(Ver 1.1) This lesson is “Part 13” in the Bible study series revealing the Lord Jesus Christ, that was being hidden by the Spirit of God in His design of the Ancient Hebrew Alphabet. This is a truly amazing subject of immense revelation. If you have not read this series from the beginning, it is highly recommended that you go and do so with “Part 1” first. There is just too much information that has been given in each lesson that cannot be fully repeated in the others. Please also understand that “advanced spiritual lessons” from the word of God are potentially offensive to the unsaved, immature carnal, or newly born Christian. If you do not feel you are a spiritually growing and mature believer in Christ, please judge yourself and consider if it is your desire not to be hurt no matter what is said. No lesson published here is given to cause any person to stumble away from the LORD. Thank you in advance for your participation in desiring to know more about Jesus today, than you did yesterday.

Today we will be learning only a limited amount of God’s important information about the letter “Lamed”. There are literally volumes of books that could be written on each letter and how it applies to the work of God in Christ Jesus. Here is a quick list of the contents of this lesson’s sections:

1. Introduction – The Lamed Shepherd Staff
2. Jesus Found in the Lamed Letter Order of 12
3. Jesus Found in the Lamed Gematria Value 30
4. Important Bible Concepts of the Lamed Staff, Rod or Scepter
5. GOD’S Name Connection with the LAMED
6. Prophetical Patterns Found in Old Testament Shepherds
7. Abel the Natural Type for One of Christ’s Main Purposes
8. Moses Natural Deliverer of Israel from Egypt,
   Jesus Spiritual Deliverer of Church from World
9. David the Pattern of Christ’s Shepherd’s Authority
10. Jesus Our New Covenant Shepherd
11. Jesus – His Shepherd’s Authority
12. Personal Application of God’s Lamed Authority!
13. The Conclusion

Let us get started with learning this incredible picture of God’s Lamed Authority in Christ Jesus.

1. Introduction – The Ancient Hebrew Lamed Pictogram

The ancient Hebrew letter “Lamed”, is the 12^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and has the gematria number value of “30”. We will be talking about these numbers more later. But it is very interesting that we can “first” find Jesus, learning and speaking with the Rabbis in the temple was at the age of 12. The Lamed letter has the sound that is similar, but slightly different to the English letter “L” depending upon the placement in the word. The letter “Lamed” is spelled as a root word with these three letters; “Lamed” + “Mem” + “Dalet”. The Hebrew root word H3925 that is made from these three letters, means to “goad”, and thus to teach or help the one being goaded to learn. This word is sounded as “Lamad” and it is mostly translated a form of “teach” or “learn” in the Old Testament. This is a very clear representation of what the ancient Hebrew letter “Lamed” represents.

Most can view the ancient Hebrew pictogram of the “Lamed” and see the clear image of a wooden “staff”.  This was a very common possession of many people in that time in history. The nomadic traveler that walked from place to place, would carry a staff as an aid for their journey of travel. We can see this in the life of Jesus in Mark 6:8. In this verse Jesus tells the 12 disciples to go cast out devils using the authority that He had given to them and for them to only take their “staff” with them. This staff was clearly a “sign” of their delegated authority, as well as being an aid for their travels.

The basic picture of a “staff” is also a very significant object found in the hand of shepherds in the Bible. This makes this letter Lamed a direct connection to a shepherd that watches over his sheep. This wooden object was constantly carried by a shepherd to help him guide, manage and protect his flock. The shepherd’s staff was generally used for the tasks of “goading”, “guiding”, “protecting”, “correcting”, “comforting”, “controlling”, “teaching”, etc. The shepherd’s “staff” also clearly carried the meaning of “authority”. This symbolism of authority and shepherds will grow increasingly as we connect this object as describing the LORD Jesus Christ.

The clearest symbolic meaning of a Lamed staff is “authority” over sheep. We can understand this by the connection of the shepherd having “sheep” under his authority, that need to be managed. Remember we learned the root word Lamad was spelled Lamed, Mem, Dalet, and it meant to “goad. This is certainly one usage of a staff to help train the animal to move to safety, water or food, or whatever was required to help them learn. A goad is a term, that denotes staff usage and application. The shepherd would need to train his flock by calling to them and potentially by goading them for their benefit.  When the holder of the staff pokes or prods an animal with the pointed end of their staff, they usually did so to encourage them to move forward to something good, or away from something harmful. From this we learn, that the goading by a good shepherd was based upon “love” of the sheep.  Therefore, the Lamed does represent a teacher of words.

