The traditional Jewish expectation of the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ) was that he would be a great king of the line of David who would overthrow Israel’s enemies and establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth. This expectation was founded upon various promises written in the Torah of Moses as well as various oracles of the Hebrew prophets. For example, in the scroll of Isaiah it is written: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder: and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:6-7). On the face of it, this prophecy says that the Messiah would establish the Kingdom of David as an everlasting kingdom and that all the promises of Zion would be fulfilled: the Temple would be restored in Jerusalem; the exiles would be regathered; the world would experience peace and the knowledge of God would flow to the nations (for more on the Messianic expectation, see “As the Day draws Near“).

When Yeshua therefore proclaimed “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” the Torah scholars and religious leaders of Israel wondered what he meant. Didn’t Moses say that God would one day raise up someone “like him” who would spectacularly lead the people? (Deut. 18:15). Didn’t the prophets say that Messiah would restore Israel to greatness beyond that known in the days of King Solomon? Would he not restore the Holy Temple? Gather in the exiles? Is it not written of the day of Messiah: “God will be King over all the world; on that day, God will be one and His Name will be one” (Zech. 14:9)?

In light of this, it’s understandable that the Pharisees and religious leaders were confused. This shouldn’t scandalize us, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the prophets were regularly misunderstood and persecuted by the sages in Jewish history. Still, the sages missed the coming of Yeshua because there are two distinct pictures of Messiah given in the visions of the prophets. On the one hand, Messiah is portrayed as a great king, a deliverer, and a savior of the Jewish people who comes in triumph “in the clouds” (Dan. 7:13), but on the other he is depicted as riding a donkey, lowly and humble (Zech. 9:9), a suffering servant, born in lowliness, despised and rejected of men (Isa. 53). These two images of Messiah eventually lead to various oral traditions that there would be two Messiahs: “Messiah ben Joseph” (מָשִׁיחַ בֶּן־יוֹסֵף) and “Messiah ben David” (מָשִׁיחַ בֶּן־דָוִד).

When Yeshua said that the Kingdom of God was “at hand,” then, he clarified that this meant something more than the establishment of the kingdom of Zion on earth but further involved the sacrificial ministry of Messiah who would serve in a priestly function to atone for the sins of the people before the kingdom would be realized. This was alluded to in Torah itself with the offering of the Passover Lamb in Egypt as well as the need for blood sacrifices before the covenant was given to Israel at Sinai. In other words, just as Moses enacted the sacrifices before the establishment of the theocratic kingdom of Israel, so Yeshua would offer up himself as the LORD’s Suffering Servant to atone for the sins of his people and to establish the new covenant (Isa. 52:13-53:12; Jer. 31:31-34). “The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will people say ‘Here it is!” or ‘there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is to be within you” (Luke 17:20-21). The kingdom is a matter of the heart. The King was now present, at hand; and the LORD had prepared him a body to offer up so that his people would be made whole (Psalm 40:6-8; Heb. 10:5-9; Isa. 53:4-5).

Read more “Parables and Perseverance…”