Advent Season
(Anticipating the Birth of Jesus)
28 Names of Jesus | December 29, 2020
Name #26: “Messiah”
Daniel 9:25 – 27 (NASB) “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”
Matthew 1:18 – 25 (NIV) “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
Definition of “messiah” A leader or savior of a particular group or cause; the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.
There are hints in the Old Testament with promises to the nation of Israel that a future king from the line of David would come and be their leader. One of the names of this future king is “Messiah.” Israel became a world leader during the reigns of King David and his son, King Solomon. After the split of the nation and the destruction of both the northern and southern tribes, God kept those promises intact with hints about the future king’s arrival. One of those hints is found in Daniel 9:25. Scripture tells us that the future messiah would arrive 7 weeks of years and 62 weeks of years starting from a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. After these 69 weeks of years, the messiah will be cut off. He then returns after the 70th 7-year period, at a time in the future to restore Israel to prominence. This separates the 69 weeks of years from the 70th week of years. The gap between the 69 weeks of years and the 70th week of years is the development of His church, with the gospel going out to the Gentiles (non-Jews). We call this current period of time “the church age.” That decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given by the Persian king Artaxerxes around 458 BC. The 7 weeks plus 62 weeks of years means that from Artaxerxes’s decree until the claim by the Messiah to be Israel’s king (Palm Sunday) would be in the early part of the first century A.D.
Amazing information given to us by God
1. Some of God’s covenants promised to Abraham, Moses, David, and the nation of Israel, have already been fulfilled in Christ’s first appearance on Earth.
2. Some of those promises to Abraham, Moses, David, and the nation of Israel, are yet to be fulfilled, but will assuredly be fulfilled sometime in the future, including Christ’s second coming after the 7 years of tribulation (the 70th week of years) mentioned in Daniel 9.
Understanding God’s plan
1. Eternity past
2. God created heaven and Earth, which included angel beings and human beings.
3. Some angel beings and all human beings rebelled against God and thus lost fellowship with God.
4. God provided a redemption plan for human beings, but not angel beings, to restore fellowship with God.
5. The redemption plan for human beings was for blood sacrifice to cover the sins of human beings.
6. This blood sacrifice in the Old Testament was a picture of the future ultimate blood sacrifice made by Jesus Christ for mankind on the cross in the early part of the first century A.D.
7. His promise to restore Israel with His Son, Jesus, as king, will occur in the future after the 7th week of years stated in Daniel 9.
8. Christ will rule righteously for 1000 years.
9. Judgement of the world will occur.
10. Eternity future
Bringing it back to “messiah”
The promised deliverer of the Jewish nation, Messiah, prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, has been partially fulfilled through Christ’s first appearance on Earth. The rest of His promise is currently being fulfilled through the development of His church. The promise given to Abraham that included Gentiles (non-Jews) becoming a part of God’s grace to be in His family is being fulfilled now. The final of His promises will be fulfilled after the church is completed. God revealed His plan in His written Word. He has, is, and will in the future, complete His plan. All of this will be done through our MESSIAH, our deliverer, the LORD and SAVIOR, Jesus Christ.
Blessings from Carlton Ringer