Transcription
Every person needs to ask the question: Why in churches are they taught very specific passages, and the rest of the book is hidden to them? Let's go to the beginning. Let's go to Isaiah 41, verse 8-9. Who is the servant there? Israel, Jacob. Isaiah 42, verse 6. Who is the light of nations? Who is the covenant nation? Israel. Isaiah 43, verse 10: "You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant that I have chosen." Because of the sins of my people—me, I mean—for the transgressions of my people, they were shrieked. Now, I want you to do this because we're going to go, we're going now nuclear. For the transgression of my people, where he was punished? Bingo. But it doesn't say that. The NIV, the Schmidt IV, all the Bibles change the Hebrew text in the translation because the original text says these four words. Those are the last four words. Please look it up for yourself. "Hello and good night. And besides me, there is no other savior." You at Dallas Theological Seminary, pay careful attention to what you believe is the word of God. You at Fuller Theological Seminary, wake up. You at Philadelphia College of Bible, wake up. You in Rome, the Vatican, wake up. Besides me, there is no other savior. None. So the servant is plural of the witnesses. We're not done.
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Welcome back to The Gnostic Informant, and you are about to attain true gnosis. And joining me again is Rabbi Tovia Singer, who was on about a month ago, and that video was amazing, everybody. We got, got tons of views, still getting views, lots of comments, good comments, um, good dialogue, and people really enjoyed it. In fact, the reason why I'm having him back on is because I got some emails from some people, particularly Christians, but they're, you know, very polite about this, and they said, you know, you guys are making really good points. And this is, I got two people who said this. They said it differently, but to paraphrase what they're both saying along the lines of this: You guys are making really good points, but I didn't hear you say anything about Isaiah 53. You can't debunk Isaiah 53. You can't tell me that Isaiah 53 is not about Jesus. So before I throw it over to you, Rabbi, uh, I figured I should actually read the, uh, verse in Isaiah 53 that they're talking about. And, um, just so people are on the same page and we all know. And it says: "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We are like sheep who have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and thus the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." And then it goes to: "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring prolong in his days. And then it says: "And he suffered; he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many; he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great and divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors."
Okay, so what they're saying is, this particular passage in Isaiah 53 is about Jesus on the cross, suffering for the sins of humanity. Rabbi, what is the Hebrew version of this? Is it the same? Is it different? What is the meaning of this?
Yeah, so this is, this is what's called a salad bar hermeneutics. And I'll explain. It's like a helicopter landing in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah without having any knowledge of the content. I remember, uh, when I came to Israel to live here in 2019, I was, it was an Israel Day parade going up Fifth Avenue. When I was on a float, it was the next day, Monday, that I got on the flight. And at the end, as he's going up Fifth Avenue, I could see a guy holding up a huge sign that says, "Read Isaiah 53." Something like that. And the Jews are hiding it. The Jews are hiding it. And he has a huge sign. Now, there had to be, I don't know, a quarter of a million people, let's pray, who knows. And this guy is right there in the middle of this whole parade. And it's around, I think, 73rd, 74th Street. The whole video of what I'm about to tell you is on YouTube. And I'm like, blown away that we're hiding Isaiah 53. I jump off the back of the truck that was carrying us on the float. I run back down Fifth Avenue, two blocks, two, two short blocks, and I approach him and I ask him a question. I ask him, "Tell me, what does it say in Isaiah chapter 52?" Let me just say this, this is amazing. Do you belong to a certain church? Is there a church that you're drawn to? Do you belong to a special church?
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Jesus. Brilliant. Do you know what it says in Isaiah? Do you know what it says in Isaiah 54? What does it say? Then Isaiah 52? There's an argument with somebody. The cops tell me, "Don't get into, uh, Bible verses." All right. What does it say in 54? Right now, it's a whole chapter. Do you know what it says in 53? So, 53, you know, but 52 and 54, you don't know. You know, what does it say? 54? I don't give, uh, interviews. Okay. All right. Alone. All right.
