How were details of Christ’s death prophesied?

Christ’s “cut off” Detailed Hundreds of Years Beforehand

Previously we looked at Daniel’s prediction of the coming Christ’s ‘cutting off’ after a specified cycle of years. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem (often called Palm Sunday) fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy exactly 173,880 days after the Persian Decree to restore Jerusalem. The phrase ‘cut off ’ referred to Isaiah’s imagery of the Branch shooting up from the seemingly dead stump. But what did he mean by it?

Isaiah and Daniel shown in historical timeline.

Isaiah had also written other prophecies in his book, using other themes as well as the Branch. One such theme was about the coming Servant. Who was this ‘Servant’? What was he going to do? We look at one prophecy passage in detail, reproduced in full below, with only some comments inserted.

The Coming Servant Introduced

See, my servant will act wisely;
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
¹⁴Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness—
¹⁵so he will sprinkle many nations,
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Isaiah 52: 13-15

Isaiah describes a human male since he refers to the Servant as ‘he’, ‘him’, and ‘his’. Isaiah prophetically predicts the future (from the phrases ‘will act..’, ‘will be raised up…’). But what was the prophecy about?

Sprinkling – The Priest’s Job

When the ancient Temple priests offered sacrifices for the Israelites, they sprinkled blood on them. This symbolized the forgiving and covering of their sins. But Isaiah prophesied that the coming Servant would sprinkle ‘many nations’. So Isaiah saw that this Servant would provide forgiveness for non-Jews like those priests did for the Jewish worshipers. This is parallel to the prophecy that the Branch would be a priest since only priests could sprinkle blood. This global scope of ‘many nations’ follows those promises made centuries earlier to Abraham that ‘all nations’ would be blessed through him.

But in sprinkling the many nations, Isaiah foresaw the very ‘appearance’ and ‘form’ of the Servant disfigured and marred. He promised that one day the nations ‘will understand’.

The Servant Despised

Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
²He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Isaiah 53:1-3

Though the Servant would sprinkle many nations, he would also be ‘despised’ and ‘rejected’, full of ‘suffering’ and ‘familiar with pain’.

The Servant Pierced

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:4-5

The Servant would take ‘our’ pain. ‘Pierced’ and ‘crushed’ in ‘punishment’ would also be his lot. This punishment will bring us (those of the many nations) ‘peace’ and healing.

Secular and biblical sources tell us that about 2000 years ago (but still 700+ years after Isaiah) Jesus was crucified. In that execution, the authorities literally pierced him with the nails of the crucifixion.

Our Sins – on Him

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6

The Bible defines sin as ‘missing the intended target’. Like a bent arrow we go our ‘own way’. This Servant will carry that sin (iniquity) which we caused.

Lamb to the Slaughter

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7

The Servant will be like a lamb going to the ‘slaughter’. But he will not protest or even ‘open his mouth’. Abraham had a ram substitute for his son and Abraham sacrificed the ram in place of Isaac. This coming Servant would carry a similar role as that ram.

‘Cut off’ from Living

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
Isaiah 53:8

The Servant dies (‘cut off’ from the ‘land of the living’). Daniel used this exact term (‘cut off’) in prophesying what would happen to the Christ after his presentation as Messiah. Isaiah here predicted in greater detail that ‘cut off’ meant ‘cut off from the land of the living’! So, on that fateful Good Friday Jesus died, literally ‘cut off from the land of the living’. This occurred just after he presented himself as the Christ in his Triumphant entry.

The Paradox of His Burial

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:9

They executed Jesus as a criminal (‘assigned a grave with the wicked’). But the gospels record how a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, buried the body of Jesus in his own tomb. Jesus literally fulfilled both sides of the paradox. Though he was ‘assigned a grave with the wicked’, he was also ‘with the rich in his death’.

God’s Plan all along

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
Isaiah 53:10

This whole cruel death was not some terrible accident or misfortune. It was explicitly “the LORD’s will” to crush him.

But why?

Jews in Isaiah’s time brought lambs to sacrifice as offerings for their sins, so that they could receive forgiveness. So here the ‘life’ of this Servant would likewise also be an ‘offering for sin’.

For whose sin?

Considering that ‘many nations’ would be ‘sprinkled’ (see above), it is the sin of the peoples in the ‘many nations’. Those ‘all’ who have ‘turned away’ and have ‘gone astray’. Isaiah is talking about you and me.

Life after Death

After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53:11

Though the Servant’s ordeal is horrible, here the tone changes to optimism and triumph. After the terrible suffering detailed previously, this Servant will see ‘the light of life’.

He will come back to life?!

Isaiah prophesied the seemingly impossible 750 years before Jesus made the case for his resurrection compelling.

And in so ‘seeing the light of life’ this Servant will ‘justify’ many. To ‘justify’ is the same as giving ‘righteousness’. God had set the pattern by previously ‘crediting righteousness’ to Abraham. In a similar way this Servant will justify, or credit, righteousness to ‘many’.

Legacy among the Great

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:12

Jesus of Nazareth ranks among the most influential, great people in history. But, unlike other great men of history, Jesus did not lead a mighty army or conquer large swaths of land. He did not write a great book or come up with a new philosophy. He did not amass a great fortune or make a brilliant scientific discovery or technological breakthrough. Unlike other great men of history, Jesus made his legacy through his crucifixion and the meaning people attach to his death. Isaiah could not have better predicted the reason for the coming Servant’s worldwide legacy than he did with this conclusion.

Fingerprints of God’s handiwork

Isaiah’s prophecy of the Servant points directly to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Therefore some critics say that the gospel writers made up their story specifically to ‘fit’ this Servant passage. But Isaiah’s conclusion also defies these critics. The conclusion is not a prediction of the crucifixion and resurrection as such, but of its impact many years later. And what does Isaiah predict? This Servant will die as a criminal, but one day he will be among the ‘great’. The gospel writers could not make this part ‘fit’ the gospel narratives. The gospels were only written a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. At that point, the impact of Jesus’ death was doubtful.

In the eyes of the world, Jesus was just the executed leader of a rejected cult when the gospels were written. We, 2000 years later, can see the impact of his death. We can understand how the subsequent course of history has made him ‘great’. With simple human foresight the gospel writers could not have foreseen that.

But 750 years before Jesus even lived Isaiah predicted it. Likewise, David did something very similar 1000 years before Jesus in Psalm 22.

The only explanation is that God revealed it to him. Only God could conceivably know the future that far ahead. That Isaiah wrote this down, and that it was preserved, along with the other prophecies of Jesus, constitutes evidence that the purposes advanced in the Bible are His. It has the fingerprints of the Divine handiwork all over it.

January 17, 2022

The Puzzle of the Psalm 22 Prophecy

A few years ago a work colleague, J, wandered to my desk. J was smart and educated – and definitely not a follower of the gospel. But he was somewhat curious about the gospel so we had some warm and open conversations between us. He had never really looked at the Bible so I had encouraged him to investigate it.

One day he came into my office with a Bible to show that he was taking a look. He had opened it randomly in the middle. I asked him what he was reading. Our conversation went something like this.

