Y'shayahu / Isaiah chapters 40 - 66 are all about the exile and eventual redemption (and return to Israel) of the Jewish people in the messianic age. The list maker has tied eight claimed prophecies to chapter 42 -- yet it is clear (and is stated!) that all of the claimed prophecies are about the people of Israel -- both in exile and in the messianic era. The list maker (and often the Christian bible which quotes from this chapter) is taking a universal truth (people being good or hopeful) and claiming that somehow they ONLY fit Jesus. After all a messianic prophecy can only be about the messiah, right? Have you ever brought someone hope? Perhaps done an act of charity, or rescued a kitten? Perhaps YOU are the messiah! Not really. But based on this reference you would have as much right to claim being the messiah as Jesus if this were a messianic prophecy. . . 2000 years ago, when Jesus supposedly lived, more Jews lived outside of the land of Israel (Judah) than in it. Jesus did not return the Jews from exile -- as Isaiah prophesied in chapters 40 - 66. None of that happened with Jesus The prophet Isaiah has already told us that G-d's servant is the Jewish nation. Y'shayahu / Isaiah 41:8 - 9. "But you, Israel My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, who loved Me, Whom I grasped from the ends of the earth, and from its nobles I called you, and I said to you, "You are My servant"; I chose you and I did not despise you." Isaiah also tells us that this servant is far from perfect. The Jews are often blind and deaf to G-d and His message -- yet many Christians insist that this servant is Jesus. They ignore Y'shayahu / Isaiah 42:19 - 20. which says "Who is blind but My servant, and deaf as My messenger whom I will send? He who was blind is as the one who received his payment, and he who was blind is as the servant of the L-rd. There is much to see but you do not observe, to open the ears but no one listens." Jesus may have brought hope to some, but so has Mohammad, Buddha, and even Hitler. Messianic prophecies are not something that could be fulfilled throughout history -- things like world peace, the eternal Temple, the return of all the Jews from exile to the land of Israel and global knowledge of G-d. Jesus fulfilled none of these -- and simply bringing hope to the hopeless, while laudable, is not a prophecy of the messiah. John 4 is given as the reference. This is a chapter in the Christian bible about Jesus' interactions with Samaritans. The Samaritans are people imported into the land formerly occupied by the norther kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians.: "In the ninth year of [the reign] of Hoshea, the King of Assyria took Samaria and exiled the Israelites to Assyria, and he settled them in Halah at the [River] Habor, at the River Gozan, and in the cities of Media. And so it was that the Israelites sinned against HaShem their G-d ... they worshipped other gods and followed the customs of the nations ... G-d had issued warnings in Israel and Judah through the hand of all the prophets of any vision saying "Repent from your evil ways and observe My commandments and decrees..." But they did not listen and they stiffened their neck...Then G-d became very angry with Israel and removed them from His Presence. (M'lachim II / 2 Kings 17:6-18) The choice of Samaritans as the recipients of Jesus' message is most likely done as a way of introducing the concept of replacement theology -- the Christians replacing the Jews. . . While many peoples have tried to defeat us and even destroy us the Samaritans were the first who claimed to "be us." By using them in the Christian bible it lays the groundwork for Christians replacing the Jews. . .
1 Comment
Bob
2/19/2017 11:07:08 am
This is really good stuff. But we need to CONSTANTLY remind people that a "prophecy", by definition, MUST be understood to be a prophecy by the people who received it; right?
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