 From Genesis to Revelation, the Lord longs for us to know Him and His plan for our lives. It started with an encounter raised in a Jewish home in New Jersey, Rabbi Jason Sobel, dedicated much of his life to finding truth. After years of seeking and studying, he encountered the Lord and found his true identity as a follower of Jesus. And today, he is reaching millions around the world as he unlocks life-changing, scriptural truths that restore the lost connection between ancient Jewish wisdom and the New Testament with his books, The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi with Kathy Lee Gifford, The Mysteries of the Messiah, and many more. This is his story. This is today's Nashville. This is faith. Shalom, Rabbi Jason. I am so honored to sit down with you this morning. You have a beautiful place that you come and stay when you're here in Nashville. You're back and forth, but thank you for inviting me this morning. Oh, it's so great to be with you. You and your husband, Ted, are two of my favorite people in the world, so it is a honor to be with you. Well, we just love you and Miriam, and I'm just so excited to share with everybody with what you're doing. You are everywhere. But before we start talking about your books and your travels and everything, I want to go back and hear about you growing up and what God has done in your life. Yeah, God's got a great sense of humor. I grew up in the Holy Land in New Jersey, where there were more Jews than in Jerusalem, and I had lost most of my family during the Holocaust, so being Jewish was really important. Went to Hebrew school, was Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13, became a son of the Commandments, and then got really into music, became a hip hop DJ, and was working at a famous recording studio in New York City. I look at all the lives of these famous people, and I said to myself, there has to be more to life than just this, and that really began a spiritual journey that I began to go down, and ultimately came kind of a go-to study at the synagogue with my rabbi and go to Shabbat services, but then also started to study Eastern philosophy and religion, became a Jubu, a Jewish Buddhist, a New Age Jew while I was in synagogue doing all that, so it's been quite a journey. But what was it like when you were growing up in the Jewish culture, and were you spending a lot of time in the synagogue? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I went to Hebrew school a number of days a week and learned all the traditional Jewish prayers and how to read from the Torah, the five books of Moses, and celebrated all the holidays like Passover and would fast on the Day of Atonement and, you know, Rosh Hashanah, the biblical New Year, just being in synagogue all day, praying at that time, and I found it beautiful and meaningful, and I enjoyed growing up with that. So did your parents ever talk about Jesus to you? You know, not really, probably the extent of the conversation was, well, Christians believe Jesus is the Messiah, we're waiting for the Messiah, when he comes back we'll ask and I guess we'll find out who's right. So tell me about after you were searching what happened? I was on this spiritual journey and, you know, looked at the lives of, again, all these people around me said there has to be more to life than just this. They had fame and fortune and everything I thought I ever could have wanted, but there was still something I saw, you know, that was missing. And so I really began seeking and searching, and it was really interesting enough. It was through studying in the New Age that I was introduced to this new age kind of Jesus that kind of opened me up to, you know, kind of who is this guy, what's he about? And one day my best friend called me on the telephone and he said, Jason, I found the Messiah. I found the truth. I'm like, what's that? He's like, Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, but at the end time there's going to be this beast with all these heads that are going to eat people who don't believe. I'm like, what are you, Michugna? What are you, crazy? Beasts? End times? You know, this sounds more like a Steven Spielberg movie than something that I could actually believe in, but he was, you know, began sharing with me and witnessing to me. And that began to kind of, okay, who is this Jesus? What's he all about? And that kind of began me on my spiritual journey, which we'll share in a moment and I'll ultimately let you a few supernatural encounters. But you know, during that time, did you share with your parents that you're having these discussions or were you talking to your friends about it or what was going on inside of you and how old were you at this time? Yeah, I was about 18 at the time and you know, 17, 18. And you know, I wanted more than just ritual. I really wanted supernatural, spiritual encounter with God. And that's really what I was looking for, really what I was searching for. And I valued my Jewish heritage. I love doing things like Passover and doing the Seder. And I loved the Friday night Shabbat with the family and getting together and saying all the blessings and the prayers or something always beautiful and meaningful and rich