Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 15

Cain and Abel Part 1 The Fiery Sword

Welcome to Messiah in the Old Testament. In our last three episodes we have been discussing sacrificial systems. Now we started at the beginning looking at sacrificial systems from around the world.

We looked at my own personal eyewitness experience in Papua New Guinea. I was working with the Huli tribe. And I had opportunity to sit down with the elders who described their sacrificial rites to me. And I was able to participate in a ceremonial demonstration of one of those rites. Then we looked at the sacrificial systems in each of those cultures where we had presented the creation stories. So, we started in North America.

We looked at the Native American Indian tribes. And we found that there was example of animal sacrifice where they gave part of the animal, burned it to the spirits to honor them. And we looked at the Skidi Pawnee who actually had a human sacrificial ceremony, the Morning Star Ceremony.

Then we went over to China and looked at the Shang dynasty and we found that they had both animal and human sacrifice. We went over to Babylon and we looked at all the animals that had been sacrificed to Marduk, their God. We talked about the children of Israel who were taken to Babylon during the exile.

Then we went over and we looked at the Greek culture. And we found that during the Olympic ceremonies that they had this grand celebration where they sacrificed 100 bulls to Zeus. And we also talked about the Oracle at Delphi and how sacrifices were involved in that. Then finally we moved over to Egypt and we looked at the temples of Isis and Osiris. And we saw that Isis had a very vibrant animal sacrifice as part of their temple worship.

And then finally we looked at the Hebrew system. Now we wanted to take a sacrificial system and look at it from the beginning of its history to the end of its history. And to see what the sacrificial system looked like. And we discovered that there was such a system and that was located in the Tanakh and that was the Hebrew system. So, we looked at the Hebrew system from the beginning to the end. We started in the Garden of Eden where the first sacrifice was made. Where Elohim killed the animals, sacrificed the animals to give Adam and Eve clothing. Skins for them to put on as clothing.

Then we looked at the sacrifices that Cain and Abel presented and we learned this whole idea that the tradition of sacrifice was passed down father to son, father to son. And we went through the generations up until Noah. And we discovered that Noah sacrificed after the ark landed on Mount Ararat. He took clean animals and he sacrificed them to Elohim.

And then we went forward and looked at Job who sacrificed offerings to atone for the sins of his children in case they sinned while they were partying. And we went to Abraham where he sacrificed Isaac, but a ram was given in replacement. So, Abraham sacrificed the ram instead. And then we went through father to son, father to son all the way up to Israel or Jacob. And we discovered that one of his children Levi passed down this tradition all the way down to Amram and then finally to Moses and Aaron.

And Moses grew up in his father's house for a period of time and then went to the court in Egypt. And he learned about sacrifices in each of those places. And then fled Egypt and went to Midian. And he met this priest of Midian. Actually, it was his daughter that he met, Zipporah, his future wife. But he learned from Jethro of priest of Midian about sacrifices. And then finally on Mount Sinai, Moses was then given the whole Levitical system. He was given the 613 laws. He was given the oral tradition. But he was also given instructions on how to create this tabernacle or temple. He was given dimensions. He was given information about furnishings, about utensils, about the clothing that the priests were going to wear, about all the ceremonies. And we spent a lot of time looking at two specific ceremonies.

The ceremony of the Ordination of Priests and then the ceremony for the remission of sins or the Sin Offering Ceremony. And we looked at how blood interplayed in that whole thing. And we know that Levitical system continued from its conception back somewhere in the 1490s BCE. And it was carried through the desert and into the tabernacle and then through various places and then finally Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem. We presume it was on the temple mount. We don't know for sure. There’s a lot of theories about where the temple actually sat. Solomon's Temple was built. It was a magnificent temple. And the Scriptures tell us how much gold went into it, how much silver and bronze went into to making that temple.

