WHAT IS HIS SON’S NAME?

Rabbi Leopold Cohn

Preface

Before you read these pages you may ask: What is the author’s intention? What does he want? Permit me, dear reader, to state that the writer has found a good thing and since the Word of God says: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” I dare not keep it to myself, but must share it with my brethren. We are even told in natural history that when the bee has found honey in a tree, she returns to her nest and in her own way makes it known to her associates so that they all come and share in the good things found. If the insect is swayed by such instinct, how much more ought man, a moral agent, be moved by the love of God to give and communicate to others of all the good gifts bestowed upon him by his Maker. I have found more than honey in Jesus of Nazareth, our gracious Redeemer, and it is my bounden duty to tell mankind of this find. True, not all men will listen, not all will want to share with me in this unspeakable gift, but as God says: “See I have set before thee this day life and good, death and evil,” so I am making the same offer in the hope that my brethren will choose the good and the life, even our blessed Messiah, Who is the good and Who is life eternal.

But if you ask me, how I know that Jesus is good, I have to answer that you find that out in your heart. God says that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” If Jesus were anything bad or evil, the heart would passionately long for Him; but as the human heart laughs at Him, and scorns Him and does not want to recognize in Him the righteous Redeemer, it is a proof already that He is good, for the sinful heart instinctively turns from the good. Therefore I beg you in the name of God: “Choose the good and live.” Listen to the voice of love and you shall find the truth and the truth shall make you free. Amen.

Proverbs 30:4

Let us now read Proverbs 30:4: “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou can’t tell?” Here are several questions and the hardest of them reads:

“WHAT IS HIS SON’S NAME?”

You might be able to answer all the rest, but when it comes to the question about “His son’s name,” you will draw up your forehead and shrug your shoulders and close your lips as though you never could speak, and yet here it stands, the question of God about His son’s name, gaining emphasis by the phrase: “If thou can’t tell?”

There are many children of Israel who, when they hear this question about His son’s name read from the Old Testament, say at once: “This is in the Missionary’s Bible, not in ours.” You may assure them ever so often that the missionary has no other than the Jewish Bible, yet they will not believe. They think everybody is a fool but themselves. They ask: How can that be? And there the matter ends, for them. They argue this wise:-Can God ask for the name of His son? This will mean that God has a son; but how can God have a son? Has he a wife? Therefore he settles the question by saying that this passage is only found in the Missionary Bible. But when it does happen that he looks up the passage in the Jewish Bible which his grandfather brought from Europe, and finds there the passage word for word, he finds another way out of the difficulty, he says: “Some missionary got hold of the Bible and smuggled in the words.” With such wise-acres you cannot argue. But I hope that you, dear reader, will not repeat such nonsense. A Bible is a Bible, whether in your hands or in mine. There is not a word changed. “It is thy life” says God of it. But what a poor life for those who know nothing about it. The Jews ought to look upon the Bible as their life, but alas, how few know its truths. Up to this time Moses was the greatest man that ever lived, yet he prayed to God: “Make known unto me thy ways.” Another great man in Israel, King David, prayed: “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” But the modern rabbis and scholars do not want to know the ways of God nor do they care to see the wonders in His word. They have manufactured a word, a Bible of their own, doctrines and commandments of men. These are more sacred to them than the Word of God. Where do we find a scholar or Rabbi, who does understand and teach the Word of God aright? Men study the Old Testament here and there for the purpose of learning a purer Hebrew, or to get poetical inspiration, etc., but where are the men that study the Old Testament to find out how best to serve God, or how it is that God has left His people in exile for so long and what we are to do to be delivered? There are no such men in Israel. If we had such Rabbis and leaders they would have found out long ago that God has a Son and that this Son is our righteous Redeemer, Who would gladly accept and restore us, if we would repent and accept by faith God’s unspeakable gift of redemption.

I thank God from the bottom of my heart that He opened my eyes to see the wondrous things in His law. For almost 30 years I lived in darkness just like most of the Chassidim (a pious sect). I worried my brain night and day to understand the Talmud with all its sacred lore, but it never entered my mind to study the ways of the God of Israel and to try to understand what God has spoken through the mouths of the Holy Prophets. But four years ago (it is now 17 years) the Lord had mercy upon me and moved me to search the Scriptures, when I found our Redeemer moved me to search the Scriptures, when I found our Redeemer Jesus of Nazareth, David’s son, and my Lord, blessed be His name! Now I can answer the question: What is His son’s name? I know of a certainty that His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He it is whom God sent to redeem a sinful world, as it is written: He shall redeem Israel from all their sins.” It is none other that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Son of David, the King of the Jews, who liveth and reigneth forever.

