“WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR MESSAGE? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED
FOR HE GREW UP BEFORE HIM LIKE A TENDER SHOOT, AND LIKE A ROOT OUT OF PARCHED GROUND; HE HAS NO STATELY FORM OR MAJESTY THAT WE SHOULD LOOK UPON HIM, NOR APPEARANCE THAT WE SHOULD BE ATTRACTED TO HIM, HE WAS DESPISED AND FORSAKEN OF MEN, A MAN OF SORROWS AND ACAUAINTED WITH GRIEF; AND LIKE ONE FROM WHOM MEN HIDE THEIR FACE, HE WAS DESPISED, AND WE DID NOT ESTEEM HIM.
SURELY OUR GRIEFS HE HIMSELF BORE, AND OUR SORROWS HE CARRIED; YET WE OURSELVES ESTEEMED HIM STRICKEN, SMITTEN OF GOD, AND AFFLICTED.
BUT HE WAS PIERCED THROUGH FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS, HE WAS CRUSHED FOR OUR INIQUITIES; THE CHASTENING FOR OUR WELL-BEING FELL UPON HIM, AND BY HIS SCOURGING WE ARE HEALED.
ALL OF US LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY, EACH OF US HAS TURNED TO HIS OWN WAY; BUT THE LORD HAS CAUSED THE INIQUITY OF US ALL TO FALL ON HIM.
HE WAS OPPRESSED AND HE WAS AFFLICTED, YET HE DID NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH; LIKE A LAMB THAT IS LED TO SLAUGHTER, AND LIKE A SHEEP THAT IS SILENT BEFORE ITS SHEARERS, SO HE DID NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH.
BY OPPRESSION AND JUDGMENT HE WAS TAKEN AWAY; AND AS FOR HIS GENERATION, WHO CONSIDERED THAT HE WAS CUT OFF OUT OF THE LAND OF THE LIVING, FOR THE TRANSGRESSION OF MY PEOPLE TO WHOM THE STROKE WAS DUE?
HIS GRAVE WAS ASSIGNED WITH WICKED MEN, YET HE HAD DONE NO VIOLENCE, NOR WAS THERE ANY DECEIT IN HIS MOUTH.
BUT THE LORD WAS PLEASED TO CRUSH HIM, PUTTING HIM TO GRIEF; IF HE WOULD RENDER HIMSELF AS A GUILT OFFERING, HE WILL SEE HIS OFFSPRING, HE WILL PROLONG HIS DAYS, AND THE GOOD PLEASURE OF THE LORD WILL PROSPER IN HIS HAND.
AS A RESULT OF THE ANGUISH OF HIS SOUL, HE WILL SEE IT AND BE SATISFIED; BY HIS KNOWLEDGE THE RIGHTEOUS ONE, MY SERVANT, WILL JUSTIFY THE MANY, AS HE WILL BEAR THEIR INIQUITIES.
THEREFORE, I WILL ALLOT HIM A PORTION WITH THE GREAT, AND HE WILL DIVIDE THE BOOTY WITH THE STRONG; BECAUSE HE POURED OUT HIMSELF TO DEATH, AND WAS NUMBERED WITH THE TRANSGRESSORS; YET HE HIMSELF BORE THE SIN OF MANY, AND INTERCEDED FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS.”
It is not in the scope of this work to expound the above passage from Isaiah, but if the reader wishes to study and explore this theme, the author recommends the following; Christology of the Targums.
The Targums have preserved for us how ancient Israel interpreted the role of the Messiah.
And subsequent writings by the rabbis preserve for us how Judaism viewed these Messianic texts before the advent of Christianity.
It was incomplete, it was imperfect, yet it was much more an accurate portrait of Him than what is said of Him by today’s Judaism.
Take for example, the following Targum with regards to the prophetic Scriptures cited above:
“AND FROM BEFORE THE LORD IT WAS HIS PLEASURE TO PROVE AND PURIFY THE REMNANT OF HIS PEOPLE, IN ORDER TO CLEANSE THEIR SOULS FROM THEIR SINS; THEY SHALL LOOK UPON THE KINGDOM OF THEIR MESSIAH, BOTH SONS AND DAUGHTERS SHALL BE MULTIPLIED, THEY SHALL PROLONG [THEIR] DAYS, AND THE DOERS OF THE LAW OF THE LORD SHALL PROSPER IN HIS GOOD PLEASURE.”
