Join us as we explore the vibrant tapestry of messianic prophecy found in the Hebrew Bible. Discover how Yeshua fulfills these ancient scriptures, not only through predictive prophecies but more so through types and shadows. We delve into historical narratives and highlight the deep connections between Yeshua, Moses, and the prophetic journey of Israel. This episode will enrich your understanding of the New Testament’s use of Hebrew scriptures, painting a profound portrait of Yeshua HaMashiach.
00:00:01 Colorful Portraits of Messiah in Hebrew Bible
We find that the Hebrew Bible painted a very colorful picture of what the Messiah would look like in the form of types and shadows. Before I move forward into new content, I think it’s really important that we review some of the highlights that I covered. First of all, I pointed out that many people, when they think about messianic prophecy, how Yeshua or how Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecy, They have in their mind that there were measurable predictions about the future in the Old Testament that we call in Hebrew the Tanakh that Jesus fulfilled in such a way that they could be scientifically measured. Let me give you an example of what I mean. An example of predictive prophecy or prophecy in the Old Testament or Tanakh about the future would be like the Hebrew prophets saying that in the year 2023, Jesus is going to come again. That’s a future predictive prophecy that could be scientifically measured. Either Jesus came in 2023 or he didn’t come in 2023. One specific prophecy that is related to this concept that I’m sharing right now is in the book of Daniel. We’re going to be looking at it later where Daniel predicted he foretold that the coming of Messiah would happen before the destruction of the second temple. That is predictive prophecy. Once again, it could be scientifically measured and verified as either true or false. Many prophecies are of this nature. They’re measurable. But what I want to point out, beloved, is that the way that the New Testament uses prophecy from the Old Testament is not always predictive in nature like the example that I just shared. Much of the way in which the New Testament writers use the Hebrew Bible in such a way that they say Yeshua fulfilled it is not in a sense that He fulfilled a prediction that can be scientifically verified, but rather that the whole Old Testament painted a picture about the coming of Messiah. And when we look deep into the pages of the Hebrew Bible, we find that the Hebrew Bible painted a very colorful picture of what the Messiah would look like in the form of types and shadows. So what I’d like to do, I want to begin reviewing here some of the things that I covered in the last series. I began by looking at the book of Matthew, chapter number 2, verses number 13 through 15. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of the Lord abides forever. Hear now the Word of God as I read from Matthew, chapter 2. He, speaking of Joseph, Jesus’ father, He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. So what I want you to get first of all here is that Matthew is using a scripture from the Hebrew Bible. It’s taken from the book of Hosea, chapter number 11. And the portion of scripture that Matthew is quoting from the book of Hosea is the 11th chapter, once again, the first verse that reads, Matthew is saying, that the life of Yeshua was fulfilled or fulfilled this prophecy because God took Joseph and Yeshua and Yeshua’s mother Miriam or Mary out of Egypt after Herod died and brought them back into Israel. Let me review just to make very simple sense of it. Many of you recall that when Yeshua was born, Herod heard that a king had been born. Remember the Magi, they had seen the star and they were able to perceive that a king had been born, the king of Israel. Herod, who was the reigning political king at the time, was very threatened by this. When he heard that a new king was born, he was concerned about losing his place. So Herod ordered the death of all the Hebrew babies. Then an angel came to Joseph, Yeshua’s earthly father, of course not biologically, but the father that raised him. And the angel said to Joseph, take the child, meaning Yeshua, into Egypt, for Herod’s going to be killing the newborn infants here. And so at the angel’s command, Joseph took his family into Egypt. Then When Herod died, the angel again spoke to Joseph and said, take Jesus, take Yeshua back into Israel now. And so this is where Matthew is quoting the scripture out of Egypt, because remember, Jesus and his family were in Egypt. Now the angel says, go back to Israel. God says, out of Egypt, I called my son. Now, let’s put it together once again. When we go to the book of Hosea, chapter 11, verse number 1, and we read this, what we find here is that in its original historical context, this is not a prophecy in the sense that it was predicting