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Proofs that Jesus is the Messiah

In recent years a new method of Scripture study has been developed known as Equidistant Letter Spacing (ELS). It is done by looking at every 7th letter in a verse, or 10th letter, or 50th letter in a biblical text (etc) to see what it might spell.

Since anyone with some basic knowledge can do this, it does not require a particular belief system to verify anyone's work or claim. Michael Drosnin, a self-proclaimed atheist or agnostic, has written three books about the prophecies spelled out by the ELS system. (The Bible Code I, II, and III) As a result, he has come to believe that there is definitely some intelligence behind the Scriptures, though he is inclined to attribute it to aliens appearing to Moses, rather to God Himself.

ELS was developed by Dr. Eliyahu Rips, a world-class Jewish mathematician.

Most of the men who study ELS are looking for prophecies of the future. But there are other revelations that one can find, if one wants to look for them--revelations of Jesus Christ which identify Him as the Messiah in messianic texts throughout the Old Testament.

We could start with Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning," where the fifth letter in the verse is the yod. This yod is also the first letter of Yeshua (i.e., Jesus), and if you count each 521st letter from there, it spells out Yeshua Yakhol, "Jesus is able." This supports John 1:1-3, where we read,

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....All things came into being by Him."

In verse 14 we read, "and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." John was speaking of Jesus Christ, the Word, through whom all was created. The ELS system shows that "Jesus is able" to create all things.

In the story of Joseph, we read of his brothers in Gen. 37:5 that "they hated him." Obviously, they hated Joseph himself, but there is a deeper prophecy involved in this. Joseph was a type of messiah, who was to come and be "hated" by his brethren. Hence, beginning with the alef in that phrase, counting every 27th letter, it reads, ach Yeshua, or "brother Jesus."

And so John 15:25 quotes Psalm 69:4, saying, "They hated me without a cause."

Likewise, in Psalm 41:7 we read, "All my haters whisper together against Me; they plot evil against Me..." In the phrase, "they plot evil" (yach'shvu rah'ah), every other letter beginning with the first yod spells Yeshua.

Joseph's brothers sold him as a slave for 20 pieces of silver (Gen. 37:28). It was Judah's idea. This prophesied of another day when the messiah would be sold by Judas for 30 pieces of silver. It was prophesied in Zechariah 11:12, "and they weighed My price, thirty pieces of silver." The Hebrew word for "My price" is se'kari. Again, counting every 24th letter from the yod in that word spells Yeshua.

In Leviticus 21:10-12 we read of the high priest and the anointing oil that had consecrated him to make sacrifices to God. If we count every third letter from the first heh in verse 10, it spells hain dam Yeshua, "Behold! The blood of Yeshua."

This supports our belief that all of the sacrifices in the OT were prophetic types of Yeshua-Jesus and that He was to be offered as the ultimate Sacrifice by the high priest himself. So we read in John 19:15-18,

¹⁵ ... The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." ¹⁶ So he [Pilate] then delivered Him [Jesus] to them [the chief priests] to be crucified. ¹⁷ They [the chief priests]took Jesus therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they [the chief priests] crucified Him...

If the Romans had crucified Jesus, then prophecy would have failed. It was written in the Law that the sacrifices had to be made by the Aaronic priests, not by Romans. This is the point of the ELS in Leviticus 21:10-12, where "Behold! The blood of Yeshua" is linked to the high priest himself.

Isaiah 53, of course, is the most profound messianic chapter of Scripture. It actually begins in Isaiah 52:13, "Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted." The first letter of every 7th word spells "Yeshua appointed."

In the next verse we read,

"Just as many were astonished at you, so His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men."

Starting with the third yod in this verse, if we count using an ELS of 120 from left to right, it spells Yeshua. Further, the adjacent letters to Yeshua spell s'ait, "exaltation in rank or character, excellency, dignity." What a contrast to the description of the Messiah in this verse! Yet Paul writes in Phil. 2:8-11,

⁸ ... He hunbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

But that is just the beginning of the passage. Isaiah 53:10 reads,

"But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He would see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand."

Who is the prophet referring to? Start with the 4th word in this verse, count in reverse with an ELS of 20, and it spells "Yeshua is My name."

The next verse reads,

"As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities."

Starting with the first mem in this verse, if we count using an ELS of 42, it spells out Mashiach(messiah). But who is this Messiah? Start with the 5th letter of the 9th word in this verse. Using an ELS of 20 (in reverse), it spells out "from above, Yeshua is My strong Name."

Hence, Jesus said in John 8:23, "You are from below; I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world."

Perhaps the most remarkable prophecy of the Messiah is found in Micah 5:2,

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."

When Jesus was born, the Magi learned from the priests that the messiah was to be born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:6). They knew this from Micah 5:2. The verse also tells us the tribe of the messiah (Judah). It also tells us the name of the Messiah.

Starting with the 4th yod, if we count every 49th letter from left to right, it spells Yeshua. Furthermore, if we use an ELS of 48, it spells out "Mary" and "Joseph." The odds of this happening by chance are astronomical.

These and many other infallible proofs show us that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God.