with
His Word (who is held up to our praise in both Isaiah [53] and
the Psalms [50]). Note well what we are saying, however: not that
there is another G-d besides G-d, but that G-d has no other
divine Word than the One who was inscribed in stone in the ark and in
the canonical words of the Tanakh--that is, the One who was also enfleshed in the holy person of Moshiach Ben Dovid, our Redeemer
and King. Midrash Rabbah associates the Messianic tribe of Judah with
the Word of G-d because both are called "first" (see Proverbs [56]
and Judges [57] and Midrash Rabbah Vol. 3, Soncino Press, 1977).
Just as the Moshiach is the divine agent in the Prophets, so is the Memra or Word of G-d in the ancient Targums (see Targum Yerushalmi to Numbers 27:16). In Mishle ( Proverbs) and Tehillim (Psalms),
we see that it was by His premundane Wisdom, His Word, that G-d
created the world (see Psalms [51] and Proverbs [58]). Should we
be surprised that David's Great Son, called the Ben HaElohim, the
Son of G-d in Psalm 2:7, had wisdom [59] and later, as the Moshiach, WAS wisdom? And just as the Moshiach is G-d's divine
heir in Isaiah [40] and Daniel,[13] so Wisdom is likened to G-d's Son in Proverbs.[60][61] (Israel cannot be intended as the "son"
in Proverbs 30:4 in context, because Israel, unlike Wisdom, is
scarcely mentioned in Proverbs.) So there is only one G-d, not
three G-ds (He is echad, a complex unity, like a man and his
wife, one flesh--compare Bereshis/Genesis 2:24 and Devorim/Deuteronomy 6:4), but the One G-d is personally distinct as Hashem (HaAv), Bar Enosh/Son/Word (HaBen/HaDevar [61]), and Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh).
This same Son/Word [61] is also the agent of divine redemption,
for Psalm l07 [62] says, "G-d sent His Word and healed them and
delivered them from their destructions." When the one, who was
to come, took human form, Isaiah [40] calls him "Mighty G-d"
(just as the Word of G-d is called "G-d" [52]), and Isaiah 53:5 [10]
says that by his substitutionary wounds "for us" "we are healed."
So we should not be surprised that people who don't know the Moshiach don't know G-d either, for until His Word is revealed to
you, you do not know G-d. As Shemuel Alef (I Samuel) [63] says,
"Now Samuel did not yet know the L-rd: The word of the L-rd had
not yet been revealed to him."
The Scriptures teach in many places that personal
regeneration is absolutely necessary, for, as it was prophesied
of King Saul, so it is prophesied of us, "The Spirit of the L-rd wlll come upon you in power . . . and you will be changed into a
different person."[64] "This is not a Jewish doctrine, this
notion of spiritual regeneration," a rabbi might object, not having
sufficiently meditated on the Jewish Bible. [63] [66] [32] [67]
[68] [25] But, as both the Torah and the Tanakh show, G-d
intended to "mark off" as his own not merely people who were
circumcised physically but "in their hearts." [69] So strong is
this teaching that G-d threatens to destroy any Jew who is not
spiritually circumcised. [70] Such a one will be shut out of
Jerusalem,[71] as well as the L-rd's sanctuary [72] and
salvation. [73] When will the Maimonidean gnostics learn that the mystery
of Judaism is not in the esoteric rabbinic dialectic of the oral law
but in the miraculous resurrection of Yeshurun Yisrael and Yeshua the Moshiach, the former from the Golus, the latter from the
grave? You who declare you are Jews and are yet not so
completely--not fully eschatological Jews, not yet spiritually
circumcised, not yet really regenerated, not yet yielded to Moshiach and to ideal Yeshurun Yisrael--you who say you are a
synagogue of G-d but are still deluded and blinded by the evil
one, you may have a Hebrew mother, but that didn't make Esau a
Jew. You may have a Hebrew father, but that didn't make Ishmael
a Jew (though Abraham himself circumcised him!) Ruth had neither a
Jewish mother nor a Jewish father! But she has entered ideal Yeshurun Yisrael by emunah (faith) alone, ahead of those who say
they are Jews but are still dull of hearing and heathenish and
spiritually uncircumcised at heart. In her inner person Ruth
was circumcised and consecrated by the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy
Spirit, and the regeneration of her new birth made her in fact a
Jew in the eyes of G-d; and we who are regenerated have also
entered ideal Yeshurun Yisrael and the heavenly Jerusalem with
her.
But a rabbi might object and say, "The difference is that RUTH
didn't change her religion."
No, the rabbis did that. The rabbis changed the Jewish
religion when some of them trusted in themselves and their extra-
Biblical Jewish learning instead of G-d's W-rd. Instead of
humbling themselves like humble Ruth, like the most humble
proselyte, instead of forsaking all proud and heathenish self-
righteousness, these rabbis refused to take the eschatological
messianic proselyte tevilah of the mikveh mayim of that Elijah redivivus figure, Yochanan the Tevilah immersionist.
He was preaching in 26 C.E. It was then that some of
the rabbis (not all of the rabbis--some wrote and preached the Brit Chadasha Jewish Scriptures) but some of the rabbis missed Hashem's will for their lives, tragically missed their true
leadership, missed being talmidim of Moshiach! This was near the
Jordan [74] where Elijah had once hid to begin his Mount Carmel
fight for true Judaism. This was near the same Jordan where Yochanan [75] [76] received proselytes to the Judaism of Moshiach.
