The Suffering Servent of Isaiah 53 - Verses 7-9 (Part 3)

Isaiah 53:7
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."
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About two years ago I was watching a History Channel 2006 documentary entitled, "Hitler's Holocaust". This documentary contains several interviews of Nazis from that era in order to allow the viewers into the mindset of the Nazis. One particular interview caught my eyes and ears more than any other. It was a former lieutenant of the German Military Police who was responsible for supervising the lines of Jews awaiting their turn to enter the gas chambers. As I was hearing this Nazi speak I was caught up into what Isaiah 53:7 states. I immediately went to get pen and paper and began the process of starting and stopping the taped video so I could write down each sentence and word according to the English subtitles of his German statement, and this is what he said:
“They were always very quite, I never heard the cry. I never heard railing. Although they were being pushed forward by the Germans, this was usually without shouting. There was such a deathly silence over everything that it was very oppressive.” - Peter V.D. Osten-Sacken Lieutenants German Military Police
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It is noteworthy that this speaker like the ones speaking in Isaiah 53:7 is a Gentile, and not just any Gentile, but one who was among Israel's most notorious persecutors - an actual Nazi. What he is not, is a religious Jewish rabbi confessing his faults for not recognizing what the Gentile had persecuted him to believe for two thousand years, that Jesus was his messiah. So with that in mind, let's compare this Nazi's statement along with the scripture of Isaiah 53"7 back to back and see just how close they actually relate to each other.
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"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." “They were always very quite, I never heard the cry. I never heard railing. Although they were being pushed forward by the Germans, this was usually without shouting. There was such a deathly silence over everything that it was very oppressive.”
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The text of Isaiah 53 is completely allegorical. However, because the Holocaust was so extraordinary in the history mankind, many things in the text that are allegorical almost becomes literal. The reality of Jews being transported on "cattle cars" to places like Treblinka and Auschwitz where their heads (including women) were shaven, and lines were formed (many of them naked) to await their slaughter via gas chamber or crematorium, seems almost to fulfill the text in a literal sense of "sheep before her shearers" and "lambs being 'brought' to the slaughter". This fact becomes even more extraordinary when David's statement concerning his Jewish people is added:
"Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter" - Psalms 44:22
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Isaiah 53:8
"He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living..."
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When you take the KJV translators preconceived notion of influence from out of the verse, one ends up with an English translation sounding something like this:
"(Seeing) him being released from captivity and from judgment, who could have imagined this generation? For he was cut off from out of the land of the living and was afflicted due to my people's sin."
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One of the greatest end-time events that gets a lot a air-time so to speak in the Hebrew scripture is the promised return of Jews to the land of their fathers - Israel. The return of the exiles, Israel becoming righteous before the Gentile world while keeping (doing) the Law of Moses, the messiah, and the messianic age are all connected together as one single fulfillment (see Ezekiel 34:13 / Ezekiel 36:24 / *Ezekiel 37:21-28 / Isaiah 11:12 / Isaiah 43:6).
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In verse 8 the Gentiles begin to marvel over the Jewish return to Israel (as many non-Christian Gentiles already have) - http://www.geraldschroeder.com/age.html They marvel because of two reasons. One, they realize that there is a spiritual reason as to why after all that they have done to the nation of Israel it wasn't enough to bring him to an end, and that their desired to blot out his name forever (see Psalms 83: 4) was spiritually evil. Two, the return to the land is so great that the Gentiles begin to understand that such a return could not have been possible without God being on Israel's side (See Ezekiel 36: 33-36). Israel becoming a state in 1948 was the beginning and not the conclusion of a world-wide Jewish return to Israel. There is something in the form of "return" even far more greater in the near future.

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Of the two things verse 8 mentions, one being the servant being taken from captivity and two, the servant being cut-off from the land of the living, are both connected together in persecution of the servant, and not as two separate events unrelated to each other. Being cut off from the "land of the living" was to be "cut off" from the land of Israel (see Deuteronomy 30:19-20 / Ezekiel 37:11-12). This "cutting off from the land of the living" occurred in 586 BCE and and again in 70 CE that resulted in Israel's long Diaspora. The Jews also have also been historically "cut off" from Gentile "lands of living" such as Spain-1492, Germany-1939, and not to mention Gaza (which is again was Jewish land) 2005.
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Therefore, what verse 8 reveals is in fact the Diaspora (a very significant part of Jewish history - if a Gentile can even imagine important Jewish history actually being contained in the Hebrew Bible). This Diaspora was caused by the Gentiles that forced Jewish exiles into Gentile foreign lands where they were held captive from entering into the land of their fathers. But verse 8 hints of the massive return to the land (a return to "the land of the living") and the confessing Gentiles who now see in a spiritual perspective what they have historically done to the Jews.

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"...for the transgression of my people was he stricken."

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In part 1 of this blog we saw how an original singular pronoun was translated in the plural in Isaiah 52:4. Here in Isaiah 53:8 it is a plural masculine pronoun that is translated in the masculine singular by the King James translators. The Hebrew word "la-mo" (spelled: lamed-mem-vav) that is found here in verse 8 is a poetic expression of "la-hem" meaning "to them". It is a word that the King James translators had no problem at all with translating "lamo" as the pural pronoun "them" in all the other places throughout the Hebrew scriptures including the book of Isaiah (see Isaiah 16:4, 23:1, 30:5, 44:7, 48:21).

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So the question then becomes, why here in Isaiah 53, does the King James translators find it necessary to translate "lamo" as the singular pronoun "him"? Maybe because they needed to read the Gentile messiah-Jesus into the verse? The Hebrew reading of this portion is: "My people's sin (rebellion) had struck them".

Examples: The Inquisition and Holocaust rebellion against the God of Israel, struck the Jews!

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Isaiah 53:9
"And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death..."
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Following the flow of the context, "the servant" didn't "make" anything as the KJV might seem to be suggesting, because the servant was forced into it. The opening line of verse 9 is easier understood as, "he submitted [Hebrew root: na-ton 'gave'] himself to his grave among (along beside) the wicked." The following words, "and with the rich in his death" doesn't mean that the servant is buried in a rich man's tomb as the New Testament indicates (St. Matthew 27:57-60). That would make the flow of the context of a servant being persecuted to not make any sense. How is a innocent victim being buried in a rich man's tomb denote any derogation when derogation of the innocent servant is the theme of the entire context? I'm sorry, but to me the Gospel writer(s) of Matthew had to come up with a filler to fulfill this portion within the prophecy text, and Jesus being placed in a rich man's tomb was the best that they could come up with in using a history concerning only one man.
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The Hebrew is a little tricky here with its usage of the "Definite Direct Objects" but it's better translated and understood as: "He gave / submitted (himself) to his grave and the rich (gave / submitted) in their deaths.1
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The switching of a plural for the singular happens yet again here in verse 9. This time it is a plural possessive noun that is translated in the singular.

