This is a milestone! With this blog post we reach 200 on the list of 365 supposed prophecies Jesus fulfilled. This is the third claim tied to Y'shayahu / Isaiah 40 and not one of them has anything to do with Jesus, although it is possible that the prophet Isaiah is speaking of what will happen in the messianic era. The chapter is about G-d returning Jewish exiles to the land of Israel. Some sages opine that the returning exiles are the Jews exiled to Babylon 500+ years before Jesus, others see it as prophecy about the return of the Jews from the exile inflicted by the Romans 2000 years ago. The very opening words of the chapter speak of G-d comforting the returning exiled Jews: “Console, console My people," says your G-d.” Y'shayahu / Isaiah 40:1. Jesus never returned exiles to Israel. When Jesus was alive more Jews lived outside of the land. Exiles never returned to Israel during Jesus lifetime -- and the Jews were not under an order of exile at that time. Jesus had nothing to do with Jews returning to Israel either from Babylon or in the true messianic era. Y'shayahu / Isaiah 40 is the beginning of the last portion of Isaiah -- from chapters 40 - 66 in which G-d comforts the Jews who will go into exile -- giving them hope of eventual return and forgiveness. Isaiah 40 through 66 speaks time and time again about Israel as G-d's servant who suffers, but who is later exalted. It is G-d who is the shepherd, not the messiah. Read all of chapter 40 -- and read line 11 in context, which means read the line preceding it: "Behold the L-rd G-d shall come with a strong [hand], and His arm rules for Him; behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense is before Him." Y'shayahu / Isaiah 40:10. Yet the list maker skips line 10 and states that lines 9 and 11 are messianic prophecies about Jesus! Line 11 continues the thoughts of line 10: "Like a shepherd [who] tends his flock, with his arm he gathers lambs, and in his bosom he carries [them], the nursing ones he leads." Continue now with the next line "Who measured water with his gait, and measured the heavens with his span, and measured by thirds the dust of the earth, and weighed mountains with a scale and hills with a balance?" This is G-d, not Jesus. G-d. The list maker has claimed lines 9 and 11 as Jesus prophecies, ignoring line 10. Yet lines 9 THROUGH 11 are one thought. These lines are a message of redemption. "Behold your G-d!" "Behold the L-rd G-d shall come with a strong [hand]" "Like a shepherd [who] tends his flock." G-d as shepherd is shown elsewhere in the bible. "The L-rd is my shepherd; I shall not want. . ." T'hillim / Psalm 23. "And the L-rd their G-d shall save them on that day like the flocks of His people, for crown stones are exalted on His land." Zechariah 9:16. John 10 does claim that Jesus is a "shepherd" -- but "so what" and how does Y'shayahu / Isaiah 40:11 prove that Jesus as shepherd was prophesied since the passage in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 40:11 is about G-d and not the messiah? Along with bible verses indicating elsewhere that G-d is our shepherd we have other passages in the bible where various humans are also called shepherds of people. Simply being referred to as a shepherd of a flock is meaningless. It is not a messianic prophecy (just how many ministers have referred to themselves in the same manner?). . . #200, like all the other claims we have examined, is not about Jesus. Each of the 200 so far examined show that so-called prophecies about Jesus in the T'nach (Jewish bible) are either mistranslated, non-existent or totally removed from the meaning of the passages.
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