From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 02:34:29 +0000
Subject: The Jewish Messiah in TeNaKh (Part 1)
From: "Michael Edgerton" <First_Fruits@classic.msn.com>
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup" <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
To the Mishpachah (Family):
Not long ago a Bible believer got into a debate with an august
representative of an organization self-styled as some sort of
"Supreme" U.S. Rabbinical Court. This rabbi was standing in front
of some television cameras attempting to "excommunicate" American
Jewish people because of their Messianic faith. This is a true
story.
The Debate in a Nutshell
In short, the debate went something like this.
The rabbi said to the Bible believer, "Are you a Jew?"
The Bible believer replied, "Was Ruth a Jew?"
The rabbi asked, "Are you a missionary?"
The Bible believer replied, "Are you a missionary?"
The rabbi shouted, "I most certainly am not!"
The Bible believer asked, "If you are not a missionary, then
why have you rabbis lawlessly wrested authority from the kohanim
(priests) and are now missionizing Jewish people away from a
faith squarely founded on true Biblical apocalyptic Torah
Judaism as taught by the Jewish Bible?" The rabbi said (without
challenging the truth of the indictment), "Because the
priesthood became corrupted by the Romans, and then the
Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E." The Bible believer said, "One
kohen (priest) was not corrupted and his temple was not
destroyed." The rabbi paused and looked at the Bible believer
quizzically. . . "Which one was that?"
The Bible believer said, "The Messiah-Priest that King David
foretold in Psalm 110,[1] the portentous priest Zechariah also
identified with the name of Moshiach (Messiah) in Zechariah[2]
[3]--the very name Ezra called Yeshua (Aramaic form of
Yehoshua) in the book of Ezra!"[4] (See end notes referred to by
bracketed numbers for all Scripture citations.) He paused again,
swallowing hard. A little bit later in the debate he wiped a
tear from his right eye. He couldn't refute the Biblical
argument, a position he had never heard before, apparently, and
one for which he had no answer. What follows is a more complete
presentation of the Biblical argument.
The Jewish Bible Must Interpret Itself
The history of the Exodus is given to us in the Torah of Moses.
There we read that a whole rebellious generation passed away
leaving only a righteous remnant of two holy survivors of the
Exodus to inherit the promised life in the Holy Land: Yehoshua
(or Joshua--the Aramaic form is Yeshua--see Nehemiah 8:17)
and Caleb. This is paradigmatic history, for it provides a
prophetic model as a sign of things to come, as does the prophecy
about Moshiach found in the reference to the two ominous olive
trees in the book of Zechariah 4.[5] In fact, Yehoshua (or Joshua)
is himself a sign of the Moshiach, as we shall see. The fact that
the Aramaic form of Yehoshua or Joshua is Yeshua [see Nehemiah 8:17]
will prove very significant later when we see that the Tanakh teaches this
name is to become Moshiach's personal name. "Joshua/Yeshua" is
indeed one of the portentous and ominous names of "anshei mofet"
("sign-men) in the Hebrew Scriptures.[2]" A rabbi might challenge
this and say, "This is like telling an American that something
which happened to the Pilgrims is paradigmatic of American
history. Or, again, this is like saying that George Washington
is a prophetic sign of the last and greatest American President!
Why is one necessarily the predictive model of the other?"
Why? Because the Jewish Bible must be allowed to interpret
itself. And, in the Jewish Bible, Yeshayah (Isaiah) 49:8 [6]
infers that Yehoshua or Joshua/Yeshua is in fact a sign of the
Moshiach. Therefore, if anyone wants to argue, let him argue
with G-d and his holy Word in the writing of his holy prophet, Isaiah.
It was Joshua who assigned the land of the promised inheritance
to the individual tribes and families. Isaiah 49:8 alludes to this
activity. This key verse infers that King Moshiach, the Servant
of the L-rd, is the new Joshua, for in his own person the
Moshiach will bring the promised new life for the people, which is their
covenant inheritance.
