Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 13
Messiah’s Sacrifice Adam to Isaac
Welcome to Messiah In the Old Testament. Today we are continuing in our two-part series.
Our current episode is called Messiah’s Sacrifice. Our previous episode, the first part, was entitled Sacrificial Systems. Now if you recall we looked at the sacrificial systems from around the world. We started in Papua New Guinea. My wife and I had opportunity to go there shortly after we were married, this was 40 years ago, and we were able to sit down and talk to the tribal elders who were alive at the time before the tribe was even discovered by the outside world.
The Huli Tribe was only discovered in like the 1930s to 1940s. So, these people had specific knowledge of all the traditions that happened before the the westernization of their society. There were two sacrificial ceremonies that were described to me by the elders. The first was the sacrificial ceremony which was involved with funerals.
During the funeral rites a pig was sacrificed. And that pig was sacrificed, yes to provide food for the for the mourners at the funeral dinner, but the pig was specifically sacrificed to appease the elders, to appease the ancestral spirits that watched over the tribe. And to keep those spirits happy So, that they would not come and do mischief with the tribe.
There was a second ceremony, it was the SingSing. If you remember the SingSing was a big party where the tribe got together either part or all of the tribe. And they had all kinds of singing, dancing, partying that went on. Part of that was the sacrifice of pigs.
Usually, the sacrifice of multiple pigs sometimes even dozens of pigs or even more. Those pigs were sacrificed during the SingSing in order to bring prosperity, health and peace to the tribe. And then we went over, and we looked at all of the of the cultures where we had previously looked at their creation stories. And we started looking in the North American Native American culture. And we said that in the Cherokee culture where we told our specific creation story, that the warriors would take a part of the deer when they killed it, mostly the tongue but sometimes an internal organ, they would burn it in a fire to appease the spirits.
And there are even tribes like the Skidi Pawnee Tribe who had influence up from the Aztecs in Mexico. And they had a ceremony called the Morning Star Ceremony where they abducted a young maiden from enemy village and then they wined and dined her for five days and then sacrificed her on a frame at the first sighting of the Morning Star on the fifth day.
Then we moved over, and we looked at the Chinese culture. We discovered that there was a dynasty back in the 1600 hundred BC that had both animal and human sacrifice. They excavated tombs from that dynasty, the Shang dynasty, and they discovered that they were these bones which are called oracle bones. The oracle bones were bones like the scapula and sometimes even the breastplate of a of a tortoise where they scribbled all of their basically a request for the divination of the future. So, they used these as a way to get the future interpreted. They would put the bones in the fire. The thermal expansion would cause cracking of the bones. And then the priests and shamans were able to read those cracks and then predict the future. But on some of those oracle bones there were inscriptions describing the animal and human sacrifice that went on during the Shang dynasty.
And then we moved over to the Babylonians and remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and Daniel who were captured by the Babylonians. They were taken back to Babylon and then they were
educated in the Babylonian way. And they refused to eat the food that came from the King’s table. This was most likely because the food at the King’s table had been sacrificed to their God Marduk. And there were inscriptions that described all kinds of things that were sacrificed to Marduk -like bandicoot rats and sheep and goats and that sort of thing.
Then we moved over to Greece, and we discovered that during the initial Olympic ceremonies, the ancient ceremonies that we referred to. Where there were some sporting events, but this was mostly a big party to worship and honor Zeus. And during the Olympic ceremony they sacrificed 100 bulls to Zeus. And the individual athletes would sacrifice on side altars to their own gods to bless their athletic event and try to gain advantage. Then we moved over to Egypt, and we learned that in Egypt there were two specific temples that were described by Herodotus the historian.
One was the temple of Osiris and the other was the Temple of Isis. The Temple of Isis was a place where animal sacrifices were performed, not only in ancient Egypt but then fast-forward into Greek culture, which Herodotus was describing, and then into Roman culture. And there were actually temples to Isis in Rome. There are ruins that you can visit today where there were buildings built over the ruins and there is the Temple of Isis, which is described, you can go visit. The Temple of Isis then survived beyond Greece and Rome and even survives into current day. There are people that worship and revere Isis and remember they have their secret ceremonies. There are a lot of theories about of certain secret societies today there based on the Temple of Isis. So, what we discovered was if you go to pretty much any culture around the world and you look into their very basic beginnings, you'll find that there is animal sacrifice, there's human sacrifice, in some cases both like the Chinese Shang dynasty. And we find that sacrificial systems are pretty much base in common around the world. So, we proposed last time: What is the starting point? Where did all of these similar sacrificial systems get started?
