From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com> Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 02:34:29 +0000 Subject: The Jewish Messiah in TeNaKh (Part 1)
From: "Michael Edgerton" <First_Fruits@classic.msn.com> To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup" <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com> To the Mishpachah (Family): Not long ago a Bible believer got into a debate with an august representative of an organization self-styled as some sort of "Supreme" U.S. Rabbinical Court. This rabbi was standing in front of some television cameras attempting to "excommunicate" American Jewish people because of their Messianic faith. This is a true story. The Debate in a Nutshell In short, the debate went something like this. The rabbi said to the Bible believer, "Are you a Jew?" The Bible believer replied, "Was Ruth a Jew?" The rabbi asked, "Are you a missionary?" The Bible believer replied, "Are you a missionary?" The rabbi shouted, "I most certainly am not!" The Bible believer asked, "If you are not a missionary, then why have you rabbis lawlessly wrested authority from the kohanim (priests) and are now missionizing Jewish people away from a faith squarely founded on true Biblical apocalyptic Torah Judaism as taught by the Jewish Bible?" The rabbi said (without challenging the truth of the indictment), "Because the priesthood became corrupted by the Romans, and then the Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E." The Bible believer said, "One kohen (priest) was not corrupted and his temple was not destroyed." The rabbi paused and looked at the Bible believer quizzically. . . "Which one was that?" The Bible believer said, "The Messiah-Priest that King David foretold in Psalm 110,[1] the portentous priest Zechariah also identified with the name of Moshiach (Messiah) in Zechariah[2] [3]--the very name Ezra called Yeshua (Aramaic form of Yehoshua) in the book of Ezra!"[4] (See end notes referred to by bracketed numbers for all Scripture citations.) He paused again, swallowing hard. A little bit later in the debate he wiped a tear from his right eye. He couldn't refute the Biblical argument, a position he had never heard before, apparently, and one for which he had no answer. What follows is a more complete presentation of the Biblical argument. The Jewish Bible Must Interpret Itself The history of the Exodus is given to us in the Torah of Moses. There we read that a whole rebellious generation passed away leaving only a righteous remnant of two holy survivors of the Exodus to inherit the promised life in the Holy Land: Yehoshua (or Joshua--the Aramaic form is Yeshua--see Nehemiah 8:17) and Caleb. This is paradigmatic history, for it provides a prophetic model as a sign of things to come, as does the prophecy about Moshiach found in the reference to the two ominous olive trees in the book of Zechariah 4.[5] In fact, Yehoshua (or Joshua) is himself a sign of the Moshiach, as we shall see. The fact that the Aramaic form of Yehoshua or Joshua is Yeshua [see Nehemiah 8:17] will prove very significant later when we see that the Tanakh teaches this name is to become Moshiach's personal name. "Joshua/Yeshua" is indeed one of the portentous and ominous names of "anshei mofet" ("sign-men) in the Hebrew Scriptures.[2]" A rabbi might challenge this and say, "This is like telling an American that something which happened to the Pilgrims is paradigmatic of American history. Or, again, this is like saying that George Washington is a prophetic sign of the last and greatest American President! Why is one necessarily the predictive model of the other?" Why? Because the Jewish Bible must be allowed to interpret itself. And, in the Jewish Bible, Yeshayah (Isaiah) 49:8 [6] infers that Yehoshua or Joshua/Yeshua is in fact a sign of the Moshiach. Therefore, if anyone wants to argue, let him argue with G-d and his holy Word in the writing of his holy prophet, Isaiah. It was Joshua who assigned the land of the promised inheritance to the individual tribes and families. Isaiah 49:8 alludes to this activity. This key verse infers that King Moshiach, the Servant of the L-rd, is the new Joshua, for in his own person the Moshiach will bring the promised new life for the people, which is their covenant inheritance. Or a rabbi might say, "If in fact it is the one you say who is the Prince of Peace, the new Joshua, as it were, to bring the people out of the Golus (Exile) and into the land of eternal Sabbath rest, then where is all the world peace the Prophets said the Moshiach would bring?" Answer: G-d did not promise peace to a world that rejects him, Rabbi. But those who receive the spiritual bris milah (covenant of circumcision) and the justification peace the Moshiach brings are in