This was the time, 26 C.E., when some of the rabbis, because of
the pride of clericalism and pharisaism that all preachers are
prone to, forfeited what could have been and what will yet be,
according to Romans,[77] their true leadership. But, in the
meantime, as Dr. Marvin Wilson has said, Rabbinic Judaism is a
post-Biblical religion "not bound to one authority" (like the
holy Tanakh); "it embraces many authorities in a long line of living
[rabbinic] tradition." [78]
The rabbis changed the religion after the Brit Chadasha was virtually written and after the
Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. That's when the rabbis blindly
and lawlessly wrested control of the Jewish religion from the kohanim (priests) and from the High Priest "after the order of
Melchizedek," the Moshiach-Kohen Yeshua. [1] Therefore, if the
word "conversion" contains the idea of taking on a new and
alien religion, then people really "convert" to Rabbinic Judaism,
because there is something extra-Biblical and alien about it (how
much more foreign could anything be than Maimonides' Aristotle?).
So it is the rabbis who have converted the Jewish people from a
pure Jewish religion resting squarely on the authority of the Tanakh to a religion embracing "many authorities in a long line
of living [rabbinic] tradition." [78] Ironically, it is the rabbis
who are the real "missionary" culprits in the true historic
scenario!
We ma'aminim Meshichi, on the other hand, even with all our
bungling mistakes, are at least trying to point Jewish people
back to the original pristine Judaism of Moses and the Prophets. The
rabbis think we are their enemies. But if the Gehinnom that Yeshayah (Isaiah) [79] and Daniel [12] talked about is real, then
we are really the rabbis' best friends, and are making every sacrifice to see them saved from what their own prophets warned
against. We believe that rabbis will be used of G-d in a great
end-time revival among their own people, and that the Rabbi from
Tarsus, Saul, is a wondrous sign of the Damascus road ministry
that will soon begin for other rabbis all over the world. Are we
saying that rabbis will soon be serving "Christianity"? The word
"Christianity" is nowhere in the Brit Chadasha, and the word erroneously construed by
Gentiles as "Christian" only means "follower of Moshiach."
The religion of Yochanan of the tevilah of teshuva was Biblical apocalyptic Torah
Judaism, and he never changed his religion. Neither did Paul,
who reminds us that the Judaism of Moshiach is the root that supports
our Messianic faith and not the other way around (Rom.11:18).
Paul preached on Shabbos, in shul, as a rabbi for thirty years.
In the book of Acts, Paul circumcises the young Jewish
Timothy, Paul keeps Shabbos, and Paul does not teach Jews to
betray the mitzvot of Torah or assimilate or stop being Jewish.
Paul's religion, the religion of his epistles, is Moshiach's Judaism. "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among
the Jewish people who believe and they are zealous for the mitzot of
the Torah" (Acts 21:20). There is no hitbolelut (assimilation) or minut (apostasy) from the Torah of Moshe Rabbenu taught in
the Brit Chadasha Scriptures. Paul never condemned his religion;
he just emphasized the Jewish and Biblical teaching that
salvation (the biblical word is "Yeshua") is not through religious merit
but through emunah (faith) and a new birth, [68] as we shall see.
[113] Rav Sha'ul (Paul) did not teach that the law had been nullified. Paul taught
that the law's death-dealing condemnation of sinners had been
nullified. The hostility of the law in Ephesians is not the
hostility of the law against Gentiles, meaning, as some have
interpreted the book, that you have to throw out the law in order
to save the Gentiles. The hostility of the Law is against
sinners, whether Jew or Gentile, and that is what the Moshiach abolished by his sacrifice. Hostility against sinners is what
the Moshiach made null and void for those who repent and believe the Besuras haGeulah (the Good News of Redemption).
Paul the rabbi knew that the Torah had been given to the Jewish
people as an eternal national treasure. And Paul knew that the
celebration of the Torah preserved or saved the peoplehood identity of the Jews just as it pointed to the Jewish Redeemer of
their souls. How could the Jewish people have remained Jewish
without Torah and Pesach and Shabbos? And how could Jewish
people understand the saving work of their Jewish Redeemer
without the Torah? Paul (unlike many rabbis and many in the contemporary
"church") understood both questions: the Paul we see in the book
of Acts preaches the Good News of the Moshiach's freeing us from
the Holy Torah's death curse [80] [81] [82] and at the same time
Paul himself, not a "convert" but a good Jew, observes the
Torah's ceremonial law and is loyal to the preservation of his Jewish
heritage (see Acts 21:20-26). Yeshua himself said, "You have a fine way of setting aside the
[mitzvot] commandments of G-d in order to observe your own
[rabbinic] teachings [of the kind that human beings hand down]"(Mark 7:9). The judge in Devorim (Deuteronomy) 17:8-12
[83] was never given the authority either by Moses or by the Moshiach to cancel divine commandments. The rabbis have wrested that
authority away from G-d's canonical prophets at their own peril.
Are the rabbis right when they set aside the mandate of G-d
that the Moshiach Ben Dovid would suffer? Moses shows us a
picture of the Messiah's sufferings in the Torah. Look at Yosef (Joseph), the incognito prophet, unrecognized by his own Hebrew
people, envied yet rejected as not from G-d, buried as dead, but
raised up by G-d to the right hand of supreme power to feed the
saving bread of life to the whole world, including, at last, his
own Jewish people, who in the end recognize their Jewish savior.
What a foreshadow of the Moshiach!
Or look at the book of Yonah (Jonah) in the Tanakh. Here we
have a graphic foreglimpse of Death swallowing and vomiting up a
prophet as a predictive sign of the death and resurrection of the
Prophet Moshiach.
