In Why the Jews Rejected Jesus, Orthodox
Jewish writer David Klinghoffer claimed that the Jews had rejected Jesus
because of a lack of evidence. In contrast to Klinghoffer, Jesus explained that
their rejection of Him was not a matter of a lack of evidence but a disdain for
their God and for His Prophets:
·
“But
I know that you do not have the love of God within you...For if you believed
Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his
writings, how will you believe my words?" (John 5:42, 45-47)
Later, Jesus
further charged the Jewish leadership:
·
“…you
witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the
prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood
of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you
prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and
some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town…O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are
sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:31-34, 37)
Jesus
understood that these hardened leaders needed a blow-torch to soften their
calcified hearts. In love, He intended His words to melt and to humble. It is
in this hope that I repeat His damning words along with the words of their own
Prophets, many of whom had been reluctant to speak God’s Words of censure. For
example, God warned the Prophet Ezekiel that he had to speak the fiery words of
his God or face the consequences:
·
"So
you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore
you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the
wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die!' and you do not speak to warn the
wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I
will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his
way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you
have delivered your soul.” (Ezekiel 33:7-11)
Therefore, we must speak, but we also
must pray that our Jewish people would reconsider their rejection of their
Messiah. There are several reasons for this reconsideration. For one thing,
according to the Prophets of Israel, Israel has almost always turned their back
on their God. Take the Prophet Isaiah, for example:
- “Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s care— but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognize my care for them. Oh, what a sinful nation they are— loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil people, corrupt children who have rejected the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.” (Isaiah 1:3-4)
This denunciation is uniformly found
among the Prophets. How should these indictments affect us? We should at least
ask, “Are we still so blind and rebellious? Are we still incurring God’s
displeasure? Is it possible that our promised Savior, the Messiah, has already
come and we have missed Him?” We claim that “When the Messiah comes, there will
be world peace. Jesus didn’t bring world peace. Therefore, he cannot be the
Messiah.”
However, this is to ignore the many
prophecies that indicate that the Messiah will first come in humility, as many
of our Rabbis have noted:
- Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt. (Zechariah 9:9)
By anyone’s reckoning, the prophecy of
Daniel has been accomplished by the coming and humbling unto death of the
Messiah:
- “A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times. After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end.” (Daniel 9:24-26)
It had been Israel’s pattern to reject
their God. The writer of the Book of the
Chronicles explained the demise of Judah:
·
All
the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly
unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted
the house of the LORD that he had made holy in Jerusalem. The LORD, the God of
their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers [prophets], because
he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept
mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his
prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was
no remedy. Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans [Babylonians],
who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and
had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all
into his hand. (2 Chronicles 36:14-17; Ezra 5:12)
During the Babylonian exile, the
Prophet Daniel had likewise prayed:
·
…we
have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from
your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the
prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers,
and to all the people of the land. (Daniel 9:5-6)
The northern kingdom of Israel had
been taken by the Assyrians into captivity more than a hundred years earlier
for the same reasons:
·
And
this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their
God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods…And the people of Israel did
secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for
themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city…Yet
the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn
from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance
with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my
servants the prophets.” But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their
fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. They despised his
statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that
he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed
the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them
that they should not do like them…And they burned their sons and their
daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do
evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. Therefore the LORD was
very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the
tribe of Judah only. (2 Kings 17:7, 9, 13-15, 17-18)
In view of this pattern, it is not surprising
that we would also reject our Messiah, as had often been prophesied:
- He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6)
- The stone [the Messiah] the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:22-24)
- …and he [the Messiah] will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare [through their rejection of Him]. (Isaiah 8:14)
- "It is too small a thing for you [Messiah] to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." This is what the Lord says--the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel--to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation [of Israel], to the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." (Isaiah 49:6-7)
·
“And
I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit
of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me [the Messiah], on
him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only
child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” (Zechariah
12:10)
Israel will weep and repent that they
had rejected their Messiah. However, they will also come to faith as their
long-suffering God had promised. This point needs to be clearly stated I lest
anti-Semites manipulate the abundant examples of Israel’s unfaithfulness for
the purpose of hate and the denigration of Israel. God’s rejection of Israel is
only temporary:
This will be followed by forgiveness
and the restoration of Israel. As the New Testament affirms, “God’s gifts and
calling are without revocation” (Romans 11:29). According to Paul, all Israel
will be saved:
- I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ. And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say:
- “The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness. And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins.” (Romans 11:25-27 quoting Isaiah 59:20-21)
There are also many other prophecies
that promise that God will not permanently abandon His people Israel:
- Then the Lord said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God." Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited...” (Hosea 1:9-11)
- But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me." "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. (Isaiah 49:14-17)
However, God will not deliver His
people Israel until they have been humbled away from their self-trust and
arrogance and see that their only hope is in their Savior:
·
“For
the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he
sees that their power is gone…” (Deuteronomy 32:36)
The proud will not receive a Savior as
long as they believe that they have no need of One. Sadly, Israel is not
presently trusting in their Savior but in their military might to always save
them – a hope that has always been exposed as empty.
However, in the next chapter, I want
to challenge the anti-Semitic narrative more extensively.
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