Last week we looked at the Messiah Factors of 7, 13 & 14 and their relationship to the Bible’s sacred festivals and a Biblical reckoning of time. Today in Part II of this fascinating exploration of the Bible Messianic symbolism we will look at the 13th Enumeration, the Root of David, the Hebrew word behind “His Anointed”, and how each of these are important parts of how Yahweh describes His redemptive plan for mankind.
The 13th Enumeration
We’ll start today by looking at one of the most fascinating enigmas of the Bible, namely the lineage of Yeshua as presented by the apostle Matthew in the 1st chapter of the New Testament.
For those who don’t know, it has long been understood that Matthew wrote his account of Yeshua’s life and ministry to his Jewish brethren. In other words, this gospel account uses Biblical (Jewish) idiom, symbolism, and type. So when reading this gospel account it’s important to view it through this contextual lens.
So what do we find as the opening argument in Matthew’s account of Yeshua as the promised Messiah? We have a lineage of Yeshua as a son of Abraham and David. This lineage is used to establish Yeshua bona fides as a legitimate descendant of the two main Biblical heros through which the promised Messiah was prophesied to come.
Take a look at Matthew’s lineage of Yeshua. See if anything stands out to you. Once you’ve had a chance to study this ancient list of names, we’ll explore it in depth and I’ll show you some important details that will really thrill you.
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. (Matthew 1:1 & 17)
Matthew’s generational listing of Yeshua’s ancestors is unique in the Biblical record on several accounts:
First of all, it is arranged in three epics or groupings of 14 generations. In consideration of the sacrificial symbolism we have explored in Part I of this article it should come as no surprise that Matthew would emphasis the number 14 in relationship to Yeshua as the promised Messiah.
Second, while this list is described a grouping of three 14 person generations, in actual fact, Matthew presented only 14 + 14 +13 generations. In other words, there are only 41 names in Yeshua’s lineage instead of the 42 implied by the 3×14 generational grouping. Matthew made Yeshua the 13th generation or what I like to call the 13th Enumeration.
Third, Matthew purposely left out 4 of Yeshua’s ancestors in order to present his arrangement of Yeshua’s lineage the way he did. These omissions were chosen to emphasis some very important information Matthew was trying to convey in this list.
I want to stress here, that for Matthew to take the liberties he did with Yeshua’s lineage he had to have had a Continue reading →
Imagine how it would affect your world view if you found yourself bound to an altar looking up at your father with a knife raised to kill you. Imagine yourself as a father being asked to do such a task. Of the two who do you think was the more profoundly affected by the events?
You know, we often point to the faith of Abraham in obedience to God, in this probably the most difficult test of his life, but what about the faith of Isaac? Have you ever thought that maybe Isaac’s faith in his father was also great? We often assume, at least I have, that Isaac was a helpless child bound against his will, but I wonder if that is really the whole story.
I wonder just how much Isaac trusted his own father’s word. You see, before Abraham and Isaac ascended the mountain, Abraham made it clear to his servants that he and Isaac would go and worship and return again. Abraham when asked by Isaac where the sacrifice would come from was assured by his father that YHWH would “provide himself a sacrifice”.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. – (Genesis 22:7-8)
What do think Abraham said to Isaac as he raised that knife to the terrified look in his beloved son’s eyes? Through his own tears I wonder if Abraham didn’t remind Isaac of what a miracle his birth had been and that when he came into this world it was as a result of God’s promise to give Sarah and himself a son in their old age. Maybe he reassured him that he was their miracle child YHWH had promised and while he didn’t understand why he was being asked to sacrifice that precious gift or exactly how the next few minutes would play out, he trusted YHWH, the living God of the Bible, and he knew that at the end of the day both of them would be coming back down that mountain because they had a destiny to fulfill.
As Passover comes once again this year I can’t help but hear the echoes of that poignant story as I Continue reading →
Each time Friday the 13th rolls around I can’t help but think of the Apostle Paul and his speech to the men of Athens. By all accounts, Paul was quite a character. I can just picture him standing on the ancient Areopagus (Mars Hill) of Athens nearly two thousand years ago calling out to those gathered at the famous altar to the Unknown God:
“Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.”
I admit, I would like to have been there for that speech. To see Paul in his billowing robes challenging the highly educated Atheneans about their unfounded superstitions would have been quite a sight. Anyway, Paul goes on to explain to the men of Athens that the God they ignorantly worship was the living God of the Bible.
If the Apostle Paul was here today, I can just see him chiding our generation with similar advice. Let’s take the number 13 for example. Even among Christians this number has a certain evil connotation about it. Have you ever wondered why the number 13 has such a superstitious aura? What if I told you, that like the ignorance of those men of Athens concerning the altar to the Unknown God, the superstitions surrounding the number 13 are but the vestiges of a similar story that involves that same “Unknown God”? Continue reading →
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If YHWH intended to leave irrefutable proof of a coming Messiah, what do you think it would look like? Would we recognize it if he did? In this article I am going to look for that proof. Proof, I believe, can be found in what I call the Messiah Factors.