about that. But I knew that there had to be something more and I was looking for that something more. I had a hunger, you know, for an encounter for the supernatural. And that's really what I was trying to pursue. So with your friend, then you started having these conversations. What did you do? What led you to dig deeper into finding the Messiah? Yeah, there's a few things that happened. I mean, you know, one day he called me on the phone. He said, Jason, can you tell the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament? You went to Hebrew school and I'm like, sure. And he said, OK, let me read you a few passages. And he read me this passage. He says about the crucifixion. And he said, Jason, is that the older the new? I said, obviously that's the New Testament. He said, very good. He said, let me read you another verse. He was bruised for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities and by his stripes were healed. He's like, is that the older the new? I'm like, obviously, John, that's talking about Jesus. He said, no, that's Isaiah 53, the Jewish prophet speaking prophetically about the Messiah 700 years before he ever walked the face of the earth. And I began to be provoked to jealousy. I'd never heard this passage read in the synagogue growing up. Oh, I just love that. And you take people from the very beginning to Genesis, to Revelation. And a lot of people are afraid to look at the Old Testament, you know, and Christians, and they don't understand it. And you are showing people from the very beginning to the very end that Jesus is there all the way through. And you've written a book and a study that I'm doing with the women called the Mysteries of the Messiah. And we are going to talk about that in just a minute. Rabbi Jason, before we get into your books and the mystery, the Mysteries of the Messiah, let's talk about those spiritual encounters that that you were saying previously. Yeah, I mean, I went on the spiritual journey and I was meditating one day and all of a sudden my soul began to vibrate, it left my body. The next thing I knew, I was standing in heaven. And I saw this King Rambanisa, this Hebrew for high and lifted up on this throne. And I saw this glorious light around this King. And I felt the power of God pulsate through every cell of my body. It's like nothing I'd ever experienced before. A state of peace and joy and love and euphoria and this King on this throne. I don't know how I knew because I knew nothing about Jesus, but I knew that was Jesus seated seated on that throne. And he told me I was called to serve him. And the next thing I know, I was down in my body, shaking under the power of heaven, going, I'm called to serve him. I'm called to serve him. And I was just so excited, though I had no idea what it meant for a Jewish kid to serve Jesus. But, you know, I knew there was something real and powerful about him. And ultimately, I got invited to this messianic Jewish congregation where Jewish people who believe in Jesus worship in a way that embraces their Jewish culture and history and tradition. I went at the end of the evening, they dimmed the lights and played the piano and prayed. I figured I needed all the help I could get. So I prayed. I said, if you prayed this first time, raise your hands. I raised my hand. I said, if you raise your hand, you've just been born again. I said, I don't know what it means to be born again. I gave my mother enough trouble when I was born once. God knows if I'm born again. And they said, but we saw you raise your hand. You have to stand up. So I stood up. They gave me the first New Testament I'd seen. My friend John was like, I can't believe you came to faith. I prayed to lead. I prayed to lead one Jewish person to the Lord. I never thought it would be you. And I was actually praying for you. And I didn't know what I was more offended by. The fact that he was praying behind my back or that he thought there was no hope that I could ever come to know God, right? But I took the Bible home, hid it in my bedroom. Curiosity got the better of me. Read it for the first time. Was blown away how Jewish New Testament was. Jesus celebrated the Jewish holidays. All of the prophecies that were fulfilled according to the Gospel of Matthew and Book of Hebrews and all these other books in the New Testament. And I realized that he was the Messiah. And actually when I was reading the New Testament, something he said to me in that encounter in heaven was a verse from the New Testament, which I'd never read. I'm like, okay, he truly is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament of the Hebrew Scriptures gave my life to him and was immediately changed. What scripture was it? He said, many are called, but few are chosen. And I said to my chosen Lord. And he said, yes. Oh, Jason, this is beautiful. Tell me what happened after that. Your parents found the New Testament. Yeah, yeah. You know, I should have known you can't hide anything from your mom. Mom's had that special spiritual ability to find things out. And she found the New Testament in my room. She says, what is this that I found in your room? Don't tell me you'd be coming to those Jews who believe in Jesus. I knew you'd