To some it appears that followers of Yeshua (the Jewish way to say Jesus) are deflecting, if not avoiding the “painful” truth by believing in “the Second Coming”. “Why would it be necessary for Messiah to come twice?” The doubtful ask, “Didn’t He do it right the first time? And if he is the Jewish Messiah, as you claim, where in the Jewish Scriptures does it say anything about two comings of the Messiah?”

Two Pictures of Messiah: To reign, and yet, to be rejected
The issue of “two comings” of the Messiah is neither non-Jewish nor particularly unusual to Jewish thought. For two millennia the rabbinical community has been discussing, pondering and conjecturing the possible ways to resolve paradoxical and seemingly contradictory references to the Messiah in the Jewish Scriptures.  On one hand, the Scriptures present a picture of the Messiah reigning:

“The kings of the earth take their stand against the LORD and His Messiah…The LORD laughs at them…saying, “I have installed My King on Zion” (Psalm 2:2-4).

“Behold, days are coming, says the LORD, that I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper…” (Jeremiah 23:5).

 In these portions, and in many others (Genesis 49:10; Numbers 24:17; Psalm 45:6,7; 110:1-7; Isaiah 2:1-4; 11:10; Zechariah 14:3,4, 16; etc.) Messiah is pictured as ruling and reigning over the enemies of God.  This is a time of peace and joy, Israel is the chief of nations again, and the Lord and the Davidic throne are gloriously established in Jerusalem.

 But alongside of this exalted scene, there is also the picture of Messiah rejected: “And the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing”  (Daniel 9:26).

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Surely, He took upon Himself our griefs and sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God and afflicted by Him. We did not esteem Him… Who of His generation considered Him? For He was cut off from the land of the Living for the transgressions of my people to whom the stroke was due” (Isaiah 53:2-8).

“I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see Me mock me and hurl insults… you lay me at the door of death…they have pierced My hands and my feet…” (Psalm 22: 6-16).

In these portions and many others (Isaiah 49:7; 50:6; Psalm 69:4-22; Zech. 11:12; etc.) Messiah is seen as rejected and suffering in innocence for the sins of others, even as Israel is in spiritual blindness and judgment. Two different works of Messiah are presented:

1. He will suffer and die for sins;
2. He will reign and rule in peace.

These two, contrasting Scriptural pictures of the Messiah have brought about various theories of how the Messiah would be both reigning, yet rejected; a celebrated victor, while also a sacrificial victim.

There are many ideas about Messiah quite prevalent in rabbinical literature*.  There are the ideas of a ‘Resurrected Messiah’; a ‘Leper Messiah’; Two Messiahs (‘Messiah Son of Joseph’, that will innocently suffer as Joseph suffered innocently, & ‘Messiah Son of David’, who will reign as David reigned); a ‘Beggar Messiah’; etc. Traditional Jewish scholarship has worked to understand these two very different pictures of the Jewish Messiah.

Two comings of Messiah revealed!
Hosea the Prophet speaks to the subject as well, as he presents God speaking to wayward Israel:

“Then I will go back to My place until they admit their guilt and seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek Me” (Hosea 5:15).

We see God offended at Israel’s sins and “going back to [His] place [Heaven] until they admit guilt.” The implication is that when they “admit their guilt”, then He will return to them. This is clearly stated in Israel’s response to the Lord’s leaving:

 “Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3).

Though He had left, they had confidence He would also certainly reappear. There was hope in the Lord’s statement that their admission of guilt would bring about His return. In light of all this discussion it should surprise no one that the Messiah Himself would come and clarify these apparently contradictory pictures of His work. Similar to the portion in Hosea, Yeshua says to Israel:

“You shall not see me again until you say ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord'” (Matthew 23:39).

Following Yeshua’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension (going back to His place), Peter proclaims to the Jewish crowds in Jerusalem:

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away, that the times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. He must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago in the holy prophets” (Acts 3:19-21). 

The New Covenant revelation regarding the two works of Messiah is not new. It is a clarification and fulfillment of what the Jewish Scriptures prophesied: that Messiah would come to die for our sins, be raised from the dead, go back to His place, and return when our people acknowledge their guilt and call out to Him. As Joseph was at first rejected by his brothers, then later accepted; and also as Moses was first rejected by Israel, then later was accepted, so also Messiah would be rejected and then later accepted.

