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From: Dean and Susan Wheelock
To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Messianic Prophecies:
Dean and Susan Wheelock have a ministry called Hebrew
roots. They produce a quarterly magazine called Hebrew roots. If
you
would like to receive the magazine, please send an e-mail to Dean
and
Susan at: (dewheelock@aol.com)
or write them at the following address:
Hebrew Roots
P.O. Box 98
Lakewood, WI 54138
1-715-757-2775
Messianic Prophecies:
Numbers and Deuteronomy
From the website:
http://www.geocities.com/hebrew_roots/html/hr-3-4-06.html
THE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES
THE TORAH
And beginning at Moses and all the
Prophets, He expounded to them in all the
Scriptures The things concerning Himself.
Luke 24:27
The Prophecy:
"`He has not observed
iniquity in Jacob.
Nor has He seen wickedness in
Israel.
The LORD his God is with him,
And the shout of a King is among
them.'"
(Num. 23:21)
Edersheim: "... the term
`King' is expressly referred to the
Messiah. See also Num. xxiv.
7." (p. 714)
Ancient Source: Targum Pseudo
Jonathan and Jerusalem Targum.
"`He shall pour water from his
buckets,
And his seed shall be in many
waters.
His king shall be higher than
Agag,
And his kingdom shall be
exalted.'"
(Num 24:7)
As Believers we understand that
Yeshua is to be King of kings
and Lord of lords. "And He
has on His robe and on His thigh a
name written:
KING OF KINGS
AND LORD OF LORDS."
(Rev. 19:16)
The Prophecy:
"`I see Him but not now;
I behold Him, but not near;
A Star shall come out of Jacob;
A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,
And batter the brow of Moab,
And destroy all the sons of
tumult.'"
(Num. 24:17)
Edersheim: "Balaam's
prediction of the Star and Sceptre is
referred to the Messiah.... Similarly, verses 20 and 24
of that prophecy are ascribed ... to the Messiah." (p. 714)
Ancient Source: Targum Onekelos and Pseudo Jonathan, and the
Jerusalem Talmudic Tractate; Taanith.
"Then he looked on Amalek,
and he took up his oracle and said:
`Amalek was first among the
nations,
But shall be last until he
perishes.' ...
"`But ships shall come from
the coasts of Cyprus,
And they shall afflict
Asshur and afflict Eber,
And so shall Amalek, until
he perishes.'"
(Num. 24:20, 24)
As we saw previously, while the
nation of Amalek is no longer
identifiable, the spirit of Amalek is rampant in the
modern world. We see it manifested in the Middle East by the
intense
hatred that the Palestinians have for the Jewish people, wanting,
like
Hitler, to see them destroyed. `There will be no relief from this
kind
of blind hatred (in whatever country it might manifest itself)
until
Messiah comes and sets up His righteous Kingdom over all the
earth.
`This is the true `One World Government' for which we look and
hope
and expect very soon.
The Prophecy:
"`Let the LORD, the God of
the spirits of all flesh, set a man
over the congregation, ...'"
(Num. 27:16)
Edersheim: "In connection
with this verse it is noticed that His
one Spirit is worth as much as all
other spirits,
according to Is. xi. I." (p.
714) Ancient Source: Yalkut, (vol. i. p. 247a).
"There shall come forth a Rod from
the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his
roots.
The Spirit of the LORD 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 the LORD.'"
(Isa. 11:1-2)
According to the testimony of the
gospels, the Spirit of the
Lord did rest upon Yeshua.
"Then Jesus, when He had been
baptized, came up immediately from
the water; and behold, the
heavens were opened to Him, and He
saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting
upon Him." (Matt. 3:16)
"So he came to Nazareth,
where He had been brought up. And as
His custom was, He went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day
and stood up to read. And He was
handed
the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And when Lie had opened the
book, lie found the place were it
was written:
`The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me to
preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to heal the
brokenhearted,
To preach deliverance to the
captives
And recovery of sight to the
blind,
To set at liberty those who are
oppressed,
To preach the acceptable year of
the Lord.'
"Then He closed the book, and
gave it back to the attendant and
sat down. And the eyes of all who
were in the synagogue were
fixed on Him. And He began to say
to them, `Today this
Scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing.'" (Luke 4:16-2 1)
This same Spirit is available
today to the Believer:
"Do you not know that you are
the temple of God and that the
Spirit of God dwells in you? If
anyone defiles the temple of
God, God will destroy him. For the
temple of God
is holy, which temple you
are." (I Cor. 3:16-17)
~ The Book Of Deuteronomy ~
The Prophecy:
"`See, I have set the land
before you; go in and possess the
land which the LORD swore to
your
fathers--to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob--to give to them and their
descendants after them.'"
