Unless you live in a cave or choose to be in complete denial, for the last few years, it has been open season on the Jews on a worldwide scale. The one event that should have triggered a positive response from the global community to come to the rescue of Israel–Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023—somehow encouraged people to come out and demonize the Jewish state and Jewish people around the world. Imagine a world where innocent victims of murder, dismemberment, burning, and rape, from babies to the elderly, become the very ones accused of genocide! This has been an irrational episode of antisemitic “Twilight Zone!”
We could all use some positive news right now. Even though many will complain that the world is falling apart, according to Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries, “it’s falling into place!” We have the Blessed Hope. We know that Yeshua (Jesus) will come to get us, the Body of Messiah, before the gruesome events of the seven-year “Time of Jacob’s Trouble,” also known as the Great Tribulation. We also know that His return, with us on earth, is guaranteed at the end of that period, right before He inaugurates His kingdom as Messianic king, reigning from the throne of King David in Jerusalem.
But really, how much of it is true, and how much is just wishful thinking or speculation? This all depends on how serious we are about the validity of the Word of God. Can the Bible be trusted? Is it the Truth? Does it change lives? The answer is a solid YES to all three questions.
One of the most significant discoveries in the history of humanity took place in late 1946, early 1947. It was done by a Bedouin shepherd in the area of Qumran, in Southern Israel. A collection of well-preserved manuscripts was discovered, and it suddenly pushed back the earliest Old Testament manuscript copies by more than 1,000 years. Before that discovery, the earliest manuscripts dated back to the 10th Century CE (Masoretic text). The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) took us back to the period between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE, but the story doesn’t end there. When all fragments were found, gathered, and organized, scholars came to realize that, except for Esther, every single book of the Hebrew Bible was present in part or almost in full. After changing hands several times, they are all kept in Jerusalem at the Shrine of the Book Museum.
Of all of them, the scroll of Isaiah is the most well-preserved, and a facsimile of it is permanently on display at the Museum. It is complete with the exception of a few torn fragments and is 95% to 98% identical to the Masoretic text. Only a copy of it has been on display until Spring of 2026, when the real scroll was pulled out of the museum vault and put on display for a few months for all to see. It will eventually go back to the vault for the next fifty years. Those who can come to Jerusalem to view it will partake in a part of history and archaeology rarely witnessed before.
The book of Isaiah truly is a goldmine of prophetic truth about the Mashiach (Messiah, Christ). It is good news for those who take God’s Word seriously, and we should all be very encouraged by its message to Israel and to the rest of the world. It has 66 chapters, and within them, some of the most powerful prophecies about Mashiach in the whole Bible can be located:
Isaiah 11:1-2 tells us about a shoot stemming from the stump of Jesse (King David’s father). It confirms that the Mashiach will be a descendant of King David, from the tribe of Judah, and that He will be of humble origins.
Isaiah 7:3-16 lays out the powerful prophecy about the birth of one called Immanuel (God with us). It says that a virgin (alma) will be with child. There are three words for virgin in Hebrew: Naharah, betulah, and alma. Only alma, used seven times in the Tenach (Hebrew Scriptures), doesn’t need a qualifier to mean “virgin”, so much so that the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures) translated it “parthenos,” which can only mean virgin.
Isaiah 9:6-7 is known by most people as the “Christmas card verse.” It is a beautiful declaration of a “child will be born to us, a son will be given to us,” clearly describing a human being, but then, we read about a series of titles given to him that are very unique. He is called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” These beautiful titles seem to indicate that this human being will also be of divine origin. The word pele, used in “Wonderful Counselor,” can only be used to describe how wonderful God is, but not man, as in Judges 13:15-21.
But how is this possible? How can a man become God? Well, truly no man can, but God can lower Himself to become a man for the very purpose of relating to us mortals and atoning for our shortcomings. This is exactly what Yeshua accomplished, and we read about it further down in Isaiah.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is also known by most as “Isaiah 53,” and it is a very powerful prophecy about the ministry of the Mashiach. This passage was written 700 years before the coming of Yeshua on the scene, and it speaks of crucifixion when that method of execution didn’t exist yet. It describes with vivid details the humiliation, suffering, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of the Mashiach. Many have tried to make it speak of Israel instead of the person of the Mashiach, but it requires theological gymnastics to arrive at that flawed conclusion.
In short, the book of Isaiah is a comforting source of Biblical truth and prophetic information about the Mashiach’s origins, birth, nature, ministry, death, and resurrection. It is great news in a world that is rapidly decaying into apostasy, moving at light speed towards the completion of the End Times agenda. It can be trusted as the rest of the Bible, which incidentally is described also by Isaiah as true and eternal.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