“I am reading in Psalm chapter 22”, he said

“Really”, I said. “Any idea what you are reading about?”

“I guess I am reading about the crucifixion of Jesus”, J replied.

“That’s a good guess”, I laughed. “But you are about one thousand years too early. Psalm 22 was written by David around 1000 BCE. Jesus’ crucifixion was in 30’s C.E. one thousand years later”.

The Psalms…

J did not realize that the Psalms were not the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life written by his contemporaries. Psalms were sacred Hebrew hymns written 1000 years before Jesus primarily by King David. J had only heard some stories about Jesus, including his crucifixion, and randomly opening his Bible, read what seemed to describe the crucifixion. Not knowing any better, he just assumed it was the story of the crucifixion which many around the world remember annually on Good Friday. We had a chuckle over his first mis-step in Bible reading.

Then I asked J what he saw in Psalm 22 that made him think he was reading about Jesus’ crucifixion. Thus began our little study. I invite you to consider some of the similarities J noticed by placing the passages side-by-side in a table. The eye-witness accounts of the crucifixion recorded in the Gospels are on the left. Psalm 22 is on the right side. To help catch the connections within the many words I have color matched the similar texts. (Click here for enlarged print version).

Comparison of Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion with the details in Psalm 22

That J made the logical but wrong conclusion that Psalm 22 was an eye-witness account of the Good Friday crucifixion, should make us ask a question.

How do we explain the similarity between the crucifixion accounts and Psalm 22?

Is it coincidence that the details match so precisely that both Psalm 22 and the Gospels divide the clothes. But both also cast lots. (tearing seamless garment would destroy it so the soldiers gambled for it). Psalm 22 was written before crucifixion was invented yet it describes various details of it (piercing of hands and feet, bones being out of joint – by being stretched as the victim hangs).

In addition, the Gospel of John states that blood and water flowed out when soldiers thrust a spear in Jesus’ side. This indicated a fluid buildup around the heart. Jesus thus died of a heart attack. This matches the Psalm 22 description of ‘my heart has turned to wax’.

Psalm 22 reads like a first-person account of a person undergoing crucifixion. The gospels read like third-person eye-witness accounts. And both sets match

How so?

God-Inspired Explanation for Psalm 22

Jesus, in the Gospels, argued that these similarities were prophetic. God inspired Old Testament prophets hundreds of years prior to Jesus’ life to predict details of his life and death so that we can know that this was all in the plan of God. Prophetic fulfillment would be like having a Divine signature on these events of Good Friday since no human could foresee the future in such detail. This is evidence of God’s work and intervention in history.

Naturalistic Explanation for Psalm 22

Others argue that the similarity of Psalm 22 with crucifixion events of Good Friday is because the Gospel writers made up the events to ‘fit’ the prophecy. But this explanation totally ignores the testimony of historians from that time outside of the Bible. Josephus and Tacitus respectively tell us that:

“At this time there was a wise man … Jesus. … good, and … virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die.”
Josephus. 90CE. Antiquities xviii. 33. Josephus was a Jewish Historian

“Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius”
Tacitus. 117 CE. Annals XV. 44. Tacitus was a Roman Historian

Their historical testimony agrees with the Gospels that Jesus was crucified. This is important because many of the details in Psalm 22 are simply particulars of the act of being crucified. If the gospel writers were going to make up the actual events to make them ‘fit’ Psalm 22 then they would basically have had to make up the whole crucifixion. But the Jewish historian Josephus explicitly states that Pilate did crucify him.

_{^{Drawn by Gustave Doré, engraved by J. Gauchard Brunier. Scanned by Michael Gäbler with Epson Perfection 4490 Photo., PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Psalm 22 and Jesus’ legacy

Also, Psalm 22 does not end at verse 18 as in the table above. It continues on. Note the triumphant mood at the end –after the person dies!

The poor will eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek the Lord will praise him—
    may your hearts live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth
    will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    will bow down before him,
²⁸for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

²⁹All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
    those who cannot keep themselves alive.
³⁰Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
³¹They will proclaim his righteousness,
    declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it!
Psalm 22:26-31

This is not talking about the details of events of this person’s death. The beginning of the Psalm dealt with those details. The psalmist is now addressing the legacy of that person’s death with ‘posterity’ and ‘future generations’ (v.30).

Who would that be?

Psalm 22 foresaw Jesus’ legacy to our time

That is us living 2000 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. The Psalmist predicts that the ‘posterity’ which follows this ‘pierced’ man dieing such a horrible death will ‘serve’ him and be ‘told about him’. Verse 27 predicts the geographic scope of the impact. It will go to the ‘ends of the earth’ and among ‘all families of nations’ to cause them to ‘turn to the LORD’. Verse 29 predicts that ‘those who cannot keep themselves alive’ (since we are mortal that means all of us) will one day kneel before him. The righteousness of this man will be proclaimed to people who were not yet alive (the ‘yet unborn’) at the time of his death.

Psalm 22’s conclusion has nothing to do with whether the gospel accounts borrowed from it or made up the crucifixion events because it is now dealing with a much later era – that of our time. The gospel writers, living in the 1^st century could not ‘make up’ the impact of the death of Jesus down to our time. How could they know what that impact would be?

One could not make a better prediction of the legacy of Jesus than Psalm 22 does. Even simply noting annual worldwide Good Friday celebrations remind us of his global impact two thousand years after his death. These fulfill the conclusion of Psalm 22 as precisely as the earlier verses predicted the details of his death.

Who else in world history can make a claim that details of his death as well as the legacy of his life into the distant future would be predicted 1000 years before he lived?

Scratching Below the surface.

Perhaps, like my friend J, you will take the opportunity to consider the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It will take some mental effort. But it is worthwhile because the man Psalm 22 foresaw promised:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10

Some ways to do this:

January 14, 2022

The Branch: Sprouting Exactly in time to be … ‘cut off’

We have been exploring the Branch theme in the Old Testament prophets. We saw that Jeremiah in 600 BCE continued the theme (which Isaiah began 150 years earlier) and declared that this Branch would be a King. Then, Zechariah followed predicting that the name of this Branch would be Jesus. Additionally, he foresaw that the Branch would uniquely combine the roles of King and Priest.

Daniel’s Riddle of the scheduled arrival of the Anointed One

Now to Daniel. He lived in the Babylonian exile, being a powerful official in the Babylonian and Persian governments, as well as a Hebrew prophet.

Daniel shown in timeline with other prophets of the Old Testament

In his book, Daniel received the following message:

while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. ²²He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. ²³As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:

²⁴“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

²⁵“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. ²⁶After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
Daniel 9:21-26

God gave a timetable for when the ‘Anointed One’ (= Christ = Messiah) would come. The timetable used a cycle of sevens. The prophecy said a countdown would begin with ‘the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem’. God gave Daniel this prophecy around the year 537 BCE. But Daniel did not live to see the start of this countdown.