(Deut. 1:8)
Edersheim: "...is applied ...
to the days of the Messiah." (p.
714) Ancient Source: Siphre (the
some what older commentary on
Numb. and Deuter.)
When Messiah comes to set up the
fullness of the Kingdom of God,
then those who are His at His coming will
enter in to take possession of the promised land.
The Prophecy:
"`Every commandment which I
command you today you must be
careful to observe,
that you may live and multiply and go in
and possess the land
of which the LORD swore to
your fathers.'"
(Deut. 8:1)
Edersheim: "...there
are several allusions to Messianic days."
(p. 714)
Ancient Source: Tanchuma - the
Midrash commentary on the
Pentateuch (Torah).
Here, entering into the land is
tied to the keeping of the
commandments (mitzvoth or good deeds). "`For I say unto you,
that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of
heaven.'" (Matt. 5:20)
"`Not everyone who says to
Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but
he who does the will of My Father in heaven.'"
(Matt. 7:21)
"For as many as have sinned
without law will also perish without
law, and as many as have
sinned in the
law will be judged by the
law (for not the hearers of the law are just
in the sight of God, but the
doers of the law will be
justified; for when
Gentiles, who do not have the law, by
nature do the things
contained in the law, these, although not
having the law are a law to
themselves, who show the work of
the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing
witness, and between
themselves their
thoughts accusing or else
excusing them) in the day when God will
judge the secrets of men by
Jesus Christ, according to my
gospel.'" (Rom.
2:12-16)
The Prophecy:
"`...that your days and the
days of your children may be
multiplied in the land of which
the LORD swore
to your fathers to give them, like
the days of the heavens above the
earth.'" (Deut. 11:21)
Edersheim: "is applied ... to
the days of the Messiah." (p. 714)
Ancient Source: Siphre.
This is the concluding verse in
the passage that contains the
instruction to teach the word of God to one's children
and to write them on the doorposts of one's house. The
traditional
manner in which the Jewish people observe this command is to
attach a
mezuzah (mehzoo-zah) to the door frame which internally contains
this
passage of scripture written on a parchment. In light of Matt.
5:17-18, which follows, we as Believers might ask ourselves: How
do we
fulfill this command?
"`Do not think that I came to
destroy the Law or the Prophets, I
did not come to destroy but
to fulfill.
For assuredly, I say to you,
till heaven and earth pass away, one jot
or one tittle will by no
means pass from the law till all is
fulfilled.'" (Matt.
5:17-18)
The Prophecy:
"`You shall eat no leavened
bread with it; seven days you shall
eat unleavened bread with
it, that is, the
bread of affliction (for you
came out of the land of Egypt in haste),
that you may remember the
day in which you came out of the land of
Egypt all the days of your
life.'" (Deut. 16:3)
Edersheim: "...the record of
the deliverance from Egypt is
supposed to be carried on to the
days of the Messiah..."
(p. 714)
Ancient Source: Siphre and the
Talmudic Tractate Berakhoth.
Isaiah prophesied about a future
time when:
"There will be a highway for the
remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from
the land of Egypt."
(Isa. 11:16)
The Prophecy:
"`Now if the LORD your God
enlarges your territory, as He swore
to your fathers, and gives you the
land which He promised to give to
your fathers, and if you keep all
these commandments and do them,
which I command you today to
love the LORD your God and to walk
always in His ways, then you
shall add three more cities for
yourself besides these three.'"
(Deut. 19:8-9)
Edersheim: "...it is noted
... that as three of these cities
were in territory never possessed
by Israel, this was to be
fulfilled in Messianic
times." (p. 714)
Ancient Source: Siphre and the
Talmudic Tractate Berakhoth.
The original promise to Abraham
was that his descendants would
receive all of the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. This
occupation by Israel has not yet been fulfilled.
"On the same day the LORD
made a covenant with Abram, saying:
`To your descendants I have given
this land, from the river of
Egypt to the great river, the River
Euphrates--'" (Gen.
15:18)
The Prophecy:
"`When you go near a city to
fight against it, then proclaim an
offer of peace to it.'"
(Deut. 20:10)
Edersheim: "...the offer of
peace to a hostile city is applied
to the future action of Messiah to the Gentiles, in
accordance with Zech. ix. 10; Is. ii. 4; and Ps. lxviii. 32;
while, on
the other hand, the resistance of a city to the offer of peace is
likened to rebellion against the Messiah, and consequent
judgment,
according to Is. xi. 4." (p. 714)
Ancient Source: Tanchuma - the
Midrash commentary on the
Pentateuch (Torah).
