If Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, Then Why do so Many Gentiles Believe in Him?

It seems strange to many Jewish people that the Jewish Messiah could have come and that many Gentiles all over the world would believe in Him.  It stands to reason that the Jewish Messiah should be for Jews, not Gentiles.  The Jewish prophet, Isaiah, writing some 700 years B.C.E., declared that many Gentiles all over the world would embrace the Jewish Messiah.

And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him (for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and My God is My strength),  He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel.  I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:5-6, emphasis added).

It was too small a thing for the Jewish Messiah to be for Jewish people alone.  The Jewish Messiah was to be God’s Light to the nations and bring the Lord’s salvation to the ends of the earth!  The Hebrew word translated “nations” is “Goyim.”  It means “Gentiles” and refers to the people or nations who are not Jewish.

It was always God’s plan to restore both Jews and Gentiles through the Jewish Messiah.  From the beginning, God made this purpose clear to Abraham, telling him that through one of his descendants (i.e., the Messiah) all families of the earth would be blessed.

Now the Lord said to Abram,  “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing;  and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3, emphasis added).

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven… “And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice”  Genesis 22:15, 18 (emphasis added).

The same promise to bless Gentiles through a chosen descendant (i.e., Messiah) was repeated in promises God made to Isaac and Jacob.  (See Genesis 26:1-4 and Genesis 28:10-14, respectively.)

A first century Rabbi, Rav Shaul, also known as Paul, commented on this promise.  His comments are recorded in Galatians 3:13-16.

Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us,  for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” in order that in Messiah Yeshua the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.  Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Messiah (emphasis added).

Isaiah 42:1-6 also tells us that the Jewish Messiah would be for Gentiles as well as for Jews.

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in Whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations…Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it,  “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations...”  (Isaiah 42:1, 5-6, emphasis added).

Why do so many Gentiles believe in Yeshua (Jesus), the Jewish Messiah?  In the Torah and in the Prophets it is prophesied that Gentiles would embrace the Jewish Messiah.  From the beginning, it has been God’s plan for all people to know Him.  He has made this possible through the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, whose name means “salvation.”

Whether you are Jewish or Gentile, the Messiah came for you (Isaiah 49:5-6).  You can know God intimately, if you will acknowledge Yeshua as the One that the Jewish Bible and New Covenant declare Him to be, the Messiah of all people.