Book Review: Mysteries of the Messiah

Mysteries of the Messiah: Unveiling Divine Connections from Genesis to Today, by Rabbi Jason Sobel

In reading the sales blurb for Mysteries of the Messiah, what intrigued me was seeing how a rabbi presented the connections between the Old and New Testaments. This rabbi is a Messianic Jew and opens the book with the story of his conversion and how his mother made him go to speak with their local rabbi about this ‘new birth’. Can’t you imagine? From this simple premise of Rabbi Sobel’s preparation as a young boy speaking to his rabbi, he outlines a number of connections between the testaments.

Mysteries in the Old and New Testaments

From creation through the patriarchs and David then through the feasts, Sobel points out the truths in the Old Testament that we easily see in the New. Sprinkled throughout are encouragements and points for spiritual development to grab hold of. The author describes the understanding of Scripture through connections between the Old and New Testament as ‘…introducing the Jewish roots of our faith and gain[ing] a heightened perspective…. You enjoy greater richness, sharpness, and clarity of details than you would have otherwise missed,’ (p. 15). The book follows the larger arch of the Bible: relationship, redemption, restoration as it details connections from the patriarchs to Yeshua.

Unexpected bit on language and numbers

Surprisingly, Sobel speaks often of the alphanumeric value of words from the original languages of the Bible: Hebrew and Greek, explaining that there is an additional depth or richness of our understanding in the number-connections as well as the verse or idea connections. I visited Greece a number of years ago and was aware of languages having this connection, but not of the connections this might present within the Bible. I say ‘surprisingly’ because I have done a quick couple of searches for additional resources and am unable to find something as extensive as what he presents here.

Insight and Connections

The connections presented are well done and stand well on their own. The numerical connections that he presents for many of them seem to strengthen the assertions, but some seemed far-fetched (such as including the word and in the calculation of a phrase value. I can set aside the numeracy and note that the book makes connections, especially within the feasts that I had not heard before. I have studied the feasts but was not aware of some of the connections described. The little gems on applying the truths presented in the connections were powerful, such as this found in the discussion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ‘All of us need divine assistance in birthing God’s promises for our lives,’ (p. 41).

Various parts of the book offered insight and articulated ideas that I have been trying to formulate. The discussion of leadership, in Hebrew ‘nasa’, was excellent; I appreciated the nuances of the word and how it is used and describes characteristics of leaders. The focus on how we today are anointed, as David was, is also solid. Sobel also manages to speak to the importance of women in the biblical story while pointing out God’s choice to use women, powerfully illustrating women’s value. The author also highlighted that God doesn’t have a hereditary system, always going to the firstborn, pointing out multiple cases of that in the Old Testament; he maintains balance with the title of ‘firstborn’ that is given to Christ.

4/5 Stars for strong Scripture Connections

For anyone who is looking for more details on the connections between the Old and New Testaments, this is an excellent resource. I can’t give it five stars since I am unfamiliar with the numerical aspect, and it does take up a bit of space throughout the book – I just can’t affirm or deny it – so how can I recommend it strongly? Then again, this may be a point of intrigue for you in and of itself!