"`I will cut off the chariot from
Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem;
The battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
And from the river to the ends of the
earth.'"
(Zech. 9:10)
"He shall judge between the
nations,
And shall rebuke many people;
they shall beat their swords into
plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation,
Neither will they learn war
anymore."
(Isa. 2:4)
"Sing to God, you kingdoms of the
earth;
Oh, sing praises to the Lord,
Selah."
(Ps. 68:32)
"But with righteousness He shall
judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of
the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod
of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall
slay the wicked."
(Isa. 11:4)
It is evident from studying these
passages which the Jewish
sages applied to the Messianic age, that they saw the
entire experience of the nation of Israel as prefiguring (being a
type
of) the coming Kingdom of God under the rule of the Messiah.
The Prophecy:
"`But it shall be, when
evening comes, that he shall wash
himself with
water; and when the sun sets, he
may come into the camp
again.'" (Deut. 23:11)
Edersheim: "...is typically
applied to the evening of time, when
God would wash away the filth of the daughters of
Zion (Is. iv. 4); and the words: `when the sun is down' to when
King
Messiah would come." (p. 714)
Ancient Source: Tanchuma.
"When the Lord has washed
away the filth of the daughters of
Zion, and purged the blood
of Jerusalem from her
midst, by the spirit of judgment
and by the spirit of burning, ..."
(Isa. 4:4)
As the rabbis say; "Every
book, chapter, verse, and word of the
Scriptures speaks of the
Messiah."
The Prophecy:
"`Therefore it shall be, when
the LORD your God has given you
rest from your enemies all
around, in
the land which the LORD your
God is giving you to possess as an
inheritance, that you will
blot out the remembrance of Amalek from
under heaven. You shall not
forget.'" (Deut. 25:19)
"`If any of you are driven
out to the farthest parts under
heaven, from there the LORD
your God will
gather you, and from there
He will bring you.'"
(Deut. 30:4)
Edersheim: "...are referred
... to Messianic times. In the
latter passage the gathering of dispersed Israel by Elijah,
and their being brought back by Messiah, are spoken of." (p.
714)
Ancient Source: Targum Pseudo Jonathan and Bemidbar Rabba, a
commentary on Numbers.
Once again the reference to Amalek
is brought forth. The
Messianic age will be a time when all evil is put out of the
earth, when the spirit of Amalek is put away.
"Then the seventh angel
sounded: And there were loud voices in
heaven, saying, `The kingdoms of
this
world have become the kingdoms of
our Lord and of His Christ,
and He shall reign forever and
ever!'" (Rev. 11:15)
The Prophecy:
"`Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many
generations.
Ask your father, and he will show
you;
Your elders, and they will tell
you:'"
(Deut. 32:7)
Edersheim: "...makes the
beautiful observation, that in all
Israel's afflictions they were to remember the good and
comfortable things which God had promised them for the future
world,
and in connection with this there is special reference to the
time of
the Messiah." (p. 714-15) Ancient Source: Siphre.
Our real hope is in the
resurrection from death which is made
possible through faith in the resurrection of Yeshua HaMashiach.
"Now if Christ is preached
that He has been raised from the
dead, how do some among you
say that
there is no resurrection of
the dead? But if there is no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is
not risen. And if Christ is not risen,
then our preaching is vain
and your faith is also vain. Yes, and we
are found false witnesses of
God, because we have testified of God
that He raised up Christ,
whom He did not raise up--if in fact the
dead do not rise.
"For if the dead do not rise,
then Christ is not risen. And if
Christ is not risen, your
faith is futile; you
are still in your sins! Then
also those who have fallen asleep in
Christ have perished. If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we
are of all men the most
pitiable." (I Cor. 15:12-19)
The Prophecy.
"`How could one chase a
thousand,
And two put ten thousand to
flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the LORD had surrendered
them?'"
(Dent. 32:30)
Edersheim: "...marks its
fulfillment in the days of the
Messiah." (p. 715) Ancient
Source: Siphre (the somewhat older
commentary on Numb. and Deuter.).
We must put our complete trust in
our Father in heaven, and our
Messiah, Yeshua. For they will
deliver us from all
of our enemies.
"A thousand may fall at your
side,
And ten thousand at your right
hand;
But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you
look,
And see the reward of the
wicked."