It is interesting to note that the passage of Isaiah’s fifty-third chapter and tenth verse would be related to Messiah, and that the Jewish people’s sufferings would mirror that of Messiah’s suffering as Isaiah so vividly describes in that chapter, and that this suffering would both temper and prepare them for Messiah’s coming, so that when He would appear, they would be of such mind and spirit as to keep and observe the Torah, and enjoy not just a good and long life, but prosperity, growing from a small remnant into a great multitude comprising a righteous nation, and Messiah would usher them into life eternal in His kingdom.
This is both inferred from the above Targum and borne out by Isaiah’s passage when read in its entirety, and interpreted within its proper context, because it is clear that it refers to no other than to King Messiah.
In the Targum Jonathan, we have the following:
“BEHOLD MY SERVANT MESSIAH SHALL PROSPER; HE SHALL BE HIGH, AND INCREASE, AND BE EXCEEDINGLY STRONG; AS THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL LOOKED UPON HIM THROUGH MANY DAYS, BECAUASE THEIR COUNTENANCE WAS DARKENED AMONG THE PEOPLES, AND THEIR COMPLEXION BEYOND THE SONS OF MEN.”
And an incredible passage from Eleazar Ha Kalir from the Machsor, we have this most incredible quote:
“OUR RIGHTEOUS MESSIAH IS DEPARTED FROM US: HORROR HATH SEIZED US, AND WE HAVE NONE TO JUSTIFY US. HE HATH BORNE THE YOKE OF OUR INIQUITIES AND OUR TRANSGRESSION, AND IS WOUNDED BECAUSE OF OUR TRANSGRESSION. HE BEARETH OUR SINS ON HIS SHOULDER, THAT HE MAY FIND PARDON FOR OUR INIQUITIES. WE SHALL BE HEALED BY HIS WOUND, AT THE TIME THAT THE ETERNAL WILL CREATE HIM [THE MESSIAH] AS A NEW CREATURE.”
Several things stand out in the above caption:
I. The Messiah has come and departed from Israel.
II. Horror has seized the nation of Israel, because without Him, there is no justification.
III. Messiah has borne the collective sins of Israel, so that it may find forgiveness for its sins.
IV. Through His suffering and His wounds, Israel will be healed and made whole.
V. The Messiah will return anew in His resurrected state, thus the term “A NEW CREATURE.”
If one did not know it, one would think that what he/she were reading was a Christian pamphlet, and not reading from a non-Christian source.
From the Book of Zohar we read:
“In the hour in which they tell the Messiah about the sufferings of Israel in exile, and about the sinful among them who seek not the knowledge of their Master, the Messiah lifts up his voice and weeps over the sinful among them.
This is what is written: He was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities. Those souls then return to their places. In the Garden of Eden there is a Hall which is called the Hall of the Sons of Illness. The Messiah enters that Hall and summons all the disease and all the pains and all the suffering of Israel that they should come upon him, and all of them come upon him.”
Again, we read that even as late as the fourteenth century, there were rabbis who understood the true meaning of this passage of Isaiah as referring to the Messiah, as Rabbi Moshen Koehn Ibn Crispin of Cordoba, Spain wrote in response to Rashi’s interpretation:
“This passage, the commentators explain, speaks of the captivity of Israel, although the singular number is used in it throughout.
Others have supposed it to mean the just in the present world, who are crushed and oppressed now...but these, too, for the same reason, by altering the number, distort the verses from the natural meaning.
And then it seems to me that...having forsaken the knowledge of our teachers, and inclined "after the stubbornness of their own hearts," and of their own opinion, I am pleased to interpret it, in accordance with the teaching of our Rabbis, of King Messiah.”
As late as the 16th century of our common era, there were rabbis who understood this passage of Isaiah to be speaking of non one but King Messiah.
We read the following:
“I may remark, then, that our Rabbis of blessed memory with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet [Isaiah] is speaking of the King Messiah.”
