The “Footsteps of the Messiah” and the Messianic Tribulation

Since Michael wrote such an excellent post below on Jesus as the royal and Davidic Suffering Servant, I thought I would toss out something I discovered this morning on Jesus and the Psalms. Hope you all like it (I know Michael will).

Many people who have studied eschatology know that many ancient Jews expected the coming of the Messiah to be preceded by a period of eschatological tribulation. And many also may be familiar with the fact that the messianic tribulation is frequently referred to by the Rabbis as “the birth pangs of the Messiah”—an expression which appears in both the Talmud and the Gospels (b. Sanh. 98b; Mark 13:3-8). But what many people are not familiar with is that the Rabbis had another expression—a very ancient expression—for referring to the time of tribulation. The Rabbis also spoke of “the footsteps (or footprints) of the Messiah”. We find an ancient reference to this in the Mishnah, which reads:

With the footprints of the Messiah presumption shall increase and dearth reach its height… the wisdom of the Scribes shall become insipid and they that shun sin shall be deemed contemptible, and truth shall nowhere be found. Children shall shame the elders, and the elders shall rise up before the children, for “the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.” The face of this generation is as the face of a dog… (Mishnah Sotah 9:15, citing Micah 7:6).

Here we have a classic Rabbinic description of the time of tribulation and the wicked “generation” that was supposed to accompany the coming of the Messiah. As the great translator of the Mishnah, Herbert Danby, says in his footnote to this passage, “the footprints of the Messiah” are

The signs which herald the coming of the Messiah at the end of the time of exile. (Danby, The Mishnah, 306 n. 9)

It took me six hundred pages to explain the connection between the tribulation and the end of the exile, but to anyone familiar with the Gospels, the Mishnah should sound familiar. Indeed, Jesus himself—in one of his most mysterious sayings—quotes the exact same prophecy from the book of Micah to describe the eschatological tribulation:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. (Matt 10:34-36; cf. Lk 12:51-53)

As I argued in the book, here Jesus is declaring that he has come to inaugurate the eschatological tribulation that was supposed to precede the coming of the messianic kingdom of God. He has come not to bring an era of peace, but to set in motion “the footprints of the Messiah”—the time of tribulation—spoken of later by the Rabbis.

So far, so good. This should be old hat for some of you out there. But what I learned this morning, which I had never known, was this: Not only do the Rabbis refer to the Messianic Tribulation as “the footsteps of the Messiah,” but they derive this expression from the sufferings of David described in Psalm 89! Consider the following texts, one from the Midrash Rabbah and the other from the Babylonian Talmud, which speak of the tribulation as accompanying the coming of the Davidic Messiah:

Rabbi Jannai said: If you see one generation after another cursing and blaspheming, look out for the coming of the Messiah, as it says, “Wherewith thine enemies have taunted O Lord, wherewith thine enemies have taunted the footsteps of thine anointed” (Midrash on Song of Songs 2:13, citing Ps 89:52 [trans. M. Simon, p. 127]

Our Rabbis taught: “In the seven year cycle at the end of which the son of David will come… the arrows of hunger will be sent forth; in the third, a great famine, in the course of which men, women, and children, pious men and saints will die, and the Torah will be forgotten by its students; in the fourth, partial plenty; in the fifth, great plenty, when men will eat, drink, and rejoice, and the Torah will return to its disciples; in the sixth, sounds; in the seventh, wars; and at the conclusion of the septennate the son of David will come… Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed [Ps 89:52]. It has been taught, Rabbi Judah said: In the generation when the son of David comes, the house of assembly will be for harlots, Galilee in ruins, Gablan lie desolate… the wisdom of scribes in disfavour, God-fearing men despised, people be dog-faced, and truth entirely lacking. (b. Sanhedrin 97a; trans. I. Epstein)

These texts are clearly drawing on the same tradition found in the Mishnah. What is striking about their presentation of the Messianic Tribulation is that they both cite the line from Psalm 89 that speaks of “the footsteps of thine anointed” (Ps 89:51). The Hebrew word for “anointed” here, is, of course “Messiah” (Hb. mashiach).

All of this is important because if you go back and read Psalm 89 in context (I strongly encourage you to reread the whole psalm), you will see that it is not focused on the tribulations of the world, but on (1) the establishment of the Davidic covenant (Ps 89:1-37) and (2) the sufferings of the Davidic “messiah” (Ps 89:38-52).

Thou has renounced the covenant with thy servant;
Thou hast defiled his crown in the dust…
Lord, where is thy steadfast love of old,
Which by thy faithfulness thou didst swear to David?
Remember, O Lord, how thy servant is scorned;
How I bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples,
with which thy enemies taunt O LORD, with which they mock
the the footsteps of thy messiah. (Ps 89:39, 49-51)

I won’t say anything about the prominence of the “servant” imagery; Michael’s already covered that in his awesome post below.

But one reason all this is so striking for me is that in my dissertation, I argued that Jesus saw himself as the messianic Son of Man and suffering Servant, who would take upon himself the sufferings of the eschatological tribulation, in order to usher in the kingdom of God (see Mark 10:35-45). I argued that the tribulation was not only messianic because it would accompany the coming of the Messiah, but because the Messiah would actually undergo the tribulation and die in it. At the time, the only text I had in mind that contained an explicit link between the eschatological tribulation and the “messiah” was Dan 9:24-27, in which the Messiah dies in the tribulation. When we add the ancient Jewish interpretation of Psalm 89 to the matrix, the evidence suggests that Jesus also saw himself as the Davidic Messiah who would suffer the messianic tribulation by undergoing the days of “the footsteps of the Messiah.” And he did this—as Michael showed below—by interpreting his own imminent fate in light of the Davidic messianic psalms.