If we analyze the letters of the word “Lamad” H3925 we learn the “Lamed” means “shepherd’s authority”, the “Mem” means “moving strong waters”, and the “Dalet” means “a door of entrance into the house”. Placing these together we arrive at “Shepherd with authority, speaking words to move His sheep into His house”. How did we arrive at that conclusion? We know that moving waters is defined by Jesus to be His spoken words in John 7:37-38. In verse 37 Jesus said, “If any man thirst let him come to me, and drink”. Then in verse 38 Jesus said, “He that believes on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. Finally, in verse 39, the writer reveals this was spoken of the Holy Spirit that those that receive that believed upon Him. This may not yet make sense to why this is words, until we find out how Jesus defined His words in the previous chapter. Jesus said in John 6:63 that His words were Spirit and Life. So, we have confirmed the connections of words to water. We can further confirm this with John 15:3 where Jesus said, “Now are you clean through the word that I have spoken to you”. This is clearly connecting spoken words to the cleaning power of water.

Now for the last letter “Dalet”. We learned in the “Dalet” lesson that this letter represents the picture of a “door”. We further learned that Jesus directly said that He was the “door” of the sheep in John 10:7. Hopefully, you can see the message connection to Jesus in all of these letters. In John 10:7, Jesus is implied to be the target location of entrance into ultimate safety for all sheep to go into. This would imply the Lamed staff of authority was being held by Jesus to help His sheep move towards the door. With the realization that water is words we now can see how authority is implemented in love with words. Therefore, we have “The Shepherd moves with His Words, the sheep into the Door of salvation”.

Let us confirm this with information from the New Covenant. It is very interesting that Jesus when appearing to Saul on the road to Damascus, said to him; “it is hard for you to kick against the prick”. This occurs in Acts 9:5, and the word “prick” (G2759) is defined as someone who is “goading” another. In this statement of Jesus, He is claiming to be the one that is using His Shepherd staff of authority to strongly encourage Saul to change his direction of travel. Jesus uses a stubborn animal analogy that means “those that are resisting His word of training are only kicking against Him personally and He is suggesting very strongly this is useless since Saul is the animal being trained and He is Chief Shepherd”. The order of intelligence, authority, and power was on Christ’s side, and not Saul’s.  

This is one of your first confirmations for Jesus being the Shepherd that is goading Saul with His Lamed “staff” of authority (Words) to change Saul’s direction. That is very amazing to relate to our study of Jesus the ultimate shepherd in authority. Let us continue with some other foundational concepts and connections to Jesus next by looking at the Lamed number values.

2. Jesus Found in the Lamed Letter Order of 12

Most Biblical scholars and diligent students of the Bible, recognize the awesome significance of the number 12. Therefore, we will begin this section of the lesson with a story of Jesus growing up after birth. It is interesting that Joseph and Mary took the child Jesus to the temple 8 days after His birth to be circumcised according to the Law of Moses (Luke 2:27, Lev 12:2-6). We also know from Luke 2:42 that it was the custom of Joseph and Mary to go back to the Jerusalem temple every year specifically to celebrate Passover. But it is not until Jesus was 12 years old that God mentions Him being personally in the temple by name. But something happened on this trip with Jesus at the age of 12 that was significant to God for Him to write about it. Could it be because of Jesus’ Lamed 12^th letter connection? It appears that it could be based upon what we are about to learn.

Because God writes specifically about the age of 12 Passover trip of Jesus, we must understand that something had to have changed for God to mention only this one trip. There are no other mentions, that I know of where Jesus is again related to be in the temple, until after He turns 30. Wow, this is very significant since both of these numbers are associated with the letter “Lamed”. Because of these facts, we can connect Jesus directly to the number 12 by God writing about Him specifically to be at the temple in Jerusalem at the age of 12.

As we should know Jesus was present at Jerusalem for Passover like he had been for the past 11 years of His life. What was significant about this trip that made it different than the previous ones? We need to know that at the passing of the age of 12, and entering into the 13^th year of life, the Jewish people traditionally considered the young male child to have moved into manhood. In other words, at this age a child has become accountable to the Law of Moses. This is actually very significant. Jesus was stated in Galatians 4:4 to have been born of a woman under the Law. We already know Jesus was circumcised on the 8^th day of His natural life, so His parents followed the law very specifically. We also learned that this family’s custom was to present themselves according to the Law every year at Passover. We are observing the Law being followed very faithfully in the first 12 years of the life of Jesus.

