Sound Biblical Teaching - Pastor Conferences - Crusades - Topical Studies - Music Ministry

“In Search For The Messiah”

The doctrine of Christ, what a glorious testimony. The joy of being filled with His Holy Spirit. As Christian’s we have based our faith on “The Son of God” who shed His blood for our sins and was raised from the dead. We acknowledge the shedding of His blood as our redemption and we are now cleansed and purified. Oh what a joy to be born again and walk in the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We attend church regularly and hold our daily devotional prayers, yet sometimes we overlook what the word of God is actually saying to us. As a Bible teacher and Minister, I find it fascinating to search the scriptures, meditating on words, phrases and paragraphs. The Holy Spirit has opened my eyes and heart as He leads me deep into the study of the word of God while revealing Christ throughout the passages. A true manifestation of our Lord appears in front of my eyes. At first, as new believers in Christ we are usually lead to the New Testament. All those glorious stories, parables and quotes from our Lord spark the fire within us. An incredible man; what compassion, mercy, love, forgiveness and insight. We are drawn into His nature and realize how “God so loved the world that He gave His only son so that we might have everlasting life” (John 3:16). As we grow in Christ and consider ourselves veterans in whole Bible. One Sunday morning the Pastor recommends to the congregation that it is a good idea to read through the entire Bible. So after the service, we go to the local church bookstore and pick out a one year through the Bible systematic publication. Now in our boldness, we are ready for the Old Testament; we start in the book of Genesis, with creation, genealogies the great flood and then work our way into Gods promise to Abraham and his descendents. From there we move into Exodus and read how God lifted up Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, and all of a sudden we are into Leviticus and we can’t understand why the Levitical law was established. “What is going on with clean and unclean and what types of animals one can eat? As we keep reading into Numbers and Deuteronomy, we start asking ourselves “what is this all about”. Then comes the book of Joshua with an interesting story that seems to light the fire in our reading once again. As we continue through the Old Testament we experience these ups and downs in our reading habits. A positive Psalm or Proverb that seems to jog our memory (must have sung that one in a hymn) and then another Psalm comes along that makes no sense at all. Then we start reading about the prophets and now we are really confused. You ask yourself “who are they talking about? Are these past, present or future prophecies”. The book of Daniel comes along and we read about these strange dreams, creatures and images along with a chapter on the lion’s den and the story of the three Hebrew boys. So as of now, we find ourselves on a roller coaster ride. We our reading, yet not really comprehending the text. If this sounds so familiar to you, let me start by encouraging you that as we grow in our faith and knowledge then the Holy Spirit promises to reveal the text to us (John 16:13 ‘The Spirit of Truth will guide you in all things and make my word known to you”). Ok now lets get started. The first five books or the “Books of Moses” are called the Tora in Hebrew and the Pentateuch in Greek, while the complete Old Testament is referred to in Hebrew as the Tanach and the Greek version is called the Septuagint. What is fascinating to me is that the Old Testament was translated into Greek about three centuries before Christ (due to “Alexander the Great” who enforced Greek as the world language). Later on as we discus prophesies of the Old Testament, we will elaborate more on the importance of the Greek translation. What you have to remember is that in the days of Christ, there was not a New Testament, therefore all the text would have been quoted from the Old Testament. After all, when Christ was tempted by Satan in the desert (Matt. 4:4-10); Christ quoted the Old Testament stating, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone (Deut 8:3)”, “it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God (Deut. 6:16)” and “It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve (Deut. 6:13)”. Now the interesting thing about the Old Testament is that it preaches the Gospel of Christ. It is said that the Old Testament is Christ concealed whereas the New Testament is Christ Revealed. Jesus Christ can be found on nearly every page of the 39 books of the Old Testament. It is written, “The volume of the book is written of I, to do your will” (Psm: 40:7, Heb: 10:7), in John 5:39 Christ states “These scriptures testify of I” and also, Christ states (Matt: 5:17-18) “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets, yet I came to fulfill the word, and not one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled”. Lets look at some examples. In Acts 8:26 Phillip was told by an Angel to go out to the desert; in verse 32 we are told that an Eunuch was reading (Isaiah 53:7-8) “He was led as a lamb to be slaughtered; and as a lamb before its Shearer is silent. So He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away. And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from earth” We are then told that Phillip “began with scriptures and preached Jesus unto him” and as you can read from the text, (Isaiah 53:7-8) was referring to Jesus . And let’s not forget one of the best commentaries on the Old Testament given by Stephen in Acts chapter 7 (before Stephen was stoned to death). Stephen starts with Abraham, through Moses and David while quoting the prophets, all the way up until Jesus and then we read, (Acts 7:54-58) “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth, and took Stephen out of the city and stoned him”. In the book of Acts there are actually 12 cases of Old Testament Bible studies (Acts: Chapter 2, 3, 7,8,9,10,13,17, 18 x2, 26 & 28). Yet the greatest Bible study of all was given by our Lord after his resurrection on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:25-27) when Christ states, “ O’ foolish ones, and slow to believe in what the Prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory”?