OUR
TRAGIC
MISTAKE
by Rachmiel Frydland
The annals of history are full of facts and stories of tragedies
that came about as a result of mistaken identity.
In the Hebrew Scripture these tragedies begin with the story
of Lamech, who tells his wives of a tragic happening, saying:
Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, harken
unto my speech:
for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to
my hurt (Gen. 4:23).
According to traditional interpretations, Lamech went hunting
and instead of killing the animal he unintentionally killed his own son.
What a tragedy of mistaken identity. Then we have the story of Joseph
who, instead of Potiphar's wife the true culprit, suffered incarceration
for many years.
A Jewish tradition, recorded in the Aramaic Targum on the
Book of Esther, has it that for many years Solomon was dethroned as King
in Jerusalem and a demon named Ashmadai was ruling in Solomon's disguise,
while the true king went from city to city claiming in the words of Ecclesiastes
1: 1 2, "I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem." in similar
vein came about the popularized story of the prince and the beggar in which
the beggar, temporarily in the clothes of the prince, is made prince while
the true prince be. comes a beggar.
A more recent story has it that Fritz Kreisler, the violinist,
was in Hamburg one evening with an hour to spare before taking his boat to
London where he was to play the following evening. So he wandered
into a music shop. The proprietor asked to see his violin which he carried
under his arm. In a moment he disappeared to reappear with two policemen.
One laid his hand on Kreisler's shoulder and said, "You are under arrest."
"For what?" asked Mr. Kreisler. "You have Fritz Chrysler's violin."
"Well, I am Fritz Kreisler." "Come, come," said the policeman, "you
cannot pull that on us. Come to the station.
Mr. Kreisler avoided arrest by finding a record of his music
in the shop and he begged to be given his violin and then he replayed the
music.
There were many serious incidents of such mistaken identity
in the history of our people. This was especially the case when Israel
asked Aaron to make a golden calf and identified it with the God of Israel,
saying, "These are thy gods, (or literally 'This is thy God') 0 Israel,
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4). Five hundred
years passed and another great tragedy happened to our people when the physically
and mentally attractive Absalom persuaded the people of Israel to follow
him and reject his father King David. Again thousands of our people
perished because of this mistake. The full story is recorded in the
Hebrew Scriptures in 2 Samuel chapters 17, 18.
MESSIAH'S MISTAKEN IDENTITY
Could a majority of our people also make a mistake in identifying
the Messiah? Surely we did make mistakes in this regard.
The story of Simon Bar Kosiba's messianic claims in 135
A.D. is well known. For a long time we had only fragmentary knowledge
of him based on a few coins and some references to him in the Talmud.
Since he was known also as Bar Kochba, some students of history thought this
might have been his true surname which had been later changed to Bar Kosiba
when the Jewish leaders convinced themselves that he was not the Messiah
(for the word Kosiba can be related to the Hebrew root of koseb or kozev
which has the meaning of lie, lying or liar). However, with the new
archaeological finding in Israel including a number of letters that Simon
Bar Kosiba wrote to various commanders, we know for certain that his true
name was Simon Bar Kosiba, that is Simon of the city or town of Kosiba.
The leaders of Israel, however, were so impressed with his temporary victories
over the Romans and with his persecuting of those Jews who believed in Jesus
of Nazareth, that even the greatest Jewish rabbinical authority of his day,
Rabbi Akiba, applied the Scripture in Numbers 24:17 to him, where Balaam
prophesies that "There 'Shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter
shall arise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy
all the children of Seth."
The Hebrew word for star is Kochab hence the Jewish leaders
began to refer to this man as Simon the Star, in Hebrew Aramaic, Shimeon
Bar-Kochba. How bitter was their disappointment in him whom they admired
even when he boasted that he did not need God's help and that all he wanted
from God was that God not help his enemies! Only after his complete
defeat did our Jewish leaders realize that his true surname Bar Kosiba should
have been a warning to them and their eyes should have been opened to the
falseness of his claims. Perhaps the Lord Jesus had him in mind when
He warned His followers, saying, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye
receive me not; if another shall come in his name, him ye will receive"
(John 5:43 Brit Hadasha).