Are the rabbis with their own teachings right and the Tanakh wrong? Was Daniel wrong when he said the Moshiach would be cut
off or violently killed (Daniel 9:26)? [45] Was Yeshayah (Isaiah) wrong when he
said that the Moshiach would be "wounded for our
transgressions.... for the sin of my people (who deserved the
punishment), was he cut off out of the land of the living?" [10]
Was Zecharyoh (Zechariah) wrong when he said "Strike the Shepherd
and the sheep will be scattered.... They will look on Me, the One
they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for
his yachid (only son), and shall be in bitterness for him, as one
is in bitterness for his bechor (firstborn/heir)? [84] [85] Were
Jeremiah and Malachi wrong when they called the Moshiach "HaAdon," "L-rd"? [48] Was King David wrong when he also called the Moshiach "Adoni" and saw his sufferings and resurrection? [1] [86] [87]
[88]
Again, a rabbi might interject and say, "We have no teaching
about King David's Son, the Moshiach, which condones any
Messianic human sacrifice for sin." Oh, no? Look at Divrey haYomim Alef (I
Chronicles) 21:17-18 [89] where David makes a reference that
would have to include the Moshiach and the Bais Hamikdash of the Moshiach when David says, "O L-rd my G-d, let your hand fall upon
me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your
people." Meditate on Isaac and Joseph and Jonah (to say nothing
of Isaiah 53) and you will see the Tanakh's Messianic prophecy
regarding human sacrifice and the Moshiach's person.
Again, the rabbinic objection: "Every man must die for his own
sins. [90] I must die for me, not some mediator. No mere man
can die for another man" [91] [92].
And the answer: he was no mere man but called "Mighty G-d."
[40] Are you ignorant of the fact that, in the Torah, blood was
always associated with G-d's eternal Word? [93]
But remember, Galatians 2 tells us that there was a cultural
specialization in the community of Moshiach. Shim'on (Kefa,
Peter) and Ya'akov (James) and Yochanan (John) specialized in
reaching the Jewish people. Paul's ministry was not primarily to
Jews but to non-Jews, and the Gentiles (according to Moses in
Genesis [8] and Isaiah [31]) were to wait for the Torah
(Teaching) of Moshiach and obey the Moshiach when he came. So the
ceremonial teaching of Moses was to be observed by the Jews (without Moshiach-denying legalism), but the teaching of the Moshiach (which is contained in the Complete Jewish Scriptures) was to be
observed by both the Jews and non-Jews. Unfortunately, many
people, even many in the so-called "church," are ignorant of the
fact that the true universal "Body of Moshiach" is nothing
other than a culturally all-adaptable Messianic Synagogue [94].
This Messianic Synagogue, though it is capable of changing into
every manner of ethnic attire, from a teepee Bible study to an
igloo prayer meeting, nevertheless always wears its basic
synagogue apparel, the entire Jewish Bible and the Jewish means
of discipling the world: the Moshiach's tevilah in a mikveh mayim and the Moshiach's Seudah, the Lamb of G-d's Passover Seder.
Why is Jewish ministry of such grave importance in these
fearful times? Rabbi Paul tells us in Romans 11 [77]. Paul says
that if the spiritual loss of many of the Jews has led to the
spiritual resurrection and regeneration of many of the non-Jews,
then what will the regeneration of the Jewish people lead to but
the resurrection of the whole world?
That's why the Gospel is to the Jew first everywhere but also
to every Greek and Gentile everywhere. This Good News must be
preached to every creature and then the end will come--Matthew
24:14. [96] And G-d is doing it whether anyone likes it or not!
The enemies of Messiah should ask themselves, how are they going
to stop what G-d is doing? [95] How are they going to stop the
risen Moshiach (who is the personal Word of G-d, our healer) from
continuing to heal the cholim (sick) of the world? And what will
they do when our multiplying messianic synagogues and yeshivas are everywhere, and when we finally get our selves together and our
cantors can cantor and our rabbis can rabbi? If even Paul, the
supreme enemy of Messiah, couldn't stop us, and ended up joining
us, how will Israel as a whole avoid ultimately doing the same
thing?
The Word G-d Provided Is Yet David's Legal Descendant
In the Brit Chadasha birth narratives and genealogies of our Moshiach we learn that the Word who was with G-d and was G-d was
only the adoptive son of Yosef (Joseph), the descendant of David.
However, Joseph acknowledged that the child was not a "mamzer"
(illegitimate son) but a son "whom G-d provided" supernaturally.
[97] [98] [99] Therefore, Joseph adopted him and consequently
conferred upon the child the legal rights of his son and his
firstborn heir, for the right of succession was established
according to whether the father is willing to recognize anyone as
his son (see Baba Bathra 8:6). So according to Jewish oral law, Yeshua was a descendant of David. But more than that, he was the premundane Word who in times past had come to Moses and the
prophets, threatening death for sin but promising life for
obedient faith. Then the Death-conquering Word of G-d finally
and mercifully took on himself what he threatened and manifested
what he promised: life from death. He came like Jonah, who gave
us a picture of Death swallowing and then vomiting up a prophet
as a sign of the death and resurrection of the Prophet Messiah.
Summation
What have we said then? The Moshiach is described in the
Jewish Bible, the Tanakh. The cohesive and portentous name in
the Tanakh, the name that weaves together all the Davidic kohen/king
prophetic threads pointing to the Moshiach, is Yeshua. Therefore,
this is the name of the Moshiach foretold by the Holy Jewish
Scriptures, the Hebrew Tanakh. "What's in a name?" a rabbi might
ask, as if to trivialize the entire presentation of this
material. In the past, rabbis have tried to evade the force of Scripture by
focusing attention elsewhere, using innuendo and hysteria or
natural Jewish xenophobia to try to sinisterize and snuff out the Moshiach's Jewish Movement. Failing this, a rabbi might say,
"Whoever believes that a man on two feet was G-d is not a Jew.
You've taken a man and turned him into an accursed human idol.
