Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 19
Impending Judgment Part 1 Sin and Violence Fill the Earth
Welcome to Messiah In The Old Testament. I'm really excited today to bring this episode to you. This episode is a very visual episode. What do I mean by that? I mean you can close your eyes. You can visualize all the stuff that's happening. It’s a very vivid episode full of a lot of action. But at the same time, it’s a very visceral episode because we've got a lot of gut-wrenching things that are happening on the earth, the convulsions the earth is going through as violence and sin fill up the earth. So that's why I'm so excited about this episode because it is a very vibrant, exciting episode.
Now we split the episode into two parts. We’ve got the first part which is going to be the revelation of all the things that led up to Elohim's executive decision to wipe out all living things from the earth. And then the second episode is where God reveals his grand scheme to save all of mankind. So, it's dark episode and a bright episode. One full of no hope, only violence, death and destruction. And then the second one full of hope. So, we can imagine in our first episode no Messianic Prophecies at all. Then our second episode, it’s like this explosion of messianic prophecies. And we know around the life Noah there’s just this burst of Messianic activity.
In fact. if you look at the at the chronology of the time span. You go from the revelation of the Mark of Cain until the life of Enoch, which is the next messianic prophecy, there’s like a 500-year span where there's nothing. Nothing except for rebellion and violence and death and destruction on the earth. And that that explains that the dearth of messianic prophecies, because this is the dark time in the world before the salvation of Elohim is manifested. So, we are looking forward to
telling you the entire run up to the worldwide flood, all the good and all the bad.
Now if you remember in our previous two episodes. There was a single episode that was split into two parts. We talked about the line of Seth and the line of Cain. And remember, the line of Cain was a cursed, unrighteous line. And the line of Seth was a blessed line, full of righteous people. And we decided to compare those lines back-and-forth by looking at five generations down from their progenitors. From Cain on one side Seth on the other side.
So, on the Cain side, we had the firstborn of Cain who was Enoch. And then Enoch became the father of Irad. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mahujael became the father of Methusael. And then Methusael became the father of Lamech. And remember Lamech was the guy who bragged that I killed a young man for injuring me. He was, we likened him to the mafioso type. A Godfather would say something like Eh, don't mess with Lamech. You mess with me I kill you. If Cain is avenged 7 times, Lamech avenged 77 times. Don't mess with Lamech.”
And then on the other side, let's start with Seth and count down five generations. So, we had Seth and then Enosh and then Kenan and then Mahalalel and then we had Jared and then we had Enoch. And Enoch was the righteous prophet who walked with Elohim. And at the end of his 365 years, he then was taken away by Elohim. And we developed this whole concept of the Messianic Line. And that was the prophecy, the first prophecy in that episode that we revealed.
That there was this thing called the Messianic Line, the righteous line of Messiah. And in that line, there were righteous people. But there were specific characters, like Enoch and like Noah, that we revealed they were types of Messiah. And I have the advantage of knowing the geneologic line as it goes down beyond the flood. And I know that there is character after character after character of these righteous men who are types of Messiah.
And that's the characteristic of this line that we revealed. That it is just full of Messianic Prophecy within the people in the line, the actions of those people. It is just an amazing thing to see that. And we also know that along the way that Elohim blessed that line. Elohim prospered that line. We are going to see in the future episodes there are men that Elohim prospered and they were wealthy beyond imagination. In my opinion, he did that to help continue the Messianic Line, to promote the Messianic Line. So, then Messiah could come. Let's look at the line, this righteous line. It started with Adam. And Adam, his name comes from the earth.
He was made from the afar min ha adamah. His name literally means the dirt or the dust that was created into his flesh. And then we also know that adom means red. And we talked about the EMS system in Israel, is the Magen David Adom. And some say that it refers to the color of Adam skin, that he was made from red dirt and that he had red skin. Then Adam became the father of Seth.
