The "Recipe" For Messiah
A couple years ago, I was visiting a friend and his family in Israel. They wanted to experience a true “southern” American breakfast. So I decided to cook biscuits with sausage gravy. Can you get more Southern than that?
Since many people in Israel don’t eat pork, it was difficult to find sausage. With limited time before my departure, I had to choose a new menu item. In Israel, the concept of pancakes often equals what Americans would define as crepes. So I decided to give my friends the experience of the fluffy goodness of “all-American” flapjacks.
I woke up early and went downstairs to gather the ingredients. Pancakes aren’t too difficult to make, right? Unfortunately, reading the cursive Hebrew writing on the packaging was!
After I had mixed the batter, my friend came downstairs to help. I noticed it wasn’t the right consistency, so I thought I should add more flour to thicken it up. I went to the pantry and grabbed the bowl I had used to make the batter. My friend started laughing and asked what I was doing. Instead of flour, I had accidentally used the potato starch leftover from Passover!
Sad to say, his dog enjoyed my “scrumptious pancakes.” We ended up going to a nearby café for breakfast.
Recently, I spoke with someone about the prophecies of Messiah in the Tanakh (Old Testament). We talked about how specific the predictions are – even down to the time and place of His birth.
It got me thinking about the similarities with cooking. To create a specific dish, one needs the right ingredients, then follow a certain process of preparation.
The Messianic prophecies are similar. In order to fulfill them, one would need to have all the right “ingredients” and follow a certain process of “preparation.”
My potato starch pancakes ended up becoming something entirely different because I substituted one ingredient. The same would be true for the prophecies concerning the Messiah. Together, the ingredients are so specific that if one were substituted or not fulfilled to the exact measurements, the end result would be a “potato starch Messiah” – someone who isn’t Him.
Yet, one person fulfilled all of these specific prophecies, even the ones beyond His control. Micah 5:2 declared that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, the smaller of the two Bethlehems. Isaiah 7:14 predicted the miraculous virgin birth, and Jeremiah 23:5-6 explained the Davidic lineage of Messiah. The “recipe” with more than 40 specific prophecies for Messiah was followed exactly. The result? Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth.
Yeshua did many amazing things during His time. Yet if He hadn’t fulfilled the Lord’s prophecies given through the generations before Him, He couldn’t be the Savior God had promised.
In Genesis 3:15 God promised Eve that her seed would crush Satan’s head. Over the generations, God has been specifying who the Deliverer would be and what He would accomplish.
Only Yeshua meets every one of those requirements.
We can recognize Yeshua for who He is because of the “recipe” given to us by the Father. Let us praise Him for the provision of His Son – the Messiah of Israel and Savior of mankind!
Written by Chase, LIFE Staff