When Will Israel Accept Jesus as Their Messiah?

The Bible speaks of the fact that “Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in”.

Romans 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Why are the eyes of the Jewish nation blinded? Because of the fact that when their Messiah came, they did not recognize Him, nor did they accept Him as their King. John wrote in his gospel:

John 1:10-11 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Jesus told the Jews that because they did not recognize the time of their visitation by God, the time when their Messiah arrived, that their house would be left to them dessolate.

Luke 19:41-44 Now as Jesus drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

“They will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

This prophecy by Jesus was fulfilled in 70 a.d. when Titus came with the Roman army and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and set fire to the temple. As the articles within the temple burned, and the gold that lined the Holy of Holies, melted and ran into the cracks of the stones the Temple was constructed from. In the greed of the Roman soldiers, they pried up each stone of the temple to remove the melted Gold and in doing so, “left not one stone upon another” fulfilling Jesus prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem. This happened because the Jews did not accept Jesus as their Messiah.

From the moment that Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 a.d. God turned His attention from the Jewish nation to the gentiles around the world. Since that time the Lord has been offering salvation to every gentile. When the times of the gentiles are completed and all those who will accept the invitation by the Father to receive Jesu as their Savior, the Lord will turn His attention to the Nation of Israel. This will happen in the completion of the 70th week of Daniel that is to this point unfulfilled.

The 9th chapter of the Book of Daniel speaks of the fact that “Seventy Sevens” have been determined for the Jews. A period of seventy, seven year periods of time, or 490 years, has been alloted by God to complete His work in and through Israel. The angel Gabriel told Daniel that when a command was given that would allow the Jews to exit Babylon and go back to Jerusalem, the fulfilment of this prophecy would start.

Artaxerxes Longimones gave the command to return to Israel on March 14th, 445 b.c. If we count ahead 483 years, we come to the date of April 6th, 32 a.d. This was the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was proclaimed as the Messiah, the Son of David.

Daniel’s prophecy further says that the Messiah will be “Cut off”, an old Testament code word meaning “Killed”. Of course we know from the historical record that Jesus was crucifed in either 32 or 33 a.d., depending on how you count forward from the giving of the command to restory an rebuild Jerusalem.

The following article comes from the “Jews for Jesus” web site, written from the perspective of a Messianic Jew.


Article from Jews for Jesus

When the Messiah Comes by Barry Rubin

Oftentimes, Jews who come to believe in Jesus are told by their unbelieving families, “If you’d only known more about Judaism, if you’d only studied your own religion, you never would have come to believe this way.”

My parents never said that to me because, before I accepted Christ, I went to see an Orthodox rabbi on my own initiative.

You see, I had met some Jews for Jesus who had given me some very convincing arguments from the Scriptures apparently pointing to Jesus as the Messiah. However, I was afraid to just “jump in.” “How can I be sure?” I thought. My impetuousness had gotten me into trouble in the past. Once I had gotten involved in the occult. Another time, I had come very close to marrying a Gentile girl I knew I shouldn’t marry. The only sound thing to do, I thought, would be to see a rabbi and ask him what he thought of these Scriptures. After all, I figured he should know.

“And with more courage than I thought I had in me, I plunged into my own study of Daniel 9.”

Rabbi Bogner and I sat and discussed the many passages the Jews for Jesus had pointed out. We began with the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. The Jews for Jesus said it talked about the Messiah. The rabbi said it referred to Israel. Then we studied Jeremiah 31:31-34 which talks of a “new covenant” that God would make with His people. The rabbi just scoffed at this one.

Finally, I brought to his attention Daniel 9, which, according to the Jews for Jesus, told the time of the Messiah’s coming.

At that, Rabbi Bogner told me he was prohibited by Talmudic Law from studying that chapter. When I asked why, he said, “Cursed be the man who calculates the time of the coming of the Messiah.” He knew that Daniel 9 did indeed contain God’s message to us as to when the Messiah would come. But he explained that the Talmud prohibited studying it because of the possible unbelief that could arise from some making incorrect calculations and being disappointed.

But this didn’t make any sense to me. Why would God give us a Book and then tell us not to read part of it? I didn’t think God played “cosmic games” on us.

I left the rabbi’s study a little perplexed. And with more courage than I thought I had in me, I plunged into my own study of Daniel 9. Now I knew I was not a Bible scholar, but I was no dummy either! As a college instructor I felt I had a good grasp of concepts and could follow a carefully reasoned argument to its conclusion. And having been trained as an accountant, I knew I could make whatever mathematical calculations were necessary.

Well, Daniel 9 referred to “an anointed one” being “cut off” after a certain number of weeks. The Hebrew word for “anointed” is “mashiach,” which, in Greek, is “christos” or “Christ.” Also, in the Bible, to be “cut off” meant to die. I then needed to calculate the number of weeks starting with the rebuilding of Jerusalem as stated in the Scripture verse,“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks.” (Daniel 9:25) The only decree to go out was by Artaxerxes in 444 B.C.E. Biblically speaking, a week equals seven years and a sabbatical year, approximately 360 days. My computations were fairly simple, but the answer I got was difficult to accept.

“I could not call this a coincidence. It would be like saying two plus two equals five.”

“I could not call this a coincidence. It would be like saying two plus two equals five.”

This anointed one was to die in 32 C.E., the year Christ was crucified. I could not call this a coincidence. It would be like saying two plus two equals five.

I thought about Rabbi Bogner. It did help me to talk with him. For despite the Talmudic prohibition on studying that Scripture passage for fear of resulting unbelief, its study made me into a believer, a believer in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Bible Prophecy Updates, Israel in the News, Rob Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.