Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 9
The First Revelation of Messiah
Welcome to Messiah In The Old Testament. Today we have the great pleasure of revealing the very first Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament.
Now, last episode we went through the biblical creation story and we spent many weeks before that looking at different creation stories from around the world. In the last episode we compared all those and we revealed what the Bible says about creation. It happened over a sevenday period. So, let's review. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was void, formless, chaos was in the deep waters and darkness covered the whole earth. This is a state where we find the earth in the opening of verse of Genesis. Now God introduces his Holy Spirit and his Holy Spirit then hovers or broods, the word is actually flutters over the waters, merachefet. And the waters then are converted from chaotic mess to orderly seas.
So, then God speaks over this order and he says Be Light and the light shines in the darkness and all the waters are illuminated. The deep is now made light. So, God took the light and the darkness and separated them so that there was light for the day, dark for the night and this was the first day.
On the second day of creation, he took all the waters that were there on the earth and he separated waters that were below from waters that were above. So, the water vapor, clouds separated from the oceans and he set a shield in place to protect his creation.
On the third day he told all the waters to gather up into one place and that then revealed dry ground. So, then he planted on the dry ground. He put shrubs and trees, fruit trees, all kinds of vegetation. And he put within them the ability to reproduce. And the Bible says it was seed bearing seed.
So then on the fourth day God took the light that he had created and he fashioned it into stars in the sky and he made the stars and constellations and he made the seasons from that. And then he created a greater light to rule over the day, that was the sun and he created the lesser light to rule overnight and that was the moon.
On the fifth day, God created in the oceans all the small aquatic creatures and the large creatures like the whale, the leviathan, the sharks and all of the larger mammals and fish. And then he created the winged birds. And he gave them an instruction and he said I want you guys to be fruitful, to multiply and fill up the earth. He didn't fill it up all at once. He put animals there and told them to do the job and replenish the earth.
And then on the sixth day, God created the animals. He created the livestock, the animals that creep on the ground with the lizards and snakes and frogs and amphibians and then he created the wild animals. And after the animals were created, he gave in the same instruction be fruitful and multiply.
Then he created man out of the earth, out of the dust he created man and he gave him the name Adam. Now God created a special place to put Adam. He didn’t just plop him in the middle of the creation as it was all happening, he put in a special place. He put in an actual garden that he had planted in the East. And that garden was a lush garden. We’ll learn more about that in our next episode because we’re going to pick up the story. We left Adam in the garden in our last episode and in the next episode after this we’re going to pick up that story and find out what happened to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Now the Garden of Eden is a very special place. It has a very interesting mythology and history
surrounding it. There are all kinds of beliefs about the Garden of Eden. Some believe that the garden was hidden for millennia and is either going to be revealed in the future has been revealed in the past. We’ll go over all this in our next episode. So here we have the six days of creation and on the seventh day God rested.
So, to look at our [first] messianic prophecy we’ve got to go back to the beginning, back to the very first verse where it says Berashit barah Elohim et hashamayim vuet haaretz which is: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the name of God in this verse is Elohim. Elohim is a very special word. It is an unusual word because there is a word for God in the Hebrew, that word is El. In fact, if you’re familiar with the word Bethel. I went to Bethel College or Bethel University now. Beth-El or beit El is the house of God.
El is God. In fact, there is an interesting verse: Genesis 31:13. It says the God of the house of God which is a very interesting use, but it says ha El beit ha El. So, there is a word for God that is El. But that is not the word that is used in the creation story. It is the word Elohim. So, what's the difference between El and Elohim. It turns out that Elohim is a masculine plural noun. The masculine plural is a form of El: Elohim. Now there are other plural forms. There is the dual form. Hebrew has a dual form like other languages. So, you have the singular El, the dual form would be Elohayim. And then the plural form Elohim means three or more. So, this is not two, it is three or more. Now how do we reconcile this single God El, who in other places is referred to, he is referred to as El, but he's Elohim.
We’ve got a plural standing for a singular entity. Now, if you look at Deuteronomy 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:4, very familiar to most of us, it says Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu Adonai echad. And it literally means Hear or listen Israel, God, our God, God is one. We used the word Adonai. Adonai means LORD. And if you look at the NIV, anytime you see the four-letter name of God, it is L O R D in the NIV.
Now it’s the tetragrammaton. The tetragrammaton is four Hebrew letters yod hey vav hey. Now, in temple that name is never to be pronounced in its original form. Instead, the word Adonai is used for chanting or for prayers. And anything that is spoken out loud, you say Adonai instead of the other name. Now, the pointing in the Hebrew Bible is literally yuhhovah. And that’s where we get the term Jehovah. And then there's the yod hey vav hey personal name which we will not speak today.
