When Will the Messiah Come?

By George Gruen

In the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, we find God’s plan for our lives. In God’s will for us, we may know true peace, love, forgiveness and joy. The greatest need in our lives is to have God’s cleansing of our sins, so that we might experience the life that He has planned for us. With so many problems, fear, anxiety and the lack of purpose in living for many people, especially among young people, there is a void in lives that must be filled. Many people do not know where to turn to find someone who really cares for them. God cares for you and for me. God loves you and me.

In His great love for men, women, young people and children God has provided for us His plan for life as given to us in His Holy Scriptures.

The experience of a right relationship to God and a life lived in the love of God is contingent upon our trust or faith in the promises of God and the Messiah of Israel. As we trust God and His Holy Scriptures, He will help us to see His great plan for us and this world. Faith makes effective all of the promises in the Bible. But true faith must be based upon knowledge received from the Holy Scriptures. Without an adequate understanding of the basic truths of the Bible, a person will not have real trust and faith. Lack of knowledge breeds unbelief, because judgments are made without the facts necessary to understand and accept the truths given to us in the Holy Scriptures.

Many people have questions that are legitimate inquiries. Concerning faith and living for God, people question how one can accept Jesus as Messiah and still be Jewish. They also have doubts about Jesus because they do not know what the Holy Scriptures say about the Messiah of Israel.

The Bible does tell us that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and the One God would send to earth to provide the atonement, or cleansing for sin, for us. There are many of our Jewish people who do not as yet accept Jesus as their Messiah, for they have a very limited knowledge of who Jesus is and what the Jewish Holy Scriptures say about when Messiah was to come to the earth as foretold by the Jewish prophets of God.

One misconception concerning the Messiah is what Messiah would do when He would come to earth. Orthodox Judaism looks forward to the day when the God of Israel will send the Messiah to reign on earth and rule on King David’s throne in Jerusalem. In that day, Messiah will bring peace to Israel and the world.

The Jewish Holy Scriptures do foretell this event, and it will happen in the future, and perhaps not too far off. Later in this article I will share with you this great coming of the Messiah to Jerusalem to set up God’s kingdom on earth and to bring peace to the world. Since all of the God-given prophecies in the Holy Scriptures that were to be fulfilled to date have come to pass, this prophecy of world peace will also be seen!

The problem that some of our Jewish people have in accepting Jesus as their Messiah is that since the entire world has not had peace after Jesus came to earth about 2,000 years ago, then He is not the Messiah. This reasoning appears to be valid, but it is not. All of the facts from When Will the Messiah Come?

The Bible regarding what Messiah will do when He comes to earth have not been known. The basic truth we need to understand from the Jewish Holy Scriptures is this: the Messiah comes to the earth at two different times to accomplish the will of God for the inhabitants of this world.

The Bible foretells the first coming of the Messiah to earth and makes known to us that the first coming will be to bring and accomplish God’s plan of cleansing from sin for men and women. By this plan of God, our Jewish people and the world will be able to know forgiveness of sin and experience peace with God as they put their trust in what the Messiah will do for them. This first coming of the Messiah will bring personal peace to individuals.

Messiah, having accomplished the way for us to be forgiven of sin, will return to Heaven to the right hand of God. At a later time, one yet to be seen, Messiah will return to the earth a second time, defeat the enemies and nations that have gathered in war against the nation of Israel, and set up God’s kingdom of world peace. We must understand these two comings of the Messiah to earth. If a person only has knowledge of the anticipated second coming, then he will miss the first coming and not understand that Messiah Jesus came the first time to provide the atonement for us.

Now let us go to the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, to see the prophecies given by God through Jewish men of God concerning the first coming of Messiah to earth.

In the Jewish Scriptures, we read in the prophet Micah’s recording of God’s Word, in chapter 5 and verse 2: "But thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Out of the little town of Bethlehem, located in the area of Ephrata, in Judah, God would send His Messiah to earth. He later would be ruler in Israel. The first coming of Messiah to earth would be in Bethlehem.

The second coming of Messiah to earth would be directly from Heaven to the Mount of Olives, outside of Jerusalem, to defeat the enemies of Israel as God prophesied for us through the Jewish man of God, Zechariah. We will read these verses of Holy Scripture later. There are two different time periods.

This person coming out of Bethlehem is "from everlasting." Only an Eternal One, a member of the Godhead, can be "from everlasting." Men and women have but a short time upon this earth, maybe even to a hundred years or over but never "from everlasting."