The Decree to Restore Jerusalem

In fact it was Nehemiah, living almost one hundred years after Daniel, who saw the start of this countdown. He was the cup-bearer to the Persian Emperor Artaxerxes and thus lived in present-day Iran. Note when he lived in the timeline above. He tells us in his book that

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, ²so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

I was very much afraid, ³but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

⁴The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

⁶Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.
Nehemiah 2:1-6

I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days
Nehemiah 2:11

So this records the “issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” that Daniel had prophesied would one day come. It occurred in the 20th year of the Persian Emperor Artaxerxes. Historians recognize him as starting his reign in 465 BCE. Thus his 20th year places this decree in the year 444 BCE. God gave Daniel a sign for the start of the countdown. Almost a hundred years later, the Persian Emperor, not knowing about this prophecy of Daniel, issued this decree. The Persian emperor Artaxerxes set in motion the countdown that the prophecy said would bring the Anointed One.

Seven ‘Sevens’ and Sixty-two ‘Sevens’

The riddle given to Daniel indicated that it would take “seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’” before the revealing of the Anointed One.

What is a ‘Seven’?

Moses’ writings instituted a cycle of sevens of years. Every 7th year the land was to rest from agriculture so that the soil could replenish its nutrients. So a ‘Seven’ is a 7-year cycle. With that in mind we see that from the start the time would counted in two parts. The first part was ‘seven sevens’ or seven 7-year periods. This, 7*7=49 years, was the time it took to rebuild Jerusalem after the initial decree by the Persian Emperor. This was followed by sixty-two ‘sevens’, so the total countdown was 7*7+62*7 = 483 years. In other words, from the start, there would be 483 years until the revealing of the Anointed One.

A 360-Day year

We have to make one little calendar adjustment. As many nations did in ancient times, the prophets used a 360-day year. Different ways exist to calculate the length of a ‘year’ for a calendar. The one that Daniel used was a common Egyptian calendar of 360-days long years. So 483 ‘360-day’ years is 483*360/365.24 = 476 solar years of the International Calendar used today.

The Scheduled Arrival of the Christ

Now we can calculate when the King was prophesied to come. In going from the ‘BCE’ era to the ‘CE’ era there is only 1 year from 1BCE – 1CE (There is no ‘zero’ year). The table now summarizes the calculations.

Start year	444 BCE (20^th year of Artaxerxes)
Length of time	476 solar years
Expected arrival in International Calendar	(-444 + 476 + 1) (‘+1’ because there is no 0 CE) = 33
Expected year	33 CE

Calculations for Expected Anointed One’s Coming according to Daniel’s Sevens

Jesus of Nazareth came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey in what has become the well-known celebration of Palm Sunday. That day he announced himself and rode into Jerusalem as their King. The year was 33 CE.

The Anointed: Coming to be …?

Now notice something unique in this riddle pertaining to the coming king. Daniel had predicted after his arrival after the cycle of sevens that:

After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
Daniel 9:26

It says, quite clearly, that the Anointed One will be ‘put to death and will have nothing’. Then foreign people will destroy the sanctuary (the Jewish Temple) and the city (Jerusalem) making the place desolate. Examine the history of the Jews to see that this indeed happened. Forty years after Jesus’ crucifixion the conquering Romans burned down the Temple, destroyed Jerusalem, exiling the Jews into worldwide exile. After their exile the land went desolate. Events happened at Jesus’ coming and in 70 CE exactly as prophesied by Daniel in 537 BCE. Moses had also predicted this catastrophe in his Curses 1500 years beforehand.

Basically, only God could foresee events over these hundreds of years between Daniel, Emperor Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, Palm Sunday and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Though they lived a hundred years apart, they declared and started the countdown that would reveal the King. About 570 years after Daniel received his message, Jesus entered Jerusalem as the King, precisely on Daniel’s schedule. Along with Zechariah’s predicting of Jesus’ name, these prophets developed a truly detailed group of predictions. God laid these out in writing long beforehand so that all can have opportunity to see God’s fingerprints at work.

We look next at the details laid out through Isaiah hundreds of years in advance as to how the Anointed would die. David, through the Psalms, did likewise.

[i] Dates for Artaxerxes from Dr. Harold W.Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. 1977. 176pp.

January 15, 2017

The Branch: Named hundreds of years before his birth

We saw how Isaiah used the image of The Branch. A ‘he’ from the fallen dynasty of David, possessing wisdom and power was coming. Then Jeremiah followed up by stating that this Branch would be known as the LORD (the Old Testament name for God) himself.

Zechariah continues The Branch

The prophet Zechariah lived 520 BCE, just after the Jewish people returned to Jerusalem from their first exile to Babylon. At that time, the Jewish people were rebuilding their destroyed temple. The High Priest then was a man named Joshua, and he was re-starting the work of priests. Zechariah, the prophet, was partnering with his colleague Joshua, the High Priest, in leading the Jewish people. Here is what God – through Zechariah- said about this Joshua:

‘”Listen O High Priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant the Branch.” …, says the LORD Almighty, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day”.’
Zechariah 3:8-9

The Branch! Started by Isaiah 200 years before, continued by Jeremiah 60 years earlier, Zechariah carries on further with ‘The Branch’. Here God also calls the Branch ‘my servant’. In some way the High Priest Joshua in Jerusalem at 520BCE, colleague of Zechariah, was ‘symbolic’ of this coming Branch.

But how?

It says that in ‘a single day’ the sins will be removed by the LORD. How would that happen?

The Branch: Uniting Priest and King

To understand we should know that God strictly separated the roles of Priest and King in the Bible. None of the Kings could be priests, and the priests could not be kings. The role of the priest was to mediate between God and man by offering sacrifices to God. The responsibility of the King was to rule with justice from the throne. Both were crucial; both were distinct. Yet Zechariah wrote that in the future:

The word of the Lord came to me:…
Zechariah 6:9

Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak.¹²Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. ¹³It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’
Zechariah 6: 11-13

Against previous precedent, Joshua, the high priest in Zechariah’s day, was to symbolically put on the king’s crown as the Branch. (Remember Joshua was ‘symbolic of things to come’). Joshua, the High Priest, by putting on the crown prophesied a future uniting of King and Priest into one person. This coming Branch would be a priest on the King’s throne. Furthermore, Zechariah wrote that ‘Joshua’ was the name of the Branch. What did that mean?

The name ‘Joshua’ is the name ‘Jesus’

We had summarized pertinent details of Bible translation here necessary to understand further. The original Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in 250 BCE, and called the Septuagint or LXX. We saw how the Septuagint made the title ‘Christ’ well-known. Here we follow that same analysis for ‘Joshua’.

joshuajesus-diagram — ‘Joshua’ = ‘Jesus’. Both come from the Hebrew name ‘Yhowshuwa’

Joshua is a Hebrew transliteration of the original Hebrew name ‘Yhowshuwa’. Quadrant #1 shows how Zechariah wrote ‘Joshua’ as ‘Yhowshuwa’ in Hebrew in 520 BCE. Scholars transliterate the Hebrew ‘Yhowshuwa’ in modern Bible translations (#1-> #3). ‘Yhowshuwa’ in Hebrew is the same as Joshua in modern languages like English. But when the Septuagint was translated from Hebrew to Greek in 250 BCE Yhowshuwa was transliterated to Iesous (#1 -> #2). ‘Yhowshuwa’ in Hebrew is the same as Iesous in Greek. When scholars translate the Greek New Testament to modern languages (like English), Iesous is transliterated to ‘Jesus’ (#2 -> #3). Iesous in Greek is the same as Jesus.

