The Two Comings of the Messiah:
As Represented Typologically & Chronologically in Matthew 1
I missed something awesome in Matthew 1 that I’d like to share with you today. The past few weeks I’ve been working on an article related to the differences in the chronology of the MT & LXX texts of the Old Testament and in the process of that exploration I realized something that I’ve never shared with you before.
This is a rather short article this week but I think you will find its symbolical and chronological significance thrilling. Stay tuned, Yahweh willing in a week or two I’ll explain why this information is significant to those who accuse (falsely in my opinion) the 1st century’s Jewish rabbis of chronological forgeries related to the Old Testament.
Suffering Servant & Reigning King
If you were a Biblical author tasked with coming up with a way to graphically represent the Biblical statement that the Messiah would come as a suffering servant (sacrifice for sin) as well as a future king, could you do it? What if that graphic representation also had to identify this Messianic figure and provide chronological proof that this person was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament?
Pretty tough challenge, don’t you think?
Well, today I’ll share with you how one Biblical author accomplished such a challenge and left mankind with unique evidence that proves a single individual in recorded history was the Bible’s promised Messiah.
To introduce you to this challenge, first take a moment to read the following passages from the prophet Isaiah. In these famous passages the Messiah is described as an atoning sacrifice / suffering servant and future king upon the throne of David, two seemingly contradictory character descriptions of this prophesied Biblical hero.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and YHWH hath laid on him the iniquity of us all…
And he made his grave with the wicked…
Yet it pleased YHWH to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand…
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
…because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:4-12 excerpted)
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of YHWH of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
As I’ve demonstrated in my series Bible Prophecy and the Law of Moses, the sacrificial rites required during the 7 “Feasts of Yahweh” throughout the Biblical year repeatedly emphasize 13 or 14 sacrifices. The Apostle Matthew in his phenomenal list of Yeshua’s lineage cleverly accentuates the connection between Yeshua and the sacrificial system by arranging Yeshua’s lineage to emphasize the numbers 13 and 14.
Further, Matthew, while implying that Yeshua’s lineage is three groups of 14 generations (14+14+13), in actual fact Matthew represented Yeshua as the 13th generation. This igneous literary puzzle then in reality had the effect of implying that Yeshua was both the 13th and 14th generation.
In other words, Matthew found a way to graphically represent two comings of the Messiah Yeshua. He made room in the lineage of Yeshua for both a suffering servant who would give His life for the sins of mankind as described in Isaiah 53 (the 13th generation), as well as (upon his resurrection from the dead) the future king who would rule from the throne of David (the 14th generation).
As you look at this graphic representation of Yeshua’s lineage once more, keep in mind that the Torah emphasizes the number 13 in relationship to the sacrificial rites which it required for atonement (as described here) . Also, keep in mind that in Yeshua’s lineage, King David is represented as the 14th generation and his name has the Hebrew numerical value of 14. These facts that would not have been lost upon the 1st century Jewish reader to whom the gospel of Matthew was written.
A Chronological Template
But Matthew did something even more igneous than just drawing a typological connection between Yeshua and the sacrificial rites of the Torah. His arrangement is so clever, in fact, it is hard to fathom how a human could have made such an arrangement work without divine guidance. Let me show you what I mean.
By arranging Yeshua’s lineage into three groupings of 14 generations, but only giving 41 names, Matthew not only made Yeshua the 13th and 14th generation of the third generational grouping, but this also made Yeshua both the 41st and 42nd generation from Abraham.
This moves beyond coincidence to intentional design when you realize that according the MT text of the Hebrew Bible, a reasonable case can be made that there are 41 Jubilee cycles between the birth of Abraham and the birth of Yeshua. That astounding fact of Biblical chronology is further emphasized when you realize that Yeshua’s death and resurrection took place in the following jubilee cycle, the 42nd jubilee cycle from Abraham!
In other words, just as Yeshua is the 13th and 14th generation represented typologically/symbolically as the suffering servant and future king. The 41st and 42nd generation – chronologically – demonstrate when those events would take place. Here take a look at Yeshua’s lineage, only this time I’ve arranged the list in a vertical fashion including the jubilee cycle count.
Pretty awesome for just a list of names, don’t you think?
Finally, for those of you who have read my books Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy and The Jubilee Code: Prophetic Milestones in Yahweh’s Redemptive Plan, you might also appreciate the astounding fact that in Yeshua’s lineage above there are only four places where the Jubilee cycles synchronize with the actually people and events which transpired during those jubilees. Those locations are as follows:
Abraham
Isaac
Zerubbabel
Yeshua
Yeshua
What’s significant about these names is that each are pivotal chronological markers in Yahweh’s redemptive plan for mankind. Abraham was the first man with whom Yahweh personally swore (shaba) an oath. That oath of sevens if you will, in part promised that in Abraham’s “seed” all nations of the earth would be blessed. That promise, made to Abraham, was fulfilled when Isaac was born in the following jubilee cycle.
It’s not until centuries later and 28 jubilee cycles (14 x 2) that we once again find a synchronization of Matthew’s list of names and the jubilee cycles. This synchronization falls during the days of Zerubbabel.
This is the very same Zerubbabel during whose governorship in the 2nd year of Darius ‘the Great’ Artaxerxes (520 BC), that Yahweh’s divine word (dabar) to restore and build Jerusalem was given through the two prophets Haggai and Zechariah to the Jewish people. As I’ve demonstrated in my book Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, that divine word began the famous countdown to the Messiah prophesied in the 70 Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9.
13 Jubilee cycles later, yes 13, the lineage of Matthew 1 once more synchronizes with the jubilee cycles. This time it synchronizes during the birth and death/resurrection of Yeshua, during the 41st and 42nd jubilee cycle from Abraham, at the very time prophesied by Daniel 9 and the 70 Weeks prophecy.
That my friends and fellow readers is a chronologic and symbolic arrangement that is beyond any invention of mankind.
Maranatha!
Brother William, there are indeed yet 2 comings of Christ to be manifested in the earth. The first shall be a secret coming within His people where He shall enter fully into the body of Christ to equip His own to be deliverers in the earth. This is referred to as the coming as a thief in the night . I can imagine this as the 13th enumeration as shown in Matthew. The second coming shall be when He appears to all in the earth having been manifested through His sons. This is the time when He shall come with the cloud of witnesses referred to in Hebrews and shall be seen as the lightening flashing from the east to the west. This will indeed be the fullness of His glory whereby all will bow the knee and declare that He is Lord over all. This will be the 14th generation or enumeration .
This will be the time when men shall truly know Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Thank you for your diligent study. We continue to watch and pray for His coming forth in His sons.
Blessings to you,
Brother Paul Davis
Thank you for your comments Paul
Warm regards,
William