Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 10
The Garden of Eden
Welcome to Messiah In The Old Testament. In our last episode we revealed the very first Messianic Prophecy that occurred in the Old Testament.
If you remember, we found it in the very first verse of the Bible. In fact, we found it in the very name Elohim. We talked about Elohim being a plural noun with an ending that meant three or more and we had to reconcile,
why we have a plural name for God, Elohim, when there is a singular name El? Now, we talked about many different things but the reality is in Deuteronomy 6:4 it says Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu Adonai echad. We know from this Shema exhortation that our God is one God. Elohenu echad, one, our God is one God. Now, to reconcile it, the secular Assyriologists just harken back to the cultures that lived around Israel, specifically the Babylonian culture, the Sumarian culture and they talk about the pantheon of gods that these other cultures had.
For example, the Babylonian culture, if you remember from our Babylonian creation episode, they had Apsu and Tiamat, the sweet water and bitter water. And they fought together but then they mixed their waters and created offspring. An their eldest his name was Enki. So, we had Apsu, his consort Tiamat and Enki, they were a trinity. They were trinity over the other pantheon of gods.
And then closer to home the Canaanites had a god named El and then he had a consort Asherah and they had a son and his name was Baal. And they had their own form of a trinity. So, the Assyriologists, the scholars say that the Israelites had a pantheon of gods just like these other cultures. Then later in their history they rolled them into one single God.
And that's how you reconcile Elohim with Elohenu echad. We reconciled it in a different manner.
We borrowed from the Christian tradition where we understand the concept of Trinity. But it's pretty clear if you look at the Scriptures in the Tanakh that there are scriptures where, for example, while Children of Israel were leaving Egypt it said that God carried them in the desert like a father carries his son. And there’s pictures throughout the Tanakh where God is a father figure. In other places we have God manifesting on earth in human form and there's verses like in Isaiah 7:14 where it talks about Emmanuel or God with us. The Son figure, the Son of God, is God dwelling with us in human form. And then finally, the Spirit, and we know that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters in the first book, the first verses of Genesis. So, we reconciled it with the Trinity: God the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit, Elohim, three or more. It fits together very nicely. Now, this is not a very common thought amongst Jewish congregations and it's a very obnoxious thought to Muslim congregations because in the Quran where it talks about Christians, we are called polytheist. And the Quran says that we should all be put to death because our polytheism. This has been a great stumbling block through the centuries, through millennia. And it is not our desire on this program to be divisive and to talk bad against any other religion. We welcome any of our Muslim brothers who want to watch our program and learn about Messiah or any of our Jewish brothers. So, we are trying to unify and not divide. So, bear with me if some of these concepts do not sit well with your theology. We are just trying to expound what we find in the Tanakh. We are going to pick up our story today with Adam.
Remember, in our previous episode, we left Adam sitting in the Garden. Remember, there were all the days of creation and on the seventh day of creation God rested and we left man in the Garden. And it [Tanakh] said that God created them together, men and woman, but he really didn't go through the whole creation of woman or man until some later verses, after the first seven days of creation. So, we’re going to pick up the story there. So, we have Adam in the Garden of Eden. Now let's look at how
Adam was created. Remember I told you in our very first introductory episodes that I wanted you to take yourselves and insert yourselves into the story. This is a story that I think is really super neat to insert yourself. Put yourself in the Garden of Eden with Adam, with Eve, with the snake, with all the stuff that is going on. Live the story with them.
Now, it says in Genesis 1:26. Elohim says,
“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.
The English words are translated ‘image’ and ‘likeness.’
If you go back and look at the Hebrew words, the Hebrew word that is translated ‘image’ is tzalm. That word is used, for example, when you talk about graven images or idols. Those are tzalm. Tzalm is like, if you look yourself in the mirror, and you see the image in the mirror, that is tzalm. So, image is like picture, like sculpture, it’s like something that represents. It is like an exact representation. The word [translated]
‘likeness’ is the Hebrew word dumoot. And it's more of like a similar or a like kind of a concept where things are alike. For example, I like Star Wars and a lot of my friends like Star Wars. I will wear Star Wars hats in the OR. And if we all get together and we all wear our Star Wars garb, people will look at us and say, “Those Star Wars geeks are all alike.” The word you would use would be dumoot, or similar, we’re alike.
