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From: Dean and Susan Wheelock
To:      heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Messianic Prophecies: Genesis (Part 1 of 2)


              Dean and Susan Wheelock have a ministry called Hebrew
roots. They produce a quarterly magazine called Hebrew roots. If you
would like to receive the magazine, please send an e-mail to Dean and
Susan at: (dewheelock@aol.com) or write them at the following address:



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                                 1-715-757-2775


                   Messianic Prophecies: Genesis

                                     (Part 1 of 2)


                                  From the website:

 http://www.geocities.com/hebrew_roots/html/hr-3-3-04.html
 

                      THE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES

                                         THE TORAH

                   And beginning at Moses and all the
                   Prophets, He expounded to them in all the
                   Scriptures The things concerning Himself.
                   Luke 24:27


      It has been said that over two-thirds of the Bible is prophecy,
with a great portion of those prophecies having yet to come to pass.
However, to the ancient Jewish rabbis, the entirety of the Hebrew
Scriptures (which we know today as the `Old Testament')
constitutes prophecy. How can this be? It is because the portions
which most people consider to be historical in nature, contain
prophetic types, hints and suggestions of events that are yet to
transpire. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, told us
directly this was the case:

       "That which has been is what will be, That which is done is
       what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there
       anything of which it may be said, `See, this is new?' It has
       already been in ancient times before us." (Eccl. 1:9-10)

      "That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been;
       And God requires an account of what is past."  (Eccl. 3:15)


                                    ~ Back to the Future ~

      According to Solomon, the future has already been laid out by
God and it is reflected by those things which have occurred in the
past. This is a difficult concept for us as humans to grasp, for we
live in a linear world. Time, for us, moves from the past, through
the present and on into the future. Since our physical lives are
limited by this linear concept of time, it is not possible for us to
know first hand what has transpired in the distant past. Up until the
20th century, the most we could do was read or hear about it
from other people. Now, at least, events can be viewed on film,
although one can only see what the camera records.

      However, God is not limited by time or space; He lives in the
past, the present, and the future all at once. The same is true of
the Scriptures. They are the most powerful writings that man
possesses, because they have come from the Creator of the
Universe Himself. The Scriptures consist of YHVH's very mind; for
they express His nature, and speak to us of His will.

      Because the Scriptures have come to us from the very mind of
God, it must be understood that they, like God, are also time-less;
without time as we know it. If fact, as we have seen from the two
passages just quoted, time to God is not linear but circular. 
Actually, a spiral might be a better way to express time from the
point of view of Scripture. For what goes around comes around, and
what has happened before will happen again, with changes
appropriate to the current age. So it is, for example, that the
stories of the Patriarchs tell us much about the one who was promised
to come (the `Anointed One' or Messiah), for He is the beginning and
the end; the Alpha and the Omega; the Aleph and the Tav.

   "`I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,' says
     the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."'
     (Rev. 1:8)

      According to the Apostle John, the one who made the above
statement is none other than the resurrected Jesus Christ (Yeshua
HaMashiach), the one who called Himself the `Son of
Man' when He walked the earth as a human being.

     "Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having
       turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands, and in the midst of the
       seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, ...  "And when I saw
       Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on
       me, saying to me, `Do not be afraid; I am the First and the
       Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am
       alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of
       Death."' (Rev. 1:12-13, 17-18)

      The One called the First and the Last is none other than Yeshua
of Nazareth; the same One who, when lie walked the earth, was called
by His disciples The Living Torah. At that time He was the human
embodiment of the word or instruction of God, the Torah. No wonder
John introduces Him to us as the `Word:'

      "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
       the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things
       were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that
       was made  ... "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
       and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
       the Father, full of grace and truth. ...  "No one has seen God
       at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the
       Father, He has declared Him."   (John 1:11-3, 14, 18)

      We proclaim that Yeshua is this Word. He is the Aleph and the
Tav, the Beginning and the End, and He is the promised Messiah whose
coming was prophesied throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, and pictured
in the ordained Festivals of the LORD.

