Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 36
The Post-Flood Era
The Division Of The Earth During Peleg's Lifetime
Welcome to Messiah in the Old Testament. In today's episode we are going to tell you the Third Pivotal Event which happened during the Post Flood Era. Now remember, we spent two previous episodes looking at the other two events.
The First Event was the construction of the city and the tower on the Shinar Plain. And then, in our last episode, we covered the dispersion or scattering of the family groups throughout the world as was outlined in our Table of Nations. Now, in today's episode, we are going to be covering the separation or division of the Earth which happened during the lifetime of Peleg. Now the reason we spent all this time, three episodes looking at these pivotal, world changing, earth shattering events that happened in the post-flood era is because each one of these episodes is associated with one or more Messianic Prophecies. And if you take all of these together, in aggregate, they tell a story which will not be played out until the end of time. They point towards and prophesy about Messiah's Eternal Kingdom.
So, I thought it was worthwhile spending a lot of time in detail looking at what's in these three pivotal events. Now, today's episode starts out like some of our previous episodes with a genealogy. Now, when I was a young man, and I would read through the Old Testament, I would start in Genesis. I'd read the story of creation and I thought that was an awesome story.
It had such vivid details. The imagery was just amazing, each of the days of creation, Adam being created from the dirt and Elohim blowing the Breath of Life into him, and life in the Garden of Eden, the fall, getting kicked out of the Garden, Cain and Abel
and then suddenly we come up against the line of Cain and the line of Seth and we get into the genealogies. Now, when I started reading
genealogies, quite frankly, I wasn't very interested in them. And I would just skim ahead and go to the story of Noah's Ark.
And again, the imagery of the animals on the boat, coming in two by two, surviving this worldwide flood, and then afterwards the revelation of the rainbow and then we had the episode in the vineyard with Noah and his son Ham. And then suddenly we’re back up against more genealogy.
This time it was Japheth and Ham and Shem and all their offspring down two to three generations. And I would just skim ahead again and then the story of Babel, that was kind of interesting, but then more genealogies, let's jump ahead. And finally, we get to Abram. And I didn't pay much attention to these genealogies. But then, when I started looking at the Scriptures with a critical eye, looking for Messiah, looking for Messianic Prophecies, suddenly these genealogies took on new meaning. They took on new life. They jumped out of the Scriptures and I saw things that I not seen before. Now, another thing that I saw that jumped out at me was, when I looked at the Pre-Flood Era and Post-Flood Era and looked at the similarities between those two eras and I found that
that man was just as rebellious, just as stubborn, just as egotistical in the Post-Flood Era as he was in the Pre-Flood Era.
In the Pre-Flood Era, we found that all men thought about doing was evil all the time. Whatever they decided to do, they did whether it was good [or] bad. And then in the Post-Flood Era, men rebelling against Elohim, refusing to obey what he tells them specifically to do, getting puffed up with pride and flying against Elohim. And I noticed that the response of Elohim was vastly different in the two Eras. In the Pre-Flood Era, his reaction was: That’s it. I’m done. I'm going to wipe them out. Everything that has the breath of life I'm going to wipe off the face of the earth. But, after the flood, he had made a promise that he was never going to destroy the earth by a flood again. And he changed course.
And he could've very easily on that Shinar Plain when the men were building the city and building the tower and getting puffed up in pride, he could easily have just opened up the earth, swallowed the city, swallowed the men, closed it back up and used the line of Shem as a reset and move on. The problem with this plan is whenever the world gets filled up with evil, let's destroy it and start over. You just end up with this endless cycle of destruction, renewal, destruction, renewal, destruction, renewal. And Elohim found a better way. That better way
was through Messiah, was through Messiah’s Sacrifice. And we talked about this in exquisite detail in some of our previous episodes, that it was Messiah’s sacrifice that made the difference. And now, instead of dealing with sin, the remedy for sin is not going to be, just destroy all of them.
It's going to be Messiah’s sacrifice that will make a way for mankind to live a better life and be justified with Elohim. And that to me is probably the most important Messianic Message that I can tell you. It is the difference between the Pre-Flood Era and the Post-Flood Era. And we’ll kind of tie this all together at the end of this episode where we go over all the Messianic Prophecies associated with this Post-Flood Era.
