Isaiah 53 Part 2

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Let us continue looking at this amazing chapter in the Bible. Remember, when we look from Isaiah 40 through 66, 27 chapter, what we're seeing there is there are three basic characters. Character number one. is Israel, number two is the Gentile nations, number three is God, and the basic theme from forty et al. Israel through its exile is low, low down, and God is going to raise up Israel.

from a very low afflicted state to high up and all the nations of the world will indeed go by its light. That's the theme throughout. That's why it begins by saying Nachmu, Nachmu, Ami, Isaiah forty, verse one, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, declares the Lord, and verse two tells us why.

For your iniquities have been appeased. What do you mean it's been appeased? According to Christianity, the appeasement would only come? Through death on the cross, through Jesus' blood on Calvary. But it doesn't say that. It says the reason why it's going to happen is because Israel has indeed received twice double for her iniquity. What happened to the cross should have been there. We all went astray like sheep. This is verse six. We have turned each one on his own way.

And the Lord accepted his prayers for the iniquity of all of us. Remember who's speaking here? The nations of the world, the kings of nations. Israel prays for the world, prays for the nation that it lives in, and as a result, Through Israel's knowledge, through its prayer, the world receives enormous benefits. And indeed Jeremiah tells us It encourages the Jewish people. Jeremiah lived at a really a crucial time in Jewish history.

He lived at the time when the Jews were about to go into their exile. So he's gonna give them advice. You're packing your bags from Anatefka, you know, it's to go, right? As you're packing your bags, he says to them, Look, when you go into the nation, wherever you're going to be, Pray for it to the Lord. And indeed many synagogues we pray for the United States of America. The Jews in Morocco, pray for that country. Section number ten. He was oppressed and he was afflicted.

Yet he would not open his mouth. Like a lamb to the slaughter, he would be brought and like a sheep that is mute before shearers, and he would not open his mouth. Do we find other places in Scripture where Israel is referred to as afflicted? Constantly. And I've given you an example of Psalm twenty eight, verse eighteen, for you will save the afflicted nation and you will bring down the haughty look. Do we ever find a clear verse in the Bible ever?

That's clearly talking about the Messiah where it says the Messiah is going to be afflicted, where it says the Messiah is going to be forsaken. Never. There's not one verse anywhere in the Bible That Jews or Christians agree on that's talking about the Messiah, where it says that the Messiah is going to be afflicted or the Messiah is going to be despised.

One of the things that we notice when we look at Scripture is that the righteous remnant of Israel is a theme that comes up over and over again. Indeed I think it's clear from Scripture that throughout the ages, throughout the generations, the majority of the Jewish people would be in apostasy. That's a clear theme. And it's only a remnant that indeed participates in the covenant.

The vast majority of Jews abandon the covenant, abandon the teachings of God. Look, I mean, the reason why we have to be an eternal nation is because we have an eternal message to bring to the world. That's why Do you wanna bring an eternal message to the world you have to be an eternal nation. If someone says, Look, you know, I don't want to bring the message to the world

I don't wanna sh teach Torah to the world, I don't wanna be a light to the nations, then there's no reason for you to be part of an eternal nation. Remember this story, the famous, famous story in First Kings eighteen of what a magnificent event this must have been.

when Elijah the prophet stands before before the Jewish people, so many of them had embraced Baal, but only partially. They actually were involved with Baal, this foreign God, this idolatry that we see reoccurring in the Bible so many times. But it's very clear that the Jews weren't sure. They were like into Baal but they were into their Jewishness. It was like Hebrew Baalism or something they must have called it, you know? And indeed

Alarja addresses this in verse twenty one he says, How long will you halt between these two religions? If you choose God then accept him and follow him. If you follow Baal then follow him. Jews always had the problem of they needed the Khanikum and over and the cross together. They couldn't, you know, we can't you know we can't get the Jew out of us. This is didn't just start with Christianity, it was an old story with the Jewish people. And Elijah makes a suggestion. He says, Look,

Let's set up two altars. On Mount Carmel, you can go to the place where it happened today. On Mount Carmel they set up two altars. You said I'm gonna bring two bullocks. We're gonna bring two animals. He says to four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, he says to them, Pick one, put it on the altar, put wood there, put put no fire there, and I will do the same. on another altar. And whichever sacrifice will be consumed by God, that's how we'll know who has the truth.

And of course first the four hundred and fifty priests of Bal go there, they put up their sacrifice there, and they're screaming and chapering and flying around there, nothing's happening. There's no fire, just the animals laying there on the woods.

And of course prophetic humor is there. So Larja starts to say to the Ah, maybe your God is sleeping, you gotta wake him up, you're a little louder, can hear you. They become very frustrated. These were very religious people they believed because you'll see by the next thing they do, they take knives. They remove them and they start to slice, they start to mutilate their body, which is a way of serving their God, and they hope that in in that mutilation

that hopefully that would bring on the fire from heaven and of course it doesn't happen. Elijah goes and he puts the animal on top, even makes a ditch around the altar, fills it with water and of cries out to Hashem, the Almighty God.

Fire comes down and consumes the sacrifice, the water. What a marvelous day that should have been for the Jewish people. I say should have been because at that moment the Jews were all excited. Look what a wonderful thing, Scud missiles, Israel were all I I feel good now.

All these missiles, not one, I'm gonna make all kinds of promises. What happens the very next day? The Jews are back in their idolatry. They're back with Baal again. It's unbelievable. Elijah cries out to Hashem and says, Look at them. All the Jews are worshipping Baal. And you know what God responds?

Oh no. God responds with two points. Point number one, it's not true. There are seven thousand that have not bowed down to him, that have not kissed his hand. There are seven thousand Jews that are righteous. Number two, you're fired.

Elisha's taking over. If you think that about the Jewish people, there always will be a remnant that will be completely committed to my word. And that's why Elijah the prophet. Has to come to our brisses and to our Seder tables. That's why he's there. Why? Because he thought it was over.

He thought the Jewish people were finished. There's nothing left. They're all in Baal. And Hashem says, Come for all generations of bris of the baby. You're going to be there. You're going to see the covenant is continuing. And in a few weeks from now, you have a say table. Elijah the prophet.

It's gonna come there, it's gonna say, look, the Jewish people are there and they're continuing, both in creation and in history. There always was a righteous remnant of the Jewish people. Always was. The vast majority

Apostas. And we find many scriptures that talk about the crying out of the remnant of Israel. how they reached out to the Almighty God 'Cause they endured they d endured with the rest of Israel the same pain, the same torment. One of the famous Psalms is Psalm forty four. The righteous remnant of Israel cries out Look at the language. You have delivered us like sheep for the slaughter, and among the Gentiles you have scattered us. You made us a disgrace to our neighbors, the mockery and scorn.

of those around us. You made us a byword among the nations to shake their heads. Because of your sake we are killed all day long. We are considered as Sheep for the slaughter Zechariah eleven. So said the Lord my God, tend the flock of the slaughterer. Section eleven. From imprisonment and from judgment he is taken. And his generation who shall tell? For he was cut off from the land of the living because of the transgressions of my people, a plague befell them.

Do you remember I promised you something last week? I got up last week and I said the great tragedy of Isaiah fifty three it's a grand delusion, a grand illusion by the church. But you remember I told you something? I told you that I can show you by just examining the chapters that caress the shores of Isaiah fifty three

Who this is talking about. And naturally we see a kid giving a King James Isaiah fifty three a little track. All it has is Isaiah fifty three. Handed a t shirt with Isaiah fifty three on it. That's all it's got, right? I maybe understand a little bit about why these people believe it. Remember I made another little promise to you? Remember I told you that I'm going to prove to you that even if I only had Isaiah 53 and nothing else?