Or a rabbi might say, "If in fact it is the one you say who is
the Prince of Peace, the new Joshua, as it were, to bring the
people out of the Golus (Exile) and into the land of eternal
Sabbath rest, then where is all the world peace the Prophets said
the Moshiach would bring?" Answer: G-d did not promise peace to
a world that rejects him, Rabbi. But those who receive the
spiritual bris milah (covenant of circumcision) and the
justification peace the Moshiach brings are in actuality raised
to a new spiritual existence with Moshiach in anticipation of the
Olam haBa (the World to Come), and in anticipation of the
Resurrection Age and its peace. But how can we have the latter
if we refuse the former? How can we have the Olam haBa of Moshiach
if we reject Moshiach's New Covenant life in the Ruach haKodesh
(Holy Spirit)?
To continue, Bamidbar (Numbers) 34:19 [7] tells us that Caleb
was from the Moshiach's tribe, the tribe of Judah. Caleb in the
history of the Torah is thus a continuing sign-man or mofet man
(mofet is Hebrew for sign or omen or portent [2]) of the remnant
of one, the King Moshiach of the tribe of Judah, indicated before
Caleb in places like Bereshis (Genesis) 49:10 [8] and after
Caleb in several places in the Jewish Bible, as we shall see.
This righteous-remnant-of-one motif reappears later in the
Servant Songs of Yeshayah (Isaiah) chapters 42-53, where an idealized
Israel is called Yeshurun [9] and then is seen in counterpoint to
a suffering, dying and death-conquering Moshiach, the Servant of
the L-rd. [10] Proof of this last statement will be offered
presently, when we see how the Jewish Bible ties all these
prophetic strands together.
Yehoshua is a Symbol of King Moshiach
Yehoshua (Joshua, Yeshua) is called "the servant of the L-rd"
in the book of Joshua. [11] Like Caleb, Joshua is also a sign-
man, an ominous mofet of the King Messiah, for Joshua is an agent
of chessid (undeserved, unmerited mercy e.g. in the case of the
prostitute Rahab) and of wrath and judgment or condemnation, in
the holy war of G-d against the seven wicked nations in the
Promised Land. The prophet Daniel, who also speaks of both the
chessid of chayei olam (eternal life) as well as judgment and
condemnation,[12] gives us a glorious apocalyptic picture of this
coming King, this Moshiach of the Clouds.[13] Furthermore,
Devorim (Deuteronomy) 18:15-19 [14] foretells the prophet like
Moses that G-d will raise up in the Promised Land, the Prophet-
Moshiach.
A rabbi might interrupt right here and say, "Wait! This
reference to a Moses-like prophet who is to come is not
necessarily referring to the Moshiach!" Again, let the Jewish
Bible interpret itself: Yeshayah (Isaiah)[15] infers that the
Moshiach will be a new Moses. Therefore, don't argue with man,
argue with G-d's Holy Word. Argue with Isaiah 42:15-16; 49:9-10.
The immediate (not final) fulfillment of the Deuteronomy
18:15-19 prophecy is Yehoshua (Joshua/Yeshua). The Sages (Avot
1:1) tell us that Moses accepted the Torah from Sinai and
transmitted it to Joshua/Yeshua. Not only that, Joshua/Yeshua is
indeed a Moses-like prophet, because it was to Joshua and not to
Moses that G-d gave the revelation of the boundaries of the
tribal portions of Eretz Yisrael. Moses died in the wilderness because
he angered G-d, but Joshua led the people victoriously to the
promised new life in the Holy Land. Thus, Joshua (the Aramaic
form of whose name is Yeshua--see Nehemiah 8:17) is a prophetic
sign of the King Moshiach, the ruler from among his brethren who,
like Moses and Prince Joseph, the Savior in Egypt, would lead
Israel's true faithful remnant all the way from the rebellious
unbelief resulting in death in the wilderness to the eternal
salvation and Messianic deliverance foreshadowed in the book of
Joshua.