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Christ expounded to them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. And then we read that the disciples said (Luke 24:32) “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” So we realize that the Old Testament is the Story of Christ and the plan of God’s redemption. In Genesis (Chapter 1:26) God said “ Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” as you can see from the text, God was referring to His Son in the early stages of the book. And lets not forget Genesis (Chapter 1:2) stating “And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the earth”. We have The Father, Son and Holy Spirit all mentioned together in the beginning. Now we go into the first Prophecy of God’s plan for redemption, (Genesis 3:15) when God says to Satan “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel”. In another words, you think that you can stop Him, yet He will reign forever. We also find the shedding of blood to cover up our nakedness or our sin. This illustration can be found when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden. We are told that “their eyes where opened and that they realized they where naked (Genesis 3:7)” Next we read that God covered them up with skins to protect their nakedness (Genesis 3:21), “The Lord God clothed them in animal skins” representing the shedding of innocent blood to atone or cover up the guilty. Yes, the plan of redemption started even before the book of Genesis; and God being all knowing had his plan worked out from the beginning and wrote his plan of redemption in the stars. The twelve consulates which are known in the Hebrew as the Mazzeroth were Gods plan for redemption; the Virgin birth, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Balances of Good and Evil, the Triumphant Warrior, etc..,( for more precise details read “The Gospel in the stars” by Joseph A. Seiss). Moving along through Genesis, we have many appearances of God manifesting Himself in the flesh (we are told that no man has ever seen God and lived, so therefore God appeared in the flesh as Christ). We read in Genesis (Chapter 14:18) about a man named Melchizedek, a man without a genealogy who brings forth bread and wine (just as Christ brought forth His body and blood); and he was “the Priest of the most high God” (in Hebrew this word is El-Elyone, which el-yone’ means, highest or supreme and the El stands for God). We then have Abraham confirming this in verse 22 stating “I have lifted up my hand unto the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth”. While in Chapter 18 we have Abraham who was visited by three Angels and one of them was the LORD! Of course, let’s not forget about Jacob who wrestled with The Angel of the Lord. Now, in Genesis Chapter 22, a remarkable act of faith as a father (Abraham) is told to sacrifice his only son (Isaac). God said to Abraham (Genesis 22:2), “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, (please note that this is the first time that love was mentioned in the Bible) and go to the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you”. So Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, knowing that if he obeyed God and did so, then God would have to resurrect Isaac, in order to fulfill God’s covenant to Abraham (Genesis 17:19) “I will establish my covenant with Isaac and his descendents”. It is interesting that on the 3^rd day, (Genesis 22:4) “Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place a far off; then Abraham told his servants stay here, for we will come back”. So Abraham took the wood and laid it upon Isaac’s back to carry the wood up the mountain. Isaac then asked“ where is the Lamb for the burnt offering?” In which Abraham replied (Genesis 22:8), “The Lord will provide Himself, a lamb for the burnt offering”. Ok, are you starting to get the picture? Let’s put it all together and see what the Holy Spirit is telling us! As we look closely at the text, we find Isaac, a type of Jesus Christ. We have Abraham, A father willing to sacrifice his Only son, we have Isaac who was not made of flesh like his brother Ishmael, yet in a sense he was supernaturally conceived (for Sarah was barren and could not conceive children), then we are told that Abraham set out to make the sacrifice yet on the third day Isaac was spared (just as Christ was resurrected on the third day), and yes, Isaac was asked to carry his wood (or the burden) on his back as Christ carried His cross. Now look at all of this and then take note, that mount Moriah is the same mountain range on which our Lord was crucified on 2000 years later (better known as Calvary). This then fulfilled (Genesis 24:14), “And Abraham named the place, The Lord Will Provide”; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it will be provided” So here we have a pre-prediction of God’s plan of redemption. We could just leave it at that, yet we will take it one step further. It is interesting that we do not see Isaac again until he meets his bride in Genesis Chapter 24. Abraham sends his servant, led by the Spirit to find a bride for Isaac in the land of his people. When the Spirit reveals a bride (Rebekah) to Abraham’s servant, she is then taken back to marry Isaac. Then Rebekah asked (Genesis 24:65), “who is this man that has come out to meet us?” Now let’s consider this story in relationship to us (Christ’s Bride). After Christ ascended into the clouds (Acts 1:11), He has gone to prepare a place for us. In John 14:3, Christ states, “For if I go to prepare a place for you (which He has), I will come again and receive you for Myself; that, where I am, you may be as well”. The Holy Spirit has been sent out to gather Christ’s Bride, and when the fullness of the Gentiles have come in (Roman 11:25 states that “blindness has been put on Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles have come in”), then Christ will come to meet His Bride (The Church) in the clouds (Acts 1:9-11, 1 Thessalonians 4:15 and 1 Corinthians 15:51). Just as the Spirit brought Isaac a bride, so will the Spirit provide us as a Bride for Christ. In the book of Exodus we have the Passover, which again represents the shedding of blood for salvation; wherein God said, (Exodus 12:12-13) “For I will pass through Egypt on that night, and strike all the first born in the land except for the ones that are covered with blood . For I will pass over their household, and they will be saved” According to Exodus 12:5, “the lamb was to be without blemish”, just as Christ was our Pass-over Lamb without blemish. The book of Exodus describes God and His attributes in the following manner:

1.) Christ Knew His people- (John 1:14) states, “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” –So we know God came down in human form and became flesh, like His people, so therefore He knew His people.

2.) Christ came down to deliver- (1 Thessalonians 1:10) “He was raised from the dead, Jesus who will deliver us from the wrath”

3.) He was our Passover Lamb- (1 Cor. 5:7) “For indeed Christ was our Passover, who was sacrificed for us” 

and (Hebrews 9:22) “according to the law, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin”.

4.) Christ Supplies our needs- (John 6:35) “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger”; and “he was the rock in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:4, Exodus 17:6-7).

5.) Christ gives Victory to His people- Christ at the

cross & (1 Corinthians 15:57) “ Which gives us

victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”

6.) Christ reveals His Character- (Matt 9:35-36) “Jesus went into the city healing every sickness and disease, and when he saw the multitudes he had compassion”.

7.) Christ left us His Spirit to dwell in our hearts -

(John 14:17) “He dwells within you” and (1 Cor.

6:19) “For your body is the temple of the Holy

Spirit who is in you”.

So as we can see, the God of the Old Testament as being manifested in Christ; (1 Timothy 3:16) “God was manifested in the flesh (Jesus), justified in Spirit, seen by the angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into glory”. In the book of Numbers (chapter 21:4-9) we read that the people sinned against God, and God sent fiery serpents among the people and killed many. Once the people admitted and confessed their sins then God said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that anyone who looks upon the pole will be saved”. So Moses made a Bronze serpent (for Bronze represents judgment and a serpent represents sin) and raised it up on a poll. It came to pass that all that looked upon the upon the bronze serpent were saved.