That temple stood for many hundreds of years and it was during the Babylonian incursion into Israel when the Babylonians conquered the land, they burned the temple. And the temple laid silent for about 70 years. And then finally exiles came back. They rebuilt the temple. This was the second Temple. That temple stood all the way through the Persian Empire, all the way through the Greek empire, through Alexander the Great who Josephus describes Alexander coming to the temple. The temple stood through the Roman incursion and we have the whole story of the Maccabees. And you know the miracle of the oil that didn't run out. And then finally into the more modern era where the Romans were trying to put down the Jewish revolt. And finally, they sent their legions in CE 70 and they raised the Temple from the top of the Temple Mount and threw all the stones down. So not one stone stood upon the other. That was the entire sacrificial system start to finish. We spent so much time talking about that Levitical system because each step along the way there are Messianic Prophecies involved in the in the whole thing. In fact, the Levitical sacrificial system just oozes with Messianic Prophecies. It is just, for me, really exciting to look at all those prophecies. And it’s just amazing to me how vibrant and how interwoven all those prophecies are. Now that brings us to our episode today. We’re talking about Cain and Abel. We’re talking about their lives and all the events that that transpired. So, let's dive into our story.

Remember, in the beginning God created Adam from the afar min ha adamah, from the dust of the earth, the fine dust. The potter fashioning his clay.

And once his clay was made, it was made in his tzalm or his image. And also, his dumoot or his likeness. And then he blew into the man. He gave him the nefesh hayah and the nishmat hayim which is a spark of life and then the actual breath of life, breathing. And Adam then became a living and breathing being. This was the first man. This was creation at its finest.

And then from man he took a rib and he fashioned woman. And he fashioned her with the same method where he created the woman. Now that was the last time where Elohim was going to get his hands dirty and create man in that fashion. After that, the creation of man took place through the process of reproduction.

And you remember all the trees, all the plants, all were created with seed bearing seed. In other words, there was fruit hanging from the trees that fruit had seed in it. That fruit fell to the ground and then a new tree could grow from that. Seed bearing seed. Well humans were created in the same way. Man has seed, it’s his sperm and woman has seed it’s her egg.

And when the two get together then we get the conception. And we get that nefesh hayah, the spark of life. Where life is put into that the newly created being. And then that being is knitted in the womb. The Tanakh says that Elohim knits the babies together in the womb. They are hidden from the outside but they're not hidden from Elohim.

Elohim knows those babies and Elohim knits those babies together. So, when a baby is born, that baby is created at the hands of Elohim. But it's through the miracle of reproduction. It’s no less a miracle that a baby is born, than it was that God fashioned Adam from the lump of clay and turn him into a living and breathing being.

Now Adam and Eve lived in the garden. And remember they lived in an absolute Paradise. They lacked for nothing. And then they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They sinned. So, then they had to face judgment. And you remember that scene where we had Adam and Eve and the snake all lined up facing Elohim. And Elohim was handing out there their judgment. Handing out their curses.

And to man he gave the curse of having to work the ground and fight with the thistles and thorns. And it was through the sweat of his brow that he would be able to eat. To woman her pains in childbirth would be increased. No babies were born in Eden before that, so we have no idea how easy it would've been to birth the baby before that curse came on Eve. And then of course the snake would have to eat the dust and crawl on his belly.

Now as part of those curses, Elohim says, and this is in Genesis 3:23 and I'll read it to you.

So, the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

Now the Hebrew word translated there as banished, is the exact same word that is in translated in other places as divorce. It means to send away. It means to send away from, to separate. Separation as in divorce or separation is in, I'm sending you away. I don’t ever want to see you again. Now the banishment wasn't from Elohim. He wasn't banishing man from his presence for the rest of his life. He was banishing man from the garden. And we will see in this episode as we go through it that Elohim is still there in the middle of stuff. Elohim is still there watching over Adam and Eve even after they leave the garden. Now this is a perfect point for you and me to dive into the story and put ourselves in the story. Remember I ask you each time to do that. This is the perfect place to do it.

So here we are, we’re standing at the exit, or entrance depending on your frame of reference, to the path that leads through the Garden back to the Tree of Life. And were standing there watching. And we hear some rustling and we see some figures coming down the path. We see this mighty Guardian Cherubim leading the way, escorting Adam and Eve down the path out of the garden. And we see another angel behind them. And they are hurrying down the path. Now I don't know if Adam and Eve had the little packs over their back or a backpack or something to carry all their belongings in. If they brought any food with them. Obviously, they had to have seed to plant their new crops and stuff. The Tanakh really doesn't tell us that.

