THE PROPHECY CARD
& Other Tools for Witnessing to Jewish People
by Avram Yehoshua
(Endnotes in red. Click on the number to go to the endnote.
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Over the last 25 years (1983–2008) I’ve been witnessing to my Jewish people and I’ve developed a number of helpful tools to bring Jews (and Gentiles) to Messiah Yeshua. I’ve written this article so that anyone who desires to use these current tools may do so and use them as handouts.1. The Prophecy Card is in English and Hebrew. I’ll present the English with some explanation below. It’s a typical white business card printed on the front and the back.
2. Acts 2-4 in Hebrew is another handout I’ve created from the Hebrew New Testament. You can sit down at the computer and write it up in English or whatever language your Bible is. I have a printer that prints front and back so it’s just a single sheet for me to handout, which is great on not having it so bulky. But two sheets are fine if you don’t have a printer that can print both sides. I use Acts 2-4 to show Jewish people what it means to believe in Jesus/Yeshua. Most/all Jews (and Gentiles who don’t believe in Jesus) know the name of Jesus but they don’t realize what it means to believe in Him. In Acts Two the Holy Spirit is given to Israel, the promise of the Father from Ezk. 36:24-27. This speaks of both forgiveness of sin and new life in Messiah by His Spirit. Acts Three has Peter and John healing a lame man in the Name of Yeshua. (And you can change the name of Jesus to Yeshua for your Acts 2-4 paper if you like.) Acts Four has the Jewish religious leadership coming against the Apostles. This reveals that from the very beginning there were Jews who opposed Him, but this was known by God and is written of in at least two places (Ps. 2:2; 118:22).
3. Has Messiah Come? This is Jewish Newsletter 33 and is found at http://www.SeedofAbraham.net/nltr33.html. Copy and paste it into your computer and configure the font and size so you can get it onto three or four sheets of paper (two for me with my ability to print on the front and back of the paper). I use this handout to show people, especially Jewish people, that Messiah had to come before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. (If you familiarize yourself with the Jewish Newsletters you’ll see that you can copy, paste and handout any of them. They’ve all gone out to Jewish people who need Yeshua. My favorites are 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28f.)
4. A Biblical Picture of the Messiah is the heading I use. It contains Scriptures from the Tanach that are set in an order so that one reading it will be carried along to an understanding that the Jewish Messiah was to be crucified for our sins and rejected by the Jewish nation. The inescapable theme is that it points to Yeshua. It also presents the need to come to the Jewish Messiah for eternal life and has a number of Scriptures from the New Covenant to affirm this.Also, on all of these, place your name and phone number and tell people when you give it to them that if they have any questions to give you a call. And if they ask you things you might not know, please feel free to ask me.
Here’s The Prophecy Card (#1 above) in English. The front of the card has my name and cell phone number on it along with two prophecies. On the card itself the Hebrew for all the prophecies and my name, etc. are to the right of their English counterparts:
Avram Yehoshua
052 400-0000 (not my real number)
A Picture of Messiah
Micah 5:2 (Heb. v. 1) Where?
Daniel 9:24-26. When?!
On the other side of The Prophecy Card is:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 = Messiah
Rambam: Letter to Yemen
Sanh. 98a/b, Targ. Jonathan
Zechariah 12:10. How?!
Psalm 118:22. Rejection?!
Psalm 2:2, 6-7. God’s Son?
Jeremiah 31:31-34. What?!
Isaiah 49:5-6. Gentiles?!
You might want to place more prophecies on the card as you’ll have more room, not having to write in both English and Hebrew. You can find more prophecies below in section #4, A Biblical Picture of Messiah. Here’s the explanation of the prophecies on The Prophecy Card:
1. Micah 5:2 deals with where Messiah (the Ruler of Israel) would be born: Bethlehem, the city of David. Messiah is the Son of King David and so being born in the city of His father is most appropriate. Most Jews don’t read their Bible and so they don’t have any idea about where the Messiah would born. But when Bethlehem is seen, immediately they know that Jesus was born there.
A. Micah 5:2 also declares that Messiah lived before He was born. This speaks of His deity. The verse ends with Messiah’s ‘goings from of old, from everlasting’ literally, ‘from before time, the days of eternity.’ This is a very powerful statement about Messiah’s deity as only God is from everlasting, from the days of eternity.