do something like this and break my heart. You've joined a cult, go meet with the rabbi. So I had to go meet with my rabbi. And in preparation for that, I got my Hebrew Bible and I outlined all of the Messianic prophecies I could find in order to meet with him. And I was blown away by how many passages in the Hebrew scriptures actually point to them that I actually found pointed to Messiah. Then I found out that the rabbi say everything was written for the sake of the Messiah. So I realized that there was even more there than I'd initially thought. And ultimately that preparation for that meeting became the foundation of the book, Mysteries of the Messiah because it created in me a passion to help people understand how what was promised and prophesied in the old ultimately finds its fulfillment with the coming of Jesus in the New Testament and how it all fits together. So what did your rabbi say to you during all this? Yeah, he thought I was a little mischievous, a little crazy. And he thought he had answers for many of the prophecies I did share with him. But one passage that he could not explain was so there's actually a passage in the book of Daniel that says from the year that the decree goes forth to rebuild Jerusalem after 483 years, the Messiah will come and be cut off for the sins of the people. And Jesus died exactly 483 years to the year that the decree was given in the days of Ezra Nehemiah to rebuild the wall. And I was like, who else could have fulfilled? There's only one person that came at that time who is still today believed to be the Messiah by a billion people around the world. And there wasn't really a good answer for that. Let's talk about the Mysteries of the Messiah. I'm teaching this to a group of women at our church. Every time we read it, we watch your videos. As soon as we're done, we're just kind of looking at each other, it's like, wow, it just is amazing how you can open our eyes to things that we don't even really think about in scripture. Let's talk about it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we basically go through from creation through David and talk about how all these things connect to the Messiah. I mean, going back to the very beginning, a lot of Christians don't even ask the question, well, why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Well, think about it. How did sin enter the world? The first man and woman stole from the tree, so God puts back on the tree for you and me to undo what the first man and woman did at the fall. His hands are pierced because the first man and woman stole from the tree. His side is pierced because Eve, the one who was taken from the side, led Adam into sin, and so therefore he's making atonement for Eve. His feet are pierced on the cross. Why? Because what's the first Messianic prophecy? The seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Satan's mocking the promises of God, he thinks. He's like, you think you're gonna crush my head? I'm gonna nail your feet to a tree and let's see how you're gonna defeat me, but he didn't understand that God was actually using that to bring about the fulfillment of crown of thorns on his head. Why? Because what's the curse of creation? The ground would produce thorns and thistles. He's literally taking on himself the curse of creation to reverse it, to restore the blessing, ties into Moses. When God appeared to Moses, we read in a burning bush, but it actually says in Hebrew, a burning thorn bush. Why? Because God was identifying with the pain of Israel in slavery, Jesus with the crown of thorns as a greater than Moses is saying, I feel your pain. I'm with you when you're suffering and I'll never ask you to go through anything that I myself wasn't willing to go through. Rabbi, we're gonna talk more about this and what your other books, but we're gonna dig a little bit deeper right after the break. Rabbi, you have been on the New York bestselling list several times and this book we're talking earlier. Tell me about Genesis, the Hebrew bear sheet and in Revelation and how Jesus is from the beginning to the end. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so the very first letter in the Bible ultimately points to Jesus, not even the first word, the first letter. So in a number of different ways. So the first letter of the Bible is the word bait because the first word in Hebrew is bearish sheet in the beginning, ba, bearish sheet, beginning. And the last letter of the book of Revelation is the word amen or the letter n or nun in Hebrew, right? So the first and the last letter of the Bible actually spells the Hebrew word ben, which means sun because from the first letter to the last letter, it all points to the sun. I just love that. And you really open our eyes to parts of the Bible that we don't even think about. And you use a lot of numbers. Explain that to us. Yeah, what's interesting is that, you know, Hebrew is often American. So there are no Roman numerals in the Hebrew Bible, right? So the way that you write numbers is with letters. So if I say, open your Bible to chapter one, I'll say open your Bible to chapter olive because olive is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and actually has the numerical value of one. So that means every word has a numeric value based on the value of the letters in that word. And so numbers are important. You know, a great example of that is the number 13, okay? So people tend to think of 13 as an unlucky number, right? I'm Jason and people didn't wanna hang out with me on Friday the 13th, right? They'd make jokes about it, right? People don't like staying on the 13th floor. A lot of hotels don't have the 13th floor, right? Because it's superstitious. But actually from a Jewish perspective, biblical perspective, 13 is one of the most amazing numbers. 