People called Jesus ‘Yhowshuwa‘ when they spoke to him in Hebrew. But the writers of the Greek New Testament wrote his name as ‘Iesous’. This was exactly as the Greek Old Testament Septuagint wrote that name. In New Testament translations of today’s modern languages (#2 -> #3) ‘Iesous’ is transliterated to the familiar ‘Jesus’.

So the name: ‘Yhowshuwa’ = ‘Jesus’ = ‘Joshua’.

The name ‘Jesus’ goes through an intermediate Greek step, and ‘Joshua’ comes directly from the Hebrew.

In summary, both Jesus of Nazareth, and Joshua the High Priest of 520 BCE had the same name. They were named ‘Yhowshuwa’ in their native Hebrew, but in Greek both were called ‘Iesous’.

Jesus of Nazareth is the Branch

Now Zechariah’s prophecy makes sense. He predicted in 520 BCE that the name of the coming Branch would be ‘Jesus‘. In doing so he pointed directly to Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus of Nazareth is well-known outside the gospels. The Jewish Talmud, Josephus and all other historical writers of Jesus, both friend and enemy, always referred to him as ‘Jesus’ or ‘Christ’. So his name was not invented in the Gospels. But Zechariah predicted his name 500 years before he lived.

Served as Priest…

This coming Jesus, according to Zechariah, would unite the King and Priest roles. What was it that the priests did? On behalf of the people they offered sacrifices to God to atone for sins. The priest covered the sins of the people by sacrifice. Similarly, the coming Branch ‘Jesus’ was going to bring a sacrifice so that the LORD could ‘remove the sin of this land in a single day’. This was the day Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice.

While known as Christ

Now think of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He certainly claimed to be a king – The King in fact. This is what ‘Christ‘ means. But what he did while on earth was actually priestly. The priest offered acceptable sacrifices on behalf of the people. The death of Jesus was also an offering to God on our behalf. So his death was in his priestly role. In his death he fulfilled all the requirements as Priest, even as most know him as ‘The Christ’ or King. In his resurrection, he showed his power and authority over death. He brought the two roles together.

The Branch, the one that David long ago called the ‘Christ’, is the Priest-King. Remarkably, the prophet Zechariah wrote down his name in prophecy over 500 years before his birth.

The Prophets then predicted when the Christ would come. We look at this next.

January 13, 2017

The Sign of the Branch: The Dead Stump Reborn

Jesus had critics who questioned his authority. He would answer them by pointing to the prophets that came before, claiming that they foresaw his life. Here is one example where Jesus said to his critics:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,
John 5:39

In other words, Jesus claimed that he was prophesied in the Old Testament, which preceded him by hundreds of years. The Old Testament prophets claimed that God inspired their writings. Since no human can predict with certainty hundreds of years into the future, Jesus claimed this as evidence to check if he had really come as God’s plan or not. We can use this test to see if God exists and if He speaks. The Old Testament, unchanged and pre-dating Jesus by hundreds of years, is available for us to examine and consider this same question for ourselves.

First some review. The very beginning of the Old Testament hinted at Jesus’ coming. Then Abraham’s sacrifice foretold the spot where Jesus was to be sacrificed while the Passover foretold the day in the year that it would occur. We saw that Psalm 2 inaugurated the title ‘Christ’ to foretell a coming King. But it did not end there. Later prophets advanced additional prophetic themes. Isaiah (750 BCE) began a theme that later prophets developed – that of the coming Branch.

Isaiah and the Branch

The figure below shows Isaiah in a historical timeline with some other Old Testament writers.

isaiah-in-timeline — Isaiah shown in historical timeline. He lived in the period of the rule of the Davidic Kings

The timeline shows that Isaiah wrote his book in the period of David’s Royal dynasty (1000–600 BCE). At that time (ca 750 BCE) the dynasty and the kingdom was corrupt. Isaiah pleaded that the Kings return back to God and the practice and spirit of the Mosaic Law. But Isaiah knew that Israel would not repent. So he also prophesied her destruction and the termination of the royal dynasty.

He used a specific metaphor, or image, for the royal dynasty, picturing it like a great tree. This tree had at its root Jesse, the father of King David. On Jesse the Dynasty began with David, and from his successor, Solomon, the tree continued to grow and develop.

The image Isaiah used of the Dynasty as a tree

First a Tree … then a Stump … then a Branch

Isaiah wrote that God would soon cut this ‘tree’ dynasty down, reducing it to a stump. Here is how he began the tree image which then he turned into the riddle of a stump and Branch:

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him–the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge.”
Isaiah 11:1-2

Dynasty pictured as a Stump of Jesse – father of David

The cutting down of this ‘tree’ happened about 150 years after Isaiah, around 600 BCE. Then the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and dragged its people into exile (the red period in the timeline above). Jesse was the father of King David, and so was the root of David’s Dynasty. The ‘stump of Jesse’ was therefore a metaphor to the coming shattering of David’s dynasty.

The Branch: A coming ‘him’ from David possessing wisdom

But this prophecy also looked further into the future than just the cutting down of the kings. Isaiah predicted that the ‘stump’ would look dead, as stumps do. Nonetheless, one day in the far future a shoot, known as the Branch, would emerge from that stump. Certain trees have this capability to send up shoots from stumps. Isaiah used this natural process to help us picture how the Branch would come. Isaiah refers to this Branch as a ‘him’ so Isaiah is talking about a specific man, coming from the line of David after the dynasty’s fall. This man would have such qualities of wisdom, power, and knowledge it would be as if the very Spirit of God would be resting on him.

Jesus … A ‘him’ from David possessing wisdom

Jesus fits the requirement of coming ‘from the stump of Jesse’ since Jesse and David were his ancestors. What makes Jesus very unusual is the wisdom and understanding he possessed. His shrewdness, poise and insight in dealing with opponents and disciples continue to impress both critics and followers ever since. His power in the gospels through miracles is undeniable. One may choose not to believe them; but one cannot ignore them. Jesus fits the quality of possessing exceptional wisdom and power that Isaiah predicted would one day come from this Branch.

Jeremiah and The Branch

Isaiah laid down a signpost in history with that prophecy. But it did not end there. His signpost is only the first of several signs. Jeremiah, living about 150 years after Isaiah, when David’s dynasty was actually being cut down before his very eyes wrote:

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD our Righteousness“.
Jeremiah 23:5-6

Jeremiah expands on the Branch theme of David’s dynasty started by Isaiah 150 years earlier. The Branch will be a King who reigns. But this is exactly what Psalm 2 prophecy said of the coming Son of God/Christ/Messiah. Could it be that the Branch and the Son of God are one and the same?

