And (he) walked

Deuteronomy 31:1-3

Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the LORD has said.

Deut. 31:3b NKJ

How do we know that the Messiah will have to come twice?

The Torah doesn't speak much of the Messiah. The concept of a king Messiah was revealed later on. Specifically during the time of King David, the revelation about a Messiah that would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel and the whole world increased. However, the concept mashiach – משיח, anointed – or in its definite form ha-mashiach – המשיח, the anointed one – does not appear for the first time in relation to royalty but in relation to priesthood. The expression ha-mashiach appears three times in Leviticus 4 where it speaks of the anointed priest who offers the sacrifice for sin. This is the first revelation that the Torah makes about the Messiah – in relation to priesthood and sacrifice for sin.

However, the concept of Messiah that has prevailed in Jewish thought throughout history is the concept of a Messiah King. The word king in Hebrew – melech, מלך – starts with the same letter than mashiach – the mem מ. Therefore, when the Messiah is mentioned in a Jewish context, it is first understood as the King. For that reason we can say that Yeshua is not yet the (king) Messiah, because until now he has just been serving as Heavenly High Priest, and hasn't sat as king on the throne of his father David, ruling upon the twelve tribes of Israel.

When the Apostolic Writings say that he is the Messiah, they do it in the first place in relation with his ministry as Heavenly Priest, and in second place with the one assigned by the Eternal to be the king Messiah in the future. A Messiah who hasn't been acknowledged by the leaders of his people cannot carry out his function as Messiah. In that sense, I repeat IN THAT SENSE, Yeshua is not the Messiah yet, because he is not yet the king of Israel.

Since the predominant Jewish concept of the Messiah has to do with royalty and the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, Yeshua's disciples could not understand their Rabbi when he spoke of the need of dying and rising again, because they were not expecting a suffering Messiah who had to fulfil the role of a priest and sacrifice himself as offering for the sin. They were expecting a triumphant king that would restore the kingdom to Israel and fulfil all the promises given to king David and the rest of the prophets. The Rabbi's disciples reflect the general Jewish thought: the Messiah expected is similar to David and Solomon, but eternal and universal.

The revelation of a suffering Messiah who gives himself as a sacrifice for his people is not very widespread among the rabbis, and most of them reject such a concept. However, there are several rabbinical ancient documents that speak about this, even though this revelation has been hidden from many of the rabbis until today.

This secret from the Eternal has only been revealed to very few Jews, rabbis among them, but to many, many gentiles. HaShem has His purpose for this, but this is not the time to talk about it.

Now, we are going to point out the fact that the Torah gives several testimonies in an allegoric way of the fact that the Messiah has to come twice. This text is the third evidence of the second coming of the Messiah.

There are three people who represent prophetic prototypes of the Messiah to come: Yosef, Moshe, and Yehoshua. All these had to come twice to finish their mission.

 The first time Yosef met with his brothers in Egypt, they didn't recognise him. The gentiles had acknowledged him as their saviour, and he was also sustaining the sons of Israel, his brothers, but they didn't know it. In the first encounter, they didn't recognize him as their brother. There had to be a second encounter, and then, Yosef made himself known to them, revealing his real name, and thus, the eyes of the sons of circumcision were opened. It will be so again.

Moshe left Pharaoh's palace and came to his brothers to deliver them from slavery. But the first time he was rejected by them and had to flee from Egypt. It wasn’t until the second time he came, that the elders of Israel received him as the Eternal's emissary for their deliverance from bondage. Moshe also came twice and the second time he was accepted by the people of the circumcision.

Yehoshua was sent the first time to the Promised Land as a spy. When he returned, the people would not believe his words, and even wanted to stone him. There had to be another chance. When Yehoshua finally lead the people into the land it was his second visit to the Promised Land. This is another testimony from the Torah that the Messiah has to come twice to his people and his Land.

Blessed be the Eternal for revealing us His secrets!!

Kol tuv,

Ketriel