Actually-Proper Church Doctrine has Everything to do With Jesus as Messiah

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Sep 30, 2014 at 19:10

Restoration of the Davidic Kingdom

There is a historic set of circumstances which has become both problematic and a sticking point in prophetic applications of Biblical understanding of who is to be the successor king of Israel; and when does the final form of the kingdom of the promise actually begin. Many will attempt to defeat the premise purely based on inappropriate applications of those Scriptures that point to a Messiah who is to come while missing the dual nature of the prophesies; this occurs while at the same time misapplications of other scriptures are debated so as to further cloud the promises to Israel and her future kingdom destiny.

Each perspective, whether Judaic or Christianesque, that does not resort to spiritless interpretations, must either find that both scriptural applications, of both an anointed servant and anointed monarch are in the Biblical Tanach; or neither can be counted upon to be the Redeemer of Israel in her time of need and restoration. Such a distinction is presented here.

Of all the books of the Tanach, Isaiah, in its full rendering from a single prophetic worldview, presents a composite portrait of the person that Israel should be expecting at the time of her final deliverance. While there are the servant implications of a son that assumes the right of ascendency, at the same time the full application of the descendency to the throne is to be found and understood. All scriptural application must be understood in order to appropriately identify who has the right to be the Son of Man, Son of David.

There is written in Isaiah, chapter 33:22): For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. That being written, who do we expect to be king, except the LORD? The conclusion must be it is the LORD. So the question: who does Israel expect to be the approaching king? And who do the gentiles look for, since according to scripture, He will be One and the same? He will be the same.

The setting appears in the Holy Writ as a future situation for the final occupation of the throne, since the Jewish nation has yet to have the LORD seated as king. A questions is posed; is He seated on the throne as a man like David (the Son of David); or will He be the conquering LORD as is shown in Ezekiel 43:4-8); As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, 5) the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 6) While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, 7) and he said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places, 8) by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them. They have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger.

For comparison, we might read in Isaiah 59:19-20); So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives. 20) "And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression," declares the LORD.

Now do we expect the king to arrive as it is written in Zechariah 9:9); Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Or are we to expect Him who the Holy Writ describes in Zechariah 14:16); Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. Again, who are we expecting?

Under a search and determination of a decidedly Christianesque perspective, the dual nature of the prophetic calls of a Messiah were fulfilled in the Person of Yeshua HaNazaret, Jesus Christ. Much of the modern view of Orthodox Judaism rejects this for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is traceable to the time of the Nazarene's arrival, ministry and eventual termination nearly two thousand years ago. Without belaboring all the causes of the negativity that engenders, let it sufficient to say they have developed their own strong case for not believing, which is strange since unbelief was part of their original judgment.

Stemming from a reading of Isaiah 11:1) There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2) And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 4) but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Is this not the Messiah?

Continuing in Isaiah 11:10) In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. 11) In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. How is this not the Messiah when the Anointed One is the only one this can refer to?

We search further and read, Isaiah 12:2) "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." And then following closely, there is verse 12:6) Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel." This too, points to the Messiah. But the Judaic contention is this: when did, or when does, this take place? Again, the disciple of the Messiah is directed to the issue of the Nazarene as already fulfilling the immediate prophetic implication and the second part is yet to come.

To take a quick look at the Judaic perspective, reader Shlomo from another post in this forum said this of his expectation (which is shared quite broadly in his community: This is what the real messiah is supposed to accomplish during his time on Earth: from here he extols all of the magnificent attributes of the King Messiah, but dismisses the 'servant verses' since the entire expectation for the expectant Jewish person is the desire to get to the routing of all nations that have besieged Israel for a very, very long time. He punctuates with: If he had really been the messiah, every single Jew would have noticed and no one would doubt it. As is the case after nearly two thousand years, it did not go as expected and many still ask: why is that?

The answer is: that only those verses that predicted a conquering Messiah were being amplified and those of the servant Messiah were not so nearly compelling. After all, how could the servant become king? The answer is deeply rooted in Jewish culture. The Messiah is the heir to the Davidic throne, first as an obedient son of David, as the root of Jess shown in the opening verses of Isaiah eleven; and at the same time, as noted in Isaiah 33:22, it IS the LORD. He, therefore, cannot be, is not going to be, mere mortal. So from a disciple's perspective, his first attempt to get a following out of the believing remnant in Israel was unwittingly terminated, yet the witness is that He ascended to the right hand of the Eternal Sovereign, His Father. Upon receiving the signal, well, most devoted Jewish followers pretty much have His return set in its fulfillment of the conquering Messiah.

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