The Branch: The LORD our Righteousness

But what is this Branch to be called? He would be called the ‘LORD’ who will also be ‘our’ (that is – us humans) Righteousness. As we saw with Abraham, the problem for humans is that we are ‘corrupt’, and so we need ‘righteousness’. Here, in describing the Branch, Jeremiah hints that in the future people would get their needed ‘righteousness’ by the LORD – YHWH himself. (YHWH is the name for God in the Old Testament). But how would this be done? Zechariah fills in more details as he develops further about the Coming Branch. He even predicts the name of Jesus – which we look at next.

February 19, 2016

Where does ‘Christ’ of Jesus Christ come from?

I sometimes ask people what Jesus’ last name was. Usually they reply, “I guess his last name was ‘Christ’ but I am not sure”.

Then I ask, “If so, when Jesus was a little boy did Joseph Christ and Mary Christ take little Jesus Christ to the market?”

Hearing it that way, they realize that ‘Christ’ is not Jesus’ last name. So, what is ‘Christ’? Where does it come from? What does it mean? That is what we will explore in this article. Along the way we will also see where the title ‘Son of God’ comes from.

Translation vs. Transliteration

First we need to know some basics of translation. Translators sometimes choose to translate by similar sound rather than by meaning, especially for names or titles. This is known as transliteration. For the Bible, translators had to decide whether its words (especially names and titles) would be better in the translated language through translation (by meaning) or through transliteration (by sound). There is no specific rule.

The Septuagint

The Bible was first translated in 250 BCE when Jewish rabbis translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. This translation is the Septuagint (or LXX) and people used it widely in ancient times and even still today. The apostles wrote the New Testament 300 years later in Greek. Therefore they quoted the Greek Septuagint rather than the Hebrew Old Testament.

Translation & Transliteration in the Septuagint

The figure below shows how this affects modern-day Bibles:

This shows the translation flow from original to modern-day Bible

The original Hebrew Old Testament is in quadrant #1. Because the Septuagint was a Hebrew to Greek translation (in 250 BCE) we show an arrow going from quadrant #1 to #2. The New Testament authors wrote the New Testament in Greek, so this means #2 contains both Old and New Testaments. In the bottom half (#3) is a modern language translation of the Bible (eg English). To get this translation linguists translate the Old Testament from the original Hebrew (1 -> 3) and the New Testament from the Greek (2 -> 3). The translators must decide on transliteration or translation of names and titles as explained above.

Bibles translated in the Orthodox tradition (generally East European churches) translate the Old Testament from the Greek Septuagint. Thus, for these Bibles, both Old and New Testaments come from the Greek (2 -> 3).

The Origin of ‘Christ’

Now we follow this same sequence, but focusing on the word ‘Christ’ that appears in New Testaments.

Where does ‘Christ’ come from in the Bible

In the original Hebrew (in Quadrant #1) the word used for Christ was ‘mashiyach’. The Hebrew dictionary defines ‘mashiyach’ as an ‘anointed or consecrated’ person. Passages of the Psalms prophesied a specific coming mashiyach (with a definite article ’the’). In the 250 BCE Septuagint translation, rabbis used a Greek word for the Hebrew mashiyach having a similar meaning, Χριστός = Christos. This came from chrio, which meant to rub ceremonially with oil.

Therefore the word Christos was translated by meaning (and not transliterated by sound) from the Hebrew ‘mashiyach’ into the Greek Septuagint to prophesy about this coming person. This is Quadrant #2. The New Testament writers understood that Jesus was this very person prophesied in the Septuagint. So they continued to use the term Christos in the Greek New Testament. (again in Quadrant #2)

Christ in Bibles of Other Languages

But for other languages ‘Christos’ was then transliterated from the Greek into English (and other modern languages) as ‘Christ’. This is the lower half of the figure labelled #3. Thus the modern ‘Christ’ is a very specific title from the Old Testament. It derives by translation from Hebrew to Greek, and then transliteration from Greek to other languages. Scholars translate the Hebrew Old Testament directly to modern languages without using Greek as an intermediate language. They have used different words in translating the original Hebrew ‘mashiyach’. Some transliterated the Hebrew ‘mashiyach’ to the word Messiah by sound. Others translated ‘mashiyach’ by its meaning and so have ‘Anointed One’ in these specific passages. In either of these cases we do not often see the word ‘Christ’ in modern Old Testaments. Therefore this connection to the Old Testament is not apparent. But from this analysis we know that in the Bible:

‘Christ’ = ‘Messiah’ = ‘Anointed One’

All of these have identical meanings and refer to the same original title. This is similar to how 4= ‘four’ (English) = ‘quatre’ (French) = 6-2 = 2+2. These are all math and language equivalents of ‘4’.

Anointing was the process that a king designate went through in order to become king. This is similar to how getting elected is the process by which a Prime Minister or President gains the right to rule today. We might say the Prime Minister is the ‘elected one’ in the same way we would say the king is the ‘anointed one’. So the ‘Anointed One’, or ‘Messiah’, or ‘Christ’ designated a King, someone who would rule.

Old Testment prophecies of ‘The Christ’

So where does the title ‘Christ’ first come? We see it as a prophetic title already in the Psalms, written by David ca 1000 BCE – long before the birth of Jesus.

King David, author of Psalms, in Historical Timeline

²The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
    against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
³“Let us break their chains
    and throw off their shackles.”

⁴The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them.
⁵He rebukes them in his anger
    and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
⁶“I have installed my king
    on Zion, my holy mountain.”

⁷I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
Psalm 2: 2-7

The Anointed One is also the ‘Son of God’

Here we also see that the Lord’s decree addresses the Anointed as ‘my Son’. In other words, God calls ‘The Anointed’ his ‘son’. This is where the title ‘Son of God’ originates, from Psalm 2. Thus, it was not invented by Jesus or even by New Testament writers. It is synonymous with the Anointed One. So now:

‘Christ’ = ‘Messiah’ = ‘Anointed One’ = ‘Son of God’

The related title ‘Son of Man’ we explore here.

The Christ anticipated in 1st Century

With this knowledge, let’s make some observations from the Gospel. Below is the reaction of King Herod when the wise men from the East came looking for the king of the Jews. This forms part of the story of the birth of Jesus. You will see ‘Messiah’ or ‘Christ’ used here, depending on the translation. Notice, ‘the’ precedes Messiah or Christ, even though it is not referring specifically about Jesus.

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
Matthew 2:3-4

Notice that the very idea of ‘the Christ’ (or ‘the Messiah’) was already commonly understood between Herod and his religious advisors, even before Jesus’ birth. They use the title without referring specifically to Jesus. This is because, as explained above, ‘Christ’ comes from the Old Testament Psalms written hundreds of years earlier by King David. This was commonly read by Jews of the 1st century (like Herod) from the Greek Septuagint. The title existed hundreds of years before there were any Christians.

