God built a bridge that spanned 400 years of prophetic silence. That bridge spanned the gap between the end of the Old and the beginning of the New. (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1, 4:5; Luke 1:17)
All four Gospels identify John the Baptist as Isaiah’s Voice and Malachi’s Messenger. (Mark 1:2, 3; John 1:23) John came in “the spirit of Elijah” but was not himself Elijah. (Matthew 11:7-14; John 1:19-34) Jesus said, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you will receive it, this is Elias (Elijah) that was to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:13-15)
Christians read the Bible from a New Testament viewpoint and see Yeshua (Jesus) as the fulfillment of God’s promises concerning Messiah. But Jews will not cross the end boundary of their Bible (our Old Testament). But what if they knew that God built a bridge for them between the Old and the New, and that Malachi’s Messenger is Matthew’s John the Baptist? John the Baptist introduced Yeshua to his people as their Messiah. If this prophetic connection were to be introduced, many Jews today might well accept Yeshua as their long-awaited Messiah.
Large numbers of Jews responded to John’s witness of “the Coming One” by preparing a “highway” in their hearts for Messiah through repentance and water baptism. Jewish leaders asked John if he was the Elijah who was to come. (Malachi 4:5) They were unable to prevent him from preaching to his countrymen, who came from all over to swell the numbers who were forcefully pressing into the kingdom. (Luke 16:16)
How can non-Jews who have accepted Yeshua convince the Jews – long persecuted by so-called Christian nations – that he was Messiah? Only by using the bridge that God built, in the person of John the Baptist, who introduced Yeshua as the Promised One.
After being imprisoned by Herod, John questioned whether or not Yeshua was Messiah, despite that having been clearly revealed to him at Yeshua’s baptism. (Matthew 3:13-17) John was the New Testament pillar of a prophetic bridge that spanned the gap between Old and New. He saw the beginning of the New, but belonged to the Old. God’s Malachi-to-Matthew Bridge spans the great gulf that separates Jews from Christians. It is a bridge that few Jews know exists.
John’s outspoken and uncompromising voice lent great credibility to his introduction of Yeshua as their long-awaited Messiah. However Yeshua was crucified because he did not meet their expectation of a Messiah who would deliver them from Roman bondage, as Moses had delivered their ancestors from Egypt. They wanted King David’s descendant and a restored Kingdom of Israel; a Lion from Judah, not a Lamb from a small town in the Galilean hills.
Unaware that they were fulfilling the prophecies read every Shabbat, they shed the blood of “the Lamb of God” as had been foretold. (Acts 13:27) Yeshua’s prediction of his imminent death clearly offended them – as it also did his most passionate disciple, Peter. (Matthew 16:21-23)
John the Baptist’s ministry is a credible bridge for Jews to cross from Malachi to Matthew (a gospel written especially for Jewish readers, its keyword: “fulfilled.”) The Old is seen clearly from the New as, through John’s preaching, the bright light of Yeshua illuminates the words of the prophets. Yeshua matches the Isaiah 53 description of the Suffering Servant perfectly, for he has seen his descendents and been satisfied for nearly 2000 years – ever since God “prolonged his days” by raising him from the dead. (Isaiah 53:10)
How do Jews perceive Christians? Not unlike the way Christians view Mormons. We see Mormons as clean-living, religious people who read the same Bible as we do, but who add to it the Book of Mormon. Their Bible-view is coloured by this additional Book, and its teachings are why we do not accept their religion as a true expression of the Christian faith.
Jews view Christians in much the same way. We read their Bible but add to it the New Testament, which Jews believe reinterprets and contradicts it. They regard as totally unacceptable the application by Christians of Isaiah 7:14 to the conception and virgin birth of Yeshua in Matthew 1:23. Isaiah uses the Hebrew word “almah” when referring to a virgin-maid who would bear a sign-child. Jews regard this prophecy as historically fulfilled. Christians interpret this Old Testament prophecy empirically, that is, as fulfilled in the Virgin Mary’s conception.
The sign in Isaiah 7:14 was not so much the virgin as the fact that before her child would know right from wrong, Syria would cease to oppress Israel. Three years later Syria was conquered by Assyria (the first World Power), and its oppression of Israel then ceased.
The prophecy was fulfilled! Or was it? Seven hundred years later Matthew was inspired to apply Isaiah’s prophecy to Mary, and to use the Greek word “Parthenos”, which specifies a virgin. Isaiah did not use “bethuwlah”, a Hebrew word that refers specifically to a virgin, but “almah”, a word used for a maid who is a virgin (as maids then were). “Almah” (“hidden from sight”) is also found in The Song of Songs 1:3 and 6:8.
Matthew, who interpreted almah (maid) as “Parthenos” (virgin) was a Greek-speaking Jew familiar with the meaning of both words. Hebrew scholars, who translated the Old Testament into its Greek Septuagint version two centuries before Christ, had already done the same.
The sign fulfilled in the short term had its greater fulfillment in the longer term when Mary received Gabriel’s word, conceived, and in due time gave birth to Yeshua. Christians attribute Matthew’s application of Isaiah’s prophecy to divine inspiration. But Jews limit such inspiration to their own Bible. They stand on the far side of a gulf they will not cross unless shown a bridge that upholds the faith of their forefather Abraham. But most Jews do not know that such a bridge exists.
Christians have for too long taken an imperial view of the Old Testament, which is that its prophecies are fulfilled in the New Testament. But our view should be empirical, which is that the same prophecies were validated in the experiences of people in Old Testament times.
The fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy that an unnamed virgin would have a child was as true in her experience as was its fulfilment, 700 years later, in the Virgin Mary’s experience. The imperial view is that Old Testament figures and events were merely shadows of things to come, and they were. Still, they were all part of Israel’s history, and so to the Jews were significant. The good thing about the empirical view is that it regards many historical prophecies to the Jews as fulfilled also in the experiences of those Jews who lived in the time of Jesus and the Apostles. Many historic prophecies were portable (e.g. Psalm 2:1-3 and Acts 4:25, 26).
While we do need to better understand and to build bridges to the Jewish people nowadays, Jews themselves need to realize that God built a bridge for His people thousands of years ago. That bridge has been theirs to cross for nearly 2000 years. A “holy generation” crossed it to follow Jesus in the time of the apostles (1 Peter 2:9). They joined their fellow Jews who were first-generation believers. Jesus identified them as being true sons and daughters of Abraham.(Luke 19:9 & 13:16).
A countless number of non-Jews who believe in Jesus have ‘crossed the bridge’ and embraced the God of the Jews and the Jewish Bible. So, the bridge that God built is a two-way bridge. And more and more Jews are crossing it and embracing the Lord Jesus as their long-promised Messiah. Paul the Apostles identified them as “the Israel of God”! (Galatians 6:15, 16) Now’s the time for you to “Kiss the Son” – embrace his authority — while you can! (Psalm 2:12)!