I can prove to you this couldn't possibly be speaking about Jesus. You remember how I showed you throughout the servant songs

Isaiah talks about Israel in the singular why? Corporate Israel has that destinies as a unit. Do you remember how I showed you how Isaiah and all the prophets how they moved from the singular to the plural to the singular back and forth constantly? Individual Jewel corporate Israel, individual Jew corporate Israel. Do you remember how we saw Isaiah forty three verse eleven? You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen?

Do you remember how we looked at Isaiah fifty four, it begins speaking about Israel as the woman moves into the plural at the end, servants of the Lord? Well, Isaiah does that in the fifty-third chapter as well. In Isaiah 53, Isaiah moves into the plural. Take a look with me because most of you probably missed it.

He says at the end, a plague befell them. Who are them? And take a guess what the King James does with that them. The words in Hebrew are Mipesha Ami Nega Lamo. My Pesha army means for the transgressions of my people मेगा A plague befell lamo. What does the word lamo mean? Them. Third person plural. By the way, how would the prophet have said him? How do you say him? What's the singular version of lamo? Lo. Lo is him, lo is them.

Isaiah does here what he did in forty three. Now listen carefully. You could speak about a nation In the singular, but you don't talk about one person in the plural. That doesn't make sense at all. Checkmate. How do you know? How do you know I'm telling you the truth? Maybe the word Lamo really means him, but we changed it. The rabbis changed it. I gave you the King James

On the top of the page, there's the King James. He was he stricken. He. It has to move it into the singular. But how do you know I'm telling you the truth? You remember the technique I taught you?

This is not the only place in the Bible where the word Lamo appears. Thirty thousand verses. It's gotta be somewhere else. As a matter of fact, Lamo appears in the Bible fifty-four times. And ladies and gentlemen, guess how the King James translates it in all other places? Them only hear him. Why do you think that's the case?

Give you an example. Let's look at the right side. I did a little of the homework for you and I gave you some examples. Look at Isaiah forty eight twenty one. You know what Isaiah forty eight twenty one is? It's a handful of chapters before. This is out of the King James. And they thirsted not when he led them through the desert. He caused waters to flow out of the rock for them. That's the King James Mitsur Hizilla mo.

Mitsuh for Mak, his zeal Lamo, he brought it forth for them. Why in Isaiah forty-eight verse twenty-one does Lamo mean them? But in Isaiah fifty-three verse eight, it means him. Why? How do you play with our Bible? How do you change the Word of God? And if you do, as a Jew, I'm gonna leave skid marks. I don't want anything to do with this cross.

Now, I gave you an example from different parts of the Bible. King James. That's King James Translation. I want one person to ask me a question from the examples that I gave you. I want you to show me how what I just told you was wrong. Can anyone find it? He's asking a very good question. Hold on, Rabbi Singer right there. I just got finished telling you. That LAMO means them. And we see how indeed the King James corrupts the text of Isaiah fifty three because it would not make sense

to speak about Jesus in the plural. That's ridiculous. You could speak about the nation of Israel in the singular, that makes a lot of sense. I mentioned last week that those of you who have a perfunctor knowledge of Hebrew, if you look at the Ten Commandments, God speaks to the nation As one, this is a singular individual.

But if we see the other examples of Lamo used in the King James King James So what we find is that the King James translates that word correctly in all the other places that it appears in the singular about one person.

And he found the exception. And that one is I gave it to you. It's in Isaiah nine. Haha, Rabbi Singer, I see here that that's not the case. So we see the word lamo can be translated by the King James in the singular. What is the answer to his question? Could anyone answer his question? Yes. You got it. Anyone would know what's going on, what is the context of Isaiah nine, it not only doesn't detract it, it enforces it. What's happening there?

Oh, my brothers and sisters, we have to know our Bible. What's happening in Genesis nine? What's going on there? It's after the flood. The ark has landed.

Turkey, Mount Ararat. What happens? Noah gets off from the taver, gets off from the ark. He plants grapes. And you know what he does with the grapes? He makes wine. And you know what he does with the wine? Drinks it. You know what happens when he drinks it? He gets drunk. The Bible tells us that he got so drunk He was laying there on his bed, stark naked, drunk. It's not a beautiful scene. What happens? Noah's children, hum, comes in. And with disrespect he gazes on his father's nakedness.

And he goes out to the brothers and he tells them what's happening. As soon as they hear it, they grab a cloak and they walk into the room backwards, not to disrespect their father, to gaze on him and his nakedness. and looking the other way they cover him over. And the almighty curses Chum. He tells us that Chum is gonna have a very unusual destiny, and that is because Chum has shown such disrespect that the children of Chum, which is Canaan, Canaan came out of Chum will always be in servitude

To the children of Shem. It's a tragedy, but the former South African government which was a

a Christian country and of course a racist country, how could they have both? Many also Christian white supremacists have used this verse to say come is referring to the black race. That's why the blacks must be in subjugation to the white man. And this was the verse, Genesis nine twenty six. So what we find really is this word Lamo is so appropriate because it's talking about a whole nation. Now the King James has a good excuse.

In terms of literary issues, it runs well to do it in the singular. But in reality the Lomo is perfect'cause it's talking about a nation. The nation that will come from Hum will serve the nation that will come from Shem.

I'm never shurve them. What I did for you also was if you turn the page I gave you we did a little word study. Let's take a look at both sides of the page. I took one of the most well known and respected Um it's a three volume Hebrew English dictionary. It's really an exhaustive dictionary. So I just looked up the word Lamo and you can see it on the left side. It's poetic.

And it means to them. What we're most interested is the right side of the page because as a rule when dealing with the Christian, if you can prove it from Christian sources, it's always juicier. It's always more effective, it's always more powerful. What are we looking here on the right side? Kohlenberger puts out this interlinear Bible based on the NIB. What's an interlinear Bible? Instead of having a regular Bible it just has the English.

What it has is for those people who really are students of Scripture and they want to see how every word is translated literally, it gives you the actual translation of the word. This is not put out by a Jew. This book is not a Jewish book. This is by a Christian. And if you take a look with me, where the arrow on the left is pointing to You see how they translate Lamo in the interlinear? To them. This is a Christian translator. This is not you. This is based on an NIV.

And if you take a look at the NIV on the right side of the page, you see there's a sidebar on the right side of the page. Do you notice that? That's the actual new international version. Well, take a look at the other arrow. You see how the NIV handles it? For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. NIV tell me, what do you translate as he was stricken here? And Kohlenberger puts over here that it really means them. If it means them, leave it. Why play with my Bible? Why change it?

What motive do you have to play with my holy scriptures? And if you are, what does that tell me about you? Section number twelve and he gave his grave to the wicked and to the wealthy With his kinds of death. Because he committed no violence. And there was no deceit in his mouth. Remember I showed you Lamo only seconds ago? How they take a plural and they must it's an irritating word, it's a nuisance to the cross.

And they move it into the singular. No choice. You gotta change the Bible. The word bimosum means what? In his death plural. How do you say in his death singular? Is there any Israelis here? How do you say in his death singular? Bim mo so in his death. Bim mo sov in his death. What do you think the King James does with now a plural of many people dying? That's not a problem. The King James just changed it back into the singular.

Well, let's use the same technique we used with Lamo. Let's look up all the other places Bimosav appears in the Jewish scriptures and we'll prove it, right? I cannot do that in this case. Do you know why? This is an exceptional word. It's the only time it appears in the Bible. So the only way for me to prove it is to sit down with someone and teach them Hebrew grammar. But more song is them, but more song is him.

If we turn back again to our good friend the NIV interlinear translation, let's see what this Christian does with that word. It's right below the word LAMO. Bim Mosuv in depth. of him and if you look on the right you'll see the NIV, it's singular. There are two types of people that are unsafe and have to be weary of their safety. They have to be on the lookout constantly.