If you’ve read any of the articles at this blog, you know I have spent a great deal of time building a congruent picture of the 2nd temple era and Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s place in it. By now most of you have realized this chronology is indispensable to an accurate understanding of the prophecy of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. In my article The Fifth Command I showed there is only one “commandment” which could have possibly begun the countdown to the coming of the Messiah as described in Daniel 9. That “commandment” was the Divine command given by YHWH in the 2nd year of Darius, “the great” Artaxerxes, circa 520 B.C. For the next five centuries the Scriptures are silent until that silence is broken by these words of the apostle Matthew: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Think about that for a moment. Five centuries of silence bridged only by an amazing prophecy about the coming of the Messiah.
The first chapter of the first book of New Testament rightly establishes the lineage of Yeshua as a son of David and Abraham. As I hinted at in my article, The New Testament Cipher, there is much more to the lineage of Yeshua in Matthew 1 than meets the eye. Let’s take a look. I believe this simple list of names is one of the greatest proofs that Yeshua is the Messiah promised in the Scripture. Take a moment to look at the chart below. A couple of points which have caused scholars no end of debate are worth noting here. First the list is described by Matthew as three sets of 14 generations each (14+14+14). Yet, when all the names are counted there are only 41 (14+14+13). Notice in the 3rd column, Yeshua is listed as the 13th generation. Symbolically, Yeshua upon his resurrection, becomes the 14th generation and completes the list.
Another point of contention for scholars over the centuries has been the fact that four Old Testament kings are missing from the lineage of Yeshua. In the list below they are represented by two red lines. Further below in the single column the missing kings are listed as they should have appeared in the list. What immediately becomes apparent is the names are missing in two peculiar places. Their omission brings attention to the numbers 13 & 14. Also, as you will see shortly, the single missing name between the 13th and 14th generation is not an accident. That missing king happens to be Jehoiakim. In Daniel 1:1-6 it states that Daniel was taken captive during the reign of this Jehoiakim. Keep that peculiar fact in mind.
In summary then, we have a lineage of Yeshua which was purposely arranged to show that He was both the 13th & 14th generation. Further it brings attention, in a subtle manner, to those same numbers in relation to a young Judean captive who would someday record the greatest Messianic prophecy in the Scripture. It is here, in this strange list of Yeshua’s generations that we first find evidence of the Messiah Factors. Did you know that this is not the only place in the Biblical record where they are found?
We found the Messiah Factors in Matthew 1, now we will look for them in the record of his birth as given by Luke. If you’ve read my article The Course of Abija you know that it provides us with the only place in the entire New Testament where we can reasonably identify the timing of the birth of Yeshua. For the sake of brevity I won’t reproduce the entire article here. But in short, based upon the time of the conception of John and the priestly service of his father Zacharias (during the course of Abija) we can determine the month of the Messiah’s birth. Take a look at the list below. Can you find the Messiah Factors?
In John 1:14 it talks about Yeshua as the “word” that was made flesh and “dwelt” or tabernacle with mankind. Based upon Luke 1 and the course of Abija it shows that in fact Yeshua was born during the 13 or 14 priestly course of service most likely during the feast of Tabernacles. Those courses were most appropriately called Huppah (Canopy) and Jeshebeab (Dwelling of the Father). Now how awesome is that! (For more details please see my article The Course of Abija)
Isaiah 7:1414 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
While we’re on the subject of the Feast of Tabernacles, there is another place where the Messiah Factors are hidden. In this case they are hidden in the “Burnt Offering” sacrifices which YHWH commanded Israel to make in Numbers 29:13. Keep in mind the reference as you will find it is another one of those “coincidences” which we find associated with this subject. In Numbers 29 YHWH gave Moses some unusual instructions concerning the Burnt Offering (burnt = ascent) sacrifices for the first seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. Take a look at the chart below. On the first day there are 13 Bullocks, 2 Rams, & 14 Lambs for a total of 29 sacrifices. Also notice that the Bullock sacrifices are offered in a descending order from 13>7 for a total of 70. Notice above in the linage of Yeshua that 7th to 13th names in the list are set out by the missing names. As you will see this was not an accident. The total number of Burnt Offerings for the first seven days is equal to 182 (13×14). Clearly these numbers are all intentional but what do they mean? I asked you above to remember the reference Numbers 29:13. Now I am going to ask you to remember the numbers 13, 14, 29 and 70. Shortly you will see why they are so important.