actuality raised to a new spiritual existence with Moshiach in anticipation of the Olam haBa (the World to Come), and in anticipation of the Resurrection Age and its peace. But how can we have the latter if we refuse the former? How can we have the Olam haBa of Moshiach if we reject Moshiach's New Covenant life in the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit)? To continue, Bamidbar (Numbers) 34:19 [7] tells us that Caleb was from the Moshiach's tribe, the tribe of Judah. Caleb in the history of the Torah is thus a continuing sign-man or mofet man (mofet is Hebrew for sign or omen or portent [2]) of the remnant of one, the King Moshiach of the tribe of Judah, indicated before Caleb in places like Bereshis (Genesis) 49:10 [8] and after Caleb in several places in the Jewish Bible, as we shall see. This righteous-remnant-of-one motif reappears later in the Servant Songs of Yeshayah (Isaiah) chapters 42-53, where an idealized Israel is called Yeshurun [9] and then is seen in counterpoint to a suffering, dying and death-conquering Moshiach, the Servant of the L-rd. [10] Proof of this last statement will be offered presently, when we see how the Jewish Bible ties all these prophetic strands together. Yehoshua is a Symbol of King Moshiach Yehoshua (Joshua, Yeshua) is called "the servant of the L-rd" in the book of Joshua. [11] Like Caleb, Joshua is also a sign- man, an ominous mofet of the King Messiah, for Joshua is an agent of chessid (undeserved, unmerited mercy e.g. in the case of the prostitute Rahab) and of wrath and judgment or condemnation, in the holy war of G-d against the seven wicked nations in the Promised Land. The prophet Daniel, who also speaks of both the chessid of chayei olam (eternal life) as well as judgment and condemnation,[12] gives us a glorious apocalyptic picture of this coming King, this Moshiach of the Clouds.[13] Furthermore, Devorim (Deuteronomy) 18:15-19 [14] foretells the prophet like Moses that G-d will raise up in the Promised Land, the Prophet- Moshiach. A rabbi might interrupt right here and say, "Wait! This reference to a Moses-like prophet who is to come is not necessarily referring to the Moshiach!" Again, let the Jewish Bible interpret itself: Yeshayah (Isaiah)[15] infers that the Moshiach will be a new Moses. Therefore, don't argue with man, argue with G-d's Holy Word. Argue with Isaiah 42:15-16; 49:9-10. The immediate (not final) fulfillment of the Deuteronomy 18:15-19 prophecy is Yehoshua (Joshua/Yeshua). The Sages (Avot 1:1) tell us that Moses accepted the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua/Yeshua. Not only that, Joshua/Yeshua is indeed a Moses-like prophet, because it was to Joshua and not to Moses that G-d gave the revelation of the boundaries of the tribal portions of Eretz Yisrael. Moses died in the wilderness because he angered G-d, but Joshua led the people victoriously to the promised new life in the Holy Land. Thus, Joshua (the Aramaic form of whose name is Yeshua--see Nehemiah 8:17) is a prophetic sign of the King Moshiach, the ruler from among his brethren who, like Moses and Prince Joseph, the Savior in Egypt, would lead Israel's true faithful remnant all the way from the rebellious unbelief resulting in death in the wilderness to the eternal salvation and Messianic deliverance foreshadowed in the book of Joshua. That the rabbis were not ignorant of the Messianic interpretation of the Torah given above is shown in the Midrash on the Psalms (translated by Rabbi William Braude, Yale University Press, 1959, Volume 1, pages 4-7). In this rabbinic work we find David explicitly likened to Moses and, on the same page, Devarim (Deuteronomy) 18:15 is quoted, `A prophet will the L-rd thy G-d raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me (Moses)."[14] That Deuteronomy 18:15, then, is a Messianic prophecy fulfllled ultimately in the Moshiach, the Son of David, should be clear enough. Confirmation comes in II Samuel [16] and in Isaiah,[17] which tell us that David's "house" will bring the Moshiach, and also in Ezekiel, which gives us the title of Moshiach, "David my Servant". [18] The deduction of the thoughtful, then, is that Rashi's interpretation of Deuteronomy 18:19 [14] is all the more frightening. According to Rashi, the text of this passage means that unbelievers will be put to death. So it is no light thing to refuse to believe in the divine clues to the identity of the Moshiach set forth in the Tanakh. That is why the following material should be read prayerfully, with careful study of each Biblical reference in the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, and Writings of the Hebrew Bible). Tanakh-refusers, take heed! Attempting to Evade the Jewish Bible Is Futile Those who use the Holocaust to justify either their