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Announcer (00:00:00): It's time to think about the Bible like you never have before. This is Christian Questions. Experience more episodes, videos, and Bible study resources at ChristianQuestions.com. Today's topic is, "How Do We Know Jesus is the Promised Messiah?" Jesus is the Messiah, he's the Savior of the world, and the Old Testament is especially descriptive of this truth. If this is so obvious, then why are those of the Jewish faith so opposed to it? Turns out they have some pretty logical arguments against it. What are they and what do we do with them? Here's Rick, Jonathan, and Julie.

Rick (00:00:37): Welcome everyone. I'm Rick. I'm joined by Jonathan, my co-host for over 25 years. Julie, a longtime contributor is also with us. Jonathan, what's the theme scripture for this episode?

Jonathan (00:00:49): John 1:40-41: "One of the two who heard John speak and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which translated means Christ.)"

Rick (00:01:05): Christians differ on a lot of things and sometimes these differences can be troublesome. The basics we all agree on are centered in Jesus. We believe he died for our sins, and we believe that he came to give his truest followers the opportunity to be in heaven with him. We also believe that he's the Messiah. As a matter of fact, we look at the Old Testament prophecies and we have a hard time comprehending why those of the Jewish faith aren't able to recognize his Messiahship. It seems obvious; obvious until we realize a few startling scriptural facts. First, the label "Messiah" is only used twice in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, it's only used twice in the New Testament as well. This means that what we see as overtly obvious may in fact be more hidden than we ever thought. What do we do now?

Jonathan (00:02:04): Four times only?

Julie (00:02:06): This is shocking. How could such an important and comprehensive core teaching be based on a word that only appears four times in our English Bible?

Rick (00:02:14): Well, let's hold on, because that's not quite the whole story, but it is. When you look at that, I was amazed at that. I had never looked at that perspective before and I was like, what? Okay, this means dig deep. That's what that means. You know, that's the signal for me. Dive in Rick, because man, there's got to be a lot here. Let's begin to unpack this. A broad-based view of Messiah in scripture would of necessity include sincere reasoning from a Jewish perspective, explaining why they cannot accept Jesus as Messiah. Here's what we'll do. We will respectfully and appreciatively reference and excerpt a post online from jewsforjudaism.org to help us get a Jewish perspective. Jonathan, let's get started with that:

Jonathan (00:03:01): "What is the Jewish concept of the Messiah? Is there such a concept in place? If so, what would be the Jewish response to Christian claims regarding the Messiah? Let's find out in this post."

Rick (00:03:14): There is an introduction. This post begins by establishing the fact that there are many "messiahs" in the Bible. You know what? They're right. How is that possible? Julie, you're looking at me like, what? But they are, they're right, so let's put the word "messiah" into its appropriate context. Jonathan, what do we have?

Jonathan (00:03:38): "Messiah" means "anointed; usually a consecrated person (as a king, priest, or saint), specifically, the Messiah."

Rick (00:03:47): The interesting thing about that, so it means "anointed; king or priest or saint," it's used 39 times in the Old Testament. Now, it's only translated the word "Messiah" twice, but it's used 39 times. Let's look at a few of the examples of these times it's used. We're going to actually look at five different uses. Julie, get us started here.

Julie (00:04:09): Well the first time this same Hebrew word for "messiah" is translated as "anointed," referring to the Levitical priesthood in Leviticus 4:3. That says: "If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering."

Jonathan (00:04:31): The same word was used by David to describe King Saul in 1 Samuel 24:6: "And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD'S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD." Even though David had already been anointed as the future king by the prophet Samuel, David was so respectful of Saul's anointing that he did not want to do anything to hasten his own taking of the throne because it wasn't God's timing yet.

Rick (00:05:05): This is interesting because David is emphatic about not damaging the Lord's anointed. He says this, I don't know, ten different times in scripture or something. It's very, very, very evident that the anointing was a very, very significant signal and sign to those around you. What's next?

Julie (00:05:26): Well, in 2 Samuel 22:51, the word was used to describe David himself. The King James reads: "He is the tower of salvation for His king: and sheweth mercy to His anointed, unto David, and to his seed forevermore." Here's another use I wanted to bring up to you that surprised me. In Isaiah 45:1, even the Persian emperor Cyrus the great is identified as the Lord's anointed. He's the only non-Jew identified like this because of his decree to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

Rick (00:06:00): There was a sacredness to that decree because it was the sacredness of the building, and so you can see how the Lord put him into this very, very special kind of a category. Now only twice, as we mentioned, is this word actually translated "Messiah." Let's go to the scriptures that do that. Jonathan?

Jonathan (00:06:23): Daniel 9:25-26: "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."

Rick (00:07:01): The only time you see this word, which means "anointed; usually a consecrated person as a king or a priest or a saint," the only time you see it as "Messiah" is in that specific prophecy. We're going to come back to that prophecy in a little bit. Let's wrap up the beginning stages of what we see so far. We want to understand the meaning of "Messiah." Jonathan, where are we?

Jonathan (00:07:26): The Old Testament uses the Hebrew word for "messiah" in a very broad way. Its meaning focuses on any who are anointed, who were set apart specifically to do God's will. While this may be surprising, it teaches us a very important lesson about how God works with humanity. If God sets someone apart to represent Him, there are no varying levels that describe this service. You are either set apart or you're not.