Hebrew Lesson:
In Hebrew, the root verb or noun is first given with the pronoun-suffix attached at the end of the word. To indicate that a possessive noun is plural in connection with the pronoun, the letter “yod” is placed in between the noun and the pronoun. Its use is like the plural-making “s” in English coming at the end of a noun. The word “bamotav” in the text is spelled, “bet-mem-tav-yod-vav”. The letter bet meaning, “in, by, of, on”. The letters mem-tav mean “death“. The letter yod changes “death” to “deaths” and the letter vav is the singular-male pronoun. The correct Hebrew translation is “his deaths".2 Therefore, if the original text reads "deaths" in verse 9, how does the one man death of Jesus fit into the text when it's "deaths" that the text is talking about?
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Getting back to the "wealth" portion of the text, the Jews are the only people who are stereo-typed as a race with wealth. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is largely based on this notion. Even the oil-rich Arabs are not stereo-typed for their wealth by race but only because of the "oil-rich" land in the Middle Est they happen to live on. I live in a state that has a Jewish population of about 6,ooo. Yet, even with such a low population the antisemtic mindset is still here. There are two incidents in recent past that I witnesses personally. In my training class at work a fellow co-worker asked the instructor whose last name was Goldstrum if he was Jewish because according to him, the word "gold" appears mostly in Jewish names. And one antisemite ask me in a Social Security office when seeing a Jewish man wearing a kippah (religious head covering) sitting at the service window, "What's he doing filing for social security, I thought they already had all the money?"
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The Jews do have a long history of having a high rate of success in finance. A large part of this history of was due to Gentile persecution. In Muslims lands is was forbidden for Muslims to handle gold whereby the Jews in Muslims lands became very skillful in the art of crafting gold, and money-leading was one of the few things the Jews in Christian Europe were allowed to do. The Jews became so good at managing money they were actually called upon to go to certain areas to rescue the local economies. And I'm of the opinion that our USA has been going downhill financially ever since a Jew named Alan Greenspan retired.
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The Webster Dictionary defines "usury" as the following: 1. the act or practice of lending money at a rate of interest that is excessive or unlawfully high. 2. the workings of the Jewish people during the Medieval period.
Just kidding. Webster doesn't say that. But see, you had "logical reason" to believe Webster could in fact (though insensitive) say something to that effect about the Jews. If any other race on earth was given with that same description you would have known right off I wasn't repeating Webster.
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The fact is however, the Holocaust is a great indicator of Gentile history towards the Jews. Many things that happened in the Holocaust had already taken place in the Spanish Inquisitions, such as purity of blood decrees, the wearing of yellow badges, Jewish ghettos, and of course, massive Jewish murder. The Jews were a wealthy people in Germany, Poland, and in every location across Europe. So when Hitler revolted against the World War I Treaty of Versailles the Jewish wealth was targeted. Jewish homes, property, jewelry, and even the gold in their teeth was striped from them before they were sent away in banishment or to the Nazi death camps stationed throughout Europe.

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The Christian Crusades, Inquisitions, Pogroms, and Mohammad's Arabian raids were no different to the Jewish communities that were subject to them. Everywhere the Jews have been persecuted it has always been their wealth that was taken from them and never their religion.
It was Jewish booty and slaves that built such places as the Roman Coliseum and stolen Jewish wealth during the Dark and Middle Ages that financed the Vatican.

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It has been Jewish wealth being stripped from them and distributed to the Gentile persecuting powers that fulfills the scripture, "He gave / submitted (himself) to his grave and the rich (gave / submitted) in their deaths."3

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There is something very spiritually symbolic that occurred at Brunnlitz that the ending part of "Schindler's List" - the movie brought to our attention. A gold filling is taken from out of one of the prisoner's mouth and made into a gold ring that states the Talmudic saying, "He who saves a single soul , saves the world entire". For a Jewish Holocaust victim to freely give his personal gold (even from his own mouth) to a righteous Gentile with Hebrew words of life inscribed on it for the Jewish lives he saved by his "List" was in fact the ultimate rebuke to the unrighteous Gentiles who took Jewish gold by murder that would forever represent Jewish death.
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What is ironic, the Gentiles never saw themselves in the same light as they saw the Jews as evil, rich, and conspiring, once they had illegally obtained the wealth of the Jews. This is why the "wealth portion" of the text is mentioned at all - the Gentiles who once viewed the Jews (as they do now) as owning all the banks and Wall Street for the purpose of an evil "Protocol" will see themselves as unrighteous slayers of this wealthy people and that their own illegal wealth condemns them in the same way that they historically condemned the Jews.
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Isaiah 53:9 (continued)
"...because he had done no violence..."
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"Violence" as in crime-violence, is not a Jewish characteristic. Different sects within Judaism such as the Orthodox and Reform are miles apart in how they each express their Judaism, but they don't murder each other in the name of their God like the Christian sects of East and West, and Catholic and Protestant have done in their past. The Islamic sects of Sunnis and Shiites are in the process of killing each other everyday and have been since the murder of Husayn ibn Ali in 680 CE. The Jews not only didn't murder each other over doctrine but neither have they sought to conquer Gentile lands outside their own "promised land". Modern Israel has fought many wars but has yet to initiate one or even threaten war outside of a defensive military mindset. Israel's military armed forces are known as IDF - Israel "Defense" Force".
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It is not a coincidence that the Hebrew word for violence (or crime) used in this ancient text is spelled "chet-mem-samech" pronounced "hamas" when a terrorist group by the same name is the closest to the peaceful (in-gathered) Israelis, and are the most "violent-cultured" people in all the earth!
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Ponder this:
The most commonly known Hebrew word in the West is, "Shalom"4 of which I don't have to tell you what it means.
The most commonly known Arabic word in the West is, "Jihad" of which I also don't have to tell you what it means.
Now, notice the opposite meanings that each culture is based upon!
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Isaiah 53:9 (continued)
"...neither was any deceit in his mouth."
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Judaism is the only monotheistic religion that simply tells you what it is all about from the get-go. The reason simply being, Judaism doesn't seek new converts to join in with the religion. They actually discourage (but not prohibit) Gentile conversion into the religion. A Gentile can be righteous outside of Judaism by blessing the God of Israel (Numbers 24:5,9 / Micah 6:8). Judaism has no reason to sugar-coat nor threaten with hellfire in order to fill the pews and tithe boxes.
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Deceit can be found in the mouths in Islamic tactics of al-takiah deception. An Imam-spokesman from C.A.I.R. (Council on American-Islamic Relations) for example, stating on national television that "Jihad only means an inner spiritual struggle" or "the Koran states there is no compulsion in religion, and therefore, Islam is a religion of peace." is a lying deception for the sake of the religion itself! The religion is a religion of war and terrorism whose prophet and founder was a murdering child-marrying (molesting) warlord!
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Deceit and sugar-coating (a form of deceit) can be found in "Christian training cards" on how to "witness" to the Jews. A typical training card can read something like this:
"Don't say, "New Testament" say, 'New Covenant".
"Don't say, 'Jesus' say, 'Yashuah."
"Don't say, 'cross' say, 'torture rack."
"Don't say, 'born-again' say, 'completed Jew".5
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From the early Catholic Church taking money from the widow and the poor to pray a dead loved one out of purgatory, to the modern televangelists taking money from the widows and poor for "that special miracle" the Church has been full of spiritual deceit. On the other hand, I don't recall ever hearing of the rabbis demanding money for "Synagogue contribution" to pray someone out of hell, nor have I heard of them selling "holy water" for the people's healing needs. Neither have the Jews charged a fee of around twelve bucks to resolve other Jews from all their sins including adultery, robbery, and murder, otherwise known as "Indulgence"6 to help fund their Synagogue.
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I believe Paul was sincere and more righteous than most of Christendom that followed him, but even he didn't much care if a little deceit helped promote the faith.
"What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." - Philippians 1:18
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It also must be noticed that it is the Gentiles of whom the Hebrew scriptures view as the "inheritors of lies" all the way until the End of Days.
"the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." - Jeremiah 16:19
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The Jews however are to be God's witnesses (see Isaiah 43:10-12, Isaiah 44:8,) and as such they must speak righteous truth without any deceit as the Gentile confession proclaims in Isaiah 53:9. The book of Zephaniah reinforces this issue using the same wording "deceit in his mouth" as we find in Isaiah 53:9, making it easier to know who Isaiah 53;9 is talking about.
"The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." - Zephaniah 3:13