Now, we’re looking at the genealogy that starts with Shem and goes down to Abram. Now, stuck in the middle there is a guy whose name is Peleg. And Peleg stands out because the author of Genesis felt, for some reason, he had to tell us why Peleg was named. He was named Peleg which means divided or division because during his lifetime the earth was divided or separated. So, that is not a new phenomenon. We saw this when we looked in the Pre-Flood Era, remember, when we went through all of the genealogy from Adam up to Noah.
And let me pull that chart out so you can take a look at it. We’ll look at it together. So, this is Seth's line and I've got each ancestor listed, their name in Hebrew and their meaning. So, Adam, his name meant earth, also red. He was obviously named because of the manner in which he was created. Seth, his name means to place or set down. And he was the replacement for Abel. So, he was set in Abel’s place. Enosh, his name means to be ill or sickly. And perhaps during his lifetime there was a plague or great sickness on the earth and he was named for that. And then Keenan, his name is like Cain, his name meant spear or spearhead. And perhaps during his lifetime there was a worldwide conflict or war, hence the name. And then Mahalalel, his name means to give praise or glory to God. It's a compound word. Mahalel means of praise and then El is the name of God. And then we get to Jared, one of my favorite guys. Jared, his name, of course, is Yered coming from the root like the Jordan River, to descend or go down. Because during his lifetime the sons of God descended down to the earth and took the daughters of men. And then Enoch or Chanoch, his name means to dedicate or consecrated. Because he was a prophet that was dedicated and consecrated to God. In fact, he was so much a friend of God, he was so much associated with God that God just took him away and he was no more. Remember the
picture of the pocketbook or the purse. He just took his purse and carried him away. That's what he did to Jared or to Enoch, he just picked him up and took him away. And then Methuselah, compound word, there was mat and Shalach. And remember shalach is the word that means to divorce or separate or take away or send away. And so, he is the man who was sent away. And remember, he died just before the beginning of the flood. There was that seven-day mourning period. Lamech, we don't know what his name means. There is no root in the Hebrew that we can find other than his proper name. And finally, Noah or Noach, his name means to rest or be quiet. The picture of him on the Ark after the destruction of the world. That time period where everything is just quiet and they were all at rest in the Ark. So, you can see these names portray or prophesy or project worldwide events. And so, we can see the worldwide events that were associated with those guys. And the same is going to be true of this next set of, next genealogy, next set of names that we’re going to go over.
So, the list is found Genesis 11:10-26. And let me read for you:
This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.
Now, two years, remember in our previous episode we talked about the family group coming off the ark. Remember, when Noah planted his vineyard. In order to get enough progress to have fermented wine, it would take a period of probably years. So, two years after the flood when Arphaxad was born, he was probably was still living next to
Noah's vineyard. And the giving of his name, they had no idea about future events ever were going to transpire.
And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters. When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. (Just like Methusael, Shalach.) And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters. When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters. When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters. When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters. (Then finally) After Tara had lived 70 years
Different than the previous ones that said ‘when they had lived so many years, they had the son.’ This says:
After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Now, you see what I mean, you read through that, you're probably me out as I'm doing it and it’s like, let's fast-forward through the genealogy. Now, from this list, you’ve got all these numbers, all these years, all
these ages. And we can sort all that out and make a chart and look at their lifespans.
