Dive deep into the mysteries of Messianic prophecy with Rabbi Schneider as he explores the foundational role Yeshua plays in the Hebrew Bible. This episode unpacks the complex interplay between prophecy and fulfillment, unraveling how the New Testament writers understood and used these ancient texts. Through engaging examples like Moses and Hosea, discover how the Old Testament isn’t merely predicting events, but pointing to deeper meanings fulfilled in Jesus.
Understand that the entire Tanakh, the entire Hebrew Bible is ultimately about Yeshua. Yeshua is the aim of all the scriptures. I’m really drilling down on the nature of Messianic prophecy, and I really endeavor to help you understand that many people’s view of Messianic prophecy is that there’s all these predictions in the Old Testament or the Tanakh of what Jesus would do. And I’ve really gone a long way to help show you that when the New Testament writers use the Hebrew Bible in such a way that they say Jesus fulfilled it, they’re not always talking about Jesus fulfilling future predictions. The New Testament writers’ view of Messianic prophecy is much broader than that. The New Testament writers use Messianic prophecy not just to show how Yeshua fulfilled predictive prophecies, meaning prophecies that were very specifically about how the Messiah in the future would fulfill this particular scenario or event. But the New Testament writers often use the Old Testament or the Tanakh in a way that they say Yeshua fulfilled it in the sense that Yeshua filled it full with meaning. And so on our last broadcast, I talked about Moses and how Moses talked about the fact that the Lord was going to raise up from amongst Israel a prophet like himself. And anybody that did not listen to this prophet would be cut off. Now, that’s predictive. That’s very, very predictive. Moses said the Lord’s going to raise up from among Israel a prophet like me. That’s predictive. It’s something that’s going to happen in the future. And the Lord said, and he that does not listen to this prophet will be cut off. Very scientific. That could be mathematically and scientifically measured. And Jesus fulfilled that prophecy. In fact, in the book of Acts, Peter actually quotes the scripture that I just referred to from the book of Devarim or the book of Deuteronomy and saying, this Yeshua is This Jesus fulfilled this prophecy that Moses spoke of. Predictive prophecy, scientifically measured. Yeshua came, he lived, and he did exactly what Moses said he would do. But much of the way the New Testament writers use prophecy is in a more general sense. And I talked, for example, on our last broadcast… from the book of Hosea. Hosea 11, verse 1 is quoted by Matthew. Matthew said, Jesus fulfilled Hosea 11, verse 1. Hosea 11, verse 1 says, out of Egypt did I call my son. But when the Lord gave that word to Hosea, It wasn’t a prediction. In fact, what God was doing was talking through Hosea about what he already did. God had already called his people Israel out of Egypt hundreds of years before Hosea spoke that. So that was not a predictive prophecy. In fact, it doesn’t even appear on the surface, that it was a prophecy at all. Now, some of you may be tuning in for the first time today. I don’t want to lose you. In Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, Hosea is speaking. He records for us the Lord saying, out of Egypt did I call my son. Now, when you hear a prophecy, once again, many of you think of a future prediction. But Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, even in the original historical context in Hosea, was not a prediction of the future. Rather, God was simply saying to Hosea, I called Israel out of Egypt hundreds of years ago. Out of Egypt, I called my son. Yet Matthew quotes that scripture. and says Jesus fulfilled it. Well, what’s going on? First of all, it doesn’t even look like a prophecy in the sense of most people’s understanding of prophecy, because most people, when they think of a prophecy, they’re thinking about a future prediction. So first of all, when we read it, it doesn’t even look like a future prediction. So most people would think it’s not even a prophecy. And then secondly, not only is it not predictive in nature, but even beyond that, Hosea was recording something that already happened. And yet Matthew quotes it and says, Jesus fulfilled it. What’s going on there? How can that be? Well, what is happening, beloved ones, is that the New Testament writers, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, understand that the entire Tanakh, the entire Hebrew Bible, is ultimately about Yeshua. Yeshua is the aim of all the scriptures. This is why the Bible tells us in the book of Luke that Yeshua took his disciples on a journey through the prophets, the law of Moses, and he showed them all the things contained in those scriptures that ultimately pointed to them, to him rather. At first reading, when the disciples read the law of Moses and the prophets, they didn’t even realize that much of it was prophetic. But then Yeshua showed them, listen, this story about Joseph, it ultimately pointed to me. This story about Moses, it ultimately pointed to me. The entire Hebrew Bible finds its end in Yeshua. I’m going now to the book of Isaiah, chapter number six. Let me read for you here. verse 8 and 9. I did refer to this in series number one, but it’s important to point this out to you again. Let me tell you why I’m so sensitive to this. Myself as a Jewish person, most of you know I’m Jewish, born Jewish, raised Jewish, bar mitzvahed in a conservative synagogue. I’m a Jewish believer in Yeshua. I’m a Jewish believer in Jesus. And as a Jew, I am by