The Future and the Messiah

In the Jewish Scriptures the ‘Day of Jehovah’ was a future battle that would decide the fate of the Jewish people. It was seen as a future day of victory but the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, Micah and Zephaniah, suggested that it would bring destruction.

Later, these prophecies also included ideas of future prosperity with eschatological hopes.

The Book of Daniel holds the hope that the kingdom of the world will be given to the saints of the Most High, the Jewish people. The archangel Michael will appear after the death of the beast which represents the Greek kingdoms of the Middle East.

There is no appearance of a messiah in the Book of Daniel. This idea of a deliverer king is in the Song of Solomon. The desire for a messiah who would break the Roman rule and establish the empire of the Jews led to the rebellion of 66-70CE that brought about the destruction of Jerusalem. It does not appear that this Messiah figure was connected with the final judgement and the raising of the dead:

But I know that my Vindicator lives;

In the end He will testify on earth (Job 19:25).

The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honourable memory. Although she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She encouraged each of them in the language of their ancestors. Filled with a noble spirit, she reinforced her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage, and said to them, “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws” (2 Maccabees 7:20-23).

When the Messiah arrives, peace will be brought to the earth. As the prophet Isaiah said:

For a child has been born to us,

A son has been given us.

And authority has settled on his shoulders.

He has been named

“The Mighty God is planning grace;

The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler”-

In token of abundant authority

And of peace without limit

Upon David’s throne and kingdom,

That it may be firmly established

In justice and in equity

Now and evermore.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts

Shall bring this to pass (Isaiah 9:5-6).

Isaiah also wrote that this Messiah or Servant of G-d who would suffer for the peoples’ sins.

Jews are still waiting for this Messiah though some Jewish groups argue that they are waiting for a Messianic Age rather than for a person.