But many a man may object:-Granted that God has a Son according to Proverbs 30:4, yet this does not prove that the Messiah is His Son; God means perhaps some great angel, whilst the Redeemer may be a mere man. Have patience, dear brother, and we shall study the matter more closely. Let us read together, the second Psalm, which all commentators admit refers to the Messiah. “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? “This word translated “people” means the Jews as well as the Gentiles; for God used the same word when He said to Rebecca that one nation of her descendents should be stronger than the other, (Genesis 25:23) as was true of Jacob and Esau. He designated Jacob by the same word as Esau. So does David prophesy by the Holy Ghost that both Jews and Gentiles shall rise up against the Messiah? In the next verse of Psalm 2 we have a prophecy of what the enemies of the Messiah shall say: “The Kings of the earth shall set themselves, the rulers shall take council together against the Lord of His Messiah.” Here the Messiah is coordinated with God, He is just as exalted as God, and he who is against the Messiah is against God, and He who is against God is against the Messiah, for God is the Messiah and The Messiah is God, If you do not believe it from this passage, read Jeremiah. 23:5-7: “Behold, the days come saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby he shall be called: Jehovah our Righteousness.” The Messiah then shall be called by the holy name Jehovah. The Talmud seems to understand this matter when in Baba Bathra, p. 75a, we are told: “Three there are who are called by the name of Jehovah……the Messiah, for it is written ‘And this is the name whereby he shall be called: Jehovah our Righteousness’.” Think well, therefore, before you laugh at the Messiah; for in laughing at Him you laugh at God Himself

Now we will continue the second Psalm: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” This is what the enemies of the Lord and His Messiah will say and do. They will want to ruin His power and influence over man. But “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath.” What shall He speak to them? “Yet I have set my King upon my Holy Hill of Zion.” Here God calls the Messiah, my King, because He does not rule as man, but as God. Thus we heard first what the enemies of the Messiah had to say, and then what God said to those enemies, and now the prophet declares what the Messiah himself says: “I will declare the decree.” The law, what law? ‘The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee.” The Messiah is God’s Son and as precious to Him as any child born to its father. These seven verses of the second Psalm are enough to convince any man with a conscience that the Messiah is the Son of God. But some Jews try to interpret this Psalm as meaning King David. This, however, will not do, for nowhere do the Scriptures call David the Son of God; then you cannot deny that this Psalm in its entirety treats of the Messiah. The matter becomes plainer yet when we consider further the 8 th verse: “Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy possession.” This cannot apply to David, for he was not King of the whole earth but only of the land of the Jews. It can only refer to the Messiah, whom God calls here My Son, my King. He alone is to have domination over the whole creation and to Him all knees shall bow in heaven and on earth.

But you may have another question. This time you may want to know whether the Messiah is called the Son of God in any other passage besides the second Psalm. Suppose this were the only passage, would that fact lose its convincing power? When God says once: “Thou shalt not steal,” is it necessary to repeat it before you shall obey? But the Sonship of the Messiah is so important and so hard for the unenlightened reason to understand that God condescends to our weakness and repeats it in other phrases. Let us take 2 Samuel 7. Here God gives Nathan the prophet a message for David that the latter should not build Him a house, but “I will set up thy seed after thee, he shall build a house for my name, and I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men” (12-14). (This passage of course primarily refers to Solomon but a secondary reference is to the Messiah). However, if the Messiah is the Son of God, as the verse says, “I will be his father and he shall be my son,” how can He, the Son of God fall into sin? It is evident that God means here that in the eyes of men He will look like a sinner; why? Because of the chastisement and the “stripes of the children of men” which shall be upon Him. As Scripture is best interpreted by Scripture let us put this passage under the light of Isaiah 53. Here we read in verse 4: “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” This was our estimation of His chastisement; we thought He was stricken of God because of His sins. “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities.” (Verse 5) Both here as will as in 1 Samuel 7, the Messiah appears in the eyes of men as a man punished of God because of His own sin, but the fact in both passages is that He suffers in our stead that we through faith in Him might be saved. Then again we read in 2 Samuel 7:15, 16: “But my mercy shall not depart away from him…..and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee; thy throne shall be established.” The punishment referred to, cannot be for His own iniquity (v. 14) otherwise God could not say: “My mercy shall not depart from him.” Then the words: “Thy kingdom and thy throne shall be established forever” do not find their fulfillment in Solomon, for according to 1 Kings 11:42, the throne of and Kingdom of David lasted forty years and not “forever.” So when God says (v. 14) “I will be his father and he shall be my son,” it refers to Solomon in a certain sense, but only in so far as he was a type of the Messiah. In Solomon alone this prophecy is not exhausted, for Solomon was not chastened with the rod and stripes of men and, as indicated already, Solomon’s throne was not forever.