And we proposed that it could have been Noah after the flood when the ark came to rest, and Noah built an altar and did burnt offerings on that altar of all the clean animals that he brought with them. That was the starting point. He taught his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and they taught their sons and their sons. And then that spread out all over the world. And what we are seeing are just echoes of those initial sacrificial systems and that teaching that Noah had.
Now, there is one specific sacrificial system which we discussed in some detail in the last episode. Where we can go all the way back, even before Noah, all the way back to the garden of Eden. So, what we’re going to do today is we’re going to start in the garden. And we’re going to go through all the incidences of sacrifice and go all the way up through to the Levitical system. And then we are going to tie them all together in our prophecy: Messiah’s Sacrifice.
So, let’s go to the beginning. If you’ll remember, we had Adam, Eve and the snake. They were standing there before Elohim. They were facing judgment. Elohim brought the accusations against them and of course Adam blamed his wife Eve and said to Elohim, “The woman you put here with me caused me to do it.” And the woman said, “The snake here tempted me and caused me to do it.” And we theorized that the snake would say, “Well Satan caused me to do it.” And they're all blaming everybody else. Nobody was taking responsibility. So, it was time for their judgments. And when I close my eyes and I imagine, like I keep asking you to do for every episode, put yourself in the story. So, I'm putting myself in the story and I'm imagining what it was like at that very moment where judgment was coming. I see a darkening of the skies in the garden of Eden. I see a dark foreboding of the judgments to come. And all the animals are gathered around waiting to hear what Elohim is going to say about their judgment. And it is super quiet. There is nobody talking, nobody's moving. They’re just breathless waiting for the judgment to come. It's kind of like the calm before a storm. So, that's where we’re going to pick up the story.
So, this is found in Genesis 3:14-24. And we’re going to go through this.
So, the LORD God
And if you look it up, it says basically Adonai Elohim. The tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God.
So, the LORD God said to the serpent, So, the serpent was the first to be judged.
“Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!
So, where did the serpent start. If you’ll remember, we go back earlier in Genesis 3, we find that the serpent was the most crafty of all the animals in field in the field. He was on top.
Then remember we looked at the word, the word for crafty. That word is arum. Arum can mean either a positive or negative connotation. Either like supersmart, crafty as in clever. Or as in crafty as in devious, the negative part. Then now, he is lowered to the point of cursed. He's cursed above all the other animals. Before he was the cleverest of all the animals, now he's cursed above all the animals. And the word for curse is aroor. So, the snake went from arum to aroor in one single sentence by Elohim. So, the snake now been lowered in his position.
He was the lowest of the low. So, reading on:
You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And at this point I see the snake who was standing there with his arms and legs. Suddenly his arms and legs disappear, and he just slams to the ground, now the snake. And he's wiggling around.
He tries to stand up So, he arches his back, and he comes up like a cobra. And he sees Adam and Eve and he’s angry, So, he hisses at them. He tries to strike them, and he misses. And then Adam who has a walking stick or staff with him, Adam takes that stick and tries to smack the snake upside the head and crush his head. But he misses and then the snake slithers off into the grass. Now, may not have happened that way, but that's what I'm seeing in my mind when I put myself into the story.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
I close my eyes and I see Eve now overcome with emotion. She sees what happened to the snake. She was obviously scared of the snake and probably jumped back when the snake tried to strike. She's now overcome with emotion. I see her falling to her knees. Her head in her hand just sobbing uncontrollably.
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Remember Adam was created from the dust of the earth, from the afar min ha adamah. And then God took that fine particulate dust and just like a potter who is making a pot, he fashioned the man. He made the man just like the potter's wheel making a pot or bowl or plate. And then he fashions Adam such that Adam looked just like him and Adam took his image.
Remember we talked about the tzalm and the dumoot. So, God made him in perfection and then he breathed into his nostrils the nishmat hayim and also, gave him the nefesh hayah. So, the spark of life and the breath of life. So, now Adam who was given dominion over the earth. Adam who was in charge of naming all the animals. Adam who tended the garden. Adam who had everything within his grasp. He was given everything. He was basically made a son of God just like Seth was the son of Adam who had his tzalm and his dumoot. Adam now has fallen. And to dust now he will return.