 As we read into the text, we then notice, first the people had to confess their sins and once they did, God gave them a way of redemption. It is interesting that Jesus states (John 3:14-15),

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and whoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life”. As we get into the book of Joshua, first we notice that the name Joshua means “Salvation” hence the name means Jesus. It is interesting to note that Moses represents the Mosaic law yet never entered into the promise land, whereas Joshua (Salvation) lead the people in. In other words, what the law could not do, Christ could. Now lets meditate on what the book of Joshua is really about! A very interesting thing happens in Chapter 5:13-15. It is here that Joshua meets an Angel, that identifies Himself as The Captain of the Lord’s Host. First of all we wonder where is Michael? After all, Michael is the warrior and Gabriel is the messenger. Then we read that Joshua fell to the ground and began to worship saying “What does my Lord say to His servant?” So from the text we have some interesting problems, first this Captain is allowing himself to be worshipped (for we know that Angels do not allow themselves to be worshipped Rev. 19:10), and secondly Joshua calls Him Lord, yet there is no dispute from the Captain about His Lordship. Lastly we have the Captain ordering Joshua, “take off your sandals, you’re on Holy ground” (sounds like the burning Bush Exodus 3:5). Now we can see from the text, that this is an appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Taking a closer look at the battle of Jericho, we encounter some other strange issues. Joshua is instructed to march around the walls in silence for seven days and “on the seventh day when the priests blow their horns, the walls shall fall down”. What is interesting is, we have two laws that were being broken. First off, the law says that the priests could not go to war and secondly that the “Ark of the Covenant” must not go to war. Keeping this in mind, may I suggest that Jesus Christ fought the battle of Jericho! I am always fascinated on how the Holy Spirit sublimely reveals Christ throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. In the book of Ruth, we have this beautiful love story of how Boaz (a Jew) becomes the Kinsman redeemer to Ruth (a Gentile). Looking closely at this story we have Ruth a Moabite women who comes out of a Pagan culture, to live among the Jews in Bethlehem. What we have to keep in mind is that in those days Ruth would have been looked upon by the Jews as an outcast (an unclean Gentile). Ruth is sent out to the fields to glean (gleaning refers to picking the scraps of the harvest off the ground); there she catches the eye of Boaz, the owner of the field; and Boaz took favor in Ruth. From the text we read that Boaz is an influential person; a Land Owner who also sat at the city gate, which meant he was an authority figure in the city. We then read that Boaz is related to Ruth through Elimelech (who was married to Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi). Boaz then has a chance to redeem Elimelech land and take Ruth as his bride. Here we have a case of a Jew taking a Gentile bride, just as Jesus Christ will return and take his bride (the church) and redeem the Land (earth). What is also interesting in this story is that through this marriage we get the line of Christ, whereas Ruth and Boaz begot Obed, (Ruth 4:13 “The Lord gave her conception and she bore a son), who begot Jesse who begot David. The text also tells us that Boaz is a descendent of Perez; who if you recall was the son of Judah. Which brings us to another interesting story that lies in the conception of Perez. Perez’s mother was Tamar who was the daughter-in-law of Judah. What makes this story interesting is that when Judah slept with Tamar, he thought she was a prostitute (Genesis 38:16) and did not realize that Tamar was his daughter-in-law. It is amazing stories like these that gives us strength and brings hope when we read Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who Love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. Taking a glance at the book of Psalms, we have Psalm 22 that quotes the cross in the text of Jesus Himself. (Psalm 22:14-18) “ I am poured out like water, All of My bones are out of joint; My heart is waxed; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up, My tongue clings to My jaw; They pierced my hands and My feet: I can count all my bones. They divide up My garments among them, And casts lots for My cloths”. Please note that this was written nearly two thousand years before crucifixion was invented. Also In the opening and closing verses in Psalm 22 are the opening and closing words of our Lord on the cross:

Psalm 22:1 - “My God, My God, why have You

forsaken Me?”

Matthew 27:46 – “My God, My God, why have

You forsaken Me?”

Psalm 22:31 -“They will declare His righteousness,

And it has been done” (in the Hebrew the root word

is “Asah” which means to fulfill or accomplish)

John 19:30 – “It is finished” (the Greek root word is

“tel- eh’o” which means to complete or accomplish)

In the book of Proverbs, we have Proverbs 30:4 that speaks of the Father and the Son, “ Who has ascended into Heaven or descended, who has established all the earth? What is His name? What is His Son’s name?”