Now take this prophecy in connection with that of the 2 nd Psalm and you will see how they harmonize. Here: “I will be his father, and I will establish his throne forever and he shall be my son;” there: “Thou art my Son, this day I have begotten thee; ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy possession.” Both prophecies refer to no other than to Jesus the Messiah and if we take the prophecy: “I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men” (v. 14), and read Matthew 27:30 and Mark 15:19, we are startled by the literal fulfillment of it in Christ Jesus. Of course, this is not the only proof we have that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel but as we study these passage of Scriptures quoted, we are simply amazed to see how marvelously they were fulfilled in Christ Jesus. These alone are enough to convince a truth loving mind that believes the Word of God.

But here is another prophecy: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” Isaiah 9:6. Here the language is double: “A child is born, a son given.” That is, he is born like other men and yet he is not like other men. He must be born of a woman to redeem from sin which came through the woman, but he must also be the Son of God; therefore the prophet says: “A son is given unto us:” as the Son of God he is given, not born as we read in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This child born, this Son given shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God etc., just as we read in Jeremiah 23: “He shall be called Jehovah our Righteousness,” Dear reader, this is a strong passage and it is worth while to consider what child is meant here. There are differences of opinion as to the interpretation of this passage but if we only can understand Hebrew we can easily understand the mind of God in this passage without any commentaries. Rashi, the great Jewish commentator, says that this child is Hezekiah the King of Judah, and that it cannot refer to Jesus because of the expression in verse 6, “from now on,” since Jesus was born centuries later. But Rashi will have to pardon us, if we differ. “From now on” refers to the time when this prophecy began to be fulfilled. So we read in Micah 4:7, that when Messiah comes then the Lord their God shall reign over them on Mount Zion from now on and forever. The “from now on” means from the time when it will be fulfilled, from then on it shall be forever. So also in the passage Isaiah 9:7: “of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

Thus we have seen that this child born, this Son given, is not a common child of man, but the Son of God given to be born as a child, and that this personage is none other than Jesus the Christ. And yet when we speak today to any Jew about the Son of God he ridicules the idea and asks: “How can God have a Son?” But when the temple was still standing and the Jews still studied the Word of God they knew that the Messiah was to be the Son of God. Read Matthew 26:63, and listen to the high priest speaking to Jesus: “I adjure by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” Here we see that the high priest believed that God has a Son and that the Messiah was to be the Son of God. Other people of those times believed the same thing, as you can see and read throughout the New Testament. More over, Jesus himself often said this repeatedly although many Jews say that Jesus never made this claim for himself. We will mention just one example from many: When the Jews came to stone Him because He had said He was the Son of God and was therefore in their estimation a blasphemer, He said: “Say ye to him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” John 10:36. Here we have His own word for it. In Matthew 27:43 we read that the priests, the elders, and the scribes stood under the cross where the Messiah was nailed and mocked, saying: “He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.” Here you have the greatest men among the Jews testifying to the fact that Jesus said of Himself that He was the Son of God. How long will you doubt, how long will you refuse to honor Him as the Son of God?

Now let us take the conclusion of the second Psalm: “Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” Here we see that if we do not accept Him there is danger that we perish, that we be lost. But God is love. He does not want us to perish, and therefore He commands us to trust in Him. From this we see that the Son of God is God himself, for God says: “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” And in Jeremiah 17:5 He says: “Cursed is the man that puts his trust in man.” How then can He command us to put our trust in the Messiah, if He were a mere man? Will you not hasten to come to Him with your sins and your burdens?