So, I’ve got a chart here. And I’ll put it up. And this is called The Lifespans After Noah. Now, Noah lived 950 years which is pretty comparable to his ancestors. Adam lived about 930 years. His grandpa Methuselah lived 969 years. So, 950 years is pretty par for the course for the pre-flood ancestors. Now something happened, the flood obviously, and lifespans were shortened. Now, we knew this was going to happen because God told Noah in the run-up to the flood that man's lifespan was going to shrink to 120 years. That was what man was going to get. And so, we’re going to see that shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. And our lifespans are going to show that. Arphaxad was his son. He lived 438 years, then Shelah 433, Eber 464. So, you can see, these guys in the Post-Flood Era were living on the order of 430 to 460 years. Still a very substantial lifespan, but half of what the guys before the flood were living. And then we get to Peleg 239, Reu 239, Serug 230. You can see now we are shortened quite dramatically, almost half of what the previous three ancestors, the post-flood ancestors. Something happened,
something changed just like the flood happened and the lifespans shrunk down. Now, something else is going to happen. And we’re going to talk about this in great detail. Because the earth was separated or divided, that huge geographic event shortened lifespans. Which, as we said, we knew it was going to happen. Then, we get down to Nahor 148 years, Terah 205 and then Abraham 175. Now, the lifespans, are to me very fascinating. And they tell the story of themselves of the transition points, the Flood and then the earth dividing during the lifetime of Peleg. And
I’m going to put up a chart in a little bit to show you that in more detail. But first, I’d like to go through the names and the meaning of the names. So, we've already done Shem in a previous episode. In the Hebrew his name is M#Ev (shaym). And it means name, reputation, fame, character, your brand. We talked about that in some detail. Now his son was Arphaxad. In the Hebrew it's d$DvVkAÚprAa (arpachshad). And it means boundary of the Chaldeans. Now, this one was a little bit difficult name to track down. You go through what the sages have to say they’ve one opinion. The linguists have other opinions. The best I can come up with from several sources was that his name was referring to the boundary of
the Chaldeans. It had something to do with where they lived in their territory. Now, his son was Shelah, And we dealt with that name before, jAl`Dv (shalach). And it means divorce, send away set free, release. And then his son Eber. In the Hebrew is rRb`Eo (eyver). Eber means to pass over, pass through, pass by, cross over. So, it has the picture of going away somewhere. So, Shalach send away, divorce, release. Eber pass over cross. After you’ve been divorced, you go through the actions of passing through. And then we got gRl`DÚp (Paleg). His name means to split, divide, make a channel or canal. Which is quite interesting, it’s not the idea of separating family groups or languages. The word is talking about separating land by water channels. Like, you have a field and you dig a channel between for irrigation, that is Peleg. w$or (reu) means friend of God. Reu is used in the Tanakh many, many times. Most of the references are for the name Reu, but there are other places like the story of Jethro, priest of Midian. He is called Reuel which means the friend of God. So, most scholars believe that Reu’s name means friend of God and the of God is implied. Now his son was Serug or in the Hebrew it's g…wërVc (seroog). Serug means younger branch or descendant. And it’s translated some places tender shoot. So, it's that first, in the spring when something is growing and the shoot goes up. It's that tender young shoot. And then Nahor or in the Hebrew his name is rw$øjÎn (nachor). And it means snorting vigorously. The root it refers to the horse’s nostril, snorting, the snorting of the horse, vigorous snorting. It also can mean scorched. And finally Terah, in the Hebrew his name is jår$R;t (tehrach). And his name means patiently breathe.
So, let me put up that chart I promised you. And this is the Chronology of Adam’s Line. This goes all the way from Adam down to Abram. It covers just over two millennia. And it starts with Adam, he lived 930 [years]. And it goes through all of those ancestors. For example, Jared lived 962, Methuselah 969, Noah 950. When the flood happened, the lifespans were shortened. Shem, who was born before the flood, his lifespan was 600. But, that was shortened versus his daddy Noah, even though was born before the Flood. But he spent more of his life after the Flood than before the Flood. And then Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber we said down to 400. And then, the Peleg thing, the division or separation of the earth. And now shortened even further, half of what they were before, in the 200s. And then, finally on down to Abram. And I like to keep this chart in my mind, because it shows three separate eras. One, the PreFlood Era where everybody lived almost a millennium. [Two], the PostFlood Era where people lived on the order of 400+ years. And then [three], the Post-Separation of the Earth Era, where people lived 200175. And it’s going to whittle down to our 120 and will even get smaller because of the effect of sin by mankind. Now, I would like to kind of tie all of this together. I just wanted tell you the story of all these events that
happened and will include today's discussion about Peleg and the separation.
So, the story starts with Noah, his three sons, all their wives, all the animals getting off the ark. Noah takes the clean animals, builds an altar and sacrifices clean animals. And God promises him, right off the bat, that as long as the earth endures, he was not going to take away seedtime and harvest, night and day. In other words, the world will go on whether man sinned or not. And then he gave them the Sign of the Rainbow and said, “I’m never to destroy the earth buy a flood again.” And this is a visual reminder.
Now, Elohim gave Noah, his family and all the animals a mandate or a blessing or promise. And that was: I want you to be fruitful. I want you to increase in number. And I want you to go out and fill the earth. And I'm going to enable you to do that. I’m going to bless you and enable you to do that, that's your command. Now the animals complied and they went out. But men did not comply. Even though Elohim gave them a separate mandate and said:
I want you to be fruitful, increase in number and get out there and swarm or fill the earth like a swarm of bees or like a school of fish. I want you to just ‘whoosh’ go out there and populate the earth. Again, man did not comply, instead they went down off the mountain. Noah planted his vineyard, his gardens. He was a man of the soil.