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Well, the guy's standing on the street with the sign. You think you're giving it to me? And he, he was not happy with that. He, I asked him, "Tell me, what does it say in Isaiah chapter 54?" I mean, you're really concerned about Isaiah 53. What does it say in the chapter before, in the chapter after? And he just starts cursing me out. And he identifies himself as working for Jesus. For Jesus. Not kidding. It's all, you can just, yes, using language that it's right on there. And I asked him, like, what church do you belong to? He said, "I work for Jews for Jesus." I asked him, "What is it like? What do you think like this chapter sitting in the middle of nowhere?" Every person needs to ask the question: Why in churches are they taught very specific passages, and the rest of the book is hidden to them? And if you approach Christians who quote Isaiah 53, go ask them, "What does it say in 52? What does it say in the beginning of 51, 50?" They have to look it up. Why do you have to look it up? So, this type of salad bar hermeneutics is what gets, as you said, good Christians, sincere Christians, in all the trouble in the world. And you can begin by asking the Christian who is speaking, if you don't ask that question about any passage in the Hebrew Bible, you're going to be lost. Isaiah poses a further challenge in that of 66 chapters, only four of them are written like Joshua and Judges. The rest of it is poetic, which means you really, really have to know the context. So, who is speaking in Isaiah 53? Because some, Isaiah 53, verse 1 through verse 8, the gentile kings of nations are speaking. They are astonished, they are shocked. Now, from verse 9, which you read, all the way through verse 12, God resumes speaking. So, I want to divide this up. The section, really, of Isaiah 53, begins in Isaiah 50, 52, verse 13 through 15. God is speaking there. 53, 1-8, the gentile kings of nations are speaking there. How do you know? Because it says it in Isaiah 52:15. The chapter break is completely artificial. It says that kings will shut their mouths because they'll be shocked for what they're going to say. And this is in the Messianic age. It's like nothing they'd ever heard, what they are witnessing, and like nothing they ever considered. And they ask the question of Isaiah 53, verse 1: "Mi senu, who would have believed our report? Who would ever believe such a thing?" The nations of the world behold the salvation of the servant, Israel, the nation of Israel, and they are astonished because they never imagined such a thing, just like the people who wrote you that message. Now, who is the servant? Because in the chapter, this is all we have is that word "servant," both in Isaiah 52:13 and Isaiah 53:11, which you mentioned. Incidentally, in 53:11, I will say it says, "By his knowledge, my servant will vindicate the just for many." By his knowledge? If it's, if it's talking about Jesus, not by his knowledge, but by his blood, by his death, by his resurrection, not by his knowledge. So, none of this makes sense. In order to understand Isaiah 53, you have to, we can all agree, and I want to speak to the Christians right now, we can all agree that Isaiah intended that when you read the 53rd chapter, that you read the chapters that introduce it. That that can't be controversial. There are people watching me right now, listening to my voice right now, of many different beliefs or unbeliefs. But the one thing we can be certain, we can all agree on, is that whoever wrote this book intended that you read the chapters that introduce it. Okay, so here it is. All you have to do is go to Isaiah the 41, verse 8 and 9. That means, what I'm going to do is, Isaiah 53 is the fourth of four servant songs, the fourth. So let's go to the beginning. Let's go to Isaiah 41, verse 8-9. Who was the servant there? Israel, Jacob. Isaiah 42, verse 6. Who is the light of the nations? Who is the covenant nation? Israel. Isaiah 43, verse 10: "You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant that I have chosen." I want you to listen to that again, by the way. The J-witnesses, that group, can I jump? They took the name from that. Go ahead. Okay, I've been following along this whole time and I'm checking as you're as you're naming verses in past. I'm checking because I, I want to learn too. Um, you're, okay, so right now I'm looking at chapter 43, verse 10. And the Lord says, "You are my witnesses," plural. And he says, "And my servant who I have chosen." So right there, he's establishing, bingo, it's a plurality. "You are my witnesses and my servant who I have chosen." So this servant, which is now a singular term, is coming from a plural term of witnesses. He's putting the nation of Israel as the suffering servant. This is the context for what's about to happen in a later chapter. By the way, sweetheart, you want to lose your mind? Go further in that exact same passage. "That I have chosen." So that, read it, read it for the listener. "So that you may know, understand, and believe me." And look at the last year. What does it say? 43:10. The same passage, right? "You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen." So that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no good, no God was formed, nor will there be after me. I think I even am the Lord. And what does it say? "I, and before me no God was formed." Continue. "Nor will there be one after me." Next verse, 11: "I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior." Hello and good night. And besides me, there is no other savior. You at Dallas Theological Seminary, pay careful attention to what you believe is the word of God. You at Fuller Theological Seminary, wake up. You at the the Philadelphia College of Bible, wake up. You in Rome, the Vatican, wake up. Besides me, there is no other savior. None. So the servant is plural. Are the witnesses? We're not done. We'll just, I mean, we'll do as much as one. Isaiah 41, of Isaiah, excuse me, Isaiah 44, verse 1. Just turn the pages if you can. Do it with me. I want everything is at stake for the viewers. 44, verse 1. Let's just move to Isaiah 3. Watch what happened. But now listen, Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. Did I, did I sneak into your house and like put that in there? Did I break in? Did I hack into your computer and put it in there? Let's move on. 44:21. Just so we're going to make this very clear. Continue. 