                                    ~ The Festival Spiral ~

      The eternal spiral of time can be better understood through the
ordained Festivals of the LORD. These Festivals are fully laid out
for us in Leviticus chapter 23. They represent, in outline form, the
plan of God for the people of this earth. These Festivals are called
`moedim (mow-eh-deem) in Hebrew, meaning appointed times,' and they
have already been entered into HaShem's appointment book. They need
to be entered into ours as well, for these are the special days and
seasons which God has appointed for meeting with His children. The
Festivals move in a spiral. Each year they are repeated, and each
year they move us closer and closer to the time of their ultimate
fulfillment.

      And so we look back to ancient happenings on these very days to
help us understand what will take place when their complete
fulfillment occurs. The slaying of the Passover lamb and the freeing
of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt happened to point us
to the great redemption that our Passover Lamb, Yeshua HaMashiach
performed for us when He was Himself sacrificed in order that we
could be redeemed from our slavery to sin.

                                 ~ The Messiah in Prophecy ~

      The ancient Jewish sages of Yeshua's day, and even before His
time, knew the Scriptures backward and forward. They knew the Messiah
was coming, and they combed the writings to locate passages that
spoke of that coming. A good number of their understandings are
preserved for us in several different writings. These include both
Scriptural paraphrases and extra-Biblical writings. Some were written
before the time of Yeshua, and others appeared after His day. For
example, there are writings in both the Jerusalem and Babylonian
Talmud, written well after the time of Yeshua, which clearly show the
rabbinic understanding of many Messianic passages of
Scripture.

      It is on these early works that we wish to focus our attention
in this and subsequent articles in this series. The basis for this
information comes from the monumental work of a nineteenth
century Jewish Believer, Alfred Edersheim. In his classic book, The
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Edersheim publishes (in Appendix
IX) a List of Old Testament Passages Messianically Applied in Ancient
Rabbinic Writings. This list contains 456 scripture passages that the
ancient rabbis understood pointed to the Messiah or to Messianic
times. Seventy-five are found in the Torah (the first five books of
the Bible), 243 are found in the Prophets, and 138 are found in the
Writings. Edersheim claims to have supported these Messianic
Scriptures with references to 558 Rabbinic writings. The works to
which Edersheim refers are:

     THE TARGUMIM - These are Aramaic paraphrases of the Old
     Testament. Because they are paraphrases, and not literal
     translations of the Scriptures, they give additional information
     as to how the authors of that time interpreted the Scriptures.
     Often the authors have actually inserted the word "Messiah" into
     a passage so that all will know that it is to be applied with
     that understanding.

     THE TALMUD - Although both versions of the Talmud were written
     quite some time after the first century, they do express the
     understanding of earlier times as well as the times in which they
     were written. (A Talmud consists of two different writings; the
     Mishnah, which is the `Oral Law committed to writing, and the
     Gamarah, which is the rabbinic commentary on that `Oral Law' or
     Mishnah.)

     ANCIENT MIDRASHIM - These are the stories and legends that teach
     moral truths about the Scriptures. Today we might call them
     allegories or parables. Many of Yeshua's parables could be
     classified as Midrash. Paul's analogy of Hagar and Sarah being
     representative of Mt. Sinai and the New Jerusalem, is typical
     Jewish Midrash. (See Gal. 4 :24-27).

     YALKUT - This is a collection of fifty older writings, which are
     no longer available from any other source. It is the only late
     dated writing that Edersheim included; only because its contents
     represent a much earlier point of view.

     Edersheim did not include any references from the Zohar, the
Jewish mystical books that were written during the Middle Ages.

      This series of articles will follow Edersheim's list as closely
as seems appropriate. However, with so many of the passages cross
referencing each other, we may cover some of the later passages in
some detail within earlier ones. Edersheim's information
is either quoted or paraphrased, and other information has been added
as seems appropriate. Let us begin!

                                   ~ The Book of Genesis ~

    "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the
      face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering (KJV;
      moved) over the face of the waters." (Gen. 1:2)

      Edersheim: "...the expression, `Spirit of God,' is explained of
`the Spirit of the King Messiah,' with reference to Is. xi. 2 ..." (p. 710)

     "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a
      Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD
      shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
      The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of
      the fear of the LORD." (Isa. 11:1-2)

      The rabbis knew this Isaiah passage applied to the King Messiah,
so they interpreted the `Spirit' in both cases to be the `Spirit of
the Messiah.'