Then we had the whole incident with Noah getting drunk and Ham seeing him naked. And that whole event sorted out the boys. So that, Shem was on top. Ham was on the bottom. Japheth was in the middle. And Shem got the blessing. And Shem then, was going to be the guy that carried on the family name. He was going to carry on the Messianic Line. Now we believe it goes further than that. We believe that, not only did Noah bless his son and put Ham as his slave and elevate him, we believe that Elohim did the same.
In fact, the sages, if you read in the Talmud in Nedarim 30:2b, we have the description of Shem receiving the priesthood. He received the first priesthood from Elohim. He was a righteous man. He set up a house of righteousness. And tradition holds that Shem was Melchizedek. Now, we'll talk about that when we get to the story of Melchizedek. I’m not in 100% agreement with the sages on that one. But, we believe that Shem was given all of this by his father and by Elohim. So, they wandered off towards the East and ended up on the Shinar Plain.
On the Shinar Plain, they decided they weren’t going to disperse from there. They were going to just settle down. So, as we said in previous episodes, they just parked their little bottoms in the Shinar Plain and did not budge. And generations went by. And they just stayed there and stayed there and stayed there. Now, during that time where they were in the Shinar Plain, more babies were being born. In fact, we know the next generation. Shem had Arphaxad. This actually happened before they got the Shinar. But, we had that generation, we had Cush and all the guys from Ham’s line. And we had all of the first generation from Japheth. And then another generation.
So, the next generation after Arphaxad, and remember his name meant boundary of the Chaldeans, the next generation we had Shelah or Shalach which, of course, this means divorce like we just described to you. So, Shelah was from the same generation as Nimrod. And we talked about Nimrod a little bit in a previous episode.
Nimrod was not a good guy. He was a bad guy. Nimrod is described by many of the sages as being a very evil man. In fact, they purport that he was the instigator of the building of the city and the tower. In fact, I think he was the one that said:
Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:4)
And there's a lot of lore associated with Nimrod and we talked a little bit about it. And Nimrod is going to pop up in one of our future episodes. But, I believe that that Nimrod was the instigator. And part of the reason is, that in the description of Nimrod and his territories in the Table of the Nations,
it says specifically that he took Babylon as the center for his kingdom and built up the territories, the cities surrounding it. And in Nineveh, he did the same thing. So, to me it doesn't take a lot of stretch of the imagination to understand that Nimrod was probably that guy leading the charge. And when everybody separated, Nimrod probably stayed put and wanted to continue his tower building. So, it was during Shelah’s lifetime that Nimrod was doing that. Now, when the city started going up, and men were getting puffed up with pride, flying in the face of Elohim. And Elohim decides he's going to come down to the city and see what's going on.
Remember, we talked about the lightning and thunder and fire and smoke and earthquakes and wind, shaking the city, the fear that would have come in. And then Elohim confuses all their languages. So then, nobody can communicate anymore, more fear. They all take off to their tents or to their houses and find out that all the languages of been scrambled. But, you can talk to your own family. So then, Elohim scatters them. And they all scatter out throughout the earth.
And remember, in the Table of Nations, we talked about where they all went and where they all sorted out. And Shelah’s name: divorce, separate, send away. I think is talking about that world event that happened. I think it was during his lifetime, Nimrod’s lifetime that the whole scattering and confusion happened. And then his son, his name was Eber. And remember, Eber’s name means to cross over, to make make a journey crossing over the land. So, I think the process of the whole scattering and confusion and the division of people groups, by family, family groups. That happened also during the lifetime of Eber.
Now, Eber’s name, the root if you look at it and I’ll put it up. It's ע (ayin) ב (bet) ר (resh).
That root, is where we get the name Ivrit, which is the name of the Hebrew language. It's also where we get the term Hebrew. In the Greek, Eber's name is Heber. It is where we get the English word Hebrew. It comes from Eber's [Greek] name. Now, he had two sons Peleg and Joktan. Now, It was during the lifetime of Peleg that the earth was divided.
His name, gRl#RÚp (Peleg) is from the root gAlDÚp (palag), which means to split or divide as in cutting a channel between lands. And the picture is we’re separating or dividing lands with water. Genesis 10:25 says:
Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.