44: "Remember these things, Jacob, which is also Israel. For you, Israel, are my servant." Hello. Let's go to 45:4. This is not a magic trick. I'm not, this is not. Which is, ah, you're reading it. I don't know what Bible you're reading it out. I don't know what version. It won't make a difference. 45, verse 4. Just in, 45, verse 4. Yeah, it says, "For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel, my chosen." Very nice. 48:20. He said, "Very nice." 48's. I mean, who is the servant? I mean, it's Israel. Israel. Who says, "A Tovia Singer who doesn't like Christians for some reason?" No, this is the Bible. And this is not like I'm going to, to the book of Genesis here. I'm not like going to the book of Chronicles. We're in context. This is an, these are the servant songs. Who is the? Look, in Judaism, our rabbis are Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. That means Isaiah must be the chief commentary of the book of Isaiah. You see what I'm saying here? Not your commentaries that you have at home. Forget that. The only commentary that matters is Isaiah. Let's continue. Isaiah 48, verse 20: "Leave Babylon! Flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it; send it out to the ends of the earth say, 'The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.'" Next, Isaiah 49, verse 3. You could see where this is going. We didn't set this up. By the way, that means before we got on here, I didn't know it was this kind of. I didn't, I didn't. We, we didn't like this is not, this is completely extremely. We chatted for 60 seconds. I said, "Let's just talk on it." Because Isaiah 49, this is not like biblical sleight of hand. 49:3. I was gonna reveal something real quick. I always try to have a little bit of a game plan when I do my, my, my recordings. Rabbi always says, "Stop. No, just hit record. Let's go. I don't want to plan anything." He always does that. It's like, right. He just likes to go off the cuff. But okay, what's the next one? 49:3 says, "He said to me, 'You are my servant, Israel, in whom I display my splendor.'" Unbelievable. Shocking. So, number one, so now we know two things: Who is speaking? The gentile kings of nations. Who is the servant? Isaiah 52:13 and 53:11. The servant is Israel. This is the fir, fourth of the four servant songs. Listen, my precious brothers and sisters, take a book, any book, holy or unholy, that has 66 chapters. Try it. And just go to the 53rd chapter of any book. It could be a novel. Doesn't make a difference. You're not going to know what's going on. This is not only true for a book like Isaiah, this is true for any. This could be true for the, the Hardy Boys. It doesn't make a difference. The point is, if you, and this is what's happening to Christians around the world, good people, but they're taught 53, but they're not taught Isaiah 41, they're not taught Isaiah 42, 43, 44, 45, 46. And how much trouble are you in? That's number one. So, the nations of the world, this is a soliloquy, and it is gorgeous. The nations of the world in the Messianic age, at the end of days, are going to behold their error, their mistake, and they're going to realize the answer to a well-worn question, an ancient question: Why do the Jews suffer so much? Why? Until now? And that's 52:15. We had thought that the suffering of the Jews can be attributed to that they rejected Christ. And all the church fathers said this. Augustine famously discusses this in his magnum opus, The City of God, that the Jews, the plight of the Jews, is attributed to that they reject the Lord and kill the Lord, as Melito, that great luminary, the bishop from the second century. They killed the Lord, and that's why the Jews suffer so much. They rejected our Savior. That's why. That's why the Jews suffer so much. But now, in the Messianic age, that explanation no longer works, because they are right. After all, 10 gentiles will grab the shirt of a Jew, Zechariah 8:23, and say, "Take us with you. Now we know God is with you." So, this theme is all over the place. When the Messiah comes, the old explanation of why the Jews suffered completely dissipates. It, it just, it's gone. It has to be jettisoned and replaced with a new explanation. And the non-Jews come to the two conclusions for the suffering of the Jews. Number one, the reason why the Jews suffered, as you read in the opening, is because of the sins of my people. "Me pesha ami." For the transgressions of my people, they were shrieked. Pow. Now, I want you to do this because we're going to go, we're going now nuclear. Okay, we're going now nuclear. Listen very carefully. You read that to me, Isaiah 53, verse 8. Yeah. What is that last phrase? What does it say in the NIV? "For the transgression of my people, where he was punished." Bingo. But it doesn't say that. The NIV, the Schmidt IV, all the Bibles change the Hebrew text in the translation because the original text says these four words: "Me pesha ami negalamo." Those are the last four words. Please look it up for yourself. And these, and you're reading that's right, right here. I'm gonna fact-check you. Do you mind? Yeah, please. And the key word we're very, very interested in is that last word in the text, "lamo." All right. So, Isaiah 53, verse 8. All right, here we go. It says, "You see that word 'lamo'?" That's our keyword. "Me pesha ami," which means "for the transgressions of my people." "Ami," like, "ah," means "a people." "Ami," "of my people." "They were stricken." The Hebrew says, "They were shrieked." Let's see that. Right. So it says, it doesn't say "nega lo." That would be "he was shrieking." "Lamo" is plural. It means "they were shrieked," meaning Israel. It's not one person. Do you think that the church can let that sit? Do you think one moment that the Christendom and Isaiah 53 is sacrosanct? Why Daniel 9 is not mentioned in the New Testament? I'm talking about the texts of the 70 weeks. The, the Isaiah 9, that's not in the Christian. But this is, this was used by Philip to convert a eunuch from Gaza. So if this goes, everything goes. So the church literally raped the text, altered the text. The last word there is "lamo," which means "of them." It's the equivalent of "him." And they came to him. So it sounds like it's speaking about Jesus. How do you play with my Bible? How do you change the word of God? It's unbelievable. And now, now I know some people might go, "Hey, Singer, hold not so fast. How do I know you're telling me truth? I don't speak Hebrew." So why is it? Let's just dial it back for a moment. And then let's go for a moment, just a few chapters earlier. We have that word, Isaiah 48, verse 21. We have the exact same word. All right, let me check it. Uh, again, the same. Yes.