That the rabbis were not ignorant of the Messianic
interpretation of the Torah given above is shown in the Midrash
on the Psalms (translated by Rabbi William Braude, Yale University
Press, 1959, Volume 1, pages 4-7). In this rabbinic work we find
David explicitly likened to Moses and, on the same page, Devarim
(Deuteronomy) 18:15 is quoted, `A prophet will the L-rd thy G-d
raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me (Moses)."[14] That Deuteronomy 18:15, then, is a
Messianic prophecy fulfllled ultimately in the Moshiach, the Son
of David, should be clear enough. Confirmation comes in II
Samuel [16] and in Isaiah,[17] which tell us that David's "house" will
bring the Moshiach, and also in Ezekiel, which gives us the title
of Moshiach, "David my Servant". [18]
The deduction of the thoughtful, then, is that Rashi's
interpretation of Deuteronomy 18:19 [14] is all the more
frightening. According to Rashi, the text of this passage means
that unbelievers will be put to death. So it is no light thing
to refuse to believe in the divine clues to the identity of the
Moshiach set forth in the Tanakh. That is why the following
material should be read prayerfully, with careful study of each
Biblical reference in the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, and Writings
of the Hebrew Bible). Tanakh-refusers, take heed!
Attempting to Evade the Jewish Bible Is Futile
Those who use the Holocaust to justify either their atheism or
their tendency to devalue the authority of the Jewish Bible
should remember that Satan, not G-d, is the author of Nazism and anti-
Semitism. But when Jewish men like Karl Marx and Trotsky laughed
at the Biblical prospect of a future punishment (in spite of the
doctrine of Gehinnom or hell indicated by texts like that of
Daniel [12]), and when they ridiculed Holy Scripture like
Deuteronomy 18:19 [14], such folly (by more than a few who were
ostensibly Jews) contributed, in league with the universal
Marxist cry for bloody revolution, to give many Europeans dangerous
misperceptions about the Jewish people as a whole. The erroneous
but nonetheless terrifying specter of Tanakh-rejecting Jews in
control of the Communist Parties together with the Right-wing
European reaction to this, fueling latent Western anti-Semitism,
helped provide Hitler with his demonic opportunity and Satanic
rationale.
And, pardon the Biblical Jewish expression, but it was
particularly here that many of the clergymen of the world and
even many of the rabbis of the shul were all too often worthless
prophetic "watch dogs," as it says, "mute [watch] dogs that
cannot bark," that "lie around and dream."[19] While the coming
storm of "the time of trouble for Jacob"[20] threatened ominously
on the horizon, many of the clergymen of the world and many of the
rabbis of the shul spent more effort meditating on extra-Biblical
thought than on the Jewish Prophets. G-d says, "I am against the
shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will
remove them from tending the flock."[21] The point is not that
proper rabbinic Biblical exegesis and homiletics would have
averted the Holocaust or that the 6,000,000 somehow could have
escaped Hitler's Satanic trap. The point is that prophets and
preachers are given by G-d for giving warning, and the warning is
in the Jewish Scriptures and not in the tradition or theology of
men. And woe to the preacher, Jewish or not, who does not preach
the Jewish Scriptures. This also applies to those who claim to
know the Moshiach but do not love his ancient people and pay only
empty lip service to the task of feeding his Jewish lambs the
pure milk of the Word of G-d.
To illustrate this point, if one's loved one is standing on the
train tracks, one may not be able to prevent disaster, but one
certainly cannot justify not even shouting, "Here comes the
train!" The Tanakh speaks about the Holocaust "train" coming in
Deuteronomy and Jeremiah and many other places, but there is a
famine of hearing the Word of G-d, because preachers and rabbis
have not carried out their responsibility to preach the Word,
especially the word of warning regarding the coming Messianic
tribulation.
Those who say they are "orthodox" because they ascribe to the
"Principles of the Faith" of Maimonides should remember that
Maimonides didn't exposit the pure Torah and the Prophets;
Maimonides attempted to syncretize Biblical and Aristotelian
thought. Are we required to believe that this Maimonidean
hybrid, even if it contradicts the Jewish Bible, is, in any sense of the
word, "representative" of Judaism?