Rick (00:07:55): To me, there is a powerful, powerful, powerful lesson in that. We want to carry that thought through the rest of this two-part series on understanding Jesus as the Messiah from a Christian perspective. When God sets you apart for holy purposes, there is no, well, "I'm sort of set apart. I'm kind of like three quarters." No, no, no, no, no. You're either set apart or you're not. It's a very clear statement by God Himself to say, "You are doing My work, that's your job." It takes everything else away. That's what we have in the Old Testament. The New Testament actually is a little bit different. Remember the word "Messiah" only appears twice in the New Testament. Jonathan, let's start with those two. First of all, what does it mean?

Jonathan (00:08:47): Well, "Messiah" means "anointed, or Christ."

Rick (00:08:51): Okay, pretty simple. Like I said, it's only used twice in the New Testament. What's the first use?

Jonathan (00:08:57): Well, that's found in John 1:41: "He (Andrew) found first his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which translated means Christ)."

Julie (00:09:10): In the second use, a Samaritan woman thinks Jesus is a prophet, because he just called her out on having, oh, five husbands and a sixth man she wasn't married to. He tells her that a time is coming when God will be worshiped in spirit and in truth. In speaking of this future, she replies in John 4:25: "The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called the Christ); when that one comes, he will declare all things to us." She didn't understand what Jesus was saying exactly, but she had the expectation that at some point in the future, it would all be explained. If this idea of Messiah is so obscure, where did this Samaritan woman get the idea from? But hold that thought because we're going to discuss it soon in the next segment.

Rick (00:09:57): We have the only two uses of this word "Messiah" in the New Testament, both in John 1 and then in John 4. It's interesting, in both of those verses, the parentheses afterwards is, "which translated means Christ." That's going to give us a hint as to where we need to go. We go to this other word, "Christ," and this is where we're going to look to understand "anointed." Jonathan, the word "Christ," what does it mean?

Jonathan (00:10:27): Well, this Greek word is used 569 times and always translated as "Christ" or "the Christ."

Rick (00:10:37): Pretty simple. Five hundred sixty-nine times is a lot of times. All of those times it's translated one way. There's very few words in the New Testament that fit that description. The word for "faith" is one of them. The Greek word for "faith;" it's only translated "faith." The word for "Christ" is only translated "Christ." Now, we always understand that from the New Testament perspective to mean "Jesus." But let's take a look at one example that goes beyond Jesus himself. Julie, let's look at 1 Corinthians 12:26-27:

Julie (00:11:09): "And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and individual members of it."

Rick (00:11:21): You are "Christ's body," you are part of Christ, and that's where you get THE Christ, THE body of Christ. "Anointed," it's a very high, very specific perspective, both in the Old and New Testament, but the word "Messiah" doesn't appear so much. Let's put together what we have so far, Jonathan, Understanding the Meaning of Messiah:

Jonathan (00:11:45): The New Testament has a far clearer focus on just who God is setting apart for His holy purposes. Why? The Old Testament was a journey about finding God from the introduction of original sin. Doing God's will and keeping the Law were the focuses, and those whom God set apart for His holy work were the tools. The New Testament is all about Jesus as the focus and the tool for bringing righteousness back to humanity.

Rick (00:12:15): We've got the Old Testament perspective as this journey towards, and we see it as Christians. The New Testament perspective is we've arrived and we can now unfold and unpack and begin to put things in perspective. Here's the thing; we're just starting. There's already a lot to digest. Realizing that Messiah was not always on everyone's Old Testament lips. Well, that's a real eye-opener.

Jonathan (00:12:42): If everyone was not waiting for their Messiah to come, then what were they waiting for?

Rick (00:12:48): That's a good question. Here's where it gets interesting. We're not implying that Israel was not looking for deliverance. On the other hand, as we shall see, they were not only well aware of a coming deliverance, it was continually yet subtly spoken of. Our main point up to this point is that "Messiah" was not the way they framed their deliverance. We want to make sure we understand that. It's a framing perspective, and we're trying to see this a little bit from a Jewish perspective versus from a Christian perspective. We come in as a Christian and we look at the New Testament, then we look back and say, oh, look how it all fits together. From the Jewish perspective, they see it from the Old Testament and say, no, that doesn't fit at all, because we see it entirely differently. I'll tell you, both Jonathan and Julie, doing this particular study was real eye-opening for me because it helped me understand Jewish thinking, and again, to have a much deeper respect for it. Let's continue. Let's establish the descriptions of "Messiah" that don't use the label "Messiah." I want to pause there because if we were to do this and go through the whole Testament, we'd be here for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours because there's tons of descriptions. But let's go to some very, very specific descriptions. The very first description, the first one is of deep importance and came right at the beginning when the fundamental need for deliverance became obvious. Jonathan, Genesis 3:14-15:

Jonathan (00:14:28): This is after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden: "The LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life; and I will put enmity (meaning hostility or hatred) between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." God is saying, "I've got the solution in place for deliverance."

Julie (00:15:02): Yeah, but that solution is kind of hard to see. Here you see Eve's offspring would be bruised on the heel by the serpent, who we understand is Satan. But that seed would deliver a fatal blow. This is the first sign of hope, this first inkling that there is a deliverance.

