What 1st century Jews PROPHETICALLY misunderstood per their disbelief in Jesus as Messiah?
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2024 1:54 pm
What 1st century Jews PROPHETICALLY and THEOLOGICALLY misunderstood per their disbelief in Jesus as Messiah?
Most know that one key component as to why Israel's religious leaders in the first century rejected Jesus as Messiah - as they even plotted to kill Him - had much to do with retaining their great pride and prestige as those in charge of religious instruction and overseeing The Old Testament Law. In fact, the religious leaders had added a huge number of laws that were NOT in The Law of Moses. These included many burdensome things that went FAR beyond what was written in the writings of the Old Testament prophets - things they had merely made up per their own traditions. And, related to these, Israel's religious leaders were extremely jealous of the masses following after Jesus and were worried that their positions and prestige was being taken from them. They worried that they would become irrelevant in the eyes and hearts of the crowds following Jesus. Not only did these leaders collaborate with each other, but also, selfishly, with the Romans, so bad did they desire to retain their own power.
Israel's religious hierarchy didn't care if Jesus might be the Messiah, as they were much more concerned with retaining their own power. But the Jews' rejection of Jesus as Messiah had other reasons as well - and many of these were due to their serious misunderstandings of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah (as many Jews still do to this day). For Jesus to be credible to most Jews as being the Messiah, He had to fulfill certain key prophesies upon His arrival - which He clearly did. However, most Jews failed to discern the obvious fulfillments - and most critically - how and where the prophesies distinguish between the Messiah's FIRST coming, and His final RETURN (which Christians worldwide currently await). Jesus gave them plenty of evidences WHO and WHAT He truly was and is, but the hard hearts and selfish motivations of the religious leaders motivated them to deny these.
So, here's an eye-opening short video explaining the important THEOLOGICAL misunderstandings many first century Jews had about what to expect upon the Messiah's birth into the world and His FIRST and immediate mission, which led them to reject Him as being the collective and powerful fulfillment of those prophesies:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XspdYlpifkc