JESUS   THE   MESSIAH

His Life and Times

No. 12  

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What Messiah Did the Jews Expect ?

     The whole scriptures that were written down for the Jews to read and study basically covered the lineage leading up to the royal line that would lead to the birth of Jesus, and the developments that led to the Israelites being chosen as God's own race of people that He had chosen for His alone.  He wanted to set them apart and bless them so that the other races would see what the One True God was capable of doing for His own people.  But in essence, they were almost one and the same because at the end, Jesus would be born from this royal Jewish lineage that God had chosen to be His own people.  

     In its final stage, it would be the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth that was culminated in the death of Jesus on the cross.  The mission of Israel had passed through three stages:  1.  the historical, or preparation for the Kingdom of God  2. the ritual, or the typical presentation of that kingdom   3.  the prophetic, what brought that Kingdom into actual contact with the kingdoms of the world.  It is in this sense that we could understand the two sayings of the Talmud: 'All the prophets prophesy only of the days of the Messiah' and "The world was created only for the Messiah'.  Everything written in the Old Testament is basically  a narrative of and prediction of the Messiah.  After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God lays out his plans for man's redemption  and what it will take to bring this redemption to pass.  

     Even though the Jews were God's chosen people,  they still could only find their true fulfillment in the coming of the Messiah and believing in Him.  The ancient Synagogue had found many more passages that they thought referred to the coming Messiah than just the verbal predictions that we usually hear about.  Their number amounts to 75 from the Pentateuch, 243 from the Prophets, and 138 from the Hagiographa.  Even the ancient historians felt that most things were a symbol of the coming Messiah, or symbolized something that would lead to His coming.  

     One of their great dangers, though, lay in the fact that they had it already thought out in their minds about what the Messiah would do, and how he would handle things to make them the chosen people again so that they would have favor among the others in the land.  They felt that all Israel needed was 'study of the Law and good works'.  This lay within the reach of every good Jew, and all that Israel hoped for, was national restoration and glory.  Everything they did was just a means to this end, and they just felt that the Messiah Himself was the grand instrument for them to attain that.  They were looking for a Messiah that would exalt them again like in the time of Moses.  They didn't want a Messiah who wanted to save the world.  When Jesus WAS born, He separated Himself from all the ideas of His time, and His mission was totally unknown and unrecognized by the Jewish leaders of the day.  

     God had given Moses and the Israelites laws to follow after they left Egypt.  It was His desire to teach them to obey these laws, and therefore, they would learn to see more and more who the One True God was.  It was God's intention to richly bless them because they followed these laws.  Then in turn they would learn to see Him better and better.  But instead of doing this, they took matters into their own hands and made hundreds of their own laws that they added to the Ten Commandments.  By the time Jesus was born, they already had their own conception of how things should be done, and they certainly didn't want Him telling them that their ways were wrong.

     In connection with the way they felt now, their gathered historical writings from this time suggest that the ancient Rabbis did not believe the doctrine of Original Sin, or of the sinfulness of their whole nature.  They knew there were consequences for their actions, but they had fallen a long way down from the things that Moses had taught the Israelites.  They taught that man was created with two inclinations - that to evil and that to good; the first would work in him from the beginning, and the latter would come gradually in the course of time.  The Talmud expressly teaches that the evil desire or impulse was created by God Himself, while it is also asserted that, on seeing the consequences, God actually repented having done so.  Believing this way would give quite another character to sin, as due to causes for which no blame attaches to man.  On the other hand, they believed it was in the power of each one wholly to overcome sin, and to gain life by study and works.  

     In the absence of the people feeling a need for deliverance from sin, it's much easier to understand how Rabbinic tradition found no place for the Priestly office of the Messiah, and how even His claims to be the Prophet of His people are almost entirely overshadowed by His appearance as their King and Deliverer.  The Jews were in their terrible mess because of their own mistakes.  They neglected to study the Law, they loved money and partying, they had not repented of their sins, they had married out of their own race, they had developed evil customs and idolatry.  In other words, they had almost completely forgotten about the Real God.  

    There were consequences that also showed up in their land.  Rain and dew were absent there, there was no fruitfulness or plenty any more there,  there was a general disorder of society, there was no prophecy any more, and most of the religious study and works had just ceased.  The light which had shown out from the Temple windows into the world had been extinguished.  

     In poetic language of the time it was said that "the heavens, sun, moon and stars, trees and mountains, even the Angels, mourned over the desolation of the Temple.  But though the Divine Presence had been withdrawn, it still lingered near His own; it had followed them in all their banishments; it had suffered with them in all their sorrows."  It is a touching legend, which represents the Shekhinah as still lingering over the western wall of the Temple, or the Wailing Wall (the only wall of the Temple that is supposed to be still standing).   Their writings also said that God Himself was still mourning over Jerusalem and the Temple.  The writings said that He had not entered His Palace since then, and His hair was wet with the dew.  He wept over his children and their desolateness.

     From the many passages written in Jewish Antiquities about the coming of the Messiah, it is evident that they were truly looking for Him.  Things were so bad for them at the time of his birth that they were truly crying out for a savior.  They just had their own plan formulated as to who He would be and what He would do for them.  They could not have imaged the whole scope of what Jesus did when He died on the cross.  We miss so many great things when we have only one way of doing things ingrained in us.  The Pharisees couldn't see the Messiah because he didn't fit their certain mold that they already fit Him in before He was ever born.  God had His own plan and carried it out, and we would be very wise to see what that plan is and follow it instead of what we think.  

     For more information from this book, go to the archives page at my site  www.cathydeaton.com   There are other articles of interest there also. 

     This text is taken from the book Life and Time of Jesus the Messiah written by Alfred Edersheim.  This book is used by permission.