Now it’s interesting, in Genesis chapter 5:3 and I’ll read it to you. It says:
When Adam had lived 130 years he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image and he named him Seth.
Those exact words tzalm and dumoot are used in that verse. So, let's translate that into what God was to Adam, as Adam was to Seth, in his image, in his likeness. Now I have a son. His name is Ethan. He has a
son and his name is Ethan. And if Ethan and I are together, people will say,” Wow you guys really look alike.” And if you see baby pictures of when my son was a baby and my grandson was a baby, they look almost identical. And people again say wow they really, they really look the same, they’re really alike. And it's that concept that Adam was made in God's image, in God's likeness. It is like your children. They look like you. They're not a spitting image, not exactly like you, but they look enough like you that people recognize oh yeah, he's your son or yeah, she's your daughter. So that is what the Scripture is saying, that Adam was created to be like God, to look like God, like his offspring. Now, there are those who say that Elohim is invisible. You can't see Elohim, so obviously these words tzalm and dumoot have to refer to metaphysical things and not physical things. I think it’s pretty obvious, if you look at the Scriptures, that these words are used for both metaphysical and physical. So, it can be a spiritual meaning, it can be an emotional meaning, it could be all the metaphysical as well as the appearance and physical appearance.
Now, it goes on to say that Adam was created from the afar min ha adamah. Afar is a word that means fine particles, it means dust. Min of course is from. Ha adamah is the earth. Adam was made from the earth. That's why we call him Adam, because he is from ha adamah. If you do pottery, in fact, my daughter has a pottery studio just down the hall from this studio. And in her studio, she has clay and, in her studio, she has pottery wheels.
And I have thrown pots and made bowls and done pottery. And I found that if your clay is really fine particulate clay, then it works really smooth and you can make really smooth vessels with it. But if it's a coarser, granular clay, then you get this gritty stuff and it's hard to work them with your hands. And you get these lumps and it’s gritty and it’s hard on your fingers. So, a potter would prefer that fine particulate dust rather than the course gravel or coarser dirt. So, when it says Adam was made out of the earth. It’s the dust, the fine particular part. So, it's just like the image of God, the potter making Adam like a piece of pottery.
Now, once Adam was created and fashioned and God made him out of out of the clay, then it says that God breathed the breath of life into him.
Now, there are couple places in the Scriptures where he uses the term breath of life. And the two words or phrases that are used, one is nishmat hayim and that was the one where it says God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. And then the other place talks about all of creation. We know from other scriptures that all of the living, breathing animals were made from the ground, just like Adam was, fashioned from the ground. And they all had the breath of life in them. And where it says all the animals had the breath of life in them, that one is nefesh hayah. Now, nefesh is, it means breath, it means spirit, some people say it means soul.
But it is the breath of life, it is the spark of life. And we believe that when a baby is created in the womb, when the sperm and egg get together and we have conception, that there is a spark of life. And that baby then has the breath of life or the spark of life in it. And that stays with that child until that child dies, takes its final breath and then that spark leaves.
Now, the other one, the nishmat, that’s the one that I would use examining a patient, listening to the lungs and I’m asking them to take a breath I would use the term nushimah or nishmat. And that means breath and that is like what I breathe in and out. So, the two words have similar meaning, but a different meaning. One is referring to your spirit or soul, the other one is referring to the breath, your physical body, doing the breathing.
You take your first breath when you're born and then you would exhale your last breath when you die. Let’s kind of put all this together. We know that man and woman, we know from the story in the Scriptures that that woman was created out of Adam's rib.
God took a rib from Adam, made the woman out of it and covered it up. And he said basically this is the last time I am going to create man like this, all the rest of men will be created through the reproductive process. So, man and woman were created to be like God.
So, if God has three parts, a father part, a son part and a spirit part, then it makes sense that you and I would also be created after that image and likeness, that we would also have three parts. And, in fact, there are three parts to our bodies. We have our physical body and that the nishmat that is taking a breath in and putting the breath out and taking a breath in. That's the physical part. We know that there is the nefesh which is put into us when we are conceived and that is the spiritual part. And we have a spiritual being, we have a physical being and then there's a third part. And it is the part that is our intellect, our brain, our thoughts, our thinking, our intellect. So, it's our mind and then our free will (our will) and then our emotions. So, three parts to man, three parts to God: physical, spiritual then emotional soul parts.
