Will Israel Ever Recognize Jesus as Messiah?

     The short answer is yes! However, the way in which that comes to pass requires taking a deeper look at Scripture.

     Israelis and Jews around the world annually observe a day of mourning called Tisha B’Av. This is the day that primarily commemorates the two single most tragic days in Israel’s history. The two separate times when their Temple was completely destroyed, first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., and again by the Romans in 70 A.D.

     The Temple was the absolute most sacred place in all of Israel. It was the place where God would meet with the high priest, and the symbol of God’s love and presence in Israel.

     To understand why the Temple was destroyed, we must go all the back to the time of Moses, to the early promises and warnings God gave Israel. God promised through Moses, “[] the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments.” Deuteronomy 26:18 (NKJV). However, He also warned that should they turn away from God and fail to keep His commandments:

The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth ... And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.

Deuteronomy 28:25, 37 (NKJV). This has no doubt come true, effects of which we have even seen as recently as the last century.

     By the time of the Prophet Jeremiah, approximately 600 years before Christ’s birth, Israel had largely turned away from God, and had begun to worship the false gods of their neighbors, such as the “queen of heaven.” See Jeremiah 44:17. Through Jeremiah, God expressed that the judgments He warned about all the way back to the time of Moses would in fact come to Israel:   

          I will utter My judgments

     Against them concerning all their wickedness,

     Because they have forsaken Me,

     Burned incense to other gods,

     And worshiped the works of their own hands.

Jeremiah 1:16 (NKJV).

     In 586 B.C., the Temple built by King Solomon was in fact destroyed by the Babylonians and the Jews were largely slaughtered or carried off to Babylon into captivity. Exactly as Jeremiah predicted.

     When their chastisement was over, God brought a remnant of the faithful back from captivity to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. You can read the historical background of that process in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, as well as First and Second Chronicles. However, the most exciting books regarding the rebuilding process are Haggai and Zechariah. They were the prophets sent to encourage Israel to keep building, and to comfort Israel that their future was filled with blessings. More than just about rebuilding the Temple, however, Zechariah is entirely about the restoration of Israel through Jesus Christ.

     During the time that Zechariah came with his message from God, the Jews who had returned to their land were struggling to rebuild in the face of neighbors who hated them. Not very much different from today. Zechariah, whose very name has connotations of God’s comfort, brought a message of comfort to the people. He told of the Angel of the Lord, the Old Testament name for none other than Jesus Christ!, standing among them as their protector in the hollow outside their old city walls. See Zechariah 1.

     Through Zechariah, God compared the people of Israel to being like Myrtle trees. These were small, common trees, found all over the land of Israel. However, when grown in an area that is protected from the intense Mediterranean sun, they can grow tall and strong with beautiful flowers that give off a very fragrant aroma when bruised. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the Myrtle tree is Hadassah, which was the Jewish name of Queen Esther, a perfect image of one who though she was weak, grew to an extreme position of strength under the protection by God.

     I believe that it’s clear in Zechariah that the imagery of the Myrtle trees was to convey the truth that although the people were neither strong nor particularly desirable, but common actually, and in a very humble position outside their broken city, they were in fact like a pleasant aroma to God. The Apostle Peter echoed this truth when he said, “God resists the proud, [b]ut gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5 (NKJV) (quoting Proverbs 3:34).

     Zechariah brought further comfort when he told of the Angel of the Lord, the second member of the Trinity, petitioning God the Father on Israel’s behalf, saying, “O LORD of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?” Zechariah 1:12b (NKJV). This seventy year period was the period in which Jeremiah foretold that the Jews would be exiled during their punishment. See Jeremiah 25:11, 12, 29:10. Then God the Father responds to the pre-incarnate Christ, “I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it … The LORD will again comfort Zion, [a]nd will again choose Jerusalem.” Zechariah 1:16b, 17b (NKJV).

     What an incredible picture of how the same Angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, petitions and intercedes on our behalf before God the Father today, on behalf of those who love Him! The Apostle Paul tells us that this same Intercessor pleads with God the Father on our behalf saying, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5 (NKJV). The writer of Hebrews further elaborated on this teaching:

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 9:13—15 (NKJV); see also Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:27, 34.

     More incredibly, Zechariah sees a vision of not only God’s mercy and compassion for His people, but also His grace, giving His people what they do not deserve, salvation! Zechariah saw a vision of Israel’s high priest Joshua, standing before both the Angel of the Lord and Satan, who the Apostle John said was “the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night.” Revelation 12:10b (NKJV). Satan was accusing Joshua, as a representation of the faithful, of being filthy from sin and not worthy of God’s affection. Yet the Lord, in His unbelievable grace, would remove Israel’s sin Himself, and make those who would repent and return to Him clean:

     Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

     Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.

     Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

Zechariah 3:1—4 (NKJV).

     This act of grace was also foretold through the Prophet Isaiah, when God said:

     Though your sins are like scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They shall be as wool.

Isaiah 1:18b (NKJV).

     And again through Isaiah with more specificity:

     But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

     All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

     He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

     He was taken from prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

     And they made His grave with the wicked—

But with the rich at His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

     Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul an offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

     He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

For He shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:5—11 (NKJV). 

     Jesus never contested either the Jews or the Romans. He laid His life down voluntarily, and offers to be the atonement for all those who would repent from sin and trust that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross would be their individual substitute for God’s wrath that is pending against their sin.

