The ancient Jews were avid students of Bible prophecy. They were constantly on the lookout for their future Messiah. And yet when He finally arrived, most of them missed it.

Why? One reason is that they assumed things about the Messiah that went beyond the text of Scripture. There’s a lesson for us today when we observe a particular mistake they made.

Where Jesus Came From

Where did Jesus come from? It’s a question that has a variety of answers- all of them supported by the Bible. 

One could easily say He came from Bethlehem, as that’s where He was born. However, someone could also say he came from Egypt, as that’s where he was raised for a time as he and his family hid from King Herod. Furthermore, you say he came from Nazareth, as that was his hometown after Mary and Joseph returned to Galilee.

Or to take it a step further, one might say Jesus came from Heaven, as He is the eternal Son of God, sent by God the Father into this world. Any of these responses would be correct and supported biblically.

But some of the Jewish people in the First Century has an overly-simplified view of the coming Messiah- and it caused them to disregard Jesus as their Savior.

The Messiah’s Mistaken Hometown

When the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles) was being celebrated in Jerusalem, Jesus attended and began to teach. As some started to question whether this was the Messiah, others quickly shot the idea down.

John 7:40-43 – When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him.

The dispute was over Bible prophecy. Jesus had grown up in Nazareth, yet they also knew what Micah wrote of the coming Savior: 

Micah 5:2 – But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
    from ancient days.

The Jewish people rightly understood this as a Messianic prophecy, so when Jesus “came” from somewhere else, this caused them to reject Him. 

For those of us who have read the Christmas story, we understand the solution to this problem. Jesus was indeed born in Bethlehem, but it wasn’t considered His hometown, as He departed at a young age.

Did they take the prophecy too literally?

The Jewish people at this feast misinterpreted the prophecy- disastrously. Was the problem that they took Scripture too literally? No, the Scripture was literal. The Christ was literally born in Bethlehem. 

The problem was that these Jews assumed that if the Messiah was born there, it must also be the town where He would spend His entire life. And that went beyond the plain text of Scripture.

This seems like a simple mistake, but it was massive. There are people who missed their Messiah- and heaven- because they assumed more than what was written in prophecy.

Though much in the realm of prophecy is a secondary issue to the Gospel, for us today, we must still be careful not to go beyond what is written when interpreting the Bible.

Double-Check Your Bibles

It’s popular for prophecy teachers today to scan contemporary headlines and relate them to what Scripture tells us about the future.

While it is not necessarily wrong to do this, we must be extremely careful to distinguish our speculation from what the Bible actually says. Furthermore, we must not superimpose those speculations into the text of Scripture, deceiving ourselves and adding our theories to matters where the Bible is silent.

I love the study of Bible prophecy. I’m looking forward to the rapture, excited about the Second Coming, and watching for the signs of the times that come with all of it. 

But some claims popularly made by prophecy teachers today go far beyond what the Bible plainly says. Perhaps you’ve heard some of these:

• That the antichrist makes a peace treaty with Israel
• That there will be a one-world currency in the antichrist’s kingdom
• That the current conflict between Israel and Hamas is prophesied in Scripture
• That Jesus won’t return until a worldwide revival happens first
• That the rapture will happen on the Feast of Trumpets

Are any of these claims true? They’re all possible, but not confirmed. Daniel 9:27, for example, says that the Antichrist will make a seven-year covenant with “many”- it does not necessarily include Israel, and it is not necessarily a peace treaty.

If we spend our time watching for a seven-year peace treaty in the Middle East, or if we take headlines about a potential global currency as a sign that the end is near, we may be looking in the wrong direction.

We are currently in the month of September. We often hear it said at this time of year that this is a “high-watch period” for the coming of Jesus, due to its proximity to the Feast of Trumpets and Rosh Hashanah.

It seems presumptuous to consider any time of year particularly likely for Christ’s return, since Jesus Himself said “the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44). 

Prove what you (think you) know

Again, it’s fine to speculate; we just need to be clear about when we’re speculating and when we’re looking at what God’s Word literally says.

To protect ourselves from extra-biblical assumptions, always be ready to return to the Scriptures that provide a basis for your beliefs about the future. Re-examine whether they actually say what you remember.

What you’ve been taught is not necessarily wrong, but you should always be ready to go back and find where it’s rooted within the Bible. Always be ready to prove what you (think you) know.

Bible prophecy teachers can be great, but they are not the Bible. What you hear from a prophecy teacher is one man’s interpretation, guess or theory about the future. And there are so many conflicting views among Bible prophecy teachers, they can’t all be right.

This isn’t meant to cast doubt on anyone’s trust in the Bible, but rather to restore our confidence in it. God’s Word is perfect, and while some theorizing is OK, we must never allow ourselves to love our theories more than we love the text of Scripture itself.