But this trip things became radically different than all of the previous years. Jesus made the conscious choice to stay in the temple in Jerusalem when His parents Joseph and Mary left to go back home (Lk 2:43). It is interesting that they never worried about their eldest son for a long time after when they could not find him with any of the people that were traveling with them. It actually took 3 days for them to find Jesus again (Lk 2:46). Finally, Joseph and Mary found Jesus sitting in the temple in Jerusalem and Mary was not very happy.

Finding Jesus at the age of 12 in the Temple, brought the response to His mother, “Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49).  This answer to his mother Mary, appears to be a significant meaning to what was happening. Mary must have needed to be reminded who His Father was. With this passage of 12 years of His life, He had to understand that He was now responsible to be fully accountable to what was written about Him in the Law. No doubt Jesus had seen and heard things read about Him in the Law while at the temple for 12 years. The others at the temple were completely amazed at the things Jesus knew and understood in Law.

Jesus appears to be embracing the Father’s authority given to Him by staying to focus upon the Law. Yet it is clear that He still submitted to His mother’s and Joseph’s authority to continue in their house to mature until the age of 30 (Lk 2:51). It was age 30 when we find Jesus being baptized by John to begin His earthly ministry with His full authority power.

The number 12 is a dominate number from Genesis to Revelation. Here is a quick list of some of the most significant mentions of the number 12:

1. There are 12 months in every year (Est 3:7)
2. There are 12 hours in every day (Jn 11:9)
3. There are 12 hours in every night
4. Ishmael the first son of Abram and Hagar had 12 sons (Gen 25:16)
5. Jacob had 12 sons (Gen 35:22)
6. The 12 sons of Jacob become the 12 Tribes of natural Israel (1 Kings 19:31)
7. Jesus had 12 apostles (Mat 12:10)
8. Jesus healed a woman that had an issue of blood for 12 years (Mark 5:25)
9. Jesus raises a daughter of 12 years old from the dead (Luke 8:42)
10. One of the 12 disciples named Judas betrayed Jesus (Mat 26:14)
11. Jesus going to the cross said He could call 12 legions of angels to save Him (Mat 26:53)
12. Jesus fed 5000+ and had 12 baskets of fragments left over (Mat 14:20)
13. The New Jerusalem has 12 foundations containing the names of the 12 apostles, 12 precious stones found in the walls, 12 gates made from 12 pearls guarded by 12 angels each containing a name of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel, and the size of the city is 12,000 furlongs high, wide and long. All of this is called the Lamb’s wife (Rev 21).

We can certainly see how the number 12 has great significance and application to being a pointer to the works of Jesus. Therefore, let us now briefly look at the number 12 and gematria number 30 of the Lamed to connect us with Jesus.

3. Jesus in the Lamed Gematria Value of 30

It is also most interesting that we are told by the Holy Ghost through Luke in chapter 3 and verse 29, that Jesus began His mortal life’s ministry at the physical age of 30 (Lk 3:23). When this occurred His spiritual Father in Heaven baptized Him with the Holy Spirit, being sent down from heaven in the form of a dove (John 1:32). It is fascinating that the name of the prophet “Jonah” means a “dove”. Jesus connects Himself to this prophet by saying “As Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of whale, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. During the baptism of Jesus, He goes under the water and the dove comes upon Him, and then Jesus begins His ministry preaching the Kingdom of God is near, repent. And in Jonah, the prophet is spit up out of the mouth of the whale, and he obeys God and goes to Nineveh to deliver the message from God for them to repent. Pretty amazing parallels.

Therefore, we have both number values of the letter “Lamed”, 12 and 30 being connected to Jesus directly. These even connect Jesus to His Heavenly Father. Th mortal ministry of Jesus only lasted for 3 ½ years but made more of an impact that anyone else in human history to the world. Therefore, we can see the number 30 definitely applies to Jesus.

It is also very amazing that Jesus was sold to be crucified for exactly 30 pieces of silver. We can read this very clearly in Matthew 26:15. In this verse we can see how Judas made a covenant with the leaders of natural Israel to betray the Christ. Remember Jesus calls the betrayer the “devil” in John 6:70. This was prophesied to occur in Psalm 41:9. In this verse God says “My own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me”. This appears to teach us something very deep that we are unable to get into any detail today. Just do not forget these verses.

