If the Messiah Came, Why Isn’t There World Peace?

If there is anything we know about the Messiah, it is that the Messiah will bring world peace. Yet, we who are Jewish believers in Yeshua (Jesus) claim that the Messiah has come, despite it being obvious that there has been no world peace since Yeshua’s day. This is a powerful objection because all one has to do is watch the news or go on social media to see how much war and suffering still exists. Yeshua hasn’t fixed all that. Does that mean he’s not the Messiah?

The Objection’s Origin

Judaism’s perception that the Messiah will bring world peace comes from a variety of messianic prophecies. Isaiah 2:4 and 11:6 are chief among them. Isaiah 2:4 says, “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” And Isaiah 11:6 says, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat.”

These passages are interpreted as Messianic prophecies by Messianic Jews, non-Messianic Jews, and Christians alike. Christians understood these passages as Messianic as early as the second century, as shown in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho (Dial. 110). Trypho, a Jewish man, shares that Jewish teachers of his time taught that Israel would recognize the Messiah when he fulfills the prophecies about bringing peace. Justin agrees, and he identifies the one who would bring world peace in the future as Yeshua. Jewish believers in Yeshua accept this position as well. However, Yeshua did not fulfill these prophecies 2,000 years ago. If he didn’t, then how can we say he’s the Messiah?

Accounting For All Prophecies

When considering the criteria for the Messiah, we need to account for all the Messianic prophecies, not just some. While there are peace-making prophecies like Isaiah 2:4 and 11:6, there are other prophecies that predict the Messiah will be lowly and the victim of violence and suffering. For example, Zechariah 9:9 says, “…Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.” And, Zechariah 12:10 says, “When they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” This passage is interpreted as Messianic in b. Sukkah 52a.

There are two sets of Messianic prophecies to account for: the glorious, peace-making prophecies and the lowly, suffering prophecies. How can our understanding of the Messiah account for all of these when they seem to conflict with each other?

Solutions Offered by Jewish Tradition

Rabbis recognized they needed to solve this dilemma between these two sets of Messianic prophecies. How can the Messiah conquer suffering on one hand, but be the victim of suffering on the other? Jewish tradition has developed two different solutions. The first solution says that the merit of the Jewish people will determine whether the Messiah comes in a glorious manner or a lowly manner. We see this solution offered in b. Sanhedrin 98a, which says,

Rabbi Alexandri says: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi raises a contradiction between two depictions of the coming of the Messiah. It is written: “There came with the clouds of heaven, one like unto a son of man…and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom. . . his dominion is an everlasting dominion” (Daniel 7:13–14). And it is written: “Behold, your king will come to you; he is just and victorious; lowly and riding upon a donkey and upon a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). Rabbi Alexandri explains: If the Jewish people merit redemption, the Messiah will come in a miraculous manner with the clouds of heaven. If they do not merit redemption, the Messiah will come lowly and riding upon a donkey.¹

The second solution is the idea of two Messiahs: the suffering Messiah ben Joseph, who dies in the battle of Gog, and the glorious, peace-bringing Messiah ben David. B. Sukkah 52a says,

The Gemara answers: Rabbi Dosa and the Rabbis disagree concerning this matter. One said that this eulogy is for Messiah ben Yosef who was killed in the war of Gog from the land of Magog prior to the ultimate redemption with the coming of Messiah ben David. ²

The strength of the “two potential entrances” and the “two messiahs” theories is that they are logically coherent, and they do account for the suffering prophecies and the peace-making prophecies. The weakness, however, is that the Tanakh does not teach or presume two messiahs or that the messiah will fulfill only one of these two sets of prophecies depending on the merit of the Jewish people. The idea of two messiahs is conjecture.

The New Testament Solution

The New Testament, and thus Messianic Jews and Christians, give a different solution to this dilemma. Instead of positing two Messiahs or two potential entrances, we posit one Messiah who completes two different missions. When Yeshua came the first time, he fulfilled the lowly, suffering prophecies, entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey (Matt 21:1–12; Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:28–40; John 12:12–19). When he comes back, riding on the clouds of heaven, he will fulfill the peace-making prophecies (Matt 24:30; Mark 14:62).

One of the strengths of this solution is that there is biblical precedent for a prophet having two comings. The Bible says that Elijah evaded death and was taken up to the heavens (2 Kgs 2). Jewish tradition teaches that Elijah will come back to bring peace and participate in the war of Gog and Magog as a forerunner of the Messiah. We sing about Elijah’s return during Havdalah as Shabbat closes. We anticipate his return each year during our Passover seders and brit-milot. This tradition is based on Malachi 3:23–24 [Malachi 4:5–6], which says,

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

We consider Elijah one of our greatest prophets, singing about and anticipating his return, because God said Elijah will eventually bring peace. If Elijah, the forerunner of the Messiah, helps make peace at his second coming, then perhaps the Messiah will too. One Elijah, two missions; so too: one Messiah, two missions.

There are strands of Jewish tradition anticipating that after the Messiah has been revealed, he will be concealed and eventually return. For example, Rashi says in his note on Daniel 12:12, “Forty-five years are added to the above number, for our King Messiah is destined to be hidden after he is revealed and to be revealed again.” ³ While Rashi anticipates a 45-year concealment, not thousands of years, he anticipates a concealment and return, nonetheless. Like Elijah, why can’t the Messiah return after being concealed for thousands of years?

The solution offered by the New Testament is logically coherent like the “two potential entrances” and “two Messiahs” theory, but it does not depend on leaving one set of prophecies unfulfilled or dividing up the fulfilment of the prophecies between two messiahs. It has the strength of a similar, Messiah-related biblical precedent in Elijah’s two comings.

God Identifies, We Trust

Like Elijah, God identified other prophets in Israel’s history whom Israel had to follow before they accomplished all aspects of their calling and mission. God instructed Abraham to circumcise all males in his household before arriving in the land of Canaan and before Jacob was born. God instructed Israel to trust Moses and put the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts before Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt.

Just like Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, God identified Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel through his fulfilling the suffering prophecies and God raising him from the dead to show us that Yeshua is the Messiah who will bring world peace. Just like Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, God expects the Jewish people to follow Yeshua Messiah now because he is the one who will bring world peace later.

1. “Sanhedrin: 98a with English Translation,” cdli: Chabad, https://www.chabad.org/torah-texts/5458622/The-Talmud/Sanhedrin/Chapter-11/98a
2. “Sukkah: 52a with English Translation,” cdli: Chabad, https://www.chabad.org/torah-texts/5446942/The-Talmud/Sukkah/Chapter-5/52a
3. “Rashi’s Notes on Daniel 12” cdli: Chabad, https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16495/showrashi/true/jewish/Chapter-12.htm