Jewish people all over the world are anxiously anticipating the coming of the Messiah. He is supposed to establish peace such as has never been seen before. What if the Scriptures let us know when this Messiah was coming?
Haggai 2:7 teaches that the desire of all nations would come to the temple and the Lord would fill the house with glory. So what is all of this talking about? The Messiah is the desire of all nations. (This verse is specifically applied to the time of the coming of the Messiah in Tractate Debharim Rabba.) Verse 9 say that the glory of this temple would be greater than the glory of the first. We all know that the Second Temple was not as glorious a structure as the first. So how could its glory surpass that of the first? Because this was the one to which the Messiah was supposed to come. However, the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. Why did he not come?
Perhaps there is some misunderstanding of the meaning of the verse. Just in case, we will look to other Scriptures to see what they say. Genesis 49:10 reads, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall be the gathering of the people.” The sceptre is understood to be the national identity of Judah which enables it to enforce Mosaic law. Shiloh is another word for Messiah. Judah retained its identity and judicial authority even during the seventy years of Babylonian captivity. Ezra 1:5-8 shows that the priests and prince were still in existence even after seventy years in exile. The sceptre did not depart during this time. Judah retained its identity until the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. At that time the sceptre depart from Judah. WAIT! Messiah should have come before that happened. How could two prophets prophecy the exact same event for the same time period and both be wrong?
In Daniel chapter 9:24-26, we are told the exact time that Messiah is supposed to come. This prophecy is so mind-boggling that most rabbis are not taught its meaning. It says that the Messiah is to come 69 weeks after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. The problem arises when one acknowledges that three decrees were given for this task. That of Cyrus in 536 B.C., that of Darius between 531-486 B.C., and that of Artaxerses in around 454-434 B.C. The exact date of some of these is debatable but that is not our goal. I will also not bore you with the complex math. I could spend all day debating these issues but, the fact remains that the Messiah was supposed to come 483 years after one of these decrees. In either case, He was supposed to come between 53 B.C. and 49 A.D. Where is He?
All three prophets taught that the Messiah was to come about two thousand years ago. Dear friend, he has not delayed, but did come already. He came and died as was cut off as Daniel 9:26 taught. He was wounded for your transgressions, Isaiah 53:5. Jesus is the Messiah! Won’t you repent and believe the Gospel today?
