The coming of the Messiah. Isaiah 1-4, 11-12

    Video presentation on this topic available here             


                What is the Messiah?  The word “messiah” literally means “anointed one”.  One of the things so many people fail to understand is that “messiah” in the Tanakh (Old Testament) is used to describe EVERY anointed king and priest.  In the Septuagint (ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh used by the early Christians) and the New Testament the word used is “christ" which is simply the Greek word for “anointed one”.  Whenever you read the word “anointed” in the Bible, it is simply a translation of Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (messiah) or the Greek Χριστός (christ).  But the translators always translate these words whenever they refer to someone other than Jesus, but leave them untranslated when they are believed to refer to Jesus.  This prevents the average reader from recognizing how those words are used in the Bible and realizing that they simply mean “anointed one”, and generally refer to kings.  Christian leaders have redefined “messiah” and “christ” to mean completely different things.

                  Now that we understand that “messiah” means “anointed one” and refers to the kings, we can see why the Gospel writers insisted that Jesus is the King of the Jews.  And the prophecies that are irrefutably messianic in nature are the ones that address this king.  The Davidic kings ruled from the time of David until the Babylonian exile.  When the Jews returned from exile, the Davidic line was not returned to the throne.  But, before, during and after the exile, God promised through His prophets that an heir of David would come, the promised Messiah.

                  Here we will look at some of the prophecies of Isaiah, who warned of the coming destruction of Judah and the exile and the coming of David’s heir who would rule in God’s Kingdom.  Isaiah 1, 2-4 and 11-12 are three prophecies that so closely parallel each other that it is very useful to read them together to better understand them.

Isaiah 1-4, 11-12

 

Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1 begins by criticizing Israel for forsaking and rebelling against God.  The entire nation has become corrupt and sickly because of their wickedness and they will soon face destruction.

¹ The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. ³ The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. ⁴ Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward. ⁵ Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ⁶ From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil. ⁷ Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. ⁸ And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. ⁹ Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

The people believe that they can be forgiven for their sins by offering sacrifices.  God tells them that they completely misunderstand.  God does not want sacrifices.  That will not save them.  But, if they turn away from wickedness and obey God, then and only then they will be forgiven.  Turning away from sin and obeying God is what will bring forgiveness, not sacrifices.

¹⁰ Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. ¹¹ What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. ¹² When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts? ¹³ Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies,—I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. ¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵ And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. ¹⁶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; ¹⁷ learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ¹⁹ If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: ²⁰ but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

Someday, God will destroy the wicked and the righteous will rule in Zion.

²¹ How is the faithful city become a harlot! she that was full of justice! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. ²² Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. ²³ Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

²⁴ Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies; ²⁵ and I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy tin; ²⁶ and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town. ²⁷ Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness. ²⁸ But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and they that forsake Jehovah shall be consumed. ²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. ³⁰ For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. ³¹ And the strong shall be as tow, and his work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

 

 

Isaiah 2

In the vision running through Isaiah 2-4 God promises that, in the latter days, He will establish Zion as the center of the political world with worldwide peace and knowledge of God.

¹ The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. ³ And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. ⁴ And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The vision returns to the then current condition of the Jews, which is wickedness and apostacy and idolatry.

⁵ O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah. ⁶ For thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. ⁷ And their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. ⁸ Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. ⁹ And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low: therefore forgive them not. ¹⁰ Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty. ¹¹ The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.

God would utterly destroy Jerusalem and punish the Jews for their wickedness.

¹² For there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low; ¹³ and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, ¹⁴ and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, ¹⁵ and upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall, ¹⁶ and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant imagery. ¹⁷ And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. ¹⁸ And the idols shall utterly pass away. ¹⁹ And men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth. ²⁰ In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats; ²¹ to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth. ²² Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?

Isaiah 3

¹ For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; ² the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder; ³ the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert artificer, and the skilful enchanter. ⁴ And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. ⁵ And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. ⁶ When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand; ⁷ in that day shall he lift up his voice, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not make me ruler of the people. ⁸ For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory. ⁹ The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil unto themselves. ¹⁰ Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. ¹¹ Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him. ¹² As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

Jehovah will judge the elders of His people and bring them to ruin.

¹³ Jehovah standeth up to contend, and standeth to judge the peoples. ¹⁴ Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof: It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses: ¹⁵ what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁶ Moreover Jehovah said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; ¹⁷ therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts. ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the cauls, and the crescents; ¹⁹ the pendants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers; ²⁰ the headtires, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets; ²¹ the rings, and the nose-jewels; ²² the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels; ²³ the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils. ²⁴ And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty. ²⁵ Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. ²⁶ And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground.

Isaiah 4

The people will beg to have their reproach and shame taken away.

¹ And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name; take thou away our reproach.

The Branch of Jehovah will appear and bring joy to the land.  In later prophecies, it will be explicitly made clear that the Branch the heir of David’s throne, the anointed king of the Jews.  In other words, the Messiah (anointed one).

² In that day shall the branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. ³ And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem; ⁴ when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning. ⁵ And Jehovah will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a covering. ⁶ And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.

 

Isaiah 11

The Branch is explained to be a shoot out of the stock of Jesse (David’s father).  This heir of David will have the Spirit of Jehovah resting upon him and will be a righteous ruler and judge.

¹ And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit. ² And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. ³ And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears; ⁴ but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. ⁵ And righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

It gives a picture of a safe, peaceful world resulting from the knowledge of Jehovah filling the whole earth. 

⁶ And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. ⁷ And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸ And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. ⁹ They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

All of the nations of the earth will come to the root of Jesse, the anointed heir of David, the Messiah.

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples, unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting-place shall be glorious.

The remnant of the people of Judah (modern day Jews) will be reunited with the remnant of the people of Israel.  Remember, the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered and sent into exile by the Assyrians.  Unlike the southern kingdom of Judah, they never returned from exile and the fate of their descendants remains unknown.  But God promised here, and in many other prophecies of the Messianic Age, that God will bring them back and reunite them with the descendants of Judah.  It then goes on to describe them gaining dominance over the neighboring kingdoms in the Middle East, firmly establishing the Messianic Kingdom as a physical kingdom on the earth.

¹¹ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ¹² And he will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ¹³ The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and they that vex Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. ¹⁴ And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they despoil the children of the east: they shall put forth their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. ¹⁵ And Jehovah will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dryshod. ¹⁶ And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria; like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

 

Isaiah 12

God will save us and we will give thanks.

¹ And in that day thou shalt say, I will give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me. ² Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid: for Jehovah, even Jehovah, is my strength and song; and he is become my salvation. ³ Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. ⁴ And in that day shall ye say, Give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name, declare his doings among the peoples, make mention that his name is exalted. ⁵ Sing unto Jehovah; for he hath done excellent things: let this be known in all the earth. ⁶ Cry aloud and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great in the midst of thee is the Holy One of Israel.