Instead of preaching the pure apocalyptic Torah Judaism of
Moses and the Prophets, the clergymen of the world and the rabbis of
the shul have too often retreated to the liberal seminaries and
the Talmudic yeshivas. Instead of warning the Jewish people
(like Jeremiah and Esther's Mordecai) of the coming tribulation, the
blind go leading the blind, even in the face of Satan's yawning
pit. Thank G-d that Jeremiah foresaw the end-time fulfillment of
the true trans-cultural Judaism of Moshiach and the
eschatological leaders that G-d would raise up in the latter days: "Then I
will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you
with knowledge and understanding"[22].
Are not terrifying Torah readings like Deuteronomy 18:19 [14]
and 28:15-68 [23] with their horrifying modern historical
illustrations enough to wake up anyone, even liberal clergymen,
even their liberal congregants, even "orthodox" clergy and
rabbis?
At just this point someone might try to "strain out a gnat,"
charging us with misconstruing the Biblical context. Someone
might then "swallow the camel" by pretending that this betrayal
of the Jewish Bible by religious leaders has not happened or that
there have not been horrendous consequences. Or someone might
smile and say, "I don't believe that G-d would allow people
to throw themselves into eternal torment in Gehinnom. Nor, for
that matter, do I believe that the Bible, with its absolutes,
means what it says." Marx didn't believe Biblical absolutes,
either. Neither did Trotsky, nor Hitler, nor Pontius Pilate.
[24] Would you like to share their willfully wicked opinion (and their
company) forever? Here a rabbi might say, "If there is anyone
`willfully wicked,' it is those so-called `church members' who
stood by silently as Jews went to the Holocaust." True, but
Corrie ten Boom (see The Hiding Place, Fleming Revell, 1971)
didn't stand by silently. Nor did others. As far as the fate of
those who died in the Holocaust is concerned, G-d knows those who
are his. You can be sure of that. And as far as the true
followers of Moshiach are concerned, it is clear that there are
"weeds" marked for Gehinnom, even among the "wheat" of Moshiach's
true followers (see Mt.13:24-30; 7:21-23, etc). All will have
to stand before the Moshiach (Rom.14:10), who endured his own
personal Holocaust for the salvation of his Jewish people. But
we're dealing with a different problem here. We're dealing with
the issue of the reality of a Holy G-d and the reality of Satanic
evil and hellish curses, using the Holocaust to refute scoffers
and doubters, and with all severity urging everyone, Jew and non-
Jew alike, clergyman and rabbi alike, to take a more serious look
at the Biblical Moshiach in the Tanakh, knowing that many will
casually ignore the Word and not even deign to look up the Tanakh
references cited here, so willfully wicked is the world.
"But wait," you say. "Now you're bringing in original sin
(`Willfully wicked'), aren't you? I don't believe in it! What
kind of G-d would let the whole of humanity corrupt itself?" Read
Psalm 51:5,10 [25] on natural, fallen, human depravity and the
needed spiritual bris milah of regeneration and complete inward
spiritual change. G-d is perfect and He created mankind good in
His perfect image. It was no fault of G-d's that a free humanity
used its freedom (both primordially and perennially) to corrupt
itself. G-d has fully revealed a new humanity not only in the
historic people (in whom his Word has been enfleshed), but also
in his incorruptible, G-d-mediating, Word. The Holy One of Israel
commands us to yield to the new creation of his personal Word,
his Moshiach, by a new spiritual birth into Moshiach's new humanity,
the people of the Malchut haShomayim (the Kingdom of Heaven).
"What about the good and innocent people who never even heard
about the Moshiach?" you ask.