Rick (00:15:19): This is important because this is a basis for the "anointed," the one who is to do this work, as we will see. You've got this great veiled promise of God to right the wrongs of that initial disloyalty right at the beginning there. Like you said, there's going to be a battle, but the seed of the woman will strike the death blow to Satan. That's what we learn from that, so we have a very specific sense of "Messiah." As we go through several Old Testament scriptures, we want to pick out what each of these scriptures shows us as descriptive qualities of the Messiah. Julie, what do we get from this first scripture in Genesis?

Julie (00:16:00): Well, based on this battle, based on this fight, we see that he would have to be a fighter for and defender of God's way; an authority to represent God, and the strength to be victorious.

Rick (00:16:13): You have some basic fundamentals to build the picture of what Messiah looks like without using the word. Let's go further. Let's go further in time. Now, Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob. Jacob has twelve sons, and now Jacob is dying. When he's dying, he gives blessings to his twelve sons. Jacob's final blessing upon his son Judah before his death is where we want to go to now. He begins by describing Judah as a warrior and a lion. But he ends this particular blessing with the following. This is in Genesis 49:10:

Jonathan (00:16:50): "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples."

Julie (00:17:00): Shiloh was a town in the tribe of Ephraim, and the Ark of the Covenant was there for a time. But this isn't referring to a place, is it, Rick?

Rick (00:17:07): No, no. "Until Shiloh comes" is a little bit of a hard phrase. It's difficult to understand. Likely the Aramaic meaning is, "until he who comes the scepter is." So, the idea is there's a belonging of authority until he who has authority comes. Let's again, let's put this in perspective. Julie, descriptive qualities of the Messiah; what are we gaining from this last piece of Jacob's blessing to his son Judah?

Julie (00:17:39): With a scepter showing the right to rule, and a ruler staff in Hebrew (meaning lawgiver), we think of words like "royal; authoritative lawgiver, deserving ruler, profoundly respected."

Rick (00:17:52): We're building upon the fighter, the defender of God's ways, authority to represent God and be victorious. Now we're putting a lot of authority and lawgiving and all of that into this picture. So, just to pick up on that Shiloh thing, because it's a little bit of a hard scripture. The next scripture we want to look at is just another prophecy regarding Israel's suffering consequences for their sins. There's a lot of those kinds of scriptures, okay? Yet it has one line of very great hope, and that line of great hope actually verifies "Shiloh." Jonathan, let's go to Ezekiel 21:27:

Jonathan (00:18:30): "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him."

Julie (00:18:40): Just wanted to quote some Bible commentary. Ellicott's Commentary says on this phrase, "until he come whose right it is, is generally acknowledged as a reference to Genesis 49:10, Until Shiloh comes." Cambridge Bible Commentary says that the word actually "might have been shelloh, meaning whose; not Shiloh as a proper name."

Rick (00:19:03): Again, what you do when you have things that are a little bit difficult is you go to other scriptures and you try to find ways to balance it out, not according to what I would like it to be, but according to what the scripture tells us it should be. We've got the Genesis scripture with the fighter and defender of God's ways. We've got the Genesis scripture with the royal authoritative lawgiver and so forth. Now let's go to another example. Let's fast forward to once Israel is a nation, okay? We're kind of working chronologically here. Our next example is after Israel has become a nation and Moses is before them, and he's explaining many aspects of the Law and how they are to live.

Jonathan (00:19:46): In the context of forbidding idolatry and witchcraft when possessing the land, he then tells them in Deuteronomy 18:15-19: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die. The LORD said to me, They have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him."

Julie (00:20:38): These are important verses to get them into the mindset of what these ancient peoples expected. Remember my question about how would that Samaritan woman Jesus talked to have been in expectation of the Messiah? The Samaritans believed in just the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, but they also had a version of their book of Joshua. But it's thought that rather than a king, the Samaritans were looking for a restorer, a prophet, a teacher like Moses, because of these texts here in Deuteronomy. Culturally, she would've been aware of this theology, and it explains why she was expecting someone who would be an explainer, someone who would explain all things to them.

Rick (00:21:19): When you realize that, what you understand is that "Messiah" has all of these different aspects to him, and by going through these several scriptures, we begin to assemble what the whole picture looks like instead of focusing in on just one. That's the object of this particular exercise. Julie, we've got descriptive qualities of the Messiah. We're adding this Deuteronomy scripture. What do we get here?

Julie (00:21:44): Well, it's a deliverer like Moses, a prophet, one who speaks God's own words, represents God's own will. Even the Samaritans were in expectation of Messiah as this prophet and teacher who would bring God's knowledge.

Rick (00:21:57): Okay, you've got an expectation of this prophet and teacher on top of all of those other things. Now, it's interesting, in that verse, it talked about, it focused in on Mount Horeb. I want to just stay with that just for a few more minutes because this is an important piece in further describing the Messiah. Mount Horeb was where Israel was originally given the Law, and that's where Moses demonstrated his position as leader and as mediator. A mediator stands between two opposing sides. There's a physical demonstration of mediation in this next scripture that Moses gives that is not said "and here he is mediating," but he's doing the work. This is how we begin to understand more about Messiah. Exodus 20:18-21:

Jonathan (00:22:51): "All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die. Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin. So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was."

Julie (00:23:26): Just a note, Mount Horeb was also important because it's where the burning bush made the ground holy and where Moses struck water from the rock. We also might've heard of it as Mount Sinai.

