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Jesus is the Messiah who is portrayed in Daniel 7:13-14.

¹³ “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. ¹⁴ He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

This is a profound description to the glorification of the Messiah as found in the Tanakh which clearly portrays His sense of likeness and identity to humanity while maintaining an exalted state of divinity.

Jesus refers to himself by definition on several occasions as being the  “son of man”. One particular scripture in Matthew 24:30-31 has a  striking resemblance based on similar verbiage as found here in Daniel.

³⁰ “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Jesus as a messianic figure has been exalted and given dominion over all peoples and nations such as the prophecy in Daniel indicates. The in breaking of His kingdom has been vast in it’s worldwide application and influence and though it has not been fully consummated yet it still has not been diminished.

Christianity today is regarded as the largest religion to whom the world looks to regarding Jesus as their Jewish Messiah. This is one of the characteristics about the Messiah that makes Him standout among messianic hopefuls and that is His influence upon the goyim or gentiles to whom would offer their allegiance to Him likewise. Who else fits this description in human history?

Though Christianity from a world wide scope is still largely persecuted yet the kingdom of the Messiah has not been destroyed.

No matter how much the world system has determined to exterminate the rule, reign, and influence of the Messiah by  propagating its hatred and violence by means of false religions/cults and through the godless influences and philosophies of humanism  and atheism it has not succeeded according to it’s program of genocide. In their vain attempts they have been rendered useless and have not succeeded in extinguishing His glory. Every frontal assault represented from every worldly dominion and power such as kings, rulers, dictators and such have failed to remove Him from His throne even though they themselves have long been removed from their coveted position of rulership.

While Daniel depicts the obedience of the nations Psalms 2 is juxtaposed to His rule and reign as I have just explained. Today this is a living reality to the truthfulness regarding the fulfillment of the scriptures.

¹Why do the nations conspire^a

and the peoples plot in vain?

²The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together

against the Lord

and against his Anointed One.^b

³“Let us break their chains,” they say,

“and throw off their fetters.”

⁴The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them.

⁵Then he rebukes them in his anger

and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

⁶“I have installed my King^c

on Zion, my holy hill.”

⁷I will proclaim the decree of the Lord:

He said to me, “You are my Son^d;

today I have become your Father.^e

⁸Ask of me,

and I will make the nations your inheritance,

the ends of the earth your possession.

⁹You will rule them with an iron scepter^f;

you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

¹⁰Therefore, you kings, be wise;

be warned, you rulers of the earth.

¹¹Serve the Lord with fear

and rejoice with trembling.

¹²Kiss the Son, lest he be angry

and you be destroyed in your way,

for his wrath can flare up in a moment.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Moving on to another important dimension of Daniel is that  His appearance is referred to as the “son of man” yet we see that He was given and allowed worship which was strictly forbidden based on the testimony of G-d’s word. G-d makes no allowances for the worship of any other figure whether beast or angel and He says not to make idols likewise which predominantly ranks number one among the ten words or commandments of the L-rd. This exalted realm was uniquely reserved for G-d himself and this is communicated in Exodus 34:14 and Deuteronomy 4:15-20.

¹⁴ Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:15-20

¹⁵ You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, ¹⁶ so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, ¹⁷ or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. ¹⁹ And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. ²⁰ But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.

Thisemphatically states that no other gods would be worshipped. So how does the “Ancient of Days” allow for this diversion of truth. He doesn’t, and therefore it is a defining moment in which the very nature of the one liken unto the “son of man”  would be conjoined with G-d  Himself in the mystery of God’s unity.

Lastly my challenge to you is that you do not find yourself like the participants in Psalms 2. If you think that you are loyal to God remember that as you study the Tanakh you will see time and time again how that G-d’s chosen people continually rejected God’s chosen representatives which include the likes of prophets, priests, kings, and even G-d Himself. G-d’s authority had being challenged from Sinai and before even to this present hour of rejecting the one to whom homage and obeisance is due.

The Messiah in Isaiah 53 was rejected and in the Gospel accounts it says that He came unto his own but His own received Him not which ultimately lead to Golgotha and death upon the human implement of torture namely the cross. It is from the cross that Jesus took His piercings as corroborated from in Zechariah 12:10-14.

¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit^a of grace and supplication. They will look on^b me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. ¹¹ On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, ¹³ the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴ and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

This is a wonderful depiction to the finality of redemption for the Jewish people for whom He was pierced. So ultimately while waiting for the indefinite period of his coming and return in pouring out this spirit of grace and supplication let us hearken to the voice of G-d as spoken of by the Psalmist in 95:7-8 that states “Today if you hear the voice of G-d do not harden your hearts” . Today let us embrace G-ds provision and let us kiss the “Son” lest He be angry with you and destroy you. I pray that you will be the beneficiary of his grace while avoiding his wrath and judgment.

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The thing that separates Jesus and makes Him unique is His universal mission outside the boundaries of covenant Israel.

Upon Jesus’ soon to be departure He tells His followers to go into all the nations and make disciples of men. This may seem ironic based on the life of Christ and though to them perhaps they saw its immediate application to the Diaspora yet later a fuller revelation would occur to its application as Paul would become the chief apostle to the gentiles.

Nevertheless Jesus message was first to the Jew because they had been prepared as a  priestly nation interceding and declaring the glory of G-d to the nations Exodus 19:6. Their time on earth was seen as an internship of sorts preparing them for their occupational and intercessory role as being the priests of G-d.

No other messianic figure in all of Jewish history has so impacted the world as Jesus. There has not even been a worthy rival to his title and position as Messiah among the ranks of the Messianic hopefuls seen throughout the course of Israel’s past and present. Yet the inclusion of the gentiles into the kingdom of G-d would be the touchstone in defining the uniqueness of His ministry.

G-d didn’t just create a Messiah for just the Jewish people while leaving out the gentiles in reserving them to kindle the fires of hell. Nor are there two Messiahs one for the Jews and the other for the gentiles. Either Jesus is the Messiah for all or He is the Messiah for no one. Jesus would be the ultimate representative as the seed of Abraham in blessing all the nations. This blessing would incorporate the unification of both Jew and gentile into a godly and a chosen nation.

Again its seems ironic when looking at the scriptures that Jews do not take seriously their role in sharing and communicating their faith to outsiders who are considered beyond the fringes of the covenant community. There has been a degree of shunning as if to protect their coveted rights as a people with respect to the promises of G-d maintaining a sense of exclusivity in having a monopoly on G-d. There were some Jews who took this biblical mandate seriously from the L-rd which resulted in non Jews becoming apart of the religious community.  We see this from the Tanakh which speaks of the “Court of the Gentiles” as a place of worship within the temple precincts and how these gentile G-d fearers and converts to Judaism were meeting in the synagogue on the Sabbath. We also see Jesus referencing the  Pharisees in their concern for proselytizing in that they would encompass both land and sea to win a convert.

Today conversion is seen as  a necessary evil in order to combat complete assimilation and the loss of the Jewish identity which has resulted from mixed marriages or intermarriage between Jews and non Jews.

So not only have the Jews forsaken their calling as a nation of  priests but they have neglected to see the purpose of their chief Messianic representative as having a concern for the nations.

As you read through these scriptures you will see the obvious care that G-d has for preserving all nations under his rule and reign and this is happening today on a worldwide or universal scale.

In Isaiah 11:10 we see how that the Messiah will stand as a banner for the peoples and how that the nations will rally to Him. In Isaiah 42:6-7 the Messiah would be a covenant for the people( Israel) and a light to the Gentiles in opening the eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.  We also see  an illumination taking place among the nations starting from the Galilee of the Gentiles extending to the ends of the earth.

In Isaiah 49:6 it states “It is too small a thing for you too be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and brink back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Just to think that a gentile world would accept or swear allegiance to a foreign representative or Messiah who has been removed from his physical entry on the earth for 2000 years is psychologically mind boggling. Usually people choose leaders from among their own group yet Jesus has gained for himself a  world wide gathering from people who have often shared hostility and anti-Semitic behavior towards the Jewish people. Combine this with the brevity of time and the limited geographical influence that He had while walking on this planet and it is astounding in scope.

Jesus is the most influential Jew to have ever touched humanity. Some people may argue this in a negative sense because of so called Christian persecution but these people who identified themselves as Christians were not the disciples of Christ and they were misguided in their evil acts and hate crimes.  Nevertheless I believe that G-d has worked uniquely through his Son in fulfilling biblical prophecy which is undeniably verifiable. My challenge to you is that you will not allow G-d’s inclusion of the gentiles to be a a stumbling block for your belief as a Jew . Just consider the glorious union and peace that would result from this new covenant community of believers  that would be united in their love for G-d and each other. The new testament defines this relationship of unity as  being bound together as one new man by breaking down the walls of hostility, Ephesians 2:14.

