Why didn't Israel recognize Jesus as the Messiah if the Old Testament foretold Him?
Israel failed to recognize Jesus as Messiah because of spiritual blindness and ignorance of the Scriptures. Although the Old Testament foretold Him, most did not study the prophecies deeply; even the priests and leaders knew only surface facts and had to search the Scriptures to identify Bethlehem, yet they still did not know Him.
Les explains that when Israel rejected the Messiah, the root cause was ignorance: they did not know who He was. He stresses that Israel should have known and could have known who Jesus was because it was all in the Old Testament. Their problem was not lack of capacity but lack of teaching and study; most people were ignorant of the Scriptures because nobody had taught them. The priests knew the surface facts, but they did not dig into the nitty-gritty of the Old Testament prophecies. When the wise men came to Herod asking about the King of Israel, Herod called together the leaders of Judaism, and they had to search the Scriptures. They found that He would be born in Bethlehem, proving they could have known, but they still did not. Les adds that America today is no better. Paul also speaks of a spiritual blindness that happened in part to Israel.