So, he went from the afar min ha adamah. Now he is the afar tashuv. Which means to dust you return. So, Adam is reduced to dust. I envision Adam now head in hands. Not sobbing uncontrollably, but a tear does drip down the side of his face. He's realizing now what he has lost. And he's probably thinking how can I redeem this. How can I fix this. How can I, how can I make this go away. And he’s thinking well maybe, just maybe I could stay in the Garden of Eden and when Elohim is not looking, I'll sneak in and take some of the fruit from the Tree of Life and I’ll be able to live forever. And he’s got all these thoughts going through his head.
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Now this brings us to the crux of these two episodes the Sacrificial Systems and Messiah’s Sacrifice. This verse is where everything hinges, and I'll read it to you now.
The LORD God (Adonai Elohim) made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
So, where you think those clothes came from? Do you think that the animals gave up their skins voluntarily and then walked around without their skins with their subcutaneous fat and muscles hanging out? Do you think that those animals just magically grew new skins? Elohim took their old skins, and they grew new skins.
No, the reality is that those animals had to be killed in order for Elohim to take their skin. I am going to read you the Hebrew it says:
Now this means quite literally, the LORD God fashioned. He created with his hand. The verb that's used there is a verb asah which is to manufacture, to create with your hands, to fashion with your hands. So, Elohim got his hands dirty doing this. Then it says the katnot, which is the word for tunic which is like an inner garment. And then ‘or which means skin. Now there is some discussion that goes on as to whether we’re talking about God putting this skin, the skin that you and I have, the skin on your back, the skin on your arms, that that was the skin he was putting on them. I do not believe that that's true at all because the word ‘or is used for the, to describe an animal hide. And since it's a plural it’s skins. God gave them clothing made of skins, plural.
I think it is pretty clear that God made the clothes from the skin of the animals. And yalbishem is the word for dressing someone, where you're actually putting the clothes on them. So, if I was helping my child get dressed, I was is that word yalbishem. Clothe them or dress them. So, Elohim fashioned the clothes and then he took those clothes and he put them on Adam and Eve. Now this is describing the very first act of sacrifice. This is the sacrifice that started the entire system of sacrifice.
Vay ya’as Adonai Elohim le adam ul le ishtoh kotnot ‘or vay yalbishemI think this was the starting point for all the sacrificial systems around the world. Next verse
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
So, the words of the serpent, remember before, the serpent said that you will become like God if you eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He promised Eve that this would come the pass. He prophesied it to her, and sure enough God confirms this and says the man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil. Now is that a good thing being like God knowing good and evil? Before, Adam and Eve did not know evil. There was no such thing as evil in their world. They had no knowledge of evil but now they know evil because evil has come in.
They traded all the blessings for curses, that of course was the very first casualty, where they lost all their blessings. And now the animals have been killed in the garden. That's the second casualty. All resulting from Adam and Eve’s sin. So, they found themselves naked, ashamed, covered with sin. And they felt the need to fashion the fig leaves. And just think how ridiculous that would be.
I make a fig leaf garment for myself and after a day or so, the fig leaves dry out. And they start crumbling, they start breaking, they’re the very itchy and scratchy. It’s not very practical thing to make garments out of leaves. If you remember when I was in Papua New Guinea, I worked with the Huli Tribe. And they wore this thing called a laplap. And a laplap was basically a loincloth. And the loincloth was held on by this bamboo belt. And then they would stuff leaves in the back where your bottom is. And they would cover their bottom with leaves. But they would have to change them out every day. They would like use banana leaves and stuff and palm leaves. And they would put new leaves in there every day.
This is how I imagine it would be for Adam and Eve. They would have to make a new, weave a new fig leaf garment every day. God felt compassion towards them and took away the fig leaf garments and replaced them with a more permanent garment. The garment was the skins from the animals.
Now I do frontier camping, which is a very fun thing to do. While we’re frontier camping, we dress in garb that was pre-1830s. And the garb that I wear is the garb of a Voyager or a trapper. And I wear buckskins. And my buckskins consist of a leather shirt and leather pants made out of buckskin. They’re very soft and they’re very supple. And they are smooth on the outside and they are very protective. I can put my moccasins, my buckskin shirt, my buckskin pants on. I can go out into the densest forest, and I can just glide through that forest like butter. I think I can go anywhere I want because the twigs, the sand burrs, the thistles, the thorns, none of them affect me because they just kind of bounce off the leather. So, that is how I envision the garments that God made for Adam and Eve. It’s like my buckskins. It is something that's going to protect them in the harsh environment that they're going to; the thistles, the thorns, having to work the ground and the rocks and the stones. And if you trip and fall the leathers will protect you from all that.