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What is the NIV translated there? "He brought forth water for them." Look at the NIV. So the exact same word. So this is very important. Look, like everything's at stake here. So go to the NIV on Isaiah 48, verse 21. And what do you find there? 21, verse 21, 48-21. "They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts, and he made water flow for them from a rock." "For them." That's what it says. What I'm reading. We can go, "Water flow for them from the rock." And that's "lamo," right? It's the exact same word. Pray tell us why. What's happening with the virgin thing? Where they use the correct term "betulah" in certain areas, but it gets translated into Greek as "virgin." But then when it comes to "alma," that word is translating "virgin," but that's not what it means. You're tran, you can't have it both ways. It's the same exact concept, right? So the church completely alters the Jewish scriptures in order to make it appear Christological. We saw earlier in Isaiah 43, verse 10. It's a very famous passage where, "You are my witnesses," plural, declares the Lord, "and my servant," is singular. But in Isaiah 53, the church will not have that. And we have, this is not the only example, there are many. I'm giving a very flamboyant example here. In this third-person plural pronoun, the church, the church changed it to the singular because it's speaking about Jesus. We can't have it speaking about the Jews. If it's speaking about the Jews, then the New Testament's a liar. Then the whole thing completely collapses. So, number one, what the gentile kings of nations are discovering is, is because of our bad behavior from 1938 to 1945, that the Jewish people suffered. The Jews suffered as a result of our own iniquities. That's number one. Number two, it's very powerful. There are many people listening to my voice right now who are not Jewish, who have been drawn to the Jews, whose view of the Jewish people has been altered and shaped by the suffering of the Jewish people. There are people who studied the, the Shoah, the Holocaust, watch in losers, and it just has an epic effect on the way people view the nation of Israel. We are seeing today, we are living in time now where there's more conversion to Judaism, or people becoming B'nai Noach, which is embracing the Jewish faith, than we've seen in history. And many people say it was because of the suffering of the Jews that woke me up. "By his stripes we were healed." So we have, we're transfixed by this. And the next verse should let everyone know what's going on because God resumes speaking. And he says that if the, if the nation, if the servant will make it so a restitution, then I'm going to bless the servant with long life, with children. He's going to see his seed, and my purpose will be fulfilled in their hand. Now, if this servant is God manifest in the flesh, what if, in fact, this passage, if these passages, Isaiah 53, first time, is speaking about Jesus, like God is going to give God long life? If the servant would only make his soul a restitution, repent, and God is going to give the servant children? Jesus didn't have children. Here, here's the quote. Here's the question I want you need to ask yourself. First of all, if, if, if is God his own servant? And then, okay, what? That, that's right there. That doesn't make any sense. How can you be a servant of yourself? And second of all, God's the Messiah, means God's anointed. Does he anoint himself and become his own Messiah? That these are the questions I think that are just, I, I mean, this should be right up front, and the first thing you should ask yourself. You know, you started this by saying, "Really nice Christians." And I know you weren't, you weren't patronizing them, and neither was I. There's a reason why Christians get themselves in so much trouble, and they're not bad people. The reason is this is how they're taught in churches. They're not, they're not taught to think about Isaiah 53, verse 10. That the servant is given long life. How could Jesus be given? First of all, if it's his human state, he didn't live very long at all. But how could God give God long life? What does that mean? God is eternal. He has no beginning. He is of the first cause. How could God give the servant Jesus children? Well, Jesus never had children. What does it even mean? And the case will say, well, it means disciples, figurative children. The term there is "zera." "Zera," oh, we mean seed. Means always physical children. And my purpose will be fulfilled. But, and that, and that God's purpose will prosper in his hand. But he, you are God. So the whole thing completely collapses when you insert the doctrine of the Trinity. Right. How could God be a servant to himself? Now, we Christians will play with this. Not, they're not playing. They're trying to, if you're thrown into the ocean and you're trying not to drown, they're, they're just trying not to say, "Well, Jesus is portrayed and calls himself a servant of God in the Gospels," which he does. Um, I, I could do nothing of my own, only the one who sent me. John 5:30. And that's true because in the Gospels, we don't have the doctrine of the Trinity. Jesus is not co-equal with the Father. "The Father is greater than I am." That's from the book of John. That's the highest Christology we have in the Christian canon. So it is true that the writers of the New Testament were not thinking that that Jesus was equal to God. And Jesus says again, I'm choosing John. He says to Mary, "Don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my God and your God." So it's true in the Gospels, Jesus is portrayed as subordinate to the Father. Of course, because Christianity would go through an enormous change where you have Ignatius, the earliest church father, identifying Jesus as fully God. And then, of course, you have Tertullian coming up with the term "the Trinity" at the, essentially the very beginning of the third century, about the year 