A good point is made by Jewish educator Herz Homberg in the following statement on Rashi and the rabbis reinterpretation of Isaiah:
“According to the opinion of Rashi and Ibn Ezra, it relates to Israel at the end of their captivity. But if so, what can be the meaning of the passage, "He was wounded for our transgressions"? Who was wounded? Who are the transgressors? Who carried out the sickness and bare the pain? The fact is that it refers to the King Messiah.”
Thus, we see that any other interpretation of Isaiah is of a later time and a reaction to Roman Catholic and Anti-Semitic persecution and the misuse and application of God’s Word with regards to the Jewish people.
We will examine some of the abuses visited upon the Jewish people in future chapters of this study.
Isaiah spoke of only One Person whom history has recorded for us in the writings of the New Testament, faithfully written and transcribed through the centuries by reverent scribes, the number of which surpasses all other ancient manuscripts extant.
This was not by chance, this was by divine Providence.
What’s more, in the Twenty-Second Psalm, King David writes prophetically describing graphically an execution, but was is astonishing is that he writes it in the first person, as if it were happening to him.
Yet historians know that what David describes in the first person did not happen to him or his son Solomon.
Another problem is that the mode of execution he is describing prophetically as happening to him did not come into being until centuries later.
The mode of execution David was writing about was crucifixion, and it was established by the Romans against subjects under their control who were not citizens of Rome.
We follow the text in its entirety:
MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME? FOR FROM MY DELIVERANCE ARE THE WORDS OF MY GROANING.
O MY GOD, I CRY BY DAY, BUT THOU DOST NOT ANSWER; AND BY NIGHT, BUT I HAVE NO REST.
According to the historical records, theses words were shouted by Jesus as He hung on the Roman cross.
And when some of those present heard Him, they thought He was calling for the prophet Elijah, because the Aramaic word Eli sounds similar to the name.
BUT I AM A WORM, AND NOT A MAN, A REPROACH OF MEN, AND DESPISED BY THE PEOPLE.
ALL WHO SEE ME SNEER AT ME; THEY SEPARATE WITH THE LIP, THEY WAG THE HEAD, SAYING, “COMMIT YOURSELF TO THE LORD; LET HIM DELIVER HIM; LET HIM RESCUE HIM, BECAUSE HE DELIGHTS IN HIM.”
Again, David writes prophetically of a man who is mistreated and crushed like a worm, reproached by men and despised by the people.
The term is interesting, because in it, David describes this man as despised by his people, Israel.
The Person David describes is One whom the people would despise as He hung on the cross, while those present would hurl abuse at Him, mockingly saying,“Commit yourself to the Lord. Let Him deliver Him. Let Him rescue Him, because He delights in Him!”
This is precisely what occurred to Jesus as He suffered on the cross, and is preserved for us in the Gospel accounts.
What David writes is not a Christian invention, he wrote about it centuries before the events it depicts took place, and it was witnessed by a many people who saw these things for themselves, some of whom wrote about them in the Gospels.
YET THOU ART HE WHO DIDST BRING ME FORTH FROM THE WOMB; THOU DIDST MAKE ME TRUST WHEN UPON MY MOTHER’S BREASTS.
UPON THEE I WAS CAST FROM BIRTH; THOU HAST BEEN MY GOD FROM MY MOTHER’S WOMB.
BE NOT FAR FROM ME, FOR TROUBLE IS NEAR; FOR THERE IS NONE TO HELP. MANY BULLS HAVE SURROUNDED ME; STRONG BULLS OF BASHAN HAVE ENCIRCLED ME.
THEY OPEN WIDE THEIR MOUTH AT ME.
AS A RAVENING AND A ROARING LION.
I AM POURED OUT LIKE WATER, AND ALL MY BONES OUT OF JOINT; MY HEART IS LIKE WAX; IT IS MELTED WITHIN ME. MY STRENGTH IS DRIED UP LIKE A POTSHERD.
AND MY TONGUE CLEAVES TO MY JAWS; AND THOU DOST LAY ME IN THE DUST OF DEATH.
FOR DOGS HAVE SURROUNDED ME; A BAND OF EVILDOERS HAS ENCOMPASSED ME; THEY PIERCED MY HANDS AND MY FEET.