2. Daniel 9:24-26 speaks of when Messiah would come and for that you might want to read http://www.SeedofAbraham.net/nltr33.html. It’s Jewish Newsletter 33: Has Messiah Come? The essence of the Jewish Newsletter is this: Messiah had to come before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD and this Newsletter brings out Jewish sources that say such.
3. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 is the first cite on the back of the Card. Isaiah speaks of the Suffering Servant of the Lord (Yahveh) being a sacrifice for sins (vv. 5-12). The cites I have listed below it (indented by a space on my card), are ancient Jewish authorities declaring Isaiah to be speaking of the Messiah as the Suffering Servant. Rashii one of the most respected rabbis who ever lived, challenged that interpretation and gave his own: it spoke of the Jewish people as the Suffering Servant. Today, if a Jew asks his rabbi who Isaiah is speaking of, the rabbi will tell him Israel (the Jewish people). But ancient Jewish sources speak otherwise and if a Jewish person knows this, they can determine on their own which Jewish interpretation is correct. These are indented one space on my card to show that they’re not Scripture but authoritative Jewish sources that challenge Rashi’s accepted view. For an understanding of Is. 52:13f. please read Jewish Newsletters 28–32, 34f. at http://www.SeedofAbraham.net/newsletr.html.
A. Rambam2 lived a generation after Rashi and is just as respected as Rashi if not more so. Rambam in his Letter to Yemen (Igeret Teiman) speaks of the tender plant of Is. 53:2 (a word in Hebrew, yonek, for a sucking child), as pertaining to Messiah thereby establishing his thoughts on whom the passage is speaking of (Israel or Messiah).
B. Sanhedrin (San.) 98 a/b is a book of the Talmud (as well as the name of the highest authoritative body in Israel in the days of Yeshua). Sanhedrin 98 a/b speaks of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant as The Leprous Messiah, the one who would take our sins upon himself. Why leprous? Because struck in v. 4, ‘we thought him struck (nagua), smitten by God’ is very close to the word for leprosy, and just after that, in vv. 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 it speaks of the Servant taking our sins upon himself.
C. Targum Jonathan (Yonatan in Hebrew) is an ancient version of the Prophets in Aramaic. It was recognized as authoritative for synagogues 2,000 years ago. In the section on Isaiah 52:13, which begins the entire passage of the Suffering Servant, the verse in Hebrew has, ‘Behold My Servant shall deal wisely…’ but in the Aramaic version it has, ‘Behold My Servant the Messiah shall deal wisely…’ thereby establishing another authoritative Jewish source that declares the passage of Isaiah to be dealing with Messiah, not Israel.
4. Zechariah 12:10 reinforces that Messiah would die by crucifixion (being pierced through). Zech. 13:1 speaks of ‘in that day’ a Fountain would be opened for cleansing from sin and impurity for the House of David and the citizens of Jerusalem. This further emphasizes the sacrificial atoning work of Messiah as Isaiah’s Suffering Servant for the word in Is. 53:5 literally means ‘pierced through.’ ‘For He was wounded for our transgressions’ is better translated as ‘For He was pierced through for our rebellions’. This connects the Pierced One of Zech. 12:10 to Isaiah’s Suffering Servant. Another place that speaks of Messiah’s crucifixion is Psalm 22. You can find more information about it in Lion Hands, Jewish Newsletter 25 at http://www.SeedofAbraham.net/nltr25.html.
5. Psalm 118:22 states that the religious leaders (the Builders of Israel) would reject Messiah (the Stone), but God would make Him the CornerStone (of the new Temple: Zech. 6:12-13). Isn’t this exactly what happened with Yeshua? The common Jewish people loved to hear Him and follow Him as anyone reading the New Covenant should see (the multitudes followed Him and they were primarily Jewish. I’m sure there were some Gentiles with them but the majority were Jewish people that Yeshua taught and healed. Yet most of the religious leaders in the Sanhedrin would condemn Him.