the future. In the book of Hosea, all that is simply happening here is God is recounting the history of Israel, his firstborn son. And so God is speaking through Hosea, out of Egypt, I called my son. The Lord had already called Israel out of Egypt. It was not predictive prophecy, but rather the Lord was just going back and recounting to Israel what he had done for them. He took them out of Egypt. Out of Egypt, God called Israel out. When Israel was in bondage there to Pharaoh for over 400 years, and then the Lord delivered them through the blood of the Lamb, that was a symbol of Yeshua, and delivered Israel out of Egypt, God called His Son, His firstborn Son, Israel. Now Yeshua is born. His Father takes Him into Egypt to protect Him from Herod. Then when Herod dies, Joseph is called to take Yeshua back into Israel. And so now Matthew quotes this scripture from Hosea, out of Egypt I called my son to fulfill the prophecy. Now what’s going on here? What’s going on here, beloved, is that the New Testament, called in Hebrew the Brihad Hashah, When it speaks of the fulfillment of prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Tanakh, it’s not necessarily speaking of just predictive prophecies in the Tanakh, but rather Matthew is sharing with us that Yeshua fulfills the Hebrew Bible because He fills Israel’s history up with meaning as their divine representative by going through the same things that Israel as a nation went through.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider, and he’ll be right back. And I want to share with you that in the rush of everyday life, sometimes it’s a challenge to connect with God. And that’s why Rabbi Schneider launched a one-minute audio devotional that’s here to help you. You can start each morning with a powerful message, and I believe it’ll give you spiritual insight and strength for your day ahead. Just search for A Minute with Rabbi on your favorite podcasting platform or or visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Did you know that the shofar is a biblical instrument that’s used to announce God’s presence? And we would love to send you one when you become a new monthly partner. It’s a special thank you gift that’s been handcrafted in Israel. To join us and receive your shofar, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Thank you for partnering with us each and every month. Your support, it helps us continue to share the gospel worldwide. And now, Back to Rabbi Schneider.
SPEAKER 01 :
So the Hebrew Bible, it’s all prophetic in the sense that all of it is pointing to Jesus. That Yeshua, as Israel’s divine representative, goes through many of the things Israel went through in their history. So for example… We find, we’re going to look at this a little bit later in more detail, but Moses, Moshe we say in Hebrew, predicted that the Lord is going to raise up from among you a prophet like me and you shall listen to him. And anyone that does not listen to him will be cut off. So Moses said that God was going to raise up from among Israel a prophet like himself. And anybody that did not listen to this one that was going to come forth from Israel like Moses would be cut off. So what does Yeshua do? He repeats Moses’ history in the sense that many of the same things that Moses does Yeshua does. So how many days did Moses fast on top of Mount Sinai? Forty days. How many days did Yeshua fast? Forty days. Like Moses, who interceded for Israel, Yeshua interceded for Israel. You remember, for example, the story of the golden calf. and how God was going to just wipe out all of Israel because they built the golden calf when Moses was up on top of Mount Sinai, forsaking the Lord. They lacked the patience and they lacked the trust that was required for them to receive the covenant. Remember, Moses said, stay here. I’m going to go up and I’m going to meet with Yahweh. You’re God, and I’m going to come back down from the mountain.” But when Moses delayed from coming down the mountain, because he was up there for 40 days and 40 nights, Israel got impatient. They lacked trust that Moses was going to come back down. They decided instead to take matters in their own hands, and they built this golden calf and began to worship it. A lot of times we put the emphasis on the fact that they worshiped an idol of the golden calf, which is absolutely true. But if you think about the root of their sin, it wasn’t just the golden calf. The root was they lacked patience and they lacked trust. They didn’t have the patience and trust to wait for Moses to come back down the mountain to fulfill the promise. But the point is, is that even when Moses came down the mountain and he saw the golden calf and God said, I’m going to wipe them all out, the children of Israel, for what they’ve done, Moses interceded to Father God, that he would not wipe Israel. And so Jesus, fulfilling the type of Moses, what does he do? He intercedes for God’s people. He’s on the cross. Like Moses, he intercedes. And what does Yeshua say on the cross? Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Several times in Moses’ history, he interceded for the children of Israel to spare them from judgment. Yeshua, of course, is the ultimate fulfillment of this. This is why Luke tells us these words. Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself. Let me read it again because it really illustrates what I’m endeavoring to communicate here. prophecy that the New Testament uses from the Tanakh, it’s not all predictive, but rather it’s that the entire history of Israel is pointing to Yeshua. And so once again, Luke says this, “…then beginning with Moses…” And with all the prophets, He, meaning Yeshua, explained to them, His apostles, the things concerning Himself.” You see, when Jesus brought His disciples on a journey through the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms, revealing himself in those writings, he wasn’t just showing his apostles and disciples predictive prophecy. He wasn’t just showing them specific predictions in the Old Testament foretelling of the coming of Messiah, but rather what he was doing. beloved one, was showing how the entire Old Testament was painting a beautiful and colorful picture of Him, because the aim of the entire Bible is Yeshua HaMashiach. Now, I have a saying that I’ve heard from my friend Michael Brown, much of prophecy is more music than math. and more poetry than science. In other words, I recently heard a pastor say that because Jesus fulfilled 300 prophecies from the Hebrew Bible and the chance of him fulfilling 300 prophecies from the Hebrew Bible is so impossible that somebody could do that, that’s the reason we should put our faith in Jesus. But the challenge with that type of statement, obviously, we have put our faith in Yeshua. But the challenge with the statement that that pastor made is he is saying that there were 300 predictive prophecies in the Old Testament that Yeshua fulfilled, prophecies that could be mathematically documented as being fulfilled. But much of the way that the New Testament once again uses the Hebrew Bible in the sense that it says Yeshua fulfilled it, it’s not predictive. It’s not that we can say, yes, we know that Jesus fulfilled it because the prophecy said that exactly this would happen and it would happen at this time and it would happen in this way. And Jesus did it exactly in the way that the Hebrew Bible predicted it. No, the New Testament uses the Hebrew Bible saying that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of it by showing, beloved, not only how he fulfilled some predictive prophecy, but mostly how Yeshua fulfilled the types and shadows in the Hebrew Bible. So, for example, in the Hebrew scripture, we find the importance of blood. The book of Leviticus, or we say in Hebrew, Vayikra, chapter 17, verse 11, says this. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I’ve given it to you, the Lord is speaking to Israel, on the altar to make an atonement for your soul. For it’s the blood, by reason of its life, that makes atonement. All through the Hebrew Bible, we hear about the importance of the blood. When Israel, for example, received the covenant, the Ten Commandments, and Moses declared the covenant before the people of Israel, Israel replied, all that Hashem, all that God has said, we will do. And then Moses sprinkled them with blood, the blood of the covenant. Over and over again, we see the importance of the blood. Yom Kippur, the highest holiday in the Jewish calendar where the high priest would take the blood of a bull and the blood of a goat and bring it into the Holy of Holies, that most sacred place, first in the tabernacle, then later in the temple. And the high priest would take that blood and pour it on top of the Ark of the Covenant called the mercy seat. And when the Lord saw that blood spilled out there, he would forgive Israel for the year. All through the Hebrew Bible, we see the importance of the blood. Now, what does Yeshua do? He has his last meal with his disciples. He lifts up the wine. He says a blessing, probably something similar to Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melcholam borei prihagafen Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who gives forth or gives us the fruit of the vine. And then he took that cup and he lifted it to his disciples. And he said, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sin, the blood of the covenant. And so Jesus takes the Hebrew Bible that laid the foundation of the importance of blood. And then he lifts up that cup and he says, my blood is the ultimate fulfillment of it all. Then he goes to the cross with the nails through his hands and through his feet as he’s bleeding there after they whipped him 39 times. And then what do they finally do? The Roman guard takes the