This is a loaded question, assuming as it does (and the Jewish
Bible does not) that good and innocent people exist, and, since
they presumeably are so good and innocent, don't need to hear
about any Redeemer anyway, really, since they are not themselves
sinful either in what they do or in what they are, and do not
need redemption from sin's bondage and penalty. See, however,
Psalm 14:3, which says, "there is no one that does good."[26] Think
about it. If you are not unfaithful to your wife, you do not
appreciate the loaded question, "When will you stop being
unfaithful to your wife?" Do you think G-d appreciates the loaded
question, "When will G-d stop punishing the innocent?" G-d has
freely chosen to give his Word to us that we might faithfully
communicate his Word to others. If we refuse to believe the
Jewish Bible, if we refuse to communicate it to a lost and dying
world, is it G-d's fault or our fault that our own disobedient
unbelief causes a "famine of hearing the word of the L-rd"? [27]
"All this is just the same old message," you say. "It's the
tired old message that has led to so much anti-Semitism." Don't
confuse the message with the messengers! Many rabbis have also
been less than responsible messengers and yet this fact gives no
warrant to throw out the Jewish Bible and its message. Not all
who say they are followers of the Moshiach are true believers in
fact. Those who claim to follow the Moshiach ought to live as
He lived.[28] The fact that religious men have failed only proves
that religion is not enough. What is needed is a new spiritual
birth and the sanctifying power of divine love and wisdom.
Unlike men, this will never fail, for what is from G-d cannot be
defeated. Also, if anyone claims to be a follower of Moshiach
and yet hates the Jewish people (or any other people), this very fact
throws his salvation into question, for it says somewhere, "He
who loveth not...abideth (remains in) death."
Yehoshua is a Prophetic Sign of the Servant of the L-rd
Yehoshua is called "the servant of the L-rd" in the book of
Joshua [11]. And Bamidbar (Numbers)[29] calls him "the man in
whom is (the) Spirit", making His person a prophetic sign of the
one who is to come, the Servant of the L-rd filled with "My
Spirit" (Isaiah 42:1[30]). This one who is to come will bring
His Torah. [31] The Moshiach's Torah or teaching will be presented
shortly in what follows.
See Midrash Qoheleth on Ecclesiastes 11:8: "The Law which man
learns in this world is vanity compared with the Law of the
Messiah." According to Isaiah, this one who is to come will be
given as a light to the nations [32] and to his own people as a
covenant [32] to be cut off [10] and to sprinkle many nations
[10] with His outpoured life, which G-d gives as an asham (guilt
offering--see Isaiah 53:10 [10]) and kapparah for sin. To
summarize, then, the nation of Israel is given the idealized name
Yeshurun ("the upright one") both in the Torah [34] [35] and in
Isaiah, [9] and, in prophecy, the nation of Israel as servant
[35] [37] is placed in counterpoint to an individual, the Servant of
the L-rd Moshiach [30] [38] [10], an eschatological figure,
who will eschatologically restore the nation of Israel to her
true faith and also completely turn around and change the whole
world (see Isaiah 49:5-6.[39])
The Moshiach Is Equated With the Servant
The splendor of the ideal ruler of Israel is described in
Isaiah. [40] [17] Righteousness [17] and a special anointing for
his task [17] characterize both this ideal ruler (called "G-d-
with-us") and the Servant of the L-rd [10] [30], as if to suggest
that they are the same person. The ruler, through the Davidic
covenant, witnesses about G-d's nature and saving purposes to
those outside the covenant,[41] a function that is also assigned
to the Servant. [39] If there is still any question that the two
(the ideal ruler and the Servant) are the same person, the
Moshiach, the prophet Zecharyoh (Zechariah) settles the question
in a key text,[2] a post-exilic prophecy where the Moshiach,
spoken of as "the Branch" (of David), is equated with the
Servant. [2] Not only that, but in the same passage, [2] the post-
Exilic High Priest named Yehoshua or Joshua [Yeshua--Ezra 3:8] is
referred to as a mofet, a portentous sign of Moshiach! And this
later Joshua is, of course, the portentous eschatological figure,
the high priest Yehoshua (Joshua, Yeshua) returning from the
Exile to a nation resurrected from unclean death in the Golus (Exile).