They have to be very careful about what they do, because these are people that could become hurt and could be killed because of their position. One type of person is someone who's very wealthy. You've accumulated wealth. Then the people are going to want it. You have to be very careful. You have to make sure you have big gates around your house and alarm systems and dogs and bodyguards.

You have to when your kid goes to school, you gotta make sure there's a bodyguard with him that no one kidnaps him and tries to get a ransom. That's one type of person that has to be careful. The other type of person is of course the wicked person. Person that is committing crimes needs to be very careful. Because the law is after him. This is a person who can pay, can pay with his life.

He can be killed for the crimes that he's committed. The two types of people in society that have to be very careful because they can be killed because of their position is the person who's accumulated a lot of wealth. And the person who's a criminal, the person who's very wicked. And indeed the Prophet tells us that Israel was punished and was on the run as if it was these two type of people, and he gave his grave to the wicked and to the wealthy with his kinds of death.

Now, I want someone to ask me a question about this verse. Because Christians have had an objection about this verse. that I couldn't possibly be speaking about Israel. I'd like one of you to come up with that.

You should look at the description of the servant and have a very big question. Say, if it's talking about Israel, we have a big problem. No violence I wouldn't say. The Jewish people have never been noted for being a violent people. In general Even when we're pushed to the brink we're gonna bomb Beirut, we

Drop leaflets down, get out of here. We're not a people that are noted in general. The perception of the world is that the Jewish people are not a violent people. I'm sure you would never think of one Italian say to the other Italian quickly, let's let's cross another side of the street there's an accountant on the corner.

You know, usually that's not the kind of thing we would think about right? No, not really. But what's what question should you be asking me? Yes. Oh no deceit in his mouth. Haha you haven't met my attorney yet, have you? You haven't met my brother Leon. No d Jews no deceit in their mouth. That's your descrip you know, I mean, inside a trap, I mean these are th where we sort of blow it a little bit, right? The Jews

Now that's a hard one to swallow. Now if it's talking about Jesus, well the New Testament would certainly want to personify its hero as never lying. So Jesus didn't lie. There was no deceit in his mouth. But how are you going to tell me that Israel doesn't lie? Righteous Israel? They don't lie? No deceit? Nothing? No lies? Nothing? Jews? I'm not saying we're big liars, but what a tragedy that they don't even know their own Bible. As I mentioned earlier to you, the theme of the righteous remnant

flows throughout the Bible and of course the righteous remnant will be there at the end of days in the Messianic age. If you want to know, you know, what will be the character of righteous Israel? What kind of qualities can we find? What's ironic is the chapter we're going to look at right now is almost a parallel chapter of Isaiah fifty three. you're going to see the same language. You're gonna see the description of the poor and humble afflicted Israel, what they are going to be like.

Look at the language and look at the language of Isaiah fifty two and fifty three. The daughters of Zion. Look at it, watch with me, and I want you to look. What the Bible testifies will be the character of the remnant of Israel. From the book of Cephania of Zephaniah, chapter three, verse twelve through seventeen and nineteen twenty. This is prophecy and I will leave over in your midst a humble and poor people.

and they shall take shelter in the name of the Lord. Here's the testimony. Listen to every word and every letter. The remnant of Israel shall neither commit injustice nor speak lies, neither shall deceitful speech be found in their mouth. For they shall graze and lie down with no one to cause them to shudder. Here's the same language of Isaiah fifty two, one and two. Same thing. Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, rejoice and jubilate wholeheartedly, O daughter of Jerusalem.

The Lord has removed your affliction. He has cast out your enemy, the king of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall no longer fear evil. What a promise. Verse sixteen. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, have no fear, O Zion, let your hands not be slack. The Lord your God is in your midst. a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will be silent in his love. He will jubilate over you with song.

Behold, I read destruction upon all those who have afflicted you at that time, and I will save the one who limped. And I will gather the stray one, and I will make them a praise and a name throughout all the land where they suffered shame. Remember Ezekiel thirty six verse six and they bore the shame of the nations? No more.

Verse twenty, at that time I will bring them, and at that time I will gather you, for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your captivities before your eyes. said the Lord. What unbelievable. People don't see this. There's a parallel chapter of Isaiah thirty three, same language, afflicted

O Zion, singular people, singular plural. There'll be no deceit the exact same words of Isaiah fifty three, be no deceit found in their mouths, nothing. That's the character of the remnant of Israel. What an amazing thing. The next verse is extraordinary. The next verse The speakers change. As I told you, at this point, no longer are the nations of the world speaking, now God is speaking.

The Almighty God is speaking here. And by the way, this is th something that all Christians and Jews agree on. And God is making a contract. Maybe I might say it as God is making a deal with the servant. He's going to offer the servant an opportunity and he says if the servant will do something I will do this for the servant if the servant will really if you want to be a part of remnant Israel just take your heart

and make it a restitution. To Shuva. Return. Understand whatever mistakes you made. And turn back to God Then God will give the servant two things in return. Number one, He'll give the servant a prolonged life. have a long life. And number two, the servant will have children. The servant will see their seed. And naturally as a result, God's purpose will prosper in their hand. How could that be talking about Jesus if Jesus is a God man?

How could God be making a deal with God? If Jesus came to the world for the purpose of dying on the cross, how could there be a deal if you'll do this I'll do I thought it was all made out. This doesn't even make sense if If you'll do this, I'll do that. They can't do it. And you know what the King James does with the word if, im? It changes it to what word? To the word when. It's not if it's gonna be. What?

Let's go to section number thirteen. That's Isaiah fifty three verse ten. And the Lord wished to crush him, he made him ill. If his soul makes itself a restitution He shall see. Seed, he shall prolong his days, and God's purpose shall prosper in his hand. No problem. The King James will just change that back to when? When the servant will do this. I will do that. But you know what? Let's ignore that little modification for a moment. Let's examine if this could possibly be referring to Jesus.

First of all, the whole notion that this is talking about God. Remember, Christians when I say Christians, Christian dumb believes. that Jesus wasn't just a man. They believed that he was God manifested in the flesh. He was God eternal, co eternal. He existed from eternity. Alpha Omega. He is God and created the world.

How could God make a deal with God? You know they put you in a straitjacket for them. Not only that, how could God be a servant to God? How could the servant, the servant is subordinate to whoever God is? How could God be subordinate? How could God promise God long life? Does that make sense? And no matter how you read it, it won't work Jesus lived let's say thirty five years. If he lived let's say thirty five years, he lived only half the lifespan

Of what David said would be the normal life of a man, seventy years. If you're gonna answer, oh, well it means a spiritual life, how could God promise God that he's gonna have a long spiritual life? He's eternal. How could God even give that to him? How could God give God a prolonged spiritual life if you want to say that? He's God. He's been around as long as God has been around, he's gonna be around as long as God It is so absurd.

It is so ridiculous if you're gonna tell me that the servant is God who's getting this present from God, haha, I'm gonna prolong your life. Isn't that a nice thing? I'm sure God was very happy when God promised him that. The other promise is you're gonna have children. That's a promise. You're going to have children. There's a little problem with that. What's the problem? How many children did Jesus have? I'm not talking about the movie The Last Temptation. I'm asking you how many children

How many children did Jesus have in the New Testament? Three, four? Anyone know? As many as Paul, none, zero. Then he is John the Baptist, nothing. No children. Guy reigned a bachelor all his life. No children. How could this be speaking about Jesus? How could God promise God that he's gonna have children?

No matter what you say those children are, why would God need something from God? How could it be subordinate to Himself? How do Christians respond when you say to them, Well, Jesus didn't have children? What would be the classical Christian response? So what Christians are saying is it doesn't mean Physical children, biological t children, it means the metaphoric children, the spiritual children. That's their answer. It's a reasonable answer, no? There's only one problem with that answer.