spear, puts it in Jesus’ side. The blood comes out and it’s finished. Jesus died on the cross. He said it’s finished. They put the spear and the blood comes out. What’s the point? The blood of Jesus fulfills all that the Hebrew Bible founded in terms of telling us the importance of the blood. In fact, much of the book of Hebrews… shows us how the blood in the Hebrew scripture was a type and a shadow of the blood that would ultimately be shed by God who had clothed Himself in humanity, in the earth, in the person of Yeshua HaMashiach. Jesus is the Messiah. And so Jesus fulfilled prophecy. He fulfilled the type and shadow of the importance of blood in the Hebrew Bible. He did it in His own body and in His own ministry. And so once again, when we say that it was impossible, as a pastor would say, that 300 of the prophecies in the Old Testament Jesus fulfilled, he’s thinking that there are 300 predictive prophecies. In other words, predictive prophecy, just to give you an absurd example, would be like Nostradamus, who we don’t believe in. But Nostradamus would say, you know, in the year 1923, there’s going to be a big earthquake and it’s going to be happening, you know, in the southern part of South America. So if there was a huge earthquake in the southern part of South America in 1923, we could say, yeah, Nostradamus’ prophecy was fulfilled. It would have been a predictive prophecy. But much of the prophecy, once again, beloved, that Jesus fulfilled, it’s not something that could be measured scientifically because the New Testament writers aren’t using it that way. What they’re doing is saying that Yeshua filled Israel’s history up to its fullest meaning. And in that way, he fulfilled it. He repeated Israel’s destiny in himself as Israel’s divine representative. It’s so important for me for you to grasp this because, beloved, we want to be sophisticated and educated in our understanding of scripture. Baruch Hashem, Shalom Aleichem. Beloved, I say this with authenticity before the Lord, discovering the Jewish Jesus is one of the best and most important ministries that you can partner with on the earth. We are reaching the world with the gospel, and more precisely today, we’re reaching Jewish people with the gospel, which is the mandate of the church. Paul said to the Jew first and also to the Greek or to the Gentiles, Yeshua came and he first brought the message to the Jewish people, and then the message spread from there around the world to Jerusalem, Samaria, and all the nations of the earth. We are broadcasting right now in 97% of the homes in Israel that have television sets, as well as a big portion of the entire Middle East. By you becoming a monthly partner with this ministry, you take a step forward and be part of God’s steps on the earth to reach around the globe to gather in a harvest of precious Jewish souls. When Jewish people come to faith in Him, that creates a spiritual climate for the Lord’s return. Now is the time, I believe more than ever before, to bring the good news of the Jewish Messiah Jesus to them. And you can be a part of doing that by becoming a monthly partner today.
SPEAKER 03 :
Amen. Take that step of faith right now and partner with us. You can partner online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or you can support this ministry by giving us a call today. Our number is 800-777-7835. We’re fulfilling scripture by taking the gospel to Jewish communities in Israel and around the world. In your monthly partnership, it helps us ensure that we can continue to reach Jewish people with the good news of Jesus, the Messiah. So please take that step of faith right now. And you know, we’re connected with four churches in different parts of Israel who are doing on the ground mission work. And Rabbi just visited them to strengthen our relationship and encourage them in their work. And we also have a Hebrew YouTube channel where over 80% of the audience speaks Hebrew and is listening to Rabbi’s shows in Hebrew from Israel. We’re excited about what God is doing and we’re excited about your partnership to help us do it. Thank you so much for being a vital part of this mission. Once again, give online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now here’s Rabbi with the Aaronic Blessing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Blessings trump curses, and in the book of Numbers chapter six, we find the Aaronic blessing that God commanded Moses’ brother Aaron, the high priest, to speak over the children of Israel. There’s power in blessing, beloved ones, so take part in receiving Father’s blessing upon your life today.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m Dustin Roberts, your host, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Be sure to join us next time when Rabbi Schneider helps us understand Jesus in the Old Testament. That’s Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
