This leader was not the Messiah, because the leader is made a sin offering for himself (cf. 45:22). If the leader" were Jesus Christ, then he, the Messiah, would need cleansing from sin.
BJC,
Are you saying that Christ never made a sin offering for himself? Of course he did. As long as he was under the Law Covenant he obeyed it and made sin offerings just as every other Jew did.
And he kept the Passover and other festivals as well just as stated in Ezekiel. Besides the sin we are concerned with is the condemnation man was under as a result of Adam's transgression not the things we consider as sin in our lives. Our Lord was free from such condemnation and this is what the sacrifice was based upon. While a child is it not true that Jesus avoid his parents and stayed behind causing them much grief?
:43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. 44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a days journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
You can call this whatever you want but some would call it a sin on his part. This is not the kind of transgression of interest to us. And when he said to his mother:
John 2:4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
Was that respectful? The condemnation we inherited from Adam is the sin that counts not events such as this. Ezekiel introduced this Prince and all the realities that identified this Prince as stated earlier.
Deuteronomy 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
John 2:15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Fathers house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
Our Lord took matters into his own hands in direct violation of the Law which defined sin. So despite the fact that this act was driven by the zeal he had for his Fathers house, it still demonstrated a loss of temper a sinful act, in that it broke this Law as shown above, cause them financial loss and denied the money changers the due process of the Law that our Lord expected to be enforced and even invoked in His own behalf on several occasions.
Without such reality, emotions and experience along with the tolerance it finally teaches no one would be saved.
Joseph
Edited by - JosephMalik on 9 October 2002 9:46:35