And Seth’s name in the Hebrew is shayt. And it comes from the root sheet, which means to set down or put into place. And we know that Seth was put into place to replace his brother Abel who was killed by Cain. So, he was the replacement for his brother Abel. Then Seth became the father of Enosh.
And Enosh, his name comes from the root anash, which means sick or ill. And it’s generally maintained that his name is referring to the frailty or the sickness of mankind. Then he became the father of Kenan and Keenan in Hebrew is Canaan, which comes from the root Cain. Of course, the name Cain is spear or spearheaded. and his name is considered to be referring to those who work with metal, metalworkers or metal formers.
Then he became the father of Mahalalel. And his name is compound mahalal which means praise and then El the name of God. So Mahalal El literally means praise be to God or praise of God.
Then he became the father of Jared. And Jared, his name yered comes from the root yarad. And yarad, of course, we know means to descend or come down.
And the name Jordan, the Jordan River is named because Jordan starts in the heights of Mount Hermon and goes all the way down to the Dead Sea. The depths of the Dead Sea, a huge vertical drop. And hence coming from the root yarad, the Jordan.
Then he got his name because it was during Jared's lifetime that the Sons of God or angels came down from heaven and married the daughters of men. So, descend or come down, he gets his name because of what happened with the angels.
Then he became the father of Enoch, chanok. And it comes from the root chanach. Which means to set apart or be consecrated. That’s were get the word Chanukkah. To be set apart or dedicated. And we know that his life was exactly that. He was set apart dedicated in service to Elohim. He was a prophet. He was this righteous and blameless man. And he walked with God and at the end of his 365 days [years], he was carried away by Elohim into heaven.
And those were four prophecies that we came up with. Messiah, like Enoch, who is a type of Messiah. His ministry will be dedicated in service to Elohim. He will be set apart, dedicated in service. Number two, he'll be righteous and blameless just like Enoch. Number three, he will walk with Elohim while he is on the earth and during his ministry. And then finally he will be carried away by Elohim to heaven at the end of his ministry. Enoch, a type of Messiah. Then Enoch became the father of Methuselah, Metushalach.
And remember his name Met is the name for man. Shalach means to banish or send away, just like Noah [Adam] was banished from the garden, same word. We looked at it before. So, Methuselah was the man who was banished from the earth. So, we know that he died the same year as the flood came. And many of the sages believe that Methuselah died on the exact day that Noah was sealed up into the ark. And then there was a seven-day waiting period to mourn Methuselah. And then the floodwaters came. And then Methuselah became the father of Lamech.
Lamech his name had no root so we don't know what his name means based on [the meaning of] other words. But we theorize that it could be like fulcrum or tipping point or the balance between evil and good. And that's when the world tipped. Elohim decided he was going to wipe out all mankind. Then Lamech became the father of Noah. And in his naming, you remember, he said just the name Noah means rest or quiet. And then he said Noah was going to bring comfort. He is going to be the one who brings comfort from all the toil and work that came from the curse that Adam received, the curse of the ground. He was going to be the one that brought relief from that. So, his name literally means one who is going to bring redemption or relief or comfort, from the sin to the free from sin.
And the word comfort that Lamech used was the word nacham. And remember we said nacham has three specific meanings: We’ve got sorrow, we’ve got pity and we’ve got compassion. So, we know that Noah was a type of Messiah. So just like Noah was the one who was bringing, rest and quiet to this violent, sinful world. Messiah is going to do the same. He's going to be the Redeemer, who is going to come and take the world from violence to peace. And we know that Messiah like Noah in his naming, is going to be a man of pity. He is going to be a man of sorrow. He’s going a be a man of compassion. So, we revealed all these Messianic Prophecies just through this righteous line of Seth. And it's going to continue and it is just amazing to me how this just gets
repeated over and over and over, these types of Messiah. This all brings us to our story today. Now I think we need a little bit of background as to the references I'm using. The Tanakh, of course, were using that as our basis for the story and our basis for all the Messianic Prophecies that get revealed today.