      Edersheim: "...and the `moving on the face of the deep' of
`repentance,' according to Lam. ii. 19." (p. 711). Ancient Sources:
The Midrash Bereshith Rabba, on Genesis; and The Midrash Vayyikra
Rabba, on Leviticus.

     "`Arise, cry out in the night,  At the beginning of the watches;
       Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
       Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young
       children, Who faint from hunger at the head of every
       street."' (Lam. 2:19)

      The `Spirit of God,' which the Messiah possesses in full
measure, moves upon the hearts of Believers just as it moved upon the
waters of creation.

                                           ~ ~

       "This is the history (KJV; generations) of the heavens and the
       earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God
       made the earth and the heavens." (Gen. 2:4)

      Rabbinic commentary centers around the spelling of the Hebrew
word toldah, in Gen. 2:4 and Ruth 4:18, as opposed to all of its
other occurrences. They have also indicated that Gen. 3:15 must be
taken into account in order to properly understand the concepts
involved.

      The word in question is  (toldah = tohl-dah). It means;
"descent, i.e. family; (fig.) history:--birth, generations. "The
second letter from the right (Hebrew is read from right to left) is a
vowel form of the letter vav(  ). Vav, the sixth letter of the Hebrew
alphabet, is also the numeral `six;'* which is the number that
represents `man.' In all other occurrences of this word (toldah) the
vav (  ) is missing, and the word is spelled: . The Rabbis say that
every change in the text is for a purpose, and that it must have some
meaning attached to it. Therefore, there must be a reason why the vav
(  ) has been removed in the majority of cases; and there must also
be a reason why the vav (  ) has been maintained in the two
scriptures mentioned. [* In Hebrew each letter of the alphabet
represents a number.]

      Edersheim: "This to indicate that subsequent to Gen. ii. 4 the
Fall took place, in which Adam lost  --six-- things: his glorious
sheen (Job xiv. 20); life (Gen. iii. 19); his stature (Gen. iii. 8 --
either by 100, by 200, by 300, or even by 900 cubits); the fruit of
the ground; the fruits of the trees (Gen. iii. 17); and the heavenly
lights. But the  reappears in the word  in Ruth iv. 18,
because these six things are to be restored to man by `the son of
Pharez' -- or the Messiah" (p. 711) Ancient Sources. Bereshith Rabba,
on Genesis. The Midrash Shemoth Rabba on Exodus.

     "So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in
       to her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.
       "Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, `There is a
       son born to Naomi.' And they called his name Obed. He is the
       father of Jesse, the father of David. "Now this is the
       genealogy () of Perez: Perez begot Hezron; Hezron begot
       Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab; Amminadab begot Nahshon, and
       Nahshon begot Salmon; Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot
       Obed; Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David."
      (Ruth 4:13,16-22)

      This is, of course, the lineage of the Messiah from which Yeshua
HaMashiach descended. (See Matt. 1:39 and Luke 3:33).

                                           ~ ~

      "`And I will put enmity Between you and the woman,  And between
        your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you
        shall bruise His heel."' (Gen. 3:15)

      The Rabbis see Messiah in this passage and they consider it as
being integral to the understanding of the missing vav (  ) discussed
in the previous section. For it is the Messiah who re-institutes the
missing vav (  ), thereby making the `generations' or `history
complete once again.

      Edersheim: "This well-known passage is paraphrased, with
express reference to the Messiah..." (p. 711).  Ancient Sources.
Targum Jonathan and the Jerusalem Targum. This
passage is well known in both Jewish and Christian circles as having
Messianic implications. In relationship to Yeshua, the snake (HaSatan
the adversary) was able to condemn Yeshua to a physical death only
because He willingly took upon himself the sins of the world. Those
are the same sins which had entered  the world through HaSatan's
deception and Adam's subsequent  fall. however, in the end the
Messiah is prophesied to triumph over death and the grave, and to
subsequently have both the  power and the authority to deal with the
adversary in a final manner:

      "And the devil who deceived them, was cast into the lake of
       fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.
       And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."
       (Rev. 20:10)

                                           ~ ~

      "And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him
       Seth, `For God has appointed another seed (zehrag) for me
       instead of Abel, whom Cain killed."' (Gen. 4:25)