The return of the Messiah is mentioned many times in the New Covenant (Matthew 24-25; I Thessalonians 1:10; 4:13-5:9; Rev. 22; etc.). This is because the Jewish scriptures will be fulfilled in every detail. Just as Messiah had to suffer and die for sins, so He will also return to reign and bring peace.

The Jewish Scriptures predict that one day our people “will look unto Me whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son” at His Second coming (Zechariah 12:10). So look to Him now, trust in the atonement He made by His death for your sins, and receive the new life that He gives to all who come to Him!

*Sukkot 52a,b; Gen. Rabbah LXXV, 6; XCV; XCIX, 2; S.S. Rabbah II, 4; Num. Rabbah XIV, 1;Sefer Sippurim Noraim 9a-b, 10b; etc

The Controversy
Of all the miracles the Bible attributes to God, it seems the ‘virgin birth of Messiah’ arouses the most controversy. But the same Bible that reveals God declares the virgin birth to be a historical fact. Some  question whether it can be considered a scientific fact since it can not be observed nor repeated. But then what miracle can be? The virgin birth of Messiah is simply another unique and miraculous work of God! 

An Issue of Miracles
Miracles may be irrelevant for those that dismiss the possibility of God. But if God is even a possibility, then so are miracles. “Still,” you might think, “the virgin birth is hard to believe.” Actually, it depends on how big your God is! For the One who is the Creator of all, no miracle is too difficult, and thus, no miracle should be dismissed out of hand. 

Moreover, for Jews, miracles are the only rationale for our own existence. After all, if left to the preferences of the Egyptians and Pharaoh, the Persians and Haman, or the Nazis and Hitler, we Jews wouldn’t be here at all! Yet while other ancient peoples have come and gone (do you know any Hittites?), the Jewish people remain.  God promised to keep us as a people, and miraculously He has done it. 

Miraculous births are a big part of that story. God decided to bless the world through a people by whom the Messiah would come (Gen. 12:3). God chose to use Abraham and Sarah, and as the Scriptures teach us, Abraham was old, and Sarah was barren (Gen. 11:30). Thus the obvious problem is that God purposely chose to make a nation from the one couple that couldn’t have kids! 

Rather than this being a problem, this was the point. If the promise of God would effectively bless the world, then it would take the power of God to make it happen. And miracle of miracles, Isaac was born. Isaac then marries Rebecca. She too was barren, but again God intervenes (Gen. 25:21). And again with Jacob, and Rachel, who was barren (Gen. 29:31) Again, God miraculously provides a miracle birth (Gen. 30:22-24). 

To recap, biblical history shows that the existence of the Jewish people is based upon miracle births from God. So rather than seeming abnormal, a miracle birth for the Jewish Messiah should be expected. After all, shouldn’t we expect the most unusual Person in the universe to have a most unusual entrance through His birth? His unique nature would actually require it!

The Prophecy of a Virgin Birth
God actually told us to expect a virgin birth for the Messiah. As far back as the very first messianic prophecy we see this same hope: “And I will put enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

God promised to remove that Serpent of old, Satan, the father of lies and anti-Semitism, through the Redeemer, who would come from ‘the seed’  of the woman. This is God’s first attention-getting clue: a woman would be the instrument of Messiah’s coming. 

In the prophet Isaiah we read Messiah’s prophetic birth announcement:

“The Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). 

Some object against the word ‘virgin’ as an accurate translation of the Hebrew word almah. Yet in the Hebrew Scriptures, the word almah is used seven times (Gen. 24:43; Ex. 2:8; Prov. 30:18; Ps. 68:25; Song of Sol. 1:3; 6:8), and every time it speaks of young women who have not had sexual relations. 

In the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, the Hebrew Scriptures were for the first time translated into Greek. According to tradition, it was done by seventy Rabbis, which accounts for the name Septuagint, which means 70. They translated almah as parthenos, or “virgin.” This was centuries before Messiah and thus objective, rightly used by the New Covenant (Matthew 1:23). There is no solid ground for thinking ‘virgin’ is an inaccurate reading of the Isaiah text. 

It is sometimes argued that a different Hebrew word, betulah, would have served as a closer word for ‘virgin’. However, the two Hebrew words are largely synonymous (cf. Gen. 24, where Rebekah identified as both), and therefore either would make the point. In fact, it is not clear whether betulah would actually have been a good choice, since it is also used for a widow in Joel 1:8.

