Understanding The Messiah's Resurrection in Light of Ancient Prophecy

Up until the Exodus out of Egypt, Israel was simply a people.  After the Exodus they were given the Torah (the Law), a constitution if you will, and became a nation. God was building out His promise that through Israel, all nations would be blessed.

What is remarkable is that this “feast” points to an even greater deliverance for Israel and all nations. 

Passover is the first of all the “feast days” given to Israel in Leviticus 23.  I like how these days are referred to in Hebrew — they are “moadim” — appointed times. Moed (מועד) ("festive season"), plural moadim (מועדים), refers to any of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. 

These are, indeed, God’s appointed times for Israel then, as well as their prophetic significance for Israel and all nations in the future. 

FOR ISRAEL THEN

As Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea:

13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again" (Exodus 14:13).

31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses (Ex. 14:31).

FOR ISRAEL FUTURE – PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE

Passover was a shadow of things to come…there was yet another deliverance God had in His plan – the deliverance and redemption of not only Israel, but the whole world:

9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God (Isaiah 52:9-10). 

This is looking forward to the time of salvation…. → → →  

God physically redeemed Israel out of Egypt, but this time Isaiah is saying there will be not only a physical redemption, but a spiritual redemption for Israel and the whole world. 

This redemption is the salvation that Isaiah speaks of in the fifty-third chapter:

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6).

Isaiah is referring to the servant of the Lord who will bring a greater deliverance than the one “out of Egypt.”  This is the atonement of The Lamb that will take away sin, as John the Baptizer said in John 1:14: 

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” 

We read further in Isaiah 53:10:

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

How will He see His offspring / prolong His days?  There has to be a resurrection. 

When all this was read to me for the first time, seriously, I was asked, “Who does this sound like?” I said, “Well, it sounds like Jesus. What’s he doing in my Bible?” 

EMMAUS ROAD

The Hebrew Scriptures say the Servant of the Lord (Messiah) must suffer, die, and be buried.  But He doesn’t stay in the grave. If He did we would have no hope, just like the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus…. → →  

The one they thought was the Messiah, who would redeem Israel, was Yeshua (Jesus). But now He is dead and it’s the third day:

13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 

16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 

19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. (Luke 24:13-21)

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the (Messiah) should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (vv.25-27)

The Messiah must suffer, die, be buried, rise from the dead…. 

Look at what Paul says:

And if Christ (Messiah) has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:14)

The resurrection is the validation of the atonement. Without the resurrection, the atonement (death of Messiah) is irrelevant and meaningless.  As Yeshua was the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb:

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (1 Corinthians 5:7)

Resurrection is the fulfillment of the Feast of First Fruits:

10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord.

But in fact Christ (Messiah) has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

The Jewish expectation was that Messiah would overthrow and deliver the people from the yoke of Rome, like Moses did Egypt.

But a Messiah who would die?  Unthinkable.

But that was not the end of the story.  The truth of the resurrection came to His disciples and they saw, believed, and proclaimed the good news of His resurrection.