Before Christ appeared in the world, the meaning of prophecies referring to Him remained a mystery - a mystery which none could unravel. Not only this, one could not even, at that time, have discerned, in many cases, which verses in the Hebrew scripture were, indeed, prophetic references at all. And this led to a critically difficult situation for the people of His time: Not having complete knowledge of all of the aspects of the Christ's mission, and a natural gravitation to those prophecies reflecting His greatness and dominion, and the exclusion of ones indicating His lowliness, they were ill equipped to receive a suffering Messiah (65:1)

Imagine! Prophecies referring to Christ actually had the effect of leading people away from Him; not all people, of course, but some. Certainly, they were not given by God to lead people astray. Why then, did this happen? Of course, we can't find fault with the Creator who revealed them. The fault must lie with God's creatures. The key ingredient, according to my understanding, was lack of humility. It seems the approach that the people of Christ's time used in interpreting the scriptures was quite a simple one: They wanted Him to appear in a certain way, and they then understood the prophecies to predict that He would indeed come in that way. In retrospect, we can now see that the correct approach would have been to first admit that our limited understanding falls far short of claiming to understand fully the word of God, and then to wait for fulfillment in whatever way God's wisdom would decree (65:2)

Could this rejection - because of misinterpretation of the scriptures - have been foreseen? Does it say anywhere in the Hebrew scriptures that interpretation of the words contained therein would lead people away from the Holy One of Israel? Did it explain anywhere how to interpret itself? Did it warn people not to put faith in their own interpretations? If it did explain these things, no one heeded its words. In fact, when Christ came, the Jewish people used their holy books, in vain of course, to try to discredit Him (65:3)

At the time of His appearance, there was much expectation and much longing that the Christ would come, but not a single soul, however, knew how He would appear (65:4)

But then something happened, something that changed all of this, something that will forever mark the entrance of divine knowledge into the heart of humanity: some people believed in Him. To those few souls, whose faith in Him overcame whatever difficulties were before them, Christ imparted the knowledge that enabled them to understand the true meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures. For the first time since their having been written centuries before, the mystery of these scriptures was gone, and their truth revealed (65:5)

But not to all. Only to the few elect. To the rest of the world, they remained a mystery (65:6)

A WORLD of FAITH-
In a sense, a new world had been opened to those who believed in Him - a world of faith and knowledge. To those souls Christ gave the keys to understanding what their leaders and countrymen had for generations past failed to understand. At long last the purpose of these holy words was being fulfilled. The fruit that these words bore was an unconquerable faith and love that was destined to spread throughout the planet. In understanding the true meaning of the prophecies pointing to the Christ, His followers had been set free from the ignorance and fanaticism of those who rejected Him (65:7)

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