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Did you know that there is a Jewish New Testament? You may have been told to avoid this heretical book and those who dare to look into its contents will be in danger of eternal fire.

Yet that statement is a bit problematic because the New Testament comes straight from the Tanakh and it should be more accurately rendered as being  the “New Covenant” or the “B’rit Hadasha”.  This word  is taken from the Hebrew scriptures and was spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31.

31 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.

Verse 32 stresses the point that it will not be like the mosaic covenant and the reason for this was because they broke G-ds covenant.
If you read in Deuteronomy about the conditions of the mosaic covenant it would either leave a person in a state of blessedness or a curse which ultimately resulted in the Israelites being ejected and vomited from the land of Israel being dispersed among the nations.
If you look at biblical and Jewish history the reality of these consequences are plainly seen by means of the exile and the Diaspora.
Even after thousands of years the Jewish people have not been able to uphold the mosaic covenant corporately and therefore they have failed in receiving the  blessings of obedience. If you just take a look at Tel Aviv alone you will see the Jewish nation living in the holy land but ironically they  are not living a holy life.
A person may ask themselves why do we need something different and in verse 33 it tells us because  this new covenant would bring about an internal change of  heart contrary to some external form of legalistic righteousness.
This internal working would be accomplished by the Spirit of G-d and this is briefly alluded to in Ezekiel 11: 19 and 20

19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Notice the continuity in these same verses and this is further corroborated as we read about it also in the prophecy of Joel 2:28 and 29

28 “And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

The Jewish rabbi Yeshua or Jesus talks about the advent of this new covenant during a passover seder as spoken of  in Luke 22:20 “this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you”. During biblical times a covenant was made or “cut” by the shedding of blood. This was done initially in ratifying the mosaic law and it is repeated again here by the shed blood of Jesus who was being offered as a Paschal lamb.
This concept of someone taking upon himself a substitutionary form of death is not just a christian doctrine but it has its scriptural roots and origins in the servant songs of Isaiah 53 in which Yeshua is portrayed as the “Suffering Servant.”
Jesus sacrificial death would set in order this new advent which would be characterized by the giving of the “Spirit” of G-d.
Jesus speaks of this in John 3:3 where he describes this internal change of heart to Nicodemus, who was a Jewish member of the Sanhedrin, expressing to him that you must be “born again” or “born from above” to enter the kingdom of G-d and He furthers expounds on this in verse 8 as related to the “Spirit”. John further explains this concept   in John 7: 37-39 in which  during Sukkot Jesus declares that those who believe in Him would receive the “Spirit”. This teaching is clearly explained  through many of the new testament sources including the initial outpouring of the “Spirit” on Shavuot in Acts 2 where Peter gives his address to the Jewish exiles in Jerusalem. He tells the people  that what they see and hear is a result of the prophecy that I referred to in Joel 2.
These were Jewish people speaking about Jewish things to a Jewish audience. This was an inhouse situation among fellow Jews. This wasn’t a factor as related to administering some kind of  foreign jurisdiction but rather it was a matter of implementing a biblical mandate which was a radical departure from a contemporary  Jewish thought causing even the disciples of Jesus to struggle with the magnitude of these changes at times in adopting and  adjusting  to this “Spirit” age.
In summary the Mosaic covenant today can not be kept in its entirety due to the destruction of the temple and subsequently the keeping of the ceremonial laws that pertain to this facility. So if much of the mosaic covenant hinged upon the keeping of these sacrificial laws then why after 2,000 years has the temple not been restored. We know G-d is sovereign and if the  Jews who mourn its destruction desire to see it restored then why has G-d not allowed for its reconstruction but instead has  allowed a mosque to stand in the very place where He had once placed His name. Is it possible that G-d has done this in such a exclamatory fashion in order to get the attention of the Jewish community.
Could it be significant that the temple was destroyed by the Romans just 40 short years after Yeshua or Jesus death.
G-d no longer requires the demands of the temple in bringing about everlasting righteousness and he has not altered the mosaic covenant in fulfilling its requirements  through the man made offerings of prayer, good deeds, and fasting but rather He has accomplished His justice by offering  a perpetual “Yom Kippur” as a means of atonement through a transitory act of redemption which ushered in the new covenant era. The author of Hebrews  ascribes Jesus as the sacrifice given once and for all and though radically different it would take this radical departure in order to rehabilitate the condition of mens hearts.
Lastly, Jesus is the most influential Jew to have ever lived impacting all the world including both the gentile and Jewish sectors of society. Today there are over 300,000 Jews that willfully call Him  their Messiah  and to whom their lives and hearts have been changed from this new covenant. I would challenge you as well to look into these matters and research the person and work of Jesus in reviewing the validity of His claims. Do not allow yourself to remain haphazardly idle because if He is the Messiah then it would behoove you to follow him rather than treating Him as a common byword or an outcast.

