Christianity (including “Messianic Judaism”) makes the man Jesus the focal point of their religion. For them, everything centers on Jesus, the first century Jewish man. He is exalted as the creator of the whole world (Colossians 1:15-17), controlling the universe, both visible and invisible, even from his cradle when he was a baby, holding it all in his hand. It is little wonder then that such a belief has led to one messianic to emphatically declare: “The central theme of Judaism and Christianity should be the Messiah.”
But does the Bible support such a world view, does it focus its attention on any man, even the Messiah?
The Hebrew Bible, quite amazingly, has little to say about the Messiah. Unlike popular Christians books that scream about “three hundred prophecies about Jesus!”, it is in fact quite difficult to locate explicit verses even potentially pertaining to any messianic figure (in any sense of the word, either the traditional Jewish one, but certainly the Christian one!). There are some but they are but very few, and most of them are not even very explicit and fleeting. It almost seems that G-d didn’t want his people to obsess over messiahs but to focus on Him and Him alone. However, we can find a reference after reference about G-d, loud and quite clear. Finding the Messiah in the Bible is very hard, but finding G-d is very easy. The Bible is filled with words about G-d, He is always front and center, with Messiah appearing as a seeming afterthought, a mere tool in G-d’s arsenal. That’s because Messiah is a promise to King David, he’s part of G-d’s plan, but he’s not the plan himself! When we come to the prophets and their descriptions of the World to Come, the silence on Messiah is quite deafening. He is not at the forefront of things at all. He’s called a prince, he has to bring sacrifices, he has to make sure his sons do not take away land that belongs to other Israelites. The Bible spends far more ink on describing the Third Temple than it does on the Messiah. In fact, the Bible uses far more words to describe what will become of the Jewish people than in does on Messiah!
Shouldn’t we conclude from all this that the central theme of Judaism and the rest of humanity should be G-d and Him alone and not Messiah (or any man for that matter), since it is G-d and not the Messiah (about whom the Bible has little to say) who is the focus of the Hebrew Bible, from cover to cover? To make a man the central focus of one’s existence is bad enough, but to make him into G-d and bow down to him as to the Almighty, that’s idolatry and gross sin.
Daily Minyan 
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