You have likely been told many things about Jesus.

Moses Commands Us to Heed the Prophet’s Voice

In the Torah, Moses recorded the words God gave him for our people.

“I will raise up for them from among their own people a prophet like yourself, in whose mouth I will put My words and who will speak to them all that I command; and anybody who fails to heed the words spoken in My name, I Myself will call to account.” (Deuteronomy 18:18–19)

Moses told us that God would raise up a prophet from amongst us, and that we must listen to Him. This was no small statement. Moses was pointing us to someone beyond himself. He was cautioning Israel that God would send a prophet who would speak in His name with divine authority, and that every person would be accountable for how they respond.

Jesus of Nazareth did not flatter the religious leaders. He did not soften the truth to avoid offense. He exposed evil, called people to God, healed the broken, forgave the guilty, spoke with authority, and did miracles that forced people to decide who He was. This is why we need to consider whether Jesus is merely a good teacher, a misunderstood rabbi, a figure who belongs only to the Gentiles, or the promised prophet Moses spoke of.

If Yeshua - Jesus’ Hebrew name, is the one God raised up, then dismissing Him is not a light matter. It is rejecting the voice God sent.

God Bore Witness to Him

The miracles Jesus performed are attested to outside the New Testament by both Jewish and non-Christian sources. They were not random acts of compassion, they were signs.

When Jesus opened blind eyes, healed the sick, cleansed lepers, cast out evil spirits, and raised the dead, these were not empty displays of power. They were visible signs that God was with Him, and confirmation of who He was.

The Hebrew Scriptures had taught Israel to recognize the significance of signs. For God had confirmed His messengers, from Moses to the prophets, with supernatural signs. Signs were not given to entertain. They were given to reveal when God was speaking, acting, and calling His people to respond. It was because of the signs that Jesus of Nazareth had performed that tens of thousands of Torah-observing Jews in the first century believed in Him.

What About His Death?

Many have assumed that Jesus’ death proves He could not be the Messiah. Yet the Hebrew Scriptures reveal a truth many have overlooked: The Messiah is not only the King who reigns, but also the Servant who suffers.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of a Servant of the Lord who would be despised and rejected. He would be “wounded because of our sins” and “crushed because of our iniquities.” Then Isaiah declares a profound and astonishing truth: “by his bruises we were healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Do not miss the weight of this: This was God’s plan.

The death of Jesus did not disqualify Him. It revealed Him.

The mysterious figure described by Isaiah does not suffer because of His own moral failures, but because of ours.

“But GOD chose to crush him by disease, that, if he made himself an offering for guilt… My righteous servant makes the many righteous, it is their punishment that he bears. For he exposed himself to death and was numbered among the sinners, whereas he bore the guilt of the many.” (Isaiah 53:10–12, Jewish Publication Society Version)

His suffering, rejection, and public execution did not contradict the Hebrew Scriptures; it fulfilled them. Just as Moses was first rejected by the sons of Israel when they were slaves in Egypt, before being recognized as their deliverer, and just as Joseph was first rejected by his brothers before becoming their deliverer, so too Jesus would first be rejected by Israel before being recognized for who He really is: the Messiah who bore our sin and died in our place.

Jesus did not die because He lost control. He died according to the predetermined plan of God.

He Rose

But His death was not the end.

Over the past two decades, Chabad has become the most visible and globally influential movement within Orthodox Judaism. Many have seen the images and posters of Menachem Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe who passed away in 1994. Remarkably, some within Chabad still regard him as the Messiah, even though he passed away, and they continue to await his reappearance. In fact, you can still see posters of him throughout Israel today.

In other words, many within the Chabad Orthodox Jewish movement continue to believe that his death in 1994 was not final, and that he will yet be revealed as the Messiah. My point is simple: the idea of Israel’s Messiah dying and yet being revealed again is not entirely foreign to Jewish thought or the Hebrew scriptures.

I am appealing to you not to reject Jesus simply because He was crucified. His earliest followers were Jews, and they bore witness that God raised Him from the dead and that they had seen Him alive afterward.

Men condemned Him, but God overturned their judgment. Men regarded Him as cursed, but by raising Him from the dead, God declared Him to be the Righteous Messiah.

What Does This Mean?

Consider another mysterious passage from the prophet Daniel, whom many remember from the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. Daniel sees a man coming with the clouds of heaven and being brought before the Ancient of Days.

“I saw in the visions of the night, and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a man was coming, and he came up to the Ancient of Days and was brought before Him. And He gave him dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and tongues shall serve him; his dominion is an eternal dominion, which will not be removed, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13–14)

Notice in the above scripture that a Man (The Messiah) was brought to the Ancient of Days (The Creator).

Consider this, when Jesus stood before the Jewish religious leaders of His day, he quoted this exact passage from Daniel and identified himself as the very One Daniel saw in his vision coming with the clouds of heaven. Here is what Jesus said:

“YOU WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.” (Matthew 26:64)

My beloved Jewish brothers and sisters, Jesus was either meshuggah, a manipulator, or exactly who He claimed to be - the Messiah.

Do not let what you have been told keep you from seeing who He really is.

This is not a distant religious idea, or something to consider at arm’s length. If Jesus is the Messiah, then His claim reaches the core of who you are.

If your heart is open, you can pray something like this:

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is Jesus really the Jewish Messiah? You know this is very difficult for me. Jesus feels foreign to me. I’ve always associated him with the Gentiles, but I sense there may be more here than I have understood, and I want to be open to You. God, I open my heart to you. If Jesus really is the Messiah, help me to see the truth and give me the strength and the courage to follow You. I want to know You, show me the way.