THE ETERNAL SEARCH FOR THE MESSIAH or THE PROMISE OF THE MESSIAH: THE HOPE OF ISRAEL

    For almost 2000 years the Jewish people have longed for the promised Messiah. They have been hounded, beaten, tortured, suffering fire and drowning in their anticipation of His arrival. When the great temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D., and especially after the failed Bar Kokhba revolt of 135 A.D., the Jewish people went into a deepening Diaspora that would scatter them almost worldwide. Unfortunately, the revered rabbi Akiba thought that Bar Kokhba was the Messiah. His hopes were dashed when this brave warrior was slain in an ally way by the Romans. With the scattering that followed, the descendants of Abraham driven from Palestine would become known as “The Wandering Jews,” who would find no rest among the Gentile nations.

   Nevertheless, wherever they traveled they took with them a longing to see the coming of the promised Anointed One, the Messiah! And with his arrival, the Jewish people would be gathered from around the world and brought back to the Promise Land of their Forefathers. Sadly, there were times the Jews thought that the Messiah had arrived. The most notorious imposter was Zabatai ben Zvi (fifteen century) who claimed to be the promised One. But when the Turks captured him and put a sword to his neck, he quickly disavowed his messianic role, and then promptly converted to Islam!

   Up until about two hundred and fifty years ago, and the coming of the so-called period of intellectual Enlightenment, the Messiah’s arrival was the anticipation of almost all Jews. From the Ural Mountains of Russia, the plains of Poland, the cities and farmlands of greater Europe, and wherever the Jews were scattered, the suffering sons of Israel longed to see the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled. They prayed to go home with the Messiah leading the way!

   That messianic hope, however, had been fraught with dangers along the way, because unfortunately in the name of Christ and Christendom, the Jews suffered unspeakable agony. Yet patience and persistence became a virtue. Doggedly, the rabbis taught from tradition and the Bible a series of beliefs and doctrines that sustained the isolated clusters of Jews in some of their greatest hours of need.

   Much of what the rabbis said sounds very familiar to Evangelical Christians today. For example:

• The rabbis understood clearly that the scattering came upon their people as predicted in the Old Testament. This happened because of the hardness of heart of past generations.
  
  
• The Messiah will not arrive until the Jewish people repent of their sins. This sounds very much like the words of both John the Baptist and Jesus. In fact, many Jewish scholars have taken note that these two New Testament personalities proclaimed, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand!” Jewish scholar Raphael Patai remarks, “The Messiah was prevented from coming because the generation was unworthy; because there were too many sins.”
  
  
• The rabbis also taught that there would be a seven-year period of terrible tribulation that would fall upon the Gentiles and the Jewish people in the End Times. This is called the War of God and Magog. How did the rabbis come up with a seven-year period known also as “the time of Jacob’s trouble”? There are only two sources where one can find such predictions. In Daniel’s great prophetic calculation of his Seventy Weeks (heptads), or seventy times seven (490 years) determined on God’s people, Israel (Dan. 9), there seems to be yet seven years of horror remaining in the prophecy that will fall upon the world. Some rabbis apparently have calculated this prediction correctly. But they also see the mention of a seven-year tribulation period in the book of Revelation.
  
  
• Coming against the Jews, and the nations, would be the satanic personality known as Armilus. He would be the great deceiver who many rabbis have labeled as the Antichrist.
  
  
• The Messiah, however, would suddenly come to rescue Israel. He is called the Shoot (Isa. 11:1), the son of David, the Suffering Servant and Savior who would bring salvation both to the Jews and the Gentiles (Isa. 53). The Jewish writing the Pesiqta Rabbati (edited 1880, Vienna) says that for the sins of the children the Messiah will suffer: “for their sins your tongue will cleave to the roof of your mouth,” and “great sufferings will come upon you on their account.”
  
  
• Following the prophecies of Zechariah, the rabbis also taught that when the Messiah arrives, his feet would touch the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and that he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey. As mentioned in the book of Revelation, they say his kingdom would last a thousand years!

   What about the origin and character of the Messiah as taught by the rabbis from the Scriptures?

   Patai says the sages believed he preexisted because of the epithet “Head of Days.” From the Jewish writing 1 Enoch 48:6, the rabbis also concluded that he existed before creation: They argue the Messiah was “hidden before [God], even before the creation of the world and will even live evermore.” They write that He was also called the Prince of Peace from Isaiah 11:1. Too, he would bear the sins of the people and their diseases, as mentioned in Isaiah 53:4.

   The most respected Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), gave what he called the Thirteen Principles of the Faith. In this “orthodox” document he believed the Messiah would come from God the Creator and then would be “remembered and exalted for all eternity.” He added, “King Messiah, the Son of Man, will arise in the future and will restore the kingship of David to its ancient condition, to its rule as it was at first. He will rebuild the Temple and gather the exiled of Israel.”

   Maimonides also pronounced a warning to his fellow Jews. “He who does not believe in him, or he who does not await his coming, denies not only the other prophets, but also the Law and Moses our Master.” When the Messiah comes, he added, every thing known in the old world will be annulled, there will be something new in the order of creation. He saw a new heaven and a new earth, similar to what the prophet John speaks about in the book of Revelation.

   Some believe the messianic age is around the corner. Here are some possible signs: (1) The nation of Israel has been re-established. (2) In so many ways, the nations are antagonistic to the re-gathered Jewish people. It was prophesied the world would despise the Jewish people. (3) And because Israel is back in the land, many Jews are ready to fully reclaim the boundaries of the Holy Land and rebuild the temple!

   Many Jews and Christians wait with expectation the next chapter in the ongoing drama of Israel. What will happen next? It seems only reasonable to believe that somehow, and in some way, the promises of the coming Messiah will play a definite role in world events! Chaim Potok writes in his classic book on the history of the Jews, Wanderings: a garden of new dreams is to come forth that will add to the covenants of the Old Testament and the prophesied messianic hopes. Then the broken world will be healed!