Rick (00:23:37): They're at Mount Horeb and they basically say, Oh, we're not going over there, uh-uh, no, no, no. You could go over there for us, but we're not going over. Moses is like (and I'm doing a lot of paraphrasing), chill out. I've got this, God is with us. I'll go. He literally goes and is in between God and the people and it's a beautiful, beautiful picture. This is a descriptive quality of Messiah. Julie, I'm really setting you up for this. What is it?

Julie (00:24:09): Well, it's a leader and a mediator between God and the people.

Rick (00:24:14): It's pretty straightforward. You add that and you see the deliverer, you see the fighter, you see the king, you see the lawgiver, you see all of these pieces, and you're starting to get a sense that Messiah is much more than the word. That's part of the point of the Jewish perspective. Messiah is much more than this one word because it encompasses such a broad base of qualities in this one person. It actually becomes very exciting when you look at it this way and you sort of back into it. Jonathan, let's go back to quoting from that that site jewsforjudaism.org:

Jonathan (00:24:54): "Where does the Jewish concept of Messiah come from? One of the central themes of biblical prophecy is the promise of a future age of perfection characterized by universal peace and recognition of God...Many of these prophetic passages speak of a descendant of King David who will rule Israel during the age of perfection."

Julie (00:25:16): Just like there are differing views among Christians about things, including Messiah, the Jewish denominations like Orthodox, Hasidic, Conservative Reform and others all have differing views of the concept of Messiah. But in general, here's a paraphrase from Wikipedia: "The coming of the Messiah will be associated with a specific series of events, including the return of Jews to their homeland, the rebuilding of the Temple that was destroyed in 70 AD, a Messianic age of peace will be on earth and understanding during which the knowledge of God fills the earth."

Jonathan (00:25:53): Since none of these events occurred during the lifetime of Jesus, he is not the Messiah they have been waiting for. Isn't it interesting how we just discussed these prophetic signs in our last episode, #1311, as they relate to Israel, and we are in complete agreement that they will be fulfilled. Rick, did you plan this?

Rick (00:26:16): Nope. No, this was beyond me. I could take 15 minutes to explain how these two things came together completely beyond my understanding and recognition until the study opened itself up. It's thrilling, though. It's thrilling because you see, and you recognize the power of God's word. You can look at it; we're looking at it from a Jewish perspective right now. We're looking at it from the beginning forward, from this Jewish perspective, and they're saying, well, there's all of these amazing conclusions that come into play with Messiah. As Christians, we look at it from back end and looking backwards saying, well, look at all these things that he fulfilled. Now let's, as we put this together, what we're understanding is looking at it moving forward, you just keep adding details, adding details and adding details and this perspective that says, we are looking for someone to be there as king in this world of perfection and God's power. It is thrilling because they're right, they're absolutely right. One of the scriptures that they referenced that we'll touch on here is going to be in Jeremiah. Julie, go ahead.

Julie (00:27:29): Okay, so again, we're looking for Messiah without saying the word "Messiah." In context, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to the evil kings of Judah. In Jeremiah 22:30, he said none of the children of Jehoiachin would ever sit on the throne of David to rule in Judah. Jehoiachin was the last king of David's line in Judah, and none of his seven sons were king. We start reading in Jeremiah 23:5-6: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch; and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is his name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness." God promises that there will be a righteous branch from David. A quick quote from the Life Application Study Bible: "Jeremiah contrasted the present corrupt leaders with the coming Messiah, the perfect king, who would come from David's line to reign over Israel." This righteous branch, it goes on to explain, will sprout from this stump of David's fallen dynasty.

Rick (00:28:48): What we have then is we've got this sense that there is something very, very, very powerful being developed here. What we see is Israel, it will accept Messiah's rulership as sent from God and will permanently, permanently dwell in their land. Let's look at Ezekiel 37:24-25:

Jonathan (00:29:09): "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons' sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever."

Rick (00:29:32): You've got these two of many, many prophecies that show Messiah in this very strong kingship role in the future where it's unbelievably obvious as to what's happening. Jonathan, like you said, there's so many things that we look at and they're in the future, but these prophecies are very, very evident that they have to do with Messiah himself. Julie, another Descriptive Quality of Messiah in these scriptures; what do we have?

Julie (00:30:00): Well, he has to be a king, but he has to be from the line of David; wise, just and righteous. He will protect like a shepherd and guide his flock to walk in and observe God's own statutes.

Rick (00:30:12): You've got the kingship, you've got the lawmaker, you've got the authority, you've got the power, you've got the fighter, you've got the defender, you've got all of these things. No wonder they say they're not looking for "Messiah" because they're looking for this king with all of these other qualities in this very specific context of God's plans truly, truly unfolding, and we haven't seen these things yet. You can see that from a Jewish perspective there's certainly cause for questions. What's fascinating and revealing to see how the king and deliverer Messiah is so well described without even using the word.

Jonathan (00:30:59): The Jewish perspective on Messiah is inspiring. So why will they not accept Jesus as what we see as the obvious fulfillment of these prophecies?

Rick (00:31:09): There you go now. There are several reasons, and here we will respectfully treat some of them. As we approach these issues, let's focus on fully defining the Messiah so we can comprehensively appreciate how our belief in Jesus being that Messiah shines through. Here we're going to begin to harmonize the Old Testament prophecies with their New Testament fulfillments.

