Rabbi Schneider - The Gentle Nature of God
I want you to gain insight into the nature of God. Even though God is complete and needs nothing. There's a mystery here that he gets joy when you and I love him. We're looking at specific prophecies that were in the Hebrew Bible that were scientifically, historically, visibly already fulfilled through Messiah Jesus. And then we're going to also get into some future prophecies that we're waiting yet to see fulfilled. But I want to go back and just briefly review some of the prophecies that have been fulfilled that I have already covered in the earlier episodes in this series in the previous seasons. We look, for example, at the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures revealed that Messiah would be eternal. He's not just a man. He is the Son of God. He is God Himself clothed in humanity. As the Hebrew prophet said, His goings forth are from long ago or from everlasting. So the Hebrew Bible specifically revealed the nature of Messiah, that He would be eternal.
Now, why is this important? Because some of you that are watching right now may have never questioned or thought about this specific issue about the Hebrew Scriptures prophesying that Messiah's goings forth would be from everlasting, from before time was. But the reason this is important to the study of Messianic prophecy is because in traditional Judaism today, the fact that Messiah is eternal is not taught, rather what traditional Judaism believes is that the Messiah would just be a man, although a highly anointed man, and that there is potentially a messiah in every generation. This is rabbinic teaching and it depends upon the behavior of the Jewish people, whether the potential Messiah in every generation will in fact be revealed as the Messiah.
So rabbinic Judaism's view of the Messiah is not that He's eternal but rather He's just a man that's highly anointed. But we believe that the Hebrew Scriptures taught that the Messiah would be more than just an ordinary man, that His goings forth would have been from everlasting, which they are, and that He is in fact eternal. And then we taught that Messiah in the Hebrew Bible is referred to as Immanuel, meaning "God with us", or specifically "with us is God". I love that. The Hebrew title of the Messiah, Immanuel, is actually translated literally, with us is God. And so we read in the Hebrew prophet that His name shall be called Immanuel, meaning God is with us.
Of course, we see this fulfilled in the gospels. We taught about that divine synchronicity between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, once again, in the earlier episodes. And then we taught that Messiah is actually called or revealed as the Son of God in the Tanakh or in the Hebrew Bible. And I showed you how that was fulfilled in the New Testament. Then we traced Yeshua's genealogy from Abraham through the whole line of Isaac and Jacob and eventually coming through the tribe of Judah, and being the offspring of David. Messiah is going to come from the line of David. So we traced his genealogy from the very beginning, showing how the Hebrew Bibles gave us insight as to when Messiah would arise, how we would know He is the one by knowing His genealogy where He would come from. And then we looked at the fact that Messiah would come into the world through a supernatural birth.
We talked about this whole concept of supernatural births rooted in the Torah or in the Tanakh. We looked, for example, at Abraham impregnating his wife Sarah when Abraham was 100 years old and she was 90. And it was a scientific impossibility. This is why in the book of Bereshit, Genesis 17 and 18, where the Lord reveals to Abraham that his wife's going to conceive, when his wife Sarah heard about it, she laughed. And the Lord said, "Why did she laugh? Is anything too difficult? Is anything impossible for God"? So when we look at the forefather of all believers, Avraham, and the one that is called the first Jew, Abraham, we see that his progression, his genealogy happens supernaturally, meaning the genealogy going forward, I'm referring to now that his son was brought into the world supernaturally because Sarah conceived when she was past the age of childbearing.
So we saw how this prophecy, if you will, this prophetic insight into the road that Yeshua would come into the world through was ultimately fulfilled when the most unique, supernatural birth of all took place when Miriam, her Hebrew name, or Mary conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. So she was beyond just conceiving at age 90, she was still a young woman, but she conceived without ever having sexual relations with a man. And then we read in the book of Daniel 9 the prophecy that many see as given the time at which Messiah would come. In Daniel 9, we see that Messiah would come into the world before the destruction of the second temple. And then we continued by seeing where He would be born. That the Hebrew Bible specifically tells us that He would come from the town of Bethlehem. And all these scriptures, beloved, we see fulfilled, in the Brit Hadasha, a scientific impossibility. That all these scriptures, many of them already known to be Messianic prophecies, Yeshua fulfilled historically in literal time and in literal space.
And then we read in the Hebrew Bible in the book of Malachi that Yeshua or the Messiah's coming into the earth would be preceded by a messenger The Lord said that before He sent Messiah, before He sent His messenger, he would be preceded...the messenger would be preceded by Elijah. And so when Yeshua walked upon the earth, the rabbinic teachers and scholars came up to Jesus and His disciples and said, "If you're the Messiah, where's Elijah? Because our prophets told us that before Messiah came Elijah would come first". And Jesus said, "John the Baptist, Yochanan, we say in Hebrew, the immerser is Elijah, if you can receive it". You see, at the end of the day, we have to understand that there's only one way to correctly interpret messianic prophecy. And that's through the lens of the Lord. It's through the eyes of God.
So if God says that this particular prophecy is fulfilled in Yeshua, whether we thought it would be fulfilled in the way that it was fulfilled or not, we have to step back and say God knew what He meant when He said that Elijah would come before Messiah, and He knew what He meant when He said John the Baptist is Elijah who was to come. So my point is, is that sometimes when the New Testament writers make claims that Yeshua had fulfilled a certain prophecy in the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh, those that were alive at the time that had rejected Yeshua argued that Yeshua had not in fact fulfilled the Messianic prophecy. They said, "Well, that's not what that messianic prophecy meant," or "Yeshua didn't fulfill the Messianic prophecy in the way that we understood that the Messiah would fulfill the Messianic prophecy". But at the end of the day, when Father God gave the Messianic prophecy to the writers of scriptures, He knew what He meant when He had the Prophet write it down. And when He gave the Prophet the words of information to write, Father knew that the way that the scripture was going to be fulfilled was in Yeshua.