As we get into the books of the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, we find more than 100 mentions of Jesus Christ. In Isaiah we get these precious gems; Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive, a Son is born and you shall call Him Immanuel” (meaning “God is with us”), and Isaiah 9:6 states, “ unto us a child is born, a Son is given; The Government of the world will be upon His shoulder, His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”. Now, I would like to take a look at (Luke 4:16-30), and to set the stage, I believe a quick overview is in order. We find Jesus walking into the synagogue; and as His custom was, He stood up to read. He was handed the book of Isaiah, and when He opened the book, He found the place where it was written (Isaiah 61:1-2) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Because, He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release them from darkness, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”. He then closed the book and said “today is this scripture fulfilled”. Wow, what a statement! May I suggest that we take a moment and meditate on what Christ just said? “The Spirit of God is upon Me”, He has anointed Me”, “He has sent Me” and “today this scripture is fulfilled”. Now we can see why in verse 28, “all those who where in the synagogue where filled with wrath and they rose to kill him”; for Christ was proclaiming Blasphemy in the eyes of the Jews. Now when we parallel what is written in Luke and what is written in Isaiah, we notice that Christ put a period where there is actually a comma. What Christ did not read was “And the day of Vengeance of our God”. For the day of vengeance (or wrath) has not happened as of yet. Moving into the book of Daniel, we find the prophecies of the first and second coming of Christ (please note, when Christ says “no man knows the day nor the hour when the Son of Man is coming”; this is referring to the Rapture of the Church (1 Thes. 4:17), whereas the second coming, Christ comes with His Church (Rev. 19:14)); now let’s elaborate on this. In Daniel 9:25 we are told “ know then and understand, that from the going forth to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah comes, there will be sixty nine weeks (in the Hebrew, this word is sheb-oo-aw’, which refers to 7 years) or 69, seven year periods, thus we get 69 x 7 which equals 483 years. And now we can times that by the number of days in a year 483 x 360 days (ancient & religious calendars had 360 days to a year) and we get 173,880 days until the Messiah would come. In Nehemiah Chapter 2:1-8, we read that King Artaxerxes granted Nehemiah’s wish to rebuild Jerusalem, “and it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of the King” (History authenticates that this was on March, 14, 445 BC). So if we consider counting 173,880 days from March 14, 445 BC we would get April 6, 32 AD, (for an exact breakdown of years and leap years, read Sir Robert Anderson’s book, “The Coming Prince”) which would have been the exact day that Christ rode into Jerusalem riding on a Donkey, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 “Behold your king is coming; He is just and brings salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey”. Keeping this in mind, we can then see why Christ wept in Luke 19:41 “ As He drew near, He wept and said, Oh Jerusalem, if only you would have known, for this is your day”. Christ was weeping because, if the Jews would have known their scripture, they would have realized that this was their day”. Then Christ goes on to say, “But now these things will be hidden from you” and Romans 11:25 states, “ Blindness will be upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles are brought in”; in other words blindness will continue to be upon Israel, until Christ comes to receive His bride (the Rapture of the Church). Now let’s take a look at His second coming. In Daniel Chapter 12, verse 11 we read “ And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation takes place, there will be one thousand two hundred and ninety days”. Again this prophetic book of Daniel is giving us insight to the future. Since we are on the subject of end Times, lets do a brief synopsis on the events to come!!!

1.) The Rapture of the Church : (1 Thes. 4:16-17)

“ For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven ,the dead will rise first and we who are alive and remain will be caught up ( this word in the Greek is har-pad’-zo, which means to be snatched away or taken by force) to be with the Lord”.

2.) The Revealing of the Anti-Christ / World Leader : (2 Thes. 2:1-7) “The Lawless one is already at work, yet once the hindering force (The Church) is removed, then he will be revealed.

3.) Confirm a Peace treaty with Israel and rebuild the Temple: (Dan. 9:27) “He shall confirm a covenant with many, for one week (seven years), and in the middle of the week he will bring an end to the sacrifices” (please note, that there has to be a Temple in order to have scarifies).

4.) Abomination of Desolation : Jesus states, (Matt. 24:15) “When you see Him Standing in the Holy place ,as spoken by the prophet Daniel” (he who reads let him understand).

