Many Modern Jews Are Reading the Bible Today
Yesterday we published a piece by Dr. Layton Talbert about how Orthodox Judaism treats Isaiah 53. While corresponding with me about his article, Dr. Talbert mentioned an interesting project going on among Jews in Israel (and, indeed, all over the world). Despite the tradition of misinterpreting and ignoring Isaiah 53, many Jews are today busy reading the OT Scriptures every day. Called the “929 Project,” The Times of Israel reports on it here.
Rabbi Benny Lau began the project in 2014, teaching a chapter of the Bible each day, Sunday through Thursday. There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament, which gives the project its name. When the first run of the project completed in 2018, the rabbi began all over again, adding an English version for English speaking/reading Jews.
Interestingly, the first run of the project enrolled over a quarter million people, most of them (75%) “nonreligious.” Rabbi Lau “and hundreds of others give classes on each week’s chapters all around the country; there are written materials, audio and video lessons, all found on the program’s website or via its app, as well as a weekly radio show with 40,000 listeners.” Their goal is “to give the Bible back to the people.”
The 929 website is here – you can have a look at the articles, videos, commentary offered so far in the second edition of the program. The articles I’ve looked at aren’t following a grammatical-historical method of interpretation, but they offer insight into the way the modern Jew looks at the Bible.
Dr. Talbert points out that “the reading back on Tuesday March 26, 2019) was Deuteronomy 30—where God promises that after their disobedience He will bring Israel back to their land and ‘will circumcise their heart and the heart of their descendants, to love the LORD their God with all their heart and with all their soul, that they may live.’ That hasn’t happened yet.” He notes that in this program, Jews will read passages like Deut 30, Ps 22, Jer 31, Ezek 36, and Isaiah 53.
Psalm 22 contains these words:
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Ps 22.1)
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. (Ps 22.17-18)
Jeremiah 31 says:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. (Jer 31.31-37)
Among the promises of Ezek 36 are these:
Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.
36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. (Ezek 36.33-36)
And of course, the majestic Isaiah 53, which, despite Orthodox tendencies to ignore it, is included in the 929 project.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa 53.3-6)
Dr. Talbert asks, “What more effective tool could there be for the Spirit of God to use to prepare that people to turn to Himself—like Jer 31-33 and Ezek 36-37 and Rom. 11:26 all say is going to happen—than regular, united, communal exposure to His words—on a massive scale?”
Indeed!
Though Jews widely misunderstand Isaiah 53, some Jews really get the picture. Some years ago I read a book-length exposition of Isaiah 53 by David Baron, The Servant of Jehovah. Baron begins by citing common Jewish interpretations (and showing their weakness), then turns to a heart-warming exposition of the passage. Baron is a Jew, but one converted to Christ, who honors Jesus as his Messiah. You can find an epub or Kindle version of his book that I compiled here, check out the links at the top of the page. 1
The Jewish OT ends with 1 and 2 Chronicles. The current 929 Project will come to an end in 2 Chronicles 36 on February 2, 2022 (2/2/22). The last verse of Chronicles contains Cyrus’ command to the Jews to go up to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple.
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up. (2 Chr 36.23)
I like to think of that command, “Go up!” as the end of the Old Testament. The next page, as it were, begins in that temple with Mary and Joseph bringing the Lamb of God into the precincts to dedicate him to the Lord.
May the Lord use his word to open Jewish eyes, causing them to “Go up!” and find their Messiah.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.