200, after his conversion from Carthage. And then you have the further development in the third century, Origen, the idea that Jesus is divine. And but then the question is, he ate it. And that, of course, gets that all gets solved at the council. And I see it at 325. And I just want to make a point for you. And I, I want to speak to the questions. If you're Muslim, you're an atheist, you're a Jew, I'm not talking to you, but you can listen in. We're very familiar with the, with the Council of Nicaea, where Christians are gathered by Constantine to solve issues. There were two issues solved. The one that's germane is the, the nature of Jesus's deity. Was he? They all, all sides held that he was divine in some way, but was he created or was he begotten and uncreated? Now, let me ask you a question. And that, by the way, is not the only council on this issue. There will be another very important council, the Council of Constantinople in 381 under Theodosius. But this has to be resolved because it's not fully resolved at Nicaea. Now, I'm going to ask you a question. Your question. Listen. Think about this moment. Has there ever been a council in the church, in any ecumenical council of any sort, asking the question: Was Jesus born of a virgin? Ever? The answer is no. Why not? Because it says it in the New Testament. It's clear. Matthew and Luke clearly claim in the infancy narratives, two chapters in Luke, two chapters in Matthew, claim that Jesus was born of a virgin. There's no argument about it. Protestants and Catholics, Orthodox and snake-handling Appalachians, all agree that he was born a virgin. So isn't it obvious that this is the issue that everyone is going through? The doctrine, the Trinity. So you're, this is, I, I know the question will be asked, "Well, it says in the Gospel that Jesus came to serve as a servant." Right? That's a much lower Christology than the Nicene Creed. Perfect. Wow. Yeah, I gotta, we gotta get into this now because Isaiah is living in a specific time period. Now, before, before I ask you this question, I want to highlight something for a second. You mentioned that the Jewish people have been suffering throughout history. Now, I don't care if you're an atheist. You think this means nothing. You cannot deny that this is a fact that throughout the history of the Roman Empire, in European history, Jews were forced to live in the ghettos. They were treated as second-class citizens. There were Inquisition trials on them. They were forced to convert to Catholicism in Germany. The French kings and monarchs were openly anti-Semitic. This is, this has been happening since the first century, since those wars broke out in Masada in Jerusalem. And even in the second century, this is how the Romans always treated the Jews, all the way up into the Holy Roman Empire, into the European age. This is how it has been. This is how it has been. You cannot deny that. You don't, if you deny that, you don't know history. Now, with that being said, in the time of Isaiah, there were events happening related to what I'm talking about now. Can you, so Isaiah is writing about stuff that he's seeing with his own eyes? This is the context of it's actually being said. What is Isaiah living through? That's not a question. Isaiah lives over an enormous span of time. Isaiah lived during the height of the Assyrian Empire. He, the four kings that he lived through, identified in the very opening of Isaiah. He lived during the days of Uzziah, also known as Azariah, a quarter of a century there. He had then his son Jotham, 16 years. His son, and the Syrian Empire already is emerging there. And then you finally have Hezekiah. And he's, Isaiah is murdered by his grandson Manasseh. But Isaiah, so Isaiah is not prohibited. So it's, so an enormous span of time. But it's the height of the Assyrian Empire, and two epic events occur during his lifetime. One at the very lowest point, one at the highest point. The lowest point is that Assyria comes and carries off what are called the Ten Lost Tribes. That happens during the lifetime of Isaiah. The proximate time we're talking about, let's say, let's say 730, 740 BCE, in that area. Uh, it happens in three ways, but all of the northern kingdom, or the kingdom of Israel, is carried away, and they're gone. To this day, they're gone. So that happens. They're extremely traumatic. Then the, the Assyrian Empire comes after Jerusalem and surrounds the city that I'm in right now. A hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers, Assyrian soldiers, come to destroy Jerusalem, and more specifically to kill Hezekiah, to destroy him, to destroy the Davidic dynasty. And that's where the greatest miracle since the Exodus occurs occurs. So imagine you're in Jerusalem. We don't know how many people are there. And the 185,000 soldiers, I mean, when Bush went to war against Saddam, the coalition forces weren't that large. Paul Johnson estimates that by hour, in our time, that would be the equivalent of 4.2 million soldiers. The Jews had no chance. They were in Jerusalem. And then on an extraordinary night, it was a Passover night. Jewish people celebrated the Passover Seder, thinking they were going to die. There was nothing. They could hear the horses, the clashing of swords, and the wall around Jerusalem was the only thing that separated them. And this mass army. The very next morning, they wake up, and it's silent. They climb over the top of the wall and walls and look around them, and the entire Assyrian army is destroyed, as killed. Sennacherib himself runs back home, and his own children assassinate him. That happens in the time of Isaiah. And the pair, just to give you a span of time, so from the Exodus, roughly 3,300 years ago, to Isaiah, roughly 2,700 years ago, talking about a span of 600 years. Nothing like that ever occurred. So those are the epic world events. And incidentally, we have a lot of, um, of materials, stones, fragments that were done by other nations in the archaeology that verifies