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Notes:
1. The King James translators played upon the Definite Direct Object indicator "et" (a word in Hebrew that has no comparison in English) as meaning "with". For an explanation of this Definite Direct Object, see Yale University published "Biblical Hebrew: A Text and Workbook" by Bonnie Pedrotti, Vivki Hoffer, and Rebecca Abts Wright - Lesson 7 - page 31
2. To view the differences between the singlar and plural pronouns in their relationship to nouns see ibid page 216
3. Other places of scripture show the singular pronoun with a plural noun. > Hosea 11:1,2
4. "Shalom" (peace) is offered in typical greetings, "Mah Slalom chah?" - "How is your peace" not "How are you doing?". "Solomon"(Shlomo in Hebrew) is a popular name that is derived from "shalom" (peace). Jerusalem - the Jewish spiritual capital literally means, "city of peace".
5. Also see how deliberate lying-tracts were intended to save Jewsih souls >

http://www.kfoxtv.com/entertainment/10464489/detail.html
6. The Forbidden Book - DVD

http://www.explorationfilms.com/explorationfilms-forbidden-book.html

The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 - Verses 1-6 (Part 2)

"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?" - Isaiah 53:1
The Church does not want the Gentiles saying, "who would have believed our report?". They want it to be the Jews saying it about the Christian doctrine. However, there are two ways to verify who is speaking in astonishment when asking that question. One, you can go back in chapter 52 where the stage is set leading up to this question of which I cover in part 1 of this blog, or two, go to the very next question it asks and answer it biblically. Just who is it that the "Arm of the Lord" is revealed?
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The Bible itself actually gives us the answer to this question starting with the Law of Moses, all way to the Prophet Isaiah in the 52nd. chapter where again, the stage is being set for Isaiah 53.
And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: - Deuteronomy 5:15 (also see Exodus 6:6, Deuteronomy 7:19, 11:2, 26:8, II Kings 17:36-37)
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"O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God." - Psalms 98:1-3
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Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. - Isaiah 52:9-10
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Every time the Bible mentions bringing Israel out of Egypt which was the founding of Israel, the metaphor of God's arm is noted. Israel is literally founded on the "Arm of the Lord". This is something that comes to light in the eyes of the Gentile world at the end when they ask the question to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Notice, that even the everlasting Torah and the keeping of it is placed together with this metaphor in II Kings 17:36-37.
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The book of Psalms as shown above displays the same picture. It declares the salvation of Israel by God's arm before the eyes of the heathen / Gentiles, then it repeats it by declaring God's mercy to be upon the House of Israel while the whole world will witness this salvation by God of Israel.
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In leading up to Isaiah 53:1, Isaiah emphasizes the redemption of God's people Israel and Jerusalem as he ties them in with the the Gentile nations seeing this salvation in the form of God's arm. As I pointed out in part 1, notice how Isaiah 52:9-10 totally, easily, and completely blends in with such prophesies as Zechariah 8:3 / 8:23.
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It also is noteworthy to know that unless the prophets and writers of holy script are telling what someone else is saying or will say as in Isaiah 53, they speak in the first person and not for mankind in general. It be said enough that the Hebrew Bible was written in Hebrew, by the Hebrew prophets, for the Hebrew people to receive a Hebrew related message unto their Hebrew selves so that they may have a relationship with their Hebrew people-choosing God! I say this because we find in both the prophesies of Psalms and in Isaiah the words "salvation of OUR God" when speaking of the Gentile recognition at the End of Days. The salvation of God will not be a Gentile concept of God that we find in Christianity's Trinity of three persons making up a Godhead-confederation (see the symbolic picture of this blog above) nor will the End of Days recognition be according to Islam's non-Jewish / non-seed of David messiahship of Muhammad.

Jeremiah 16:19 declares very explicitly what the Gentiles among these and other religious groups will be saying when there are no more questions to be asked at the End of Days! There will a recognition of the God of the Jews along with THEIR concept of God, not a Gentile one.
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The bottom line is that St. John 12:38 has been simply misapplied when compared to the context of Isaiah 53:1. In reality, Isaiah 53:1 was written due to the future event of the Gentiles recognizing Israel's glory that God shall bestow on him according to all of Isaiah's prophesies, and not because those bad O Christ-killing Jews refuse to believe in their messiah which would bring about an opposite effect of a destroyed - forever Israel that the Isaiah's prophesies never mention.
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"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground... - Isaiah 53:2
Both the Messiah (of End of Days) and Israel are referred to as "a branch" or plant life throughout the Hebrew scriptures. That is a fact that Christian missionaries will fail to mention when quoting "branch quotes" from Jeremiah when evangelizing Jews. However, the Hebrew scriptures spend much more time on the messianic age itself and the glorious redemption of Israel than the messiah himself.1 The messiah figure that is to come at the End of Days is a key function and plays a very important role in the full restoration and redemption of Israel. Therefore, the messiah-branch (in type) is only part of the bigger picture Israel-branch (in type) that is to be fulfilled at the End of Days. The problem with the Christian view is that it attempts to apply references of the messiah as being fulfilled in the 1st. century in order to establish Christianity before the actually events of the End of Days occur.
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To "proof text" what I'm saying is correct concerning "the branch" and its timing in world events I'll use the prophecy of Ezekiel 37 (Ezekiel 36 is roughly the same) as a measuring stick to compare other messianic prophesies of "the branch" to determine its appearance.
"And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land... And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them." - Ezekiel 37:21, 24.
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And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds....Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord is OUR righteousness. - Jeremiah 23:3, 5-6
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Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord OUR righteousness. For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. Neither shall the priests the Levities want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. - Jeremiah 33:14-18
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Did you notice that the prophesies together are in perfect sequence of events? First there is to be an in-gathering of Israel back to the land of their fathers, then David (a branch) rules the land in righteousness while Israel becomes holy before God. Did any of this happen in the 1st. century? From what I gather from the New Testament and its times, ninety-five percent of the Jewish nation lived outside of the land of Israel, all two-year olds and under toddlers were murdered, Rome subjugated all of Israel - even their religious practices, Jews were horribly crucified by the Romans in their own sovereign land, and an insane Gentile-murderer himself was set up as Israel's puppet-king. Does any of that that sound anything at all like the prophesies of exile-return and of Jerusalem and Israel dwelling in safely, not to mention the horrific events of the temple desecration soon after in 70 CE? Remember that the prophecy of Jeremiah states, "In his days (meaning in the days of David the messiah named in the same prophecy) Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely".
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Notice, Jeremiah 33 mentions that during the days of David the messiah there will be Levities offering meat and burnt offerings and sacrificing continually. Doesn't that sound more like the Ezekiel 37 prophecy where a temple is put in place after the exile return, the appearance of David the messiah, and the holiness and obedience of Israel to their God (Ezekiel 37:22-28) and of the third of final temple that Ezekiel goes into great detail on (Ezekiel chapters 40-48)?
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Isaiah 53:2 describes Israel as a "tender plant" in a dry ground. This description gives an impression of something that is on the brink of dying. This has been Israel's story from the beginning. From Pharaoh at the Red Sea, to Haman, to the Crusades, to the Inquisitions, to Hitler's Holocaust, to the Muslim Brotherhood that is spread throughout several Middle-Eastern countries Israel has been in the cross-heirs of annihilation time and time again.
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Psalms 83:3-5 shows that even in accent times how the Gentile nations will conspire together in seeking the destruction of the Jewish nation. Annihilation attempt after annihilation attempt, Israel has barely survived to world astonishment. Even though Israel was like an non-matured plant in a hostile ground awaiting death, he is promised to be glorified at the End of Days described in a plant-life type:
"I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon." - Hosea 14:5-7
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Isaiah 53:2-3
...he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected 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.
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This portion of scripture gives a lot of descriptions on how the servant of God has been viewed by his oppressors. The descriptions of the servant is as follows:

• Being despised (twice stated).


• Rejected or isolated from man.


• Man of pains - The Hebrew root word is "ka-av" meaning, "to feel pain".


• Accustom to illness - The Hebrew word is "cho-lee" meaning illness, and not "grief".


• From whom faces were hid.


• Was not regarded or esteemed (not highly thought of).

Before going into biblical portion of these negative descriptions of God's servant, I want to pose some post-biblical questions concerning the Jewish people in light of these descriptions.
Question: Could these negative descriptions of the servant be easily applied to the Jewish people in light of the Gentile historical treatment of the Jews?
For example, could the forced Jewish segregation in such places as the rione Sant'Angelo of the Catholic Papal States (now Italy) that lasted for over three hundred years fit Israel as the "rejected" or "isolated" servant?
It was there at rione Sant'Angelo that the Jews were forced to hear the Sunday Church services and had to swear loyalty to the Pope by the Arch of Titus which celebrates the sacking of Jerusalem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Ghetto.

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Maybe such places as the Russian-created "Pale of Settlement" that was created to keep Jews restricted and that spawn the Russian riots (Pogroms) could cause them to be identified as "rejected or isolated" from Russian-Gentile society http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement? Maybe the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps that sprang up all over Gentile-Europe, where one-third of the Jewish population on earth was viciously murdered, might cause them to be identified as that "isolated" servant and "man of pains"?
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As for the Jewish people, another word for "despised" (twice mentioned in the text) is definitely modern "antisemitism". It is the antisemitism within the Gentile soul that causes them to "despise" the Jew. The Gentile world has certainly "not desired" the Jews nor found "beauty" in the Jews or their religion. A Gentile US staff member to the UN Secretariat named Pedro A. Sanjuan, said it best in his non-religious book "The UN Gang":
"Israel has been rejected by every regional grouping, including the European regional association of common interests, as if everyone in the world concurred that Israel was a diseased society that nobody should touch".2

It should be noted that the context in which Sanjuan wrote the above quote was addressing the modern UN-world politics against the State of Israel, while Isaiah 53 or any other type of religious thought was nowhere mentioned in his entire book, much less being alluded to in his context-quote above. Yet we see a striking similarity between the above Gentile description of a perceived "diseased" and "rejected" Jewish-Israel by the modern world Gentile powers and the Gentile confession found in Isaiah 53:2-3. Wow, isn't that something?

While writing this I can't help but think of the Isaiah 53 quoting lady with the big smile that I mentioned in part one of this blog when she said to me about my Judaism beliefs, "you believe in nothing". It makes me wonder what she would be willing to have done with the "nothing Jews" if she were living with the same mindset as she is now during the time of Nazi-Germany, or four hundred and fifty years earlier in Spain in 1492?
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Forced banishment, forced isolation, and government sponsored murder of Jews served the Gentiles in two ways. One, was to "reject" them as equal members of their society and two, the repulsive Jew would not have to be seen among the people. It is interesting that even during the so-called modern day of enlightenment that Jews still suffered just as much and in many cases even more so from Gentile rejection. It is through rejection that the Holocaust could even begin to occur where "Judenrien" meaning "Jew free" was the call. Europe's 2003 survey that placed Israel as "the most dangerous country on earth" from among Iran, North Korea, Syria, and others demonstrated the Jewish rejection as a people in the minds of the Europeans. As for the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia) in trying to make way for a Palestinian state, the area of Gaza had to become Jew-free for the exact same principle Hitler wanted Germany Jew-free which was the rejection of the Jewish people as a people!
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It is evident what the Catholic Church was capable of by looking at its long history. It was their Crusade, Inquisition, and pogrom history that help make Israel "the servant" become one of "pains" not to mention the 1933 Vatican-Berlin Concordat where they vowed not to stand in the way of the Nazi government http://www.shoaheducation.com/1933concordat.html.

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Now take a look at a quote from the founder and father of Protestantism - Martin Luther, and see if you can easily place Isaiah 53:2-3 descriptions concerning God's servant as the nation of Jews as being:"despised, rejected or isolated from man, being a man of pains, being accustom to illness, being of whom faces were hid, not highly regarded".
“First, their synagogues should be set on fire and whatever does not burn up should be covered or speared over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or a stone of it.” “Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed. For they perpetrate the same things there that they do in their synagogues. For this reason they ought to be put under one roof or in a stable, like Gypsies, in order that they may realize that they are not masters in our land, as they boast, but miserable captives.…”
“Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds...... ”
“Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more…”
“Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews. For they have no business in the rural districts since they are not nobles, nor officials, nor
merchants, nor the like. Let them stay home.”
- Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies - 1543
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Such statements coming from out of the Gentile world did not begin or end with Martin Luther. Countless Popes, bishops, kings, queens, monarchs, princes, generals, clergymen, and the everyday commoner down through the centuries have not only made such public statements, but have indeed acted upon them with religious motivation. One of many being Adolph Hitler who said, "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."3
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In modern times, the Jew is still painted and believed to be the "ills of mankind" among the European world, the liberal church denominations of the West, the David Dukes of the world, and the Islamic world, of whom all speak with one united voice against the Jew. Oh yes, the blood libels, the Protocols , the Koran and hadiths, and even Mein Kampf, 4 are still very popular today, all of which contribute to the currency of Isaiah 53:2-3.
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And what does the Bible say in similar fashion as to Isaiah 53:2-3? As Psalms 83:2-4 reveals the Gentile nations' intent on destroying "out of remembrance" (as to 'hide their faces' from) Jeremiah gives us a little more detail:
"Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Consider thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them." - Jeremiah 33:23-26 (see also Jeremiah 31:35-36)
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Notice just how deep the Gentile nations' despise towards Israel is: "thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them." Notice likewise how deep God's commitment was in answering such despise for His people, "If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them." Notice that the statement, "for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them" is in direct correlation with Ezekiel 37:21-23 that is as I pointed out in part one of this blog, could not have been fulfilled at anytime in the past but only in the future.
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To hit closer to the reading of Isaiah 53 concerning the "despised" portion of the text, Isaiah records how the nations "despise" God who chooses Israel and his prophets, which is the core root behind all historical and future antisemitism!
"Thus says the LORD, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nations abhors, To the Servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the LORD who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You." - Isaiah 49:7 (see Isaiah 44:1-2 in comparison)
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Isaiah 53:4-6
"Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
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Many Christians will ask, "How can Israel bare the sins of the whole (Gentile) world?" The only reason a Christian will ask that in the first place is because he/she believes that the answer has to be in accordance with the Christian mindset where the Hebrew scriptures are first filtered through the New Testament mindset. While the Hebrew- scriptural answer is that no one can take unto themselves another ones sins (see Ezekiel 18:20 hint - hint) sin by its very nature, causes great burdens upon who it most effects. The one who suffers the most from an adulterous affair is not the one(s) who commits the sinful act, but the one who was cheated against - the innocent victim. So to answer that question with a question: "Who was it that was most "pained" over the Gentile-causing Inquisition sin, and the Gentile causing Holocaust sin?" Who was it that carried the burdensome weight of Crusader-sin and Pogrom-sin on their shoulders?" Who is today that suffers the most from the sin called terrorism? Now look down through the chronicles of history and ask yourself, "Who has been the most sin-bearing (persecuted) people?" Isn't it just biblically-amazing that when looking at things in this sin-bearing perspective it just so happens to be the Jews? When this reality hits home among all the Gentiles at the onset of the Messianic Age, the Gentiles will be saying exactly what the Hebrew scriptures foretells they will be saying in Isaiah 53:4-5, as well as in Jeremiah 16:19, Zechariah 8:23.
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I've had people tell me that the Christians have been received more persecutions in other countries such as China, Russia, and of course the Muslim countries. Perhaps this is true on a grand scale due to the fact Jews make up only 0.4 percent of the world's population. However, the persecution of ones faith is not the full issue! Christians as a whole are not a people that have a shared heritage based upon a land, language, and history while the Jews are. Their connection is Israel, Hebrew, and the Bible. Regardless of the continent, country, state, or city, Jews, whether they be Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform, all read from the same weekly text, praying in Hebrew, facing Jerusalem. When a Christian leaves his/her faith they are no longer considered Christian period. After reading this blog would you call me a Christian because that was how I was raised and how I believed? However, if a Jew leaves Judaism he is still a Jew, just apostate one. As far as "persecution of religion" goes, the Jews are the only people in the world who are defined by their religion! Modern Israel is the only, and can be the only, Judaism based state in all of the many nations of the world. They are the only people where millions who didn't practice their religion were still murdered because of it! So when it comes to the title of the "Most Persecuted People" the Jews have it hands-down, even if there had never been a Holocaust!
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What sets the Jews apart is their everlasting tribal-covenant that God has with them.
"O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant - Psalms 105:6-10
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. - Isaiah 51:2-3
Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them - Jeremiah 33:25-26

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This covenant that the scriptures above talk about is what the Gentiles have sought to destroy down through the ages and still seek today. Whether it be by persecution, conversion (away from the covenant) or assimilation (away from the covenant) the goal is still the same: "we must rid ourselves of the Jews". This is why Jewish persecution (as unique as it is) is not simply a mishap of humanity, but it's a spiritual matter based upon a biblical purpose. The God of Israel is to be glorified at the End of Days before all nations of the earth.
"Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel." - Isaiah 44:23 (see also Isaiah 49:3 in comparison)
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The God of Israel will be so glorified that the Gentile nations who before treated Israel like a drunken father treats his red-headed stepchild, will have to go to Jerusalem, not to pay homage to God during their Santa Clause - Christmas or Easter Bunny - Easter, but during the Jewish festival of Sukkot (see Zachariah 14:15-18). I can guarantee that the George W. Bushes and the Tony Blairs of the world will not be thinking about a Palestinian state and half of Jerusalem as its capital, on their way to Jerusalem (the glorified Jewish capital) to pay their homage to the God of creation of whom it will be made manifest to them, that He has chosen Jerusalem as His resting (habitation) place (see Zachariah 8:3).
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Question to Christians:
Why have the Jews suffered so much from the Roman conquest (a 1st. century Holocaust) the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the Pogroms, the Holocaust, Islamic terrorism, and all the slander, harassment, blood libels, mayhem, deportations, government forced isolation, forced conversion, and massive murder in between?

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Do you have (the spiritual) answer to this question in your mind? Good. Now, with that spiritual answer in your mind let's read part of Isaiah 53:4. "yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Did you catch a revelation?
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Let's take another look at a quote from the father and founder of Protestantism -Martin Luther while remembering this was somewhat of a prophecy exactly 400 years before Hitler's Holocaust. Answer in your mind if Luther esteemed the Jews to be stricken and smitten of God:

"Even if they were punished in the most gruesome manner that the streets ran with their blood, that their dead would be counted, not in the hundred thousands, but in the millions, as happened under Vespasian in Jerusalem and for evil under Hadrian, still they must insist on being right even if after these 1,500 years they were in misery another 1,500 years, still God must be a liar and they must be correct. In sum, they are the devil’s children, damned to Hell…..The Jews too got what they deserved.” - Martin Luther, Of the Unknowable Name and Generations of Christ - 1543
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It is ironic that the Jews never saw Jesus as someone who was "smitten of God" as in being plagued by God for sin. Yet, this is how the Christian Gentiles view the Jewish perception of Jesus. What is also ironic is the fact that first century Jews of Judea who actually heard of Jesus (about 2 percent of world Jewry at the time due to most Jews living outside of Israel) saw the one man Jesus as a law breaker subject to the Law of Moses, while Gentiles have slaughtered Jews throughout history and throughout all their world-wide lands just because they were Jews!
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Neither did the Jewish communities ever view the Christian people (Christ living within them according to Galatians 2:20) as smitten (plagued) by God for being Christians, even though the Gentiles were the ones acting like the sub-human animals while persecuting the Jews in the name of "Christ"!
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Fact:
It was the Gentiles who brought about a long history of Jew-murdering incidents. One of which was the Crusaders who in 1099 burned alive several hundred Jews in a synagogue in Jerusalem while quoting St. John 15:6 and sang hymns. The following day that partook in "holy communion" in essence communing with God over the murder of Jews. Their inspiration for such "religious acts" was based upon their belief that the Jews according to their beloved New Testament scriptures, was "smitten of God".

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Now I'm about to make a very profound statement of which no believing Christian has the right to be upset with, nor should they have the audacity to do so based upon the long held belief of the Church. Even today among all the political correctness, most Christians from all denominations both liberal and conservative, are willing to accept the fact that the Jewish people are responsible for Jesus' death based upon three things:

1. The Gospels portrayed the Jews as calling for Jesus' blood to be upon them and their children of which there was no other reason for the Gospels to mention this to its readers except for to paint the Jews in such a bad light. (St. Matthew 27:25)
   
2. The letters of Paul blasting the Jews as a people (and not as individuals) but never blasted the Gentile Romans from whom his name "Paul" originated, and from whom he benefited from (Acts 22:25-29) as we will see.
3. The prophecy of Isaiah 53 where "the Jews" according to the Church's view, see their mistake for not recognizing Jesus as their messiah.

Christians have the audacity and the spiritual willingness to charge the entire Jewish nation (of whom 2% or less even knew about Jesus during his lifetime) for his murder but for sure will take an offense of my next statement: Christians as a whole (that means you if the are a Christian reading this) are guilty of the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the Pogroms, the Holocaust, and every act ever committed against the Jew in the name of Christianity or was carried out with the Church's support! That is right, Jewish blood is spiritually upon you and on your children! Ooh, now how does make you feel Gentile Gospel reader / believer? The same spiritual reasoning (and not one spiritual once less) that Christianity uses to condemn the entire Jewish nation fully comes back upon them, and I dare say, the "Hebrew scriptures" of Isaiah 53 proves this to be true! How about that for some in-your-face Judaism? Remember, I'm an enlightened Gentile. Most all lamb-like (hint- hint) Jews would be way too meek to be religiously brazen to say something as I just did in like manner.
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It should be obvious that since it was the Gentiles who started this people blame-game for religious purposes to begin with, it will be them who eats their own religious hat! It is when this realization of such evil acts as what occurred at Jerusalem in 1099 by so-called Christ-believers comes into view among the Gentiles themselves, then we will hear them confess as a whole what Isaiah 53:4-6 states that the Gentiles will indeed confess.
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I beg to differ with any Christian who denies that antisemitism is present in the New Testament. Countless of innocent Jews have been slaughtered throughout the Christian era based upon how the Jews are painted in the New Testament. Every time the book of St. John states "the Jews" (and believe me, there are several) nine times out of ten "the Jews" are painted in a inherently-evil portrait. It is never the nail-driving Romans with hammer in-hand who committed deocide (the killing of God) but "the Jews" - they are the guilty ones. It's not just any Jews who are guilty of deocide, but "the religious" Jews, who like Satan, deep down in their heart of hearts knew he was a demigod or greater and still killed him.
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Paul, who saw it kosher (pun intended) to go by a Gentile name in order to express his disassociation with the Jews, said it this way: "For ye, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus: for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and pleased not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always: but the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." - I Thessalonians 2:14-16
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What else could the New Testament-believing Europeans believe about those "contrary to all men" Jews concerning responsibility for the Black Plague, the poisoning of Christian water supply, the baking their Passover matzahs with Christian-youth blood, and "Host (literal body of Jesus in the form of a wafer) desecration"? And if you believe that the Europeans went too far in their religious passion based upon their Christian text, then just how much "too far" did they go? Just what are the Jews who "MURDERED GOD" and His prophets capable of in your non-antisemitic mind? Ah yes, it does change things when asked by a question that demands some thought, doesn't it? Are they capable national conspiracies against the Gentiles like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion suggests? Are they the ones who were really behind 9/11 perhaps? And just how much "contrary to all men" are they? How "afflicted" of God's wrath "to the uttermost" are they?5
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The Gentile holy book of the east (that is east of the promise land - Israel) also paints the Jews in an evil portrait. The Koran claims that the Jews were so evil Allah turned them into Apes and pigs, that they were most violent people towards Muslims, that they altered the Torah (something again only Satan could do) that they are NOT God's chosen anymore (similar to Romans 2), that they are the most mischief in going around starting wars that Allah has to put down, and that hell awaits them. And like the Europeans of Christianity, they are inspired to persecute the Jews from the reading of their holy books, the difference being that the New Testament doesn't actually advocate violence against the Jews, just spiritual damnation, whereas the Koran and its corresponding hadiths do advocate violence against the Jews along with the typical spiritual damnation.

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Isaiah 53:5-6

But he (was wounded) for our transgressions, he (was bruised) for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace (was upon) him; and with his stripes we are healed. We were like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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Verses 5 and 6 reflect a deeper continuance of the Gentiles recognition of their sins upon the Jewish people. A Jewish version of the Christian "Living Bible" translation might go something like this:

"Our transgressions are what wounded him, and our iniquities are what bruised him. Now that we know it was our strips and not God's that was placed upon him, we can for once be healed of our long historical (Holocaust-causing) antisemitism. We all separated ourselves from the God of Israel by creating a thousand different church denominations world-wide all of which claim that our own iniquities that burdened him was God's doing."

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One thing that should be noted about the text in the original Hebrew, it reflects a one-time past-tense recognition, not a two-thousand year continuous atonement. The KJV translators wanted the text to represent something ongoing to better fit their ongoing Christianity instead of the one time fulfillment of prophecy concerning the Gentiles at the End of Days.

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It's amazing how the very scriptures in Isaiah 53 that speak of the Gentiles recognizing what they have done throughout the ages against the Jews, are the very scriptures that the Gentiles spiritually and physically use to do it!

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I will continue with the rest of the chapter (verses 7-9) in part 3 of this blog.
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Notes
1. The Messiah will be a product of the Messianic Age and not the other way around.
2. The UN Gang: A Memoir of Incompetence, Corruption, Espionage, Anti-Semitism, and Islamic Extremism at the UN Secretariat - by Perdro A. Sanjuan - page 89 - copyright 2005
3. Mein Kampf - page 65
4. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44727 and

http://www.freeman.org/m_online/oct99/meinkampf.htm
5. Like the visiting "messianic" leader David Bricker stated on August 17, 2008 at Sarah Palin's Wasilla Bible Church in Wasilla, Alaska, that suggested Palestinian terrorism was God's judgment of Israel's refusal to adopt the Christian faith> http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/09/palin-the-jewish-vote.html Of course as a punch back, I would like to suggest to Brickner (Yimach Sh'mo V'zichroa) that the terrorism and horrors of 9/11 and the Oklahoma City Federal Murrah Building was Elohim's judgment upon the leading Gentiles of the world (Americans) for their refusal to accept Judaism, and that Al-Queda is God's tool of punishing America for allowing "Jews for Jesus" to operate within her borders! I'm not trying to offend the Messianics, for my prayer is that all "Jews for Jesus" repeat of their polytheistic Trinity and come to the Light of Judaism (Isaiah 44:6,24 / Isaiah 60:1-3).

The Suffering Servent of Isaiah 53 - Part One

A religious statement was once made in my presence by a Christian woman of which I openly agreed with her. With a big smile on her face she asked me if I went to church in the area nearby. When I told her my faith was Jewish that big smile she had immediately left her face as she proclaimed very vehemently that I believed in "nothing". It didn't dawn on her that such an attack on my faith opened up a justifiable response that from my prospective her form of Christianity is as "nothing" to me as my Judaism was to her. This was something I would have done had I not been convinced that she was totally clueless of Judaism, or for that matter, her "Old Testament".

Come to find out, this woman had never had an experience with God and was totally relying on what her pastor who she kept bringing up during the conversation, tells her. I ask her what scripture of the "Old Testament" most tells her that Jesus was the Jewish messiah. Of course, she, like most Christians, pointed to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah as a prophesy of Jesus' suffering. When I told her that the suffering servant was indeed the nation of Israel, she kept shaking her head from side to side (still without that big original smile on her face) stating that Israel was never a servant. It was then that I knew this religious woman was clueless of the Hebrew Bible, or her Old Testament for that matter.1

Therefore, while knowing that women will never read this blog, I'm dedicating this blog to her and the rest of the Judaism-hating Christian religious women with big smiles on their faces, who don't know the Bible that they say they believe as the word of God.
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Two questions come to mind when first approaching Isaiah's suffering servant.

1. Was the nation of Israel considered a "servant" in the prophet Isaiah's own eyes?


2. Has the nation of Israel "suffered" as God's servant?
   

The first question is quite easy to answer given the fact that we have Isaiah's own words revealing the fact of Israel's servantship:
"But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend." - Isaiah 41:8
"Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen.." - Isaiah 44:1
"Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me." - Isaiah 44:21
"And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified." - Isaiah 49:3
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From Isaiah 41:8 until the beginning of chapter 53 Israel is referred to as God's servant no less than sixteen times! Therefore, without a scriptural doubt, Israel was and is a biblically declared servant leading up to Isaiah 53. 2
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The second question, "Has the nation of Israel suffered as God's servant?" is almost a comical question. It's like asking if the Buffalo Bills has ever lost any major football games such as Super Bowls.3 Besides the sad fact of how much Israel has suffered, any question to their suffering can be answered with a question: "What nation throughout world history has been most persecuted through banishment, forced isolation, forced conversions, government-sponsored terrorism and mayhem, and industrialized murder?" Even new words such as "antisemitism" and "genocide" have arisen within the English language in response to such suffering of the Israelite nation! In fact, it has been said, "antisemitism is the second oldest profession known to man"! Such statements are attempts to somehow reflect the vastness of Israels' suffering throughout world history.
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In comparison, the long historical sufferings brought about by the Roman conquest, the Inquisitions, the pogroms, the mind-blowing Holocaust, and the never-ending Muslim terrorism, far outweighs the suffering of one man's / one day crucifixion. The question then becomes, "Is Isaiah 53 talking about a literal one day execution of one single man or millennias of unjust persecutions of an entire people who just so happens to be His "Chosen People"?

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FACT: Jesus' own crucifixion can be counted among the Israelite sufferings due to it being a Roman political execution, one of thousands preformed by the Romans on Jews while in occupied Jewish land. In suffering alone, Jesus' suffering was not unique. Thousands of Jews (and Gentiles) died upon Roman crosses as did Jesus. On the other hand, the Israelite nation's sufferings are very unique as the most persecuted people in human history and of whom the single greatest crime of mankind (the Holocaust) was orchestrated against! The Jews have been suffering at the hands of the Gentile nations long before, during, and long after the time of Jesus. In this present day there are several organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah vowing Israel's torture and death, while the world powers (the Quartet) overwhelmingly supports Israel's enemies.
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ANOTHER FACT: Israel is a declared "servant" by the Hebrew prophet Isaiah. This is not a matter of faith. All it takes is just an ability to read the words of Isaiah and to comprehend what was read. This is something that cannot be said concerning Jesus. Jesus' servanthood has to be taken as a matter of "faith". Therefore, when it comes to who is best fitted for description of one who suffers as God's "declared" servant, Israel the nation, wins hands-down.
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The text and context of Israel 53
It must be noted that chapters divisions and numbering of verses of the biblical texts were of medieval-Christian origin, and far from being part of the original text. Jewish Bibles adopted most of this Christian numbering system as late as 1330 CE, about two thousand years after the text was first given. http://www.onelittleangel.com/wisdom/quotes/bible.asp?level=3

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The context of Isaiah 53 does not begin at verse 1 of the chapter, but three verses earlier in verse 13 of the 52nd. chapter. You say you want proof of this? I'll let you the reader establish your own proof. If you are a Christian who believes Isaiah 53 concerns only Jesus, then consider of whom Isaiah 52:13 (three verse earlier) is talking about:

"Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high."

If you believe this verse is talking about Jesus, then you yourself agree that the context of God's servant in Isaiah 53 is connected with the "servant context" just three verses prior to Isaiah 53.

If it's not Jesus, then who is this "exalted servant" of God? I rest my case on this "connection of context" issue.

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Quick Test for Christians (and Jews):

• What is Isaiah 53 about? You say the suffering servant? Very good.
  
• Now, because I know you know your Bible really well, what is Isaiah 52 about? Not a clue?
  
• What is Isaiah 54 about? Still, not a clue?
  

It interesting to note that when it comes to "Old Testament" readings most Christians are most familiar with scriptures that in their minds point to Jesus rather than all the scriptures as a whole. This is because they view the Hebrew scriptures through the window of the "New Testament" (or "New Covenant" as pertaining to the Christian Messianics) rather than the what the Hebrew scriptures gives on their own. It is the same principle as the Mormons viewing the New Testament through the window of the Book of Mormons, though I give Paul a lot more spiritual credit than Joseph Smith.
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Since one can say for absolute certain that the last three verses in Isaiah 52 are connected with Isaiah 53, time needs to be spent examining chapter 52 because it indeed sets the stage for Isaiah 53. In fact, Isaiah 52 blends right into Isaiah 53.

Isaiah Chapter 52
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith YHVH, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith YHVH GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. - Isaiah 52:1-4
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From the reading of the first four verses of Isaiah 52 can we conclude from the subject-nouns of Zion, Jerusalem, and holy city, that the context is obviously talking about the "servant" of Isaiah 41:8, Isaiah 44:1, Isaiah 44:21, Isaiah 49:3? Is there any chance that the words in verse 2 "Shake thyself from the dust; arise," has anything at all to do with the servant being exalted just eleven verses later in verse 13? "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high."Any chance at all?
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Verse 4 tells us that Israel was oppressed without cause: "My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause." What? Is there no mention within the context of Isaiah 52:4 of "Israel's sins" involved in this Gentile oppression of Israel here? Are the Christians who normally render every persecution of the Jewish people on their so-called "rejection of Jesus" forced to keep silent here on this Biblically proclaimed unjust Gentile persecution of the Jewish people?

Bringing this biblical context into modern times, Hitler's Europe, like Assyria of Isaiah's time, also oppressed Israel without a cause as well. The Islamic world carries the "Israel oppression without a cause" torch in this present day!

Is it too far fetched of a biblical reading revelation that this biblical description of God's servant "oppression them without cause" found in Isaiah 52:4 is directly linked to the "oppression" (without cause implied) found in verse 7 of Chapter 53 which reads "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted"?
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There are many reasons why I chose to learn Biblical Hebrew and the following is one of them. The KJV translates the Hebrew in verse 4 of chapter 52 "va-ashur ba-ephes ashak-o" as "and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause." However, that is incorrect. I agree that such a translation makes the English more understandable, for even some Jewish translations are similar, but that is not how the holy script in the original language was given! The word ashak meaning "to oppress" is given in the affixed form with the objected suffix pronoun letter "vav" (but is the holem maleh vowel) attached to the end of the verb, making the verb be applied with a singular-masculine pronoun.

The precise correct translation from the original Hebrew should be: "and Assyria without cause, oppressed him". The singular "him" meaning the "single servant" that will be referred to in the coming verses. Feel free to check out what I'm saying. Obtain a Biblical Hebrew grammar book (preferably edited by Christian scholars) and the Tanach (the Jewish Bible in Hebrew) and learn the objected suffix pronouns and then read it in Hebrew for yourself. Also, keep this in mind when we go through chapter 53 in part three of this blog, for we will see the exact opposite in verb pronoun formation where the plural was translated as being singular.
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A further examination of chapter 52 reveals certain spiritual details about this servant:

• Verses 5 and 6: God's people knowing God's Name of YHVH on a personal level.
• Verses 7 and 8: The salvation of Zion (not the Gentile world, but Zion)
• Verse 9: The redemption of Jerusalem (Zion, by name)
• Verse 10: The Gentile world bears witness of God's salvation of Zion. Notice the words "salvation our God" and not just" salvation of God".
• Verse 11: The commandment to be clean before YHVH.
• Verse 12: The "God of Israel" is their reward.

All of these events found here in chapter 52 are also found elsewhere in prophecy Hebrew scriptures:

• God's people knowing His name: "So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more." - Ezekiel 39:7 (Compared with Isaiah 52:5-6)
  
• The salvation of Zion: "Thus saith YHVH; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth" - Zechariah 8:3 (Compared with Isaiah 52:7-8)
  
• The redemption of Jerusalem: "And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness." - Zachariah 8:8 (Compared with Isaiah 52:9)
  
• The Gentile world bears witness of God's salvation of Zion: "And the heathen shall know that I YHVH do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." - Ezekiel 37:28 (Compared with Isaiah 52:10)
  
• The commandment to be clean before God: "And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean." - Ezekiel 44:23 (Compared with Isaiah 52:11)
  
• God of Israel" is their reward: "yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people." - Ezekiel 37:27 (Compared with Isaiah 52:12)
  

Now we're back to the last three verses of chapter 52 again where a new thought begins in addition to the previous twelve verses. Isaiah 52:13 is where the fourth and last servant song begins with the servant being promised to be exalted as the prior verses indicate.
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Isaiah 52:14 "As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men"
The Holocaust as a whole was the most despicable action known to the history of man. Great evil arose from out of Germany and spread among many European peoples. There were no shortages of Hitler's European willing executioners! What came out in Nazi-Germany wasn't something new under the sun as Solomon has informed us in Ecclesiastes 1:9, but what has been in the hearts of the Gentiles since ancient times then was brought out on a massive and technologically-advanced level! Pharaoh, Haman, Muhammad, the Popes, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisitioners, and the Pogromers didn't have fast moving cattle-cars and Zyklon-B pellets at their disposal.
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Many depictions of Jews as vermin and other non-human animals came out of Nazi-Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eternal_Jew and the official Nazi party indoctrinated its people that the Jews were "untermensch" (under-human or sub-human) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untermensch

During the Spanish Inquisition, the Jews were known as "marranos" meaning "pigs", and Gentiles could be put to death for acts of bestiality and sodomy for have sexual relations with a Jew. Medieval folklore caused the actual belief that all Jews had indeed grew devil horns on their heads. When I see these historical phenomenons along with the Muslim Koran - dating back from the seventh century - that today billions in the world believe as the "revelation from Allah" stating that the Jews are as "donkeys" and were turned into "pigs" and "apes" (suras 5:59-60, 7:166, 62:5) I'm reminded of Isaiah 52:14.

Isaiah 52:14 is describing the "psychology of the nations" view towards the Jewish people down through the ages. It is an interesting fact that this Gentile concept of the Jew has been so vast that Gentiles living before the television and the internet who had never seen or known a Jew became actual shocked on that how the Jew resembles a normal human!
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As far as this servant being marred by crucifixion, I would recommend the reading of the book entitled "The Crucified Jew: Twenty Centuries of Christian Anti-Semitism" by Dan Cohn-Sherbok http://www.amazon.com/Crucified-Jew-Centuries-Christian-Anti-Semitism/dp/0802843115
And the answer is "yes" for all you who have a touch of "Protocols of the Elders of Zion - spiritual conspiracy" on the brain and don't know it, Mr. Cohn-Sherbok is Jewish. But that just means his book has a more personal viewpoint of the Jewish people being of victims of Gentile aggression than does a conspiring evil shylock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shylock attempting to replace a Jesus-verse out of his own Hebrew Bible for a Jewish one. 4
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Isaiah 52:15
"So shall he sprinkle (shake) many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider."

