Will The Real Messiah Please Stand UP!
By Lois Amari
In Genesis 3:15, God promised Adam and Eve with the
coming of a savior. Throughout history, many people believed in this promise
and waited patiently for its fulfillment.
In
the course of history, the meaning of this savior, Messiah in Hebrew,
has undergone changes. Originally it was believed that the Messiah was a
personal, superhuman being who was not divine. He would restore the Jewish
kingdom and extend his righteous rule over the earth. He would execute judgment
and right all wrongs. Today, only small number of Jews believes in such a
concept as the Messiah. Those Jews are known as the Orthodox Jews. On the other
hand, the majority of Jews, who are known as Conservative and Reformed Jews, do
not believe that the Messiah is a person or a divine being. Instead, they favor
the idea of a utopian age characterized by justice, towards which mankind is
progressing. All three branches of Judaism believe that the Messiah, whether it
is a person or age, has not come yet. Christians and Muslims, on the other
hand, believe that the Messiah has come. They both believe that Jesus was the
Messiah; however, both have different conceptions about his attributes and
mission. Christians believe that the Messiah is a divine being who took a human
form, and came to earth to save mankind. Muslims believe he was simply a good
prophet. He was not divine in nature, did not die on the cross, and was not
resurrected from the dead. Which concept of the Messiah is the correct one? Is
it that of the Orthodox Jews, the Reformed and Conservative Jews, the
Christians, or the Muslims? Since the Old Testament gave birth to the concept
of the Messiah, it is logical to test all these concepts in light of it. Hence,
the question of interest becomes: Which concept of the Messiah is in agreement
with the Old Testament?
Some might object to the question raised by stating
that it is not possible to know which concept of the Messiah is in accordance
with the Old Testament because there are many versions of the Old Testament.
For example, Jews and Christians have two versions and each version may present
a different notion about the Messiah. This objection is in error: Jewish and
Christian versions of the Old Testament are highly similar, and whatever
differences they have are minor. These differences are in the number of books
and in the order of books. The number of books is different because Christians
divide Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles into two books each. In addition, Jews
consider the Minor Prophets as one book. The order of books is different
because Jewish version of the Old Testament follows an official order while the
Christian version follows a topical order (McDowell 35).
A second objection to the question raised is: Given
that the Jewish and the Christian Old Testaments are in harmony, do these
versions faithfully represent the Hebrew Text as originally written by the
authors of the Old Testament? It is possible that a certain group of people
later added prophecies about the Messiah and fabricated them to coincide with
their particular beliefs. To respond to this objection, one must examine the
manuscripts’ evidence and the textual transmission by which the document of the
Old Testament has reached us. The first manuscript evidence is that to of the
“Septuagint.” The “Septuagint” dates back to the middle of the third century
B.C., about 150 years after the Old Testament was completed. During this time,
the Jews were widely scattered. A large colony of Jews was living in
Alexandria, Egypt, where Greek was the predominate language. To preserve the
Hebrew Scriptures, a group of 72 scholars was commissioned by the high priest
in Jerusalem to translate the Old Testament into Greek. This translation, the
“Septuagint,” received the ratification of preeminent rabbis, and within a
short time was being used by the Jews and gentiles in the Greek-speaking world
(“Bible Study Helps” 4). The “Septuagint” is very important; it contains the
complete Old Testament. In addition, the time interval between it and between
the date of the finalization of the Old Testament by the original authors is
relatively short, compared with other historical documents. Most importantly,
the “Septuagint” testifies to the accuracy of today’s version of the Old
Testament. Another important witness to the accuracy of today’s version is the
Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of 40,000 fragments, from which
more than 500 books have been reconstructed. One of the scrolls found contained
the complete Hebrew text of the book of Isaiah. This manuscript is dated to 125
B.C. Comparison of this manuscript with the “Massoretic” text, today’s official
Hebrew version of the Old Testament, yielded a great conformity between the two
texts. For example in Isaiah 53, there is only one word in question after 1000
years of transmission, and this word does not change the meaning of the passage
(McDowell 49-51).
