The messianic hope is the expectation of an Anointed
Deliverer that has its roots in pre-mortal life and that was prophesied about
extensively in the scriptures (Abraham 3:27; Moses 4:1,2).
The English word Messiah comes from the Hebrew Meshiach,
meaning ‘anointed’. The Greek equivalent is Christos. The Hebrew
word Yeshua (Jesus in Greek) means ‘Saviour’ or ‘deliverer’. The two
words combined denote one anointed of God to save or deliver His people.
The Old Testament prophets prophesied of the Messiah
in incredible detail. The prophecies tell of him being born of a virgin (Isaiah
7:14); that He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); that He would be raised
a prophet like unto Moses (Deut 18:15);
that He would be of the lineage of David
(Genesis 49:10; Jeremiah 23:5-6) and that He would have the government upon his
shoulder (Isaiah 9:6,7).
The New Testament prophecies revealed the life and
mission of the Messiah in detail. The writers of the four Gospels especially pointed
out how Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies that referred to
the coming Messiah, the references of which are too extensive to record here.
The most well known messianic prophecy belongs to
Isaiah who spoke of Him dualistically. Isaiah 53 describes the role of Christ as
a ‘suffering servant’, ‘a man of sorrows’, one who stands ‘as a sheep before
her shearers’, one who takes our transgressions upon Himself. The other picture
of the Messiah is that of the “King of Glory” contained in Isaiah 9, which
paints a picture of deliverance, political power, and the destruction of the
enemies of Israel. They speak of two time periods which the Jewish population
of Christ’s time either did not understand or they chose to ignore. The ‘suffering
servant’ was a reference to Messiah’s first advent when He would deliver His people spiritually and
the King of Glory who would be sitting on the throne of David and have the
government upon His shoulder refers to the Millenial reign.
The Jews of Christ’s first advent recognized that
Jesus was from the lineage of David but
when He refused to take up the sword against Rome and take upon himself the
government of their nation, His crucifixion was seen by the majority as a proof
that He could not have been the promised deliverer. Remember the mocking: “He
saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now
from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with
him reviled him.” ( Mark 15:31, 32).
This is where the Jewish nation went wrong in their
expectation of the Messiah:
From the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70….the Palestinian
remnant of Israel was subjected to the rule of many great powers: the
Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, and finally the
Romans.
During this great period of bondage to different
powers, the Jewish people came to see the Messiah not as one who would provide
Atonement for their sins but one who would deliver them from their enemies by
physical force. They wanted freedom from people who ruled them.
And so the Jews looked beyond the mark which was
Christ (Jacob 4:14) and crucified their God. When He did not come in a manner
that they anticipated, they looked beyond Him for another who should come…..and
they wait still.
Oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of
mine heart!!!! I would shout from the rooftops to unbelieving Israel: your King will
come!!!!
“Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil
shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle….then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those
nations….and his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives…and one
shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer,
Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” (Zechariah 13:6;
14:1-4)
