Carl Pollard
Divided Kingdom
Dave Chamberlin
9/8/2017
The True King of Kings
Jerusalem’s fall had been apart of God’s plan from the very beginning. The Jew’s thought the control that the Romans had over them was something to be taken care of in the coming of what they thought was their Messiah. Rome taking over Jerusalem was all apart of God’s plan from the beginning. Since creation, God had planned to send His son to be the redeemer of all, the Messiah to save the world. The problem was with those who were waiting for the Messiah. God knew He would have to send His son, but the expectations of the Jews, especially the Rabi’s, was much different than what God had in mind. They figured that the Messiah would be like those great kings they had known from the past.
The coming of Jesus was foretold in many different books in the Old Testament, but Isaiah definitely has many great prophecies concerning His coming, and the trials he would face. But among the many prophecies, there were also many “asserted” prophecies that were not correct or true (Elwell 68). Once again, the Rabbi’s had trouble figuring out these prophecies and whether they pertained to the Messiah or not and in many cases this is still true today. We can also have trouble distinguishing between these prophecies. Over the next few pages we will look at the suppositions of the Christ, the conjecture of the Kingdom that was foretold, look to the New Testament to see what it says about the Messiah, the prophecies that the Rabbi’s misused, and the true description of the Messiah.
The suppositions made about the Messiah were very great. We can see throughout many other cultures and religions that they also had prophecies of a savior that was to come and save them from oppression, punish the evil, bless the righteous and restore their nation. Some believe that the first mentioning of a savior to the world was back in Genesis where it says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel” (3:15). A few scholars believe this is referring to when Jesus was crucified on the cross; this was Satan bruising His heel, and when Jesus arose he bruised Satan on the head. They believe this to be the first Messianic prophecy.
There were a couple of requirements for the Messiah. First, He had to be a descendant of David (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Jeremiah 23:5). Second, He would follow the Jewish law (Isaiah 11:2-5). Third, He was to be a quintessential Judge (Jeremiah 23:25). These are just a few of the descriptions given of the Messiah in the Bible. The Torah doesn't give any specific reference to Jesus. In fact, the Jews did not believe that Messiah would be apart of the Godhead. This is one of the major differences between christianity and Judaism, they believed God to be too powerful and immortal to ever become a man. They believed God to be so far removed from mankind, that He was incapable of becoming one (Robinson 3).
In Isaiah 52 and 53, there are very clear prophecies given to the Messiah for christians. We will be looking at the book of Isaiah for these prophecies given of the Messiah. The book of Isaiah is a prophecy filled book; we notice first off the phrase, “redeemer that comes from Zion,” recorded in Isaiah 59:20. Second off, the phrase, “servant that will being justice to the nations,” recorded in Isaiah 42. And third off the, “spring from Jessie,” found in Isaiah 11 and mentioned again in Isaiah 2.
The prophecies given of the Messiah had very specific reasons for why He would come, and what He would do, but even with all of these descriptive prophecies, the Jews still did not know what to look for in the Messiah. They had a preconceived idea that they would not change. There were plenty of prophecies concerning the Messiah, but also no shortage of confusion concerning them (Young 218).
Most confused of all about the prophecies of the Messiah where the Rabbi’s. They looked to other books for prophecies as well. They turned to Daniel, Ezekiel, and Psalms as prophetic writings, but they recognized Isaiah as the greatest. They considered Isaiah to be almost as great as Moses (Edersheim 2:397-398). They took passages such as Isaiah 41:25 which says, “I have aroused one from the north, and he has come; From the rising of the sun he will call on My name; and he will come upon rulers as upon mortar, Even as the potter treads clay,” to mean that the Messiah will come as an earthly King to set them free of their bondage. Their expectations of the Messiah were distorted. What they pictured in their minds were kings of the past such as Solomon. A king who's wisdom and riches had past everyone on the earth. They thought of Kings like David, who slaughtered thousands of Philistines. This The point is, they knew what kings were and they had high expectations. Little did they know the King of Kings was not going to establish an earthly kingdom. In fact they had no idea the Messiah they were looking for was going to come and end up dying one of the most humiliating and painful deaths that a human could endure.
Israel was looking for a king and an earthly kingdom. They were looking for someone grand and kingly looking. They took passages out of context and twisted them to fit this picture. For example they took Isaiah 27:10 to mean that they were going to get their own “isolated city.” They had different expectations. With as many prophecies that they got wrong, they seem to agree that Isaiah 53 is in fact a messianic prophesy (Edersheim 1:165). Both their views of Jesus and the kingdom He would establish were both extremely twisted. None of these “prophecies” about His kingly persona and kingdom were ever fulfilled in the New Testament. In fact it was pretty much the opposite of what they were picturing.
The Jews believed that when this Messiah did show up he was going to create a period of peace among all nations (Micah 4:3). They believed that all of the Jews will return from their current exile (the Romans) to Jerusalem. They thought that at this point there would then be a universal acceptance of the Jews and their religion. They took this from (Isaiah 2,11:10). They were hoping the temple would be restored to its former glory. Basically they were hoping for “the good old days” (Hatchet 44).
Now that we know that the Jews were expecting, let us look at the actual prophecies and what the Messiah was to actually be. Of course Isaiah 53 is a passage most are familiar with. It begins in Isaiah 52:13 and then ends in Isaiah 53:12. It is ironic that their expectations and the Messiah that actually came were so different, almost exactly opposite. The way that Isaiah 53 really says a lot. When it says, “who has believed our report?” the writers are basically stating that what they are about to say and write is going to be hard to believe and few will actually believe it.
Notice even the wording that follows, “he grew up before them as a tender shoot.” They do not describe the Messiah as a mighty oak or some kind of strong tree. The kinds of things that the average Jew would be expecting. He will come out of dry ground or parched ground. This means the Messiah will come when they least expect it. He will not be coming in some dramatic way as they might expect. In this time period, they had a mind for the dramatic. Much like we do today! They wanted their king to look like a king. The Romans looked so grand and had huge palaces and were adorned in beautiful colors. The Jews wanted nothing more than to have someone come in and stand up for them and fight. Even to the very end this mindset lingered. Peter pulled out his sword to fight for Jesus. They put their faith in Him, they were not going to see their king taken from them. Jesus was humble and a lowly looking man. He did not stand out. In fact if Jesus was in a crowd of other Jews, He would have blended right in.
Perhaps the last part of 53:2 came as a huge shock to them. He won’t have any stately form or majesty that we should esteem or admire him. This went completely against what they were expecting! How could their king, their savior, the one that was to save them from captivity not be as mighty as a David or as a Solomon? This would have been a huge shock for them. Maybe it is easy for us to ridicule the Rabbis for not figuring it out, but this what they had to go on. This should serve as an example and a reminder to us all that God expects us to dig deep into His word and to learn it. We will be held accountable for how we have handled the scriptures as well. It’s up to us to search the scriptures for ourselves. On judgment day, God is not going to give us a free ride just because we did not see a command in the Bible. God expects us to use the brains that he gave us to learn the word that He gave us out of grace.