What’s in a name?
But, why the name “Emmanuel” in Isaiah 7 rather than “Yeshua"? Many places in the Hebrew Scriptures tell us about Messiah, each giving us a different “name.” In Isaiah 9:5(6), His name is called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince Of Peace.” In Jeremiah 23:6, He is called “the Lord our Righteousness.” In Isaiah 7:14 it is “Emmanu El.” As opposed to a “given name,” each of these names describe some quality of God’s nature or character. 

Emmanu El (two words) means “God is with us.” God will neither leave nor forsake us in our sins, for Messiah, the hope of the House of David, will come. We have, by faith in Messiah, the eternal relationship with God which our lives desperately need. For in Messiah Yeshua “God is with us!” 

Isaiah told wicked King Ahaz that “if you will not believe you not will be established” (Isaiah 7:9). The same is true for each of us. Let us have faith in the God of Israel’s greatest miracle, Messiah, that we may be eternally established before Him.

(*Yeshua is the name Jesus in Hebrew)

The story goes something like this: a person considering whether Yeshua*  is the Messiah asks his Rabbi, "Could it be that Messiah has already come, and that Yeshua is His name?" The Rabbi walks over to the window and looks out, shakes his head and with a sigh declares: “He can't be the true Messiah. There's still no peace. We know that when Messiah comes there will be peace everywhere.” Is it true that Messiah is to bring peace? And if Yeshua is the Messiah, then where's the peace?

The Promise of Peace
The desire for peace is universal among the sane nations of this world. The idea of peace means much more than merely the end of political hostilities. The Hebrew word ‘shalom’ has in it the idea of ‘completeness’ or ‘wholeness.’ Because of sin we are all ‘incomplete’. The scriptures tell us that sin separates us from God, from each other, and from even ourselves. However, the shalom of God fulfills us perfectly and completely.

This is the very desire of God, who in Aaron's blessing states, “May the Lord give you peace” (Numbers 6:26); the Psalmist writes “The Lord will bless His people with peace” (Psalm 29:11); and in the Prophets, Messiah is even called “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). In fact, when Messiah reigns peace will be His Kingdom's theme (Isaiah 2:1-4; 9:4-5, 7; Zechariah. 9:9-10; etc.).

This universal peace of Messiah is, however, based on every person first having a personal peace through a right relationship with God: "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You" (Isaiah 26:3).

Thus when each person receives peace from God, then each one can share and live in that peace within their family, community, country and world. This peace is like having a million dollars to give to a friend: if you don't have it, of course, you can’t give it.

The Rejection of Peace
The Scriptures prophesy that God's peace would actually be rejected when it would be offered. Isaiah the Prophet wrote that Messiah, the Prince of Peace, would come to make peace between God and His people, and that Messiah would be rejected. When Messiah would be rejected the peace He brings would be rejected with Him. Why would Messiah be rejected?

1. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should be attracted to Him.” (Isaiah 53:2)

For people attracted to externals, Messiah would be too ordinary looking: there was nothing about His appearance to command our attention. But for those who were looking for true peace with God, it was Messiah's internal character that made Him stand out.

 2. “He was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Surely, He took upon Himself our griefs and sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God and afflicted by Him.” (Isaiah 53:3-4)

For people desirous of comfort and convenience, this one suffered too much. How could one suffer so much at the hands of religious people and the government, and not be judged by God? In any case, no decent person wants to associate with someone who attracts trouble the way this “Messiah” did! But He suffered for our sins, not His own: “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

3) “He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before the shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)

He was too compliant, too passive. He wasn't exactly the “John Wayne” type of warrior king. Many wanted a Messiah who would come to vanquish the enemies of Israel and thus have a forced peace. His humility was despised and rejected, for He came not to protect His own life, but to be an offering for our sins: “the Lord makes His life a guilt offering.” (Isaiah 53:10)

Now suppose I came to your house with a beautiful cake--my father always taught me not to visit empty handed--but as soon as you saw it was me you slammed the door in my face! Would you still expect to get the cake? Of course not! Reject me, and you reject all that I bring with me. So, why isn't there “peace”? Reject the Prince of Peace and you reject the very peace that He brings.

The Provision of Peace
The New Covenant Scriptures repeat the promise of Isaiah 26:3 (see above). All who will trust in Messiah and the atonement that He made for sins, receives...

1. Peace with God
2. Peace of mind and heart
3. Peace with one another

1) “Therefore, since we're made right with God by faith, we have peace with God through Yeshua Hamashiach Adoneinu [our Lord Yeshua the Messiah].” (Romans 5:1).