What's the problem? What's the big problem? It is true that we do find something in the Bible very clearly where a someone could have disciples, could have followers. And these people are called children Banim. That happened. We find it often. We even find the Bible saying that Shemaker, you are children to the word your God. You God has children. People have followers and disciples, and those disciples in the Bible are called children.

There's only one teeny problem with this. When you want to say metaphoric children, you don't use the word Zerah, you use the word bonim or ben, singular. Ben in the Bible Can mean physical children and we find that as well, and can also mean spiritual metaphoric children. But the word zera When we're talking that a person has Zerah, and we find that many times in the Bible, it can only mean physical children, never spiritual children.

By definition the word zera means seed. It's talking about that which leaves the loins of a man. It's not talking about those people that follow his teachings. Zerah only means physical children. Never does it mean someone's gonna have spiritual children. That's impossible.

And therefore it's clear here that this is talking about physical children. Prove it to me. Boy will I prove it to you. Now one thing we can look at is look at the look at the right side. You see Isaiah forty five, eleven? This is just a few chapters earlier. Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel and his maker, ask me of things to come concerning my signs, concerning my children. You see the Hebrew Al Bunai. That was a metaphoric is talking about God's children. Very good.

Now let's go a few verses later. Not in secret did I speak, or in a land of darkness. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek me in vain. Well, we are biological children of Jacob, and therefore the words change to Zerah. But I want to show you something, my brothers and sisters, I want to show you something marvelous. I wanna show you honey, something so delicious you can't imagine.

There's an amazing conversation that we find in Scripture between Abraham that was his name at the time and the Almighty. What happens? Hashem looks at his life, Abraham, great man. And he sees, as it says in Genesis twenty six, verse five, that Abraham listened to everything following everything that God had told him, and he makes a very special promise to him. What's the promise? It's called the Abrahamic covenant.

It's very, very special. Promises Abraham, listen to me, my dear, out of you is going to come a great nation, an eternal nation. Genesis twelve, the nation curses Israel, I will curse them. If a nation blesses Israel, I will bless them. There's no question about what causes America's prosperity. Abraham hears this promise. He loved God.

He trusted God, but it created confusion. He said, God, what what do you mean a nations come out of me? Hashem, I don't have children. I don't have Zerah. I don't have any seed. My wife She's passed the years that a woman can bear children. We can't have children together. Oh God, I know what you mean, of course. There's a man who lives with me. He's a Damascene. His name is Eliezer. He's a disciple of mine. He is my heir. He's all we've got. He's my follower. Love him dearly. You must mean him.

You must mean my son who is Eliezer, the Ben, not the Zerah. He's not my physical child, but he's my spiritual child. That's what you mu Because, you know, God my my wife is not a young woman anymore. She can't bear children. And God turns back to him and says, No I'm not talking about the Damascene, I'm not talking about a Ben. I'm talking about Zerah and only that which is gonna come out of your loins.

Listen to me. I want you to follow carefully as we read these holy verses, and I want you to look at the words in Brack. and watch them come alive. You'll see the difference how Ben is used and how Zera is used. Watch with me if you would. Let's go here to um Genesis fifteen verse two through four. Here's Abraham talking. We're going to read it now. And Abraham said, My Lord God, what could you give to me, seeing that I am childless?

And the son of my house, look at the Hebrew, Uven Meshach Basi, then that's the key word, is the Damase in Eliezer. All I have is a ben, that's all I have. Then Abraham said, See, To me you have given no seed. See the word there? Zera, Zara. And see the sun? Of my house is my heir Suddenly the word of the God came to him, saying, That one will not inherit you, none but him who

that shall come forth from within your bowel shall be your heir. What an amazing statement. Do you see how Ben and Zara goes there? Amazing. This couldn't possibly be talking about Jesus. This is by the way the very promise that Hashem makes to us. Many places in the Bible where God makes promises to the nation of Israel, he says to them, Look, follow Torah, it's a holy thing. He says, if you do that, these are the blessings.

Look at Deuteronomy thirty, eight through ten and nineteen and twenty. Heaven and earth as witnesses before you I have placed life and death, the blessing and the curse. You must choose life so that you and your seed will survive. And the next verse promises verse twenty, the promise of long life. These are the very promises. Isaiah didn't it's not the first time we see it. You see the consistency? You see the Bible has a rhythm and has a heartbeat if you follow it?

Don't play with it, just follow the rhythm. It's magnificent. Listen to me. Look up here. I want to ask you a question. Christianity holds that this is talking about Jesus. The servant is Jesus. Jerusalem says no, Israel. According to Christianity, how will the servant In that case it would be Jesus. How will he make people righteous? How will he vindicate people? Through what? By his blood. Very good. Very simple. The servant will vindicate

people through his blood. That's good. Model one. Let's move over right here. We'll leave that right there. If it's talking about Israel and the servant Israel, how is Israel going to affect the world? Through Israel's the servant's what? If you teach Torah, it's through the servant's knowledge. So we have two par either the servant is going to vindicate the just for many through his blood.

Or it's going to be through his knowledge, a light of the world, a light of the nations of the world. Well, let's see what the Bible says. Watch with me. From the toil of his soul he would see, he would be satisfied, With his knowledge my servant would vindicate the just for many, and the iniquities would he bear. His knowledge? Jesus vindicated the world through his knowledge?

His knowledge? Where? Which verse is that his knowledge? His brain was crucified? No! It wasn't his knowledge, it's his blood. It was through his blood that he vindicated. Not through his knowledge, but if it's talking about the righteous remnant of Israel who's to be a light of the nations, it is his knowledge. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you that we find in the Bible two kinds

of priests. It's come as a big surprise to you. Most of you thought there's only one kind of priest and I'm it. Well, no. No you're not. Even though you're a Kohane, you're not the only kind of priest, the only concept of priest in the Bible. We do find the most well known concept of priest to most people because especially as Jews we live if we're a priest, we know in the synagogue the priest is called up first to read from the Torah to make the blessing of the Torah.

That's one kind of priest. That priest has to be a patrilineal descent from Aaron. Aaron's sons, they were priests. When the temple will be restored, We will I'm a priest, I'm a Kohaim. We will work In the temple, in the third and final temple. That's right. That's one kind of priest. But we find there's another kind of priest

Because in reality, the Kohain that we all know, the Kohan that works in the temple, is really a picture of the priests of the world, which is Israel. Righteous Israel has to be a priest to the world. That's where we find that whenever the Bible speaks about Israel being a priest It doesn't mean the ironic priest It means the priest to the world. Just as Aaron had the responsibility of the sanctuary and were the iniquities of the sanctuary, Israel, the priest of the world.

The rabbis of the world, we are responsible for what go what's the going on in the world. Remember, up till now we understood Isaiah fifty three, we saw how the nations were speaking. But what's God's economy? Why does God use the Gentile nations to punish the Jews? And why are we bearing everyone else's sins then? It doesn't seem very fair to me, does it?

Where's the ecology there? Where's the economy? Those of you social workers, there's something here called systems theory, something amazing here. We're gonna see how one merges with the other. Indeed, whenever it talks about that it always talking about Israel's the priest

Because the whole world is God and we have to be a light of the nation, a priest to the world. As a matter of fact, right before the Ten Commandments are given in Exodus twenty, the chapter before, God warns us what he expects from us. And in chapter nineteen, God tells us something. Watch with me. Exodus nineteen, verse five and six. Now

If you obey me and keep my covenant, you shall be my special treasure among all the nations, because all the world is mine. Verse six You will be a kingdom of priests. and a holy nation to me. These are the words that you are to relate to the Israelites. Let's go to Isaiah 61. Magnificent scripture. And you shall be called the priests of the Lord. It's not talking about people who come from Aaron here, it's talking about these priests, the Israel priests.