King Herod became ‘greatly troubled’ because he felt threatened by this Christ, which he understood to be a rival King. So we see in King Herod’s reaction both the meaning of Christ (a King) and its ancient roots, originating long beforehand.

Christ in Psalm 132

The Psalms had further references to this coming Christ. I put the standard passage side-by-side with a transliterated one with ‘Christ’ in it so you can see it.

Psalm 132- From Hebrew	Psalm 132 – From Septuagint
O Lord, …¹⁰For the sake of David your servant, do not reject your anointed one.¹¹The Lord swore an oath to David, a sure oath that he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne— …¹⁷“Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one. ”	O Lord, …¹⁰For the sake of David your servant, do not reject your Christ.¹¹The Lord swore an oath to David, a sure oath that he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne— …¹⁷“Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my Christ. ”

Psalm 132 speaks in the future tense (“…I will make a horn for David…”) like so many passages throughout the Old Testament. Jews have always been waiting for their Messiah (or Christ). The fact that they are waiting or looking for the coming of the Messiah is because of the future-looking prophecies in the Old Testament.

So to sum up. The following titles are synonymous and all derive from the Psalms.

Christ = Messiah = Anointed One = Son of God

The Old Testament prophecies: Specified like a lock-key system

That the Old Testament specifically predicts the future makes it unusual literature. It is like the lock of a door. A lock has a certain shape so that only a specific ‘key’ that matches the lock can unlock it. In the same way the Old Testament is like a lock. We saw some of this in the articles on Abraham’s sacrifice, Adam’s beginning, and Moses’ Passover. Psalm 132 now adds the requirement that ‘the Christ’ would come from the line of David. This raises the question: Is Jesus the matching ‘key’ that unlocks the prophecies?

We look at whether Jesus fits the prophecy of coming from the line of David here. We begin exploring The Branch theme of prophecies here.

January 10, 2016

Moses’ Farewell Speech: History marching to the beat of its drum

Moses’ Blessings & Curses in Deuteronomy

Moses lived about 3500 years ago and he wrote the first five books of the Bible. We call them the Pentateuch or the Torah. His fifth book, Deuteronomy, contains his last proclamations made just before he died. These were his Blessings to the people of Israel – the Jews, but also his Curses. Moses wrote that these Blessings and Curses would shape history. All peoples, not just by the Jews, should pay attention to them. So he wrote this for you and me to think about. The complete Blessings and Curses are here. I summarize the main points below.

Timeline with Moses. The Blessings and Curses given just before he died.

The Blessings of Moses

Moses began by describing the blessings that the Israelites would receive if they obeyed The Law. He gave the law in the earlier books and they included the Ten Commandments. The blessings were from God and would be so great that all other nations would recognize His blessing. The outcome of these blessings would be that:

Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.
Deuteronomy 28:10

… and the Curses

However, if the Israelites failed to obey the Commands then they would receive Curses that would match and mirror the Blessings. The other nations would see these Curses so that:

You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the LORD will drive you.
Deuteronomy 28:37

And the Curses would extend through history.

They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.
Deuteronomy 28:46

But God warned that the worst part of the Curses would come from other nations.

The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed … until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land.
Deuteronomy 28:49-52

It would go from bad to worse.

You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. … Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.
Deuteronomy 28:63-65

God established these Blessings and Curses by a covenant (an agreement) between Him and the Israelites:

You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, ¹³to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¹⁴I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you ¹⁵who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.
Deuteronomy 29:12-15

In other words this covenant would be binding on the children, or future generations. In fact God directed this covenant at future generations – both Israelite and foreigner.

Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
Deuteronomy 29:22-24

And the answer will be:

And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. ²⁷Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. ²⁸In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
Deuteronomy 29:25-28

Did The Blessings and Curses happen?

Nothing neutral about them. The Blessings were delightful, but the Curses were utterly severe. However, the most important question we can ask is: ‘Did they happen?’ The answer is not hard to find. Much of the Old Testament is the record of the history of the Israelites and from that we can see what happens in their history. Also we have records outside the Old Testament, from Jewish historians like Josephus, Graeco-Roman historians like Tacitus and we have found many archeological monuments. All of these sources agree and paint a consistent picture of the Israelite or Jewish history. Review the summary of this history, given through the building of a timeline here. Read it and assess for yourself if the Curses of Moses came to pass.

The Conclusion to Moses’ Blessings and Curses

But this Farewell Speech of Moses did not end with the Curses. It continued. Here is how Moses final conclusion.

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors
Deuteronomy 30:1-5

After Moses, successive writers in the Old Testament continued with this promise that he first stated. There would be a restoration after the Curses. These later writers made bold, troubling and detailed predictions. Together they make an astounding set of predictions that are happening today.

January 10, 2016

What are the Ten Commandments? What do they teach?

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. These books describe the birth of the Israelite nation thousands of years ago. Moses’ mission was to birth this nation to become a light to surrounding nations. He began by leading the Israelites (or Jews) out of slavery in Egypt through a rescue known as Passover. In Passover God liberated the Israelites in a way that pointed to a future deliverance for all mankind.

Moses in Timeline. The Ten Commandments were given in his lifetime.

But Moses’ call was not only to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. His mandate was also to lead them to a new way of living. So fifty days after Passover Moses led them to Mt. Sinai where they received the Law.

So what commands did Moses receive? The complete Law was quite long, with 613 specific commands. But Moses first received a set of specific 90ots of stone, known as the Ten Commandments. These Ten formed the summary of the Law – the moral prerequisites before all the others. The Ten Commandments (sometimes called Decalogue) are God’s active power to persuade us to repent. This is what we examine in this article.

Part of the All Souls Deuteronomy, Containing the Oldest Surviving Copy of the Decalogue_{^{Author unknown, photograph by Shai Halevi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons}}

The Ten Commandments

Here are the Ten Commandments as written by God on the stone. Then Moses recorded them in the book of Exodus of the Bible.

And God spoke all these words:

²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³“You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

⁸“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³“You shall not murder.

¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵“You shall not steal.

¹⁶“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Exodus 20: 1-17

The Standard of the Ten Commandments

Now a day, we sometimes forget that these were commands, not suggestions or recommendations. But to what extent are we to obey these commands? The following verse comes just before the giving of the Ten Commandments:

Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel…
Exodus 19:3

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,
Exodus 19:5

Moses recorded the following just after the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”
Exodus24:7

Ten Commands – Not Multiple Choice

Let’s think about this. Sometimes in school exams, teachers gives multiple questions (for example 20). But then they requires students to only answer some of the questions. For example, students can choose any 15 questions out of the 20 to answer. Each student would pick the 15 easiest questions for him/her to answer. In this way the teacher makes the exam easier.

Many people treat the Ten Commandments in the same way. They think that God, after giving the Ten Commandments, meant, “Attempt any six of your choice from these Ten”. We think this way because we instinctively imagine God balancing our ‘good deeds’ against our ‘bad deeds’. If our Good merits outweigh or cancel our Bad imperfections then we hope this suffices to earn God’s favor. Or at least maybe get a pass to heaven. For this same reason, many of us try to earn religious merit through religious activities. These often include; going to church, mosque, or temple, praying, fasting, and giving money to the poor. These acts hopefully balance out the times we disobey one of the Ten Commandments.

