So what did he do? Left his whole life behind and crossed the globe to be with his loved one? Saved the lives of his friends? Got back together with someone who betrayed him?

Much more than all that. He sacrificed his life to save the lives of those who betrayed him!

‍

‍Everlasting Love

Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other Hebrew prophets described God's relationship with the people of Israel like a relationship between a husband and a wife. God said to His people Israel, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you” (Jeremiah 31:3).

‍Out of love, he created this amazing world in precisely the way that made it possible for us to live here – he gave us a wonderful home. Out of love, he chose us to be his people, so that through us the whole world would be blessed.

‍And he’s always been faithful – every promise he made as part of his covenant, he’s kept. For example, he promised to bring the Jewish people from all around the world back to the Land of Israel, and he did it! But have we always been faithful and kept our part of the covenant with God?

‍

‍Our Betrayal

If we examine ourselves in light of the Ten Commandments, we can see that every one of us has lied, coveted, not always honored our parents. And what about, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) – have we really shown love to others at all times? Have we done and thought only good things – with no selfishness, gossip, pride, jealousy, or revenge?

‍God honored us with every good thing we have in life, and loved us with all his heart, like a perfect husband. But what about us? Have we honored and loved him at every moment, as it’s written, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5)? Or maybe we’ve chosen to go our own way – as if we were God. We might have thought it wasn’t such a serious thing, but God sees it as betrayal.

‍

‍Marriage with a Harlot

There’s even a book about it in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament): Hosea. Quick summary of the story: God sends the prophet Hosea to marry...a prostitute! They have three children together, but then she is unfaithful to him again and again, and ultimately becomes a sex slave.

And yet, God tells Hosea to continue to love her, just like he, God, loves the people of Israel. Now, the woman could only be set free from her slavery if someone were to pay the price to redeem her. And Hosea decides to pay it, and brings her back home.

‍

‍The Good News, The Bad News

‍God gave us this story to illustrate to us how much he loves us despite everything we’ve done against him. And here we have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that according to the Scriptures, the price of our betrayal of an eternal God is death and eternal punishment (Daniel 12:2), and there’s no good deed we can do that can cancel out our bad deeds (Isaiah 64:6) – we can’t save ourselves!

But here's the good news. God said that no matter how many times we’ve been unfaithful to him, how many times we’ve rebelled against him, and how far we’ve strayed from him – he still loves us so much that he paid the ultimate price to set us free and bring us back into relationship with him now and forever.

‍How did he do this? Through a sacrifice. The principle in Scripture has always been that the sacrifice would die in place of the person who sinned and thus would atone for his sin (Leviticus 17:11).

‍And God promised that one day the Messiah would come and give his life as the perfect sacrifice to atone for all our sin, once and for all, to bridge the gap between us and God, and to give us forgiveness and a new beginning (Isaiah 53, Zechariah 12:10-13:1, Daniel 9:24-26).

‍

‍The Hero of the Story

So who is this Messiah? You might be surprised to hear that the Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly prophesied that the Messiah would actually be God himself who would take on flesh and blood.

Now, you might have heard that it’s impossible for the God of the universe to come in the form of a man, but the truth is that the Hebrew Scriptures show us that God already appeared in the form of a man over 40 times! 

There are whole, detailed descriptions of how he sat down to eat with Abraham our father at the entrance of his tent (Genesis 18); how he met with Jacob on the other side of the Jordan and touched his thigh (Genesis 32:22-32); and how he appeared in a human form to Moses and the 70 elders of Israel at Mount Sinai – they saw him with their own eyes (Exodus 24:9-11)!

‍And the Hebrew prophets told us that the Messiah would be this same person – God in the form of a man.

It’s written that the Messiah would come from the family of King David and be born in Bethlehem, but also that he existed from eternity (Micah 5:1, Jeremiah 23:5-6).

According to the Hebrew Scriptures, he will be "the Father of Eternity” and “mighty God” or “God the Hero” (Isaiah 9:6) and even “The LORD – יהוה – our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:5-6) – these are descriptions that can only refer to God!

In other words, the same one who existed from all eternity and created us, he came down into this broken world and became the hero who sacrificed his life to save us.

‍

‍How Can We Identify the Messiah?

So how do we know he already came?

The Hebrew prophets told us that the Messiah of Israel would:

• Come before the destruction of the Second Temple (Daniel 9:26-24, Malachi 3:1-3) – in other words, 2,000 years ago
• Be rejected at first by the people of Israel (Isaiah 53:2-4, Psalm 118:22)
• Take the punishment that we deserved upon himself and die in our place (Isaiah 53, Daniel 9:24-26)
• Rise from the dead in order to give us eternal life (Isaiah 53:10-12, Psalm 16:10)
• And bring many non-Jews to faith in the God of Israel (Isaiah 42:1-7, 49:5-6)

‍‍

Yeshua Came to Save

‍So who fulfilled all this? A Jewish man named Yeshua, Jesus, the son of David. His name in Hebrew means “salvation,” and that’s exactly what he came to bring.

Just like Jeremiah the prophet promised, even though we broke the covenant with God, the Messiah came to make a “new covenant” with us that would enable us to receive forgiveness, and return to an intimate relationship with God (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Isaiah 42:1-7).

 In Yeshua, this incredible prophecy about the Messiah was fulfilled: 

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The punishment that brought us peace was on him, And by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

‍

‍Loved Us Until Death

‍So who did the craziest thing anyone has ever done out of love? Yeshua, Jesus. He saw all our sins, felt the sting of all our betrayals on his own flesh, but still loved us unto death, and decided to sacrifice his life to save you.

‍But on the third day after his death, he rose from the dead – and hundreds of people in Israel testified that they saw him – some touched him, some ate with him! He gained victory over death!

‍And all we have to do is to choose to believe in Yeshua and to walk in his ways from now on. Just like a bridegroom, he’s reaching out to us, his beloved, and he’s inviting us to start a new and fulfilling life, which will last forever.

You can discover for yourself the true story of Yeshua’s life and everything he did for us in the New Covenant, or the New Testament. You can read it and watch more moving videos by clicking on the button below.

For many more inspiring stories of what God’s doing in Israel, you’re welcome to sign up for our newsletter, and get these stories straight to your inbox. You’re welcome to follow us so you don't miss the next videos. And if you have questions or want to know more, we’re here for you. We’d be glad to speak with you! Let's talk!