Some would say that Judaism does not believe in two comings of the Messiah. If you think that, that means you just don’t understand Judaism. You see, when Jesus came to Earth the rabbis came up with a lot of prejudicial arguments as to why Jesus was not the Jewish Messiah. However, before Jesus came to Earth the rabbis didn’t have this prejudice. They studied the scriptures, the ancient prophecies and it looked to them as if there were two different messiahs. One messiah would be rejected by his own people and would suffer. Another messiah would rule and would be king over the whole Earth.
And so the ancient rabbis called the messiah that would be rejected by his own people and suffer, Messiah Ben Joseph. Messiah, son of Joseph. Remember Joseph was rejected by his own brothers, his own Jewish people. He was thrown in a pit. And his father thought that he was dead. But then his father found that he was alive. So that was Messiah Ben Joseph.
Then they found a set of predictions in the Torah that said the messiah would rule out of Jerusalem and be King Messiah. So they called him, Messiah Ben David. Messiah, son of David. Well, you know, they were almost right. But rather than two messiahs, as the rabbis suggested, what about one Messiah, two appearances? Once to come and die for sin, to separate our sins from us and make us righteous in God’s sight so this generation can walk with God. And then, when enough of us come to know Him, He’ll come back and rule and be King. If the rabbis today weren’t prejudiced and went back to their understanding of the Messiah before Jesus came, it would be easier to see. And I believe, if the rabbis before the time of Jesus knew what we know today, they’d say the Messiah has got to be the Jew, Jesus.