these events. Those, you want to look at the Bible, you'll find this in Isaiah 9, Isaiah 36 and 37, Second Chronicles chapter 32, and Second Kings chapter 18, 19. Same story, same event. Hezekiah is the great hero. Wow. And that is fascinating. Hezekiah. And, um, now went north though. The north, things didn't go as well as you mentioned. The 12, the 10 tribes get dispersed. But there's a king in the north. I believe, I, you know this name. What happens to the king in the north at that time? Well, he, he gets, he gets, he's assassinated. That, in fact, is what connects the I chapter, Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 7, the chapter that Matthew will use to claim that Jesus was destined to be born of a virgin, because it was prophesied. What really is happening in Isaiah chapter 7 is the northern kingdom of Israel has an alliance with Syria. So the Afro-Syrian war, they go to battle against the southern kingdom. At that time, Hezekiah's father's king is a very wicked king. And what occurs then is Isaiah 7:14. It's talking about Isaiah's wife. You'll ask me more, I'll tell you more. It'll blow your mind away. And then in Isaiah 7:15 and 7:16, it says that butter and honey will the child eat. This is Isaiah's own child, who his wife is to name him Immanuel. Butter and honey will the child eat when he knows to reject bad and choose good. For before the child knows to reject good, uh, reject bad, and she was good. These two kings will be destroyed. In fact, they're assassinated. Pekah ben Remaliah. These are, they're assassinated. And that's how that is solved. But it was, it was, it was a, this incident, just historically, this was Isaiah. Not only lived at this time, Hosea lived at this time, um, Micah lived this time. So this is a time that's, we have some of the great prophets of Israel. Well, and the reason why I'm asking these questions because some of the imagery that Isaiah and other prophets are using are things that he's seeing around him. He's seeing horrible things happen. I'm not mistaken, uh, is it a prince or a king gets their eyes ripped out and they get pierced? That's much later. That's much later. That's the last Davidic king, um, that's Zedekiah. Zedekiah. And he rebels again. So now that's moving ahead about 180 years. And he rebels, uh, against Babylon. And his, his kids, his family is wiped out in front of his eyes. And then his eyes are torn out because that's the last thing he ever gets to see. Okay. But, and so that's unrelated. But the reason why I'm bringing all this up, the reason why I'm trying to paint the picture of the, of the world that Isaiah is living in, is because that is the context of what Isaiah is writing about. He's talking about events that are happening in his time, and Israel is suffering, and they are the servant. Let me suggest this. Let me suggest this, that this is a Messianic prophecy about the future. And this is what will happen when the Messiah comes. When the Messiah comes, the key event that will occur is all the nations will know the truth. The knowledge of God will cover the world as the water covers the sea. Isaiah chapter 11, verse 9. So this is a future prophecy of the response of the gentile kings of nations to the salvation of the Jewish people. Isaiah 52 is about the salvation of the Jewish people in the eyes of all the nations of the world. So this is a full redemption of the Jewish people at an epic event at the end of times. And Isaiah 54 is about the salvation of the Jewish people in the singular, a woman who is barren, who ultimately is saved at that time in the future time. Wow. So there you have it. This is, this is a truly a, a, very vivid portrayal of the suffering of Israel. And here's another. And so with all that being said, this has already sort of unfolded throughout history. This is not like, "Oh, Israel's been fine since then and they think it's going to happen and it hasn't happened yet." Israel's fine. No, no. This is history. This is the last 2,000 years how the Jews have been crushed and treated. And the Holocaust, and the Inquisition, all the way leading up to Israel in the glory of Israel getting their nation back, which is mind-blowing. I mean, you don't, you don't hear about the ancient Atlanteans getting their, they can get their colony back like this. This is, this is crazy. This is thousands of years later, and these things are happening. So it's something interesting to look at. Yeah, very, very much so. The, the end-time prop, the key element of the Messianic age is not a man running around doing miracles, because that's what you find when you read the Gospels. When you read the New Testament, it's unfortunate that every person who's, who's read Mark has already read Matthew to the com, the view is completely colored by Matthew. But when you read the Gospels, any of them, what you have is a fellow going out throughout the north and then in Jerusalem performing miracles. He's a miracle maker. You know, he's taking, uh, a paralytic and healing him in Mark chapter two, in Matthew chapter nine. I mean, he's just, he's performing this, this series of miracles. Okay. There's nothing remotely resembling anything like that in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, there is no mention in the Jewish scriptures of the Messiah before any miracle at all. Nothing. Not a single passage about that. The only thing the Messiah will do is he will teach the nations via, he will judge between the nations, and the nations will repent. That's it. And that's why, my friend, Isaiah chapter 2, this epic past chapter, which is even faces the United Nations on in Manhattan, is not, does not appear in the Christian Bible because Jesus didn't do anything like that. He didn't bring about a world peace and a worldwide knowledge of God. The nation will not lift up sword against nations. So it's never quoted in the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible is a typical mythological figure who runs around doing miracles like Vespasian