Servant of our God shall be said of you, the possessions of the nations you shall eat, and with their glory you shall succeed. Instead of your shame, remember this, which was twofold. Remember that from Isaiah 40, verse 2, and your disgrace. which they shall inherit twofold, they shall have everlasting joy. The job of the Jew is to be a light to the nations. That's very, very important. Because I'm going to tell you something about Jews. What makes Jews different?

Are we smarter than the non-Jew? I don't know. But the one thing about a Jew, a unique character about a Jew is That a Jew has a drive to change the world. That's why I think Jews have almost a monopoly on Neuros I mean, we're neurotic people sometimes. And the reason why is because we have this amazing drive, because we're part of the genetic pool of Abraham. We get it from him.

He was but one. He changed the world. In the same way we are a driven people. That's the way we are. The Jews have to change the world. There was a book written by a fellow Semite, Ernest Wagenhagen I'm sure many of you have read it. It's called The Jewish Mistake. Very well known book, often quoted. He says a very famous statement. He says, There are four people more than any other

that have affected the way men think during the twentieth century. Four people, he said, have affected the way twentieth century man thinks more than any other. They wanna know who those four people are. Einstein, Freud, Freud, Mark, Marx and Darwin. That's correct. Freud, Einstein, Marx and Darwin. And he speaks about how came out of the universities, you know, when they were just allowed in suddenly they're affecting the way

My Rebbe used to say something very cute about this in famous statements he said he said, Ernest says that there are four people that have affected the way twentieth century men thinks more than any other Freud, Einstein, Marx and Darwin. Isn't it odd three of them are Jewish and one was wrong? The Jew is always going to head every movement. Pro choice, pro life, Hare Krishna, we're there, we're all over the place.

You know, we're one fifth of one percent of the world's population. We're very, very small a number. You tell it to someone who's an outsider they have no idea. No idea to them, the Jews, right? I mean if Bangladesh you have to have a flood, two thousand people are killed, they're on page fifteen. You know, if someone throws a rock in Jerusalem it's page one with the picture.

In order for China to get to the front page of the New York Times after it killed three thousand students in Tiananmen Square with with with tanks, that's how they make it to the front page. The Jewish people have an amazing drive to change the world, whether it's communism, whatever it happens to be, medicine, thi

We want to change the world. That's our drive. And when it doesn't happen it creates enormous tension. That's the way we are. It's part of a genetic pool. That's where we come from. The prophets begged us, he said, Look, you got the drive. But I want you to be not a this to the world or a communist to the world. I want you to be a light to the nations. I want you to bring Torah to the world. Use this amazing power that you have.

Use what you have received from Abraham, this drive, but use it for good. Don't use it for silly things. Don't use it for things that are wicked. Use it for Torah. You're supposed to be a light to the nations. Watch with me Isaiah forty two verse six. I am the Lord, I called you with righteousness, and I will strengthen your hand, and I formed you and I make you for a people's covenant.

For a light to the nations. And he said, Is it too light for you to be my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back the besieged of Israel? But I will make you a light to the nations. And we talked about someone asked the question last week, how could the servant be Israel? How could Israel

Save Israel. And we looked at Isaiah forty three verse seven and eight where it says, Those that call on the name of the Lord, they're going to reach out to those who have ears but don't hear, those who have eyes but don't see. They're going to bring'em back. It's the obligation of a Jew to reach out. Not to say, I had this education, you go to you belong to a different denomination, you're nothing. Oh, you just show them love.

And the nation shall go by your light, and the kings by the brilliance of your shine. What is light? What is light? Proverbs tells us. The commandment is a candle and the Torah is light. Kiner mitzweira or. Very simple. The Jewish people have the obligation to affect the world. And we know at the end of days, and I've said this before, you remember?

There's two possibilities. Jesus is the Messiah here, he isn't, right? Two scenarios that are gonna unfold. It's gonna happen. Maybe soon. We don't know. What's gonna happen? Scenario number one, Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus comes, right?

What are the Jews gonna do? Right Guys, sorry. I know we've made you you know, we've been a flying ointment. Sorry, teach us about Jesus, teach us about predestination, or teach us about the rapture, teach us about Christianity, teach us about teach us. This is something we don't know, teach us. Scenario number two is that Moshiach comes

And boy, he isn't Jesus. And the nations are going to come to the Jews and say, Oh boy, what did we do? And as you know, when we look at prophecy we see it's always the Gentiles coming to the Jew. Say, take us with you, for we've heard that God is with you. As we see in Zechariah eight. Verse twenty three, why are they coming to us? If we're wrong about Jesus, we're the last people on earth they should be coming to.

Now understand the parallelism between the priest, the Kohan of the sanctuary, and the priest of the world. The temple is a picture, is a type of the world. Just as Aaron was a priest in the sanctuary, and his job it was to affect the goings on of that sanctuary, that sanctuary is a picture of the world. Israel too are priests and we are priests to the world. And the Bible tells us that Aaron was responsible for the iniquities that took place. He had to bear the iniquities of the sanctuary.

And in the same way, Israel has to bear the iniquities of the world. And God said to Aaron, You and your sons and your father's house with you, you must bear the iniquity against the sanctuary. You and your sons must bear the iniquity against your priesthood. Israel too. Because we indeed are responsible for what goes on in the world. You have to know something. That if a if a Jew sins

It takes away from the light of the world. If you do a mitzvah, it's hard to believe. But if you'll go home tonight and do a mitzvah, it nurtures something called tikkun ha'olam, the perfection of the world. The whole world benefits from it. It's an amazing thing. If you'll tomorrow morning you'll put on film and you'll say

Beautiful words, you'll keep that mitzah tonight before you go to sleep. Say it Deuteronomy six forty, say the Shema. It's a mitzvah from the Torah to say that when you lie down and when you get up. Do you know the whole world will gain from that? See what happens is when Israel sins, it doesn't just affect Israel. The whole world spiritually comes down, the light is diminished. What does that do to the nations of the world?

Spiritually the whole world comes down when Israel sins. It doesn't just affect Israel. The whole world comes down. What happens when the nations of the world come down and they're in sin? What do they do when they sin? They persecute the Jewish people. That's why God doesn't use hurricanes and typhoons and earthquakes to punish the Jews. He uses the Gentiles. It's a perfect ecology.

When Israel sins, the whole world comes down. The priests sin, they bear the iniquity of the world. The whole world spiritually comes down. When the world comes down, what do they do? They turn to sin. What do the Gentiles do? They persecute the Jewish people. It's an incredible system. The promise of course is at the end of days that all the nations will come.

In Isaiah chapter two, and many nations shall go and they shall say, Come, let us go up to the Lord's mount. I mean what an amazing difference Christians believe in something called the rapture. Thessalonians four. The body of believers are going to be sucked up into the clouds. And what's going to happen on earth will be judgment to the non believers. Hell. The lake of fire. It's not gonna happen at all.

It's unknown. This is an unknown concept in the Bible. Oh no, Gentiles and Jews together are gonna serve God. People who are not a part of it, they're not gonna all be crushed to death. No, that's silly. For out of Zion shall the Torah come forth. Zion? Torah? Torah? What do you need Torah for? I thought we have Jesus. Jesus fell the law for us. We don't have to keep the law. Finally, section fifteen, therefore I will allot him a portion in public.

And with the strong he shall share plunder, because he poured out his soul to death And with transgressors he was counted, and he bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. We've seen so much scripture on this. I just gave you one more it's just a parallel of the scriptures we've seen.

