Post by Mark on Feb 21, 2009 6:50:29 GMT -8
Messiah must suffer for our sins. Many forms of modern Judaism reject the first advent of Messiah and that a second advent is necessary. The Jew is promised relationship with Adonai as His covenant people based upon Adonai’s covenant with Abraham. To some this means that the Jew is promised the inheritance based upon circumcision. To some this means that the Jew is promised the inheritance based upon a personal allegiance (faith) to that land of Israel. To some this means the Jew is promised the inheritance so long as he stays faithful to the Jewish teachings and traditions. To some this means that the Jew is promised the inheritance based upon his claim to a biological lineage of Hebrew ancestry. None of these perspectives recognize the need for a Messiah who will redeem each person from failure to live in obedience to Adonai.
In 1st Kings 8:46, Solomon declares that no man is without sin. Again, in Ecclesiastes 7:20 he states, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”
The Psalmist wrote:
The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
(Psalms 14:2-3)
In Psalm 51, the great king wrote, “Indeed I was born with iniquity; with sin my mother conceived me"
In the prophets, there is no room for any to be acknowledged as righteous. We all stand guilty and worthless before Adonai.
Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
(Isaiah 64:5-7)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
(Jeremiah 17:9-10)
Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
(Ezekiel 33:12-13)
Those who place confidence in their own position or ability have a bitter hope, should they consider the biblical valuation of their righteousness. Yet, Adonai has seen fit not to leave us to our own devices. Daniel 9:24 states that the Messiah will come “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
(Isaiah 59:12-16)
In biblical Judaism, no one can be justified before Adonai based upon his own merit or position. It is by the grace of Adonai that we are saved, through faith in the Messiah who has become the expiation of our sins.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently,
he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
As many were astonished at thee;
his visage was so marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men:
So shall he sprinkle many nations;
the kings shall shut their mouths at him:
for that which had not been told them shall they see;
and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
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.
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.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth:
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment:
and who shall declare his generation?
for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death;
because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him;
he hath put him to grief:
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he hath poured out his soul unto death:
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah 52:13-53:1-12)
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 was accepted by rabbinical authorities to be speaking of the Messiah until the 12th Century, when Rabbi Solomon Yazchaki (Rashi) began to assert that this passage refers to the nation of Israel. Even within Judaism this interpretation was rejected and Isaiah 52-53 considered Messianic prophecy (Moses Maimonaides 1135-1204 AD); yet, because of the influence of Christianity, Rashi’s interpretation became more widely accepted.
In 1st Kings 8:46, Solomon declares that no man is without sin. Again, in Ecclesiastes 7:20 he states, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”
The Psalmist wrote:
The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
(Psalms 14:2-3)
In Psalm 51, the great king wrote, “Indeed I was born with iniquity; with sin my mother conceived me"
In the prophets, there is no room for any to be acknowledged as righteous. We all stand guilty and worthless before Adonai.
Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
(Isaiah 64:5-7)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
(Jeremiah 17:9-10)
Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
(Ezekiel 33:12-13)
Those who place confidence in their own position or ability have a bitter hope, should they consider the biblical valuation of their righteousness. Yet, Adonai has seen fit not to leave us to our own devices. Daniel 9:24 states that the Messiah will come “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
(Isaiah 59:12-16)
In biblical Judaism, no one can be justified before Adonai based upon his own merit or position. It is by the grace of Adonai that we are saved, through faith in the Messiah who has become the expiation of our sins.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently,
he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
As many were astonished at thee;
his visage was so marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men:
So shall he sprinkle many nations;
the kings shall shut their mouths at him:
for that which had not been told them shall they see;
and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
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.
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.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth:
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment:
and who shall declare his generation?
for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death;
because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him;
he hath put him to grief:
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he hath poured out his soul unto death:
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah 52:13-53:1-12)
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 was accepted by rabbinical authorities to be speaking of the Messiah until the 12th Century, when Rabbi Solomon Yazchaki (Rashi) began to assert that this passage refers to the nation of Israel. Even within Judaism this interpretation was rejected and Isaiah 52-53 considered Messianic prophecy (Moses Maimonaides 1135-1204 AD); yet, because of the influence of Christianity, Rashi’s interpretation became more widely accepted.