and large rejected by the Jewish world. Did you know, beloved ones, that in general, the Jewish world says to me, you’re not even Jewish anymore. You’re not Jewish anymore because you switched to another religion. It’s just a biased mindset that says within Judaism, you can’t stay a Jew and believe in Jesus. To show you how serious this is, as a Jewish person, born Jewish, raised Jewish, 100% Ashkenazi Jew. My ancestors are from Europe. I cannot even become a citizen in Israel because I believe in Jesus. So I’m very sensitive to this because all of the blowback and pushback I get from the Jewish world. They tell me that you can’t be a Jew and believe in Jesus because they say Jesus is not the Jewish Messiah. I stake my life on the fact that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel, that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel. and the Savior of the world, that he was raised from the dead, and he is God’s only means to salvation. In fact, the apostle Paul said this, who was one of the leading Jews of his day, educated under the leading Jewish sage of his day, Gamaliel. Paul said this, if Yeshua has not been raised from the dead, then you and I are the biggest fools in the earth for believing something and giving our life to something that isn’t even true. And Paul said beyond that, if Yeshua hasn’t been raised from the dead, not only are we fools for following a fairy tale, but he said even worse than that, we’re liars because we’re telling people in the world that God did something that he didn’t do if in fact God has not raised Yeshua from the dead. But God has raised Jesus from the dead and he is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. And yet my message is rejected. by the Jewish people, by and large, just like Yeshua was rejected by his people, by and large, when he came. The Bible says of Yeshua in the Gospel of John, he came unto his own, meaning Israel, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God. The point is, as a Jewish person, when I begin to talk about Jesus to my Jewish brethren, especially to rabbis, immediately they just want to slam me down to the ground. They tell me that you’re using these scriptures and these prophecies out of context, that you’re saying that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. Look, you’re saying that Jesus fulfilled Hosea 11.1. That is even a prophecy. How can you say that Jesus fulfilled it? It was never even a prophecy to begin with. What they say we’re doing is we’re taking a scripture out of context and we’re giving it a whole new meaning, which was never intended by the original author in the Hebrew Bible. Let me give you an example of what I mean by this. I’m going now to the book of Isaiah, chapter number six, verse eight and nine. Hear the word of God. Isaiah speaking, then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me. He said, go and tell this people, keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking, but do not understand. So what is going on here? is that Isaiah is receiving his call from ministry to the Lord. The Lord says to Isaiah, who shall I send? And Isaiah says, send me. And the Lord says, go. He says, I’m going to send you and they’re going to keep on listening, but they’re not going to perceive. They’re going to look, but they’re not going to understand. And so what happens? This scripture that was originally just simply a word that was given to Isaiah by the Lord, when God called Isaiah, Yeshua now uses that same scripture from Isaiah and he applies it to himself. And he says that in himself, listen, Jesus said, it’s been fulfilled. So hear me now. When people see the New Testament, writers say Jesus fulfilled it. They’re thinking, oh, he must have fulfilled some type of prediction from the Old Testament. But that’s not the way the New Testament writers oftentimes use prophecy. They don’t mean it that Jesus fulfilled a future prediction, but that Jesus filled it up with meaning. And the next question we need to ask ourself is, did then the New Testament writers misuse the scriptures? Here’s what Jesus did. Listen. Hear the word of God, stay with me now, we’re gonna make sense of all this. We’re going now to Jesus’ use of this same scripture. In Matthew 13, verse 13, Yeshua says, therefore I speak to them in parables, because while seeing they do not see. And while hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, you will keep on hearing, but will not understand. You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive. So what is Yeshua doing? Yeshua is taking the prophetic word that the Lord gave to Isaiah concerning what would happen in Isaiah’s ministry. And Yeshua now says, now it’s being fulfilled in my ministry as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you. You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus and Rabbi will be right back. But first, I would love for you to download the Rabbi Schneider mobile app. When you do, you’ll have access to Rabbi’s daily devotionals, messianic content and full length shows of Rabbi’s teachings. We’ll also have a link to Rabbi’s teaching notes for each and every teaching. All you have to do is search for Rabbi Schneider in your phone’s app store and download the app today. Jesus said, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. We need his word and people are hungry for it. That’s why we’re spreading the gospel worldwide through radio, TV, podcast, and on the ground outreaches. To help us reach them, would you financially support us? If God is moving you to join us, call 800-777-7835. or visit DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. And now, back to Rabbi.