You are no longer Jewish." The answer is: Jewish people are
commanded in the Jewish Bible to worship G-d through his Word, which is the
only way to G-d. The Bais Hamikdash (Temple) was where the Word tabernacled in blood covenant and worship with his people, where
G-d tabernacled as "G-d-with-us." Moshiach Yeshua predicted that
the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, but the temple of his
body, although torn down by men, would be raised up forever by
the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What's in a name? The Torah
says, "Then to the place the L-rd your G-d will choose as a
dwelling for his Name, there you are to bring everything I
command you...."[100] The expression "dwelling for his Name" is another
way of saying "dwelling for himself." As the sacred name of G-d
reflects his character and mystery, so G-d's image, his Word enfleshed, the Moshiach, reflected the sacred name. [101] [102]
Who is like the G-d of Yeshurun who rides "on the clouds of his
majesty?" [33] Only his personal Word, the Moshiach, the "Son
of Man coming with the clouds of heaven." [13] The true remnant
Israel of G-d knows his name [103].
Do Not Reject the Divine Word in Favor of a Human Word!
The first man, Genesis tells us, rejected the divine word in
favor of a human word. The human word came from his spouse,
whose evil source was not of G-d. Will you repeat his mistake and
share his fate, death? Devorim (Deuteronomy) [104] says not to add to
G-d's Word and not to take anything away from it. From Mishle (Proverbs) [105] we could infer that anyone who does this, using
the opinions of mere men, mere human teachers, to detract from
the inerrant Word of G-d, will be proven to be a liar. The Brit Chadasha Holy Jewish Scriptures describes Moshiach's Judaism and
tells Jewish people how to remain loyal to the Torah and how to
avoid cultural assimilation even while they honor their Moshiach.
What Is the Torah or Teaching of Moshiach that All Must Obey?
There is a way that seems right to a person, but that way ends
in death. No one is good, all our own righteousness is like
filthy rags. We have all gone our own way. But the L-rd has laid
on Moshiach the wickedness of us all. However, if I regard
wickedness in my heart, the L-rd will not hear my prayers. [106]
I must make teshuvah, turn back to the Word of the L-rd. But the
Good News of Isaiah [107] [108] [109] is this: the Jewish Bible
predicted the Moshiach would die [10] [87] [84] [45] and take our
punishment [10] [110] so that we can be set free from the fear
and the penalty of this punishment, the chastisement that Moshiach took for us. Isaiah 53:5 says, "Musar Shalomeinu Alav" ("the
chastisement, the punishment that brought us peace was upon
him"), that is upon the Moshiach. He willingly became the victim and
the kohen to provide our kapparah. The same loving and merciful yet
just Word, who pronounced a death curse on sinners, took on
himself for us the death he demanded. [81] [82] Our Jewish
Bible predicted that the Moshiach would not be defeated by death [10]
[53] [88] [111] [112] so that we can know him alive and risen,
the righteous One (Isaiah 53:11), and so that we can receive his
righteous new life (Isaiah 53:10) and by our faith alone be
judged righteous by G-d (Habakkuk 2:4;Genesis 15:6).
You can pray this prayer: "Avinu Malkeinu (our Father our
King), have mercy upon me a sinner. Adonai, hoshieini! (L-rd,
save me!) I confess I am perishing in sins and transgressions.
Without Moshiach I confess I have no kapparah and no blood
atonement to be the basis for G-d to mercifully forgive me. I
publically confess that religious efforts cannot save me, that
salvation is a gift of mercy given to undeserving sinners. I
publically confess in the Ruach haKodesh that G-d is one, that Moshiach is his Word of salvation. I confess with my mouth
without shame that Yeshua is HaAdon, the Moshiach Ben haElohim.
I believe in my heart that G-d raised him from the dead. I promise
to put my faith in the Complete Holy Jewish Scriptures and to
humbly obey these Holy Words, trusting the Ruach haKodesh to
guide me into the will of Avinu (our Father). Help me, Avinu, be found
faithful in fellowship and in ministry until the Bias haMoshiach (the coming of Moshiach). Amen.[113]
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NOTES
[1] "N'um HaShem leAdoni" ("HaShem said to my L-rd")..."Atah Kohen l'Olam al-Devrati Malki-Tzedek" ("You [Moshiach] are a Kohen forever after the order of Melchizedek") Psalm (Tehilim)
110:1-7, see especially verse 4. Moshiach is called Adoni (my L-rd here) just as Moshiach is called L-rd in Malachi 3:1.
This means Adon Kol Ha'aretz, L-rd of the earth (see
Zechariah 4:14).
[2] See Zechariah (Zecharyoh) 3:8, especially "Yehoshua...ki anshei mofet hemah ki hineni mevi es 'avdi Tzemach"
("Yehoshua...you are portentous sign-men for, behold, I will
bring forth My Servant, BRANCH.")
[3] See Zechariah 6:12-13, especially "hinei ish Tzemach shmo"
("behold the man [Yehoshua/Yeshua] his NAME is BRANCH [of
David, i.e. MOSHIACH]").
[4] Ezra 3:8. Notice that "Yehoshua" is here given in its
Aramaic form, "Yeshua." This is the Hebrew word for the name of our Moshiach.
[5] Zechariah 4:11-14. This passage is about the two olive
branches, which,most scholars agree, stand for the kingly
Davidic heir (Zerubbabel) and the priestly ruler (Yehoshua or Yeshua) who together are a sign of the coming King-Priest Moshiach in Psalm 110:4.
[6] Isaiah 49:8 is a prophecy about the coming "Yom haYeshua"
("Day of Salvation") and the new Joshua/Yeshua Moshiach who
will bring it.
[7] Numbers 34:19 shows that Caleb was from the Moshiach's tribe,
the tribe of Judah.
