Friday, November 16, 2012

MESSIAH--2
In the Middle Ages the Jewish rabbi Moses Maimonides wrote the guidelines of who the messiah would be for Israel. Usually 18 OT verses are used to apply proof to his text:  Some of them are:
The messiah will restore justice, Isaiah 1.26
The messiah becomes king so the nations look to him for guidance, Isaiah 2.4.
The world will worship the God if Israel, Isaiah 2.11-17.
He will descend from David, Isaiah 1.11.
The Spirit of the Lord will be upon him, Isaiah 11.2.
Evil and tyranny cannot stand before Him, Isaiah 11.4.
Knowledge of God fills the earth, Isaiah 11.9.
He will attract people from other cultures, Isaiah 11.10.
All Jews will return to Israel, Isaiah 11.12.
Death is swallowed up, Isaiah 25.8.
All Jewish people will have joy and peace, Isaiah 51.11.
He will be a messenger of peace, Isaiah 52.7.
Nations will recognize the wrong they did Israel, Isaiah 52.13--53.5
The world will turn to Israel, Zechariah 8.23.
War is destroyed, Ezekiel 39.9.
  These are the particular points Maimonides emphasized.  According to these texts, the messiah is a future king from the line of David who will be anointed and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic age. He will rebuild the temple, reinstitute the Sanhedrin and animal sacrifices.  All Jews will return to Israel.  And the messiah will lead the Jewish people in what one website calls, 'full Torah observance.'  Modern Jewish commentators say the messiah will be born of human parents, he will have no supernatural qualities, he will not be God.

  While many of the OT passages Jewish and Christian scholars use concerning the messiah are the same, the different interpretations remain apart.

  Jesus said--I am the Father are one, John 10.30.  He said--I am the way, the truth, the life, no man comes to the Father but through Me, John 14.6.  Jesus created the way to the Father--by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, Hebrews 10.20.  The Jews of His day believed they already had a connection to God.

  Jewish scholars say Jesus did not rebuild the temple, institute animal sacrifices or install strict Torah observance.  They say there was no prophet, that all Jews must return to Israel.  Some Jewish scholars say Jesus was not a prophet, did not descend from David, that He did not lead Jews in Torah observance.  
  Christian scholars say Jesus ended the sacrifices as He was the last sacrifice, the Lamb of God, John 1.36.  The Holy Spirit at Pentecost has made every believing soul the temple of God, 1 Peter 2.5, 6.  Jesus said in Matthew 11.9 that John was a prophet and that the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.  In John 4.19 the Samaritan woman at the well says--Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.  In Matt. 21.11 the people say Jesus is a prophet.

  But really these are secondary matters which might not change a person's mind.  The significant issue is whether Jesus is God and whether Jews will return to full Torah observance.
  Jesus said He was God, He came to fulfill the Law, that the Law will not pass away until all is accomplished, Matt. 5.18.  What is to be accomplished?  He said---All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you; and lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age, Matt. 28.18-20.

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