But also remember that it was this betrayal by the one named “Judah” who was filled with the devil, that brought about the availability of the New Covenant for all humans. These were two covenants, two choices and two eternal consequences. Apply what 1 Corinthians 2:8 says to us about Jesus being betrayed and crucified. In this verse God says “Satan would not have crucified the LORD of glory had he known” what was going to happen to himself. That is also a very deep subject that cannot be taught any further.

In Genesis 41:44 we can read that Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharoah. Joseph was a prophetical type of the Messiah Jesus.  Then according to 2 Samuel 5:4, David was 30 years old when he became the king of Israel. We should also be able to understand how David was a prophetical type of the coming seed of David called the Messiah, Jesus.  Finally, the Jewish priesthood normally never began their works in their priestly office in the temple until the age of 30.  All of these types point us to the work of Jesus, especially with Jesus being called the King of Kings in Revelation, and our “High Priest” of the New Covenant in Hebrews.

There are other cases for Christ as the type of the number 30, but we are trying to keep this lesson shorter.

4. Important New Bible Concept of a Staff Made from a Branch

Before we go further with learning about a “staff” being a representation of Jesus, we need to better understand how God uses the object and symbol in the Old Testament Hebrew writings. Two of these Hebrew words used by the LORD God that have the meaning of a “rod” or a “staff” are H7626. and H4294. These Hebrew words have the following meanings in Bible Lexicons, like Strong, BDB, and others:

1. A Branch
2. Staff
3. Scepter
4. Spear, Dart
5. Writing Instrument, Pen(cil)
6. Measuring Rod
7. Tribe (figuratively)

These applications of the Hebrew concept of a branch are tremendous. We will begin by remembering that Jesus is called the “Branch” in Isaiah 11:1. And in Jeremiah 23:5 Jesus is called the righteous “Branch”. Therefore, we have two references to Jesus as being related to a “wooden” branch that can be made into many other objects, like a rod, a staff, etc. Never forget the number of uses for pieces of wood from a “tree”, they are practically endless. But also remember the essential fact that Jesus Christ was crucified on wooden posts made from a “tree” (Gal 3:13). God has just connected Jesus to being a figurative “branch” of a tree. Please remember this potentially new concept.

When we study more in-depth the Hebrew word H7626, it is not only used by God to describe a wooden “staff”, but also the descendants of a family. For example, in Genesis 49:28, God lists the names of the 12 sons of Jacob and calls them the 12 “tribes” of Israel. In Genesis 49:10 we find the same word being translated as “scepter” applying to only the royal line of Judah for which Jesus would come. The Hebrew word translated as “tribes” and “scepter” are the exact same word. God binds these two realities into one common word. What we are observing is the confirmation of Romans 1:20, where He reveals the invisible (spiritual) things of God are clearly understood by the natural things that He created, even His eternal Godhead powers.

It is also important to know these descendants that are called “tribes”, are also called “heirs”. An “heir” is simply a family descendant that inherits the family’s possession upon death of the parent(s). Remember Jesus is called the “Heir” of God in Hebrews 1:2. This truth could be a great stumbling block for some. Why would God the Creator, need to make His “Son” named Jesus, His pre-imminent heir? There are clues in the Bible everywhere to answer this question. The bottom-line answer is Lucifer. I apologize that this cannot be expanded any further today in this lesson due to the length of the subject. But, also remember that all saved Christians are called “joint-heirs” of God (Romans 8:17) by us entering into Christ (the Dalet Door).

We have just learned God’s connection of a natural tree branch to be the same as a branch of the family lineage, that God calls a “tribe”. God chose one human “branch” of the first Adam’s family tree. This chosen branch was named Abraham, and God used Him to bring forth His chosen Son. From this man Abraham, came Isaac, and from the Isaac branch, God chose the branch Jacob. From Jacob God selected one family tribe/branch called Judah. There were many branches of the First Adam tree but God only chose the Abraham branch family, to bring forth the Christ. From Christ came a New Creation (Gal 6:15) with the combined family of God from heaven and earth being joined in one united God/man named Jesus. 

Romans chapter 11 has God writing about several new concepts of branches being cut off or being grafted into a tree (family). What God is doing is using natural concepts of trees and branches to teach us about far greater hidden spiritual works that He was doing in His Spiritual family in Jesus Christ. Jesus repeated this process of cutting off branches when He described himself to be like a figurative vine and people being the figurative branches (Jn 15:5). All branches that did not produce fruit were cut off and thrown into the fire (hell). These are things that were happening in Jesus Christ to create a brand-new Kingdom of God.