Now, the word used for divided in Genesis 10:25 is hDgVlVpˆn (niflegah). And that is from the root gAlDÚp (palag). And it's the specific word that says Peleg whose name means divide, separate, cuts a channel, the division of the earth was the same. The earth was separated physically, divided, a channel was cut and the land masses were separated. Now, if it was referring to the division of languages, as some scholars purport, that his name was prophetic, looking at the division of languages. And I don't doubt that there could be that interpretation. I don't disagree with that at all. But, if that was the case, then why didn't Moses, who wrote Genesis, use the word for scatter, the root X…wÚp (pootz). Why did he say pootz instead of palag. If you wanted to say it was division of languages, he would have used that term. So, I believe during the lifetime of Peleg, at the beginning of his life, and all the people up till then, that the Earth is one giant landmass.
We know in Genesis that during creation, all the earth was gathered together in one place. And the waters surrounded it. And it became dry land. So, that did not change. Now, some believe that during the Flood there was separation that happened. That’s where all the islands and all that stuff came from. I don't have a problem with that but we still have to deal with this whole idea of division or separation.
I believe that was all still one piece of land and that piece of land was kind of like Pangaea. I don’t know if you did that when you were in school where we take all the continents, cut them out and then you piece them together, see how they fit together and you create this single landmass called Pangaea. How Pangaea could get separated out? The scientists believe that the earth started with that and the continents did separate. They actually believe that. But they say that it happened over 100 or 200 million years because they’re observing the current separation rate which is about two and a half millimeters per year. So, they believe in this whole Peleg thing, but they believe that it took millions and bazillions of years.
It's called the tectonic plate theory. If you read up on it, just go online and look at the whole plates. It's consistent with the Word of God, it’s just the timing is different. Now most scientists believe that the plates cannot move very fast, they’re locked into this slow creep of millimeters per year. But, there have been times where these plates actually move pretty quickly. In fact, there is one that happened in my lifetime, your lifetime, most of you. It was the earthquake that happened off the coast of Japan. And this happened at 2:46 PM, Friday, the 11th in March 2011.
It was called the Great East Japan Earthquake. It measured magnitude 9 on the Richter scale. It occurred 130 km offshore from Sendai, in the Miagi Prefecture, on the eastern coast of Honshu Island. The seabed separated, creating a crevice that was 20 to 30 m separation and some places even 50 m of separation.
And the length of this crevice is estimated to be about 650 km. So, quite a bit of separation of our tectonic plates. Now, this created a massive earthquake and of course there was a massive tsunami, destruction of the infrastructure. In fact, 19,300 people died during that earthquake and ensuing tsunami. After the dust settled, and they did the measurements, they found that the Island of Honshu, in a three-minute time period, had moved several meters further away from the West Coast of the US. And the earth actually changed in diameter. And this whole thing shifted the axis of the earth. It was such a huge event that it had worldwide
repercussions. Now, if the earth can move that fast, yeah, there was destruction, but this was not an extinction event where mankind was wiped out because of the tidal waves, why couldn't this have happened during the lifetime of Peleg on a worldwide scale. Now, if there were tidal waves, if you are up high enough, tidal waves wouldn’t get to you. The heights in the Shinar Plain:
Babylon is around 30 m above sea level. Ninevah 228. That's current measurements. So, even a 15 m or 20 m tidal wave wouldn't get to you. So, if you were separating, going out into your areas, and this separation happened. The earthquakes, the movement of the earth, tidal waves, whatever. If you are up high enough, you would've survived. If you were you living in tents or simple wooden structures, you probably would've survived. So, I think it is certainly feasible. Now, the other theory, of course, is the theory that everything separated during the flood, very convenient, a nice safe time for everything to do that, everybody’s tucked away on the Ark. But, the contents were still connected by land bridges. And there’s evidence that this could have been the case. In fact, this was really popular, maybe 20-30 years ago.
The whole idea of the land bridge between Asia and North America, socalled Beringia. There was a guy named David Hopkins who was the chief proponent for the land bridge. And at some point the land bridge collapsed and the continents were separated. And some believe that is the whole concept of Peleg. And a third notion is that Elohim just did this in a supernatural means and preserved everybody's life and it just happened very suddenly. Now, to me it doesn't matter how it happened. It doesn't matter how fast it happened. What matters to me is that it did happen. The Word says that the earth was separated and the earth was separated. Now Peleg, his brother Joktan had many sons and they went out and populated India, probably Afghanistan, Pakistan and they peopled that part of the world. Our friend Peleg stayed put. He stayed in the Shinar Plain.
