Answers to Old Questions (8 January, 2019, 2 Shevat, 5778)
Is the Messiah God?
Contents:
1. Introduction. David or a Descendant of David?
2. The Question of an Adversary
3. The Story of Samson and the Angel of the LORD
4. The Case of Gideon
5. Reply to an Adversary
6. Conclusion
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1. Introduction. David or a Descendant of David?
In some passages the future Savior and Messiah is referred to as "David." Elsewhere he is described as a Descendant of David. Taking the passages together we understand that the Future Messiah will be of the Seed of David but so close to David that in some ways it will be as if it was David himself.
Jeremiah 23:
5 The days are coming, says the LORD, that I will raise up for David a Righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth.
Jeremiah 30:
9 But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
Where it says "David" in these Messianic Passages the intention is to a Descendant of David.
Just as Scripture can speak of David and the Offspring of David and be referring to the SAME being so too does it speak of God and an Emissary of God while intending the Latter in both cases!
David was the son of Jesse. Expressions such as "Son of Jesse" (1-Samuel 16:18, 20:27, 22:9, 25:10, 2-Samuel 23:10, 1-Chronicles 12:18), "Trunk of Jesse" (Isaiah 11:1,) "Root of Jesse" (Isaiah 11:10). all refer to David.
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2. The Question of an Adversary
There are some who claim that the Messiah will be God Himself!
One person sent us a quotation from Zechariah 14: 3-4.
Zechariah (MEV) 14:
3 Then the LORD will go out and fight those nations as He fights in the day of war.
4 On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is to the east of Jerusalem. And from east to west the Mount of Olives will be split in two halves by a very great valley so that one half moves to the north and the other to the south.
He (the Adversary) said:
# Yair, please read the above what is WRITTEN not what you were told it says. Like if you wrote this, you would expect me to READ what you wrote NOT what I am told it says. Wow! To me it is the greatest Assurance in the entire Scriptures. 'That Day He will fight with Judah as in the Days of War!' If this is not MbD [Messiah ben David], then Who is it? Real Truth is so elementary that it escapes the wise and well informed. #
In reply we would say:
It nowhere says above that God is the Messiah. It simply says that God will do something.
Even if Scripture would conflate the Messiah with God [AND IT DEFINITELY DOES NOT!] it would not change the required appreciation of what is REALLY being said:
This is the style of Scripture in nearly every case. God sends Messengers in the form of Angels or Prophets. Scripture describes what is done by flitting back and forth with God and His Angel speaking intermittently as the one being. In every specific instance the Emissary will be doing the will of the Almighty.
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3. The Story of Samson and the Angel of the LORD
In the Book of Judges ch. 13 we are told how:
An Angel appeared to the wife of Manoah. She was not aware that he was an Angel but rather at first mistook him for a holy man. The angel told her she will bear a child and what she must do concerning him. The woman told her husnband. Manoah prayed to God that the Holy Man should also appear to him. The Angel does so.
Judges (MEV) 13:
...2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the Tribe of Dan. His name was Manoah. His wife was infertile and had borne no children. 3 The Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, 'Indeed, you are infertile and have borne no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son. 4 Now be careful, I pray, that you drink no wine or strong drink and that you do not eat anything ritually unclean. 5 For you will conceive and bear a son. No razor may touch his head, for the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.'
6 Then the woman went to her husband and said, "A Man of God came to me. He looked like a very fearsome Angel of God. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. 7 He said to me, 'You will conceive and bear a son. So now, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything ritually unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day he dies.' "
8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, "O my LORD, let the Man of God whom You sent come again to us, so that he can teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born."
9 God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried and ran to tell her husband, "The Man who came to me the other day has appeared to me."
11 So Manoah got up and went after his wife. He came to the Man and said to him, "Are you the Man who spoke to my wife?"
He said, "I am."
12 Then Manoah said, "Now may your words come true! What will be the boy's way of life and his work?"
13 The Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Your wife must observe everything that I said to her. 14 She must not consume anything that grows on the vine. She must not drink wine or strong drink, and she must not eat anything ritually unclean. She must observe everything that I commanded her."