So, I can't describe what they were carrying but I do know that they were clothed in skins. So, they are hurrying out of the garden. And I'm sure they are facing the full force of what is happening to them. They are losing their home. They are losing their ability for intimate communication with Elohim, the walks in the garden. There will be no more walks in the garden. They lost their access to fruit. They could reach out their hand and take from any tree they like. They had all of this at their fingertips and now it’s gone. And I'm sure they were feeling some modicum of sorrow as they’re leaving. I mean they could well have been sobbing as they were hurrying out of the garden. So, this entourage exits the garden and we’re watching them.

And one of the cherubim goes to one side and one cherub goes the other side. So, they are standing guard at the entrance. Now Adam and Eve probably spilled out into the clearing at the at the entrance and turned around to see what was happening. And this flaming sword appears. And the Scripture says that it is a sword of fire that was turning. So, the sword was turning. I think it was just flashing around just like if you wielded it with your hands. The sword was flashing and it was a flaming sword.

The importance of this sword is that it prevented Adam and Eve from getting on the path and going back to the Tree of Life. That was their banishment. Not so much from the garden. Yes, they were banished from the garden, but they were banished from the Tree of Life. And the implication of that is death. Without eating the fruit from the Tree of Life they were destined to die. So, they were facing their judgment full force when they saw that sword flashing around preventing them from getting back. In fact, a flaming sword does have significance in many cultures.

But here I think the significance of the flaming sword is justice. And that's a common interpretation in many cultures. That a flaming sword represents justice and judgment. And certainly, for Adam and Eve it was a visual reminder of their judgment. Now this has Messianic implication. We know from other scriptures that we will get to, that Messiah comes as a conquering king. In fact, on our logo you will remember, there's a lion, with the scepter, with the crown. The Conquering King who is going to come, conquer the nations, rule over the nations and set up his eternal kingdom. Messiah is going to use that flaming sword. He is going to use a sword of justice and he’s going to mete out judgment upon all the nations. And he's going to use his sword to defeat all of his enemies. And I think this is a direct Messianic message to us looking forward to when that judgment of all the nations would become complete. And once that judgment was complete, then the eternal Messianic Kingdom would be set up. And man would then be essentially back into the Garden of Eden, have access to the Tree of Life and have access to Elohim at all times. Now, obviously Adam and Eve had to work the ground to get their food. iI doubt they went very far from the Garden, but who knows.

The Tanakh doesn't tell us. So, Adam and Eve set up camp at some point, you know to the east of the Garden of Eden. The Scripture says that the flaming sword and the Cherubim were posted on the east of Eden. So obviously, they exited and they settled somewhere to the east. We know for sure, but we assume that. Now they would've had to come up with some sort of encampment or enclosure. We know that there is no rain or storms on the earth at this point. That the water came up and watered all the plants from below and the rain had not fallen from above yet. So, they didn't have to worry about the rainstorms or windstorms or all that stuff that you and I would have to. But they probably had some sort of enclosure to keep them out of the sun. So, they set up camp and we’re watching them. They are cultivating and they are breeding animals. So, they have livestock. They had the agricultural part of it. And Adam and Eve settled into this life east of Eden. Now Adam and Eve of course you know they are intimate. They have sex together and Eve becomes pregnant. So now Eve is carrying the first offspring. And that offspring is a male offspring.

And she gives birth to this offspring. And she gives glory to Elohim and it says: through the help of Elohim, I have gotten a man. So that man was Cain. They named him Cain which means spear or spearhead. And I think a lot of names have implication and we’ll see what implication of this was a little bit later. So, then they are raising Cain. She gets pregnant again and then she has Abel.

Now Abel’s name means a vapor or something temporary. So, their names have implications. Now let's move on. We are now standing, watching the boys as they’re growing up.

