Rabbi Schneider - Jesus, From the Very Beginning
First of all, the Hebrew Bible told us that Messiah would be eternal. That He wouldn't just be a man or a great teacher, He wouldn't just lead Israel back to the Torah, but the Messiah would literally be eternal. Hear the word of God. Once again, I'm just going to be taking you through a Hebrew Bible or Old Testament reference and then showing you the New Testament correspondence. I'm looking now at the book of Micah 5:2. The grass withers and the flowers fade, beloved ones, but the word of the Lord abides forever. Hear the Word of God. "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel". Get this now. "His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity".
We read the same thing spoken about in John 1, verses 1 and 14, concerning the eternal nature of the Messiah. Once again, Micah told us that his goings forth would be from long ago, from eternity. The Messiah would be from eternity. Listen, what John tells us. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God..." Eternity, right? "...and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh," that's the person of Jesus, the physical clothing of Messiah into our earth, "and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us..." As we continue our journey, and I'm wanting to go in chronological order, beginning with the eternal nature, and I'm going to keep on moving the process forward.
And so as we continue down the road of the journey of Messiah in the pages of the Hebrew Bible, we find that Messiah will be called Emmanuel, God with us. And so when we turn to the pages of Isaiah 7:14, I'm going to read a scripture that many of us are familiar with. Isaiah tells us this: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and we will call His name Immanuel". Of course, the scripture is fulfilled. We oftentimes hear it quoted during the Christmas season. In the book of Matthew 1:23 where we find this, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel". So we see that he's from the days of eternity that He is God with us.
And furthermore, we see, as we continue down this road of Messianic prophecy, that this Messiah would not only be an Eternal God, but that He would be a son. He'd be the son who has always been in the bosom, Baruch Hashem, bless the name of the Lord, of the Father. So we turn to Psalm 2. I'm going to be reading here verses 7, 11, and 12. Hear the Word of God. "I will surely tell the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I had begotten you. Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He may not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are those who take refuge in Him"!
What is so amazing about this is that David had revelation that the Son was God. David is actually saying here that we need to do homage to the Son, that we don't perish. And I really am fascinated by this because although David had understanding that somehow the Son was part of the Godhead, today Judaism does not have revelation that God has a Son and in fact, look at Christians as kind of pagans, because we believe that God has manifested Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which they see as worshipping three gods. So I just find this fascinating in our study of Messianic prophecy that we find in the Hebrew scriptures that God has a Son. Of course, we see this confirm many places, but I love the point it was Yeshua 17 five. As the father spoke from heaven while he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, Listen to Him".
And so, once again, we see this concept of the Son of God being The Messiah. As we continue down our of God being the Messiah. As we continue down our rapid-fire prophecies today, we're going to look at the fact that the Hebrew scriptures foretold that Messiah would not only be eternal, but He would also come into the world through a woman. And so we read in the book of Bereshit, the book of beginnings, we call it an English Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, these words. The Lord is speaking here to the serpent that he says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed," get this now, "and her seed..." Whose seed? The woman's seed.
So the Lord is saying to the devil, "I'm going to put distance between you and the woman, and between her seed and your seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel". Of course, all the Gospels bear witness to this. What we call the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all tell us how Yeshua was born from the virgin. We say in Hebrew, "Miriam," translated into English as "Mary". John's Gospel is different in the sense that John's Gospel just begins to tell the story of Yeshua from eternity. But the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, show us how this prophecy in Genesis was fulfilled with the Messiah coming into the world as the offspring of a woman fully God and fully man. God meeting humanity, God clothing Himself and humanity. Theologically this is called the hypostatic union-that Messiah is fully God and fully man. He came into the world as the offspring of a woman.
As we continue now, actually after taking notes, we're gonna go through 21 of these rapid fire prophecies. We're now in number five. The Messiah will be the seed of Abraham. He came through a woman. But as we trace this lineage down, it first begins to take clarity when the Lord told us He is going to come through the seed of Avraham or Abraham. We read about this in the book of Genesis 22:18, where the Lord says to Abraham, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice". This is important,. Think about this. We're going back now to the first book of the Bible. We're going back to the Torah, and the first book of the Torah. Sacred, foundational teaching for all the entire world. The Torah is the foundation. So the Lord says to Abraham, in the Torah, "In your seed, Avraham, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed".
Now, I want you to consider this in light of this factor. The first verse of the Brit Chadasha or the New Testament begins by telling us that Jesus came into the world as the seed of Abraham. Why did the Lord make the first verse of the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, to talk about the fact that Jesus is the offspring of Abraham? Because the Lord, beloved ones, wants us to understand how the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament and New Testaments fit together like a hand in a glove. So let's now pick up with Matthew 1:1. Hear the word of God. "The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the son of Abraham". See, a lot of times Christians today, they don't really connect the Old and the New Testaments. But the Lord thought it was so important to connect our faith in Jesus to the Hebrew Bible that He actually began the New Testament by tying Jesus back to Abraham.