atheism or their tendency to devalue the authority of the Jewish Bible should remember that Satan, not G-d, is the author of Nazism and anti- Semitism. But when Jewish men like Karl Marx and Trotsky laughed at the Biblical prospect of a future punishment (in spite of the doctrine of Gehinnom or hell indicated by texts like that of Daniel [12]), and when they ridiculed Holy Scripture like Deuteronomy 18:19 [14], such folly (by more than a few who were ostensibly Jews) contributed, in league with the universal Marxist cry for bloody revolution, to give many Europeans dangerous misperceptions about the Jewish people as a whole. The erroneous but nonetheless terrifying specter of Tanakh-rejecting Jews in control of the Communist Parties together with the Right-wing European reaction to this, fueling latent Western anti-Semitism, helped provide Hitler with his demonic opportunity and Satanic rationale. And, pardon the Biblical Jewish expression, but it was particularly here that many of the clergymen of the world and even many of the rabbis of the shul were all too often worthless prophetic "watch dogs," as it says, "mute [watch] dogs that cannot bark," that "lie around and dream."[19] While the coming storm of "the time of trouble for Jacob"[20] threatened ominously on the horizon, many of the clergymen of the world and many of the rabbis of the shul spent more effort meditating on extra-Biblical thought than on the Jewish Prophets. G-d says, "I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock."[21] The point is not that proper rabbinic Biblical exegesis and homiletics would have averted the Holocaust or that the 6,000,000 somehow could have escaped Hitler's Satanic trap. The point is that prophets and preachers are given by G-d for giving warning, and the warning is in the Jewish Scriptures and not in the tradition or theology of men. And woe to the preacher, Jewish or not, who does not preach the Jewish Scriptures. This also applies to those who claim to know the Moshiach but do not love his ancient people and pay only empty lip service to the task of feeding his Jewish lambs the pure milk of the Word of G-d. To illustrate this point, if one's loved one is standing on the train tracks, one may not be able to prevent disaster, but one certainly cannot justify not even shouting, "Here comes the train!" The Tanakh speaks about the Holocaust "train" coming in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah and many other places, but there is a famine of hearing the Word of G-d, because preachers and rabbis have not carried out their responsibility to preach the Word, especially the word of warning regarding the coming Messianic tribulation. Those who say they are "orthodox" because they ascribe to the "Principles of the Faith" of Maimonides should remember that Maimonides didn't exposit the pure Torah and the Prophets; Maimonides attempted to syncretize Biblical and Aristotelian thought. Are we required to believe that this Maimonidean hybrid, even if it contradicts the Jewish Bible, is, in any sense of the word, "representative" of Judaism? Instead of preaching the pure apocalyptic Torah Judaism of Moses and the Prophets, the clergymen of the world and the rabbis of the shul have too often retreated to the liberal seminaries and the Talmudic yeshivas. Instead of warning the Jewish people (like Jeremiah and Esther's Mordecai) of the coming tribulation, the blind go leading the blind, even in the face of Satan's yawning pit. Thank G-d that Jeremiah foresaw the end-time fulfillment of the true trans-cultural Judaism of Moshiach and the eschatological leaders that G-d would raise up in the latter days: "Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding"[22]. Are not terrifying Torah readings like Deuteronomy 18:19 [14] and 28:15-68 [23] with their horrifying modern historical illustrations enough to wake up anyone, even liberal clergymen, even their liberal congregants, even "orthodox" clergy and rabbis? At just this point someone might try to "strain out a gnat," charging us with misconstruing the Biblical context. Someone might then "swallow the camel" by pretending that this betrayal of the Jewish Bible by religious leaders has not happened or that there have not been horrendous consequences. Or someone might smile and say, "I don't believe that G-d would allow people to throw themselves into eternal torment in Gehinnom. Nor, for that matter, do I believe that the Bible, with its absolutes, means what it says." Marx didn't believe Biblical absolutes, either. Neither did Trotsky, nor Hitler, nor Pontius Pilate. [24] Would you like to share their willfully wicked opinion (and their company) forever? Here a rabbi might say, "If there is anyone `willfully wicked,' it is those so-called `church