And that is Genesis 6:1-22. That is our base Scripture and throughout these episodes were to be reading that to you and revealing those references. We also decided to take from Josephus who was first century historian who wrote a book called Antiquities of the Jews. And he goes through the history and as part of the history of the Jews, he has a little snippet about the sinful condition of the world as a result of Cain's action. So, I added that to give you just a little more flavor, a little more detail of what the world was like. At least what Josephus, who in the first century, who had access to all the oral tradition of the day, that's what he wrote.
And then of course were going to borrow from the sages. And remember we used these references previously. Maimonides in the Halakah Mishneh Torah Sefer HaMaddha. Then also in the Sefer Hayashar Beresheit Noach. These are the two references from the writings of the sages. And, of course, the Hayashar is the medieval midrash that was written.
Now, Enoch, the book of Enoch, we’re going to use 6:1-6 and then 7:16. We could've brought in chapter 8 and beyond because there are many, many things that that we could talk about. But the details just get all bogged down and we decided to just cut to the chase. And just go to the specific details, talking about the sinfulness on the earth.
The Book of Enoch if you’ll remember in our previous episodes, we revealed that the book of Enoch, this is the book that is found in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible. This is a writing that was of course in the Ethiopian language and translated into English. And that is the version that we have available to us to read today.
But we also know that there were fragments of this book found in Qumran. So, the Essenes had access to it. And we then told you about the direct quote from the book of Enoch by Jude who wrote his letter in the decade before the destruction of the temple to his friends and colleagues. And that letter has become Canon within the Christian Bible. So, to me that gives the book of Enoch some veracity.
So, there's all these references, little bits and pieces of the book of Enoch which is incorporated into the Tanakh, incorporated into the Christian Bible, incorporated into various places. So, I lend some credence to the book of Enoch. I think it has more veracity than a lot of the other books I could referred to.
For example, I could quote from the book of Adam, the book of Adam and Eve, the life of Adam and Eve, the Apocalypse of Adam, the book of Jubilees and on and on. There’s a long list of these references that I could I use. But I chose not to use them because I don't think the veracity is as high as is that of the book of Enoch. So enough said. So, let’s look now at some background as to the conditions that are on the earth.
This story today takes place in the life of Jared. And you can imagine, because we talked about the Angels coming down, it’s going to include the story of the Angels coming down and taking the daughters of men. It is happening in the mountain range that separates Lebanon and Syria.
In modern day it’s called Anti-Lebanon Mountains. And the highest peak is on the southern end and that’s Mount Hermon. So, we’re going to talk about the conditions that would be happening in that area. We know that there was no rain.
We know that the vegetation was watered by mists that came up during the night. It watered everything. So, the concept of rain was not there. So
likely they had no storms, no thunderstorms, no hurricanes, tornadoes, that sort of thing. We imagine that the weather was pretty moderate.
We know that the vegetation was still fairly lush, not as lush as the Garden of Eden, which was described as a well-watered land. Where all the trees were good for eating, good for food and gaining nutrition. We don't know outside the garden that all the trees were like that, but we suspect there were still a lot of trees, fruit trees available. We know that the ground was fertile and good for tilling. We know that Adam tilled. We know that Cain tilled. And they were able to get you reasonable crops. So, we feel like the conditions on earth were still fairly verdant and lush. Now, we know that all of mankind spoke one language at the time. We know that they all shared common experience, common history, common heritage. So, we know that there were probably a lot of similarities in the customs and what was going on. We know that there was definitely some technologic development.
We know from the description of Lamech's three sons Tubal-Cain, etc. We know that there was development in the technology of musical instruments and the arts. We know that there was development in the forging of bronze and iron. So, we know that was metalworking. We know that there was development in animal husbandry and in the hybridization of crops, all that kind of stuff. There was development in these areas. So, we know that the world was progressing towards increasing wisdom, increasing knowledge, increasing ability to create and craft things. So, I see this as a place of wonder and amazement as these new discoveries are being made. And it’s probably a very exciting time to be on the earth. But the problem with all this technological, cultural, agricultural development was that there was this pervasive attitude amongst men. It obviously came from Adam and Eve and then it came through Cain and his rebellious attitude and nature.
