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The Messiah as a Manifestation of God

Manifestations of God in General

Sometimes these phrases refer to God as he normally is, invisible and present everywhere. For example, Judaism traditionally views Wisdom, as personified in the Proverbs, as a way Solomon is describing God to help people understand God better.

A other times these phrases refer to God visibly appearing in a special way. When this happens it is called a manifestation of God.

For example, God manifested himself during the Exodus from Egypt: the nation of Israel was led by God manifest as a pillar of either cloud (during the day) or fire (during the night) (Exodus 13:21).

There was also the presence of God manifest in the Tabernacle or Temple, which looked like a pillar of cloud (Numbers 12:5, Deuteronomy 31:15).

Quite different from both pillar-appearing manifestations was how God manifested himself specially to Moses (Exodus 33:12-23 and 34:5-9) because in this case to see the manifestation would have caused Moses's death.

On a few occasions, a manifestation of God looks like a man. God manifested himself this way when he appeared with two angels to Avraham at Mamre (Genesis 18:1-2, 18:27-32, and 19:1). Joshua also saw something that looked human but was God, for the proper thing to do upon seeing it was to worship it (Joshua 5:13-15).

A Manifestation of God in Isaiah 40 to 59

What God will do is redeem Israel by himself being the light to the nations that Israel had failed to be. We read about this mission of Israel's in Isaiah 42:6-7.

I, Adonai, called you righteously, I took hold hold of you by the hand, I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people, to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you can open blind eyes, free the prisoners from confinement, those living in darkness from the dungeon.

There are many other verses about this mission. For example, Isaiah 43:10 also describes how Israel was to be Adonai's witnesses. Both Isaiah 41:17-18, 20 and Isaiah 43:19 describe this comission as bringing water to a barren land (the Gentile nations are metaphorically compared to a desert because of their previous lack of relationship with God).

However, Israel had failed in this mission because of her sins. This is described in verses such as Isaiah 59:1-2, Isaiah 58:1, and Isaiah 42:18-24.

So God himself is going to manifest and be the light to the nations that Israel had failed to be. Verses such as Isaiah 59:15-16 make this clear (also see Isaiah 41:13-14, 43:1-3, 44:6, 47:4, and 49:26).

What will God look like during this manifesatation?

God first gives Isaiah only metaphors, to make very clear that a manifestion of God is what is being talked about. Many metaphors are provided: almost all of the images ever used in scripture to describe God interacting with the world appear packed into these chapters!

The manifestation will be like the hand of God (Isaiah 40:2 and 41:20),

Tell Jerusalem...that she has received at the hand of Adonai double for all her sins.

Then the people will see and know, together observe and understand that the hand of Adonai has done this, that the Holy One of Israel created it.

the arm of God (Isaiah 40:10 and 59:15-16),

Here comes Adonai Elohim with power, and his arm will rule for him.

Adonai saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, was amazed that no one interceded. Therefore his own arm brought him victory, and his own righteousness sustained him.

the word of God (Isaiah 40:6-8),

All humanity is merely grass ...the word of our God will stand forever.

a servant of God empowered by the Spirit of God (Isaiah 42:1),

Here is my servant, whom I support, my chosen one, in whom I take pleasure. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring justice to the Gentile nations.

a shepherd (Isaiah 40:11),

He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering his lambs with his arm, carrying them against his chest, gently leading the mother sheep.

and it will have a distinct personality from God and God's Spirit (Isaiah 48:16).

Come close to me, and listen to this: since the beginning I have not spoken in secret, since the time things began to be, I have been there; and now Adonai Elohim has sent me and his Spirit.

But even after all of these metaphors, Isaiah does not yet know what this manifestation of God will look like, or any details about what it will do. This is not unusual. Prophecy is not normally very detailed. Isaiah would not have been surprised if God stopped talking after providing only this much detail.

A Manifestation Like No Other

Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12 provides this detail. This manifestation would be so unlike anything else in history that it would be unmistakable.

(The passage of Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12 is one stanza in the Hebrew. It is broken up into sections below only to because of the commentary. A slightly similar description also appears in Isaiah 50:4-11.)

See how my servant will succeed! He will be raised up, exalted, highly honored! Just as many were astonished at him, because he was so disfigured that he didn't even seem human and simply no longer looked like a man, so now he will startle many nations; because of him, kings will be speechless. For they will see what they had not been told, they will ponder things they had never heard.

The servant looks like a man. He becomes disfigured in the presence of kings (we read later that the disfiguration is from being beaten). Afterwards he is exalted.

Who believes our report? To whom is the arm of Adonai revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.

The servant is "the arm of Adonai": the manifestation of which God has been repeatedly telling Isaiah. Yet as a man he grows up (as Isaiah 9 also describes the Messiah as first appearing as a child).

He was not well-formed or especially handsome; we saw him, but his appearance did not attract us. People despised him and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him.

He is an outcast whom most of the Jewish community rejects. His life is not easy. He is often ill and/or spends time with sick people.

In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. But he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities; he suffered so we might be made whole, and by his injury we are healed. We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet Adonai laid on him the iniquity of all of us.

The pains and illness previously mentioned are here described. The servant somehow not only redeems Israel (by fulfilling Israel's mission of being a light to the nations), but the servant also redeems individuals from sins and iniquity so that "we might be made whole" (in some other translations "we might have peace").

Though mistreated, he was submissive-- he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to be slaughtered, like a sheep silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth.

When under some sort of mistreatment the servant does no protest or plead, but is silent.

After forcible arrest and sentencing, he was taken away; and none of his generation protested his being cut off from the land of the living for the crimes of my people, who deserved the punishment themselves. He was given a grave among the wicked; in his death he was with a rich man.

When the servant bears the sin and iniquity of others it kills him! In a way this is not surprising, for all other scriptural manifestations of God appear for only a finite amount of time and then end. But having a manifestation of God end by dying is astonishing!

His death comes "after forcible arrest and sentencing" (in some other translations, "by oppression and false judgment"). The death is not deserved, as if the servant were a sacrificial animal.

Although he had done no violence and had said nothing deceptive, yet it pleased Adonai to crush him with illness, to see if he would present himself as a guilt offering. If he does, he will see his offspring; and he will prolong his days; and at his hand Adonai's desire will be accomplished. After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction.

Many people think Daniel 12:2 is the earliest reference to a ressurection in Jewish literature. But these verses, written much earlier, clearly show that the servant will see a reward after carrying through with the job of dying an atoning sacrificial death.

"By his knowing [pain and sacrifice] my righteous servant makes many righteous; it is for their sins that he suffers. Therefore I will assign him a share with the great, he will divide the spoil with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and being counted among the sinners, while actually bearing the sin of many and interceding for the offenders."

The passage closes with a summary, with God speaking in the first-person.

Yeshua as this Manifestation of God

Notice that in Isaiah 40 through 59 there is no indication that this manifestation of God will be the messiah, the King of the Kingdom of God. This manifestation of God is never called "annointed" or "king" in these chapters. (The nearest that happens is in Isaiah 44:6, when God calls himself "King" while calling this manifestation "his redeemer".)

So it requires knowledge of other parts of scripture to be sure that Yeshua is not only the "suffering servant" of Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12, but also the messiah.

A bigger question is why one such manifestation would be permanent. What does it teach us about Adonai and about his relationship with mankind that Yeshua is in human form after his resurrection and ascension?