BIBLE PROPHECIES | ISAIAH (11)

1. Isaiah

a) Isaiah the prophet lived in Jerusalem about 2700 years ago, during the time in which the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern part of the Jewish homeland. The book of Isaiah contains many prophecies that are interpreted by Christians (including us at this web site) as being about the Messiah Jesus Christ. Today, we can see with our own eyes that many of Isaiah's prophecies have found fulfillment with the worldwide dispersion of Jews, the worldwide persecution of Jews, the recent worldwide migration of Jews back to Israel during the past century, the recent re-establishment and restoration of Israel, and the worldwide impact that Jews have had on the world.

b) Bible prophecies are listed below.

2. Bible Prophecies

a) The Messiah would be rejected. 

Isaiah 53:1-3 New International Version (NIV) 

53 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 

3. Written: Between 701-681 BC

a) In Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the prophet foreshadowed the life and mission of Jesus, who was born about 700 years later. In Isaiah 53:3, the prophet said that the Messiah would be rejected and despised. Jesus was indeed rejected by many people during the time of his ministry about 2000 years ago, before he was executed by the Romans. 

b) It has been claimed by some writers that Isaiah 52:13-53:12 actually refers to Israel as a nation and not to an individual Messiah. But, there are several commentaries written by rabbis that show that even non-Christians widely acknowledged that the prophecy refers to a Messiah and not to a nation. Several examples of these writings are listed in the book, The Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters, edited by S.R. Driver and A.D. Neubauer. Here are two examples from that book: 

i) "Our Rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of the King Messiah, and we shall ourselves also adhere to the same view." - Rabbi Moshe Alshekh, 16th century.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the meaning of which is that since the Messiah bears our iniquities which produce the effect of his being bruised, it follows that whoso will not admit that the Messiah thus suffers for our iniquities, must endure and suffer for them himself." - Rabbi Eliyyah de Vidas, who wrote during the 16th century.