There was this attitude that I can do whatever I want to do. I'm going to do what is right in my own eyes. I don't care what you say. I don't care what the rules are. I don't care! All I care is, what I want to do. And then
the corollary, that is, I can have anything I want. I don't care if it belongs to you. I can steal it. I can take it by force. I can kill you to obtain it. It doesn't matter. I can have anything I want. So, you have these characters that are just wanton theft and destruction and killing and raping. And that is what led to the decision to wipe out the earth. Now to give you a little color, I said we would bring in Josephus. Let's see what Josephus has to say. He put it like this.
In his book, Antiquities of the Jews, 1:60-61, he said
And when Cain had traveled over many countries, he, with his wife, built a city, named Nod, which is a place so called, and there he settled his abode; where he also had children. However, he did not accept of his punishment, in order to amendment, but to increase his wickedness;
In other words, he didn't respond to God's correction with, “Okay I’m going to repent. I going to do better. I’m going to do what is right.”
Instead:
For he only aimed to procure everything that was for his own bodily pleasure,
This whole idea I’m going to do what is right in my own eyes.
Though it obliged him to be injurious to his neighbors. He augmented his household substance with much wealth, by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintance to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery and became a great leader of men into wicked courses. He also introduced the change in that way of simplicity wherein men lived before; and was the author of measures and weights. And whereas they lived innocently and generously while they knew nothing of such arts, he changed the world into cunning craftiness.
And I underline the term ‘cunning craftiness’. I think this explains a lot about what's going on in the world of Cain, in the world of his offspring Mehujael, Lamech, Tubal-Cain. The violence that is inherent in the world. So, this illustrates to me, the crux of our story today.
Adam received the curse. He was banished from the Garden. He had to work the ground, the thistles and the thorns. Eve was having increased pain in childbearing and the fear of the snake. These curses then got passed down into all of humanity. Cain received his curse. Which was, he was going to be a restless wanderer, the ground wouldn’t produce for him, he was banished from the presence of Elohim. The curse of Adam and the curse of Cain is being pushed down through the generations. So, there is this concept that, If I sin, then that sin comes with judgment. And then that judgment results in curses. And this whole concept of the curse of sin and death, which originated with Adam’s first sin, now is imparted even to my generation today.
I live under the curse of sin and death. I don't get to live forever on this earth like Adam and Eve were supposed to. I don't have the ability to plop something in the ground and have it grow without any weeds, and then enjoy the blessing and prosperity of that. I have to work the ground. I have to work to get my income. I am living under the same curses that Adam and Eve and Cain and all the generations that happened. So, think about this. I illustrate this right now because this is the background that's going to kind of fill in what is happening on the earth and why God is coming to this decision to wipe out all mankind. Sin is abundant. Sin is everywhere. Violence is everywhere. There's killing and stealing and destroying, trying to get what you want, trying to do what you want. And there's no regard for other people. And this whole thing is spiraling out of control. With all this sin, judgment is piling up. Judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment is piling up. And also, curses are piling up. I mean this whole civilization has got his big heavy judgment sitting on top of it. And all these curses are waiting to be executed against them. So, when it comes time for God to decide what he's going to do, he looks at all this sin, all of this judgment. And being a just God, he has
to say, “I got to do it. I got to pull the trigger. I got to wipe out all mankind because of all of these judgments and curses that are heaped up on them, but tempered against that justice and that judgment, we’ve got this concept of mercy. Elohim has mercy on mankind. Elohim makes a decision to change his course and save mankind rather than just wiping the whole thing out. And this, like I said, is the whole crux of this episode. And contained in that decision, is a burst of Messianic Prophecies. And we’ll get to that. So, Maimonides in his writings, the Halakah Mishneh Torah Sefer HaMaddha is a section called Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations. He describes this world that is embroiled in the worship of false gods. It’s a little different than the whole violence, stealing, killing, doing what was right in your own eyes. This is describing how an entire civilization went from, the presence of Elohim, to rejecting Elohim altogether. And he talks about false prophets that come in. And we’ll read in the book of Enoch some of how this may have happened. But false prophets came in and convinced the people saying that I received prophecy from the starry host.
