The Gospel from the Hebrew Scriptures

Acts 28:23 (ESV) When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

A young Jewish woman, Rachel, has been depressed and counseling as well as medications from physicians have not helped. She has questions about God and seeks out Rabbi Mordechai Klein to answer her questions.

This is an imagined conversation. Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible.

Rabbi Klein, thanks for meeting with me. I feel a burden constantly on my shoulders. I don’t know where it’s coming from. Could it be coming from God? I’ve been reading the Torah and I see judgement in some sections, especially in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Am I seeing things correctly, Rabbi?

Hi Rachel, it is a pleasure to meet you. Let’s talk about what concerns you. Adonai spoke to us through Moses several thousand years ago and warned us, the Jewish people. He told us what would happen to us if we obeyed Him and what would happen to us if we disobeyed Him. There is no statute of limitations on these warnings. Let’s read together. I see that you have your Tanach with you.

Leviticus 26:2-5 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD. 'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

Leviticus 26:14-18 'But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. 'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

But Rachel, even as Adonai pronounced all these judgements against us He told us that He will never break His covenant with us. He still loves us.

Leviticus 26:44-45 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.' "

Now, Rachel, you know that the vast majority of our people have been disobedient. And we have suffered greatly. We have gone through the crusades, the inquisition, pogroms, Hitler’s Holocaust, and more. Since our Nation was reborn in 1948 we have been through multiple wars and intifadas. And most recently the October 7 massacre by Hamas. More Jewish people lost their lives on that day than on any other single day since the Holocaust. And of course it isn’t over. War continues and hostages are still held by Hamas.

OK, Rabbi. You’ve explained a lot. But hasn’t God made a way for this endless cycle of judgment to stop?

Yes, He has. But first, God must forgive the sins we have committed against Him and we must obey His Law. Here is a summary of the Law:

Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

and

Leviticus 19:18 NKJV

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

But Rabbi, how can I do these things? I don’t always feel love for God and I often bear ill will toward my neighbor. What can I do?

A change deep within yourself must occur, Rachel. But you cannot do it. Only God can do it. Your heart must change. You must become a new person. It’s as if you must be born again. You can’t do this on your own. It’s a supernatural thing. Listen, please:

Deuteronomy 30:6

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Ezekiel 36:26

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And Rachel, when God gives you this new heart you will immediately recognize that you are a sinner, a terrible sinner, and you will repent and ask God to forgive you. Rachel, I think the burden you are carrying now, the heavy weight you feel on your shoulders, is the knowledge of sin. God can relieve you of this burden and your depression will lift.

But Rabbi, as an orthodox Jew, I know that there must be a payment, a sacrifice, for my sins to be forgiven. We no longer have a Temple in Jerusalem where sin offerings can be made. How then can payment for my sins be made?

Rachel, we must look at another passage from the Hebrew Scriptures.

Isaiah 53:3-5 NKJV

He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 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.

Rachel, there was a Man to whom this passage applies. An actual historical figure. He told us that He was the Messiah, sent by God. He told His followers that He would lay down His life for His friends. And He did. He sacrificed His life and shed His blood on a Roman cross 2,000 years ago. That blood is paying for our sins today.

Rabbi, you don’t mean Yeshu, do you? Yeshu is an acronym of contempt, Rabbi. Surely you don’t believe that He was the Messiah, do you?

I do, Rachel. Our Scriptures are clear. He fulfills all of the prophecies about our Messiah. And His name is not Yeshu. It is Yeshua which means salvation. Rachel, this Man was and is the Son of God, the Messiah. You see, some of our Rabbis think there are two Messiahs: the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 and the conquering mighty One of Isaiah 9. Let’s read from Yeshayahu:

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Rachel, there is one Messiah and two comings. Isaiah 7:14 tells of the Messiah’s first coming. Immanuel means God with us, and that is exactly what He was. He came to die to pay the debt for our sins. This already happened. And now, listen to this passage:

Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

This passage has not been fulfilled yet. Yeshua will come a second time and He will reign on earth from Jerusalem for a thousand years. Notice that in Isaiah 9 He is called Mighty God. There is only one Messiah. Rachel, the Messiah is the Son of God. He is divine and equal to God. That’s why His sacrifice on the cross - His shed blood and death - provides once and forever atonement for all of our sins, provided that we accept Him as our Lord and Savior.

But Rabbi, are you saying that God loves the Jewish people so much that He sent His Son to die for us on the cross? That’s a criminal’s death.

Yes, Rachel. It is. He died as a criminal on a cross and not just for us, but for all people. Rachel, listen to the words given to the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Rachel, God couldn’t make this New Covenant with us without giving us a new heart first. And He will do that; He will circumcise the heart of every living Jewish person at the end of a time of terrible trouble for the world, and then the entire Nation of Israel will be saved. This terrible time is called the Time of Jacob’s Trouble or The great Tribulation.

Jeremiah 30:4-7 Now these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah. "For thu