Letter To The Jews / Chapter 36

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36: The Messiah

Now, the only person qualified to be both the despised servant described by Isaiah, and the “son of man” who comes on the clouds in Daniel, is the Jewish man called Yeshua, whose name means “YHWH Is Salvation,” whom the Gentiles call Jesus Christ, whose place of origin is related to the word “sprout,” who was born in the days of Caesar Augustus and who died during the reign of Tiberius.

He was born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, into the house of David, and presented himself to your ancestors as the king on a donkey. He suffered and died, but was said by eyewitness reports to have been raised from the dead. He commissioned his disciples to be witnesses of him to the ends of the earth, and then some days later he was said to have been lifted up in clouds.

He taught that the kingdom of God would, for a time, be one with no physical location, and be made up of both Jews and Gentiles. He called it the “kingdom of the heavens,” because it would rule from heaven.

However, he was despised by his generation, just as your ancestors despised Joseph. They did not want a suffering servant who would give his cheeks to the one plucking the beard, despite Isaiah foretelling such one. And they certainly did not want a kingdom that could not be seen, that was ruled by such a remote a place as heaven. Instead, they wanted a warrior king who would help them throw off the Roman shackles. And besides, did not the prophecies foretell such a thing?

But their expectations proved to be misguided, and they lost the Temple, Jerusalem, and the nation itself, as if YHWH was taking away their physical kingdom anyway, at least for a time.

Now, what of the claim that Yeshua is the foretold Messiah? The main objection raised against him is that he did not fulfill what was expected of the Messiah, with the assumption that YHWH must conform to human expectations, rather than humans to YHWH’s purpose.

Nevertheless, let us consider what is to be expected of the Messiah, as taught by your teachers. This would include the return of Israel to its homeland, the defeat of its enemies, the knowledge of God filling the world, the resurrection and the abolition of death, and the elimination of hunger, illness and war.

First of all, some of these could have been fulfilled by Israel itself, as blessings for obedience to the Law covenant! For example, the return of Israel to its land, the defeat of your enemies, and abundance of food is already promised to the nation when it is obedient to YHWH.

Second, why would Messiah need to be physically present to fulfill many or even all of these things? YHWH already ruled as king over your ancestors before they demanded to be like the other nations; and was God there in physical form when he defeated the Assyrian army on their behalf?

And while Cyrus the Persian was YHWH’s anointed one to restore the remnant of Israel from Babylon, Cyrus did not physically accompany your ancestors on their journey, but issued edicts from his ruling palace far away.

Besides, in these last days, we have already seen Israel being gathered from the nations, as an indication that Messiah does not need to be physically present to accomplish this on your behalf.

Also, some of the prophecies cannot be fulfilled in an ordinary physical sense. For example, Jeremiah wrote: “This is what YHWH says: There will not be cut off for David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. And for the priests, the Levites, there will not be cut off a man before me to offer up burnt offerings and burnt grain offerings and to perform sacrifice continually.” 1

And yet sacrifice was physically cut off at the destruction of the Temple, so your teachers changed the nature of the sacrifices to those of lips, as YHWH permits when he says through Hosea:

“Return, Israel, to YHWH your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you, and return to YHWH. Say to him, ‘Remove all iniquity, and take what is good, and we will offer the young bulls of our lips.’” 2

And so the fruit of lips is a valid sacrifice to YHWH for the nation, when it accepts its iniquity. But if your teachers can change the entire nature of the sacrifices, based on the authority of a few scriptures, then surely YHWH also has the authority to change the nature of the sacrifices, so they are fulfilled in one man, who can stand perpetually before YHWH as both king and priest, just as the servant “Sprout” foretold by Zechariah is to be both king and priest.

Now, if the “anointed one” who is “cut off” in Daniel’s prophecy of the “seventy sevens” is either the king or the priest, as your rabbis teach, then this violates YHWH’s own promise given through Jeremiah.

But if it is Yeshua, and if he was resurrected, as claimed by the eyewitnesses who saw him, and if he is the one who makes intercession for the transgressors and bears the iniquities of many, then he can be both king and priest perpetually, and thus fulfill both of the prophecies of Daniel and Jeremiah.

As for the other things to be done by Messiah: “For everything there is a time and a season, for every event under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted.” 3

YHWH has already provided the means to abolish death, and lift the curse that Adam brought upon us. Yeshua has already done this. It is simply waiting for its appointed time to be applied, as we have spoken about earlier.

World peace cannot truly happen until the “son of man” comes on the clouds, and then all nations will serve him. Again, this comes about in its appointed time. But the “son of man” must first have been a man, and have been lifted up in clouds, before he can come on the clouds.

As for knowledge of God filling the world, this is already being fulfilled, and it is how YHWH is bringing his salvation to the ends of the earth. For YHWH already promises to make a personal covenant with anybody who comes to him, and opens his ears to listen to him, as he says through Isaiah:

“Hey, all you thirsty ones. Come to the waters! He who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come and buy wine and milk, without money and without cost. Why are you spending money for what is not bread, and your labor for what brings no satisfaction?

Listen intently to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will find great delight in fatness. Incline your ear, and come to me. Listen, and your soul will live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the faithful kindnesses of David.” 4

This is an offer that is made to all people. YHWH made an everlasting covenant with David, and now he speaks about and to his greater anointed one, the prince of the covenant, when he goes on to say:

“Look! I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a prince and instructor of peoples. Look! You will call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that has not known you will run to you, on account of YHWH your God, and the holy one of Israel, because he glorifies you.” 5

And Yeshua is already doing this calling, for his name has already gone out to the ends of the earth, as a witness to all the nations.


1 Jeremiah 33:17,18. 2 Hosea 14:2,3 (14:1,2). 3 Ecclesiastes 3:1,2. 4 Isaiah 55:1-3. 5 Isaiah 55:4,5.

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