However, an honest reading of the Ten Commandments shows that this was not how God gave it. People are to obey and keep ALL the commands – all the time. The sheer difficulty of accomplishing this has made many rebels against the Ten Commandments. The well-known atheist Christopher Hitchens attacked the Ten Commandments for this reason:

“… then comes the four famous ‘shalt nots’ which flatly prohibit killing, adultery, theft, and false witness. Finally there is a ban on covetousness, forbidding the desire for ‘thy neighbours’… chattel. … Instead of the condemnation of evil actions, there is an oddly phrased condemnation of impure thoughts…. It demands the impossible…. One may be forcibly restrained from wicked actions…, but to forbid people from contemplating them is too much…. If god really wanted people to be free of such thoughts, he should have taken more care to invent a different species”
Christopher Hitchens. 2007. God is not great: How religion spoils everything. P.99-100

Why did God give the Ten Commandments?

But to think either that God can accept a 50%+ effort, or that God made a mistake in demanding the impossible, is to misunderstand the purpose of the Ten Commandments. God gave us the Ten Commandments to help us identify our problems.

Let’s illustrate this with an example. Suppose you had a hard fall onto the ground and, hurt your arm badly. However, you are unsure of the internal damage. Is the bone in your arm broken or not? You are unaware if it will get better, or if you need a cast on your arm. So you take an X-ray of your arm, and the X-ray reveals the true situation. Yes indeed, you broke the bone in your arm. Does the X-ray heal your arm? Is your arm better because of the X-ray? No, your arm is still broken. But now you know that it is indeed broken, and you need to put a cast on it to heal. The X-ray did not solve the problem, rather it exposed the problem so now you can treat it properly.

The Commands reveal Sin

Likewise, God gave us the Ten Commandments so that we could see a problem deep within us, our sin. Sin means ‘missing’ the target of what God expects from us in how we treat others, ourselves, and God. The Bible says that

The Lord looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one. (Psalm 14:2-3)

We all have this inner corrupting problem of sin. This is so serious that God says of our ‘good deeds’ (which we hope will cancel out our sins) that:

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Our righteous merit in religious observances or helping others counts only as ‘filthy rags’ when weighed against our sins.

But instead of recognizing our problem, we tend to compare ourselves with others. In doing this we measure ourselves against the wrong standard. Alternatively, some strive harder to obtain religious merit. Others give up and just live for pleasure. Therefore God instituted the Ten Commandments so that:

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20)

Examining our lives and seeing our sins against the standard of the Ten Commandments is like looking at an X-ray to see the broken bone in our arm. The Ten Commandments do not ‘fix’ our problem. Instead, they reveal the problem clearly so we will accept the remedy that God has provided. Instead of continuing in self-deception, the Law allows us to see ourselves accurately.

God’s Gift given in repentance

The remedy that God has provided is the gift of forgiveness of sins. He freely gives it through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The article here explains this more fully. God simply extends this Gift of Life to us if we trust or have faith in His work.

know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)

We can be given righteousness just like Abraham that was justified before God. But it does require that we repent. Repent means to ‘change our minds’ and involves a turning away from sin and a turning towards God and the Gift He offers. As the Bible explains:

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord
Acts 3:19

The promise for you and me is that if we repent and turn to God, our sins will not be counted against us. Instead, we will receive Life.

That first Passover and Abraham’s test revealed God’s signature in His plan for us. Likewise, the specific day when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses also points to the coming of the Spirit of God to indwell us. The indwelling Holy Spirit gives us the ability to follow God in a way that we cannot do on our own.

January 9, 2016

Passover Sign of Moses

After Abraham died his descendants were called Israelites. 500 years later they had become a large tribe. But they had also become slaves of the Egyptians.

The Exodus

The Israelite leader was Moses. God had told Moses to go to Pharaoh of Egypt and demand that he free the Israelites from slavery. This began a struggle between Pharaoh and Moses producing nine plagues against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Even so, Pharaoh had not agreed to let the Israelites go free. So God was going to bring a deadly 10th plague. Click here to read the full account of the 10th Plague in the Bible.

God decreed that every firstborn male in the land would die that night from God’s Angel of Death. But those who remained in houses where sacrificed lamb’s blood painted on the door frames would live. If Pharaoh did not obey, his firstborn son and heir to the throne would die. Every house in Egypt that did not sacrifice a lamb and paint its blood on the doorposts would lose a firstborn son. So Egypt faced a national disaster.

In Israelite (and Egyptian) houses with lamb’s blood painted on the doors the promise stated that everyone would be safe. The Angel of Death would pass over that house. So this day was called Passover.

Passover – A Sign for who?

People think that the blood on the doors was only for the Angel of Death. But notice what the Bible says

The LORD said to Moses … ” … I am the LORD. The blood [of the Passover lamb] will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Exodus 12:13

The LORD was looking for the blood on the door and if He saw it Death would pass over. But the blood was not a sign for Him. It says that the blood was a ‘sign for you’ – the people, including you and me.

But how is it a sign? After this happened the LORD commanded them to:

Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for generations to come. When you enter the land … observe this ceremony… It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD’
Exodus 12:27

The Remarkable Passover Calendar

In fact we see at the beginning of this story that this 10th plague began the ancient Israelite (Jewish) calendar.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year…
Exodus 12:1-2

Starting at this time, the Israelites began a calendar that celebrated Passover on the same day every year. It marked their new year. For 3500 years Jewish people have been celebrating Passover every year to remember this event. Since the Jewish calendar year is a little different from the Western calendar, the Passover day moves each year on the Western calendar.

Jesus and Passover

This is a modern-day scene of Jewish people preparing to celebrate Passover in memory of that first Passover 3500 years ago. — This is a modern-day scene of Jewish people preparing to celebrate Passover in memory of that first Passover 3500 years ago

If we follow Passover celebrations in history we will realize something remarkable. Notice when the arrest and trial of Jesus happened:

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.
John 18:28

They arrested and executed Jesus precisely on Passover of the Jewish calendar. This was the same day all Jews were sacrificing a lamb to remember those lambs in 1500 BCE that caused Death to pass over. Remember from Abraham’s Sacrifice, one of the titles of Jesus was:

The next day John (i.e. John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world… ’”.
John 1:29

Jesus, the ‘Lamb of God’, was sacrificed on the very same day that all the Jews alive then were sacrificing a lamb in memory of the first Passover that started their calendar. This is why the Jewish Passover occurs at the same time as Easter. Easter commemorates the death of Jesus and since that happened on the Passover, Easter and Passover happen close together. (Since the Western calendar is different they are not on the same day, but usually in the same week).

Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs

Think back to that first Passover in Moses’ day where the blood was a ‘sign’, explicitly for us. Think what signs do by considering these signs.