Jonathan (00:31:38): Well, there were false messiahs in biblical days, as is warned about in Mark 13:21-22: "At that time, if anyone says to you, Look, here's the Messiah! or, Look, there he is!--do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." From the Jewish perspective, they are just rejecting anything false that presents itself as a messiah.

Julie (00:32:08): Yeah, I was watching a video by a Rabbi Kravitz on the site that you've been quoting from, explaining why they don't see the Messiah referenced in the Old Testament. And he told this story: A person goes into the forest and he sees ten trees with an arrow right in the bullseye, and he couldn't believe somebody could be so accurate. So he finds the person who shot the arrows and he asks, how did you do such an amazing thing? The man said, well, it's simple. I first shoot the arrow into the tree and then I draw the target around the arrow. He likened this to Christians taking scriptures that don't really talk about the Messiah out of context and anything sounding even remotely like Jesus gets rubber stamped as a messianic prophecy. In other words, you have to already start with a belief in Jesus as the Messiah in order to go back and find him after the fact.

Rick (00:33:02): Okay. That's a very specific perspective that says, obviously you have the advantage of looking back and just pulling out pieces and fitting them wherever you'd like.

Julie (00:33:13): Exactly.

Rick (00:33:14): I will submit to you that that is absolutely what has not happened because as we will see, there are so many pieces, there's so many details, and they are so deep and so interlocked, it can't be something that just happens by chance. We're going to unfold all of that. As we get to that though, let's look at something very, very specific and one of the areas of challenge. Let's look at what we look at as Christians as important, and that is the lineage of Joseph.

Julie (00:33:53): We have the lineage of Joseph in Matthew 1 and Mary in Luke 3, and it's given as evidence. Remember, Jesus has to be from the line of David, so that's the evidence. It's going to trace that. Now according to the Jewish Bible, because you have to be a descendant of King David in order to be this Messiah, we noted that the lineage of Jesus can be very detailed, debated, and of scholarly discussion. We're only going to touch the surface here on some of the points. One quick point, we do acknowledge that the Luke genealogy that's attributed to Mary never actually names Mary. Because the two lists in Matthew and Luke are very different, and for some other technical reasons we won't go into here, it is assumed to be Mary's line. We're going to take that assumption here today.

Jonathan (00:34:41): Here are some of the challenges Jewish reasoning points out. Although the New Testament traces the genealogy of Mary's husband, Joseph, back to David, Jesus resulted from a virgin birth, so Joseph was not his biological father (Matthew 1:18-23). Many Christians say Joseph adopted Jesus and passed on his genealogy via adoption. The Jewish argument is Joseph could not qualify as a legitimate lineage as there is no legitimate biblical basis for passing on a tribal line through adoption.

Julie (00:35:19): In addition, the Jewish argument has two problems with Mary's lineage given in Luke. First they say it isn't legitimate because tribal affiliation only goes through fathers, not mothers.

Jonathan (00:35:31): Evidence of that can be found in Numbers 1:18: "And they assembled all the congregation together on the first of the second month. Then they registered by ancestry in their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, head by head."

Julie (00:35:50): Second, the throne was promised to go through David's son's Solomon. But here's the catch; Mary's lineage given in Luke goes through one of David's other sons, Nathan, and that's in 1 Chronicles 22:9-10:

Jonathan (00:36:06): "Behold, a son will be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever."

Rick (00:36:31): Okay. You got three significant issues here. You've got Joseph and this adoption problem. You've got Mary being a woman when lineages are developed through men, and then you have Mary's lineage going not through Solomon, which is like uh oh, warning!

Julie (00:36:50): Disqualify!

Rick (00:36:51): Yeah. Yeah. You've got these three issues. Let's look at the issues, okay? First, regarding Joseph and the adoption question. From my perspective, a primary functional reason for Joseph's lineage was to show that he was of the tribe of Judah. It's establishing where he came from. His adoptive fatherhood actually doesn't come into play. You say, wait a minute, but the lineage has to come through the father. Well, that point is going to be dealt with, okay? We're going to get to that in a moment. The adoptive fatherhood thing, I don't believe is a problem at all because literally Joseph was not the father of Jesus. He was the adopted father, but God Himself was his father. Let's figure out then why this adoption thing doesn't really play into the whole situation. We go to the second question, the second issue, Mary's issue with the tribal lineage going through fathers. Look, that's the Old Testament Law, and that can be a significant problem. I will tell you that when I first read that, I looked at it and I read it and I checked it out and I thought, huh, they're right, they're right. It's like, okay, what do you do with that? Because you can't deny what scripture says. By looking at this, you realize it is an issue according to the Law. So how do you resolve it? Folks, the resolution always comes from the same source. It always comes from the scriptures themselves. The resolution is this; God plainly declared at the very beginning that the "Messiah" was to be recognized as "the seed of the woman;" "the seed of the woman," not the man. Remember Genesis 3:15, that was the first evidence of Messiah we gave. "The seed of the woman," not the seed of the man. Why did God say that? I think the answer is very obvious--because He knew He would be the Father. He's announcing right, long before the Law is in place, that the Messiah comes through "the seed of the woman." Jonathan, let's go to...

Jonathan (00:39:00): Hold on, Rick. That's amazing! I mean...