6. Psalm 2:2, 6-7 is important because it establishes that Messiah is God’s Son as well as the Son of David.
A. Verse 2 speaks of the rulers and kings taking counsel against God and His Messiah (Anointed One), and confirms Messiah’s rejection in Ps. 118:22. Peter uses this passage from Psalm Two when he speaks of what the ruling Sanhedrin did to him and John in the Name of Yeshua (Acts 4:23-31).
B. Verse 6 has God speaking, saying that He will set His King (Messiah Son of David) on Zion, God’s holy Mountain.
C. Verse 7 has Messiah speaking: ‘I will declare the decree: Yahveh has said to Me, “You are My Son. Today I have begotten You.”’
a. The word for begotten is the same word used of all the sons born in the Bible, from Adam’s sons on. It speaks of the one being begotten as being in the image and likeness of the one who begot them (i.e. Seth was like Adam in that he was a human being exactly like Adam was: Gen 5:3 states, ‘When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he begot a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.’ Yeshua, begotten of the Father, is like His Father in that He is deity exactly like His Father. Therefore, Yeshua is God’s Son in a most unique way). We are all sons of God, but from creation, from Adam and Eve. Yeshua is the Son of God, not created but begotten in the image and likeness of His Father. This confirms Micah 5:2 in Messiah living from the days of eternity.
7. Jeremiah 31:31-34 speaks of the New Covenant, walking in Torah, forgiveness of sin and knowing God:
A. Verse 31 says that God would give us a New Covenant! Most Jews don’t know this is in ‘their’ Bible and are shocked to see it.
B. Verse 33 speaks of God putting His Torah (Law of Moses) in our minds and upon our hearts (to do it!). This is especially good for Christians as this is the only place where the New Covenant is mentioned in the Tanach and one written reason why God gave the New Testament was so we could walk in His Torah. This cite is expressly used by the writer of Hebrews twice, speaking of God putting His laws on our heart (Heb. 8:10; 10:16).
C. Verse 34 reveals that the New Covenant will bring forgiveness of our sins and that we will all come to really know God (by His Spirit: Ezk. 36:24-27. I would have placed the cite for Ezekiel on the Card under this cite of Jeremiah’s but there’s not enough room for it and the next cite that I have on the Card.
a. Forgiveness of sins points to Isaiah’s Suffering Servant who died for our sins.
8. Isaiah 49:5-6 declares that not only would Jews come to Messiah but Gentiles too. This accounts for the many Gentiles who love Jesus, being in God’s Plan more than 2,600 years ago.
Here’s point #4: A Biblical Picture of the Messiah is the heading I use. It contains Scriptures from the Tanach that are set in an order so that one reading it will be carried along to an understanding that the Jewish Messiah was to be crucified for our sins and rejected by the Jewish nation. The inescapable theme is that it points to Yeshua. It also presents the need to come to the Jewish Messiah for eternal life and has a number of Scriptures from the New Covenant to affirm this.
9. He was pierced through for our rebellions, crushed for our sins, the punishment of our Peace is upon him and by his wounds we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, each man turning to his own way, but Yahveh laid upon him the sin of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6
10. The Stone the builders rejected became the Corner-Stone. From Yahveh this happened and it is marvelous in our eyes! Psalm 118:22-23
11. My back I offered to the ones beating me and my cheeks to the ones pulling out my beard. I did not hid from their mocking and spitting. Isaiah 50:6
12. With the rod they will strike on the cheek the Judge of Israel. But you, Bet Lechem Efrata (Bethlehem), least among the clans of Judah, from you will come for Me, the One to be Ruler in Israel, and His origin is from the ancient past, from the days of eternity. Micah 4:14 (English text: Micah 4:14b-5:1)
13. Who has believed our message? The Arm of Yahveh, to whom was it revealed? Now, he grew up like a tender shoot before Him and like a root out of arid ground. There was no beauty to him and no majesty so that we should be attracted to him, and no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering and like one hiding our face from him, he was despised and we didn’t esteem him. Surely our sicknesses he took, our sorrows he carried, yet we considered him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Isaiah 53:1-4
14. He was oppressed and afflicted and he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb to the slaughter he was led and as a sheep before the ones shearing her he is silent and he didn’t open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away and who can speak for his generation? For he was cut off from the Land of the living, for the wickedness of my people, the stroke was due to them. And he was given his grave with the wicked and the rich in his death, though he did no violence and deceit was not in his mouth. Isaiah 53:7-9