[8] Bereshis (Genesis) 49:10 shows that the Moshiach's tribe is
the tribe of Judah, and that the obedience of all the peoples
of the world belongs to Moshiach.
[9] Isaiah 44:2 shows that "Yeshurun" is a poetic name for Ideal
Israel.
[10] Isaiah 52:10-53:12 should be studied at length. It shows
that the Moshiach is the very "arm of G-d" and is not
recognized or appreciated by Israel, but is instead cut off,
pierced, and sheds his blood like a lamb of redemption, like
a Pesach/Passover lamb [our Moshiach did in fact die on
Pesach], making kapparah as an asham guilt offering for the
people. Later, when he rises to life (the Dead Sea Scrolls
Isaiah 53:11 says he sees the "light," indicating
resurrection from the dead), he is vindicated and G-d's people are justified, because Moshiach is G-d's righteous
servant and his priestly sacrifice is accepted.
[11] Joshua 24:29 calls Joshua the 'eved HaShem, the Servant of
the L-rd. (Nehemiah 8:17 calls Joshua/Yehoshua by the
Aramaic form of his name, "Yeshua"). Putting these two
verses together with Zechariah 3:8 we have Yeshua, the 'eved [12] Daniel 12:2 "Multitudes that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to chayei olam (eternal life), and some to
shame and everlasting contempt (i.e. Gehinnom, damnation)."
See Rosh HaShanah 16B in the Talmud.
[13] Daniel 7:13-14 "Visions I saw in the night, and, behold, one
like a son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came
to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,
that all people, nations and languages, should worship him
[i.e. give divine reverence to Moshiach, who is not an idol,
for Daniel's companions refuse to give divine reverence to
idols--using the same verb in Daniel 3:18]: his dominion is
an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom which shall not be destroyed." So this passage
shows that Moshiach is not a mere man, for Moshiach is reverenced
as deity, even though idols are not so treated...see the
exact same word in Daniel 3:18 and Daniel 7:14. For
Talmudic indications that Daniel 7:13-14 is a prophecy about Moshiach, see Sanhedrin 96b-97a, 98a, etc.
[14] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 18:15-19. This prophecy shows that Moshiach will be a Prophet like Moses.
[15] Isaiah 42:15-16; 49:9-10 The author of Chronicles shares
the same heightened expectation of the coming of Moshiach that we find in other post-Exilic Biblical authors like
Haggai and Zechariah. The Chronicler's use of Torah
allusions describing Moses and Joshua, especially his use of
these as a paradigm for his portrait of David and Solomon--
their idealized portrait itself fraught with Messianic
expectation--further substantiates the claim that the Tanakh teaches this: the Moshiach will be a new Moses, an even
greater successor to Moses than was Joshua to Moses or
Solomon to David. So the Brit Chadasha (New Covenant Jewish
Scriptures) correctly follows the teaching of the Tanakh that Deuteronomy 18:15-19 finds its ultimate reference in the Moshiach. See Acts 3:22-23.
[16] II Samuel 7:16
[17] Isaiah 11:1-5
[18] Ezekiel 37:25
[19] Isaiah 56:10
[20] Jeremiah 30:7
[21] Ezekiel 34:10
[22] Jeremiah 3:15
[23] Deuteronomy 28:15-68
[24] In the Orthodox Jewish Brit Chadasha (a new tranlation forthcoming from Artists For Israel International
Publishers), Pilate says to Moshiach, "What is Emes (Truth)?" The Besuras haGeulah according to Yochanan 18:38.
[25] Psalm (Tehilim) 51:5(7), 10(12)
[26] Psalm 14:3
[27] Amos 8:11
[28] I Yochanan 2:6 (Orthodox Jewish Brit Chadasha translation).
[29] Numbers (Bamidbar) 27:18
[30] Isaiah 42:1
[31] Isaiah 42:4
[32] Isaiah 42:6
[33] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 33:5,26
[34] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 32:15
[35] Isaiah 41:8
[36] Isaiah 42:19
[37] Isaiah 44:1
[38] Isaiah 49:1
[39] Isaiah 49:5-6 Notice here that the Moshiach is predicted to
be "my Yeshua (or Salvation)."
[40] Isaiah 9:(5)6-(6)7
[41] Isaiah 55:3-5
[42] Psalm (Tehillim) 72:8-11
[43] Ezekiel 34:10,23 "And I will set up one shepherd over them,
and he shall feed them, even my servant David." See also
note #21.
[44] Joel (Yoel) 2:28 (3:1)
[45] Daniel 9:25-26
[46] Ezra 7:12-17 Some scholars use a lunar calendar and compute
from the time [445 B.C.E.] that Nehemiah received a commission from
the same king. However, in either case, Daniel's 69 "sevens"
puts us in the time-frame of the ministry of Moshiach Yeshua.
[47] Bereshis (Genesis) 14:18, where it says that Melchizedek was
"Kohen l'El Elyon (priest of the most high G-d)."
[48] Jeremiah 23:5-6 "Behold, the days come, saith the L-rd, that
I will raise unto David a Tzemech Tzaddik (Righteous
BRANCH), and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is the NAME whereby
he shall be called Adonai Tzidkeinu, the L-rd our
Righteousness." See also Malachi 3:1.
[49] Exodus (Shemot) 25:40
[50] Psalm (Tehilim) 56:10 (11)
[51] Psalm 33:6
[52] Yochanan 1:1,51 "In the beginning was the Devar, and the Devar was with HaShem and the Devar was G-d....And he
(Moshiach) says to him (Nathanael), "Verily, verity I say
unto you, Hereafter you shall see Shomayim (heaven) open,
and the malachim (angels) of HaShem ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man." Yochanan 1:14 tells us that the Word
"became flesh, became a human being, and tabernacled among
us; and we beheld his glory"; so it is clear that the Word
in person, Yeshua, is the Son of Man, the Moshiach of the
Clouds whom Daniel saw coming from Shomayim (Daniel
7:13-14). See note #13. The glory Daniel saw (Daniel 7:14) Yochanan also saw (Yochanan 1:14).