He had a son and his name was Reu. And Reu means close friend, kind of like a close enough friend like a bridegroom, somebody who is really, really super close. And the implication is that he was friend of God. And that was based on what we talked about. Reuel, Jethro, priest of Midian, he was called Ruel because he was a friend of God even though his name was Jethro.
Then his son Serug, whose name means tender young shoot. This invokes images like Isaiah 53:2, which is a Messianic Passage. It says that Messiah grew up as a tender shoot. And then his son Nahor.
His name means snorting violently, like an impatient horse ready to bolt or an angry bull ready to charge, implying that he was impetuous prone to outbursts. His son Terah was just the opposite. His name means controlled, patient breaths. The implication is that he was highly trained. Now this fits with what we were talking about in a previous episode. In Sefer HaYashar where it talks about Terah being the Army Commander of Nimrod's army. He would've been a rich guy. He would have been able to provide his family with education and training. So, Abram would have been raised in opulence, highly educated and trained. His name means my father is highly exalted which fits with Terah being highly exalted in Nimrod's army.
Now, why Terah decided he was going to pick up his son, daughter-inlaw and grandson and move away from the rich port city of Ur and go over to Haran, we'll talk about that in a future episode. So, one of the Messianic Implications of that story that I just told you and of the whole separation, Peleg and the genealogy.
Elohim directed Shem’s family to the richest land on the earth. Shem received the first priesthood from Elohim and created a house of righteousness. Messiah’s line travelled through Arphaxad, who established their territory in the Shinar Plain. Shelah, Eber and Peleg represent the confusion of languages and the separation of the peoples. It was during the lifetime of Peleg that the earth was divided (physically separated). Reu was the friend of God. Serug, the tender shoot, he carried on the family name. Nahor, the untrained raging bull who then gave birth to Terah, the controlled, highly trained officer who provided the lavish, opulent environment for Abram to acquire what he needed to accomplish his important role in carrying on the Messianic Line. The entire genealogy from Shem to Abram directly points us directly to Messiah.
So, this is talking about this whole genealogy, the meaning of all their names, all the events that happened. All of this is just marching forward the Messianic Line, getting down to Abram, who was one of the more important if not one of the most important ancestors of Messiah.
Now, if you look at the list, the last four ancestors in that list starting you with Peleg’s offspring going all the way down to Abram. So, you’ve got Reu, his name means friend of God. And I believe that these four names have Messianic Implications. And I believe that this is pointing us towards Messiah who will be a friend of God. Serug, the tender young shoot. I believe that Messiah will grow up like a tender young shoot out of dry ground before the LORD just like it is mentioned in Isaiah. And each of these Messianic name associations are supported by other scriptures, other Messianic Prophecies. So it’s not just this specific portion. Then Nahor, Messiah will be like a snorting horse or bull on the occasion where he confronts evil men. And then Terah, Messiah will be patient and kind to his followers. So, it’s just those last last four names. They just jumped out. And these are characteristics of Messiah that are supported in other places.
So, let’s continue reading:
Elohim’s division of the world by language and culture, as well as by physical geography, points us to a time when Messiah will do the same thing. He will divide his followers and send them out into all the world to preach the good news. Elohim divided the world to
control their evil behavior. Messiah instead will unite the world, bringing together men and women of every nation and every tongue (as we will learn from future prophecies) who will bow their knee at his name and worship him in his temple in Jerusalem. We will also discover in future prophecies that all the nations will bring offerings to Messiah and worship him (Micah 4:1, Isa 35). Elohim scattered them and Messiah will gather them.
So, let's step back and look at the big picture. The big picture is what we were talking about at the beginning of this episode. The Messianic Implications of this whole, the three events, is that Messiah is going to become a sacrifice for us, for you, for me. He’s going to be our sacrifice, so that he will be a substitution for our sins. And then we’ll be able to stand before our Creator, justified and righteous. It was that prophecy, that we went over previous to these three events, that prophecy that shows us that Elohim changed his mind. Instead of using destruction and death as a punishment for sin, which is still relevant, because we'll see some people are going to get wiped out because of their sinful behavior. For example, the Canaanite clans, because of their sinful practices they were spewed out or expelled from the land. And the Israelites were able to wipe a lot of them out. So, that that is a concept that is still there. But, it's this idea of salvation that that brings all of this together and brings all these events together.