Now, I'm going to read a passage to you from Genesis chapter two, starting with verse four.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens— and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground— the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. (So nishmat or nefesh) and the man became a living being. Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the Garden were the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Genesis 2:4-9)
So, let's take a step back, we’re in the Garden. We’re now in the story. You and me we’re in the story, we’re in this Garden. And we know that every kind of tree is growing, every kind of fruit. Fruit that is really delicious and good to eat. So, we’re surrounded by all these delicious fruit trees. There are all kinds of plants and flowers and it is just a beautiful, lush place. And now we travel to the middle of the Garden and we see in the middle of this Garden there are two trees. One tree is the Tree of Life. The other tree is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, trees in proximity to the other, trees in the middle of the Garden, one permitted one not permitted will get into that [later].
A river watering the Garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:10-15)
That was his job. It was his job to look after the Garden. So, Adam just didn't sit in there lounging around, and God was feeding him grapes as he lay down on the ground. No Adam had a job. Adam was to work and take care of the Garden.
And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the Garden; Take your choice, any tree, they’re all delicious, they’re all wonderful. You can have your choice of whatever fruit you want.
but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
This is where the whole concept of free will comes in. The man could do anything he wanted, but there was one single, simple rule. Do not eat from the fruit that is on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (now here is the story of Eve) Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; (Genesis 2:16-19)
So, another job that Adam had, not just tending, taking care of the Garden but also, he had to name the animals. So, it makes sense that he would know the names of every single animal that was in the Garden and even animals that were outside the Garden. God brought them in to find out what he was going to name them.
and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So, the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So, the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
(Genesis 2:19-25)
This is Genesis chapter 2:4-25. Now we learn from this passage that the woman, created from the man, out of the man. The word for man is ish and the word for woman is ishah. and those are the words of use and that in the passage.
Man and woman were both naked, but they felt no shame, they had no concern about their nakedness. And I feel personally and are many that feel that the reason for this, was that God was clothing the man and the woman with his glory. And they had no idea they were naked, because they were clothed in the glory of God. Now, Adam, working the Garden, so put yourself again with Adam and Eve.
Now he's got a helpmate. She's helping to work the Garden. She's helping to name the animals. She's helping him do all these things. And we know that there is a part of the day where God would show up and they would take walks in the Garden, in the cool of the day. And they would talk about stuff and it was paradise. And this was how things went on and we don't know how long. The Bible does not say that this went on for millennia or centuries or days or years. We just do not know how long that happened. Now, think about it, if man and woman were naming all these animals, they would be familiar with all the animals and if I gave you your name, I would certainly you'll be familiar with you. So, if a snake shows up that I had named, and I knew his name, and I started a conversation with that snake, that would not be an unusual thing. I assume Adam and Eve had casual conversations with many animals in the Garden. I believe that all the animals in the Garden were able to talk. Many people agree with me on that. CS Lewis for example, believed that all the animals in the Garden of Eden were able to talk and after the fall they lost their ability for speech. Now, later on, it [Tanakh] calls the woman by a new name and that name is Eve.
But in in the Hebrew it is Chavvah. So, Adam and Chavvah are in the Garden together. So, let's now talk about the actual Garden of Eden. Now we described it with all the trees, lush and all that. But I’m talking about the Garden and its history. So, where did the Garden of Eden come from? The Bible says that God planted the Garden in the East. Now, that phrase ‘In the East’ can have multiple meanings.
The word that's used there is kedem. And kedem can be East or kedem can be translated as ancient or something that's very old. For example,
Deuteronomy 33:15 it says hari kedem means ancient mountains, not eastern mountains, but ancient mountains.
And the word for plant is yittah. So, God planted in the East or in ancient times this Garden of Eden. And word plant, can also mean to establish or put in place. So, this Garden was put in place in ancient times.
