The Hebrew Bible tells us that a Messiah will come, but how will we know him? Here are a few of the Messianic prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures:

He will be Born of a Woman -- Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

This first Messianic prophecy in the Bible shows that he will be uniquely born of a woman and that he will conquer Satan through his sufferings.

He will be a Descendant of Abraham -- Genesis 12:1-3

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

 This passage begins to trace the Messianic line. It shows that God would send a Messiah through the seed of Abraham and later, the line is narrowed through Isaac and Jacob.

From the Tribe of Judah -- Genesis 49:10

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

 In this deathbed prophecy, the Patriarch Jacob narrows the line further to one of his sons, Judah. This was the "royal" tribe -- the source for all authentic kings in the history of Israel.

From the House of David -- 2 Samuel 7:12-13

When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

This prophecy, spoken to David, assures the great king that the Messianic line will continue through his descendants. Messiah would have to be not only from the tribe of Judah, but a descendant of King David.

He will be Born in Bethlehem -- Micah 5:2 (5:1 in Hebrew)

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.

Rabbi DAVID KIMCHI (known also as RaDak; 1160-1235), famous as an exegete and for his Hebrew grammar treatise "Michol," applied the above passage to Messiah in his statement: "Although you are little among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall come forth unto me a Judge to be Ruler of Israel, and this is the King Messiah" (Mikraot Gedolot on Micah 5:1).

He will have divine titles -- Isaiah 9:6-7 (9:5-6 in Hebrew)

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

He will be a Prophet Like Moses -- Deuteronomy 18:15

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

The Messiah would be a great prophet who would speak to Israel in God's behalf. In our opinion, Yeshua (Jesus' Hebrew name!) fulfilled this prophecy. In fact, Yeshua said, "If you would have believed Moses, you would have believed Me for he wrote about Me."*

In the Jewish MIDRASH RABBAH EXODUS, Rabbi Hoshaya tells the following story: "Moses said to God: 'Will not a time come when Israel will have neither sacrifice nor Temple? What will happen then?' The divine reply was: 'I will take one of their righteous men and retain him as a pledge on their behalf, in order that I may pardon all their sins.'"

He will Come Humbly -- Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

We were taught to expect a triumphant, kingly Messiah who would establish the Jewish nation and bring in a lasting peace. However, the Hebrew Bible also describes Messiah as coming first in humility and bringing salvation(!) as the above verse tells us. We find Rashi's statement on the above passage as recorded in the Mikraot Gedolot: "It is impossible to interpret this except as referring to the King Messiah..."

He will be a Suffering Servant -- Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12

Here, the Jewish prophet Isaiah (700 B.C.E.) describes the Messiah as a "lamb" who would be "cut off from the land of the living" (v.7) to be made "an offering for sin" (v.10). The Jewish MIDRASH TANHUMA identifies the Suffering Servant in this passage as Messiah, Son of David, and says that he "shall be exalted more than Abraham...extolled more than Moses" and "higher than the ministering angels...," almost paraphrasing Isaiah 52:13, where the Hebrew Scriptures introduce the Servant of the Lord in the words: "He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high."

MAIMONIDES, understanding this passage to be speaking of Messiah, says in his commentary on verse 15 of Isaiah 52: "Isaiah refers to the submission of kings to the Messiah in the verse, 'kings shall shut their mouth because of him' (52:15)" (Maimonides, "Letter to Yemen").

Please consider this passage in Isaiah carefully in full:

Behold My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men: so shall He startle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider.

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we reckoned Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked - but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and He made intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12).

(For a detailed description of Messiah's sufferings, see Psalm 22.)

Israel Will Mourn for Him -- Zechariah 12:10

The Jewish prophet Zechariah (480 B.C.E.), writing about the "aharit hayamim" (the last days) says:

"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."

Thus we see it was God's plan all along for the Messiah to suffer and be offered as an atonement for our sins (Isaiah 53:6,10)! Yeshua (Jesus) said, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fullfilled which were written in the Law of Moses (Torah) and the Prophets (Neviim) and the Psalms (Ketuvim) concerning Me."**

Because of this atonement having been made, and on the basis of this atonement, another Jewish writer, Yohanan (1st century), said: "To as many as received Him (Yeshua), to them He gave the right to become the children of God."***

Have You received Him? If not, you can do it right now! "He who has the Son has life..." (1 John 5:12, New Covenant). Just tell Him that, no matter what, you receive Him right now as your Messiah and believe in His atonement for your sins. Simple? Yes, but the New Covenant says "If any man be in Messiah, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).