In other words, all scripture needs to be interpreted through the lens of Yeshua and the Brit Hadasha, the New Testament because Yeshua is the fulfillment of it all. So even though some prophecy may not have been fulfilled like the Hebrew writers expected, or sometimes the New Testament took out a portion from the Hebrew Bible and said Yeshua had fulfilled it, even though the writers of the Hebrew Bible or those I should say, rather, that read the Hebrew Scriptures during the time of Yeshua weren't expecting a prophecy to be fulfilled and I explained all this in the earlier episodes when, for example, I talked about how Matthew said concerning Jesus, "Out of Egypt did I call my son". Because remember, the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph Yeshua's father, and said, "Take the child to Egypt because Herod was putting the male Hebrew children to death".
And then after Herod had passed away, the angel again spoke to Joseph and said, "Take the child out of Egypt and bring him back to Israel". So Matthew quotes this scripture: "out of Egypt that I call my son," take it from the book of Hosea and applies it to Jesus, and says, "Jesus fulfilled the prophecy". Because Jesus was in Egypt with Joseph. And when Herod had passed, He brought Yeshua out of Egypt back into Israel. But upon first reading in the book of Hosea, when you read, "Out of Egypt did I call my son," in the original context, it didn't appear that that was actually a prophecy pertaining to something in the future. It seemed to be just a historical note that the Lord was speaking about in referring to Israel that out of His people Israel...rather, out of Egypt did He bring His people Israel. But Matthew uses that scripture to say Yeshua fulfilled it.
My point is, beloved one, that messianic prophecy ultimately has to be understood through the lens of Father God and the New Testament writers regardless of what anybody thought the prophecy meant or didn't mean in other times in history. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of Scripture. That's why Yeshua took His disciples on a journey, beginning with the first book in the Hebrew Bible, and showed them the things that concern Himself.
Well, as we continued on, we said the Hebrew Bible talked about Messiah being a messenger of good news. And you know what? I'm so far into the review now, I'm just going to go right ahead into new material. You can go back and get the other episodes, many more items I talked about how Yeshua fulfills. Now let's get into some new teaching today. We read in the Hebrew Bible this is really important that Messiah would enter Jerusalem seated on a donkey. So I'm going to read from the Hebrew prophet Zachariah. I'm reading Zechariah 9:9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; he has just been endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey". So the king is coming. Behold, the prophet prophesies, your King is coming to you mounted on a donkey. And so we read in the New Testament Yeshua is being led into Jerusalem on a donkey. I'm reading from the book of Matthew. We're going to read a little bit of a lengthy section of Scripture, but I want you to get this.
Matthew 21:1-9. Hear the Word of God. "When they had approached Jerusalem and had comes to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has needed them,' and immediately he will send them.' This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet". And so what is Matthew referring to here? He's referring to the passage in Zachariah that I just read. So Matthew continues once again. "This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 'Say to the daughter of Zion,' here we go, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal a beast of burden.'" And then he continues on to elaborate. Then in verse 9 he says, "The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, 'Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he comes in the name of the Lord...'"
So this is really a remarkable insight into the nature of God. First of all, we've seen fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. That alone should solidify your faith in Jesus. That He's not one of many, He's not a Messiah that might be good for you, but He's not necessarily the savior of people that live in other parts of the world that have grown up with different religions. No. The claims of Yeshua are exclusive. "Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins". Father God gave us these Messianic prophecies to solidify and secure our faith in the only begotten Son of God. There is no other way into heaven by which men could be saved. But I also want you to see insight into this text we're looking at here. I want you to gain insight into the nature of God and of Mashiach, of Messiah. How did He enter Jerusalem? Riding on a donkey, a beast of burden. He came in humble. He didn't come in like a king. He didn't come in with a lot of pop. He came in, the Bible says, gentle and humble, mounted on a donkey. It's an amazing thing to realize and to seek to comprehend in a greater way, that God, the all-powerful God, the one that has been from everlasting, the one that has always been, the one that could do anything He wants to do, and no one can stop Him or tie His hands, He is gentle and humble of heart.
Yeshua said, "Learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls". Yeshua said, "Humble yourself and you will be exalted". Jesus Himself is gentle and humble. And so He comes into Jerusalem mounted on a donkey, a beast of burden, revealing the humble and the gentle nature of God. That the God of the universe, the eternal God has put Himself in a position that you and I can touch His heart. That when you and I choose to love Him, when you and I choose to love Jesus, when you and I choose to sacrifice and choose to follow Jesus even when it hurts, it moves the heart of God. He's touched by our feelings. He's touched by our love. We can actually add to His happiness when we choose to please Him and love Him. Even though God is complete and needs nothing, there's a mystery here that He gets joy when you and I love Him. The Bible says that all the angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner repents. God is moved, beloved ones, by our love. Why? Because He's gentle and humble, and has voluntarily put Himself in a position, the all-powerful God has stooped down low and put Himself in a position where you and I can touch Him.
We can make Him weep. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit can be grieved. We see that when all the people were weeping because Lazarus had died, it says that Jesus wept. We can either move Him, beloved, to joy or we can grieve the Holy Spirit and cause sadness in His heart. That is God's genius in creating You and I in His own image. We can touch this humble one, this gentle one that rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The question is, what will you do? Will you humble yourself too? Will you pull back and disconnect from everything that is causing us to be separated from the Lord? And will we say, "Jesus, I want to love you. I want to touch your heart. I want to put you first. I want to do whatever I need to do so that you can experience my love and then we could be united together. Father, God, prepare me to meet Jesus at the marriage supper of the lamb and helped me to walk with humility, in gentleness of spirit, full of mercy, and full of peace".