Rick (00:39:03): Yeah, it is.

Jonathan (00:39:03): And it's veiled. It's easy to miss, but that is thrilling to see that connection.

Rick (00:39:11): It is, it is, and it's right there in scripture. Jonathan, let's just read Genesis 3:15:

Jonathan (00:39:18): "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel."

Rick (00:39:26): The lineage question is answered by the words of God Almighty Himself. Look, if you ever had a "mic drop" moment, there you have it. It's the words of God naming the seed of the woman. The third issue that was mentioned was Mary not being a descendant of Solomon. Jonathan, that scripture that was read earlier says his kingdom "will be over Israel forever." You've got this promise of this throne forever. How do you resolve that? Because if she doesn't come through the seed of Solomon or Jesus doesn't come, rather, then how could he possibly be the one? Because he's not coming through the right lineage. What's the resolution? The resolution, folks, is simple. It is simple. Always, always, always check the broader context of scriptural statements to know the whole truth. The whole truth comes from a broader understanding of scriptures. Let's look at 1 Chronicles. Now we looked at 1 Chronicles 22 as proof of his lineage forever. Let's look at 1 Chronicles 28:5-7, 9:

Jonathan (00:40:44): "Of all my (David's) sons...He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel. He said to me, Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a Father to him. I will establish his kingdom forever..."

Rick (00:41:06): Okay, pause right there. There you have it again. "I will establish his kingdom forever." Yeah, Julie's like, okay.

Jonathan (00:41:13): There it is.

Julie (00:41:13): Disqualified!

Rick (00:41:14): Yeah, yeah. Nothing else to do. Well, here's the next thing we do, folks. We read the rest of the scripture. I cannot, cannot, cannot stress enough how important context is to really understand what the Bible is telling us. Jonathan, let's go into that 1 Chronicles (edited) 28 and start with verse 7 at the beginning, and then go to verse 9:

Jonathan (00:41:38): Just one second, okay. "I will establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely performs My commandments and My ordinances, as is done now. As for you, My son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understanding every intention of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him. But if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever."

Julie (00:42:15): There it is.

Rick (00:42:16): Okay. If, then forever happens. But if you reject Him, then forever losing the lineage of the king would happen. We know how incredibly disobedient Solomon was by bringing idolatry into the sacredness of Israel and absolutely polluting the matter, so he was rejected. When you look at this lineage issue, you realize that wait a minute, it was prophesied, it was shown that if Solomon didn't follow, he would lose that incredible privilege. This lineage of going through Nathan rather than Solomon is not only appropriate, it was necessary. Go ahead, Jonathan.

Jonathan (00:43:02): Another amazing fact found, this time through context. Again, Rick, it's easy to miss unless you look at the full chunk of scripture.

Rick (00:43:14): Yeah, and that's what happens. A lot of times when we're trying to prove a point, we'll say, we'll read this text. Sure, that's good and that's important, that's appropriate. But what we want to understand is are there other scriptures that talk about the same thing in a broader perspective? That's really what we're looking for here. Julie, we've got more descriptive qualities of the Messiah coming here. What do we have summing up what we've just discussed?

Julie (00:43:37): Well, we know that now Jesus actually does line up with the necessary lineage and qualifications according to the Law and God's own words. As we go deeper into the details, we can start seeing these intricacies of how God's plan unfolds.

Rick (00:43:54): You're seeing now that as you dig deeper, you're seeing some of these objections starting to fade away because there's a broader picture, there's a bigger picture, there's more details that we need to look forward to and understand and open up. Jonathan, let's go back to jewsforjudaism.org for another quick quote here:

Jonathan (00:44:13): "The claim that Jesus will fulfill the Messianic prophecies when he returns does not give him any credibility for his first coming. The Bible never speaks about the Messiah returning after an initial appearance. The second coming theory is a desperate attempt to explain away Jesus' failure."

Julie (00:44:35): By calling it a "theory" it's saying that Christians are misinterpreting or rewriting scriptures because Jesus failed to fulfill the prophecies of the Torah (that's the first five books of the Bible) when he came the first time. It's like admitting he's the Messiah but needs more time to do what he was supposed to do the first time around. But they didn't realize that Jesus was first to be the slain "Lamb," and then the conquering "Lion," according to Revelation 5:5-6. The Messiah was described first as a suffering servant who would be rejected and killed. That was the first advent. But the Bible does speak of his return.

Rick (00:45:15): Again, Julie, in defense of the Jewish perspective, you're quoting the New Testament. They're not going to believe in that, but here's something that they do believe in that needs to be understood. Interestingly, remember the only scriptures in the Old Testament where the word was translated Messiah appeared in Daniel? Well, let's take a look at those scriptures again because they give us a broader perspective than what was just indicated from this jewsforjudaism.org basically saying, well, it doesn't speak of Messiah returning after an initial appearance, and it talks about Jesus failing. Well, here's what Daniel 9:25-26 says, because it talks about Messiah being cut off. Go ahead, Jonathan.

Jonathan (00:45:59): "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end therefore shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." Well, these verses clearly show us the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Rome when Messiah was cut off, meaning he died. This contradicts what the Jews were looking for in Messiah. All the things they were looking for still have to come true.