Elohenu is that same form of Elohim, it's just the construct or the possessive form of Elohim. So, it's Elohe. Elohe is used many times in the Old Testament and when you say Gods. For example, if I was to say gods of Egypt, I would say Elohe Mitzrayim - gods of Egypt. This is it that contraction form, the possessive form Elohenu. Now, Nu is a personal possessive pronoun it means our. So literally our God. Echad is one, the number one. So, our plural God is one. So, we know Jehovah is one entity. Elohim is one entity. Now, there are theories all in place about why the plural is used here. Scholars vary widely and I suppose that if you go to any theological seminary you are going to get different opinions. If you go to a yeshiva, you would get another opinion. But, I collected some of the major theories. And basically the [main] theory is that there was probably a pantheon of gods. And that pantheon then was converted into one single god. Now the evidence that these scholars, the Assyriologists used, is evidence that we've already learned about in our Babylonian creation story. You remember there was the excavation at the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. And that excavation unearthed a bunch of tablets and there were stories like the Epic of Gilgamesh, the story of the Enuma Elish which we talked about.
There was a god Apsu, perhaps you remember him, there was his consort Tiamat. And remember the bitter water and the sweet water fighting back and forth. They mixed their waters and they had a son. And his name was Enki. So, they say this is the pantheon of gods that Elohim is referring to and they believe the Babylonians came up with the whole idea first and then the Hebrew scribes copied the Babylonian [story]. They say that the Babylonian records are centuries before the
earliest record of written Hebrew. And there's a lot of discussion as to who came first, which came first. Of course, these were oral languages before they were written languages. They just happened to be written down first as far as we can tell in Babylon.
There is another theory, along similar lines, and this comes from an excavation that was done at Ras Shamra in Syria, the modern-day city is Latakia. There was an excavation it was the ancient city of Ugarit. And they unearthed these texts and they called them collectively the Ugaritic texts. And part of that was a story called the Baal Cycle. Now in the Baal cycle there are stories of the Canaanite gods. And they had one supreme god and his name was El. No surprise, it’s the name for God. Then he had a consort and her name was Asherah. Asherah is very familiar to Hebrew Old Testament Scholars, because Asherah was the queen of heaven that was worshiped by the Israelites. God punished them for this worship. Remember the story about the Asherah poles and all that. Asherah was the consort of El and they had a son and his name was Baal. And you’ve also heard about the temples to Baal occurring throughout the history of ancient Egypt. So, they say the Hebrews, who lived next door to the Canaanites, borrowed the Canaanites’ god. And that is where you get Elohim, which is a plurality of gods.
And then there are some scholars who say that this is just like the Hindu god. There is a primary Hindu god, that bears three different names as three different entities depending on where you're at in the history of the earth. In creation, it is Brahma. In the current day earth, it is Lord Vishnu, who sustains the earth. So, Brahma created. Vishnu sustains. And then when the earth comes to its fiery end, it will be Shiva. So, there are three different emanations of the same god. Now, there is not really a concept of emanations or a trinity like we see in these other religions in Judaism. If you get into the Kabbalists, they believe in the Sefirot and the 10 emanations of God. They believe in the working of the Holy Spirit in this whole picture. But that is not mainstream modern Judaism.
Now, the Messianic congregations they do believe in in more of a Trinity. I come from a Christian background and any of you who are watching that are Catholic, Protestant, any of the Christian religions, you are familiar with the concept of a trinity.
Of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Ghost. Now, I believe the explanation of Elohim; it is wrapped up in in this whole Trinity. So, let’s look at the evidence that is found not only in our Bible, but also in the Babylonian Talmud.
So, in the Babylonian Talmud there is a tractate which is Pesachim. And in 54a, verse 8 and verse 11, we find that the name of Messiah is discussed in these verses. Now, it says specifically that there are seven phenomena that were created before the world was created.
Let’s go through those. Number one - the Torah, the law. Number tworepentance, turning away from your sins. Number three - the Garden of Eden and again there are all kinds of theories about the Garden of Eden. This [reference] gives rise to the theory that the garden of Eden preexisted creation and will exist after creation. Number four is Gehenna, which is the word for hell. So, they [sages] believed that hell was created before the earth was created and Gehenna was the place where the evil were punished. The evil angels were punished. And then the Throne of Glory, the Temple and finally the Name of Messiah. There is scriptural basis for the Name of Messiah. In fact, it is Psalm 72. There's an entire chapter in the book of Psalms, number 72, and it talks about a king and a royal son. And it goes through the attributes of the royal son and it talks about the name of the royal son [that] existed before the sun and will exist throughout eternity. The Hebrew sages believed that this was a Messianic Psalm and this was talking about Messiah. And this will be included in future episodes, of course, it's one of the Messianic Scriptures found in the Old Testament.