This kohen (priest) brought back from the Golus's unclean death
(Zechariah 3:1-8) is like David's Moshiach-Kohen in Psalm 110---
that is, a kohen Zechariah embues with Messianic portent [3], as
it says:
"And speak unto him, saying, 'Thus speaketh the L-rd of hosts,
saying, "Behold, the man whose name is BRANCH; and he shall
branch out from this place, and he shall build the temple of the
L-rd. It is he who will build the temple of the L-rd, and he
will be clothed with majesty, and he will sit and rule upon his
throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the counsel
of peace shall be between them both."
The Alternative NAME for Yehoshua Is Yeshua!
Ezra 3:8[4] gives the alternative name of this Yehoshua, who is
called a "wondrous sign" of the Moshiach in Zechariah 3:8 [2].
The alternative [Aramaic] name for the same individual, Yehoshua
or Joshua, is Yeshua! [4] Yeshayah (Isaiah) 49:8 [6] pointed to
Moses' successor, the ruler who entered the Promised Land, and
gave the portent that in this Yeshua [Nehemiah 8:17 in the Hebrew
Bible says Yehoshua/Joshua is also Yeshua] is an omen of the
Moshiach! Zecharyoh (Zechariah)[2] [3] pointed to Aaron's
successor, the high priest who entered the Promised Land from the
Exile, and predicted that in this Yeshua (Ezra 3:8 in the Hebrew
Bible says this Yehoshua/Joshua is also named Yeshua) is an omen
of the Messiah! "Branch" [or "Moshiach"] is his [Yeshua's] name,
it says clearly in Zechariah 6:12.
A rabbi might object here and say, "Yes, but even if the
Moshiach's name is foretold to be "Yeshua" in our Hebrew Bible,
that still doesn't prove that your Yeshua is our Yeshua!"
Rabbi, we reply, the Jewish Bible says that many Goyim will
believe in the Moshiach, [8] [31] will be sprinkled by his
priestly sacrifice, [10] and find life in his light. [32] But
the Jewish Bible is also aware of the perennial unbelief of Israel's
leaders [43] and of the fact that the Jewish people would in
large part reject the Moshiach [10] until the latter days. [44] Can
any other "Yeshua" ever fulfill these prophecies better than Yeshua
of Nazareth? Furthermore, Daniel foretold that the coming of the
Moshiach must precede the fall of the post-exilic Temple (Bais
Hamikdash) [45] and must occur 483 years [45] after the decree to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem, [45] referring to Artaxerxes'
decree (see Ezra 7:12-16,[46] 457 B.C.E.), which gets us to
approximately 27 C.E., when Moshiach Yeshua was beginning his
ministry. Which other Moshiach, which other "Yeshua," is there?
The Davidic Kohen-Moshiach Was Foretold in the Tanakh
The "priest of G-d" in Genesis,[47] whom David declares (Psalm
110) to be the establisher of the Messianic order of the Davidic
Priesthood, is Melchizedek. In Psalm 110:4 [1] David refers to
the Moshiach as a "priest forever after the order of Melchizedek"
(and not after the order of Aaron, for the Messiah was to come
from the tribe of Judah and from the lineage of David [16] [48]
and thus be a king-priest like Melchizedek in Genesis [47]).
Therefore, the two ominous olive trees in Zechariah [5] symbolize
the kingly Davidic heir (Zerubbabel) and the priestly overseer of
the Bais Hamikdash, the Jerusalem Temple (Yehoshua [2]) and are
portents of the Davidic ruler/king-priest after the order of
Melchizedek, that is, the coming one, the Moshiach.
The Divine Word took Human Form to Become Our Priestly Healer
The word of G-d came from heaven and tabernacled (pitched his
tent) with Moses. This was the same divine Word who did his work
as an inscriber of thc Ten Commandments into stone. Thus the
holy configuration of the Word in the ark, orbited by ministering
priests and symbolic furnishings, was an earthly replica of the
heavenly pattern of glory shown to Moses on the mountain. [45]
This one and only personal Word of G-d who came from heaven and
revealed his "pattern" of glory to Moses on the mountain, is
worthy of worship (as is the Son of Man; see Daniel [13]). Where
does the Tanakh say that the Word of G-d is worthy of worship?