The second witness to the trustworthiness of today’s
version is the extreme care with which the Jewish scribes transcribed the Old
Testament manuscripts. The scribes followed very strict regulations. For
example, during the Talmudists period (A.D. 100 –500), the regulations
prohibited the copyist to add any word, letter, or even a yod from
memory; described exactly the type of skin, the color and type of ink, the
length of the scroll, and the spacing between words that must be used; and
required the copyist to be a rabbi or rabbinical student. Any roll in which any
of these regulations was not observed was buried in the ground or burned. Such
extreme care in preserving the scripture is responsible for the disappearance
of the earlier copies of the Old Testament. This is because Jews discarded aged
manuscripts that display any minor defect (McDowell 48-9). Such extreme care in
transcribing the manuscripts and the availability of old manuscripts and
scrolls such as the “Septuagint” and the Dead Sea Scrolls strongly refute the
objections regarding the accuracy of today’s version of the Old Testament, and
thus make it possible for us to proceed in answering the question that was
raised earlier: How does the Old Testament portray the Messiah?
In the Old Testament, there are
hundreds of prophecies pertaining to the Messiah. The first prophecy was given
immediately after the fall in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3:15, God said
that the Messiah would come from the “seeds of the woman.” This prophecy allows
the Messiah to be singled out easily: all humans are born from the seeds of a
man and a woman; however, the Messiah must be born from the “seed of the woman”
only. The Old Testament confirms this prophecy later in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore
the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with a child and will
give birth to a son, and call him Immanuel.”
In Genesis 9 and 10, the Bible
identified the human lineage of the Messiah. The Messiah has to come from the
line of Shem, one of Naoh’s three sons.
Around 2000 B.C., God narrowed the lineage of the Messiah further when
he called a man named Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldees. In Genesis 12, 17,
and 22, God stated that all the people of the earth would be blessed through
him because the Messiah would be one of his descendants. Abraham had two sons,
Isaac and Ishmael, but God specifically chose Isaac’s lineage to be the
Messianic one (Genesis 27; 21).
Isaac
had two sons, Esau and Jacob who is the father of the Jewish people. God chose
the line of Jacob (Genesis 28; 35:10-12; Numbers 24:17). Jacob had 12 sons from
whom the 12 tribes of Israel were developed. God choose the tribe of Judah.
Therefore, not only the Messiah had to be a Jew, but also he had to be from the
tribe of Judah. The Old Testament further defined the lineage of the Messiah to
be from the line of King David as we read in Jeremiah 23:5: “’The days are
coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘When I will raise up to David a righteous Branch,
a king who will reign wisely and so what is just and right in the land. In his
days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safely. This is the name by
which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.’”
The Old Testament also specified the birthplace of
the Messiah. In Micah 5:2, God selected Bethlehem Ephrathah, a city with a
small population, to be the city where the Messiah would be born. The Old
Testament describes the social climate and response that the Messiah will
experience. For example, His own people, the Jews, will reject him and the
gentiles will accept him (Isaiah 8:14; 28:16; 49:6; 50:6; 52:53; 60:3; Psalms
22:7,8; 118:22). There will be a messenger, a voice in the wilderness, who will
prepare the way before Him (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1). He will heal the blind,
deaf, lame, and dumb (Isaiah 35:5,6).
The most important prophecies of the
Old Testament are those that portray the Messiah as the lamb of sacrifice for
the sins of the people. The most eminent prophecy that address this issue is
found in Isaiah:
See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who
were appalled at him - his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness- so will he sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told,
they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Who has believed our message and
to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a
tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to
attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was
despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him
not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him,
and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for
our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his
wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By
oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his
descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the
transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was
any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the LORD's will to
crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt
offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the
LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the
light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will
justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a
portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because
he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For
he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah
52:13 – 53:12, written 700 B.C.)
For approximately two millenniums,
Jewish rabbis interpreted the above passage almost unanimously as referring to
the Messiah. This fact is carefully documented in The Fifty-Third Chapter of
Isaiah According To The Jewish Interpreters by S.R. Driver and Adolf
Neubauer. The authors quote numerous rabbis during this period who believed
that the servant of Isaiah 53 is one and the same as the Messiah (McDowel 254).
Today most Jewish scholars believe
that the servant of Isaiah 53 refers to the whole nation of Israel. This
interpretation was first proposed in the twelfth century by Rashi (Rabbi
Solomon Yazchaki). However, even after Rashi proposed this interpretation, many
other Jewish scholars have held, even to present, the messianic interpretation
of Isaiah 53. For example, one of the most esteemed Jewish intellectuals of all
history, Moses Maimonides (A.D. 1135 – 1204) rejected Rashi’s interpretation,
and insisted that Isaiah 53 was messianic (McDowell 254).
The non-messianic interpretation of
Isaiah 53 is in error; in this passage there is a distinction made between the
servant and “my people,” which clearly refers to Israel. For example, in verse
8 of this chapter, the servant bears punishment that should have been born by
“my people.” It doesn’t make sense for the nation of Israel to bear
substitutionary punishment for the nation of Israel. Hence, the nation of
Israel cannot be the servant of Isaiah 53.
