Expectations of the Messiah

 Expectations of the Messiah

By Richard P. Joseph

Moses gave Israel the law of God to live by.  The Israelites were given something that no other nation had the pleasure of having; that is, the word of God and freedom.  It was a simple formula.  If each man obeyed the law then there would be no need to be under an oppressive king, each man was the king of his own household and the law would keep them in harmony with man and God.  Sounds good, right?  Well, just like America, man has a way of not appreciating the freedom that comes from being a Godly nation.  Mankind always seems to find their way back to captivity.  

The Jews seemed to have a special propensity to keep falling back into captivity as anyone who read the book of Judges and Kings can see.  As the last Judge, Samuel, who was aging, the people felt insecure because of the constant wars with their neighboring nations.  Samuel’s sons were themselves becoming corrupt.  Therefore the people rose up and asked Samuel to appoint for them a king so that they could be like the other nations around them (Which was exactly what God didn’t want).  

1 Samuel 8:19-20

19 Yet the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us, 20 so that we also may be like all the nations, and our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

The people were looking for a military leader who could neutralize their enemies.  They failed to see that if they were a moral people and followed the true eternal God, that God himself would give them victory.  Samuel tried to talk them out of it but God told Samuel to give them what they ask for which is why I always tell people to be careful what you ask for.  

Well, Israel got a king and it only got worse.  Out of all of the ancient kings in Israel, only a literal few were moral God fearing men, the rest fell headlong into idol worship and sin.  Their military successes were only as good as their morals were, which wasn’t very good.  The king didn’t save them after all.  When Jesus finally arrived on the scene, Israel was occupied by the Romans.  In all reality, this was their most secure time since David and Solomon.  But they once again were looking for a military leader that would free them from their national enemies (which they considered Rome the chief enemy).  God had other ideas however.  God is the same yesterday and today.  Just like He gave Moses the law to keep them moral, He sent Jesus to do the same thing.  While the people wanted a king to save them from their national enemies, God was more interested in saving them from their real enemy, sin.  

Right from the start, it was John the Baptist who began with the rhetoric about cleansing yourself in preparation for the coming Messiah.  

Matthew 3:2

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

John never said anything about preparing for the coming military general, he was preparing them for the king of kings, the savior of Israel and the world.  Repent is a personal thing to do.  John was asking people to turn their lives around and be holy to God.  In fact when the Jewish leadership showed up to hear John, he called them vipers, not Romans.  If you read the entire New Testament, you find that Jesus and John the Baptist targeted the Jews, not the Romans.  In fact, in the end, the Romans were used to execute judgment upon Israel and shut Judaism down for good.  The sad thing about all of this is that the Christians are repeating the same thing over again.

Today, most modern preachers are beholden to a pagan religion called Rabbinical Judaism.  This is idol worship just the same as ancient Israel was heavily involved in.  We are now waiting for a military messiah to float down out of the clouds and become a dictator for 1,000 years and slaughter “our” enemies.  He will make Stalin, Hitler, and Mao look like choir boys.  If you are waiting for this to happen then you better re-read the bible again and adjust your brain.  You are in for a tragic awakening.  This is setting you up to fall for a false messiah and the results will be deadly.  We are making the same mistakes that the Jews did when the real messiah appeared.  They crucified him and are now teaching the Christian churches to do the same thing and the sad thing about all of this is that we (not me) are doing it.  Please keep reading all of my articles in order to understand what I am trying to say to you.  You won’t get it by reading one article.  It takes time, patience and wisdom.  It is well worth paying attention to.  You are being led to slaughter and you don’t even know it.  People today are saying that we must bless Israel and then we will be blessed.  That is right.  The problem is that most people don’t even know who Israel is.  The True Israel is Jesus Christ and the real christians are in Christ.  Therefore if the modern Jews today bless the real Israel then they will be blessed but if they don’t they would probably be wiped out in the matter of days.  If we bless the pagan state of Israel then we have become idol worshipers.  If this is confusing then please read your scriptures again and ask questions.  Don’t expect the messiah to beat your enemies up, he already did that.  Your messiah died and rose again to free you from your sins, not your national enemies.