was able to heal the blind, heal those who are crippled. Same deal. Same deal. You know, spit in dirt, put it on the guy's eyes, heal a person who's blind from birth in John chapter nine. That's what he is. He's a miracle worker. And that's literally the same story that you get from Tacitus and Suetonius, the same two, the, the go-to, um, you know, references for the, for Jesus. But those are also talking about Vespasian doing the same thing. That's, they don't talk about that. They're not like, "Oh, I believe that." But, um, so now a lot of, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of comments and they're gonna say this, but what about verse 5? "But he was pierced for our transgressions." What do you, what do you, what do you say something like this? Let's, let's take modern history. Um, the nations of the world took the Jews from Amsterdam. Almost no Jew in Amsterdam survived World War II. Amsterdam was completely eviscerated of its Jewish population, and they took them and sent them to Auschwitz and they killed us. We suffered as a result of their iniquity. That's exactly what happened through history. What you just described, the nations of the world slaughtered us or remained silent. Didn't even the Americans even bomb the railroad tracks to Auschwitz? We suffered as a direct result of the, the transgressions of the nations of the world. And that's the passage you began with, Isaiah 53:8. "For our," the nations will finally discover that as a result of our bad behavior, that is killing Jews, the Jewish people suffered. Ultimately, God picks up and says, "Let me explain to you what's happening here." The Jewish people are going to intercede. "By his knowledge, my servant will justify the just for many." By his knowledge, the teaching of Torah, the role of Jew is to be a light to the nations. See Isaiah 42, verse 6. See Isaiah 49:6. "Israel, my servant," and his, the servant is going to be a light to the gentiles, "or lagoyim," and going to bring back the lost tribes of Jacob. Please, please see Isaiah 49, verse 6 and 7. It's right there in the text. Yeah, that's a good point. Um, and I also, so now, now that we've established the context of what has been written, you have to go, you have to read the whole chapter. You have to, or the whole, you have to read, yeah, the chapters before. I mean, so you have to, it's building up to the chapter three. You know, the servant is Israel. We've just established that. We've, I mean, we've exhausted that. But then if you keep continuing to chapter 60, it talks about the glory of Zion. And now this is what it says. And I, I picked out a specific chapter because it, it really highlights what we're talking about here. Because it says, "Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you." By the way, your walls, does Jesus have walls? Is Jesus a city? So then it says, "Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. Your gates will always stand open." It's talking about a, a nation. You want to blow your mind away? You want to lose your mind? Day or night, so that people will bring the wealth of nations. And then it says, um, "The glory of Lebanon will come to you. All who despise you will bow down at your feet, and they will call you the City of the Lord, Zion, the Holy One of Israel." It's talking about Zion. It couldn't be any more clear in that passage, right? Isaiah 60, verse 14: "And the sons of those who afflicted you," exact same words as Isaiah 53, "what will they do? They will come bending low to you. Those who despise you." You remember despised and afflicted? There's those words sound familiar at all from Isaiah 53? This is all the same package. What will they do? They'll come bow at your feet. Now, it doesn't mean that we're making the non-Jews our slaves. That's not what it means. It means they're going to say, "We want to connect to you. We want to be a part of this." So much so, I'm going back to Isaiah 2. All you guys who are reading these chapters should have read Isaiah chapter 2, that all the nations will go up to Zion, go up to Jerusalem, for out of Zion will go forth the law and the word of God from Jerusalem. "Ki mi Zion." Please read Isaiah chapter 2. This is your homework. Verse 1 through 4. That's all you've got to do. Okay. It says, "Ki mi Torah," for out of Zion will go forth the Torah, "devar Hashem," your, and the word of God from Jerusalem. It says it right there. Please read Isaiah chapter 2, verses 2, 3, and 4, and you will be out of the church. You will cancel your membership. You'll ask for a refund for the members you've been paying to your church. And just to top it off, when you get, so it gets even more clear at the end of Isaiah chapter 60. He starts saying, "Then all your people will be righteous." What? Jesus has clones of himself a million? And he says, "The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation." I am the Lord. In this time, I will do this. He's talking about a thou. Is there a thousand Jesus out there? Does he have clones? No, it's people. This is plural. I just, I mean, that right there is like, that's that seals it shut. He's literally talking about plurality, a nation, about having walls, about having doors. That is not Jesus. You can't, Jesus doesn't have doors and walls, and he's not a thousand. So I, that, that was something I noticed right there that I wanted to add to what you were saying. And but yeah, this is, if you want to wrap this all up and sort of make Isaiah Christians might argue Isaiah 53, verse 9. It says there, "He, because he committed no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth." Okay, look at the end of 53, verse 9. Let's go to that real quick. Yeah, just for a second. All right, so it says, "He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." So there happens to be another example of a changing of text. The word there is "bemo-sotav," which is plural, "in his deaths," not singular "death." But I don't want to focus on that right now. I want to go to the end of that because