Many other passages prophesy about
the suffering and death of the Messiah. For example, Psalm 22 gives a graphic
description and more details about his death:
My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Why are you so far from
saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and
am not silent.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy
One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they
trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they
trusted and were not disappointed.
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the
people.
All who see me mock me; they hurl
insults, shaking their heads: "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue
him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."
Yet you brought me out of the
womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. From birth I was
cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God. Do not be far from
me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
Many bulls surround me; strong
bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths
wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried
up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in
the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled
me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people
stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for
my clothing. (Psalm 22:1-18, written 1012 B.C.)
The above passage says that the
Messiah will die via crucifixion. He will be spit upon. The people will divide
his garments among themselves and cast lots for his clothing. Some might object
to the messianic nature of the above passage because it was written by David.
It is true that David was the human author, but behind every human author there
is another author: God. Hence, to determine the speaker of the passage, one
must examine its content. Testing the content of the above passage shows the
first person or the speaker is not David. First, we know that David’s hands and
feet were not pierced (i.e. he was not crucified). Second, David could not be
the speaker because crucifixion was not known to him. Psalm 22 was written
about eight hundred years before crucifixion began to be practiced by the
Romans (McDowell 212).
The suffering and death of the Messiah is not limited
to the above mentioned passages. For example, Zechariah 12:10 predicts that the
Messiah will be pierced: “And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon
the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. They will
look at me, the one they have pierced.” Scripture does not only predict that
the Messiah will suffer, but also gives some details about the manner of his
death, and about the events that occurred around his death. Zechariah 11:11-13
describes how the Messiah will be betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of
silver that will later be thrown unto the floor of the Temple and used to buy a
potter’s field. Zechariah 9:9 predicts that the Messiah will enter Jerusalem
humbly, “mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The
scripture also predicts the exact date when the Messiah will die in:
While I was speaking and praying,
confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the
LORD my God for his holy hill- while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had
seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the
evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now
come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an
answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.
Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:
"Seventy 'sevens' are decreed
for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to
sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up
vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
"Know and understand this:
From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the
Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two
'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of
trouble. After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and
will have nothing. The people of the
ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come
like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been
decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of
the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice
and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that
causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him” (Daniel
9:20 –27).
The above prophecy states that from
the issuing of a decree to restore and build Jerusalem unto Messiah, there
would be 69 weeks. Those weeks are weeks of years, that is every week is
equivalent to seven years. The Hebrew word for week shabu’im, translated
in English as “sevens,” means “seven” of years. “There was a common ‘seven’ of
years employed in civil and religious reckoning (i.e. Leviticus 25:8) quite as
aptly called a ‘week’ as the seven of days. Not only so, but when weeks of days
are intended (Daniel 10:2-3), the Hebrew for days (yamim), is added to ‘weeks’
(shau’im). Most importantly, if any literal meaning is to be attached to the
weeks no period less than weeks of years meets the contextual demands”
(Pfeiffer 793). Thus, the above prophecy prophesy that after four 483 years (69
X 7) from the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, the Messiah will come.
Several decrees in Israel’s history have been suggested as the starting point
of the 483 years. These are: the decree of Cyrus, 539 B.C. (Ezra 1:1-4), the
decree of Darius, 519-518 B.C. (Ezra 5:3-7), the decree of Artaxerxes to Ezra,
457 B.C. (Ezra 7:11-16), and the decress of Artaxerxes to Nehemiah, 444 B.C.
(Nehemiah 2:1-8) (McDowell 58). Most scholars agree that the decree of
Artaxerxes of Nehemiah is the one that the prophecy is referring to, as one
scholar, J.D. Wilson, comments:
The next decree is referred to in
Nehemiah 2. It was in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. The words of the decree
are not given, but its subject matter can easily be determined. Nehemiah hears
of the desolate condition of Jerusalem. He is deeply grieved. The king asks the
reason. Nehemiah replies, “the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers, lieth
in waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire.” The king bids him make
request. He does so promptly, asking an order from the king that “I be sent to
the city that I may build it.” And as we read, he was sent, and he rebuilt
Jerusalem.
This decree then is the
“commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” There is no other decree
authorizing the restoration of the city. This decree authorizes the restoration
and the book of Nehemiah tells how the work was carried on. The exigencies of
their various theories have led men to take some other decree for the terminus
a quo of their calculations, but it is not apparent how any could have done so
without misgivings. This decree of Nehemiah 2 is the commandment to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem; no other decree gives any permission to restore the city.