Moving on:
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
So, Adam’s thoughts about maybe I could stay in the garden and eat from the tree of life now is gone. There's no way Adam is ever getting back to that tree again. The tree is blocked by Elohim's word. So, maybe, maybe Adam now is going to plan B. Well maybe I could just stay and live in the garden but just not eat from the Tree of Life. It will still be a reasonable life living in the garden. 10
So, the next verse God takes that away.
So, the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So, now, no going back, Adam and Eve are tossed out of the garden. There is a protection to prevent them from getting back in the garden. I imagine there was like a physical barrier, trying to get into the garden like a fence around it. And then this flaming sword and the guardian preventing. So, if Adam and Eve ever tried to venture back there’s no way they would get very far. So, after Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden, the very next chapter, which is Genesis chapter 4, talks about Eve giving birth to two children.
She gave birth to Abel and to Cain, the two brothers. One was a herdsman, he managed flocks. The other one was a farmer, and he managed the fields. It is obvious from the story of Cain and Abel that Adam taught the two boys about sacrifices, about bringing offerings to God. Obviously, this whole idea of sacrifice has now been passed on from Adam to his two offspring.
And when it came time for the two young men to offer their offerings to God it says specifically that Abel brought some of the fat portions from his firstborn of the flock. And it is said that Cain brought some fruit from the ground. And they were both offered to Elohim. Elohim accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but did not accept Cain's sacrifice. And I think it was because Abel brought the firstborn. The fat portions from his flock. He honored God with the first born of the flock. Whereas Cain just brought him some fruit. The next documented sacrifice comes in our story of Noah.
And remember we read it during the last episode in Genesis 8:20-21. It says that Noah built an altar to the Lord. Now think about it, there are nine generations, ten if you include Adam, from Elohim to Adam. There are nine generations between Adam and Noah.
And there are people in there like Seth, Enosh, Keenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah Lamech, Noah. It was handed down father to son, father to son, father to son and it finally got to Lamech. Consider this, Lamech was 56 years old when Adam finally died. So, Lamech had opportunity to know Adam and to learn from Adam. But I think it was father to son, father to son. So, Lamech obviously taught Noah about sacrifices.
Because Noah, the first thing he did after the ark came to rest after the flood, was he put up an altar and he sacrificed to God.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds,
Now, God gave Noah instructions about how to build the ark, about how to coat the ark, about all the dimensions and the exact plan for building the ark. And he gave him also, specific instructions about animals, two of each animal and seven of each of the clean animals. He took lots of clean animals and these animals, both birds and animals of the field were taken along specifically so that they could be sacrificed.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds (that he brought on the ark), he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
The next instance of sacrifice comes in the book of Job. And this is Job 1:1-5. This tells us the story of Job.
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright;
He was obviously a very good man. In fact, we learn later that God bragged on him. God was very proud of Job as a righteous man.
he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, (so, ten children) and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants.
Obviously, he was a very wealthy man as well as a very blessed man and a righteous man.
He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
So, Job was this big guy, right?
His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them (those ten children), thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
Job offered sacrifices to Elohim on behalf of his children thinking they may have done something that God would not like, So, I'm going to offer a sacrifice to God to cover up their possible sins.
The next story happens in Genesis 22:6-8. And this is the story we went over before little bit because we told the story of the white ram. And remember the right white ran was in the Garden of Eden in the white ramp left the Garden and ran and got caught in the thicket. And Abraham sacrificed that ram instead of his son Isaac.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac,
Now how old was Isaac in this story? All we have to go on is a verse that happened earlier verse five in Genesis 22. And that verse said that
He (Abraham) said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.
The word boy is nahar, the Hebrew word nahar which can be translated as a boy or a youth. Now you’re not considered a man until you reach a certain age. That age currently is 13. That's when you do your bar mitzvah. Back then we don't know if that was the exact age, but probably in that range. So, he’s probably a preteen, maybe even an early teen, we don't know for sure.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Now, how did Isaac know that they should have a lamb for the burnt offering? He knew that they did not bring a lamb with them. He wondered where are we going to get the lamb for the burnt offering. Isaac knew about the concept of the sacrificial system of sacrificing burnt offerings to God.
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
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.