Julie (00:46:52): We wouldn't say Jesus's claim to Messiah was a failure because he died. It was a success because he fulfilled prophecy. Now this 70 weeks in Daniel prophecy, it's tough. There's a lot of detail here and we're going to include more in our CQ Rewind Show Notes this week. But another point it makes is Messiah wasn't promised to come in the midst of some universal peace and security. There's a lot of scriptures that do promise such a time, and we understand those to be in God's future kingdom, but not when Jesus came to earth as a man.

Rick (00:47:27): The key point of the Daniel verse is "the Messiah will be cut off." Yes, that does mean he dies. Actually next week in Part II, we're going to get into that piece much more deeply because it's very important. In the Old Testament, it does say Messiah dies. It does. It indicates there's more to the picture than may have been thought of previously. As we wrap up this part, Jonathan, Understanding the Meaning of Messiah, what do we have?

Jonathan (00:47:57): This Daniel prophecy indicates that Messiah would come, be cut off, and then the city and sanctuary would be destroyed. AD 70 not only fulfilled this, but Jesus also graphically prophesied this as well as his being "cut off." The foundation for seeing how Jesus fulfills Messiah's description is being laid out.

Rick (00:48:19): The foundation's not only laid out; it's impressive. This is a good lesson for us. When we are presented with issues and contradictory perspectives, we simply need to go back to God's word and verify.

Jonathan (00:48:34): So many details and descriptions about Messiah and his work. How can we directly see how Jesus' own life fulfilled them?

Rick (00:48:42): This is a massive undertaking, and because there are so, so many prophetic applications that fit his life. Right now, we'll simply begin to list many seemingly small but very significant prophecies and fulfillments. In light of all that we've thus far covered, folks, ask yourself if the things we're going to talk about now, if all of these things could simply be coincidence or if they show God's plan unfolding.

Julie (00:49:11): Just a little testimony of myself when I was studying for this; without the New Testament pointing back to the passages in the Old Testament and verifying things like, remember when this was said by David? Well, there was a bigger hidden prophetic meaning that was meant to point to Jesus. Without these New Testament faithful showing us this, it would be very difficult to see these clues. As we can see, this study has made me more thankful than ever to see this blessing we have in the New Testament because it shines a light on the Old and we can see how God's plan fits together. It all knits together perfectly.

Rick (00:49:48): It really does. It really does. It is incredibly impressive and it's incredibly inspiring if we're willing to look at the scriptures and let them show us how they fit together. We're going to very rapidly, in this final segment, go through several prophecies and several fulfillments that show Jesus foretold in the Old Testament and having come true in the New Testament. First one, Jesus born of a virgin.

Julie (00:50:15): Here's the original prophecy in Isaiah 7:14: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel." Bible Commentary from Albert Barnes on this name "Immanuel" says, "The name is designed to denote that God would be with the nation as its protector, and the birth of this child would be a sign or pledge of it."

Jonathan (00:50:40): The prophecy in Isaiah is fulfilled in Luke 1:26-31: "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus."

Rick (00:51:19): You have the Old Testament, Isaiah, the New Testament in Luke, you've got this sense of bringing things together. The name for "Jesus" means "Jehovah is salvation." "Immanuel" is essentially "God with us." You see that the connection between those two things. That's a beginning. Let's go to another one - Messiah's introduction. The scriptures prophesied that Messiah would be proceeded by a forerunner.

Julie (00:51:46): Here's the original prophecy in Malachi 3:1: "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold He is coming, says the LORD of hosts."

Jonathan (00:52:05): Here's the prophecy fulfilled. Luke 7:24-27: "When the messengers of John had left, he (Jesus) began to speak to the crowds about John, What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?... This is the one about whom it is written (quoting Malachi 3:1) Behold, I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you." Jesus himself links us back to Malachi showing us its deeper meaning, that John the Baptist would prepare the way for Jesus.

Rick (00:52:36): Again, you have an Old Testament statement and a New Testament fulfillment and, and look, some can say, well, you know what? He knew that, so he just said that to fill it up. Okay. You can say that for one thing. Can you say that for two? Can you say that for three? Can you say that for ten? Can you say it for 28? Can you say it for 254? I mean, that's where you have to understand this gets bigger. Let's go further. Another prophecy - Jesus declared to be the Son of God.

Julie (00:53:04): The original prophecy is in Psalm 2:7-8: "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD; He said to me, you are My son, today I have begotten you. Ask of Me, and I will surely give you the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession."

Jonathan (00:53:23): The prophecy in Psalm 2 is fulfilled. Matthew 3:16-17: "After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, This is My beloved son, in whom I am well-pleased." Jesus, at the age of 30 and not before, received God's holy spirit--and the evidence came out in all the miracles he performed.

Rick (00:53:54): You have this proclamation, "This is My son," My son, and again, our next episode we're going to go a little bit more deeply into that Psalm 2 scripture because there's a lot of other details there that when you put them together, you say, Wow, this is too much to be a coincidence. Next one, next prophecy. Jesus the teacher, specifically preaching in Galilee.

Julie (00:54:16): Well, here's the prophecy, Isaiah 9:1-2: "But there will be no more gloom for her who is in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them." Now, just a quick note; "Galilee literally means a circle. In this case it was a circuit, a district. It's a territory in Naphtali largely occupied by heathen; a circuit of towns." (Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon)

Jonathan (00:54:56): Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers: "Galilee was applied to the borderlands of the Phoenician frontier of the northern kingdom, inhabited by a mixed population, and therefore known as Galilee of the Gentiles."