We’re seeing that one boy gravitates towards the agricultural part. Another boy gravitates towards the husbandry part. And so, we have Cain who becomes the farmer and is tilling the soil and bringing forth crops. And we have Abel who is tending the livestock and taking care of all of the animal’s needs. And he is raising all the flocks. Now, in the course of time and I’m going to read this to you.

Genesis 4:3-5 it says:

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So, Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Now if you look into the writings, the rabbinical writings, the sages pretty much all agree that the reason that Elohim accepted Abel's offering was because it was the firstborn of his flock, the choicest parts of the firstborn of his flock. And the reason Elohim rejected or looked with disfavor on Cain's offerings was because he did not bring the first fruits. He did not bring the best of the best, he just brought some fruit. So now you have two different reactions. I'm sure Abel was elated because Elohim had accepted his offering. He’d gained the favor of Elohim. And I’m sure he was a happy guy. Now Cain on the other hand was not a happy guy. Cain was very upset because of the rejection that he got from Elohim. Now he harbored in his heart, I think, a lot of jealousy towards his brother. Even though he was the firstborn, should be the honored [one]. He should be honored by Elohim and not disfavored by Elohim. So, I'm sure he was very unhappy with his brother about this whole situation, even though it was pretty much all his fault.

Now where it says that Cain was angry, the word for anger here is from the root charah and that means scorched, burned or kindled. It means basically fire or the result of fire, the aftermath of fire. So literally the word means to burn with anger. We hear that a lot, that he was burning with anger, his anger was kindled. We use all these words to describe anger. Now when you put the word very, which it said Cain was very angry. Now you’re going from just being upset or angry over something to rage. So, Cain was raging about what happened to him. Elohim sees this and Elohim approaches Cain. So now we’re standing here watching the interchange between Elohim and Cain.

Thank you for watching our show today. We hope that you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Now, after watching this episode you might be saying to yourself, “Who is this Messiah that Dr. Smith is talking about?

Is he talking about the Christian Messiah? Is he talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary. And then lived a blameless and holy life on the earth, And then was tortured and crucified. And after he died, he then was resurrected from the dead after three days. Then after people witnessed this, he was then taken up bodily by Elohim into heaven from the Mount of Olives.

Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Muslim prophet Isa. Isa Ibn Maryam, the messenger, who was sent by Allah to bring a message to the people. The Quran says he that lived a holy and blameless life, was born of the virgin Mary. He fulfilled all the Jewish prophecies in exact accordance. But one difference, instead of being crucified, he then was taken up by Allah into heaven before the Romans laid hands on him. And he awaits there now in the fourth heaven where at the end of days at the day of judgment he will be revealed to all.

Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Jewish Messiah? The Messiah who has not yet been revealed, that the entire Jewish world is waiting for his revelation. Now, the beautiful thing is that you can hold to any of these beliefs. And we can all still learn together about Messiah. We can learn about our Christian Messiah. We can learn about our Jewish Messiah. We can learn about our Muslim prophet Isa who will be revealed. It doesn’t matter what you believe. You can even be an atheist or agnostic and still learn from this program about Messiah. Now, I have to admit I am a Christian so I approach things, obviously, from a Christian point of view. And I promise you, as we reveal these prophecies, which I believe have all been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Or will be fulfilled when he comes back, returning in the clouds in the same way he was taken up. I believe that all of this is true, but I promise you I will do my very best to present these prophecies from a neutral point of view. And try to keep my Christian bias to a minimum. Obviously, it will pop up from time to time but I will try to stay only in the Tanakh and try not to get into the New Testament very often. Now, if you want more information about Messiah, we have resources for you.

We have a website which is findingmessiah.org. Now, on that website you are going to find several resources. You will find links to all the videos, all the episodes that we have created so far. You will find links to download the transcripts of any of these episodes. And then you will find a section where you can get more information about Messiah through frequently asked questions. And then there is a section for donation. If you want to come alongside our ministry at Finding Messiah.

Now, there’s going to come a time in this series where you are going to be confronted with the question: What are you going to do with Messiah? Who do you believe Messiah is? Which of these Messiahs do