I CAN COUNT ALL MY BONES.
THEY LOOK, THEY STARE AT ME; THEY DIVIDE MY GARMENTS AMONG THEM.
AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS.
Again, David, writing in the first person, describes graphically a man who is wasted away, exhausted and near death, emaciated, dehydrated, whose life is draining with every drop of blood that He bleeds as He hangs on that cross.
The description is accurate and illustrates for the reader the suffering the Messianic Character would undergo.
The details are described precisely in the Gospel accounts, even down to the fact that lots were casted for Messiah’s garments.
BUT THOU, O LORD, BE NOT FAR OFF; O THOU MY HELP, HASTEN TO MY ASSISTANCE.
DELIVER MY SOUL FROM THE SWORD, MY ONLY LIFE FROM THE POWER OF THE DOG.
SAVE ME FROM THE LION’S MOUTH; AND FROM THE HORNS OF THE WILD OXEN THOU DOST ANSWER ME.
I WILL TELL OF THY NAME TO MY BRETHREN; IN THE MIDST OF THE ASSEMBLY I WILL PRAISE THEE.
YOU WHO FEAR THE LORD, PRAISE HIM; ALL YOU DESCENDANTS OF JACOB, GLORIFY HIM; AND STAND IN AWE OF HIM, ALL YOU DESCENDANTS OF ISRAEL.
FOR HE HAS NOT DESPISED NOR ABHORRED THE AFFLICTION OF THE AFFLICTED; NIETHER HAS HE HIDDEN HIS FACE FROM HIM; BUT WHEN HE CRIED TO HIM FOR HELP, HE HEARD.
FROM THEE COMES MY PRAISE IN THE GREAT ASSEMBLY; I SHALL PAY MY VOWS BEFORE THOSE WHO FEAR HIM.
THE AFFLICTED SHALL EAT AND BE SATISFIED; THOSE WHO SEEK HIM WILL PRAISE THE LORD.
LET YOUR HEART LIVE FOREVER!
ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH WILL REMEMBER AND TURN TO THE LORD, AND ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE NATIONS WILL WORSHIP BEFORE THEE.
FOR THE KINGDOM IS THE LORD’S.
AND HE RULES OVER THE NATIONS. ALL THE PROSPEROUS OF THE EARTH WILL EAT AND WORSHIP, ALL THOSE WHO GO DOWN TO THE DUST WILL BOW BEFORE HIM. EVEN HE WHO CANNOT KEEP HIS SOUL ALIVE.
POSTERITY WILL SERVE HIM; IT WILL BE TOLD OF THE LORD TO THE COMING GENERATION.
THEY WILL COME AND WILL DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS TO A PEOPLE WHO WILL BE BORN, THAT HE HAS PERFORMED IT.
There is only one Jewish religious figure who has emerged from history who suffered in the exact manner which King David wrote about centuries before.
I is impossible for the Twenty-Second Psalm to have been a Christian invention, since it was written, read, and recited centuries before the events recorded in the Gospel accounts.
As for the Gospel writers inventing these out of thin air, adapting David’s Psalm to fit the events they wrote about, that also is unlikely, because David did not write this Psalm to suit Jewish writers centuries later, nor were these men going to write and distribute accounts of events which didn’t take place as they described them, because the people who witnessed these events and those who partook in them could both be summoned to either corroborate or deny them.
The fact that there is not one recorded instance of any of these being denied by any of its participants in itself is evidence of their veracity and historical integrity.
King David was a prophet, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he composed prophetic Psalms which depicted precisely the execution, suffering, and death of the Messiah as it happened centuries later outside the walls of Jerusalem.
And there was no way that one man or His followers could have manipulated people, events, and everything related to them to fit so precisely the descriptions David writes about, and which came to pass on Nisan 13 in the year of either 33 or 36 of our Common Era.
The more this is studied the more one must conclude the Messiah died a brutal and inhuman death, and this was graphically described in the prophetic Psalm which King David wrote centuries before under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; for without the events which the Gospels record so well for us, the prophetic Psalm composed centuries before by King David would be meaningless by itself, and unfulfilled.
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