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)

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