REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING THE MESSIAH FROM A HEBRAIC PERSPECTIVE

 

 

In the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) Most of the textual requirements concerning the messiah, what he will do, and what will be done during his reign are located within the Book of Isaiah, although requirements are mentioned in other prophets as well. The following are meant as keys to get you thinking in a millennial Hebraic way about the ancient scriptures.

 

The Sanhedrin will be re-established (Isaiah 1:26)

I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”

 

Once he is King, leaders of other nations will look to him for guidance (Isaiah 2:4)

He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

 

The whole world will worship the One God of Israel (Isaiah 2:17)

The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

 

He will be descended from King David (Isaiah 11:1) via King Solomon (1 Chron. 22:8–10)

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

 

The Messiah will be a man of this world, an observant Jew with "fear of God" (Isaiah 11:2)

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

 

Evil and tyranny will not be able to stand before his leadership (Isaiah 11:4)

But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

 

Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11:9)

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

 

He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10)

“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.”

 

Israelites will be returned to their homeland (Isaiah 11:12)

He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

 

Death the last enemy to be destroyed - will be swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:8)

He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.

 

There will be no more hunger or illness, and death will cease (Isaiah 25:8)

He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.

 

All of the dead will rise again (Isaiah 26:19)

Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

 

Job 19:26 has traditionally been considered a reference to the afterlife: "And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God". Other verses suggesting an afterlife include:

Isaiah 26:19 "Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!..."

 

Ecclesiastes 12:7 "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it"

Perhaps the most explicit Biblical reference to an afterlife is found in the Book of Daniel:

Daniel 12:2 "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence."

The Jewish people will experience eternal joy and gladness (Isaiah 51:11)

So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

 

Nations will recognize the wrongs they did Israel (Isaiah 52:13–53:5)  Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men; so shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

 

He will be a messenger of peace (Isaiah 53:7)

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

 

The peoples of the world will turn to the Jews for spiritual guidance (Zechariah 8:23)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

 

The ruined cities of Israel will be restored (Ezekiel 16:55)

When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters return to their former state, then you and your daughters will return to your former state.

 

Weapons of war will be destroyed (Ezekiel 39:9)

“Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years.

 

The Temple will be rebuilt (Ezekiel 40) resuming many of the suspended mitzvoth.

 

He will then perfect the entire world to serve God together (Zephaniah 3:9)

“For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord.

 

Jews will know the Torah without Study (Jeremiah 31:33)

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 

He will take the barren land and make it abundant and fruitful (Isaiah 51:3, Amos 9:13–15, Ezekiel 36:29–30, Isaiah 11:6–9)

For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

 

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

 

I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.  And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

 

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.