A great number of people get tripped up over the first-century Jewish response to Jesus. The confusion is ironic because Israel responded similarly in its history, and the Scriptures foretold precisely what would happen. Paul highlights this in his letter to the believers in Rome (see Romans 11:1-10).
Before exploring a prophet like Moses, it is first necessary to adjust our perspective. What, exactly, was the Jewish response to Jesus?
Undoubtedly, a majority of the Jewish leadership establishment rejected Him. However, not all of them did. In John’s Gospel account, we find the examples of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and Joseph of Arimathea, a ruler of the Jewish people, leaders who secretly followed Jesus (see John 19:38-39).
Luke also testifies to a great number of priests and Pharisees who devoted their lives to Yeshua in Acts (6:7; 15:5).
Aside from all of this, we tend to forget that Peter, James, John, Mary, Stephen, Timothy, Barnabas, Paul, and countless others were Jewish followers of Jesus.
Some scholars estimate that the first 50,000 believers in Jesus were of Jewish descent. This should radically challenge our “the Jews rejected Jesus” claims. Many first-century Jews accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and risked their lives to make Him known.
In Deuteronomy, Moses said:
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Each person, Jew and gentile, must give account for what they do with the prophet like Moses. We know that Yeshua is that prophet like Moses because he said:
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
John 5:46
Our response to anyone who does not believe in Yeshua yet should not be impatience, disdain, or anger; instead, it should be an impassioned prayer to God to open the ears, eyes, and hearts of people who need intimate relationship with Him. As you pray for your loved ones and the Jewish people to know the Lord more intimately through relationship with Jesus, let love and mercy be the motives of your heart. After all, the Lord said:
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Jeremiah 31:3