members' who stood by silently as Jews went to the Holocaust." True, but Corrie ten Boom (see The Hiding Place, Fleming Revell, 1971) didn't stand by silently. Nor did others. As far as the fate of those who died in the Holocaust is concerned, G-d knows those who are his. You can be sure of that. And as far as the true followers of Moshiach are concerned, it is clear that there are "weeds" marked for Gehinnom, even among the "wheat" of Moshiach's true followers (see Mt.13:24-30; 7:21-23, etc). All will have to stand before the Moshiach (Rom.14:10), who endured his own personal Holocaust for the salvation of his Jewish people. But we're dealing with a different problem here. We're dealing with the issue of the reality of a Holy G-d and the reality of Satanic evil and hellish curses, using the Holocaust to refute scoffers and doubters, and with all severity urging everyone, Jew and non- Jew alike, clergyman and rabbi alike, to take a more serious look at the Biblical Moshiach in the Tanakh, knowing that many will casually ignore the Word and not even deign to look up the Tanakh references cited here, so willfully wicked is the world. "But wait," you say. "Now you're bringing in original sin (`Willfully wicked'), aren't you? I don't believe in it! What kind of G-d would let the whole of humanity corrupt itself?" Read Psalm 51:5,10 [25] on natural, fallen, human depravity and the needed spiritual bris milah of regeneration and complete inward spiritual change. G-d is perfect and He created mankind good in His perfect image. It was no fault of G-d's that a free humanity used its freedom (both primordially and perennially) to corrupt itself. G-d has fully revealed a new humanity not only in the historic people (in whom his Word has been enfleshed), but also in his incorruptible, G-d-mediating, Word. The Holy One of Israel commands us to yield to the new creation of his personal Word, his Moshiach, by a new spiritual birth into Moshiach's new humanity, the people of the Malchut haShomayim (the Kingdom of Heaven). "What about the good and innocent people who never even heard about the Moshiach?" you ask. This is a loaded question, assuming as it does (and the Jewish Bible does not) that good and innocent people exist, and, since they presumeably are so good and innocent, don't need to hear about any Redeemer anyway, really, since they are not themselves sinful either in what they do or in what they are, and do not need redemption from sin's bondage and penalty. See, however, Psalm 14:3, which says, "there is no one that does good."[26] Think about it. If you are not unfaithful to your wife, you do not appreciate the loaded question, "When will you stop being unfaithful to your wife?" Do you think G-d appreciates the loaded question, "When will G-d stop punishing the innocent?" G-d has freely chosen to give his Word to us that we might faithfully communicate his Word to others. If we refuse to believe the Jewish Bible, if we refuse to communicate it to a lost and dying world, is it G-d's fault or our fault that our own disobedient unbelief causes a "famine of hearing the word of the L-rd"? [27] "All this is just the same old message," you say. "It's the tired old message that has led to so much anti-Semitism." Don't confuse the message with the messengers! Many rabbis have also been less than responsible messengers and yet this fact gives no warrant to throw out the Jewish Bible and its message. Not all who say they are followers of the Moshiach are true believers in fact. Those who claim to follow the Moshiach ought to live as He lived.[28] The fact that religious men have failed only proves that religion is not enough. What is needed is a new spiritual birth and the sanctifying power of divine love and wisdom. Unlike men, this will never fail, for what is from G-d cannot be defeated. Also, if anyone claims to be a follower of Moshiach and yet hates the Jewish people (or any other people), this very fact throws his salvation into question, for it says somewhere, "He who loveth not...abideth (remains in) death." Yehoshua is a Prophetic Sign of the Servant of the L-rd Yehoshua is called "the servant of the L-rd" in the book of Joshua [11]. And Bamidbar (Numbers)[29] calls him "the man in whom is (the) Spirit", making His person a prophetic sign of the one who is to come, the Servant of the L-rd filled with "My Spirit" (Isaiah 42:1[30]). This one who is to come will bring His Torah. [31] The Moshiach's Torah or teaching will be presented shortly in what follows. See Midrash Qoheleth on Ecclesiastes 11:8: "The Law which man learns in this world is vanity compared with the Law of the Messiah." According to Isaiah, this one who is to come will be given as a light to the nations [32] and to his own people as a covenant [32] to be cut off [10] and to sprinkle many nations [10] with His outpoured life, which G-d gives as an asham (guilt offering--see Isaiah 53:10 [10]) and kapparah for sin. To summarize, then, the nation of Israel is given the idealized name Yeshurun ("the upright one") both in the Torah [34] [35] and in Isaiah, [9] and, in prophecy, the nation of Israel as servant [35] [37] is placed in counterpoint to an individual, the Servant of the L-rd Moshiach [30] [38] [10], an eschatological figure, who will eschatologically restore the nation of Israel to her true faith and also completely turn around and change the whole world (see Isaiah 49:5-6.