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| Synagogue - Crakow, Poland |
Have you ever seen distinct mountain ranges, separated by
many miles, but appearing as if they were just one range? This same thing
applies to prophecy. Often, one prophecy spanning many distinct periods of time, seems to pertain to only one time
period. Take Isaiah 11:1-10, for example:
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There shall come forth a Rod [Messianic Child]
from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of
the LORD shall rest upon Him… But with righteousness He shall judge the
poor…The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child
shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all
My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As
the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who
shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His
resting place [Kingdom] shall be glorious.
Jesse, the father of King David, lived around 1000 years
before the Messiah. Both Jew and Christian regard this prophecy as a Divine
promise of the glorious Messianic Kingdom yet to come. Interestingly, this
prophecy spans many thousands of years from 1000 BC to a time yet future.
However, these distant and separated events are telescoped, appearing as if they
were going to occur almost simultaneously.
Rabbi Gerald Sigal should be familiar with this telescopic
nature of prophecy. However, in The Jew
and the Christian Missionary, he argues:
•
To have any relationship to Jesus’ life,
Isaiah’s prophecy must refer to the first coming because Isaiah speaks
specifically of the “shoot” coming “out of the stock of David” which can only
refer to the Messiah’s ancestry at the time of his birth…There is no
justification for the interpretation that the prophet’s words are to be divided
into two separate periods.
On the contrary, there is no reason to suspect that
prophecies must all fit into a single period of time. They just don’t! It
starts with the birth of a Child and remains as yet unfulfilled, according to everyone’s
estimation.
There are many examples of PT. Let’s start with the earliest
prophecy – one that many rabbis have regarded as messianic:
•
“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild
animals! You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush
your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)
The enmity began at the Fall, it continues, and has not yet
been fulfilled. This prophecy spans the entirety of human history. How then can
Sigal insist that “There is no justification for the interpretation that the
prophet’s words are to be divided into two separate periods!” Rather, these
prophecies envision many periods of time!
The next great messianic prophecy also spans indefinite periods
of time:
•
Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of
your country… I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your
name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and
I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the
earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)
Once again, this prophecy covers indefinite periods of time,
starting with Abraham and extending to a time when “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” through him.
According to anyone’s reckoning, this prophecy still awaits it final
fulfillment.
This is the nature of messianic prophecy. God promised David
the King:
•
“‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself
will establish a house for you. When
your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your
offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his
kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name… Your house and your
kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established
forever.’” (2 Samuel 7:11-13,16)
Once again, both Jew and Christian agree that this prophecy,
although promised around 1000 BC, has yet to be completely fulfilled. David and
Solomon did experience partial fulfillments. However, admittedly, it still
awaits its fulfillment. Therefore, to claim that these prophecies rule out two comings of the Messiah is without
merit. These prophecies cover vast expanses of time. Therefore, there is no
problem in understanding these prophecies to cover the two comings of the
Messiah:
•
[First Coming:] For unto us a Child is born,
unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His
name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace. [Second Coming:] Of the increase of His government and peace there
will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and
establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. (Isaiah
9:6-7)
It is difficult for the rabbis to object to this reasoning.
They already admit that the coming of this messianic Child, until the
establishment of His Kingdom, requires the passage of much time. Therefore,
there are no grounds for them to quibble about the Messiah’s two separate appearances during this
vast period of time. In this next prophecy, we observe two very distinct
portraits of Messiah:
•
[First Coming:] The Spirit of the Lord GOD is
upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; [Jesus stopped here in
His quotation from Isaiah— Luke 4:18-21.] [Second Coming:] To proclaim the
acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort
all who mourn… And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named
ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their
riches you will boast. (Isaiah 61:1-2, 6)
While Jesus has accomplished proclaiming “liberty to the
captives,” feeding on the “wealth of the nations” is yet to be fulfilled. We
find the same division in the next prophecy:
•
[First Coming:] "Behold, I send My
messenger [Mk. 1:2], and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom
you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant,
in whom you delight. [Second Coming:] But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like
launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will
purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer
to the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:1-3)
While the rabbis will not agree with the Christian
interpretation of this prophecy, they cannot coherently deny PT – that this
prophecy might cover a vast amount of time containing two separate comings.
Zechariah’s prophecy has proved troubling for the rabbis of
old. While they regarded it as messianic, it portrayed the Messiah in a very
humble way – contrary to the portrait of a conquering hero:
•
[First Coming:] “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is
just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a
donkey. [Second Coming:] I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse
from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the
nations; His dominion shall be 'from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends
of the earth.” (Zech. 9:9-10)
This portrait of a humble Messiah in contrast with His
glorious final coming had lead many rabbis to believe in two separate Messiahs,
separated by many years! They would not have argued against PT. Their
interpretation was based on PT! Yet today’s rabbis would rule against their
interpretation without justification.
PT is built into the fabric of Hebrew revelation. Zechariah
was given a vision of the High Priest Joshua being cleansed of all of his sins.
God used this as an object lesson pointing to a greater work He would perform
in the ages to come: “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (Zech.
3:9). Clearly, this too remains unfulfilled, separated from the original
revelation by thousands of years!
The rabbis claim that Jesus could not have been the promised
Messiah, because He failed to create the victorious Messianic Kingdom at His
advent. However, Scripture gives us no reason to limit the Messiah to only one appearance.
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