5.) Wrath of the Lamb, “The Great Tribulation”

(Mark: 13:19-23) “There will be great Tribulation such as the world has never seen”.

6.) Armageddon : (Rev. 16:14-16) “ The Kings of the world gather for Battle at a place in Hebrew called Armageddon”

7.) Return of Christ with His Church : (Rev. 19:11-15) “Behold the white horse, and the armies in Heaven followed Him”.

8.) Millennium Reign : (Rev. 20:4) “They lived and reigned with Christ for one thousand years”.

 

9.) Final Judgment : (Rev. 20:12-13) “The dead, small and great stood before God, and the they where judged according to their works”.

 

10.) New Heaven & New Jerusalem: (Rev. 21:1-2) “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the Holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven”.

Let’s get back to the importance of the Greek translation the Septuagint; the Septuagint is the Hebrew Old Testament that was translated to Greek between 285 - 275 BC (the project was sponsored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and is well documented in history). As stated in early text, Alexander the Great enforced Greek as the National language, therefore in order for the Jews to read their own Bible they needed to have it translated into a common language. So we have History, which proves that these books where written at least 300 years before Christ. Therefore when we read all of these prophecies in Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Psalms, Genesis, etc...We are amazed at how accurate the scriptures really are. Taking a look now at what is known as the Minor Prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Haggai, Zechariah.., we read in Micah 5:2 about “The one to rule Israel, whose going forth is of the old, who will come from out of Bethlehem”. And Zechariah 11:2, which predicts Judas betrayal (found in Matt. 26:15 and Matt. 27: 4-7) “ So they weighed out my price for thirty pieces of silver, and threw the money into the house of the Lord for the potter”. Zechariah 12:10, declares the Mourning of the pierced One, stating, “And I will pour out My Spirit upon Jerusalem, the house of David and they will look upon me whom They have pierced”. While the book of Malachi declares the coming Prince, “Behold He is coming, says the Lord of Host. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?” (This is referring to the second coming of Christ). Now lets dig a little deeper into scripture. In Genesis Chapter 5, we find a complete chapter dedicated to a genealogy of ten men, from Adam to Noah. Although this might not excite many, it just happens to be one of the most interesting chapters in the Bible. As we have discovered throughout scriptures the Holy Spirit has been revealing His design and handprints. Let’s take a look at the genealogy of Genesis Chapter five, and lets look at what the names mean. In Genesis 5:1-2, we are told that “ God created man and named him Adam, therefore Adam means man. Then we read that Adam had a son named Seth. Genesis 4:25 tells us “they begot a son and named him Seth, for he was appointed as a seed to replace Abel”. So Seth means appointed. Seth begot Enosh (which comes from the root word “anash”), and Enosh means mortal. Enosh begot Kenan (please note, 

in your English Bible the name is translated as Cainen, yet in the Hebrew Tora the name is Kenan), and Kenan means sorrow. Kenan begot Mahalalel, and Mahalalel means the Blessed God. Remember that the “El” in the name meant God; for instance “Daniel” meant “God is my judge”, “Nathaniel” meant “Gift of God”, etc… Mahahalel begot Jarad, and Jarad which comes from the root word “yaradh” means “shall come down”. Jarad begot Enoch, and Enoch means teaching (the root word for an Enoch is “chanok” which means to train up or teach). Enoch begot Methuselah, which comes from two root words; “muth” which means “death” and “shalach” which means “shall bring”. Therefore Methuselah signifies “his death shall bring”. This is extremely interesting because when Methuselah died, the flood came (which was in Noah’s six hundredth year). Methuselah begot Lamech; Lamech comes from the root word “lament” or “Lamentation”, Lamech means despairing. Lamech begot Noah, which comes from the root word “nacham”, which means “to bring relief”, Noah means comfort. Putting this all together we have the Gospel of Christ.

 

1.) Adam                         2.) Seth  

1) Man 2.)appointed 

3.) Enosh                                   4.) Kenan

3.)mortal 4.)sorrow but

5.) Mahalalel 

5.) the blessed God 

6.) Jarad   

6.) shall come down

7.) Enoch 

7.) teaching , His 

8.) Methuselah

8.) death shall bring the

9.)Lamech 

9.) despairing 

10.) Noah

10.) comfort.