15. And I will pour out upon the House of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and supplication and they will look upon me whom they pierced, and they will mourn for him as mourning for the only child, and grieve bitterly for him, as grieving bitterly for the first born son. Zechariah 12:10
16. Yahveh was pleased to crush him; He caused him to suffer. If you make your soul a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong days and the will of Yahveh will prosper in his hand. Isaiah 53:10
17. For You will not abandon my soul in Sheol, nor allow Your Holy One to see decay. Psalm 16:10
18. After the suffering of his soul he will see and be satisfied. By his knowledge he will justify, My Righteous Servant, the many, and their sin he will bear. Therefore I will give him a portion among the many, with numerous ones he will divide the spoil because that he poured out his soul unto death and with rebellious ones he was numbered, and the sins of many he bore and for the rebellious ones he made intercession. Isaiah 53:11-12
19. And I said, ‘Woe unto me! For I am ruined! For a man of unclean lips am I. And among a people of unclean lips I live. For the King, Yahveh, the Commander of the Armies of the Heavens, my eyes have seen. Isaiah 6:5
20. Cursed be whomever does not uphold the words of this Torah (Law of Moses), to do them and all the people said, ‘Amen.’ Deuteronomy. 27:26
21. And the Land (of Israel), is defiled by her inhabitants, for they disobeyed the Torah, violated the statute; they broke the Covenant of Eternity. Isaiah 24:5
22. You must not seek revenge or bear a grudge against the Sons of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahveh! Leviticus 19:18
23. Come now and let us reason together says Yahveh. Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18
24. In that day there will be a Fountain opened for the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and impurity. Zechariah 13:1
25. And I will take you out from the nations and I will gather you from all the lands and I will bring you back to your Land. I will sprinkle clean Water on you and you will be clean from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and I will give you a new Spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will give you My Spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in My Decrees, and My Judgments you will guard and you will do. Ezekiel 36:24-27
26. Behold! The days are coming, declares Yahveh, when I will cut a Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, a New Covenant. Not like the Covenant that I cut with your Fathers on the day I took them by their hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt because they broke My Covenant, even though I was a Husband to them, declares Yahveh. But this is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, declares Yahveh. I will put My Torah (Law) within them and on their heart I will write it. I will be God to them and they will be My people. They will not teach any longer, a man to his neighbor or a man to his brother saying, ‘Know Yahveh!’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them declares Yahveh, for I will forgive their wickedness and their sin I will not remember any more. Jeremiah 31:31-34
27. The Spirit of my Lord Yahveh is upon me because Yahveh, He anointed me to proclaim Good News to the humble ones, and release for the imprisoned ones. To proclaim the Year of favor for Yahveh; a day of vengeance for our God; to comfort all those mourning. To provide for those grieving in Zion, to bestow upon them beauty instead of ashes; the oil of gladness instead of mourning; the garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of Yahveh, to display His Splendor. Isaiah 61:1-3
28. Who has ascended to the Heavens? And who has come down and gathered the Wind in the hallow of His hands? Who has wrapped the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the Earth? What is His Name and the Name of His Son, if you know? Prov. 30:4
29. Four hundred and ninety weeks are determined for your people and for your Holy City, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the (heavenly) Holy of Holies. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the decree, to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks. The street shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself. And the people of the ruler who is to come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary. The end of him shall be with a flood, and until the end, war and desolations are determined. Daniel 9:24-26
The Temple was destroyed 1,935 years ago. The Prince, the Messiah, should have come before that with God’s Eternal answer for guilt and rebellion, and the New Covenant. He came. The Messiah of Israel, the Messiah the Son of David and Joseph is Yeshua from Nazareth.
