The Messianic Hopes of the Jews
Al-Masihu-Isa: The Glory of Jesus the Messiah
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« The Biblical Concept of the Messiah
We have only considered a few of the predictions of the coming Messiah, yet these are sufficient to show that the Jews had every good reason to believe that he would be a majestic figure, far greater than any of the prophets who went before him.
At the time Jesus was born the Jews were eagerly awaiting their coming Messiah. They had been ruled for centuries by a succession of foreign, Gentile powers. Both the Persians and the Greeks had had their turn and, about sixty years before the birth of Jesus, the Romans conquered Judea and assumed control of the province. The Jews strongly resented this succession of foreign rulers and longed for their coming Messiah. They believed that, as they were the physical descendants of Abraham through his promised son Isaac, they enjoyed the special favour of God over all other nations. Accordingly, when they heard that Mashiah was coming, they presumed that the prophecies about his eternal reign over the kingdom of God would be immediately fulfilled in the establishment of the Jewish race as the greatest nation on earth with all other nations subject to it. They believed the Messiah would be a climactic figure who would bring in God's eternal rule on earth.
A brief survey of some of their expectations about the coming Messiah, as expressed in their utterances recorded in the Gospel of John, one of the records of the life of Jesus in the Bible, give us some idea of the kind of Messiah they were awaiting. On one occasion, when Jesus told them that the Son of man would be "lifted up" (John 12:32, cf. John 8:28), a prediction of manner of his death to follow a few days later by crucifixion (John 12:33), the Jews answered him:
"We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?" John 12:34
They recalled the prophecies of their former prophets which foretold the eternal reign of the Messiah. They could not understand how Jesus could speak of the "lifting up" of the Messiah, the Son of man, to die. On another occasion they recalled the prophecy of the prophet Micah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Although Micah did not describe the ruler he spoke of as the Messiah, yet by his mention of the fact that he had existed long before the world was made, they realised that he spoke plainly, not of an ordinary prophet to arise among men, but of the Messiah whose goings forth were from everlasting days and whose reign would last for ever. The prophecy clearly applied to the one great supremely anointed Ruler and Deliverer to come. When some of the Jews said of Jesus, "This is the Messiah" (John 7:41), others recalled this prophecy about the place of his birth and said:
"Is the Messiah to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village David was?" John 7:41-42.
Because Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, they presumed he could not be the Messiah. It appears that they were unaware that he had, in fact, been born in Bethlehem in perfect fulfilment of Micah's prophecy that he would come from this small Judean village (Luke 2:4-7). On yet another occasion, when some of the people questioned whether, perhaps, Jesus really was the Messiah, they said to themselves:
"Yet we know where this man comes from; and when the Messiah appears, no one will know where he comes from." John 7:27
The outstanding predictions of the coming Messiah, especially those which made it plain that he had already existed right through the ages and would come from heaven, made the Jews speculate that no one would really know whence he had come. In reply Jesus told them plainly that they really did not know where he had come from (John 7:28) and on other occasions bluntly told then that he had, in fact, come down directly from heaven (John 6:38, 6.51).
The question whether Jesus really fulfilled the prophecies of the coming Messiah does not really concern us, however. While stating plainly that he did in that he was an eternal personality who came from heaven into the world as the Son of man, we nevertheless must constantly bear in mind that Christianity and Islam both unreservedly acknowledge that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. This is not an issue between us - the question is purely one of the true meaning of the title al-Masih which is left unexplained in the Qur'an. There can be no valid dispute between Christians and Muslims as to the identity of the Messiah, however. It was clearly Jesus.
The important thing to note here, however, is the expectations of the Jews at the time of Jesus regarding the coming Messiah. They were wrong when they expected him to exalt the nation and set himself up as a ruler of an earthly kingdom, but they were quite right insofar as they believed that he would come from heaven, would have existed for ages prior to his advent, and would ultimately establish the kingdom of God and rule over it as its Lord and Sovereign. In these convictions we can plainly see that ha Mashiah, the long-awaited, promised Anointed One of God, was anticipated as a glorious figure far above the status of the prophets who had preceded him.
The first great mistake of the Jews was to fail to distinguish between the two separate advents of the coming Messiah. Their scriptures indeed foretold the coming of a glorious King who would establish the kingdom of God and rule over it forever and ever, but these same scriptures, as we shall see, also spoke of a phase of relative obscurity when the Messiah would first suffer and come apparently to nothing. In truth these prophecies referred to two separate occasions when the Messiah would appear on earth - firstly to suffer in a comparatively insignificant lifespan, and secondly to return in a glorious triumph over the established kingdom of God. Christians take these predictions to refer, firstly to the life of Jesus on earth when he was relatively unknown and apparently devoid of rule and authority, and secondly, to his return at the end of time when he shall return to establish the kingdom of God and rule over it as the manifestly Anointed One of God, now visibly triumphant in a glorious reign of power over all the universe. As Islam itself accepts that Jesus will return to earth, it should not be too hard for Muslims to accept these two distinct phases in his revelation as the Messiah, the supremely Anointed One of God. Islam itself accepts that Jesus will have a universal rule when he returns to earth.
The second great mistake of the Jews was to presume that they, as an earthly nation, would constitute the kingdom of God and that the Messiah would be a Jewish king ruling on the earth as we know it over the nations. They failed to see that God was speaking of a heavenly king who would become the Messiah by appearing in human form and that his rule and authority would be a spiritual one over the true people of God, the true followers of the Messiah in spirit and truth, and that it would only be manifested at the end of time.
The one great perception of the Jews, however, indeed the one thing in which they were most certainly not mistaken, was that the Messiah would not be a mere prophet or messenger but that his origin would be in heaven, that his goings forth would be from many ages past, and that his throne and rule over the kingdom of God would be established as an everlasting dominion. These were vital perceptions and it is a great pity that they could not see that the Messiah would first come in relative obscurity to prepare the way for his dominion before it would be finally established and revealed in all its fulness at the end of time when he would return to the earth in glory and power.