      Edersheim: "The language of Eve at the birth of Seth: `another
seed,' is explained as meaning `seed which comes from another place,'
and referred to Messiah ... The same  explanation occurs twice in the
Midrash on Ruth iv. 19 (in the genealogy of David, ...), the second
time in connection with  Ps. xl. 8 (`in the volume of the book it is
written of me' --  bim'gillath sepher -- Ruth belonging to the class 
[megillah: the class of book to which Ruth belongs])." (p. 711).
Ancient Sources: Bereshith Rabba, on Genesis; Midrash on Ruth.
The scripture referred to in the book of Ruth is actually found in
verse 12, not verse 19 as given by Edersheim:

     "`May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to
       Judah, because of the offspring (zehrag) which the LORD will give
       you from this young woman.'" (Ruth 4: 12)

       "Then I said, `Behold I come; In the scroll of the Book it is
        written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your
        law is within my heart.'" (Psalm 40:7-8)

       The Rabbis saw Psalm 40:7-8 as referring to the Messiah, and
understood that He was written about in the Megilloth which  include
the books of: Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations,  Ecclesiastes and
Esther. Hence the connection between Gen. 4:25 and Ruth 4:12 which
both have to do with the ancestry of Yeshua HaMashiach; while the
connection between Psalm 40 and  the book of Ruth has to do with the
phrase "scroll of the Book." That phrase in Hebrew, as Edersheim
stated, is:  "bim'gillath sepher."

                                           ~ ~

      "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God
        created man, He made him in the likeness of God." (Gen. 5:1)

      Edersheim. "In connection with Gen. v. 1 it is noted ... that
King Messiah will not come till all souls predestined for it have
appeared in human bodies on earth." (p. 711). Ancient Sources:
Bereshith Rabba, on Genesis. This may seem
like a very controversial topic. We will let each person work out
their own conclusions concerning this matter. However, it is well
when studying this subject to be aware of the following New Testament
scriptures which seem to confirm this viewpoint:

      "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to
       the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
       many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also
       called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He
       justified, these He also glorified." (Rom. 8:29-30)

      "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom
       which God ordained (predestined) before the ages for our
       glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known,
       they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (I Cor. 2:7-8)

      "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
       has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
       places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the
       foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
       blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as
       sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
       His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He
       has made us accepted in the Beloved. ...  "... in whom also we
       have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to
       the purpose of Him who works all things according to the
      counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ
      should be to the praise of His glory." (Eph. 1:3-6, 11-12)

                                           ~ ~

      "Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a
       freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew
       that the waters had abated from the earth." (Gen. 8:11)

      Edersheim: "... the olive-leaf, brought by the dove, was taken
from the Mount of the Messiah." (p. 711).  Ancient Source: Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan. This is obviously a Jewish tradition. The Mount
of the Messiah is a term used to indicate either Mount Moriah,
where the Temple was eventually built in Solomon's day, or the Mount
of Olives.

        "May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;
          And may Canaan be his servant." (Gen. 9:27)

      Edersheim: "The promise, that Japhet shall dwell in the tents of
Shem, is paraphrased ... as meaning, that his-descendants should
become proselytes, and dwell in the schools of Shem --which seems to
refer to Messianic times." (p. 711). Ancient Source: Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan. It is interesting to note that according to
tradition, Shem, the son of Noah, is said to have resided on Mount
Moriah (then known as Salem) and that Isaac went to him for
instruction in the ways of God after being offered as a living
sacrifice by his father Abraham.

                                           ~ ~

       "And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar,
        Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal
        king of nations, that they made war with Bera king of Sodom,
        Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king
        of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar)." (Gen. 14:1-2)

      Edersheim: "...we are reminded that when we see the nations
warring together, we may expect the coming of the Messiah." (p. 711).
Ancient Sources: Bereshith Rabba, on Genesis.

       "`And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you
         are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass,
         but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation,
         and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines,
         pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these
         are the beginning of sorrows. ... "`Immediately after the
         tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and
         the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from
         heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then
         the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then
         all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see
         the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and
         great glory.'" (Matt. 24:6-8)

                                           ~ ~

        "On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:
         `To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of
Egypt
          to the great river, the River Euphrates - '" (Gen. 15:18)

      Edersheim: "The promise ... is expected to be finally fulfilled
in the time of Messiah." (p. 711). Ancient Source. Bereshith Rabba,
on Genesis.