[53] Isaiah 55:11
[54] Isaiah 40:8
[55] Isaiah 45:23
[56] Mishle (Proverbs) 8:23. G-d's divine Chochma (Wisdom) is
presented as personal here and says, "I was appointed from
everlasting, from the first [beginning], or ever the earth
was [begun].
[57] Judges (Shofetim) 20:18
[58] Mishle (Proverbs) 3:19 "The L-rd by Chochma (Wisdom) hath
founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the
heavens."
[59] I Kings 3:28
[60] Mishle (Proverbs) 8:30, Chochma (Wisdom) speaks, saying
"Then I was by him [at his side], as an artisan/craftsman...."
When the Word became flesh, he became the craftsman at Yosef's side... Yosef the carpenter from Nazareth, Yosef the son of Dovid; likewise, the Word in the
beginning was the craftsman at the side of G-d. The
feminine metaphor with which this chapter began has changed to a
masculine one. "Omon" in the Hebrew Bible (Craftsman) is a
masculine noun meaning artisan or craftsman. Another
possible meaning is foster-child. In any case, as Keil and Delitzsch have shown, at this point in the chapter the feminine
determination disappears. See how the word is used in
Jeremiah 52:15. To be filled with the Spirit of G-d like Bezaleel meant to be filled with wisdom to build creatively
as a craftsman--Exodus 31:3. Thus Wisdom is pictured as a
craftsman WITH G-d, even as Yochanan 1:1 says, "In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was WITH G-d." In
Proverbs 30:4 more light is thrown on this passage: Wisdom
is like a SON, a SON working creatively at his father's
side. See note #61. However, Hosea 11:1-4 shows that the divine
fatherhood is moral and spiritual, in contrast to the sexual
or physical ideas of the Baal cults, or in contrast to the
ignorant scoffers at the Biblical doctrine of G-d the Father
and his Word Moshiach. These critics show the same ignorant
tendency to create a non-Biblical strawman "trinity" and
then burn it down with ill-informed polemics, somewhat like the
ignorant railings of certain Muslims against the so-called Quranic version of the "trinity." One G-d who is Father and
Wisdom (Moshiach) and Ruach haKodesh appears in the first
few verses of the Bible in Genesis 1:1-3.
[61] Proverbs (Mishle) 30:4 "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or
descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who
hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established
all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his
Son's name, if thou canst tell?" It will not do to try to
bring Israel in here as the Son, since the context reflects
back to Proverb 8 and especially 8:30. Israel is scarcely
mentioned in Proverbs. The figure of a son toiling by the
side of his father was a familiar one, and is an arresting
metaphor for G-d's primordial Wisdom toiling creatively in
the beginning with G-d.Likewise Psalm 2:7, 89:27-28, and
Isaiah 9:(5)6 are passages where the Moshiach is pictured as
G-d's Son, his bechor (firstborn) in the sense of his heir
coming in divine glory (see Daniel 7:13-14 on the Son who
comes in the clouds with G-d to "divide the spoil with the
strong" (Isaiah 53:12) and to govern eternally--Isaiah
9:(6)7.
[62] Psalm 107:20
[63] I Samuel 3:7
[64] I Samuel 10:6
[65] Jeremiah 31:31-34. Notice the passage is talking about an
intimate, inward knowledge of G-d, of a sense of relationship,
even fellowship with G-d, as well as the
assurance of forgiveness of sins; in short, regeneration.
Jeremiah foresaw New Covenant Jewish believers and he
understood that the Word of G-d would somehow effect the
miracle of the New Covenant "in their hearts." Have you
become a New Covenant Jewish believer, a ma'amin Meshichi?
You can. Moshiach, the Word of G-d, sharper than any sword,
able to circumcise and consecrate the most heathen heart,
says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any one
hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to him,
and dine in communion with him, and he with me." (Rev.3:20)
[66] Jeremiah 24:7
[67] Isaiah 11:9
[68] Ezekiel 36:26-28. The One G-d of Israel has already told us
he wants to put his living Word in us [Jeremiah 31:33, see
note #65]; now he tells us he wants to put his Ruach HaKodesh in us. If we harden our heart and refuse him, we are left
with a stony heart; if we receive the new heart and the new
spirit, if we receive by faith his living Word and his
Spirit, what is this but eternal life?
[69] Devorim(Deuteronomy) 10:16
[70] Jeremiah 4:4. Moshiach described to a rabbi once what
Jeremiah is talking about here. The rabbi visited Moshiach under cover of nightfall because he feared losing his
teaching office if the other Jewish men saw him. Moshiach used the metaphor of a new birth to describe what Jeremiah
likens to a circumcision of the heart. Moshiach assured the
rabbi that he would not enter the Malchut haShomayim (kingdom of heaven) if he did not receive the new birth. Jeremiah 4:4
here assures the Jewish people that they will reap the
eternal and hellish fury of G-d if they do not receive the
circumcision of the heart. Moshiach was amazed that a rabbi could be ignorant of such an elementary teaching as is
given here in Jer.4:4. See Yochanan 3:1-10.
[71] Isaiah 52:1
[72] Ezekiel 44:7,9
[73] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 30:6
[74] I Kings 17:3
[75] Malachi 4:5 (3:23)-6(3:24) which says "Behold, I will send
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the L-rd"....
[76] Matthew 11:14
[77] Romans 11:12,15,25,26.