SPEAKER 03 :
And so once again, beloved, I want you to just get the big picture, because you may at some point in your life quote a messianic prophecy to a Jewish person and they would say to you, well, you know, your New Testament says that Jesus fulfilled that. But if you look at that scripture in the Hebrew Bible, that’s not what it was talking about at all. It wasn’t talking about a messiah. It was just talking about Isaiah. But if you understand the playing field and the types of issues that we deal with, it’s called apologetics in our endeavor to defend the faith, then you’ll be much better prepared to know an objection that you might end up getting. Of course, the question at this point now becomes when the New Testament writers took scriptures from the Old Testament and apply them to Yeshua in a way that was never understood by the original writer in the Hebrew Bible. In other words, when Isaiah originally wrote this down, He didn’t realize that Yeshua is going to be quoting that scripture and applying it to himself. And so somebody might say, well, you’re taking a scripture that had one meaning to the original author, and now you’re taking it and you’re turning it and giving it a completely different meaning. You’re pulling it out of context and then applying it to Yeshua. That is not an honest use, someone might say, of prophecy. But beloved, first of all, it is a totally honest use of prophecy because the writers of the New Testament were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And if Yeshua is the Messiah, which he absolutely is, then the New Testament writers have the right to take any scripture and apply it to him because the entire aim of the Hebrew Bible finds its climactic fulfillment in the Messiah. But let me go a step further. When I, for example, as a Jewish person, encounter a traditional rabbi that says to me, you are misusing scripture because you’re taking scriptures from the Hebrew Bible out of context and applying them to Yeshua. For example, at the book of Isaiah, chapter 7, verse 14, where Isaiah receives a prophetic word, the virgin will conceive and bring forth a child and you shall call his name Emmanuel, meaning God is with us. Of course, we use that in a big way in the New Testament. What a traditional rabbi would say is that you are totally misusing that scripture because that scripture that was given to Isaiah, behold, the virgin will conceive and bring forth a child, or they would say the word that we translate in the New Testament as virgin, which is in the Hebrew Alma, does not necessarily mean a virgin, but it means a young woman of childbearing age. They would say you’re totally twisting that. Because number one, they would say it doesn’t necessarily mean a virgin. And they would say, number two, that that scripture was not about the Messiah. It was about Isaiah’s wife going to have a child. Some people feel that it was about the king Ahaz having a child. They say it wasn’t a messianic prophecy. You guys are taking it and applying it out of context. But here’s what I need you to understand. That is a totally unfounded accusation because of the fact when we study Judaism, Judaism does the same exact thing. And they have done the same exact thing for 2000 years where they take a scripture that’s given in the original context and was understood by the original hearers in one way. And then they take the scripture within rabbinic Judaism and they give it a totally different meaning than was originally intended or understood by the original audience. This is done in the Talmud, which is the major source that rabbis study as they’re preparing for the rabbinate. You have to get some of my other teachings. I don’t want to get too sidetracked on that right now, but it’s just a source of rabbinic Judaism today. They’ll look at a verse in the Talmud and they’ll actually study with someone. Each person has a partner they’ll study with. And the goal of the study is to give that verse as many creative interpretations as possible. And so you read all types of rabbinic literature where they’re taking a verse out of the Talmud or out of the Torah and they’re giving a spin on it that’s totally separated and divorced from its original meaning and intent. The same thing is true in mystical Judaism. The primary book of mystical Judaism, which is studied by the Hasidim today, the ultra-Orthodox Jews, with a huge movement within Judaism, the main source of mystical Judaism is called the Zohar. And when you study the Zohar, what does the Zohar do? It takes a verse out of the Torah, and it gives that verse a meaning that was never understood by the original writers or the original audience. So to accuse me or us of taking a verse out of context and applying it to Jesus holds no weight at all because Judaism has done this for thousands of years. In fact, it is the Jewish way. But ultimately, again, at the end of the day, in terms of accuracy. We can use the scriptures that point to him and feel 100% confident and 100% convinced