As we continue, not only do we find that Yeshua be the offspring or the seed of Abraham, but the Lord brings it to even greater precision when He tells us that Messiah will furthermore proceed from Abraham's son, Isaac, and through Isaac's son, Jacob. So the laser beam is getting narrower and narrower as the Lord prophesies to the world that advanced the genealogical line, the family line that Messiah would come into the world through. Genesis 17:19, "But God said, 'Your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him".
So once again, we find the clarity. God is speaking to Abraham, and He's telling Abraham that the lineage, the birth of the Messiah is not going to come through Ishmael. The Lord specifies, "No, it's going to come through your son Isaac". So once again, we're getting clarity. The Messiah is coming through a very particular line. And not only through Isaac, but the Lord further clarifies that it's going to proceed down the lane through Isaac's son, Jacob. And so we have a very mysterious verse in the book of Numbers 24:17. Hear the Word of God. "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; a star shall come forth from Jacob..." I don't know what it is about that one. I just loved that one so much. What an incredible supernatural vision we see here of Messiah in the distance, not yet having been manifest to the world. He's far, He's not near, but He's coming, and He's the star of Jacob.
Now, many of you know that Jacob is also Israel. Jacob's sons became the 12 tribes of Israel. So another name of Jacob is Israel. God actually changed his name to "Israel". And so knowing that Jacob had 12 sons, and knowing that the Messiah is going to come through Jacob, how do we know which one of the 12 sons that became the 12 tribes that Messiah is going to come through? Well, the Lord specified. He said that the Messiah would come through Jacob's son, Judah, through the tribe of Judah. And so we pick up our study in rapid-fire messianic prophecy number seven with these words from the book of Bereshit (Genesis) chapter 49, verse 10. Hear the Word of God. "The scepter..." The scepter is the ruling rod. "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler staff from between his feet, until Shiloh..." And Shiloh was a code word for Messiah. "...until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the people".
It's incredible how much revelation about the reality of a messiah God gave Israel. Of course, our world today, many are not looking for a Messiah. But when we go back to the ancient way and to the good path, the Father was very specific that He was going to send "a redeemer, a Messiah to the world in whom Jesus came to bring that prophecy to fruition". As we pick up now in the Brit Chadasha, the New Testament, to look for this fulfillment of the Messiah coming through Judah's line, we're going to the book of Revelation, chapter 5, verse 5. Hear the Word of God. John is observing the scene in heaven and the scroll was there. And unfortunately, John was weeping because no one was found worthy to open the scroll. But then suddenly someone appears to open that scroll that was found worthy. Who was that? It was the Lion from the tribe of Judah. It was Messiah that came through Judah's line.
And so we read there in Revelation 5:5, five, "And one of the elders said to me," again, John is speaking, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals". This prophecy leads us right into the next prophecy. We know now that the Messiah was coming through the tribe of Judah. The Lion from the tribe of Judah was found worthy to open the scroll. But as we continue further down, we know that in the tribe of Judah many people had been born. And so the Lord gives us further clarity by telling us it would be from the family of David who came forward from the tribe of Judah. That was actually mentioned in the previous scripture that I read. It was from the Lion from the tribe of Judah from the family of David.
And so we look now, moving ahead, to the book of Jeremiah chapter 33, verses number 14 and 15, where we read these words: "'Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch of David to spring forth; and He will execute justice and righteousness on the earth.'" So again, the funnel keeps on narrowing, right? The tribe of Judah. Now many families have been coming out of the line of Judah, but the Lord identifies which family Messiah will be birthed into the world through. And that was the family of David. And Yeshua identifies Himself with David in the New Testament more than any other figure in the Hebrew Bible. In this verse in Jeremiah, King David had already come and gone.
In other words, Jeremiah's writing took place after David lived. But Jeremiah speaks here prophetically. And he says that one is going to come who is called the righteous Branch of David. And this one that's coming, this righteous Branch of David is the Messiah. And so when Yeshua came into the world, the New Testament made it very clear how Yeshua was fulfilling all these prophecies. And David, once again, associated by Yeshua Himself with himself, for example, just one of the many examples in which this happens is found in Revelation 22:16. Jesus is speaking, and He says this: "I, Jesus, has sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star".
What's going on here? Jesus is, in a very intentional way, showing, beloved ones, how He fulfilled the ancient Hebrew Scriptures: how He was the offspring of David, how He came from Isaac and Jacob, how He came from the tribe of Judah, we just read in Revelation 5:5, how He came from the family of David. You see, when we understand how Yeshua fulfills messianic prophecy and when we are truly convinced that the God of Israel is the one true God, it will cause our faith to become rock solid. We will, as a result of this, become bold witnesses and convinced in our own faith. I want to encourage you to continue to study messianic prophecy with me.
As I indicated, I'm just touching on the surface of a book that I just released called "Messianic Prophecy Revealed". I don't promote many things but I think this is so A, B, C, nuts and bolts foundational teaching that the church needs. I would encourage you, beloved ones, to get the book. It's critical. It's important. Many people treat messianic prophecy superficially or not at all. But I'm saying today it's very important that you would I get it because it will prepare us to stand firm in the Lord during these last days in which we're living. This is Rabbi Schneider saying to you, God bless you, Baruch Hashem, and Shalom.