How Israel indeed bore the shame of the world. At the end of days we see there in Ezekiel thirty four they bore the shame of the nations, but in the end of days, of course, the Israel will no longer bear the shame of the nations. What do Christians do with what we just all learned? What are the responses of the church? How do they respond? You should know That there are two rules about the responses by the church that are almost always brought

to Isaiah fifty three. Rule number one is they're almost never biblical. The response the church has always used is almost in all cases goes to secondary texts. Homilies. Very rarely will the response be from the Bible. That's rule number one. Rule number two is a little more problematic that they always point to the conspiracy theory of the Jews. The protocols of the elders of Zion.

that whole notion that the Jews are capable of a mass conspiracy, you will always find that flavor underscoring the responses that the church has. And I'd like to go through the most prominent responses that they have in the order that they are used in. This is the most popular one. What are you trying to tell me here? That this Isaiah fifty three is speaking about Israel, the nation in the singular, come now.

Everyone knows that was an invention of the rabbis. The rabbis got together, they conspired. It began with Rashi, the father of the Jewish commentators. Rashi was born in the year ten forty. And he went to be with the Almighty in the year eleven oh five. Rashi, according to Jewish tradition, was passing on The Mesora, the transmission directly from the prophets. Rashi invented this and everyone knows that. Oh, and this is used over and over again. Mosharozin in his book called Yeshua

Arnold Fruchtenbaum in his book called Jesus Was a Jew. Oh boy, you can line him up. Rashi invented this and the rabbis conspired. Sure, of course that argument fulfills both Criteria that I shared with you earlier. You should know that there is no relationship between that statement and truth. You might as well say. that the Jews ritually need the blood of Christian boys for their must'cause that's how true that is. It's simply a lie. Well

You better prove it, Rabbi. So what I did was I said, You know what? Let's find some texts that are a little older than Rashi. So I found the Zohar is an example. Come consider the congregation of Israel, section sixteen, how it is called a lamb. As it said, like a lamb to the slaughter, he would be brought, like a sheep that is mute before shears, and he would not open his mouth. Why was it mute? Because while other nations ruled of it, it was deprived of speech and made mute.

Well maybe the Zora isn't good enough for you. How about Majushrabba? It's a lot older than Rashi. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. It comes from the book of Song of Songs. Because the Israelites poured out their soul to die in the captivity, as it is said Because he poured out his soul to death, and with transgressors he was counted, and he bore the sins of many and interceded for the transgressors. Well, we just read that.

I mean Jashab is a little older than Rashi. A lot older than Rashi and not by two centuries, a lot more than that. Well, maybe that's not good enough for you. How about the Talmud? Babylonian Talmud, Braha, page five A. If the holy one blessed me he is pleased with any man, he crushes him with painful sufferings, for it is said, and the Lord was pleased with him, hence he crushed him by disease.

It's not talking about one person individually, it's talking about righteous people. I've heard one of the doozies are the Targum Yonaton, second century. He certainly says that Isaiah fifty three is speaking about the Messiah, that they will always do with you when they show you Targum Yonatan. It's like you know they show you one side but they don't show you the other. Don't just show you Isaiah fifty two, verse thirteen through fifteen. They'll never show you Isaiah fifty three.

three verse one through twelve. Why do you think Arnold Fruchtenbaum does that in his book? He would never show you Isaiah fifty three because once he starts speaking about Isaiah fifty three, the one who stu the one who is suffering is in Aramaic that Sadiqa, the righteous one. I always ask Christians when they bring up Tiger Yonusan, did you ever read it once in your life in the original fully? Once?

Never had yes for an answer. I read it somewhere. You like taking someone's word for it, I say. Indeed, by the way, you should know there are Mid Russian which means These are not commentators. But these are homilies. They're not authoritative. But they are Jewish traditions and like a homily, like a rabbi would stand in a synagogue and teach, the word major shim that tuat, that Isaiah fifty three is speaking about the Messiah.

That must come as a very big surprise to you. Here we spent Rabbi, I didn't even see the Oscars last week'cause this now you tell me this. That's a very serious problem. I could have seen that hey Tom Hanks, I already had an amazing speech. I missed it because of you. Now you tell me this at the end what Because you don't understand what that word Messiah means. Sure many of you heard of the term the Messiah, the son of Joseph, Meshiach ben Yosef.

You may have heard of that teaching, whether you've seen it in scripture, whether you've read about it in rabbinic writings, but you never understood what it meant. I want to ask you a question. If I put myself in a time machine and I suddenly was shot back to biblical time. Suddenly I come out of the time machine.

And there I am on the streets of Jerusalem, everybody's walking around their pajamas, and there I am three thousand years ago. Biblical times. The prophets are all there, people are walking around with their donkeys and so on. I tap someone on the shoulder and I say, Excuse me Where is the Messiah? What will that person respond? What will that person ask me? Which one? Rabbi? Now I'm really confused. What do you mean which one?

I knew there's one Messiah coming at the end of the days, the Messiah, capital M It's a very big mistake'cause we have to understand that the language of scripture and rabbinic writings is different than the language we use today. Let me explain. The word Meshiach, which is the Hebrew Messiah's Latin, Christos is Greek, the word Meshiach appears in Tanakh in the Jewish scriptures. How many times? Thirty-nine times. That word appears thirty-nine times.

And you should know that if you look at all the places where it appears That's person is never the person who you and I refer to as the Messiah. The term Messiah in our English la in our language is a post Biblical terms. In days of old they never refer to the person who's gonna come at the end of days from the house of David as the Messiah. He is referred to many times in scripture, but he is never called the Messiah, ever. The person

is a king. All the kings were all anointed, every one of them. The priests anointed. We find ponderance of the use of Meshak in Leviticus, used about the priests. They were anointed. The leaders of the Jewish people, they were anointed ones. Even Israel is referred to in Habakkuk as anointed ones. I think it's chapter three verse eighteen. When you read rabbinic literature, you better know how to read it. If you don't, don't waste your time.

It takes a little training. The rabbis used the language of the Bible. They did not use the contemporary language of twentieth century Jew or Gentiles. The Bible, when it speaks about a Mashiach, it is not talking about who we call the Mashiach. It's a small M, indefinite article. When we say the Messiah, we today in our language we restrain that word and we give it a non biblical meaning, and that is the person who's going to come at the end of the days.

Isaiah chapter two, he shall rebuke many nations. Let's say the Messiah will rebuke many nations. In Isaiah chapter eleven it says that he's going to come from the shoot of Jesse. And God's gonna put on him the spirit of knowledge and wisdom and the fear of the Lord. But it never says that he's the Meshiach, the Messiah ever. So you have to understand when the rabbis used the word Meshiach, they were using a language that is extinct today.

is a language of the Bible. The only place it really is alive and well is in the houses of study of the Jewish people. It doesn't exist outside of the base Hamedrish. So when you read a rabbinic line writing and it says Meshiah that does not tell you it's talking about Mashiach the house of David. What missionaries do is they take rabbinic literature that says it's talking about Mashiach And they say it must be that one'cause it's speaking to people who don't have the knowledge to discern.

You have to understand that the plain understanding of Isaiah 53 has always been the case. Ain Mikra Yotse Elemide Pshuto. A verse does not go out of its meaning. It's only to be understood by its plain meaning. That is the basic meaning of a verse. But the rabbis told us, and we see it in the book of Uvajah, Obadiah.

We see that there's someone from Joseph and we see there's someone from David. These two people at the end of days these two people are going to come together and they're gonna be like a fire to Esau, to Edom, the enemies of the Jews. Who is this Joseph who's gonna do this in Obadiah? The last verse of Obadiah the Alumashim Bahartsian Lishwit is Haresah.