                                           ~ ~

     "`Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and
       rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of
       bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by,
       inasmuch as you have come to your servant.' And they said,
       `Do as you have said.'" (Gen. 18:4-5)

      Edersheim: "...the words of Abraham to his Angelic guests were
to be returned in blessing to Abraham's descendants, in the
wilderness, in the land of Canaan, and in the latter (Messianic)
days. Referring only to this last point, the words, `let a little
water be fetched,' is paralleled with the `living waters' in Zech.
xiv. 8; `wash your feet,' with Is. iv. 4 (the washing away of the
filth of the daughters of Zion); `rest under the tree,' with Is. iv.
6: `there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the
heat;' `I will fetch a morsel of bread,' with the provision, Ps.
lxxii. 16: `there shall be a handful of corn in the earth,' etc. So
also the words: `Abraham ran unto the herd,' are paralleled with Is.
vii. 21 (which is most significantly here applied to Messianic
times); and lastly, the words, `he stood by them,' with Mic. ii. 13:
`the breaker is come up before them.' ..." (pp. 711-712). Ancient
Sources: Bereshith Rabba, on Genesis; the Midrash
Bamidbar Rabba, on Numbers.

      Rather than explore all of the scriptures given by Edersheim,
one other comment seems to be in order concerning this passage, and
its relationship to the Messiah. In verse one it states clearly that
YHVH "...appeared to him..." Was one of these three `men' actually
YHVH Himself? That fact seems to be confirmed in
the conversation that Abraham had with this person; for He is
identified as YHVH several more times in the course of the
conversation. Verse 22 states:

       "Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom,
         but Abraham still stood before the LORD (YHVH)."
         (Gen. 18:22)

      The `men' departed but the LORD stayed, and only two angels
(men) showed up in Sodom.

         "Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, ..."
          (Gen. 19:la)

      Is it possible that Abraham actually stood before YHVH, served
Him a meal, and talked with Him? Consider this statement made by the
Apostle John:

         "No one has seen God (the Father) at any time. The only
          begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has
          declared Him." (John 1:18)

          Now the words of Yeshua:

         "`And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me.
          You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.'"
          (John 5:37)

         "`All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no
           one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know
           the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to
           reveal  Him.'" (Matt. 11:27)

        It is our belief that the One with whom Abraham ate and talked
was the One whom we know as Yeshua HaMashiach, a member of the God
Family.

                                           ~ ~

       "`Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie
          with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.'"
          (Gen. 19:32)

      This is the case where the daughters of Lot, thinking that all
the rest of the human race had been destroyed, connived to bear
children by their father.

      Edersheim: "The last clause of Gen. xix. 32 is interpreted as
referring, like the words of Eve about Seth, to the Messiah -- the
sin of the daughters of Lot being explained on the ground of their
believing that all mankind had been destroyed in the judgment that
overthrew Sodom." (p. 712). Ancient Source: Bereshith Rabba, on
Genesis.

      Apparently the Rabbis believed that the daughters of Lot knew
that a Messiah had to come, so they set about to provide a means for
that to happen.

                                           ~ ~

      "`In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,
        because you have obeyed My voice.'" (Gen. 22:18)

      Edersheim: "The promise ... is also explained Messianically ...
in connection with Num. ii. 32, where it is somewhat curiously shown
in what sense Israel is to be like the sand of the sea." (p. 712).
Ancient Source: Bamidbar Rabba, on Numbers.

      "These are the ones who were numbered of the children of Israel
        by their fathers' houses. All who were numbered according to their
        armies of the forces were six hundred and three thousand
        five hundred and fifty." (Num. 2:32)

      It is curious that the Rabbis would select verse 18 of Genesis
chapter 22 to apply in a Messianic sense rather than the entire story
of the sacrifice of Isaac which is a great type of the sacrifice of
the `Suffering Servant Messiah' of Isaiah 52 and 53. Certainly, the
concept of a substitutionary sacrifice (the ram in
place of Isaac) pointed to later sacrifice in Tabernacle and Temple
worship, and ultimately to the sacrifice of Yeshua as a substitute
for all peoples of the world (who are willing to accept it).

                                   (End Part 1 of 2)

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