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Why Messianic Jews?
The term Jew is related to Judah, Jacob's fourth son from Leah. Judah 1 means praise to the Lord. His mother Leah wanted to express her
gratitude to the Lord for giving her this fourth son. The descendants of Judah were aware of this
deviation, and sometimes were reminded of it by descendants of other tribes challenging
them to live up to their name.
Some Jews did succeed in assimilating with their Gentile neighbors through
intermarriage. change of name, and denial of their
identity. Usually it took several generations to achieve. On the other
hand, there were groups and individuals who, though not descendants of Judah,
or from any of the other tribes of Israel, succeeded in their efforts at
being absorbed into the people called Jews.
The people of Shechem wanted to become Jewish and even went through the full
rite of circumcision of every male, yet were slaughtered and never penetrated
the hermetically sealed tribes of Israel. Sometimes those attempting to join
them gave them trouble, like the "mixed multitude," 2 and the Gibeonites. 3 However, in
most other cases, these non-Jewish groups seem to have been gradually
absorbed and assimilated into the Jewish body by intermarriage. 4 Large influxes
took place in the Persian period, as reported in the book of Esther in the
Bible, and in the Maccabean period, when whole
tribes under threat of extermination, preferred circumcision. The most
prominent are the Khazar tribes of central Russia
who accepted Judaism. The story of their conversion was described and
popularized by the famous philosopher/poet Yehuda Halevi.
Today, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, Rabbis are working hard at
teaching and preparing prospective converts to Judaism. In some cases. at least, these converts are absorbed into the Jewish
mainstream by intermarriage. Messianic
Jews
Among the 18 million Jewish people there is a group of perhaps twenty or
thirty thousand people (editor note: 200,000 plus today some say), born Jews,
who believe in the Torah and the rest of the Tenach
and practice Jewish customs. They also believe in Jesus. Some, if not most of
them, prefer to call Him by His Jesus name, Yeshua. Although small in
number, they are a vocal group, constantly challenging the Jewish spiritual
and secular authorities with their presence, demanding recognition as Jews.
It would be easiest for these Jewish believers to accept the advice of
rabbinic leaders and put aside belief in Yeshua. The Jewish authorities
work very hard to achieve it. Organizations and individuals spend their time
and hundreds and thousands of dollars towards this end. Among the best known
are the Pe’ilem, Keren Yeladdenu, supported by the Ministry of Religious Affairs
in Israel and Jews for Judaism in the United States, who do it as a full or
part time job.
Why do Messianic Jews resist? What lies behind their obstinacy, not only
continuing to believe themselves but also spreading their faith to others?
The answer is spiritual. This spiritual aspect can be summarized. Prophecies
Demand It Yeshua is Messiah
because He alone gives sense to the words of our Jewish prophets. There is
Isaiah 53 with its minute description of the suffering servant who was
despised and rejected, afflicted with pain and stripes, by whose “stripes we
are healed.” He then dies, is buried, yet is revived and suffers all
this “for the affliction of my (Isaiah the prophet's) people. " All this can best be applied to one person only -
Yeshua of Nazareth. The Talmud teaches that this chapter refers to
Messiah. The targum of Jonathan begins the passage
with the words, Ha yatslakh avdee
Mashikha, "Behold my
servant the Messiah shall prosper. ..." Common sense says it must
refer to Yeshua. The same is true for many other prophecies which speak
of the time of His birth, like Daniel 9:26: And after
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; The manner of His birth in a supernatural way is recorded in
Isaiah 7:14: Behold
the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel. Isaiah 9:65 says: For unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder; The Everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace. The place of his birth is foretold by Micah, the prophet in
verse 5:26 But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, The manner of His death is found both in Psalm 22:17, They pierced my hands and my feet,
and in Zechariah 12:10, They shall look unto me whom they
have pierced, which the Talmud applies to Messiah ben Joseph. 8
We have heard arguments against His Messianic claims by the fact that some
prophecies like Isaiah 2 (breaking swords into plowshares) and Isaiah 11
(lamb and lion dwelling together) have not been fulfilled as yet and that our
explanations for a future fulfillment by His second coming creates too long a
hiatus (of close to 2,000 years). But what is 2,000 years in the sight of
God, waiting patiently for His people to respond and accept His Anointed One
- Yeshua, ben Elohim? Personage Spotless
We hold on to our faith because of the spotless Person He was. His
contemporaries testified of Him that "He doeth all things well. " 9 He could challenge his contemporaries saying to
them, "which of you convicted me of sin?" and they held their
peace. Some modern Jewish and non-Jewish scholars point out His lack of
originality in many of His sayings. Would it have been better if He had
contradicted the words of the prophets? Others assert that His
teaching is too idealistic (e.g., the turning of the other cheek), and
therefore impractical. But who can find fault in a Man who constantly goes
from the south to the north of Israel, then Judea and Samaria, doing good,
healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping
the ears of the deaf, making the lame to walk again and preaching good news
of salvation to the poor, the needy, and the outcast? Rejected by the
leading Pharisees and by the High Priests, He died a martyr's death by
crucifixion at the hands of the Roman soldiers.
But this is not the end of the story, for His 12 disciples plus a number of
others, see Him alive after He died and proclaimed Him the risen Savior. For
this assertion nearly all of them had to pay with their lives, dying like
their master a cruel death by hands of pagans and of unbelieving Jewish
leaders. Yet these believing Jews never flinched. They knew for
sure that He is alive.
We are convinced that He is Messiah because of the transformation in the
personalities of His followers. Who could transform Simon Bar Yonah (Peter), the fisherman on the shores of Galilee, to
become the leader of Messianic Jews in Israel and abroad, and finally to be
acknowledged the first bishop and highest authority next to Yeshua by
millions of people of the whole world?
What about Saul of Tarsus, convinced that he, with the letters he had from
the High Priest, would completely knock out all belief in Yeshua? He met the
risen Yeshua on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus, 10 and from a persecutor
of the Gospel he became a proclaimer of the Good
News. He himself was greatly persecuted by unbelieving people
everywhere until he finally died a martyr's death at the hands of the Romans
in the time of Nero. People Who
Accepted Him From the first
book, Bereshit (Genesis), to the last prophet in
the Tanakh (OT), Malachi, the Messiah's activity
involves "the people” or the nations. Yaacov Aveenoo (Jacob) foresees it and says: 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. (Genesis 49:10) In Isaiah 11 the prophet sees Him as the root of Jesse which shall stand
for an ensign of the people; to Him shall the
Gentiles seek. In Isaiah 49:6 Messiah is proclaimed
with these words: It is a light
thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raish up the tribes of Jacob, Malachi 12 says of Him: For from the rising of the sun
even unto the going down of the same Peace That
Messiah Gives Jewish believers in
Messiah Yeshua found that only in Him they have rest, peace, and
satisfaction. They heard Messiah’s invitation. "Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 13
They verified it in their own lives. They read the record of His
promise, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” 14 They
found Messiah to be the Great Gentleman who always keeps His promise. The result is that we can say together with
one of the first hasidim of Messiah Yeshua, Simon
bar Jonah, called Simon Peter: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of life. — The Son of the Living God— References: What
The Rabbis Know About The Messiah by Rachmiel
Frydland For further
information contact
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