And the saviors will go up. Who are saviors? Who are they? Who are these people? The Bible tells us that at the end of the days in this great war, what's gonna happen is it'll be a victory for the Jews, but there's gonna be someone Great person who's gonna be killed. It's gonna be a great morning in Jerusalem. Very bad. The Jewish people it's gonna be like a victory. Remember the Entebi raid? Yoni Netanyahu, one very special, particularly unusual person of enormous character.

gets killed. The world just focuses it on that person dying. What's gonna happen at the end of days is that this one man who's a righteous man that is in this great war he's gonna get killed. Why is that important? Because when the world is gonna see it

There's gonna be two responses. Israel is gonna repent as a result of seeing this great man dead in the gates of Jerusalem. The rest of the world is going to see this individual and this individual will come to personify Israel, the suffering Israel. When the rabbis spoke about

that's talking about Meshiach, they knew it's talking about Israel. What they're saying is that at the end of days there's going to be one personality where all the sufferings of the Jewish people are just going to be focused in on. Because sometimes it's very hard six million, that's a very big number.

I can't cry over six million. Do you ever cry over six million? No. I cry when I see a shoe, a child's shoe. Then I cry. How come six million is more than one child's shoe? One and a half million children I can't. Anne Frank, I can relate to. One little girl. Read her diary and I can weep. Does it mean that

No more than one little girl, one little teenage girl was murdered. No. Third of the Jewish people was murdered. But we focus in on one individual, and that one individual comes to represent the sufferings of all the Jewish people. But tragically these people take advantage of the ignorance

But our people they have no idea how to look and understand rabbinic writings, these homilies, and what the they're trying to say there's another vision here. I have no idea. Think about this for a moment. This whole Christian argument. What is it really saying? What it's really saying is everyone always knew Isaiah fifty three was speaking about the Messiah. Everyone knew that. It always was. We're never talking about Israel. What happened is the rabbis after they did the rabbis didn't want

The Jews to believe in Jesus. They were terrified that if they're gonna see Isaiah fifty three and they're gonna say it's the Messiah, they're gonna believe in Jesus. So the rabbis changed it, they conspired together, and they changed Isaiah V three to now be speaking about Israel. Isaiah three was always speaking about the Messiah.

Everyone knew it, the rabbis changed it because they did not want the Jewish people to accept their Messiah. That's one possibility, okay? So everyone knew the Messiah is supposed to suffer and die, everyone saw Isaiah fifty three. Every Jew knew that Isaiah 53 was speaking about the Messiah, but the rabbis came and changed it instead of speaking about Israel. Okay, that's scenario number one. Scenario number two is it's just the opposite.

Everyone knew that the Messiah the Son of David was not supposed to die. It never dawned on anyone that the Messiah the Son of David is ever to suffer, ever to die. There's no scripture for it, has nothing to do with Judaism. Everyone knew that Isaiah 3 was speaking about Israel. It wasn't speaking about the Messiah, the son of David. Everyone knew that. What happened?

Along comes Jesus. He's supposed to fulfill all these things. World peace, he doesn't do it. He dies. He gets killed. The followers still want to make it work. They don't want to let go. So what do they do? The Christians go and they take Isaiah fifty three, which everyone knew was not talking about the Messiah. It never dawned on a Jew that the Messiah is supposed to suffer and die.

The church now took this and changed it to be speaking about the Messiah. We can actually find out which one was true. How do we do it? The New Testament slips. How does it slip? There's a little conversation that Jesus has with his disciples. And he says to them, Shortly, I'm going into Jerusalem. I'm going to suffer many things.

And I'm gonna be killed. And I'm gonna be put in the tomb, I'm gonna rise on the third day. If it is true that everyone understood Isaiah fifty three, that the Messiah is supposed to suffer and die, that was always the case.

So all the disciples should have said, Well, we know it's coming, you know, that's what had to happen. We know we have Isaiah fifty three, it's in our nose, right? If everyone always knew that the Messiah was never supposed to suffer and die, that comes as a very big surprise. Far be it from you.

That should not happen to you. That's exactly what happens in the New Testament. Look at this little conversation that takes place. Take a look at section number twenty two. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how? That he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes. And be killed and be raised again in the third day. Well that sounds good. That's Isaiah fifty three right there, right? Just that point.

Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee. What do you mean this should not be unto you? He should have said, Of course, I understand. Some Christians might try to argue, well Peter didn't know that he was the Messiah. Not possible. Peter was the one who said, Thou art the Christ.

When everyone else got it wrong and then Jesus says, Therefore you will be the rock and the church will be built on you and the keys of heaven will be given to you and the Catholic Church have used that verse to show that Peter was the first Pope. Don't mention that to a Messianic, they're not into that.

So why is Peter so surprised? He knew what the Messiah is. He knew he was the Messiah. He should say, Far be it from you. Why far be it from you? Isaiah fifty three. Oh no, no one knew Isaiah fifty three was talking about the Messiah. It's Israel. That's why it was an enormous surprise. Let's go to our next Christian argument. We're not finished. Another argument the church has used goes like this. I don't know if you know what the haftora is. Have you ever heard the haftora?

Sure, many of you have. Everyone's smirking. What do you think? I'm an idiot? Okay. All right, okay, I'm sorry. What's the haftorah? If you go into a synagogue So you'll see that every week a portion from the Torah is read and it's done in a way that by the time we finish a year we will finish all the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, the law of Moses. But you'll notice

The person who gets an Aliyah, who's brought up the Torah at the end, he gets moftier, and what does he do? He reads from a segment of the prophets. So the prophets are read as well in the sanctuary, not just the five books of Moses. The Jews read the five books of Moses and they read the prophets as well in the sanctuary. And guess what? You know what those rabbis did? They made sure that Isaiah fifty three wouldn't be in the prophets.

They made sure that no one would ever read Isaiah because imagine if it's in the prophets, you know it gets a lot of attention. They didn't want the Jewish people to accept the Messiah, so they came together and said, Look, Isaiah III is out.

I don't even have to ask you how many people have heard this one. There's a Yiddish is saying Ishotnishkan Kop and Ishotnishkan Schwantz, which means it doesn't have a head and it doesn't have a tail. Sometimes I don't even know how to respond because I don't even know where to begin. Let me try. The basic assumption is just like we read the five books, we'll read through the whole prophets, and we'll just skip Isaiah fifty three.

Actually, we read a very small segment of the prophets. Only about seven percent of all of the prophets are read in the Haftora. Very small segment. It's not that we just that's the only chapter we don't read But what becomes even more bizarre, why do we read a certain portion of the prophets at a certain week when we read the Torah? What's the reason? There can be two explanations for why a particular half Torah is said.

on a certain Shabbos. Two thirds of Haftorahs are read because there's an enormous parallelism between what is read in the five books of Moses and what is read in the Haftorah. One third is read because it's a certain time of the year. Something is happening, holidays, whatever it is, or at a certain time of the year. And if we read a hafturah that relates not to the segment of the portion of the week, but it relates

To the concept, the spiritual concept that Israel is enduring at that time. As an example, when between the saddest day of the year, which is Tishabov, the ninth day of Ov, the day which the first and second temple was destroyed, on those seven weeks. We read a segment called the Shiva de Nachamto, the seven weeks of consolation after Tishab. We want to read readings that console us.

And could you imagine what we read from? It's right here. We read actually from Isaiah forty throughout. We don't read all of it, but we read segments of it. As you can imagine as we have seen, oh boy, uh you read those prophecies and it makes your heart melt. It comforts the Jewish people. And we begin because Isaiah fifty three has nothing to do with comforting the Jewish people. What it is is a narration of the Gentile nations. It has no relationship to a time of the year.

