How does Hezekiah figure into Isaiah's messianic language?
[11:]10. the root of Jesse . . . which stands --- I.e., which will stand at that time as a banner for peoples, on the day of the ingathering of the exiles, and the Messiah will be like the banner borne in battle, which all the soldiers seek . . . So will all nations seek the Messiah . . . According to Rabbi Moshe Hakohen, it alludes to Hezekiah . . ..
Ibid.
Not withstanding the poetic language, why is this messianic-branch now being compared to a banner carried in battle? Messiah a banner? Carried in battle? And who would be holding the messianic-branch in their hand to rally all the troops? And why will "all the nations" (the goy) seek out this messianic-branch raised as a banner as though they're the troops rallied by this messianic-branch raised up like a banner?
And what's Hezekiah to do with all this?
In 2 Kings 18:4 we're told the Israelites gave the messianic-branch a personal name, “Nehushtan.” They used the banner, the branch, pretty much as Christian's use the crucifix. As a salvific-emblem where prayers, supplications, and the hopes for salvation are directed toward God.
In a bizarre echo from the Gospels, after explaining that the Israelites were worshiping at the messianic-branch, Nehushtan, the very next statement (2 Kings 18:5) reads : "
He [the messianic-branch] trusted in Hashem, the Hashem of Israel."
The Gospel documents that when the religious reformers looked up at Jesus lifted on the branch they said the precise words recorded in 2 Kings 18:5: "
He trusted in Hashem; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God" (Matthew 27:43).
Jewish exegetes make 2 Kings 18:5 speak of Hezekiah (Hezekiah trusted Hashem), who, Hezekiah, the passage claims crucified Nehustan because some Jews were seeking it out, as they sought out the latter day saint, as the means of salvation and contact with God. Hezekiah's attitude toward Nehushtan was like some latter-day priest's attitude toward Jesus of Nazareth.
And right here is where the idea of Hezekiah as messiah is hatched since 2 Kings 18:5 claims the one who trusted in Hashem was, get this, the greatest king of Judah of all time. None were greater before him, and none will be after him.
This is speaking of Messiah (no other king is greater than David). Which is why Rashi, Redak, and many Jewish sages claim other messianic passages in Isaiah are speaking of Hezekiah, rather than a latter-day Messiah lifted up on a branch ala Nehushtan. They transpose the statement speaking of Nehushtan, the messianic-branch, with Hezekiah, who actually crucified the messianic-branch, such that in one rather brilliant slip of the scribal wrist the Pharisees who destroy a latter day messiah, on a branch, are paralleled with a messianic king named Hezekiah.
The elevation of Hezekiah to the status of Messiah is necessary if the destroyer of the messianic-branch in the Gospels is going to be a write-in candidate for the messianic personage found in Isaiah chapter 53.
Nehushtan is the true messianic-branch in the prophet Isaiah. And Hezekiah is the crucifier of that branch (1 Kings 18:4).
In the hands of the Jewish exegetes, the broken-branch is ignored in its messianic valiance, while the breaker of the branch, a religion fevered reformer, the Pharisee's messiah, Hezekiah, becomes messianic precisely in the act of destroying of the messianic-branch. . ..
Hezekiah has to be messiah to correct the narrative such that the destroyer of the messianic-branch (Hezekiah in 1 Kings 18:4), and not the branch he destroys, be elevated to messianic pedigree. He has to be messiah to Jews from fixating their eyes on another banner, another messianic-branch, told them by their religious leaders to be a serpent, evil, an idol, and not, as the Gentile nations assume, the true and faithful messianic son of God.
John