AN EXPLANATION OF WHY ISRAEL REJECTED JESUS

The Old Testament had much to say about the coming of the Messiah. O.T. believers knew that the Messiah (the Christ) would someday come into the world. Some of the passages described the Messiah as a glorious King who would rule over all the world. There were other passages that described the Messiah as One who would suffer and die. A person could get confused and think that these passages were describing two different Persons. Perhaps this will help clear up the confusion.  The following is from Jesus Was A Jew, (p. 23-24), written by a Jewish Bible scholar, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, who also is a believer in Jesus as the Messiah:

 

Anyone who sets himself to the task of seeking to know what the Old Testament has to say about the coming of the Messiah soon finds himself involved with a seeming paradox.  At times one even seems to be faced with an outright contradiction. For the Jewish prophets gave a two-fold picture of the Messiah who was to come.

On the one hand, the inquirer will find numerous predictions regarding the Messiah which portray him as one who is going to suffer humiliation, physical harm, and finally death in a violent manner. This death was stated by the Jewish prophets to be a substitutionary death for the sins of the Jewish people.  On the other hand, he will find that the Jewish prophets also spoke of the Messiah coming as a conquering King who will destroy the enemies of Israel and set up the messianic kingdom of peace and prosperity. This is the two-fold picture the Jewish prophets gave of the Messiah. For centuries past, during the formulation of the Talmud, our rabbis made serious studies of messianic prophecies.  They came up with this conclusion:  the prophets spoke of two different Messiahs.

 

The Messiah who was to come, suffer and die was termed Messiah, the Son of Joseph (Mashiach ben Yoseph).  The second Messiah who would then come following the first was termed Messiah, the Son of David (Mashiach ben David).  This one would raise the first Messiah back to life, and establish the Messianic kingdom of peace on earth.  That the Old Testament presents these two lines of Messianic prophecy was something that all the early rabbis recognized. The Old Testament never clearly states that there will be two Messiahs. In fact, many of the paradoxical descriptions are found side by side in the same passages, in which it seems that only one person is meant. But for the early rabbis the two-Messiah theory seemed to be the best answer.  The New Testament resolves this "problem."

 

There is only one Messiah, but He "visits earth" twice: 

once as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world;

and a second time as Israel's King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah!