The Old Testament said the Messiah would be God Himself
In the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word will be confirmed. The same principle is applied by Jesus to Himself and His ministry in John 5:31–47. So we will call upon multiple Old Testament witnesses to authenticate our claim that the Hebrew scriptures testify that the Messiah will be God Himself. We call on brother Jeremiah as our first witness. What saith he?
Witness 1 — Jeremiah
Jeremiah writes of the Messiah,
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute earth.
In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;…”
(Jeremiah 23:5–6)
So far so good right? Who exactly is this Messiah brother Jeremiah? By what name will He be called? Brother Jeremiah answers,
“Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
The Messiah here is explicitly called YHVH, God’s divine name. With this, we call our next witness to the stand, brother Isaiah.
Witness 2 — Isaiah
Brother Isaiah writes of the Messiah,
“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
(Isaiah 9:6)
The Name of the Messiah would be called Wonderful Counsellor. In another place, brother Isaiah uses this appellation, let us look at the context,
“This also comes from the Lord of hosts,
Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.”
(Isaiah 28:29)
He uses the appellation of a mighty counsel for YHVH Himself.
Brother Isaiah also explicitly calls the Messiah, “Mighty God” and in another place, it is the same title he also uses for…you guessed it! God!
“The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.”
(Isaiah 10:21)
The Messiah is also called “Everlasting Father” or more accurately in Hebrew “Father of eternity” so the Messiah is acknowledged as eternal or everlasting. You know who else Isaiah acknowledges as everlasting or eternal?
“Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.”
(Isaiah 40:28)
Brother Isaiah further calls the Messiah the prince of peace. Who is in charge of peace according to the corpus of brother Isaiah’s writing?
“I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says the Lord,
And I will heal him.” but the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
“There is no peace,” Says my God, “for the wicked.”
(Isaiah 59:17–21)
And again,
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.
Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”
(Isaiah 48:17–18)
And again,
“ For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream…”
(Isaiah 66:12)
So YVHV is in charge of peace, deciding who gets and it and who does not (depending on whether or not they obey Him). He is also in charge of deciding who to extend it to so when brother Isaiah calls the Messiah the prince of peace, it is saying He has control over peace. The same control YHVH has. Again, I am aware brother Isaiah has a lot more to get off his chest but I will suffer him to testify once more.
He writes elsewhere,
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel”
(Isaiah 7:14)
The virgin birth was not just a random occurrence or a pointless miracle like our Muslim friends would have us believe. It is literally the birth of God who will walk among us (Immanuel means God with us). If this is the case then the Messiah really must be God walking among us.
With this we dismiss brother Isaiah and invite brother Micah to the stand.
Witness 3- Micah
Brother Micah testifies,
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting”
(Micah 5:2)
The testimony of brother Micah is to the effect that the Messiah’s birth would not be the beginning of His existence because He would have existed from all eternity. The same term used by Micah is used in the Psalms of God, for example,
“Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
(Psalm 90:2)
This also aligns with the testimony of brother Isaiah to the effect the Messiah is eternal. Brother Micah being a man of few words is thus dismissed.
We proceed to subpoena the sons of Korah to the witness stand. What say they?
Witness 4- The sons of Korah
“My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One,
With Your glory and Your majesty.
And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness;
And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.”
(Psalm 45: 1–4)
Wait a minute! All the scriptures we have cited so far are almost unequivocally accepted as being about the Messiah. Isn’t this one more uncertain? Well yes, so we must appeal to the Talmud to see the Jewish understanding of this Psalm,
“…And some say the disagreement between Rabbi Eliezer and the Rabbis was different. They said to Rabbi Eliezer: Since in your opinion they are ornaments for him, why will they be eliminated in the messianic era? He said to them: Even in the messianic era they will not be eliminated. And that is in accordance with that which Shmuel stated that the world will remain fundamentally the same, and he disagrees with Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba.
Abaye said to Rav Dimi, and some say it was to Rav Avya, and some say Rav Yosef said to Rav Dimi, and some say it was to Rav Avya, and some say Abaye said to Rav Yosef: What is the reason for the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer who said: These weapons are ornaments for him? As it is written: “Gird your sword upon your thigh, mighty one, your glory and your splendor” (Psalms 45:4), indicating that a sword is considered an ornament.”
(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 63a)
In layman’s terms, there was a debate about whether or not weapons would exist during the Messianic era and rabbi Eliezer is arguing that they must exist since the Messiah himself according to Psalm 45 is said to be girded with a sword.
So Psalm 45 was understood as refering to the Messiah. What do the sons of Korah go on to say after praising the Messiah bit more?
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom”
(Psalm 45:6)
The sons of Korah explicitly call the Messiah God.
As an aside, we note God’s throne is forever and ever and the Messiah across scripture is promised a throne which is forever and ever so what (or rather who) would that make the Messiah?
Goodness time is flying by but we still have some more witnesses so we must move on!
We move on to brother Zechariah
Witness 5- Zechariah
Brother Zechariah writes.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.”
(Zechariah 9:9)
The Messiah (The King) is said to have salvation with Him. However the same Zechariah within a couple of verses writes,
“The Lord their God will save them in that day,
As the flock of His people”
(Zechariah 9:16)
So the Messiah has salvation and God is the one saving would that not make the Messiah God? Isn’t this too tenuous? It might be…but consider that the uniform testimony of scripture is that YHVH alone saves.
In the Torah we read,
“And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today…”
(Exodus 14:13)
And again
“The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation;…”
(Exodus 15:2)
According to the above verses in the Torah, God does not just save, He Himself becomes salvation! (“Coincidentally” Jesus by chance just happens to mean “YHVH saves” or “YHVH is salvation”).
In the Prophets, we read,
“I, even I, am the Lord,
And besides Me there is no savior.”
(Isaiah 43:11)
And again,
“Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen.”
(Hosea 1:7)
Interesting that according to the above passage in Hosea, even when YHVH saves, He does it by YHVH.
In the writings we read,
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God”
(Job 19:25–26)
The same Hebrew word “Goel” translated “Redeemer” also means “Saviour” and Job affirms this redeemer who will stand on the earth who his own eyes will see is God.
So when Zechariah says the Messiah riding on a donkey has salvation, the implication could not be more explicit, the Messiah is God.
Finally and because of time (it is almost sunset and we have been on this case since sunrise), I must skip over brother Ezekiel and Amos and Joel as well as literally almost every other author of scripture and call brother Daniel to testify.
Witness 6- Daniel
Brother Daniel writes,
“I watched till thrones were put in place,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame,
Its wheels a burning fire;
A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
And the books were opened…
“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.”
(Daniel 7:9–10, 13–14)
So Daniel tells us there is an Ancient of Days but also another divine figure called the Son of Man who is given an eternal throne and dominion and all nations are to serve Him. This is the central passage that was at the centre of the “Two powers in heaven debate” you can see Alex Segal’s book if you are interested in that. For our purposes however, the Messiah here is clearly portrayed as being divine and having an eternal throne (Remember your throne O GOD is forever and ever?) and all nations are supposed to worship this Son of Man figure with YHVH’s authorisation and somehow YHVH does not deem that a breach of the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”. This would only make sense if somehow, the Messiah is God! And this is one of many reasons why the view of God as an absolute singular Monad (Like our Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness and Unitarian friends do) is a non-starter, it just does not account for the corpus of revelation of God in scripture, a trinitarian view however does fit very well with this model hence even Jewish scholars Alex Segal will grant that there is some kind of plurality within YHVH and Benjamin Sommer would explicitly state that the trinity is not inconsistent with the Hebrew scriptures.
Again I digress..
What have we learnt?
The Messiah’s name is YHVH, The Messiah does things only YHVH can do (like bring salvation or be in charge of peace), the Messiah is as eternal as YHVH, the Messiah is worshipped like and as YHVH, the Messiah has a throne as eternal as the throne of YHVH.
In conclusion, the Messiah according to the Jewish scriptures was only ever going to be YHVH Himself which is precisely what Christians say. So when we say Jesus is God and Muslims or atheists like Alex O’Connor believe we are just mistaken somehow, they have no idea the entire corpus of scripture from Genesis to Revelation is heavily against them. This is especially worthy of note because the Quran affirms the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and historians would deem the four gospels adequate sources of information on the historical Jesus yet these documents (from the atheist’s point of view) and scriptures (from the Muslim point of view) lead to the same inevitable conclusion that Jesus Christ is in fact God. This is not a first century misunderstanding or a third century misinterpretation, this is a matter settled before time itself began!
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