All other decrees refer to the building of the Temple and the Temple only
(McDowell 58).
Thus,
according to scripture the Messiah must come 483 years from the issuing of the
decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (Nissan 1, 444 B.C.) Which day in
history will this correspond to? Before giving the exact date, keep in mind
that the only year whose length is given in the Bible is 360 days, twelve months
of 30 days each (such as in Genesis 7:3-4, 11). Equating each year of 483 years
to 360 days and adding these to Nissan 1, 444 B.C. will give Nissan 14, 33 A.D.
as the day when the Messiah will be “cut off.” Four other Old Testament verses
(Psalm 118:26, Zechariah 11:13, Malachi 3:1, Haggai 2:7-9) require the Messiah
to come while the Temple of Jerusalem is still standing. The Temple of
Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. by Titus, a Roman Emperor (McDowell 59). The
temple has not been rebuilt since then. Therefore, the Old Testament requires
the Messiah to come, to die for the sins of the people, and to be risen (Psalm
16:10) and to do so before 70 A.D.
From the way the Old Testament
portrays the Messiah, one can see that the Christian’s view is the correct one.
Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus was born of a virgin
(Matthew 1). He was crucified and resurrected from the dead (Matthew, Luke,
Mark, John). All the prophecies mentioned so far in this article were fulfilled
in his life. Canon Liddon, an Oxford professor, found 332 discrete prophecies
in the Old Testament that were genuinely fulfilled in Jesus (McDowell 252). As
a matter of fact, if Jesus is not the Messiah, then there is no Messiah. No one
prior to 70 A.D. had his credentials.
Some may object and say that such
fulfilled prophecies were coincidental and hence Jesus is not necessarily the
Messiah. This idea is in error. Coincidence can be easily ruled out by the
science of probability. According to this science, that chances that any man
might have lived down to the present and fulfilled only eight prophecies is 1
in 1017 (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000). W. Stoner, the author of
Science Speaks, puts it in a simpler way:
We take 1017 silver
dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two
feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass
thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel
as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is
the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the
same chances that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies
and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time,
providing they wrote them in their own wisdom.
Now these prophecies were either
given by inspiration of God or the prophets just wrote them as they thought
they should be. In such as case the prophets had just one chance in 1017
of having them come true in any man, but they all came true in Christ.
This means that the fulfillment of
these eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of those
prophecies to a definiteness which lacks only one chance in 1017 of
being absolute (McDowell 213).
If
we consider 48 prophecies instead of 8, the probability of Jesus being the
Messiah becomes 10157. This argument of probability will become even
more compelling when one considers all 60 major prophecies and 270
ramifications regarding the Messiah (McDowell 210).
Another objection to Jesus being the
Messiah is that he might have deliberately attempted to fulfill these Jewish
prophecies. This objection is not plausible because many trivialities of the
Messiah’s coming were totally beyond Jesus’ control. These details include the
timing and the manner of his birth, the manner of his death, the people’s
reaction, the mocking and spitting, the casting of dice for his clothes, the
non-tearing of his garments, etc. in other words, He could not work it out to be
born of a virgin, the house of David, etc.
Some people might say that the
prophecies about the Messiah were just added later after the time of Jesus and
fabricated to coincide with his life to make it appear that Christianity is
consistent with the Old Testament. A response to this objection was given
earlier. In summary, this objection is not feasible because of the fact that
the “Septuagint”, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, was
translated around 250 B.C. There is at least 200-year gap between the
prophecies recorded and their fulfillment in Christ.
Some people might say that the Christian beliefs
about the Messiah are not completely consistent with the teaching of the
Old Testament. First, many prophecies in the Old Testament depict the Messiah
as a powerful leader, similar to the way the Orthodox Jews portray him. Such
prophecies were not fulfilled in Jesus Christ. For example, consider Daniel
7:13-14:
"In my vision at night I looked,
and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of
heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was
given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of
every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will
not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
It
is true that the above prophecy and hundreds of additional ones were not
fulfilled in Jesus. However, this is by necessity; for Christians believe that
Jesus will come again and in his second coming he will fulfill these additional
prophecies. This belief in itself, that is the belief that the Messiah will
come twice, is in accordance with the Old Testament. Zechariah 12:9-10 even
mentions in one passage the two separate comings of the Messiah:
On that day I will set out to
destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem [Second Coming. "And I will pour out on the house of
David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They
will look on me, the one they have pierced [took place in the first coming],
and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve
bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
The
Old Testament predicts that the Messiah must first come to suffer and die, must
rise from the dead, and must come again.
