Yeshua in the Tenach
In dealing with my Jewish brethren for the past many years in Canada, the United States, Argentina, and Uruguay, I had one great difficulty, and it was this: My Jewish people would always fling at me this challenging question, "If Jesus is our messiah, and the whole Old testament is about Him, how come His name is never mentioned in it even once?" ... |
| | "Where do we find that NAME?" you ask. Here it is beloved: Every time the Old Testament uses the word SALVATION (especially with the Hebrew suffix meaning "my", "thy", or "his"), with very few exceptions (when the word is impersonal), it is the very same word, Yeshua (Jesus), used in Matthew 1:21. Let us remember that the angel who spoke to Mary and the angel who spoke to Joseph in his dream did not speak in English, Latin, or Greek, but in Hebrew; and neither were Mary or Joseph slow to grasp the meaning and significance of the NAME of this divine Son and its relation to His character and His work of salvation. For in the Old Testament all great characters were given names with a specific and significant meaning. |
| | For example, in Genesis 5:29, Lamech called his son Noah (comfort), saying, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands." In Genesis 10:25, Eber calls his firstborn son Peleg (division); "for his days was the earth divided." The same is true of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob (changed to Israel -- God's Prince), and all of Jacob's sons (see Genesis, chapters 29-32). In Exodus 2:10, Pharaoh's daughter called the baby rescued from the Nile, Moses (Drawn Forth) and she said: "Because I drew him out of the water." And so we can go on and on to show the deep significance of Hebrew names. |
| | Now then, when the angel spoke to Joseph, husband of Mary, the mother of our Lord, this is what he really said and what Joseph actually understood: "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus [Yeshua (salvation)]: for he shall save [or salvage] his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21) ... So let us proceed to show clearly the Hebrew name YESHUA (Greek, Iesus; English, Jesus) in the Old Testament. |
| | Now then, when the angel spoke to Joseph, husband of Mary, the mother of our Lord, this is what he really said and what Joseph actually understood: "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus [Yeshua (salvation)]: for he shall save [or salvage] his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21) ... So let us proceed to show clearly the Hebrew name YESHUA (Greek, Iesus; English, Jesus) in the Old Testament. |
| | When the great Patriarch Jacob was ready to depart this world, he by the Holy Spirit was blessing his sons and prophetically foretelling their future experiences in those blessings. In verse 18 of Genesis 49 he exclaims, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!"; or "In thy Yeshua (Jesus) I am hoping (trusting), O Lord!" ... YESHUA (Jesus) was the One in Whom Jacob was trusting to carry him safely over the chilly waters of the river of death. Jacob was a saved man, and did not wait until his dying moments to start trusting in the Lord. He just reminded God that he was at the same time comforting his own soul. |
| | When the great Patriarch Jacob was ready to depart this world, he by the Holy Spirit was blessing his sons and prophetically foretelling their future experiences in those blessings. In verse 18 of Genesis 49 he exclaims, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!"; or "In thy Yeshua (Jesus) I am hoping (trusting), O Lord!" ... YESHUA (Jesus) was the One in Whom Jacob was trusting to carry him safely over the chilly waters of the river of death. Jacob was a saved man, and did not wait until his dying moments to start trusting in the Lord. He just reminded God that he was at the same time comforting his own soul. |
| | Something very interesting occurred one spring in St. Louis. I was visiting in the home of our friends, Brother and Mrs. Charles Siegelman, and another Jew was present there. He claimed Jewish orthodoxy for his creed ... The good Jewish brother opposed the claims of Christ in the Old Testament verbally, and in a friendly fashion, most violently. His best offensive weapon, he thought, was to fling at me and at all of us there the well known challenge: "You can't find the name 'Jesus' in the Old Testament" ; and this he did. |
| | I did not answer him directly, but asked him to translate for us from my Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 62:11. Being a Hebrew scholar, he did so with utmost ease, rapidity, and correctness; and here is what and how he translated that text verbatim: "Behold, Jehovah has proclaimed unto the end of the world. Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy Yeshua (Jesus) cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work is before Him." Just then he crimsoned as he realized what he had done and how he had played into my hands, and he fairly screamed out, "No! no! You made me read it 'thy YESHUA' (Jesus), Mr Glass! You tricked me!" I said "No, I did not trick you. I just had you read the Word of God for yourself. Can't you see that here SALVATION is a Person and not a thing or an event? 'HE comes, HIS reward is with HIM, and HIS work is before HIM." Then he rushed at his own Old Testament, talking away frantically, saying, "I'm sure mine is different from yours." And when he found the passage, he dropped like a deflated balloon. His Old Testament was, of course, identical. All he could use as an escape from admitting defeat was to deny the divine inspiration of the book of Isaiah. |
| | Then skipping on to Habakkuk, we have the greatest demonstration of the NAME "Jesus" in the Old Testament; for here we have both the name as well as the title of the Savior. In 3:13 we read literally from the original Hebrew: "Thou wentest forth with YESHA [variant of YESHUA -- Jesus] of [or for] thy people; with YESHUA thy MESSIAH [thy Anointed One: i.e., with Jesus thy Christ]; thou woundest the head of the house of the wicked one [Satan]." Here you have it! The very NAME given to our Lord in the New Testament -- Jesus Christ! So don't let anyone -- Jew or Gentile -- tell you that the name JESUS is not found in the Old Testament. |
| | And so when the aged Simeon came to the Temple, led there by the Holy Ghost, and took the baby Jesus in his arms, he said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation [YESHUA -- Jesus]." Luke 2:29-30 ... Not only did his eyes see God's SALVATION -- God's YESHUA (Jesus) -- but he felt Him and touched Him. His believing heart beat with joy and assurance as he felt the loving heart of God throbbing in the heart of the holy infant Jesus. |
| | "And thou shalt call his name Jesus (SALVATION, YESHUA): for he shall save (salvation, salvage) his people from their sins!" Matthew 1:21 |
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