6. Messiah Is The Lamb That Suffers And Dies For Our Sins
(Isaiah 53, Genesis 2:8, 14, Exodus 12, Leviticus 16, Zechariah 13:7, Daniel 9:24-25)
Why should Messiah be cut off? (Daniel 9:26) Why should the sword of divine judgment awake against the one who is G-d’s associate? (Zechariah 13:7) Did Messiah sin himself? G-d forbid the thought!
He is the “righteous branch”, G-d’s righteous servant (Jeremiah 23:5, Isaiah 53:11)
The angel Gabriel gave Daniel the reason why Messiah would be cut off:
Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
The reason that “Messiah is cut off” (Daniel 9:26) is that the death of this righteous and most holy one atones.
Abraham prophesied: “G-d will see the lamb for himself” (Genesis 22:8) and after the near sacrifice of Isaac on mount Moriah we read: “And Abraham called the name of that place ‘HASHEM will see’ as it is said to this day, ‘on the mount of HASHEM it shall be seen’. (Genesis 22:14, translated literally)
So in the Torah we already learn that G-d will find the right lamb one day in Jerusalem.
The night before Israel left Egypt judgment passed over the Israelites because of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12).
And this is what Isaiah prophesied about Messiah:
“As the* lamb he was led to the slaughter
Isaiah 53:7 translated literally
*The traditional Hebrew text of Isaiah 53 reads “as the lamb” and not “as a lamb” and rightly so!
Messiah is the ultimate lamb who absorbs G-d’s judgment in our place.
One day in Jerusalem he took upon himself the punishment of our sins in order that everyone who takes refuge in him will be passed over by G-d’s judgment:
He was wounded for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned –every one- to his own way;
But HASHEM has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He is like the scapegoat on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16):
He bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors
This way all those who take refuge in Messiah have peace with G-d. This peace Messiah gives us now already. And we wait with confidence for the worldwide shalom that he will bring.