     This was repeated by the risen Christ when, just as He had warned apostate Israel through the prophets, He warned the apostate churches to repent and return to Him, saying, “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Revelation 3:5 (NKJV). And again, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:19, 20 (NKJV).

     As the risen Christ declared to John, repentance is essential to God’s favor. Before all these visions of comfort that Zechariah was given, God explained to Israel the need for repentance, “The LORD has been very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the LORD of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts.’” Zechariah 1:2, 3 (NKJV). Therefore, we see a clear condition to God’s provision and protection over Israel. We must repent and trust God in order to receive His blessings.

     In fact, Zechariah also told of a time when despite all that Israel had seen and been through, they would eventually turn their backs on God. In an amazing prediction of things to come, Zechariah tells of the coming Messiah who will deliver His people from sin, His rejection by Israel, and His second coming, when the Jewish people will finally receive Him.

     Zechariah predicted not only the atonement, as described in the vision of Joshua, but also Christ’s first coming as a triumphant moment in time:

     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 (NKJV).

     The Apostle Matthew, an eyewitness to the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, described the event like this:

     Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

     “Tell the daughter of Zion,
     ‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
     Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
     A colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

     So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

     “Hosanna to the Son of David!


     ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
     Hosanna in the highest!”

Matthew 21:1—9 (NKJV) (quoting Zechariah 9:9, Psalm 118:26).

     Zechariah saw this wonderful time, yet also saw when Israel would again reject God and His Messiah, even that Jesus would be sold for the price of a slave, “So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.” Zechariah 11:12b (NKJV). Through Zechariah, God said that when Israel rejects God again, they will return to following false teachers and again be judged by God, “‘For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,’ says the LORD. ‘But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.’” Zechariah 11:6 (NKJV).

     Jesus spoke to these precise false teachers whom Zechariah said would lead Israel back into judgment from God. Jesus scolded them in the Temple courtyard saying:

Blind guides … Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Mathew 23:24a, 27, 28 (NKJV).

     Jesus even spoke of the time when Israel rejected Zechariah himself, the one who had brought such comfort from the Lord to an earlier Israel in their time of distress, as well as Israel’s rejection of Christ’s Apostles and other witnesses. After scolding the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, He said:

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Matthew 23:34, 35 (NKJV).

     Jesus also declared both His love for Israel, as well as Israel’s coming judgment for rejecting Him, when He lamented:

     O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

Matthew 23:37—39 (NKJV).

     Based on testimony from the eyewitnesses he interviewed, and of course the moving of the Holy Spirit, Luke added that as Jesus was lamenting over Israel’s stubbornness, He prophesied their coming destruction:

     Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Luke 19:41—44 (NKJV).

     This exact destruction occurred in 70 A.D., when the Romans utterly destroyed Jerusalem for their rebellion against Rome. God allowed it, however, because of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah. During the siege against Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers set the city on fire, which burned so intensely that it melted the gold covered walls of the Temple. After it cooled, the soldiers were ordered to tear every brick and stone apart in order to retrieve that gold. Just as Jesus had predicted, not one stone was left upon another.

     After the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem the first time, the Prophet Jeremiah cried:

          Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored;

     Renew our days as of old,

          Unless You have utterly rejected us,

     And are very angry with us!

Lamentations 5:21, 22 (NKJV).

     The amazing prophecy of Zechariah concludes with a vision of a restored Jerusalem. God will answer Jeremiah’s lament. He did it when they repented after the Babylonian captivity, and He will do it again. He will turn Israel back when they repent and recognize that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the very same Angel of the Lord who in their own past has protected those who returned to Him in repentance and faith, and removes sin for all those who are willing, “As far as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12a (NKJV).

     Speaking directly to the people of Israel, centuries before the birth of Jesus, the Angel of the Lord said of a time that is still future for us, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” Zechariah 12:10 (NKJV) (underlined emphasis added). In that day, Israel will be broken hearted over the fact that they had rejected the Messiah promised by their very own prophets. Yet, they will be restored to a greatness like they have never seen.

     After this, Israel will become the center of the world, as God has always intended, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” Zechariah 14:16 (NKJV). God promised that this blessing through the Messiah would come when He said to Abraham, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3b (NKJV).

     The Apostle Paul also foretold of this time when he said:

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

          “The Deliverer will come out of Zion,

     And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

          For this is My covenant with them,

     When I take away their sins.”

Romans 11:26, 27 (NKJV) (quoting Isaiah 59:20, 21).

     Let us learn from this wonderful ancient vision given to Zechariah. Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Lord, protects all those who have repented and returned to Him, no matter how dismal our circumstances seem. He washes clean from iniquity all those who repent and turn to Him, through the atonement when He was pierced on the cross 2,000 years ago. He pleads with God the Father on our behalf, that God will have mercy on us. And He is coming again to be worshiped as Savior and King!

     David foretold of the Messiah’s coming as well, and gave the following warning:

Serve the LORD with fear,

     And rejoice with trembling.

     Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

     And you perish in the way,

     When His wrath is kindled but a little.

     Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Psalm 2:11, 12 (NKJV).

     Please listen to this message, and if you have never repented and turned to the Lord, do it today! If anyone dies unrepentant, they will die in their sins, and as the writer of Hebrews said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31 (NKJV). That was precisely David’s point about fearing the Lord. You don’t know whether you will have another day to repent, so do it now while you still can. Listen again to the writer of Hebrews, who implored, “Today, if you will hear His voice, [d]o not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Hebrews 3:15, 4:7b (NKJV) (see also Psalm 95:7—8). If you hear His voice, do as Jesus commanded, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15b (NKJV).