He is going to make a way. Messiah is going to make a way for men to live in harmony. It may not happen today. It may not happen tomorrow. But, it is prophesied that it will happen in the future, that men will live in unity and harmony. And this is the absolute antithesis of what we’re
seeing in the City of Babylon, the Tower of Babel, the separation of man, the treatment of men. Because of their evil behavior Elohim came down and forced them and separated them to do what he wanted them to do. It’s going to be just the opposite. Messiah’s going to establish an eternal kingdom. Jerusalem will be its capital. Mount Zion will be at the center of government. The law will go out from Mount Zion. Men will come from the entire earth to worship Messiah. The redeemed of the Lord will come with singing up to Zion. Everlasting joy will crown their heads. The gates of the city wall will always be open. And there are many many many many prophecies which we are going to get to it in future episodes, which are going to paint us an even more beautiful picture of Messiah's Eternal Kingdom. And that's what this Post-Food Era is directly pointing to. Let’s go over all the prophecies from the Post-Flood Era. There are ten of them:
1) Elohim’s decision to confuse and scatter mankind instead of destroy them points us to Messiah. Elohim will use Messiah’s sacrifice as a remedy for sin not the destruction of mankind
2) The city and tower on the Plain of Shinar are an antitype of the city and mountain that Messiah will occupy i.e. Jerusalem and Mount Zion
3) The manner of the dispersion of mankind into the world reveals the Messianic blessing bestowed on Shem and his line. They were given the best land living in the fertile crescent
4) The picture of Elohim sending mankind out into the four corners of the world is a picture of Messiah who will do the same thing when he will say to his followers “Go into all the world”
5) The naming of each member of the Messianic line points to pivotal world events. Each event heralds the coming of Messiah. Messiah will come from a Semitic Race of people whose early history is centered in the Chaldean Territories. Successive generations point to the scattering of mankind, division of the earth, positioning of Abram as a highly trained
and educated man capable of managing military campaigns, acquiring large amounts of wealth and political power.
And we’re going to see this and we’re going to talk about Abraham. How did Abraham put together an army of 300 men and train them? They were just his household personal bodyguards, his personal army. How are they going to defeat the best armies of the world? And we’re going to discuss this. It's going to be a really exciting episode. I believe it's because Abraham was trained in military actions and techniques.
6) The characteristic found in Reu’s name: Messiah will be a friend of God
7) The characteristic found in Serug’s name: Messiah will grow up like a tender young shoot out of dry ground before the LORD
8) The characteristic found in Nahor’s name: Messiah will be like a snorting horse or bull on occasions when his anger flares up against evil men
9) The characteristic found in Terah’s name: Messiah will be patient and kind to his followers
10) The physical division of the earth, during the lifetime of Peleg, points us to Messiah who will reverse the division and physically unite the earth when he establishes his kingdom. Many Old Testament Messianic Prophecies indicate that the mountains will be made low, the valleys will be filled in, the islands will flee away, the starry host will fall from the sky and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll. And I believe that the earth during Messiah’s Eternal Kingdom will be brought back together. It’s going to be like the pre-flood earth.
Now, I'm out of breath. I don’t know if you are out of breath listening to all these prophecies. But, to me, this is just an amazing revelation of God's plan for mankind. He is putting forward Messiah as our sacrifice.
He is showing us a vision of Messiah’s coming kingdom, a time where men are going to be unified. We’re going to live together in peace and harmony when the earth is going to come together rather than split apart. What a glorious day that is going to be. And I look forward to being part of that. Now, in our next episode, we are not going to go straight into the story of Abram.
We’re going to instead go to a patriarch whose name was Job. And we’re going to talk about all the prophecies found in Job. Now, the placement of Job chronologically is controversial. Most people will place him in the age of the patriarchs. But, was it after Terah and his family went to Haran? Did that happen? Was it during the lifetime of Abram? Was it later? We don't know for sure. But I’m just put it in this particular place. It’s just because it is a convenient place to talk about all the Job prophecies, and then move into Abraham and keep going as a continuum, Abraham on down through his offspring. So, join me next time when we talk about Job.
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 you believe Dr. Smith is talking about? And Messiah will become real to you if you look at all the information presented and come to your conclusions. So, join us as we continue our journey through the Old Testament Scriptures looking for all the Messianic Prophecies. And join us next time as we reveal those to you.