Chapter Two – Prophecy
and Expectation
Read Exodus chapter 12; Psalm 2, 16,
& 22; Isaiah 9, 11, 49, & 53; Micah 5
I thought that a change of pace would
be nice compared to all the other prophetic voices about Jesus. What is more
important to this study is not that Jesus fulfills the prophecy about Him;
rather what is important is what the Hebrew people expected Him to be. Over the
course of this chapter we are going to explore not only the scriptures
regarding His coming, birth and even death and resurrection, but how did that
impact the Hebrew people. The reason that in Chapter One we studied the people,
the land and the political landscape is because it impacts all of that. We must
remember that the people were under an oppressive world. The rich got richer
and the expense of the middle and lower class. Taxes continued to increase and
the people were crying out to God to be redeemed, reclaimed and set free. I can
imagine for a moment with the history the Hebrew people enjoy, the connection
to the Passover story and redemption and freedom that came to those folks
through Moses. Just the same as we struggle with certain concepts of the End of
Days, like rapture and the likelihood that Christ is coming again, but just
once, the Hebrew people believed that Christ was coming just once.
We of course know that of the
thousands of prophetic voices in the Old Testament, over 350 were fulfilled in
the birth, the life and the death of Jesus. There is so much that we could
explore here like the idea that he would be born from the womb of a young
woman, a pure woman (Gen 3:15, Isa 7:14, Jere 31:22). That he would be from the
lineage of Jacob through David because of the promise to David by God that his
throne would go on forever (2 Sam 7:13) and he would be born in Bethlehem, the
city of David (Mic 5:2). We could go on and on with the prophecies that Jesus
fulfills simply in the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke. But our focus is
on Jesus.
In Exodus chapter 12 we see prophetic
voice which tells us that a lamb without blemish will come. For the Hebrew this
is a direct connection to Passover. Remember that the people have already made
a connection due to their condition, like the early Hebrew people, they too are
under foreign rule and oppressed. Psalm 2 speaks to a Jesus that will come as
the anointed one, to be a King. In fact it is this prophesy that probably sent
the Magi on their fateful journey with Herod. That he will rule the nations
with a rod of iron. That he would be born to be the savior. We’ll come back to
Psalm 22 later. In Psalm 89 we see that this Messiah will be higher than the
highest kings, from David’s seed and his kingdom will endure forever. In Isaiah
9 we see that this Messiah will come to bring peace, justice, wisdom and love,
just what the people are crying out for in the midst of their struggles. In
Isaiah 22 we see that the Messiah will be all authority to govern that no
nation will rise against him. In the 49th chapter of Isaiah we see
that the Messiah will restore Israel and be its salvation.
Now to a certain extent I have picked
and chosen the scriptures that I wanted you to focus on. For a reason! If you are
living in an oppressive environment, subject to unfair taxation, Laws so
restricting that you find it almost impossible to live day to day, what might
you focus on? I would suspect that all those prophetic voices about the
Messiah’s death (Dan 9), his body given up for the sins of the world (Isa 53),
betrayed for money (Zech 11:12) would not be the things your mind could
possibly comprehend if you are looking for a conquering King to come and make
Israel a nation above all nations. In fact I would venture to say that you
might not even hear those particular scriptures voiced by the Pharisee’s and
Sadducees and local Scribes. Their role is to stir the people to believe and
look for the one that suits their purposes. The Sadducees were probably heavy
on the Shepherd, Servant role while the Pharisees would have heavy on the
conquering King. But that the Messiah would die and rise again. Impossible so
we are not even going to voice those scriptures. I often think that the powers
that be that created the Lectionary have a feel good agenda because they too
ignore much of the prophetic voice in scripture.
So there you have it. The first
century Hebrew/ Jew would have been crying out to God for salvation from their
current condition. They would have been crying out to God for a Moses like
Messiah that would come and set them free. My guess is that they completely
would have missed the whole wilderness experience as a future possibility when
the Messiah comes. Funny that story seems to repeat itself well within the
context of the world we now live and have lived in since Jesus death and
resurrection.
So it should really come as no
surprise that the modern day Hebrew/ Jew still believes that Jesus was not the
Messiah. He did not come and conquer Rome. He did not come and bring the throne
of David back to its rightful power. Well…… not at least in this world. And
that is where the modern day Christian gets it while the Jew struggles with it.
I believe it is also why many in the Jewish community figured it out after Jesus
death and resurrection. As they reviewed the scriptures they had probably not
heard much previously, they realized that God is working in God’s way and it
God’s time.
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