So, in verse 17, it specifically says that his name will endure forever. So, if Messiah was around, his name was around, before during and after
creation, then we have to believe that Messiah was there during creation. It is my belief that Messiah was there during creation. It is the belief of many scholars that this is the case and that Messiah was actually the one who was doing the creating. He was the one who said, “Be Light.” So, this is the first revelation of Messiah. Now, let’s not get into the controversy about whether this really was Messiah, whether you believe that Messiah was a part of God that was sent to the earth to create, that he was part of God that actually took on flesh and became incarnate. And he will fulfill all these scriptures that we’re to go through in future episodes. Which I believe prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Messiah will come as a human, in human form, in human flesh. But let’s put a pin in that for now. Let's move on to the next point.
In the second verse of Genesis Chapter 1, it talks about, remember the chaos, the tohoo vubohoo that was filling the earth. And there was darkness covering the tuhom, the deep and ruach Elohim was fluttering marechefet over the earth, over the deep waters. The Holy Spirit brought order out of chaos. What does a hen do when she broods over her chicks? She protects them. She keeps them in order. She doesn’t let then run away. She keeps them under her wing. And when she is brooding over a clutch of eggs, she's bringing those eggs to creation, to the time of hatching.
So, this is the picture of what the Holy Spirit was doing in Genesis verse two. The Holy Spirit is the part of God that is sent to the earth to bring about God's will. And God's will was that this chaotic creation, he created the heavens and the earth, this chaotic creation would be brought into order. So, then Messiah could come and speak over it and say, “Be Light.” And Light was. And, “Be animals, be snakes, be frogs, be cows, be chickens. He spoke all these things into existence and this is how the Spirit of God works even today. That is the Spirit's job to bring order of chaos. Let's put a pin in the Holy Spirit and let's move to the other part of Elohim.
Deuteronomy 1 verses 30 to 31, And I'll read it to you:
The LORD (and that all caps L O R D, the LORD) your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.
So, God carried the Israelites while they were in the desert, just like a father carries his son. And there are many pictures in the Old Testament about God as a father figure. God, the father. So, let's put all of these together to find out the meaning of Elohim. You've got God the father figure.
We learn from later verses in Ezekiel and in other places that he sits on a Sapphire Throne surrounded by an Emerald Rainbow. While he is sitting on this throne, he is on the mountain of God and there are the fiery stones. He lives among these fiery stones and this is God who rules over everything. This is the God who if he appeared, Moses knew that he was going to die if he looked at God face to face. He could not face God the father face-to-face. He could only look at his very back end of his back end as he was moving past. And even then, his face glowed in the dark for a long period time after that. Again, this is for future episodes and we will get into all this [detail later]. The spirit is the part of God that hovers and broods and brings order out of chaos. So, God the father, God the Holy Spirit and then Messiah. Which I believe is the Royal Son from Psalm 72. Messiah is the son, the son of the king. Messiah is the son of God. Messiah is the part of God that does the creating. So, let's bring this forward into today, into my life, into your life. This is a revelation of Messiah and I think is relevant for today. How does this work? So, God the father creates us. We are created like the heavens and the earth, but we are corrupted by sin. And our lives are void. Our lives are lifeless. Chaos fills our lives and we do not have that divine purpose. Along comes the Holy Spirit who then broods and hovers over us. And he brings order out of this chaos. Then Messiah steps in and Messiah speaks creation into us and we are then made into a new creation. And
just like the earth that was made, just like the animals were placed in the earth, when we are made a new creation then we are teeming with life. We are teeming with abundance. This is the blessing of God and we have the same blessings that God set over Abraham, that God set over Adam. And we will go over these as we get to them. So, the question on the table right now is: Messiah is offering you new life, just like we talked about last time. The issue is not about it was you believe do you believe in the Trinity or don’t believe in the Trinity; the issue is what are you going to do with Messiah? Are you going to ask the Messiah to bring life into you, to make you a new creation or not? Join us next week. Next week is going be a very exciting episode because we are going to talk about the Garden of Eden. I have a list of things. We going to talk about Adam’s helpmate Eve. We’re going to talk about the Tree of Life, the River of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We will talk about Satan, his origins and how Satan got into the garden. We will talk about temptation and sin and death. And then we’re going to tell a very fun and fascinating story about a white ram. So, join us next week if you want to learn about all these fun and exciting things.
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.