COULD WE BE MISTAKEN AGAIN?
Yes, we could be mistaken again, especially if we prefer to
follow man's view of Messiah instead of God's view as revealed in His Word.
The majority of Jewish Orthodox exegetes follows the views of the great thirteenth-century
philosopher Maimonides. His view is that the hallmarks of Messiah are
that He is to fight Israel's battles and be victorious, and He is to force
the Jews to keep Torah, the Mosaic Law interpreted by the rabbis, the so-called
Halacha. In such a case any of the Israeli successful military leaders
could claim to be Messiah if only they were more religious.
But, we will not be mistaken if we accept the plain
teachings of God's Word and seek there the hallmarks for Messiah. If
so, we will find them very clear. Let us just list a few of them:
1.
Messiah must fulfill the picture which the prophets drew of
Him, This includes: His supernatural birth as predicted in Isaiah 7:14,
therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name ImmanueL His birth
in Bethlehem as predicted by Micah in 5:2: But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall
he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have
been from of old, from everlasting. His performing of supernatural deeds
as foretold in Isaiah 35:5 -6, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man
leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall
waters breakout, and streams in the desert. His death as atonement for
sin as described in Isaiah 53:5-8, But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon
him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?
for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of
my people he was stricken. His death to be by piercing His hands and
feet, Psalm 22:16, For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked
have enclosed me: they, pierced my hands and my feet.
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications:
and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn
for him, as one mourneth for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn (Zechariah 12: 10).
2.
Messiah must also be resurrected from the dead as predicted
by King David, saying, For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol, neither
wilt thou permit thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me
the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are
pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16: 10-11).
3.
As to the time of His coming, Messiah had to come before
the Second Temple was destroyed by Titus. The archangel Gabriel made
this clear to Daniel when he came to him and gave a revelation as to what
would happen and when Messiah would come. Thus Daniel is told, after
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and
the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary
(9:26). Those commentators who follow Rashi's exegesis that the Hebrew
word Moshiach (Messiah) refers to King Agrippa, who died before Titus conquered
Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, confirm that this prophecy had to be
fulfilled before 70 A.D. But it could not be King Agrippa! Surely
Gabriel, the archangel, would not refer to him the title Messiah. He
was not even of David's seed, but a descendant of the hated Antipater and
Herod, a profligate king doing all he could to please the Romans. Only
the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy, and He came in the right
time and so He will also come again to fulfill the rest of this prophecy.
4.
Among Messiah's accomplishments is the winning of the obedience
of a large proportion of non-Jews. Thus, the patriarch Jacob predicted
that "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people
be" (Hebrew Amim means nations or Gentiles). He is to be a Light
to the Gentiles according to Isaiah 49:6,
And now, saith the LORD who formed me from the womb to be his
servant,
to bring Jacob again to him ...
And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to,
raise
up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel.
I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be
my salvation unto the end of the earth.
SOLUTION OF HIS IDENTITY
These are only a few of the identifying marks of Messiah as
described by the prophets and by the patriarchs. There should be no
doubt left now in your mind that these were all fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
In the course of the last nineteen centuries, hundreds of thousands of our
people have come to believe in His Messiahship because of these and other
proofs. Millions of Gentiles turned away from their idols of wood and stone,
and from their man-made philosophies and came to trust the God of Israel,
our own Jewish Messiah and to believe in our Jewish Scriptures, both Old
and New Testament.
Surely this is the time for us to cry out together with
His first Jewish followers, saying,
"WE HAVE FOUND HIM (THE MESSIAH) OF WHOM MOSES
IN THE LAW,
AND THE PROPHETS, DID WRITE, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE SON OF JOSEPH"
(John 1:45).
Reprinted with permission of
The Messianic Literature Outreach
6161 Busch Blvd., Suite 205 Columbus, Ohio 43229
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