Another prophecy about the first coming of Messiah to earth is in the writings of the great Jewish prophet, Isaiah, in chapter 7 and verse 14:

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Immanuel in Hebrew means "God with us." God will be with us here on earth in the person of the Messiah.

In Isaiah, chapter 9 and verse 6 we read:

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." These two verses from Isaiah speak of a miraculous birth of a son who is called by the names of the Eternal God.

Again in Isaiah chapter 53 we read of the reason for the first coming of Messiah to earth:

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows…Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace

When Will the Messiah Come?

Was upon him;…All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity (or sins) of us all...he was cut off out of the land of the living [death]: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he (God) hath put him (the Messiah Jesus) to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days (that’s resurrection from the grave), and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

He (God) shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge (or by trusting in Messiah’s atonement) shall my righteous servant (the Messiah Jesus) justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities (or sins)…he bare the sin of many (that is of those who believe in him)…." Messiah came the first time, took on human form as Jesus, so that He could die on the tree for our sins to pay the penalty due us for our sins. In Him we have the atonement for our sins.

Messiah came the first time to bring personal peace by providing the atonement for our sins. After providing this atonement with the shedding of His blood on the tree as our sin-bearer in our place, He is raised from the grave and returns to Heaven. In Heaven, Messiah waits until a future time when He will again return to the earth to the Mount of Olives by Jerusalem. At this Second Coming to earth, He will defeat the enemies of Israel and bring in world peace.

This is yet to happen, but in the events we are seeing in the world in fulfilled prophecy from God’s Word, this Second Coming to earth might not be too far off. Before Messiah’s Second Coming to earth, Bible-believers look forward to Messiah Jesus coming the clouds of the sky to take the believers up from this earth in what is called the Rapture. This will happen just before a period of seven years of the Great Tribulation upon earth, part of which is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble and persecution once again of my Jewish people. But God will deliver them out of it. Concerning the Second Coming of Messiah to earth, we read in the Word of God through the Jewish prophet, Zechariah, in chapter 14 and verses 1 through 5 and verses 8,9 and 11:

"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the peace shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

[The reference here would be to God’s freeing Israel from Egyptian bondage as well as the bondage put upon Jewish people by many nations as is recorded in Holy Scripture history] And his feet [Messiah’s feet!] shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east…And the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem…And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one…And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited."

There is so much great truth to share with you from these verses. Simply stated: the nations of the world will come against Israel and Jerusalem. When the war is almost lost for the Jews, God Himself in the person of Messiah Jesus [remember we read from the Bible that God’s feet will touch the Mount of Olives – God has feet in Messiah Jesus], Messiah will return from Heaven with Bible-believers [here called saints] who have been in Heaven, and the enemies of Israel will be completely defeated. God will then set up His kingdom of peace for the world. These verses of Jewish Holy Scripture also say God’s name will be one. The word for "one" in

When Will the Messiah Come?

Hebrew is "echad." Echad means "unity" or more than one. This tells us that God is revealed to us as the Lord God and Messiah. The Godhead is once again revealed to us in these verses of the Bible.

In the Jewish Holy Scriptures writings of the Jewish man of God, Jeremiah, we read in chapter 23 and verses 3 through 6

"And I will gather the remnant of my flock [that is the Jewish people] out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTOUSNESS."

And also verse 8: "The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries…and they shall dwell in their own land." God began bringing our Jewish people back to the land where they became a nation, Israel, in 1948. God continues to fulfill this prophesy and bring Jews back to Israel from all over the world.. There is no true peace yet, but there will be when Messiah returns to Jerusalem!

The God of Israel and Messiah will bring peace to Israel and the world when Israel will dwell safely and they shall fear no more. There will be no more war! We know from these Holy Scripture prophesies that Messiah will reign on King David’s throne from Jerusalem.. The One who will reign is called LORD or the God of Israel and Messiah. This is the Second Coming of the Messiah to bring the peace of God to the entire world.

As we look forward to future events, it is possible that we might die before they come to pass. We must prepare for our eternal future. The first coming of the Messiah takes care of the fear of death and what will happen after as we enter eternity. But we must trust Him as our sinbearer, for there is no sin in Heaven. Please read my study on "The Atonement Today." This will give you all of the Holy Scriptures you need to trust God and find His cleansing from sin and have peace. We have a great future ahead of us as God’s people!

When Will the Messiah Come?