[78] This is a quotation taken from the book, Evangelicals and
Jews in an Age of Pluralism, Eds. Tanenbaum, Wilson, Rudin,
Baker Book House, 1984, p.22.
[79] Isaiah 66:24; 14:11; 48:22; 50:11; 57:21.
[80] Galatians 3:13. See Deuteronomy 21:23
[81] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 27:26; Bereshis (Genesis 22:7-8); Vayikra (Leviticus 17:11); Bereshis (Genesis) 2:17; 3:17-19.
Those who do not comprehend the full rigor of Deuteronomy
27:26 and of the Torah itself, think, by their zeal or
pedigree or ethical attainment or effort, that they can pass
unscathed under the curse pronounced here. Or else those
who read this verse so light-heartedly think that G-d will make
the threat idle by casual mercy of some imagined sort. But
the Word of G-d, who threatened sinful Man with the curse of
death, promised mercy only through the provision he will
provide (Genesis 22:7-8; Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 53:10--see
note #10) and only by emunah (faith) (Genesis 15:6;
Habakkuk 2:4--see note #113). The Word of G-d, who pronounced on
fallen humanity the curse of death (Genesis 2:17; 3:17-
19), demanded a new heart and a new spirit as well as faith
in the Moshiach Redeemer, the Moshi'a Savior. And this same
Word gives absolutely no assurance at all that Man with his
dead, unregenerated, stony heart can uphold the Torah or
keep it in spirit and in truth in the inner man. See notes #68
and #82.
[82] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 21:23; Psalm 22:1(2); Nahum 1:3. In
the Torah, death is not merely the curse of sin. See note
#81. Death is also the legal penalty of justice so that G-d's honor
is not impugned by allowing evil to go unpunished--
see Nahum 1:3. Therefore, should we be surprised that when
the Word of G-d came in the Law of Moses he demanded death
for sin, even death for the victims in the Temple
sacrifices? Should we be surprised that when the Word of G-d came in the Moshiach he satisfied his own demand (in Isaiah 53 where the Moshiach is described as a sacrificial victim) by offering
his own death as justice and mercy for all transgressors?
The Word that promised life through Moses and the Prophets
came to provide a death that would allow no sins to go
unpunished, a death that would shield the redeemed from the
curse of eternal death and bring divine justice and immortality
and forgiveness to light at last. The Word of
G-d became our Moshiach, our Deliverer. By his death he
turned aside his Father's holy fury against all our ungodliness.
He took the penalty of death not for himself but for us.
Isaiah 53 says "he was wounded for OUR transgressions." When he
said, "My G-d, why have you abandoned me?" he was G-d's righteous and merciful Word taking OUR curse of abandonment
from G-d--the curse of hell--upon himself to rescueus from
the punishment we all deserve--see Isaiah 53:5. He did this
so that all who believe can be raised to a new spiritual
existence with him. See notes #68 and #70.
[83] Deuteronomy 17:8-12 The Moshiach is the Shofet Yisrael, the
Judge of Israel. He is also the Nagid, the Prince. Any
judge who contradicts the Moshiach's Torah is no true judge.
Notice in the above passage that the judge has to ask guidaece from the kohen at the central sanctuary. Moshiach is the Eternal Kohen of Psalm 110:4, and has already
declared that any competitive sanctuary man would use to upstage his
sacrifice has been dismantled (Mark 13:1-2). The Jewish
people and the world have no other sanctuary of salvation
but Moshiach in which to find deliverance and kapparah (atonement). Therefore any rabbi using the above passage to
legitimize his authority while repudiating the risen Beis Hamikdash of Moshiach's sacrificial body has no warrant from
Scripture.
[84] Zechariah 13:7
[85] Zechariah 12:10; 14:4. Maimonides abused the word YACHID when he applied it to G-d. The Shema of Devorim 6:4 says
that G-d is ECHAD. A man and wife can be ECHAD (Genesis 2:24),
but a firstborn (bechor) may be YACHID--see Zechariah 12:10.
The latter is simply univalent, the former is a complex
unity. G-d is ECHAD because his oneness doesn't exclude the
mystery of his unity with His Word and His Spirit. There is
no other G-d than the ONE G-D of the Jewish Bible. But the
G-d there is is the ECHAD G-d of the Jewish Bible and not
the YACHID G-d of Maimonides. But notice that Zechariah 12:10;
14:4 is talking about one Moshiach, not two. The one and
only Moshiach is both pierced (dakar) and mourned (safad). He is
both rejected and returns to rule (Zechariah 14:4). It is
worth noting in Zechariah 12:10 that the Moshiach saves in
the context of a spiritual revival, not in a political
putsch.
[86] Psalm 89:27-44 We see starting at verse 38 the Messianic
exaltation replaced by humiliation, the two themes being in
counterpoint throughout the Psalms and in the Messianic
paradigm given to us in the life of King David. On the
concept of the Messiah as bechor (firstborn heir) see note
#61.
[87] Psalm 22:15(16)-18(19), 27(28)-31(32).
[88] Psalm 16:9-11
[89] I Chronicles 2:17-18
[90] Ezekiel 18:4
[91] Psalm 49:7(8)-9(10)
[92] Psalm 146:3
[93] Leviticus (Vayikra) 16:14-17
[94] See Everything You Need To Grow A Messianic Synagogue,
William Carey Library Publishers, South Pasedena, 1974. See
note #106.
