If God has revealed Himself through the Trinity, why were the Jews surprised and shocked when Jesus told them that He was the second manifestation of the triune God, God the Son?
If God has revealed Himself through the Trinity, why were the Jews surprised and shocked when Jesus told them that He was the second manifestation of the triune God, God the Son?
Ted’s Response:
The basic reason for this is because Israel had greatly displeased God. Therefore, through the prophet Isaiah, God explained that his people (Israel) would hear but not understand and see but not perceive (Isaiah 6:9). Spiritually speaking, God would make their hearts calloused, their ears dull, and their eyes closed to the truth (6:10). This was spoken by other prophets, including Jesus (Psalm 119:70; Ezekiel 12:2; Matthew 13:14,15), and it was reiterated by the apostle Paul (Acts 28:25-27).
When Isaiah asked how long this would be, God informed him that it would be until the land and people (of Israel) are ruined, ravaged, and utterly forsaken (Isaiah 6:11,12). This will be at the end of the age, just prior to the return of the Messiah.
As a whole, then, Israelites and Jews have rejected Jesus as Messiah and God, although there are many of them who have understood and acknowledged that He is both. After Saul/Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, literal scales fell off of his eyes, which also happened to his spiritual eyes because he then saw the truth about Jesus and was baptized (Acts 9:3-5,9,18).
Jesus' Jewish disciples ultimately understood that Jesus was the Messiah and God. Thomas said to Jesus, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). On the Day of Pentecost, after Peter spoke to many fellow Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 2:14-36), about three thousand of them accepted His message about Jesus (2:41).
After Peter had healed a crippled man by the power of Jesus (Acts 3:1-8), the priests, Sadducees, and others were very troubled by this (4:1,2) because it threatened their own control over the people. When the number of people who believed in Jesus grew to about five thousand (4:4), the rulers, elders, and teachers of the law grilled Peter and John, asking them by what power or name they had healed the cripple (4:7). They stated that it was by Jesus Christ of Nazareth (4:10), and their interrogators took note that they had been with Jesus and that the crippled man was standing with them (4:13,14).
However, their pride, along with their lust for power and control, still prevented them from acknowledging the truth, since their hearts were calloused. As a result, even though the truth was obvious, they told Peter and John to stop teaching in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:17,18), which of course they did not.
Today, there is one chapter in the Old Testament that typically is not read in synagogues, and that is Isaiah 53. This chapter draws a clear and unambiguous parallel between the prophesied suffering Messiah and Jesus. As such, orthodox Jews avoid it because they do not want for those in their congregations to consider the possibility that Jesus is the Messiah. Many will say that Isaiah was prophesying about the Jews suffering in the Holocaust, even though Isaiah uses the word "he" throughout because he was writing about one man. The hearts and minds of orthodox Jews and rabbis continue to remain calloused and closed because it is not yet time for them to understand and acknowledge this reality.
When Jesus returns and gathers back the scattered Israelites and Jews from the nations, brings them back to Israel, and pours out His Spirit upon them, they will see Him face-to-face and will know that He is the Lord their God (Ezekiel 28:25,26, 39:27-29). At that time Jesus, the righteous Branch, will be installed on His throne as their wise King (Psalm 2:6); and He will be called "The Lord Our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:3-6), which is one of the terms for God.
At the end of the age, when God reinstates the new covenant that He has made with Israel, He will put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and they all will know Him (Jeremiah 31:33,34). It is then that their ears will be unstopped and their eyes opened, and their calloused hearts of stone will be changed (Ezekiel 11:17-20). Jesus/God will live among them, and they will know that He is the Lord Almighty (Zechariah 2:10-12).
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