This has nothing to do with Jesus being, or not being, the Messiah

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Sep 19, 2014 at 03:29

Hello, Shlomo

Remember that we are talking here about why some Christians support Israel, not saying who is or isn't a "messiah". I gave my own reasons for supporting Israel. In what I jsaid, did I once call Jesus the Messiah? Look carefully -- I did not.

Here's what you said, though:

"He had his chance 20 centuries ago, and he didn't.. yada yada.

"This is what the real messiah is supposed to accomplish during his time on Earth: The Sanhedrin will be re-established (Isaiah 1:26) Once he is King, leaders of other nations will look to him for guidance. (Isaiah 2:4) The whole world will worship the One God of Israel (Isaiah 2:17).."

I'm not impressed with this sort of talk. Here's what those verses actually say:

Isaiah 1:
[26] And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellers as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

The Sanhedrin was very much alive in Jesus' time and before, yet the Jewish kingdom went to the Romans. Clearly, having the Sanhedrin restored would do nothing for the Jewish people (one has even been restored in our day, but it's not well received). For the Jewish people to be called "The city of rightousness, the faithful city", though, is another matter. No restored sanhedrin can accomplish that: national repentance is required, from what TaNaKh calls "a stiff-necked people".

Isaiah 2:
[4] And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

What seems to matter most here, is not whether the Jews accept Messiah, but whether the nations receive him. Jesus seems to have fulfilled this. Even in its crude, earthly form, you will note that the church rebuked even emperors.

Isaiah 2:
[17] And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

No time limit is placed on this prediction; and I am still waiting to see its fulfillment -- especially the part that says, "the haughtiness of men shall be made low". I don't see any prospect of that in this day and age. Men will certainly be made low:

Zech. 14:
[12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

What happens AFTER that humiliation (a nuclear exchange, apparently), depends on what happens INSIDE THE HEARTS of men. It is in men's hearts, hundreds of millions of them, that Jesus' teaching and deeds have made a difference -- not in the changing of the political guard in Israel or elsewhere.

Messiah must first be received WITHIN, by FAITH. Until that happens, no worthwhile change will happen in the world around that person. As Isaiah says of the "suffering servant",

Isaiah 53:
[1] Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
[2] For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
[3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Now tell me. Have I here, even once, called Jesus the Messiah? No. My connection to the Jewish people and to Israel, though, is through what he said and did. For that, I think you might be grateful.

Shalom shalom :-)

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