15 Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you, and let us prepare a young goat for you."
16 The Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, "If I stay, I will not eat your food, but if you want to make an offering to the LORD, you should offer it." (For Manoah did not know that he was an Angel of the LORD.)
17 Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we can honor you when your words come true?"
18 The Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful." 19 Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered them to the LORD upon a rock. Then he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife watched. 20 When the flame went up from the altar toward the heavens, the Angel of the LORD went up in the flames from the altar. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell face down on the ground. 21 The Angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an Angel of the LORD
22 Manoah said to his wife, "We are certainly going to die, for we have seen God."
23 Yet his wife said to him, "If the LORD wanted to kill us, He would not have taken the burnt offering and grain offering from us. He would not have shown us these things, nor let us hear things such as these at this time."
24 So the woman bore a son, and she called him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 The Spirit of the LORD began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Notice the following points from this episode:
The emissary is called that ANGEL OF THE LORD. He is clearly a spiritual being. When Manoah and his wife realize that he is an Angel and NOT a Holy Man he refers to Him as "God" (Judges 13:21). It is clear however from the context and the behavior of the couple that they DO NOT think the Angel is God Himself but rather HIS Emissary. When the Almighty does something of this nature no clear distinction is made between the Almighty and HIS Agent.
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4. The Case of Gideon
In the Period of the Judges the Israelites sinned against God. They were delivered into the hands of the Midianites who oppressed them. The Israelites then cried out to God to save them.
An Angel appeared to Gideon the Abiezrite of the Clan of Gilead from the Tribe of Manasseh.
Judges (MEV) 6:
11 Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak tree in Ophrah belonging to Joash the Abiezrite. Gideon his son was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The Angel of the LORD appeared and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor."
13 Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, then why has all this happened to us? Where are all His miracles that our fathers told us about? They said, 'Did not the LORD bring us out of Egypt?' Yet now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."
14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this strength of yours. Save Israel from the control of Midian. Have I not sent you?"
15 And he said to Him, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house."
16 Then the LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you will strike the Midianites as one man."
17 And he said to Him, "If I have found favor in Your sight, give me a sign that it is You who are speaking with me.
18 Please do not depart from here until I come to You and bring out my gift and set it before You."
And He said, "I will stay until you return."
19 So Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought them out and offered them to Him under the oak.
20 And the Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And so he did. 21 The Angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in His hand and touched the meat and unleavened flatbread. Fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. Then the Angel of the LORD departed from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that it was indeed the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, "Alas, O LORD God! I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face."
23 Then the LORD said to him, "Peace be with you. Do not be afraid. You will not die."
24 Then Gideon built an altar for the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. Even to this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
In this passage we see Gideon interacting with the Angel of God. This emissary is referred to as both Angel of the LORD and as the LORD (7:16, 23). It is clear that only one entity is under consideration. The Angel of the LORD is described as bearing the name of the LORD!
This does not mean that they are one and the same only that God does his will through Agents (Angels or Prophets) whom HE chooses.
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5. Reply to the Adversary
We wrote the following to the Adversary of Incitement in regard to Zechariah 14:3-4.
Numerous passage make a very CLEAR Distinction between David the Messiah and the Almighty
cf.
Jeremiah 30:
9 But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
This is the simple straightforward literal meaning of the verses.
You on the other hand are stretching certain verses that are not clear to say the opposite.
This is Blasphemy and Paganism.
It is forbidden to worship two gods or to make GOD more than one.
Stop trying to twist the meaning away from its true meaning.
Stop attempting to incite others to fall into the error of your ways.
Repent of your false and devious doctrines.
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6. Conclusion
The Messiah is not God and God is not the Messiah. The Messiah son of David is the Anointed (i.e. appointed) of God. He does the will of God.
He acts as the emissary of God in a similar fashion as to what an Angel does.
Scripture often interchanges the identities of God and HIS emissaries BUT this does not mean they are the same!