And the starry host told me that we should build altars to them, that we should build temples to them, that we should bow down and worship them, that we should bring in offerings to them. And they set up this whole false God, idol worship. And he goes on to say entire generations of men, women and children were raised and steeped in this worship of the starry host. So that generation after generation, the people started forgetting about Elohim.
They stopped calling on the name of Elohim and there was no one left on the earth except for Enoch, Methuselah, Noah and then he also talked about Abraham who was the greatest of all in Maimonides’ writing. So, this is describing a world that has rejected Elohim. No one calls on the name of Elohim any more. No one acknowledges Elohim. No one enjoys his presence. No one even cares, except for our righteous line. And keep that in mind as we go through our second installment in this episode. Now to end this episode, I'm going to read our base Scripture. And I’m going to do Genesis 6:1-4.
This is the basis on which were going to start our next episode, which is going to start revealing all these Messianic Prophecies. Genesis 6:1-4 says:
When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful,
And the Tanakh doesn't specifically use the word lust. The book of Enoch does use the word lust. But we get the idea that these women were so beautiful that these angels just had to have them. And that implies there was lust. And I personally believe that the angels did lust after that the daughters of men. And this was a sinful thing, not a just a normal thing that the angels did.
The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
You notice that the women didn't choose the sons of God. The sons of God chose the women. They didn't have a choice. And I can imagine that there may have even been some unwilling marriage and sexual activity. And that would constitute rape. So,
The LORD said, “My spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal;
His days will be cut from 900 and some, which was the lifespan at the time. Infinite before the fall of Adam and Eve. Now,
his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
We are going to talk a lot about this in our next episode. Does that hundred and twenty mean a countdown to the flood. Does that one hundred and twenty mean that you and I are still bound by that one
hundred and twenty years? We can't live beyond hundred and twenty? We'll discuss it.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward —when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
So, the implication is that they had children. Those children were the Nephilim.
They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
So that's all you get from the Tanakh about the conditions on the earth. That's why I’m drug in the writings of Josephus. And that's why I pulled in the of the writings of the sages. And we’re going to pull in the Book of Enoch to give us some additional detail.
Now my criteria for using these other sources is that they don't contradict the story that happens. Now there are some details that are little bit different. But it does not contradict the story, the flow of the story. So, in the book of Enoch, if there was a direct contradiction that said something happened completely different than what the Tanakh said, I would reject it and not use it. And the same with the writings of the sages. So, we’re going to start the next episode with this same reference. And then we will move on. And we will start talking about what is going to happen. Now I want to do just kind of a quick synopsis here at the end. And I want to describe the world.
The world, a place of wonder and amazement, all those good things that we went through, it would be an amazing place to live. But that is countered by the attitude of, I'm to do what is right in my own eyes, I'm going to do what I want, I’m going to get what I want, have what I want, and I don't care what anybody else says. I'll kill you. I'll steal your stuff. I’ll destroy everything you have, I’ll destroy you, if you don't give me what I want.
And then we talked about the idol worship and how the generations were drawn away by the worship of the starry host and the false gods. And we talked about the whole concept that sin piled up on sin, piled up on sin and resulted in judgment piled up on judgment, piled up on judgment. Which finally results in curses being pronounced and that judgment then being executed. And that is what is going to happen unless some dramatic event occurs to sway Elohim from his plan to execute his judgment and wipe out all mankind. So, join us next time as we reveal that to you.
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. 15