[39]) The Moshiach Is Equated With the Servant The splendor of the ideal ruler of Israel is described in Isaiah. [40] [17] Righteousness [17] and a special anointing for his task [17] characterize both this ideal ruler (called "G-d- with-us") and the Servant of the L-rd [10] [30], as if to suggest that they are the same person. The ruler, through the Davidic covenant, witnesses about G-d's nature and saving purposes to those outside the covenant,[41] a function that is also assigned to the Servant. [39] If there is still any question that the two (the ideal ruler and the Servant) are the same person, the Moshiach, the prophet Zecharyoh (Zechariah) settles the question in a key text,[2] a post-exilic prophecy where the Moshiach, spoken of as "the Branch" (of David), is equated with the Servant. [2] Not only that, but in the same passage, [2] the post- Exilic High Priest named Yehoshua or Joshua [Yeshua--Ezra 3:8] is referred to as a mofet, a portentous sign of Moshiach! And this later Joshua is, of course, the portentous eschatological figure, the high priest Yehoshua (Joshua, Yeshua) returning from the Exile to a nation resurrected from unclean death in the Golus (Exile). This kohen (priest) brought back from the Golus's unclean death (Zechariah 3:1-8) is like David's Moshiach-Kohen in Psalm 110--- that is, a kohen Zechariah embues with Messianic portent [3], as it says: "And speak unto him, saying, 'Thus speaketh the L-rd of hosts, saying, "Behold, the man whose name is BRANCH; and he shall branch out from this place, and he shall build the temple of the L-rd. It is he who will build the temple of the L-rd, and he will be clothed with majesty, and he will sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." The Alternative NAME for Yehoshua Is Yeshua! Ezra 3:8[4] gives the alternative name of this Yehoshua, who is called a "wondrous sign" of the Moshiach in Zechariah 3:8 [2]. The alternative [Aramaic] name for the same individual, Yehoshua or Joshua, is Yeshua! [4] Yeshayah (Isaiah) 49:8 [6] pointed to Moses' successor, the ruler who entered the Promised Land, and gave the portent that in this Yeshua [Nehemiah 8:17 in the Hebrew Bible says Yehoshua/Joshua is also Yeshua] is an omen of the Moshiach! Zecharyoh (Zechariah)[2] [3] pointed to Aaron's successor, the high priest who entered the Promised Land from the Exile, and predicted that in this Yeshua (Ezra 3:8 in the Hebrew Bible says this Yehoshua/Joshua is also named Yeshua) is an omen of the Messiah! "Branch" [or "Moshiach"] is his [Yeshua's] name, it says clearly in Zechariah 6:12. A rabbi might object here and say, "Yes, but even if the Moshiach's name is foretold to be "Yeshua" in our Hebrew Bible, that still doesn't prove that your Yeshua is our Yeshua!" Rabbi, we reply, the Jewish Bible says that many Goyim will believe in the Moshiach, [8] [31] will be sprinkled by his priestly sacrifice, [10] and find life in his light. [32] But the Jewish Bible is also aware of the perennial unbelief of Israel's leaders [43] and of the fact that the Jewish people would in large part reject the Moshiach [10] until the latter days. [44] Can any other "Yeshua" ever fulfill these prophecies better than Yeshua of Nazareth? Furthermore, Daniel foretold that the coming of the Moshiach must precede the fall of the post-exilic Temple (Bais Hamikdash) [45] and must occur 483 years [45] after the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, [45] referring to Artaxerxes' decree (see Ezra 7:12-16,[46] 457 B.C.E.), which gets us to approximately 27 C.E., when Moshiach Yeshua was beginning his ministry. Which other Moshiach, which other "Yeshua," is there? The Davidic Kohen-Moshiach Was Foretold in the Tanakh The "priest of G-d" in Genesis,[47] whom David declares (Psalm 110) to be the establisher of the Messianic order of the Davidic Priesthood, is Melchizedek. In Psalm 110:4 [1] David refers to the Moshiach as a "priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (and not after the order of Aaron, for the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah and from the lineage of David [16] [48] and thus be a king-priest like