13 is the number, numerical value of the word love in Hebrew. Ahavah. 13 is numerical value of the Hebrew word echad to be one because what is love about, it's about becoming one with the one you love, becoming one with God, becoming one with your spouse. But of course there is more, okay? Messiah in Hebrew, Mashiach has a numerical value of 358. Moses in Hebrew, Moshe equals 345. What's the difference between Messiah and Moses? It's 13 because Messiah embodies the love of God more than Moses or anyone else. But of course there's more. First Corinthians chapter 13 is the love chapter in the Bible. Okay, chapter 13 is love chapter and guess how many verses it has? 13 verses. Amazing. You were talking about Abraham and Sarah too. Everybody, you know, I wonder why God changed their name. You explain it with the age. Yeah, yeah, so Abraham and Sarah not able to have kids and they're not able to have kids until God adds a letter to each one of their names and it's the same letter. It's the letter hey in Hebrew and the letter hey is the, it's the letter of the divine breath. It represents God's creative power, God's creative potential being released in our life. It says in the Psalms that the hosts of the stars of heaven were the result of the breath of God's mouth. And so until God breathes on them by adding the letter hey to their names, it's only then that they're able to conceive supernaturally their son of promise Isaac and it goes in the New Testament. It's like Jesus breathing on the disciples in the upper room and the Holy Spirit, picture of the Holy Spirit coming upon them in the book of Acts enabling to supernaturally carry out the mission of God which is ultimately birth to church, Acts chapter two. What do you want people to know about your ministry and where God is leading you? We talked earlier that God has chosen you and share your heart with me and everyone listening that where God is leading you in the future and why this is so important for us to hear. Yeah, I think there's a number of reasons. I think one is, you know, Jesus says what can a scribe who understands the kingdom of God be compared to like a household of the brings forth treasures new and old and too many times people are settling for half an inheritance. Many Christians settle for the New Testament. Many Jews settle for the old but the fullness of our inheritance is the old and the new coming together. I don't want to see people settle for half an inheritance. It's kind of like Jesus on the road to Emmaus with those disciples. They were dejected and downcast because they thought Jesus was not the Messiah. He died and then he in hiding begins to open the law the writings and the prophets show how all these things point to him. Ultimately he breaks the bread, their eyes are open and they said that our hearts not burned within us as he showed how everything in the law the writings and the prophets pointed to him. And I think there's when we see the connections between the old and the new, our heart burns for Jesus. It gives us a sense of wonder and awe and how the word of God is so incredible that there's no way that it can be just written by the understanding or the minds of men but it had to be divinely given by God. So it increases our passion for the Lord and for his word. What's next for you, Rabbi? Yeah, we're excited. I mean, we've got a number of new projects coming out. One we're very excited about is we have a new book coming out called The Signs and Secrets of the Messiah and we actually get in to the miracles of Jesus in the book of John. So we talk about the first miracle. For example, the water into wine. Well, why is that the first miracle Jesus performed? Well, think about it. What's the first miracle Moses performed? He turned the water into blood but Jesus doesn't come to bring death. He comes to bring life. So he turns the water into wine as the greater than Moses because wine is symbolic of the Messianic kingdom. And so we get into all those different deeper understandings of the miracles and we're excited about that project. Well, I can't wait for it to come out because I am gonna continue leading our women. I just thank you so much that I get the opportunity to sit down with you. Well, we just, I just appreciate you and thank you for all you do and the impact that this show is having on so many people. It's a truly a blessing to be with you. Thank you, Jesus. My friend, are you searching for something deeper? From the beginning to the end, Genesis to Revelation, his name is Jesus. This is today's Nashville. This is faith. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.