(Psalm 9 1:7-8)
The Prophecy:
"`And He was King in
Jeshurun,
When the leaders of the people
were gathered,
All the tribes of Israel
together.'"
(Deut. 33:5)
Edersheim: "...speaks of a
king whom the tribes of Israel shall
obey, this being evidently the
King Messiah." (p.715)
Ancient Source: Jerusalem Targum.
"And I heard the number of
those who were sealed. One hundred
and forty-four thousand of
all the
tribes of the children of
Israel were sealed."
(Rev. 7:4)
"Then the seventh angel
sounded: And there were loud voices in
heaven, saying, `The kingdoms of
this
world have become the kingdoms of
our Lord and of His Christ,
and He shall reign forever
and ever!'" (Rev. 11:15)
The Prophecy:
"`His glory is like a
firstborn bull,
And his horns are like the horns
of the wild ox;
Together with them
He shall push the peoples
To the ends of the earth;
They are the ten thousands of
Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of
Manasseh.'"
(Deut. 33:17)
Edersheim: "...applies to the
Messiah" (p. 715)
Ancient Source: Tanchuma - the
Midrash commentary on the
Pentateuch (Torah) and the Midrash
Bemidbar
Rabba, on Numbers.
This passage is the prophecy given
by Moses for the descendants
of Joseph. During the time of Yeshua many of the sages taught
that
two Messiahs would have to appear on the scene in order to
fulfill
the disparate prophecies. Thus, they looked for a
`Messiah ben Yoseif' (Messiah son of Joseph) to come first,
followed
by a `Messiah ben David' (Messiah son of David). They taught that
Messiah ben Yoseif would come from one of the tribes of Yoseif,
while
Messiah ben David would come from the tribe of Judah. (See Hebrew
Roots Issue 98-3 for more details.)
The Prophecy:
"Of Benjamin lie said;
`The beloved of the LORD shall
dwell in safety by Him,
Who shelters him all the day long;
And he shall dwell between His
shoulders.'"
(Deut. 33:12)
Edersheim: "The expression,
`he shall cover [shelter] him' is
referred to this world; `all the day long,' to the days
of the Messiah; and `he shall dwell between his shoulders' to the
world to come." (p. 715) Ancient Source: The Talmudic
tractate
Zebhachim.
All of us, whether Christian or
Jew, look for the coming of the
Messiah. But we all realize that ultimately, our ability
to be a part of the world to come is entirely in the hands of
YHVH.
Therefore, we look to Him to provide us with the protection, the
comfort and the salvation that we must have in order to reach
that
glorious goal.
"Be merciful to me, O God, be
merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You:
And in the shadow of Your wings I will
make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed
by."
(Psalm 57:1)
"Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of
Your wings I will rejoice."
(Psalm 63:7)
"He shall cover you with His
feathers,
And under His wings you shall take
refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and
buckler."
(Psalm 91:4)
"`O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the
one who kills the prophets and
stones those who are sent to her!
How
often I wanted to gather your
children together, as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, but you
were not willing! See! Your house is
left to you desolate; for I say to
you, you shall see Me no more till
you say, `Blessed is He who comes
in the name of the LORD!'" (Matt.
23:37-39)
~ Summary ~
It is evident that the ancient
Rabbis looked at prophecy in
quite a different light than do most modem day
Christians. They searched the subtleties of the Scriptures,
making
connections with other verses in ways that are not readily
apparent in
the surface reading of the text.
It is our suggestion that if you
had trouble following some of
the reasoning that Edersheim has found in the ancient
Jewish writings, that you study the material again, with a very
open
mind. The connections are there, even if they do not jump out at
the
first reading.
To begin to comprehend the ancient
Jewish mind, is to begin to
know the mind of Yeshua, for He lived in that very
time, and fully appreciated their thought processes and taught in
a
manner they could understand. Therefore, if we are to fully
understand
the teachings of our Savior, we must be able to understand how
the
people of His day thought. A study such as this helps us to
accomplish
that end.
Next time we will discuss the
Messianic prophecies that are
found in portions of The Writings.
Dean Wheelock
~ Sources ~
Edersheim, Alfred, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Wm.
B.
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1990. Green, Jay P., Sr.,
The Interlinear Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, 1985.
The Open Bible, The New King James Version, Thomas Nelson
Publishers, Nashville, 1985.
Strong, James. S.T.D., L.L.D., Strong's New Exhaustive
Concordance of the
Bible, World Bible Publishers, Inc., Iowa Falls, 1986.
Wigram, George V., The Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee
Concordance of the Old
Testament, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1980.
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