Melchizedek in Genesis [47]). Therefore, the two ominous olive trees in Zechariah [5] symbolize the kingly Davidic heir (Zerubbabel) and the priestly overseer of the Bais Hamikdash, the Jerusalem Temple (Yehoshua [2]) and are portents of the Davidic ruler/king-priest after the order of Melchizedek, that is, the coming one, the Moshiach. The Divine Word took Human Form to Become Our Priestly Healer The word of G-d came from heaven and tabernacled (pitched his tent) with Moses. This was the same divine Word who did his work as an inscriber of thc Ten Commandments into stone. Thus the holy configuration of the Word in the ark, orbited by ministering priests and symbolic furnishings, was an earthly replica of the heavenly pattern of glory shown to Moses on the mountain. [45] This one and only personal Word of G-d who came from heaven and revealed his "pattern" of glory to Moses on the mountain, is worthy of worship (as is the Son of Man; see Daniel [13]). Where does the Tanakh say that the Word of G-d is worthy of worship? See Psalm 56:10 [50], which says, "In G-d will I praise his word." The Word of G-d is the divine agent in creation, as it says "By the word of the L-rd were the heavens made" (Psalm 33:6 [51]). Like Moshiach the Judge in Isaiah 42:4,[31] the Word of G-d is also the divine Word of Judgment who comes at the end of the age and is personified as the supernatural Moshiach of the Clouds, "the Son of Man" in Daniel [13] [52]. "Wait," a rabbi might interject. "This you will have to prove to me from the Tanakh, this notion that the Son of Man is not only Moshiach but Hashem's Word." Should we be surprised that the supernatural being which Daniel sees coming from Heaven in Daniel [13] is a human-like picture of the Moshiach who is also called "G-d-with-us" in Isaiah 7:14? Should we be surprised that the supernatural Son Isaiah calls "Mighty G-d" in Isaiah [40] or should we be surprised that the universal Priest-King that David calls "my L-rd" in Psalm 110 [1] or that Malachi 3:1 calls "the L-rd" --should we be surprised that these are also pictures of G-d's agent of salvation? "Wait!" says a rabbi. "Psalm 110:1's `Adoni' only means `My Superior or Master,' lord with a small `l' as in II Samuel 1:10, etc." Wait, rabbi. Moshiach himself taught that David, the Great Father of the Messianic dynasty, could hardly call a descendent or son his superior unless David meant something more- -see Mt.22:45. Look at Psalm 110:1 again. How could David the King of Israel, address anyone except G-d as "his superior"? No one contemporary to David outranked him but G-d! As King of Israel, only G-d was his lord! In Joshua 5:13-15 we see an encounter between G-d and man, where the kind of extremely reverent prostration we see would be idolatrous before a mere created being. The "Adoni" of Joshua's question, "What message does Adoni have for his servant?" must refer to "my L-rd," as we will demonstrate. Moses has a similar encounter with G-d in Exodus 3:5. G-d is called Adon kol ha'aretz (Zechariah 4:14), and a G-d-like aura is created when Joseph is called Adon l'kol Mitzrayim (`lord of all Egypt')(Gen.45:9), especially when it is said to this Savior-figure, Yosef the prophetic foreshadowing of Moshiach, "You have saved our lives. May we find favor in the eyes of Adoni"(Gen.47:25). Although Joseph is only a man, his person in prophecy points to the coming haMelech haMoshiach Adoni, and is part of the picture of the Moshiach drawn for us in the Torah. Moshiach is called haAdon ("the L-rd") quite unambiguously in Malachi 3:1. David Kimhi (Radak) in his commentary published in the Mikraot Gedolot Rabbinic Bible explains that Malachi 3:1's "the lord" (spelled with a lower case "l") is King Messiah, who will come suddenly--no one knows when. He says that Messiah is the Messenger of the Covenant referred to in this verse. However, the lower case "l" for "lord" will not suffice because in Zechariah 4:14 and 6:5 (another post-Exilic prophet) Adon kol ha'aretz ("the L-rd of all the earth") uses the same word for Adon ("L-rd") and clearly the L-rd G-d is intended. So it is tendentious Rabbinic exegesis to assert a lower case "l" conveniently in one place and a capital "L" in the other. Because of the way Adoni is used in other places, in Psalm 110:1 we would expect David to say "HaShem said to Adoni haMelech" (as in I Chr.21:3; II Samuel 19:31). By leaving off "haMelech," David makes "Adoni" ambiguous, with deity a possible inference and the spelling a reverential capital "L," "the L-rd said to my L-rd." To which angel did man ever offer worship (Joshua 5:14)? To what angel has G-d ever said, "Sit at my right hand"? (See Psalm 110:1 and Hebrews 1:13.) (End of Part I) ***********************************************************************