Daily Devotionals

Voice of the Lord

Devotional: 5th of Tammuz

The disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

The talmudic sages discuss the death of Messiah in Sukkah 52 a. They call the Messiah who will be killed Mashiach Ben-Yosef (Messiah Son of Joseph) because our patriarch Yosef suffered injustice in order to save his family and others from famine. The Talmud also says that the second Psalm, in which God describes his Son, refers to that Messiah. The sages cite the prophet Zechariah (12:10), and agree that when Mashiach Ben-David (Messiah Son of David), the conquering Messianic king, comes to earth, Israel will recognize him by the pierce-marks on his body.

The idea of Messiah suffering on earth, and then returning in power, is not a non-Jewish contrivance superimposed onto Jewish texts. Some have alleged that one can only be "duped" into believing that Yeshua is the Messiah if one is talmudically unlearned. This talmudic text (Sukkah 52a) alone makes that assertion untrue. Thus, Messianic and talmudic Judaism part company on one point only: Messianics believe the prophets show that this Messiah had to come before the destruction of the Second Temple (Daniel 9:24-27), and therefore had to be Yeshua. Talmudic Judaism believes that the Messiah is yet to come, and therefore cannot be Yeshua.

As Messianic Jews, we have confidence in the one in whom we have believed (2 Timothy 1:12), and we look forward to the day when all our people will know him, too. Truly, in that day, "Adonai will be the only one, and his name will be the only name" (Zechariah 14:9).

...cultivate my inner life before God as if Messiah will return this very night (Matthew 25:1-13).

BC