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A glimpse of Jesus from the Tanakh is found in the book of the prophet Daniel. Daniel 9:24-27 reads.

²⁴ “Seventy ‘sevens’^a are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish^b transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.^c

²⁵ “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree^d to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,^e the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. ²⁶ After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.^f The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. ²⁷ He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’^g In the middle of the ‘seven’^h he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.ⁱ”^j

There has been much discussion on how to understand and apply an interpretation to this text and the mathematical formula in the dating of these Seventy “Sevens” of Daniel. Yet in spite of all of this we can still gather some relevant information in applying an understanding of the scripture as it relates to the Messiah or Moshiach the “Anointed One”.

Jesus was a historical figure who occupied a certain geographical location at a specific point in time in history. This is not questioned or denied even among secular historians. He also lived and interacted within the Jewish community in respect to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. We find him at 12 years of age discussing matters with the teachers of the law in the temple precincts and then at the conclusion of His life upon taking his last breath He declared regarding His redemptive work as being “Finished” and then the veil within the temple was torn.  The conclusion is that Jesus existed during the time of the temple and He prophesied to the future event of the impending judgment on Jerusalem in which the city and the temple would be destroyed which happened in 70 A.D. when the Romans ransacked the city. This destruction did not occur during the life of Jesus but 40 years after his death. You  can read about this in Matthew 23:37 extending into Chapter 24.

Daniel 9:24 uses words that compliment and describe the significance of this “Anointed One’s” reign or the inauguration of His rein.

The dating of the weeks is symbolic of years which is how it has been interpreted by some Christian and Jewish resources. So this prophetic utterance would have taken us directly to the time that Yeshua or Jesus lived on the earth.

Even the famed Jewish commentator Rashi who lived around the 11th century and who is respected as Judaism’s first and foremost commentator on the Talmud applied this interpretation to this same period of time but to the wrong person. He saw Herod Agrippa as the anointed one rather than Jesus.

In conclusion who else in history existed as a Messianic figure who was labeled “King of the Jews” and died or was cut off just prior to the destruction of the city and the temple which till this very same day has not been rebuilt or restored?

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Jesus is Jewish and His ancestral lineage can be traced back to the patriarchs and King David. He was a resident of Israel and lived a Jewish lifestyle encompassing the ceremonial, civil, and traditional aspects of Jewish living.

Perhaps He is even more Jewish than you are in many respects given His credentials.

Jesus is the most influential Jew to ever live so shouldn’t you at least consider His claims as well as the testimonies of fellow Jews who knew Him personally and wrote of Him in the gospel accounts.

Remember Jesus is not a foreign figure to the Jewish culture and community. Jesus was never a Gentile nor was He ever a Christian or a Catholic. He is the Jewish Messiah who came first for the nation of Israel and then later to the Gentiles. Today there are approximately over 300,000 Jews who believe in Jesus or Yeshua.

Perhaps you were told some things in regards to what to believe or not to believe concerning His ministry and work. Is it possible that this could just be a case of prejudice and misinformation. Dear friend I would not want a misunderstanding to come between you and the greatest gift G-d has ever given and personally I don’t think you want to miss out on the possibilities just because of some reactionary or emotional and irrational responses to His person .

Please take the time and read the gospels while prayerfully considering who Jesus is. I would encourage you not to approach this situation as merely a skeptic in taking only a critical look at the text. I would ask you to take an open, honest, and sincere evaluation while posturing yourself in an attitude of proving the new testament to be right rather than wrong. I would further ask  you to pray to G-d to reveal  to you the truth of the matter in a tangible way so as to believe and trust in Him as your L-rd and Saviour.

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