So as we have discovered, Gods plan of redemption has been spelled out within the text of the venerated Tora! Wow, it is amazing how the Holy Spirit reveals and confirms the Lords message. In Genesis Chapter 8, verse 4, we read “then the ark rested on the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountain of Arad”. Interesting you say, but why do I need to know that? Well lets do some research and find out what the Holy Spirit is revealing to us. We then discover that there where two calendars; the first calendar was the civil calendar, which was prior to Exodus 12:2, stating “ This month shall now be known as the beginning of the months” which then established the second calendar, the Religious calendar. So the month of Abib (better known as Nisin), was the seventh month of the civil calendar, which God ordained as the first month of the religious calendar (this is the equivalent of March / April), and was the Passover. In doing our homework we then learn that the Passover is on the 14^th of Nisin (Exodus 12:6, Joshua 5:10). We also know that Christ was crucified on the eve (keep in mind that the Jews start their days at sundown) of the Passover; (John 19:14) “For it was preparation day of the Passover”, and in John 19:31 we notice that the bodies needed to be taken down from the 

crosses because of Passover. So by gathering this information we can conclude that since Christ was crucified on the 14^th of Nisin, that would mean that He was resurrected three days later on the 17^th of Nisin. May I then suggest that the flood of Noah represented a new beginning for Noah’s generation and nearly 3000 years later on the same day, Christ became our new beginning for all eternity. In the book of Numbers we also have an intriguing piece of text. In Numbers Chapter 2:2, Moses and Aaron were told, “Everyone of the children of Israel shall camp besides the emblem of his fathers house, in a standard (a standard was a measure of uniformity)”. We then read in Numbers Chapter 2, verses 3-34, how the tribes of Israel where to camp; “To the East the house of Judah” “ To the South the house of Rueben” “To the West the house of Ephraim” and “To the North the house of Dan”. We are then told that the Tabernacle shall be in the middle of the camp, and that the Levites are to camp around the Tabernacle. We know from the text that they where to camp in quadrants (a standard) and be able to march in order. As we then go through the text, we are given the numbers of each tribe as they were camped:

East-Judah=186,400

West-Ephraim=108,100

North-=157,600

South-Rueben =151,400

 

Keeping this in mind, may I suggest that if you were looking down from the top of a mountain, or from above the camp of the children of Israel, you would then see a cross, with the ark of the covenant in the middle! Again, I find it simply amazing that, the Holy Spirit has put His handprint throughout the Bible. He has showed us it’s design and structure and He has proven to us that this book was created outside of our time domain. As believers in Christ, we have the presence of His Holy Spirit residing in our hearts, our own personal testimonies reveals His presence in our lives, yet the power of His word just confirms what an awesome God He is. The Gospel of Christ is simple and is best describe in 1 Corinthians (15:3-10), as Paul states, “Christ died for our sins according to scriptures, He was buried and rose again on the third day and was taken up into heaven”. Paul then goes on to say, “ For I am not worthy to be called, yet by His Grace I am, what I am”. Yes, the simplicity of the Gospel; believe in Him and you will be saved. Yet, to believe in Him, you must follow Him. So I ask you, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour? Does he reside in your Heart? Have you repented of your confessed sins? In Revelation 3:20, Christ says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, he who opens the door, I will come in and dine with him”. Have you ever noticed whom Christ was talking to? He was talking to the Church; yet there were people in the Church that were not of the Church. Jesus wants to have an intimate relationship with you. Christ says, “you are either for me or against me” and He then added to that statement and said, “if you confess me before men, I will confess you before My Father in Heaven, but if you deny Me before men, then I will deny you before My Father”. To accept Christ into your life, you need to admit that you are a sinner, confess your sins, repent of your sins, acknowledge that He shed His blood for you, and proclaim that He is the Lord of your life. May the peace, grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen!!

In Christ,

 

Psalms For The World Ministries

 

Online Books   About The Ministry   How To Know God    Home Page    Verse Search

Send mail to jmendola@earthlink.net with questions or comments.
Copyright © 2004 Psalms For The World, Inc.
Last modified: August 19, 2008