Julie (00:55:12): According to biblical commentaries, the literal context here likely had to do with Assyrian invasions and the defeat of Assyrian armies. We are not saying that these scriptures don't have a literal fulfillment that can teach us many lessons, but a literal fulfillment doesn't preclude either a secondary or a deeper spiritual fulfillment that can teach us even more.

Rick (00:55:36): Jonathan, let's go to the fulfillment, Matthew 4:12-17:

Jonathan (00:55:41): "Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet." Then he goes on to quote Isaiah 9:1-2 that we just read.

Rick (00:56:01): What we have is that he ends that with saying in verse 17: "From that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." You have a real tying together of these things.

Julie (00:56:14): Yeah, Matthew verifies Jesus preaching in Galilee and settling in this region of Zebulun and Naphtali. Matthew was one of the twelve apostles. He wrote his gospel to his fellow Jews so that they could see Jesus as their Messiah. He's specifically showing us those Old Testament prophecies that the Jews knew so well. He's telling us, these actually pointed to Jesus. It's exciting.

Rick (00:56:38): Yeah, and Matthew, that was one of his great missions. Let me show you all how this fits. This is why you need to look at this man and say, this is the one. This is the one, this is the one. Let's go to another example. And that is prophetically, it was said that teaching in parables was an important part of this whole thing.

Julie (00:56:59): Psalm 78:1-4: "Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done."

Jonathan (00:57:22): The fulfillment; Matthew 13:34-35: "All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and he did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet." Then he goes on to quote Psalm 78 which we just read. Jesus spoke the words God gave him to speak.

Julie (00:57:42): Now, Rick, I think this is one of the weaker evidences because many people taught with parables. This was a standard method of Jewish teaching. This is the point of that Jewish perspective saying Christians like Matthew back into what Jesus did by finding anything they can in the Old Testament and automatically applying it to him. Without an existing belief in the New Testament, Matthew saying it by just plucking out this broad "parables as a teaching method" doesn't make it so.

Rick (00:58:12): No, you're right. It doesn't, not all by itself, but the fact of the parables are that Jesus took many of his parables from the Old Testament. Do they comment on that? This is in the context of all of these other things. We're not taking any one of these things and saying, Hey, look at this, now you have to believe it. We're saying, look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and now understand that there is too much evidence to deny. Julie, this is one small step in a massive movement forward to see Jesus as a Messiah. But that's an important point and I'm glad you brought it up. Let's go to the next one; Jesus binding up the brokenhearted. It's such an important part of the Messianic work. Isaiah, I'm sorry, Julie. Let's get started.

Julie (00:59:04): Here's the prophecy. Isaiah 61:1-2: "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn."

Jonathan (00:59:28): The fulfillment of this prophecy is found in Luke 4:16-21: "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Not only was this a fulfillment, but the perfect place for Jesus to stop reading. Why? Jesus did not read about the day of vengeance, which came next, because it was not relevant to the timing of his first advent. It was a prophecy related to his second advent. He omitted the part of the prophecy which would have its application at some future time.

Julie (01:00:37): I guess you could go back to the Old Testament and what you were saying, Rick, we could pull out a few statements out of context. We could say Jesus fulfilled them. You could shoot the arrow first and a draw bullseye around it, but they're not just a few statements. There are hundreds of examples. Many of these couldn't be staged, arranged after the fact or manipulated by Jesus to force them to come true. The evidence becomes overwhelming because there are just too many bullseyes.

Rick (01:01:06): That's the point. The evidence will be overwhelming. As we get into our next Part II of this series, we're going to go deeply. In this segment, we just touched on a few things to say, let's pause and consider this. Let's pause and consider that. Let's pause and consider this. This gives you a flavor. This is just a flavor. It's like when you go to the restaurant and you want to try something out first. You know, they give you a glass of wine and here try it, see if you like it. That's all this is. This is just that little flavor. You say, oh, yeah, that's good. Well wait.

Julie (01:01:37): The appetizers, is that what you're saying?

Rick (01:01:39): It's just a taste. It's not even an appetizer. It's just a taste to say there is so much more here. There is so much more here. That's why the second part is so, so important. Jonathan, let's put this together. Understanding the Meaning of Messiah; where are we?

Jonathan (01:01:56): These few prophetic examples show us some of the breadth of how the life of Jesus as the Messiah was foretold. The further we go into biblical prophecy, the more we will see confirmations of his life, his death, and most importantly, his future work of resurrection and reconciliation. Let us stand in awe at the detail with which God has put His plan in place!

Rick (01:02:25): Folks, that's the point here. The point is to pause and consider and to look at the scriptures as a whole and to realize that from beginning to end, there is a singular message, and that singular message is focused on Jesus and the work that he does. It's focused on what he did at his first advent, what he does at his second advent, and how the two are part of the same thing, the same Messiahship, the same plan, the same reconciliation that needed to be bought first and put in place second. We'll explore that further next week. Think about it. Folks, we love hearing from our listeners. We welcome your feedback and questions on this episode and other episodes at ChristianQuestions.com. Coming up in our next episode, we've already said it, next week; "How Do We Know Jesus is the Promised Messiah? ( Part II. We'll talk to you then.