2) “The peace of God, which is beyond all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Messiah Yeshua.” (Philippians 4:7)

3) “Messiah is our peace, who has made the two (Jews and Gentiles) one…one new person, thus making peace.” (Ephesians 2:14-15)

The Scriptures also teach that one day our people, Israel, will acknowledge the Messiah and receive His salvation and peace “The stone which the builders rejected shall become the capstone!” (Psalms 118:22-26). In light of that event, we are commanded to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalms 122:6). In that day, peace will be worldwide, even as the Scriptures promised.

A View of the Future
An illustration of that coming day was once seen in Israel. An Israeli soldier, who believes in Yeshua, was on patrol one night in Gaza. While on patrol his squad spotted a suspiciously parked van, which in this part of the world can be dangerous. Somebody had to check it out, so the others in his squad had him, the "believer", investigate the van. As he approached the vehicle a man came out and walked toward him: it was the driver, who turned out to be a Palestinian pastor--a believer in Yeshua--visiting some of his congregants. To the amazement of his on-looking squad, here was an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian laughing and rejoicing in fellowship in the Gaza moonlight. Yeshua is Israel's hope for peace.

Until that coming day, each one of us can right now have peace with God in our own hearts, and with each other by trusting in Israel's Messiah, Yeshua. Trusting the Lord begins by recognizing that the world's peace plans, nor our own strategies for personal peace have not worked, nor will they work. Messiah Yeshua is God's way to have peace in your life and “peace on earth, goodwill to all people.”

It seems rather strange to many Jewish people that the Messiah could have come, and yet comparatively so few Jews believe it.
Many times the question sounds like this: “So, with all the scholars and rabbis searching to discover the Messiah, you’re the only genius to figure this out?” 
The number of living Jewish people who believe in Yeshua (Jesus’ Jewish name) numbers somewhere between 200,000 to over a million.  Though this number is not insignificant, it’s still not the majority of the Jewish people.  For many, there’s the idea that the truth is determined by a majority vote.  But as much as this may play a role in the politics of men, this has little to do with the truth of God.

In the Jewish Scriptures (Tanakh), the prophet Isaiah declares that most Jewish people would not recognize the Messiah when He would first come: “Who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him as a tender shoot, as a root out of dry ground; He would have no majesty that would attract us, nor any beauty that we would desire Him. He is despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:1-3).

God knew and revealed to Isaiah what may not seem all that hard to figure out:  The majority of people don’t want God’s way of salvation, not even religious people!  In fact, that’s exactly what Isaiah goes on to say: “All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned his own way; but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”  (Isaiah 53:6).

It was prophesied that although He would be our sin-bearer, the true Messiah would be rejected by the majority of the Jewish people when He would first come. Isaiah makes this matter crystal clear by further stating:  “The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob to the *Mighty God” (Isaiah 10:21).

God recognized that only a “remnant”, a very small portion of the whole nation, would believe and make “teshuvah” (repentance).  Only this remnant would “return to the Mighty God”. This prediction is fulfilled in the Jewish people (like myself) who have come to believe in Yeshua. The New Covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-34) also compares the present situation of the Jewish majority with their apostate condition in the time of Elijah the Prophet:  “Even so, then, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5).

Though the Scriptures make clear the phenomenon of general unbelief,  there will be some who still wonder how the Rabbis could have “missed it”.  The Messiah that God promised and sent was not the 'Messiah' the world or the rabbis were looking for.  They wanted a Messiah who would immediately remove Roman domination from Israel and return Israel to its former glory.

But the purpose of Yeshua’s coming was to die for sins; and rather than vindicate the self-righteous judgements of the rabbis, He insisted that the religious leaders of Israel repent as well!  That was intolerable for the rabbinical leaders. Though many did accept the Messiah, the majority of the Jewish people and Rabbis rejected Yeshua, just as the prophets predicted.

But there will come a time when our people as a nation will come to believe in Him. The Prophets also predicted: “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,  the Spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look on Me whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son” (Zechariah 12:10).

“The stone which the builders rejected shall become the chief of the corner” (Psalms 118:22).

One day our people will trust in Yeshua, their Messiah and King.

We also see it was foretold that today a “remnant of Israel” believes in the Messiah. You can be part of that “remnant”, if you will acknowledge Yeshua for what the Tanakh and New Covenant declare Him to be, the Messiah of our people.  Shalom!