Now, this is supported, if you read Pesachim 54a:8 and 11. We talked about this in a previous episode. The sages say that the Garden of Eden was created, is one of those phenomena that was created before the world was created. So, the Garden of Eden preexisted creation. The Garden of Eden was then placed in, on the earth and then Adam was placed in the Garden. And we’re going to learn more about this in our next episode. We don't have enough time in this episode get into all the details, but we’re going to read you a passage out of the Ezekiel where he talks about the Garden of Eden. And the Garden of Eden being the personal Garden of God, God's personal Garden that was on his holy mountain with the fiery stones and God's throne. So, the belief is that the Garden of Eden preexisted, was placed on earth, man was put in that Garden and then after the fall, which will get to in our next episode, man was banished from the Garden. The Guardian cherubim with their flashing swords kept man out of the Garden. Man could not get back to the Tree of Life, could not eat from the Tree of Life and therefore live forever, so man then suffered death. Now, the Garden of Eden stayed there for a long period of time. In fact, Jewish tradition is that the Garden of Eden stayed on the earth after man was kicked out. And man could not get back in and the way was then lost to man to get back to the Garden of Eden. But the Garden stayed there and the Garden existed through the ages, existed through the flood, existed after the flood even up to the point of Abraham and some even believe him up to the point of the first century A.D. Now, Mount Moriah was where Abraham sacrificed Isaac.
Mount Moriah is actually still around today. Many, myself included, believe that Mount Moriah was incorporated into the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In fact, if you go to the Dome of the Rock, which I've been there, and you can see the outcropping. Now back when I was there you could actually touch the outcropping of rock and this was where Abraham sacrificed Isaac. And there was a ram that was provided for that. Now, we’re to go through that in a future episode, obviously we’re not up to that point in our Scriptures.
But there is a passage in Pirkei Avot 5:6 that says that Abraham's Ram was created on the sixth day of creation at twilight, right before Shabbat began. And it was one of the last thing that was created. In fact, there are several things that were created at that time, but Abraham’s Ram was called the White Ram. In fact, there is actually a really wonderful story that was written by Mordechai Gerstein.
This is the book. And the book details the story of the White Ram. And the story begins in the Garden of Eden where God created the White lamb and put him in the Garden with Adam and Eve. Now the story goes on that when Adam and Eve fell, that they were kicked out of the Garden, but the White Ram stayed in the Garden.
And the White Ram for ages and ages and ages patiently waited in the Garden for his day to come. And when Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah and went to sacrifice him, the Ram was released from the Garden and the Ram ran through all the territory between the Garden and Mount Moriah. Some believe it was right next door to Mount Moriah. And some believe was further away, up around the Fertile Crescent.
But the Ram ran and got caught in the thicket and Abraham took that ram and sacrificed the Ram in the place of Isaac. And the Ram, his spirit was taken to heaven and his two horns were then used when Moses received the law on the mountain when the shofar was blown, that was one of his horns that was blown. And the other one, is in the future, the
other horn is going to be the shofar that is sounded when all of the Children of Israel are called home to Messiah’s future kingdom. Now, this obviously is not a story found in the Tanakh. It's a story found in the Mishnah. But it is an awesome story. I love the story and it is kind of illustrates what we’re talking about the Jewish belief about the Garden of Eden.
Now, that [White] Ram is symbolic, I think, of Messiah. It is a picture of Messiah who is the perfect Lamb, the Lamb of God that was created at the twilight and put in the Garden. The lamb that waited, and the lamb that willingly laid his life down to take Isaac's place and was sacrificed on the altar. I think this is a picture of Messiah. Now, we’ve split this whole segment into two separate episodes, because when I tried to do it all in one episode it just was too long. So, we’re going to pick up our story in our next episode. And were going to talk about some additional topics. We’re going to talk about our final character in the whole drama that's about to unfold. We’ve not yet talked about the snake or Satan and what his history is and where he came from. So right now, picture yourself, you're in the Garden. The Garden is beautiful and lush, full of trees. You have access to every single tree in the Garden except for the one tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And you been told by your God, Elohim you are not to eat from that tree. If you do, you will die. Now think about it, the Tree of Life is there, we know the Tree of Life. If you eat the fruit, you will live forever. And the leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations. And it produces a crop so that we can eat from the Tree of Life. And we know that the Tree of Life has a place in the future, in Messiah's future kingdom. So, the Tree of Life [is] very important. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil who existed right next door to it was the forbidden and the Tree of Life was the accepted fruit that you could eat. The River of Life, I assume bubbled up from a spring in the middle of the Garden and bubbled up and probably created a pool there at the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and then flowed out of the Garden and broke up into the four distributary channels that are described. So, this is where I'm going to leave you at the end of this episode, in the Garden
with Adam and Eve. All is happy and right. You’re living in paradise. Life is good, but there is impending evil that is coming. And will talk about that in our next episode, so I welcome you to join me.
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.