See Psalm 56:10 [50], which says, "In G-d will I praise his
word."
The Word of G-d is the divine agent in creation, as it says "By
the word of the L-rd were the heavens made" (Psalm 33:6 [51]).
Like Moshiach the Judge in Isaiah 42:4,[31] the Word of G-d is
also the divine Word of Judgment who comes at the end of the age
and is personified as the supernatural Moshiach of the Clouds,
"the Son of Man" in Daniel [13] [52].
"Wait," a rabbi might interject. "This you will have to prove
to me from the Tanakh, this notion that the Son of Man is not
only Moshiach but Hashem's Word." Should we be surprised that the
supernatural being which Daniel sees coming from Heaven in Daniel
[13] is a human-like picture of the Moshiach who is also called
"G-d-with-us" in Isaiah 7:14? Should we be surprised that the
supernatural Son Isaiah calls "Mighty G-d" in Isaiah [40] or
should we be surprised that the universal Priest-King that David
calls "my L-rd" in Psalm 110 [1] or that Malachi 3:1 calls "the
L-rd" --should we be surprised that these are also pictures of
G-d's agent of salvation?
"Wait!" says a rabbi. "Psalm 110:1's `Adoni' only means `My
Superior or Master,' lord with a small `l' as in II Samuel 1:10,
etc." Wait, rabbi. Moshiach himself taught that David, the
Great Father of the Messianic dynasty, could hardly call a
descendent or son his superior unless David meant something more-
-see Mt.22:45. Look at Psalm 110:1 again. How could David the
King of Israel, address anyone except G-d as "his superior"? No
one contemporary to David outranked him but G-d! As King of
Israel, only G-d was his lord!
In Joshua 5:13-15 we see an encounter between G-d and man,
where the kind of extremely reverent prostration we see would be
idolatrous before a mere created being. The "Adoni" of Joshua's
question, "What message does Adoni have for his servant?" must
refer to "my L-rd," as we will demonstrate. Moses has a similar
encounter with G-d in Exodus 3:5.
G-d is called Adon kol ha'aretz (Zechariah 4:14), and a
G-d-like aura is created when Joseph is called Adon l'kol
Mitzrayim (`lord of all Egypt')(Gen.45:9), especially when it is
said to this Savior-figure, Yosef the prophetic foreshadowing of
Moshiach, "You have saved our lives. May we find favor in the
eyes of Adoni"(Gen.47:25). Although Joseph is only a man, his
person in prophecy points to the coming haMelech haMoshiach
Adoni, and is part of the picture of the Moshiach drawn for us in
the Torah.
Moshiach is called haAdon ("the L-rd") quite unambiguously in
Malachi 3:1. David Kimhi (Radak) in his commentary published in
the Mikraot Gedolot Rabbinic Bible explains that Malachi 3:1's
"the lord" (spelled with a lower case "l") is King Messiah, who
will come suddenly--no one knows when. He says that Messiah is
the Messenger of the Covenant referred to in this verse.
However, the lower case "l" for "lord" will not suffice because
in Zechariah 4:14 and 6:5 (another post-Exilic prophet) Adon kol
ha'aretz ("the L-rd of all the earth") uses the same word for
Adon ("L-rd") and clearly the L-rd G-d is intended. So it is
tendentious Rabbinic exegesis to assert a lower case "l"
conveniently in one place and a capital "L" in the other.
Because of the way Adoni is used in other places, in Psalm
110:1 we would expect David to say "HaShem said to Adoni
haMelech" (as in I Chr.21:3; II Samuel 19:31). By leaving off
"haMelech," David makes "Adoni" ambiguous, with deity a possible
inference and the spelling a reverential capital "L," "the L-rd
said to my L-rd." To which angel did man ever offer worship
(Joshua 5:14)? To what angel has G-d ever said, "Sit at my right
hand"? (See Psalm 110:1 and Hebrews 1:13.)
(End of Part I)
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