30. ‘She will bear a Son and you shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people from their sins.’ Matthew 1:21
31. ‘The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid Miryam (Mary) for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name Him Yeshua. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God, and the Lord God will give Him the Throne of His Father David and He will reign over the House of Jacob forever and His Kingdom will have no end.’ Luke 1:30-33
32. ‘Yosef (Joseph) also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judah, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the House and Family of David, in order to register along with his betrothed wife Miryam who with child. While they were there the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn Son’. Luke 2:4-7
33. ‘Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Messiah, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Expected One or shall we look for someone else?’ Yeshua answered and said to them, ‘Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the Good News preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.’ Matthew 11:2-6
34. Yeshua said, ‘Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’ Matthew 11:28-30
35. “Yeshua then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the Bread out of Heaven but it is My Father who gives you the true Bread out of Heaven. For the Bread of God is He who comes down out of Heaven and gives life to the world.’ Then they said to Him, ‘Lord, always give us this Bread.’ Yeshua said to them, ‘I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will not hunger and he who believes in Me will never thirst.’” ‘For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the Last Day.’ John 6:32-35, 40
36. “Now on the last day, the great day of the Feast, Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of Living Water.’’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Yeshua was not yet glorified.” John 7:37-39
37. “Yeshua spoke these things and lifting up His eyes to Heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him He may give eternal life. This is eternal life; that they may know You, the only true God and Yeshua the Messiah whom You have sent.’” John 17:1-3
38. “And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and a reed in His right hand and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They spat on Him and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head.” Matt. 27:29-30 ‘And when they had crucified Him they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots.’ Matt. 27:35 “Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, ‘Yeshua the Nazarene, The King of the Jews.’” John 19:19
39. “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding Father David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his Throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that He was neither abandoned to Hades nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Yeshua God raised up again to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the Right Hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into Heaven but he himself says: ‘Yahveh said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My Right Hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your Feet.’’ ‘Therefore let all the House of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Messiah, this Yeshua whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?!’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent and each of you be baptized in the Name of Yeshua the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:29-38
Messiah Yeshua is God’s only answer for our sins. Ask Yeshua your Messiah to forgive you and to cleanse you of your sins and to fill you with the Spirit of the Holy One. (#22-31 were taken from the Brit Hadasha; the New Covenant.) If you’d like a free New Covenant, call Avram at 052 400-0000.
I also give Bibles or New Covenants to those I sense are interested, but not to all as Bibles are expensive and unless someone is really interested, they most likely wouldn’t read it. I don’t hand out all the tools to everyone. I let the Lord lead me as to which tools to hand out to which people. Some Jewish people aren’t ready to hear about Yeshua and so I only give them The Prophecy Card asking them if they have a Tanach at home to look the prophecies up. The Card doesn’t mention His Name but only prophecies from the Tanach that obviously point to Yeshua. As they themselves look in their Tanach the ‘Name’ will dawn upon them.
Others I may have already shared Yeshua with while speaking to them in our encounter and so I could give them The Prophecy Card and perhaps Acts 2-4, or just Acts 2-4. While others I might just give Jewish Newsletter 33: Has Messiah Come? It all depends on what I sense from the Lord.
This should give you a good basis for handouts, understanding what you’re handing out and why. If the person is a Gentile, Acts 2-4 or Has Messiah Come? are good handouts, along with A Biblical Picture of Messiah. Let Yeshua lead you.
1. Geoffrey Wigoder, Editor in Chief, The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, 7th Edition (New York-Oxford: Facts on File, 1990), p. 787. Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Itzhaki ben Itzak; 1040-1105), a ‘French rabbinical scholar’, is revered by many Orthodox Jews because of his lucid commentary on the Bible and Babylonian Talmud.’ The commentary on the Bible, particularly the Pentateuch, became universally popular, while notes on the Babylonian Talmud were responsible for making that work an open book.’ ‘He also relies to a considerable extent on Targum Onkelos for his interpretation of the Pentateuch.
2. Ibid., p. 677. Rambam (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon), also known as Maimonides, 1135-1204. Born in Cordova, Spain. Due to persecution, he settled in Egypt and became the head of the Jewish community as well as physician to the viceroy of Egypt. His thirteen articles of faith are still recited in the synagogue today. His commentaries are also studied but his Mishneh Torah, a summary of the Talmud is his greatest work. ‘This code covers all halakhic subjects, however minute, discussed in the Talmud; it introduces each subject by a clear explanation, and where several opinions are adduced in the gemara, gives only the one Maimonides accepted’. ‘The systematic arrangement is unsurpassed.’
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