Hallelujah!! We finally reach the last of the eight claims the list maker has made in reference to Y'shayahu / Isaiah 42. Lines 13-25 has G-d speaking. The passage says: "The L-rd shall go out like a hero; like a warrior shall He arouse zeal; He shall shout, He shall even cry, He shall overpower His foes. I was silent from time immemorial; I am still, I restrain Myself. Like a travailing woman will I cry; I will be terrified and destroy them together. I will destroy mountains and hills, and all their grass I will dry out, and I will make rivers into islands and I will dry up the pools. And I will lead the blind on a road they did not know; in paths they did not know I will lead them; I will make darkness into light before them, and crooked paths into straight ones. These things, I will do them and I will not forsake them. They shall turn back greatly ashamed, those who trust in the graven image, who say to the molten idols, "You are our gods." "You deaf ones, listen, and you blind ones, look to see. 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. The L-rd desires [this] for His righteousness' sake; He magnifies the Torah and strengthens it. "And it is a robbed and pillaged people; all their youths are grieved, and they are hidden in dungeons; they are subject to plunderers, and none rescues [them], to pillagers, and no one says, "Return." Who among you will hearken to this, will listen and hear for the future? Who subjected Jacob to plunder and Israel to spoilers? Was it not the L-rd? This, that we sinned against Him, and they did not want to go in His way and did not hearken to His Torah. "And He poured out upon them the fury of His anger and the strength of battle, and it blazed upon them all around and they did not know, and it burned among them and they did not take heed."" That is Y'shayahu / Isaiah 42:13 - 25. Who Do you see anything about the messiah? Anything about the messiah's actions? Anything about his second coming? No, No, and No. Not surprisingly Y'shayahu / Isaiah 42 says nothing at all about the messiah's actions, or a "second coming." The T'nach no concept of a second coming exists. In fact, the T'nach says when a person dies, "on that day his plans all perish." T'hillim / Psalm 146:4. The excuse of Jesus’ “second coming” is an admission that Jesus failed to fulfill these essential Messianic passages. Couldn't anyone claim to be the messiah -- and promise to fulfill the prophecies "next time"? The question then becomes why anyone should believe that person was the Messiah when they first came upon the scene? Some missionaries point to Daniel 7:13(12) to support the idea of the second coming, but Daniel 7 is a vision (primarily of the kingdoms who follow Daniel). The term used in Daniel 7:13 is כְּבַר אֱנָשׁ k'var ĕnash, which means “something like a human being." It does not say the "son of man" is coming (it was a dream which had to be interpreted). . . And how would a Christian know if Daniel referred to Jesus the first time (or the second) or something else altogether? Something that can't be black and white is NOT prophecy. What of Y'shayahu / Isaiah 42? The prophet spends this chapter discussing the relationship between a loving G-d and His disobedient servant -- a servant who is described as a disobedient and rebellious servant at times -- certainly not a description any Christian would claim of Jesus who, they opine, was "without sin." The Book of Isaiah has a theme running from chapters 40 - 42 where the prophet identifies that people/nation as Jacob/Israel time and time again. Consider Y'shayahu / Isaiah 42:22: "וְהוּא עַם בָּזוּז וְשָׁסוּי" “And it is a robbed and pillaged people.” The people refers to the people of Israel as identified in verse 24: “Who subjected Jacob to plunder and Israel to spoilers? Was it not the L-rd?” The redeemer is G-d. Not the messiah. Not Jesus. Who is being redeemed? The redeemed servant is the blind and deaf Jewish nation -- Israel. Not Jesus or the real messiah either. Yet even though Isaiah is very clearly speaking of the Jewish people and not Jesus the list maker has tied eight (EIGHT!) claims to this one chapter. Revelationin the Christian bible may say that Jesus will return to fulfill the things he failed to do the first time. This is patently un-biblical, but nevertheless the claim is made in Revelation. However missionaries ignore Revelation 3:11, 22:12 and 20 where Jesus says “I am coming quickly” to render judgment on mankind. Oops. It's been 2000 years and counting. Some missionaries will try to find a way around this claim by Jesus by referencing T'hillim / Psalm 90:4 which says "For a thousand years are in Your eyes like yesterday, which passed, and a watch in the night." True enough, but Jesus was talking to human beings to whom a "day" is around 24 hours give or take. Jesus did not "come quickly" -- and thus this is proof that he was not a prophet (or perhaps a false prophet), let alone the messiah. The second coming is a convenient excuse to explain why Jesus failed, nothing more. There are even more quotes in the Christian bible which debunk the idea that Jesus' return could be thousands of years later. "Verily I say to you that there be some of them who stand here, which shall not taste of death until they have seen the kingdom of G-d come with power" (Mark 9:1); "Verily I say to you that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done" (Mark 13:30). If the messiah was to come, fail, die and come a second time it would be stated in the T'nach (Jewish bible). The opposite is true -- there is nary a hint of such a concept. A principle of the Talmud that Rashi quotes several times states that אֵין מִקְרָא יוֹצֵא מִידֵי פְשׁוּטוֹ -- in English this would be "A verse cannot depart from its plain meaning." (Treatise Shabbat 63a, Treatise Y'vamot 11b, 24a; quoted by Rashi at B'réshıt / Genesis 15:10, 37:19, Sh'mot / Exodus 12:2).
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