Now I expect that you will say: “Granted that according to the Scriptures God has a Son and that the Messiah is His Son, but I am not yet convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is His Son.” Permit me therefore to point you to a few passages in our Holy Bible.

1 st. “The scepter from Judah shall not be taken away, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and unto him shall the gatherings of the nations be.” Genesis 49:10. If Shiloh, the Messiah is not yet come, then the scepter or government of Judah must still exist, but since this government has been taken from Judah for more than 1800 years, the Messiah must have come; and since Jesus of Nazareth came just at the time when the government was being taken from Judah, He must be the Messiah. Furthermore we are told in this prophecy that to Him shall the nations gather, and as the nations have been gathering to Him, and today more so than ever, He must be the Messiah. If you deny this truth, you repudiate your own Scriptures and make our father Jacob a liar.

2 nd. Read Micah 5:2. Here we learn that Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, and as Jesus of Nazareth was born in that town of David, this is another proof that He is the Messiah.

3 rd. In Malachi.3:1, we read that “suddenly he will come to his Temple,” and as Jesus came in the time when the Temple still stood, and preached in the Temple and drove out those who made of the house of prayer a house of merchandise, He must be the Messiah.

4 th. Another prophecy we read in Numbers 24:17: “There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” This has not been understood by many, Most of the commentators among the Jews have interpreted this star to mean the Messiah. But how can a star mean the Messiah? Read the second chapter of Matthew and you will find that the astrologers of the Orient had come to Jesus alone, inquiring of King Herod: “Where is the new born King of the Jews?” (The King Messiah whom the Jews expected at that time.) “For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” When told by the learned men, according to prophecy, He was to be born in Bethlehem, they proceeded thence, and again they saw the same star standing over the place where Jesus was. Thus guided they entered and brought their thank offerings and worshipped the child. Thus the prophecy of the star of Jacob was fulfilled in Him, and God spoke in the language of the stars about the star that should come out of Jacob.

5 th. Let us read Zechariah 9:9. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

Now read Matthew 21 and see how Jesus entered Jerusalem just as here prophesied. Is it not gracious of God to foretell even such little things about the Messiah so that there can be no mistake in identifying Him?

I could bring many other prophecies, but space will not permit and many of them have been explained in my other tracts, which are to be had in Yiddish and English. For this time, enough has been said to convince any truth loving heart that believes in the Jewish Scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth is the true Messiah and our gracious Redeemer.

But I see another question trembling on your lips. It is this: “If Jesus of Nazareth is the true Messiah, why did not our ancestors believe in Him? Among them were great scholars, scribes, and wonderful Rabbis who ought to have recognized Him, if He were the Messiah: but if they did not, how can we believe in Him, who know so little in comparison with them?” Allow me in reply to point you to Nehemiah 8:13. Here we read that the Jews gathered themselves to Ezra, the Scribe, to learn the law of him, and that they found a new law which hitherto was overlooked. That law was to celebrate Succoth, the festival of booths. Then the children of Israel immediately went to work to fulfill that commandment, and we are told that this law had not been observed by Israel “from the days of Joshua the son of Nun until this day.” Just think! There was a Samuel, a David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Nathan and many other great and godly prophets, and yet from Joshua till Ezra, for the space of a thousand years, this commandment had been overlooked and forgotten although today known by every little child. Do you wonder that the Rabbis at the time of Jesus, men much inferior to the prophets of old, should fail to recognize Him? Their refusal to recognize Him becomes still clearer when we remember that these Rabbis were great sinners and therefore darkened in their understanding by the bias of their sinful hearts. That this was their condition you can tell because God had to destroy their Temple and their land as a result of their sin. So you see that we cannot go by what the Rabbis and forefathers believed or disbelieved. They were poor sinners like ourselves, that is all. Our safety for time and eternity lies in the Word of God. If you study and believe that, you will have the Redeemer and redemption, and upon the question of Solomon, What is His Son’s Name? You will be able to answer

“Jesus of Nazareth, my LORD and my Salvation!”

AMEN.

Retyped with permission by Chosen People Ministries