[95] Psalm 27:10
[96] Matthew 24:14
[97] Bereshis (Genesis) 22:14. See also Genesis 22:7-8, note
#81. Notes #40,#60 and #61 prove that the Moshiach is
G-d's Son, according to the Jewish Bible. Notes #10, #62,
#81-#82, #84-#87, and #89 prove also from the Jewish Bible that the Moshiach was to have a sacrificial, redemptive mission. In
Genesis 22:7, the Moshiach is the coming Pesach/Passover
lamb, the "Seh" of Isaiah 53:7 that Isaac asks for
(unwittingly for his redemption and for the redemption of
the Israel of G-d in his loins.) In Genesis 22:8 this same
portentous Moshiach-Lamb is the very one foreshadowed when
Abraham promises G-d will provide. Therefore, in the promise
of typology, if the Jewish Bible is allowed to interpret
itself, one son (G-d's) is to be vicariously substituted for
another (Abraham's), as it says in Isaiah 53:4-5,10,12--
see note #10.
[98] Genesis 18:14; 3:15. The "Son of the Promise" is an
important Messianic theme. The "The Zerah haIsha" ("Seed of
the Woman") who is promised in Genesis 3:15 is to crush the
Serpent. The Brit Chadasha Holy Jewish Scriptures shows
that since Satan deceives and tempts to sin, death is both sin's
penalty and Satan's power. Isaiah shows us a deliverer
(Moshi'a) coming who can wrest this power away, pay sin's
penalty, defeat both sin and death itself, and reveal the
new humanity of the new holy age where sin and death are
bound--see note #99. This idea of the "Son of the Promise"
underscored here in Genesis 18:14 points toward the
deliverer foreshadowed also by others, like Samson and Samuel, whose
supernaturally orchestrated births were a sign of divine
rescue on the way. Moses tells us in Genesis 49:10 that the
Deliverer will come through Judah. But here, even before
Judah or Jacob, G-d miraculously brings into being Isaac,just as G-d miraculously brings into being his true people of the
new birth. The supernatural birth of both G-d's people
(from the exile of sin) and the G-d's Moshiach (Immanuel) is a key
theme related to the doctrine of salvation in Isaiah. See
note #99.
[99] Isaiah 7:14. This world "haALMAH" is translated "the
virgin" not only in the rabbinically translated Septuagint but in
modern Jewish translations of the same Hebrew word in Song
of Song (Shir haShirim) 6:8, so there is no good reason not to
translate the verse with the word "virgin." In Song of Songs
6:8 the king's female companions were queens and either
concubines or virgins (see Esther 2:13-14,17), not mere
unmarried maidens who may have previously co-habited with
another man--a capital offense in Israel and a
disqualification for the king's harem in the book of Esther.
In Esther 2:13-14 there are two harems, one for the virgins,
and one for the concubines, and they had separate entrances.
Queen Vashti occupied another area, as did Esther when she
became queen. In Isaiah 7:14, the prophet is referring to a
"sign" for the dynasty of David, something miraculous. The
words "son" and "child" are very important to Isaiah's
message. He refers to his own son, to David's son, and to a
son he calls "G-d-with-us" and "Mighty G-d"--see note #40,
and yet Isaiah marvels at this personage being born as a
humble child, just as a little child leads the rest of
creation in the future kingdom-Isaiah 11:6. The future kindgom is described in passages which include Isaiah 2:1-4;
4:2-6; 11:6-9; 25:6-8; 35:1-10; 60:1-22. The future king
of this glorious kingdom is described in passages which
include chp 7:1 to chp 12:6; 32:1-20; 49:1-57:21; 61:1-11.
[100] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 12:11
[101] Yochanan 8:58-59 Moshiach said, "Before Abraham was, I
am." The self-description of G-d in Exodus 3:14 is "I am" or "I
am that I am"--see note #102. The divine self-description
is solemnly pronounced by his Word the Moshiach in this
passage. Moshiach completes the self-description with
several "I AM" sayings: the Bread of Life (6:35), the Light
of the World (8:12); the Gate (10:7,9), the Good Shepherd
(10:11,14), the Resurrection and the Life (11:25), the Way,
and the Truth, and the Life (14:6), the True Vine (15:1,5).
Liberal New Testament scholars once thought these sayings
were unreliable and late, collected by the not-so-early-
church. Now even liberal scholars like J.A.T. Robinson
have dated the entire New Testament within
40 or less years of the crucifixion. Why? Because, among
other things, the destruction of the Bais haMikdash (the
Temple), a mighty argument in favor of the claims of Moshiach Yeshua, seems to be something the New Testament
writings are entirely ignorant about. This raises the
probability that the destruction of the Temple hadn't
happened yet, and that these very early, reliable New
Testament documents were written before 70 C.E. and much
closer to the time of the ministry of Moshiach in 30 C.E.
[102] Exodus 3:13-14
[103] I Kings 8:43
[104] Devorim (Deuteronomy) 4:2
[105] Proverbs 30:6
[106] Mishle (Proverbs) 14:12; 53:6; Psalm 14:1; 51:5; 66:18
[107] Isaiah 40:9
[108] Isaiah 52:7
[109] Isaiah 61:1
[110] Isaiah 50:6
[111] Iyov (Job) 19:25
[112] Hoshea (Hosea) 6:2 "After two days he will revive us; on
the Yom haShlishi (the third day) he will raise us up, and
we shall live in his sight." Just as Moshiach was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may
live a new life (Romans 6:4).The Word of G-d took on human
form and died for all; therefore, all have died (II Cor.5:14).
The old humanity has already been put to death,
and he who does not believe is condemned already (Yochanan 3:18). This is why everyone has not yet been raised bodily
from the dead: because those who hear and believe must
first be raised spiritually from the dead. See notes #64-73. If
we reject Moshiach's interpretation of the Tanakh of Hosea 6:2 in favor
of our own interpretation, there is a way that seems right to
a person, but that way leads to death (Proverbs 14:12).
[113] Habakkuk 2:4 "Behold, as for the one that is lifted up,
his soul is not right within him; but the righteous shall
live by his emunah (faith). See the ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE.
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