that we’re using the scriptures accurately because the point of the scriptures is to point, beloved, and to bring us to him. Well, thank you for tuning in today. I hope you find this study as fascinating as I do. We’re going to move forward in next time’s broadcast. I’m going to cover some brand new material, but I just wanted to continue to lay that foundation today because again, Many of God’s people did not really understand what the New Testament means when the New Testament writers used the word Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. They thought it was scientific prediction, but not all prophecy is scientific prediction that foretells the future. It’s rather taking Israel’s history, showing how Jesus took Israel’s history, lived it out, embodied it in his own life, and thus filled it full with meaning. or fulfilled it. Jesus said, my word is truth. Father, we thank you today for strengthening us with your word. Thank you, Father, for giving us a skeletal structure in the spirit. We can stand strong. and stand full, that our life is founded and grounded in the truth. Father, we say, Baruch Hashem, blessed be the name of the Lord. Father, thank you for your word. We love your word, Father God. Your word is truth. We love you, King Jesus. God bless you, beloved one, and shalom. I want to encourage us now to be honest with ourselves before the Lord. Many of us are aware of the fact that we’ve surrendered to Him in some areas of our life, but yet there are many areas of our life that perhaps we’ve not yet submitted to Him in. I remember when I was in school as a young boy, they gave us a microscope and they put something on a slide and we looked at what was on that slide through the microscope. At first we saw nothing, But then when we adjusted the lens and turned up the power, suddenly we were able to see on that slide little organisms moving around. It took the amplification of the lens to be able to see it. Some of us right now are being convicted by the Holy Spirit in the area of our finances. He’s turning up His power. He wants us to see that we need to surrender to the Lord and trust Him with our finances. Beloved, while we’re on this earth, we have an opportunity to do good. And all of us should be sowing into the kingdom for the furtherance of the gospel. If you believe in this ministry, I want to encourage you, beloved, make an offering today. God will reward you for everything that you do.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. You can give a financial gift of any amount to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Just visit us online. Our website is DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. And if it’s easier for you, I want to encourage you, give us a call. Our number is 800-777-7835. Or you can send your gift in the mail. Our address is Discovering the Jewish Jesus, PO Box 777. Blissfield, Michigan, 49228. And you know, the way that we’re sharing the gospel, it’s unique and it’s resonating with people all around the world. And I want to thank you so much for supporting this ministry. We couldn’t do it without you. So thank you. And then I want to remind you, don’t forget, we have a free resource package that explores the wisdom of the Aaronic blessing. Rabbi prays it over us at the end of every message. But I want to ask you, have you ever wondered what the Hebrew words of this blessing really means? Well, this free gift, it’s going to show you and it includes a PDF guide along with an audio file and it walks you through each powerful phrase of this sacred benediction. It’s absolutely free and available right now at myfreegift.com forward slash peace. Don’t forget the forward slash peace. And now let’s turn things back over to Rabbi so he can wrap up today’s message from our series Messianic Prophecy with that special sacred blessing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rabbi? The words from the Aaronic Blessing in the book of Numbers, chapter 6, verses 22 through 27, helps us to realize how good God is to you and I personally. So receive his blessing into your life, and then, beloved one, go bless somebody else in Jesus’ name 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 01 :
This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus, and I’m your host, Dustin Roberts. Join us again tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider reveals how Jesus didn’t just fulfill prophecy, he fulfilled Israel’s destiny in himself. That’s Thursday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
Dive deep into the mysteries of Messianic prophecy with Rabbi Schneider as he explores the foundational role Yeshua plays in the Hebrew Bible. This episode unpacks the complex interplay between prophecy and fulfillment, unraveling how the New Testament writers understood and used these ancient texts. Through engaging examples like Moses and Hosea, discover how the Old Testament isn’t merely predicting events, but pointing to deeper meanings fulfilled in Jesus.