Signs are pointer in our minds to get us to think about the thing the sign points to — Signs are pointer in our minds to get us to think about what the sign points to

When we see the ‘skull and crossbones’ sign it makes us think of death and danger. The sign of the ‘Golden Arches’ makes us think about McDonalds. The ‘√’ on Nadal’s bandana is the sign for Nike. Nike wants us to think of them when we see this on Nadal. Signs are made to direct our thinking not to the sign itself but to something it points to.

God had said to Moses that the first Passover blood was a sign. So what was God pointing to with this sign? With the remarkable timing of lambs sacrificed on the same day as Jesus, the ‘Lamb of God’, the sign points to the coming sacrifice of Jesus.

Two Signs – Pointing to Location and Date

It works in our minds like shown in the diagram.

The Passover is a Sign in that it points to Jesus through the remarkable timing of Passover with Jesus' crucifixion — The Passover is a Sign in that it points to Jesus through the remarkable timing of Passover with Jesus’ crucifixion

The sign points us to think about the sacrifice of Jesus. In the first Passover the Israelites sacrificed lambs and painted the blood painted so that death would pass over them . This sign pointing to Jesus tells us that likewise the ‘Lamb of God’ was also sacrificed and his blood spilt so death would pass over us.

With Abraham’s sacrifice the place where the ram died so Isaac could live was Mount Moriah – the same place where Jesus was sacrificed 2000 years later. That allows us to ‘see’ the meaning of his sacrifice by pointing to the location. Passover also points to Jesus’ sacrifice, but from a different perspective. It points to the day of the calendar – the calendar started by the first Passover. In two different ways the most important stories in the Old Testament point directly to the death of Jesus using sacrificed lambs. I cannot think of any other person in history whose death (or life achievement) was foreseen in two such dramatic ways. Can you?

These two events (Abraham’s sacrifice and Passover) should show us that it is reasonable to consider that Jesus is the center of a Divine Plan.

But why has God placed these Signs in ancient history to predict the crucifixion of Jesus? Why is that so important? What is it about the world that requires such bloody symbols? God shows the hopelessness of our situation when he gives the Ten Commandments.

January 8, 2016

Abraham: How God will Provide

Abraham lived 4000 years ago, traveling to modern-day Israel. God promised him a son that would become a ‘great nation’. But he had to believe and then wait until he was very old to see his son born. Jews and Arabs today come from Abraham, so we know the promise came true and that he is an important person in history as the father of great nations.

The Test: The Binding of Isaac

Abraham was now very happy to watch his son Isaac grow up into a man. But then God tested Abraham with a difficult task. God said:

“Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar.”
Genesis 22:2

This is hard to understand! Why would God ask Abraham to do this? But Abraham, who had learned to trust God – even when he did not understand

… got up early the next morning … and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go.
Genesis 22:3

After three days travel they reached the mountain. Then

…when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son.
Genesis 22: 9-10

Abraham was ready to obey God. Just then something remarkable happened

But the Lord’s angel shouted from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am!” he answered.

“Don’t hurt the boy or harm him in any way!” the angel said. “Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son.”

Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.
Genesis 22: 11-13

At the last moment Isaac was saved from death and Abraham saw a male sheep and sacrificed it instead. God had provided a ram and the ram took the place of Isaac.

Now let’s ask a question. At this point in the story is the ram dead or alive?

Why do I ask? Because Abraham will now give a name to the place, but many miss its importance. The story continues…

Abraham named that place “The Lord Will Provide.” And even now people say, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Genesis 22:14

Another question: Is the name that Abraham gave to that place (“The Lord Will Provide”) in the past?

Looking to the future, not the past

It is clearly in the future tense. Many people assume that Abraham, when naming that place, was thinking of the ram. God had provided it by getting the ram caught in the thicket. Then Abraham had sacrificed in place of his Isaac. But when Abraham gave the name that ram was already dead and sacrificed. If Abraham was thinking of that ram – already dead and sacrificed – he would have named it ‘The LORD has provided’. He would have named it in the past tense. And the closing comment would read ‘And even now people say “On the mountain of the LORD it was provided”’. But the name looks to the future, not the past. Abraham is not thinking of the already dead ram. He is naming it for something else – in the future. But what?

Where is that place?

Remember where this sacrifice occurred, told at the beginning of the story:

(“Go get Isaac, …. Take him to the land of Moriah”)
Genesis 22:2

This happened at ‘Moriah’. Where is that? It was wilderness in Abraham’s day (2000 BCE), with only some bushes, a wild ram, and Abraham & Isaac on that mountain. But one thousand years later (1000 BCE) King David built the city of Jerusalem there, and his son Solomon built the First Jewish Temple there. We read later in the Bible that:

Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah…
2 Chronicles 3:1

Mount Moriah became Jerusalem, the Jewish city with the Jewish Temple. Today it is a holy place for the Jewish people, and Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel.

The Sacrifice of Abraham and Jesus

Let us think a little about the titles of Jesus. Jesus’ most well-known title is ‘Christ’. But he had other titles, like:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
John 1:29

Jesus was also called ‘The Lamb of God‘. Think about the end of Jesus’ life. Where was he arrested and crucified? It was in Jerusalem (which is the same as ‘Mount Moriah’). The Bible states very clearly that:

He [Pilate] learned that Jesus was under Herod’s authority. Herod was in Jerusalem at that time, so Pilate sent Jesus to him.
Luke 23:7

The arrest, trial and death of Jesus was in Jerusalem (= Mount Moriah). The timeline shows the events that have happened on Mount Moriah.

timeline of major events at Mount Moriah — Major events on Mount Moriah

Back to Abraham. Why did he name that place in the future tense ‘The LORD will provide’? Isaac had been saved at the last moment when Abraham sacrificed a lamb in his place. Two thousand years later, Jesus, the ‘Lamb of God’, is sacrificed at the same location. He did this so you & I could also live.

A Divine Plan

It is like a Mind has connected these two events separated by 2000 years of history. What makes the connection unique is that the first event points to the later event by creating the name in the future tense. But how would Abraham know what would happen in the future? No human knows the future, especially that far into the future. Only God can know the future. Foreseeing the future and having these events happen at the same place is evidence that this is not a human plan. Rather, it is a plan from God. He wants us to think about this like below:

Abraham's sacrifice at Mount Moriah is a sign pointing to sacrifice of Jesus — Abraham’s sacrifice at Mount Moriah is a sign pointing to sacrifice of Jesus

Good News for all nations

This account also has a promise for you. At the end of this account God promises to Abraham that:

“…and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me”
Genesis 22:18

If you belong to one of the ‘nations on earth’ then this is a promise to you. It concerns a ‘blessing’ from God.

So what is this ‘blessing’? How do you get it? Think of the story. Just like the ram saved Isaac from death, so Jesus the Lamb of God, by his sacrifice at the same place, saves us from the power of death. If that is true it would certainly be good news.

The sacrifice of Abraham on Mount Moriah is an important event in ancient history. Millions remember and celebrate it around the world today, especially in the Islamic traditions. But it is also a living story of life for you 4000 years later. Its theme continues with Moses.