Messiah who is ‘The Son of Man’
གསུང་མགུར 2:6-7
6ཛི་ཡོན་ང་ཡི་དམ་པའི་རི་བོའི་རྩེར། ང་ཡིས་རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྐོས་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཁོང་གིས་གསུངས།
7གཙོ་བོས་གསལ་བསྒྲགས་གང་མཛད་པ་ང་ཡིས། ཁྱབ་བསྒྲགས་བྱེད་ཅེས་རྒྱལ་པོས་གསུངས། ཁྱོད་ནི་ང་ཡི་བུ་ཡིན་པས། དེ་རིང་ང་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཕ་རུ་འགྱུར་ཞེས་ཁོང་གིས་ང་ལ་གསུངས།
Psalm 2:6-7
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill”
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
Explanation of Psalm 2
The Jews believed that Psalm 2 was a prophecy about the Messiah, whose birth came about by command of the LORD.
The LORD speaks a command (verses 7-9) to His Son, who is born, but already full-grown (v.7), and anointed (v.2) for kingship.
The LORD declares him to be king in Zion (v.6). Zion is another name for the hilltop city of Jerusalem.
The city of Zion, like all cities was impermanent and twice completely destroyed; but in later scriptures it becomes a picture of the permanent heavenly city where the LORD lives (e.g. Ezekiel Chapter 40 onwards).
Messiah’s Birth in Other Scriptures
a. We have already seen prophecies of his birth (Isaiah 9:6; 11:1 – Posts 6 & 7).
b. Isaiah also writes that he will have normal human birth (Is 49:1 & 5).
c. The Prophet Micah told he would be born in that part of Israel called Judah, and in the village (now a big town) called Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
d. But Micah says his real birth was long, long before.
མི་ཀཱ 5:2
གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས། ཀྱེ་བྷེད་ལེ་ཧེམ་ཨེཕ་ར་ཐཱ་ཁྱོད་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནང་ནས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཆུང་ཤོས་ཤིག་ཡིན་མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ནང་ནས་ཨིསི་རཱཨེལ་གྱི་དོན་དུ་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་གནང་མཁན་ཞིག་གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། ཁོང་གི་གདུང་རབས་ནི་གནའ་དུས་ནས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།
Micah 5:2
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
Fulfillment
a. Yeshu was born in Bethlehem, although it was some days of travelling to the south of his parents’ home at Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 2:1-7).
b. It was the right time for his birth. Some astrologers (skar rtsis mkhas can) from some far-away Asian country had already discovered this (Matthew 2:1, 2, 7, 16).
c. An angel announced Messiah’s birth to men (lug rdzi) who guarded the sheep in the fields around Bethlehem (Luke 2:8-16).
d. It was unknown to most people that Yeshu was Messiah. He did not call himself Messiah lest the common people rise up and make him a Hero King (dpa’ wo). He called himself ‘Son of Man’ (Luke 6:24 etc; see footnote).
e. Yeshu was popular with the people. The Jewish leaders did not want a Messiah, who was just a Galilean villager, but because Yeshu received more honour than they did, they were envious, and they had him killed.
f. After Yeshu’s death he rose to life, and said he was returning to his Father in heaven (John 20:17). He had been Son in heaven before being born as a man on earth (John 8:21-23, and 7:25-29).
g. Yeshu will certainly come again to take his kingly power and reign (Matthew 24:30; 25:31-34). Of this happening Psalm 2 verses 8-10 give warning, but its fulfilment is yet to be. It could happen any time, even now (Mt 24:36-44).
Foot note about ‘Son of Man’
a. This was the title that Yeshu gave himself (Luke 5:24). It was also a Jewish way of saying, ‘I am human’. He did not say, ‘I am God, and that is my power for doing these wonderful things.’
b. Although men, even his own disciples, were slow to recognize him as God, the demons, in their fear, knew very well that He was Son of God (Mark 1:24, 34; 3:11, 12; 5:1-8).
c. It was important that Yeshu became fully human. In this way he experienced temptation like any other man, but unlike any other man he remained clean. Because he had complete purity (ye shes) free from delusion (gti mug), he alone had the worth to take our suffering for us and offer us salvation.
Next Post – The Messiah Who was a Teacher
The Life of Yeshu 