After reading my articles on Ezra: Priest and Scribe, Nehemiah: The Governor, or The “Artaxerxes” Assumption some of you must be asking yourselves why Christian chronologists have failed to address the chronology of Ezra and Nehemiah in terms of the 2nd temple era. The simple answer is they believe; there is no other way to prove that Yeshua fulfills the prophecy of Daniel 9 unless Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Out of necessity they made an assumption which few of them thought necessary to verify.
What if there was a more elegant solution which was intimately connected to the religious calendar of the Jewish people, the very calendar YHWH gave to Israel through Moses. As I showed in my article Ezekiel’s 13th Month, Biblical time as understood during the 2nd temple era was based upon a lunar/solar calendar. Most years their religious calendar had 12 months of 29.53 days for a total of 354.36 days per year. Once every third year or so they had a 13th month of 29.53 days which made the year 383.89 days long . Any of these “Numbers” look familiar?
For a moment put yourself in the shoes of the 2nd temple era Judeans. How did they keep track of their religious calendar? How did they know when it was time to keep Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles? Their “mow’ed” or appointed days were regulated by “lights in the firmament” as described in Genesis 1:14. Each month they watched the 29.53 day lunar cycle to determine where they were in YHWH calendar. For thousands of years that cycle has had 13 or 14 days of waxing light followed by 13 or 14 days of waning light. 2 cycles of 13 or 14 days of visible light in every 29.53 day cycle. Take a look again at Numbers 29:13 and the Burnt offering sacrifices.
Every time I look at this information it still thrills me. Years ago I remember reading about the next big thing in corporate advertising. The idea was to put huge solar powered billboards in space which could be seen by us on earth. We’ll, YHWH beat them to it. Since recorded history He has been broadcasting the Messiah Factors for all who have eyes to see. These very numbers which are closely associated with Yeshua. Can’t help but think of the words of King David. He sure had it right:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Psalm 19:1-3
There are two more places I would like to look for the Messiah Factors before I move on to part II of this article. The first is found in what some might call another coincidence. I will let you decide.
How many of you remember Ephesian 2:13-14 where Paul talks about the “middle wall of partition” between Jews and Gentiles?
Ephesians 2:13-14 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
This wall was a partition build between the Court of the Gentiles and the Temple proper. On pain of death no Gentile could enter the inner court of the temple. Paul describes how the blood of Yeshua, in a symbolic sense, granted Gentiles access to the presence of YHWH once only reserved for the Jewish people. What is so fascinating about these verses is that during the time of Yeshua the “middle wall of partition” was accessed by 14 steps and entry was granted by one of 13 gates.
I am sure with time we will find more evidences of the Messiah Factors, but in this article I want to address just one more. To me what I am going to show you convinces me YHWH has an awesome sense of humor. According to mathematicians Pi is an irrational number whose decimal representation never ends. Pi express the relationship between a circles circumference and its diameter. For centuries mathematicians have tried to solve or explain its nature but have been unable to do so. In the Bible the number 7 represent divine perfection. Curiously in Numbers 29:13 we saw the numbers 7, 13, 14 and 29 featured prominently. What are the odds the first 7 numbers of Pi, reversed, gives us the same values? The very same values which have been expressed in the cycles of the moon for thousands of years.
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971
Here you go: 295/14/13. Funny where the Messiah Factors turn up, don’t you think? Just to make it a little more interesting, note that the first 7 found in Pi is in the 13th decimal digit. Then next 7 is found in the 29th decimal digit. And just for you skeptics, it just happens to be between the 2 & the 9. The third 7 of Pi is found in the 39th decimal digit (13×3).
So does all of this have some purpose or is it just a big coincidence as skeptics might claim. In my next article, The Messiah Factors (Part II): The Countdown I will show that the numbers 13 & 14 do in fact provide reasonable proof that Yeshua/Jesus was and is the Messiah promised in the Scriptures.
Updated 4/6/2014: For more evidence of the Messiah Factors I encourage you to read my latest article The 14th Sacrifice. Did you know there were 13/14 sacrifices in the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Take a look and see what you think.
Book 1
Book I - Description
The 13th Enumeration
"A book that will change how you look at the Bible's Messianic Symbolism."
The Jubilee Code -
"A book that will show you real Biblical evidence for Yahweh's guiding in hand history bringing about His redemptive plan for mankind."
Last week we looked at the Messiah Factors of 7, 13 & 14 and their relationship to the Bible’s sacred festivals and a Biblical reckoning of time. Today in Part II of this fascinating exploration of the Bible Messianic symbolism we will look at the 13th Enumeration, the Root of David, the Hebrew word behind “His Anointed”, and how each of these are important parts of how Yahweh describes His redemptive plan for mankind.
Imagine how it would affect your world view if you found yourself bound to an altar looking up at your father with a knife raised to kill you. Imagine yourself as a father being asked to do such a task. Of the two who do you think was the more profoundly affected by the events?