I know this is going to disturb Christians, and they're going to ask, "One second, so this is talking about the nation of Israel?" You're saying because he had committed no violence and there was no deceit, they didn't lie, there was no deceit found in their mouths. Jews, is that what we're describing here? So I wanted to open up your Bible to Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 12. All right, it says, "But I will leave within you the meek and humble. The remnant of Israel will trust in the name of the Lord. They will do no wrong. They will tell..." Oh, okay, I see what you're saying now. They will do no wrong. They will tell no lies. A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down, and no one will make them afraid." Sing, O daughter of Zion! Right? So they're, hello, they're right there. They're all the prophets are talking about the same thing. That's right. They're talking about the end of days. They're not talking about all the Jews. They're not talking about Bernie Madoff. They're talking about the faithful remnant of the children of Israel. There'll be no, they will commit no violence. There'll be no deceit found in their mouths, and God will protect them, and they'll be able to finally rest without fear of their enemies. Right there in your Bible. Wow. I was right. The context is there. Right? Now, to make Christianity work, you have to take it out of context, right? Because that's not a clear word. That's not a clear word or a message. Like Deuteronomy is a law code that was given by God, right? I just want this. I think this is a good thing to end on because you have a choice to make now, Christians, because I had to make this choice too. Deuteronomy is a law code given by God. The, the Ten Commandments are literally etched by the hand of God, given to Moses. Do you have a choice? Do you take a Greek manuscript that was written by some, some, some Hellenized Jews living in Syria and Egypt, or do you, or some guy named Peter who had a dream that said you can eat whatever you want, or do you listen to that? Or do you listen to the actual words that came from God himself? That's your choice. You have to make that choice, right? And when Christian pastors read specific texts in the highly liturgical form of presentation, when they read from the pulpit, they're reading these texts completely out of context and robbing you of the knowledge of the original text. I mean, the reason why Christians think Jews are crazy and blind is because they're not reading the whole book of Isaiah. They're reading highly selected passages that are, that are fed to them by their pastors, by their priests, and reading nothing else. And the result, they're logically coming to the conclusion of Jesus the Messiah. Jewish people in complete contrast are reading the whole book of Isaiah from chapter 1 to chapter 66, and as a result of that, they're, there is no relationship between the Messiah described in the books of the prophets and the Jesus of Christianity, and ultimately reject it completely. That's the deal. I write about Isaiah 53 in both volume one and volume two of "Let's Get Biblical," so you know, like I covered. But this is, this is why I care about Christians because I realize what's been done to them. I didn't know this as a kid. When I was growing up, I just thought Christians were insane for believing that. Why would you believe this? And I realized what happened is they're not reading the surrounding chapters. They're not, they, they're not reading Isaiah 51, 52, 54, 55, chapter 60, which you read. They're reading Isaiah 7, Isaiah 9, 53. Those they know by heart, and the rest of it they got to look up. Why? That's the problem. So you have this, this Torah that everyone agrees on is given by God. Everyone who believes in God, whether you're, whatever, whatever you would come from. So, okay, so if this is the word of God, it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be the, it's supposed to tell you about the Messiah, it's supposed to tell you how to live. Why doesn't it just say, "By the way, I have a son and I'm gonna send him towards you when you guys need him"? By the way, just one time, one time it doesn't do that. So I don't know what that, that's what most people, what, what Christians don't get. And the reason is that there's nothing remotely resembling John 3:16 in the Hebrew Bible. Nothing. If there would be, all us Jews would be in church right now. I mean, in a second. Exactly what you said. If we would have John 17:3, "And this is eternal life: that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ," if we would find that something remotely resembling that in the book of Joshua, we'd all be in church right now. I mean, in a second. Exactly what you said. If we would have John 17:3, "And this is eternal life: that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ," if we would find that something remotely resembling that in the book of Joshua, we'd all make a beeline. I'd be in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in about 20 minutes because I can run there. Okay? I mean, we, we don't, we'd all be in church. We're not. If it said in Tanakh that there is one God and three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we'd all make a beeline for the next closest church and get baptized. We're not idiots. There's nothing remotely resembling these ideas in the Hebrew Bible. On the contrary, the prophets of Israel opposed all these ideas. Vicarious atonement, that the innocent should die as a result of the, of the behavior of the wicked. Ezekiel 18 says that will never happen. And the only way for someone to be forgiven is that they turn from their sinful ways, that they may live and not die. And I want you to repent. Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 55:6 and 7. It's all in love with the Hebrew Bible. Wow. This has been another epic discussion, and, uh, there will be more to come. Look forward. [Music] [Applause] [Foreign Speech]