THE IDENTITY OF JESUS – PART II

Headlines suggest that a “Messianic Revival” may be in the making – in Israel! Congregations of Christian-Jews are growing and thriving in the Land of David. One leader of the movement talks of a new openness in Israeli society to consider the claims of Yeshua. There exist probably about 120 congregations with perhaps about 15,000 members; – a yet small number, but gathering in strength and influence.^[i] It was just back in 2005 that Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, in a letter opened after his death, revealed his belief Yeshua or Jesus was truly the Messiah. Still the majority of Jews dismiss the claims of what they see as a Gentile god. It was not always so. Remember, the Church began in Jerusalem, and was originally composed of almost exclusively Jewish believers. So what happened?

PROPHETIC CLAIMS

Prophecy pointed to him, this coming Messiah. The hope of Israel! The light to the nations! By the first century the anticipation among some segments of the population was palpable. The Jews were an unusually religious people. So much of their national life was centered around their sacred writings and customs. Yet despite the fact that the scriptures were so much a part of daily life, the expectation of just who the Messiah would be, and what he would bring, varied among the groups that made up the Jewish nation. Often this was just the natural response of people reacting to their own wishes and desires. To a large degree the role that the Messiah would play had become politicized in the popular mind. The yoke of Roman rule laid heavy on the populace. The hopeful eyes of an oppressed nation were focused on the prophecies regarding the ultimate victorious nature of the messianic office, rather than the predicted sufferings found in the same Scriptures. If their hope was misplaced it is understandable to a degree how this could be so.

The prerogatives of the Jewish leadership had been progressively usurped, culminating in the removal of the power over life-and-death from the Jewish authorities in AD 14. To the minds of many, a Messiah who did not confront and ultimately vanquish the Romans was no Messiah at all. This feeling would have been more pronounced in the circles of power, which no doubt, felt the sting of that loss even more acutely. The politicizing of messianic expectations undoubtedly contributed to the ultimate rejection of Jesus’ ministry. An example of a contrasting result can be seen just a hundred years later, when the Jewish authorities put their stamp of approval on the ‘Messiahship’ of Bar Kochba. Rabi Akiva signaled that approval by declaring Kochba, ‘Messiah King’, to tragic results. Thousands of Jews were killed when the Romans took the stronghold of Betar. The political nature of what was expected from the ‘Promised One,’ certainly was a major factor in the reaction to Christ by the Jewish nation.^[ii]

But it is not like the prophetic input was not clear. The claims of Daniel 9 were very specific. Micah told of his birth in Bethlehem. His miracles and ministry were written of in detail. Zechariah talked of his entry into Jerusalem on a colt. And once he had been crucified, it could have been confirmed that the circumstances of his suffering, death and burial were accurately predicted in Isaiah 52 & 53 and Psalm 22. To the many who would see, this was the expected Messiah. There are hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming and the identity of the Anointed One. Jesus did clearly match the identity of the Promised One in every detail. Christ was the unique fulfillment of those prophecies. What is possibly most amazing to realize is that so many of those Old Testament prophets probably did not even realize themselves the full significance of those prophecies. 1 Peter 1:10-12 speaks to their searching for the “time and circumstances” to which their revelations had led them. So let‟s look at some of these prophecies.

We‟ll be looking of course at just those concerning the coming of the Messiah. These were all written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, yet in their precision and detail they can unmistakably refer only to the life of Christ. Some have suggested that Jesus, being a man with a „messiah complex‟, arranged his life to have fulfilled these prophecies in order to prove he was the promised Savior. While it is true that he may have been able to have arranged some of his actions to conform to the predictions of scripture, so many more were entirely out of his control. Grant Jeffrey, writing in Jesus, The Great Debate conservatively figured the probability of anyone fulfilling just seventeen of the prophecies at one chance in 480 billion x 1billion x 1 trillion. This was not some easily arranged feat. The specificity of the predictions makes that impossible.^[iii]

Let’s look at some examples of what was written hundreds of years before Christ, found in the books of the prophets as well as the psalms. These are no general pronouncements, but can be applied only very specifically. They describe in detail the birth, life and manner of death of the predicted Messiah. The Bible does set quite the high standard for itself. Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Written approximately 700 BC this passage points not only to Jesus physical birth in Bethlehem, but also his descent from the line of David, also born in that village. But look at just the circumstances that were necessary to make Jesus birth in that location possible. In the second chapter of Luke we have the story of the Jesus‟ birth. In it we have the description of the specific census that made necessary the return of his parents to that location. We now have historical confirmation that return to an ancestral home was indeed required in census taking of that time. Without it Jesus would have failed the very first requirement of the ancient prophecies.

In Isaiah 40:3 we have the prediction of a “voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” Matthew chapter 3 points to the ministry of John the Baptist as the fulfillment of this passage. John specifically talked about “one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Mat. 3:11) Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt was predicted centuries prior to the event. Zechariah describes the Messiah’s entry into the Holy City. “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout Daughter of Jerusalem! See your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech. 9:9) Fulfillment of this prophecy is found in Luke 19:28-40.

There are more. Psalm 41:9 speaks of the betrayal of “ …my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread”, referring of course to the actions of Judas. Zechariah 11:12-13 has more to say on the subject of Judas. “I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not keep it.’ So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’- the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.” To any who are familiar with the story of Christ’s death, this is a chilling fulfillment of the account found in the 26th and 27th chapters of Matthew. Thirty pieces of silver was the very price given to Judas by the chief priests. Matthew 27:5-6 describes how after he had handed Jesus over, Judas threw the money into the temple. The priests used that money “…to buy the potters field”, in which to bury foreigners.

Probably the most important prophetic passage of the entire Old Testament is found in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. So many of the details of Christ’s trial, suffering and execution are found in that one chapter. Verse 7 talks about his silence before his accusers, and in verse 12 we see how he was condemned with criminals. “He was pierced for our transgressions.” (v5) And in 53: 9, Isaiah tells us how he would be buried with the rich. In fact his body was taken by Joseph of Arimathea, a well to do member of the Council who buried him in his own tomb. Psalm 22 is another source of fulfilled prophecy. In it the psalmist foretells remarkable details of the crucifixion, confirmed in John 19. Beginning in verse 15 and running through verse 18, it reads, “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.” The story of the crucifixion is well known, and it was predicted hundreds of years before that grisly mode of death had even been invented.^{[iv] [v]}

The messianic prophecies I have cited are by no means exhaustive. Various lists can be found which mention many more. My point here was to show that details of the life and death of Jesus were predicted hundreds of years before his birth. The existence and importance of the Messianic Prophecies was known and appreciated by the Jewish scholars of Christ‟s day. In fact certain writings in the Book of Daniel point to a very specific time for the coming of the Savior. In order to understand the profound significance of the prophetic writings it is important to appreciate the expectations of the Jewish teachers living at that time. Those expectations pointed, among other things, to his appearance during the first few decades of the 1st century, the very time of Jesus ministry on earth. Jesus was expected, not least of which for the reason of the signal prophecy found in Daniel 9, which we will see, prophesied the coming of the “Anointed One” down to the exact day!

[i] Wendy Griffin, Messianic Revival In Israel?, CBN, July 13, 2008

[ii] Paul E Little, Know Why You Believe, Chariot Victor, 1999, pg 53-59

[iii] Grant Jeffrey, The Great Debate, Frontier Research, 1999, pg 229-239

[iv] Paul E Little, Know Why You Believe, Chariot Victor, 1999, pg 55

[v] Grant Jeffrey, The Great Debate, Frontier Research, 1999, pg 229-239