A second reason people might believe
that the Christian faith is not in correspondence with the Old Testament is
because Christians believe that the Messiah is God. This might seem to be in
contradiction to what the Old Testament teaches: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is
our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). This verse and in general the
concept that there is one God are in agreement with what Christianity teaches.
Christianity teaches that God is triune. The doctrine of trinity does not teach
that there are three gods; instead, it teaches that there is one God who has
revealed himself in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
and these three persons are the one God. Furthermore, the Hebrew word for one
used in the above verse is echod, meaning a “composite unity.” “It is
the same word used in Genesis 2:24 where the husband and wife are commanded to
become one flesh. Had the writer of Deuteronomy 6:4 wished to express an
absolute unity, he could have used the Hebrew word, Yachid” (McDowell
260). Moreover, the Old Testament suggests a plurality of personalities in one
God from the very beginning. Genesis 1:26 states “then God said, ‘let us make
man in our image, according to our likeness.’” Numerous passages of the Old
Testament indicate the trinity by explicitly mentioning one or more persons of
the trinity. For example, Proverb 30:4 makes a clear distinction between the
first and second persons of the trinity (God the Father and God the Son):
Who has gone up to heaven and come
down?
Who has gathered up the wind in
the hollow of his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters in
his cloak?
Who has established all the ends
of the earth?
What is his name, and the name of
his son?
Tell me if you know!
The
Old Testament not only teaches or at least indicates that triune nature of God,
but it also clearly teaches that the Messiah is God. For example, in Psalm
45:6-7, the Psalmist is addressing the Messiah as God:
Your throne, O God, will last
forever and ever;
A scepter of justice will be the
scepter of your kingdom.
You love righteousness and hate
wickedness;
Therefore God, your God, has set
you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of
joy.
Other
verses that show that the Messiah is God include Isaiah 9:6 which speak of the
Messiah as “wonderful, counselor, mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace;”
Micah 5:2 which speaks about his pre-existence; and Deuteronomy 32:43 which
states that “and when He again brings the first-born into the world, he says,
‘And let all the angels of God worship him.’” This quotation is taken from the
“Septuagint” Greek version of the Old Testament and is omitted from the today’s
official Hebrew or Massoretic text, but is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls
(McDowell, 260). Psalm 2:12 commands the worship of the Messiah: “Do homage to
the Son, lest he become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may
soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” In Daniel 7:14, a
verse mentioned earlier, God gave the Messiah an everlasting kingdom “that all
the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him.” “If everyone
is serving the Messiah, then no one would be left to serve the Lord unless the
Lord and the Messiah are somehow united” (McDowell 261). Thus, the Old
Testament in many instants required the Messiah to be God eternal. It also
required him to be pierced. The only way one can pierce God if God is if God
manifests Himself in flesh. With this, one can see that the Christian belief
that the Messiah is the Son of God who took on human form and came before 70
A.D. to die for the sins of the people and will come back again to rule, is a
belief consistent with the Old Testament’s portrait of the Messiah.
During Jesus’ trial in the Jewish
Supreme Court, the High Priest asked him: "I charge you under oath by the
living God: Tell us if you are the Christ [Messiah in Hebrew], the Son
of God.” “Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of
you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the
Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:63-64). Jesus
said that he was the Messiah and did not leave any other option open. Was Jesus’
claim true? I guess that’s why God wrote all the prophecies about the Messiah,
so when the Messiah comes, we will be able to answer this question. Even Jesus
himself encouraged us to examine his claim in light of the Old Testament; He
said, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me for he wrote about Me”
(John 5:46).
As
I examine Jesus’ claim in light of the Old Testament’s teaching regarding the
Messiah, my faith that Jesus is the Messiah is strengthened.
Bibliography:
Bible
Study Helps. Nashville: Thomas
Nelson, 1970.
Drell,
Adrienne. “Scholar Believes Israel Hiding Origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Chicago
Sun-Times 30 March 1996:17.
McDowell,
Josh. A Ready Defense. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984.
The
New International Version of the Bible.
Colorado Springs: International Bible Society, 1984.
Pfeiffer,
Charles, ed. The Wyclife Bible Commentary. 12th ed. Chicago:
Moody Press, 1976.
Surburg,
Raymond. “The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Old Testament.” The Christian
News 30 October 1995:18.