It must first be noted that the "many nations" in this verse are Gentile nations. Never does the word "goyim" in the Hebrew Bible refer the non-gentile single nation of Israel. Secondly, the subject of "the kings" (given in the plural) is the continuation of the first mentioned "many nations" context of the verse. The verse moves the subject matter from addressing Gentile peoples themselves to the leadership and political arena of those "many nations" which is their "kings".

Fact: The Herodian Dynasty that was ruling over Israel during the time of Jesus was not of Jewish descent and were puppet kings that was put in place by the Roman Senate.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodian_Dynasty

The Christian notion that Isaiah 52:15 refers to Jesus transforming the Jewish nation can not be further from the truth. It is the Gentile nations as a single unit that are being shook up over something they have never considered, but shall indeed witness.

Also Isaiah 52:15 is very consistent with what the Hebrew Bible does and doesn't do throughout its entire message, especially in the "Israel redemptive section" of Isaiah (chapters 40-66).

• The Hebrew Bible never, I repeat, NEVER prophesies or even implies in the slightest way that the Hebrew nation turns to the Gentiles for their understanding of God.
• The Hebrew Bible prophesies in many places show how the Gentiles as a whole, will turn to the Jewish people for a correct understanding and worship of the God of Israel. Here is the list from the book of Isaiah alone: Isaiah 2:2-3, 11:10-12, 42:1-6, 49:6-7, 52:10, 52:15, 54:3, 55:5, 60:3, 60:10-12, *60:16-21, *61:6-11, 62:6-7, 66:18-20.

Most Christians will try to spiritualize the Hebrew prophecy of Gentile recognition of Israel as being related to the vast number of Gentiles becoming Christians under Jewish-Christian leadership at the beginning of the Christian era. However, some of these scriptures are impossible to deny, and when compared altogether, they become overwhelming for the Christian faith.
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Let's take a look at Zechariah 8:23 for an example where it prophesies that the Gentiles will take a hold of a Jew in seeking the correct path to God. One might argue that ten Gentiles will grab hold of Jesus, Peter, or Paul in fulfilling that prophecy. However, when the same scene of Gentile recognition is setup by the prophet Ezekiel it becomes very difficult for the Christian apologist to keep such claims. Consider the uniformity and closeness of the two prophesies:
"Thus saith YHVH of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you." - Zechariah 8:23
"And the heathen shall know that I YHVH do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." - Ezekiel 37:28
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Does it not become very clear that the Gentiles shall finally know (implying that they never have known before this prophesied-fulfilled time) that the God of Israel does sanctify Israel, are the same Gentiles grabbing unto a Jew in finding a true path to God? There is a very spiritual and profound reason why the Ezekiel prophecy and the Zachariah prophecy mentions Gentile recognition. These prophets did not just mentioning it in passing when writing their holy script.
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In the short verses above the two prophecies relate on two accounts. One, is Israel's spiritual glorification, and the second is the Gentile recognition of that glorification. It is a greater stretch to say that they are fulfilled thousands of years apart than to say they are simply fulfilled at the same time. It is according to prophecy that the Gentiles turn to glorified Israel (the same glorified Israel that returns to the land in a massive in-gathering and becomes holy before God) not some Jewish cult during the exile!!!
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As I pointed in my open letter to Hank Hanegraaff

http://zionism-now.blogspot.com/2007/08/letter-to-hank-henegraaff.html the Ezekiel prophecy could not have happened during the Babylonial return of the 6th. century BCE because one, only about 5% of the Jewish exiles actually returned which would not fulfill other scripture-prophecy of return (see Isaiah 27:12 / Ezekiel 36:24). Because of this low Jewish percentage rate of return from Babylon is also why we have today the "Babylonian Talmud". And two, the Ezekiel prophecy states that the messiah (a descendant of Kind David) will rule the Jewish nation which could not have happened during the time of the Babylonian return.
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Neither could the Ezekiel prophecy be fulfilled during the time of Jesus since Israel was being ruled by Rome and the Jewish nation mostly lived outside "the land of their fathers" during the 1st. century CE which goes totally against the context of the Ezekiel prophecy (see St. John 7:35 compared to Ezekiel 37:25).
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Also, the Ezekiel prophecy consists of a temple lasting forever (Ezekiel 37:27-28) , while the Herodian Temple that stood during Jesus' time was completely destroyed 37 years after Jesus' life in 70 CE. Therefore, this Ezekiel prophecy in all of its context can only, I repeat can ONLY, be fulfilled at a future date. And if the Ezekiel prophecy is indeed set for the future, then so is all the other prophecies of the same event including Zechariah 8:23.
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Now allow me to through in a "servant-prophecy" scripture into the "Gentile-recognizing prophecy scriptures" for a conformation, and watch how all three scriptures compliment each other in painting the true and perfect end-time scene.
"So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider." - Isaiah 52:15"
"Thus saith YHVH of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you." - Zechariah 8:23
"And the heathen shall know that I YHVH do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." - Ezekiel 37:28
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Yes, the Gentiles who shut their mouths and consider something about Israel that they had never considered according to prophecy, are the same Gentiles grabbing unto a Jew because they know "God is with them" according to prophecy and that "God does sanctify" them according to prophecy. Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment.
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With these things in mind, one can begin to understand Isaiah 53 which the continence of the fourth servant song of Isaiah that consists of Israel being exalted before the nations and the Gentiles recognizing it! Isaiah 53 begins with the Gentiles' response under "shock and awe" in recognizing Israel's exaltation. They begin to speak about what they have began to spiritually recognize. And it is from there (Isaiah 53:1) is where I will continue the second part of this blog.
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Notes
1. Even the New Testament states that Israel is God's servant. "He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy" - Luke 1:54. This New Testament verse shows the 1st. century Jewish mindset towards the mentioning of "God's servant" throughout the Hebrew Bible including the servant songs found in Isaiah's writings.

2. There are four "servant songs" throughout the "redemptive portion" of the book of Isaiah (chapters 40-66). First servant song - Isaiah 42:1-4, second servant song - Isaiah 49:1-6, third servant song - Isaiah 50:4-9, and fourth servant song - Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12.
3. I heard someone say that an acronym for "Bills" is: "Boy, I love losing Super-Bowls".
4. I mention this because of two personal accounts. One was a racially-aware feminist-liberal who believes America should let anybody and everybody come and live within her borders based upon what I call the "Rainbow-brotherhood doctrine". When I got her to read part of a newspaper editorial column condemning the religious evils of Islam the first words from out of her mouth concerning the columnist who wrote the article was, "Is she Jewish?" as if being Jewish created a strike against the columnist that she must use when evaluating her opinion. It seems the self-proclaimed enlighten ones regarding racism are not so enlightened, at least not spiritually. The second incident occurred when the James Ossuary was still being tested and dated. A Christian-conservative who generally favored Israel, suggested to me that Israel (the Jews) might deliberately falsify their findings on the ossuary in order to further deny Jesus and Christianity. This kind of thought process comes from being effected by the antisemitic portions of the New Testament that portrays Jews as being inherently evil towards Christianity, and for that matter, all mankind (see I Thessalonians 2:14-15). How someone really feels about another can be manifested of what a person is likely to believe about someone. In a small way he was mimicking the mindset of the Christian Europeans in their "Blood Libels" and the "Protocols of the Learn Elders of Zion" conspiracy without realizing it. It turns out that a Jew named Oded Golan forged the writing on the ossuary naming James as the brother of Jesus. I guess one could call him a "Jew for Jesus" in the archaeological world.