And it certainly doesn't have a relationship to any part of the five books of Moses. But ladies and gentlemen, there's something even more bizarre here. How did we come to read the Haft Torah. Why do we do that all together? You have to know a little history. Once you realize why we do it, you'll realise the absurdity of this argument. We started reading the Haftura because Under Antiochus Epiphanes the Fourth, he was a Greek emperor

He was the villain in the story of Hanukkah. He ruled from one seventy five B C E to one sixty three B C E. And he outlawed the reading of the five books of Moses in the synagogue. You weren't allowed to read from the five books of Moses. He allowed the prophets, he didn't allow the five books of Moses. And actually soldiers were sent into synagogues to make sure that no one would read from the five books of Moses.

So what the Jewish people did was they took these segments of the prophets and they read them instead. And this tradition continued we're not a people that break tradition. Silly argument. We started reading the Haftarah long before Jesus. Never changed it, no community ever read Isaiah fifty three. There are communities of Jews, by the way, who've never seen a Christian in their lives. Yemenite Jews.

Th there's no y Christians in Yemen. They weren't considered monotheists. It was Moslems and Jews. That was it. No Isaiah fifty three and they're after there's no haftur with Isaiah fifty three. 'Cause it has no relationship to any segment or portion of the five books of Moses and it's not a direct and what is even more ridiculous is

If we look at we see the Haptors mentioned in the New Testament. Take a look inside the study guide with me to section twenty three, please. In the book of Acts it actually tells us they were reading book of verse 14 and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after reading of the law and the prophets, and it says there the prophets which are read every Sabbath day. This is in the New Testament.

So obviously the it presades Jesus. I want to show you something else marvelous. I mentioned earlier something and I'm gonna repeat it but in a different application. That when you want to prove something, you want it to have an enormous impact on the listener, prove it from their position rather than yours. I can show you Talmuds, I can show you these things, don't worry about that.

How about a Christian? What do you mean? Let me explain. One of the most important, perhaps the most important Greek church father, his name was Origen. There's a legend that he would had a Jewish grandmother, that he was Jewish. It's a very religious man. He actually castrated himself based on Matthew nineteen where it says if something offends you cut it off, so he did it. Georgian wrote a number of things. He of course

wanted to merge together Greek thought with Christian theology and he succeeded. One of his most important works is a book called Origin Contracelsum. By the way, this church father lived in the second century. That's how early we're talking about it. He writes a book called Origin Contracelsum. What does that mean? Who was Celsum? Who was this person? Well his name was Celsus. Who was he? He also lived during the second century. He was a pagan scholar.

Sometimes that comes as a surprise to people. Pagan, I gotta be a pagan. You worship tree stumps and cockroaches, you're a scholar? I mean, what are you gonna be a scholar? Well you know Greek mythology had a lot of depth to it and it's not it was rather sophisticated. He was a pagan scholar and therefore was very anti Christian. And they actually wrote a book called

Selsom on the true doctrine. He writes this book during the second century. It's an important book because it tells a lot about what Christians were saying by what he responds to. And he this whole book is dedicated as an anti Christian book and he attacks Christianity and he sh wants to show that the claims of Christianity have no basis. What happens? Origin is this Greek church father.

And he wants to show why everything that Selsom was saying was wrong. So Origen writes another book called Origin Contra Against In this book he takes the arguments and he shows why he believes they're wrong. But in this book, he not only does that. But he also tells about his conversations with Jews. Take a look at 23, eh? What he tells us is that. He goes to these Jews who he considered learned men. They were considered learned Jews, scholars. Second century.

This is a little before Roshi, nearly a millennia before Rashi. This is a Christian. He had no benefit at all for trying to support anything Jewish. And he goes over to these people that were considered learned Jews, and he tells them Isaiah fifty three. The little Jews for Jesus running around, huh? He tells them Isaiah fifty three. And what did the Jews respond? Everyone knows the Jews say that that's talking about Israel in the singular. Second century, what happened to Rashi?

This is from a Christian. What was his motive for lying? Just gonna read a couple lines here. I remember that once in a discussion with some whom the Jews regard as learned. I use these prophecies. These prophecies means Isaiah fifty three. At this the Jews said that these prophecies referred to the whole people as though a single individual. Well, but what Arnold Fruchtenbaum says that Rash invented this is second century. What's going on here? Who's lying and why are they?

Some people have said to me, Rabbi, maybe it just comes down to Christians believe that Isaiah three is speaking about Jesus and Jews think it's speaking about Israel. Let's leave it at that. That's basically what it comes down to. Not true. There are many Christian scholars that agree with the Jews that Isaiah three obviously is speaking about Israel. What? I don't think I heard you, Rabbi, repeat that. There are many

mainstream Christian scholars that agree that see the obviousness of Isaiah V three. It's not that they're not Christians. They believe in Jesus, but they say, look, it's obvious that Isaiah V three is speaking about Israel. Who are they? Some Ubangi scholars somewhere? No. Talk about mainstream. And what I did was I I just gave you two examples of it section number twenty four. New English Bible.

You get the leather bowl one and it has a big gold cross. A big gold cross in the front of the book. Who's like to show it to someone for this is not as old, New Testament, it's got the whole thing. Not Jewish. Now I'm interested in the commentary, clearly. We're interested in the bottom. What are these scholars saying? Well, I want to draw your attention to the left side, page seven hundred and eighty eight.

Do you see where it says fourth servant song? These are not Lababichar Hasidim. Follow please with me. Listen to what these Christians are saying. The suffering servant. Israel, the servant of God, has suffered. as humiliated individual. However, the servant Endured without complaint because it was vicarious suffering. Nations and kings will be surprised to see the servant exalted. Remember that? The crowds, pagan nations, among whom the servant Israel lived, speak here. Remember that?

saying that the significance of Israel's humiliation and exaltation is hard to believe. The death probably first the destruction and exile of Israel. The theme of fifty two thirteen is resumed Israel. Which has suffered for all mankind will now be granted her rightful place. Long life and children's children are the signs of final vindication before God. What's going on here? These are Christians.

Why are they saying this? What kind of Christians? Maybe the Unitarians, you know, they're not real Christians. I would suggest that you open up a New English Bible and open up the front page and just look which denominations participated in this. Methodist, Lutheran Church.

They had no motive for supporting this, but they looked at and said, Let's be honest, this is clearly referring to Israel. Let's not fudge it. This is another one you may have never heard of. It's a very rare people rarely You ever hear the revised standard version? The fourth? Servant song, we remember that, page eight hundred and eighty nine, the other side. God will exalt his brutally disfigured servant Israel to the numbed astonishment of the world's rulers. I want to read a

essay written by a Christian. Had a lot of meaning to me when I read it for the first time. Leo Tolstoy. What is a Jew? This question is not at all so odd as it seems. Let us see what kind of peculiar creature the Jew is, which all the rulers and all the nations have together and separately abused and molested, oppressed and persecuted, trampled and butchered, burned and hanged.

And in spite of all this is yet alive. What is a Jew who has never allowed himself to be led astray by all the earthly possessions which his oppressors and persecutors constantly offered him in order that he should change his faith and forsake his own Jewish religion?

The Jew, that sacred being, who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illuminated with it the entire world, he is the religious source, spring and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their belief.

and religions. Last paragraph. The Jew is the emblem of eternity. He whom neither slaughter nor torture of thousands of years could destroy. He whom neither fire nor sword nor inquisition was able to wipe off the face of the earth, He who was the first to produce the oracles of God, he who has been for so long the guardian of prophecy and who transmitted to the rest of the world such a nation.

cannot be destroyed. The Jew is as everlasting as eternity itself. That's tonight's lecture. Thank you. And thank you for joining me tonight. Thank you and have a good night. Thank you. This concludes this Torah teaching. We hope that you have enjoyed it as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you. We also hope that you will consider joining others in making a donation to Noahide Nations and become part of maintaining the Noahide Nations Torah Network.

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