A investigation as to whether Jesus is the Messiah
One of these arguments is that the miracles that Jesus did attest to the fact that he must have been the Messiah. At this point, we will not discuss the historical credibility of the Gospel accounts. Suffice it to say, there are extremely strong grounds for doubting the veracity of these stories. Let’s assume, however, that it is possible that Jesus performed numerous miracles. The question that needs to be asked is, “How many times does the Bible tell us that we will be able to identify the Messiah as a result of the miracles he will perform?”
The answer to this question is that the Bible never tells us that miracles are relevant in this regard. It is important to understand why this is so. Why didn’t the Bible ever inform us that we would be able to identify the Messiah through his miracles?
The reason for this omission stems from the fact that miracles are an unreliable barometer of anything. While Moses performed miracles in Egypt, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to replicate them (Exodus chapters 7-8). In Deuteronomy chapter 13, we are told that false prophets will have the ability to perform supernatural miracles in order to test our fidelity to G-d. Interestingly, the Greek scriptures state that false messiahs will do incredible miracles to mislead people (Matthew 24:24). Clearly, if a false messiah is able to perform miracles, then miracles cannot prove that someone is the Messiah.
Like an “archer” who first shoots his arrow into a tree and then paints a target around the arrow, these Christians assume from the outset that Jesus was the Messiah and then try to find passages in the Bible which “sound like” Jesus.
It should be abundantly clear, then, that the servant is the nation Israel. When we combine these two facts, the fact that the theme of second Isaiah is the restoration of Israel after Exile, and the fact that the servant is the nation Israel itself, we then find that the meaning of the Song of the Servant, in chapter 53, becomes clear.
Actually the Christian interpretation does not even fit the context of Isaiah 52-54, and further is not supported by some statements in the Song itself. For example, verse 10 states that the Servant will live a long life, and have many children. It should be fairly obvious that Jesus died at a young age, and never had any children. Christian apologists often claim that this verse is symbolic, that it refers to Jesus' resurrection, and the establishment of the Christian Church. It has not been explained why we are required to take the rest of Isaiah 53 literally, but this one verse as allegorical.
[ ] “Of course! You are the suffering servant from Isaiah 53!”It is possible to see that in the 1st century, the followers of Jesus did not understand this passage in Isaiah as a Messianic prophecy. In the 16th chapter of Matthew, Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah. At that point, Jesus tells his followers that he will go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and ultimately be killed. Peter should have said, “Of course! You are the suffering servant from Isaiah 53!” But Peter doesn’t react this way. He protests and says that this will never happen to Jesus. In the 9th chapter of Mark, Jesus teaches his disciples that he will be delivered up to evil men who will kill him. However, Mark tells us in verse 32, “But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.” Clearly, these followers of Jesus did not assume that he came to the world in order to suffer and die. They were never led to believe that this chapter of Isaiah forecast the death and suffering of the Messiah.