But God’s New Creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17) only occurred after Jesus was raised from the dead, to pay the sin penalty for everyone that would receive Him as LORD and produce fruit. Being raised from the dead first, Jesus became the “First born” from all the dead (Col 1:18) and thus a New Beginning for a new creation. This made the risen Lord Jesus the primary heir of God’s previous kingdom with all authority being passed to in heaven and on earth (Mat 28:18). God did this because Jesus was from both dimensions of reality. We are also saved like Him being born again, to become joint-heirs (Rom 8:17) with Him.  Remember Jesus was the firstborn of many brethren (Rom 8:29), and those that were born-again were made these many brothers and sisters of Christ.  Let us now shift our attention to another new concept hidden in the name of God, which contains the letter “Lamed”.

5. GOD’S Name Connections with the LAMED

We are first introduced to one primary name of God in Genesis 1:1. This verse says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. This name of “God” is the Strong’s Hebrew number H430. It can be transliterated into the English language as “Elohym”.  The second letter of this primary name of God is the “Lamed”. What we immediately see is this name is being called our Creator. This name H430 of God also occurs approximately 2600 times in the entire Old Testament.

We should also take notice this Hebrew name H430 is plural by the ending letter “mem”. H430 comes from the singular word “H433” that is transliterated as “Eloahh”. This word means, a “god” singular. This information confirms that God in His chosen revealed form is a “triune” plural being. Another way to possibly say this is, God reveals Himself to be a “complex unity” of three manifestations or divine nature roles, called, “God the Father”, “God the Son”, and “God the Holy Spirit”. This is similar to the human concept that calls one man, a father, a son, and a husband. These are just three roles of one man that has multiple relationship types.

Now we need to realize that the word/name “Elohym” is often shortened to “El” (H410). This name H410 “El” is recorded in the Bible approximately 242 times directly in the text as a name for God. Twelve times this word was translated as other words than “God”, like “mighty”, “power”, “great”, “might”, “strength” and others. What we are learning is very profound to our study of Jesus being the God of all “Power” and “Authority”.

The Hebrew shortened name of God “El” comes from two Hebrew letters. The word begins with the “Alef” which represents God as a strong “OX” head of power and strength.  We learned this represents the “servant” Jesus in the “Alef” lesson. This letter is connected by God to our study subject “Lamed”. We can begin to see that the “Lamed” staff picture represents a symbol of “authority” and “leadership”. Placing these pictures together we arrive at the meaning “Strong Power with Leadership Authority”. That is very interesting because it does describe who God is exactly. We can confirm that even the alphabet letters being placed together by God, tell us the truth.

Now here is another interesting concept found in the Bible. There are well over 100 names of people and places listed in the Bible that have the shortened name of God “El” (H410) imbedded within them. Some of these are very profoundly related to the LORD Jesus Christ. For example, in Isaiah 7:14 where God prophesies about Messiah being named “Immanuel”.  This is one of the most direct confirmations in the Bible, revealing Jesus was God.  This name literally means “God with Us”, and it is repeated in the Greek language as “Emmanuel” in Matthew 1:23. 

Another interesting name containing “El” is H1008 that is transliterated as “Bethel”. This Hebrew word means “House of God”. It comes by combining a new Hebrew word H1008 meaning “house”, with our H410 the short name of God. Remember, we learned in the “Beyt” letter lesson that this letter also means “house”. We can see the intelligent design of the construction of the Hebrew language. There is the basic building of words by God combining 2 or more root words together to form a new combined word meaning. Then there is the most fundamental building of root words by combining two or more letters together. Adding these letters together to form the root words, are built upon each letter having individual meanings that are being connected to form new combined word definitions. These are such interesting signs of intelligent design of the Hebrew language. This word “Bethel” simply means “the House with God’s Power and Authority”.

We could write book after book about Jesus being found in names with the “El” God name found in them. We will end this section with the name “Israel”.  This Hebrew word H3478, is derived from two other Hebrew root words like the “Bethel” word was. The first word is H8280, and this word means “to have power as a prince”. Isn’t that interesting because Jesus is called the “Prince of Peace” in Isaiah 9:6. This word H8280 is again combined with the H410 “el” short name of God. From this combination we get the fuller meaning, “He will rule as a prince of God”. This is a confirmation of Jesus’ claim in Matthew 28:18 where He said to have received from God all delegated authority within heaven and on the earth.  Some may try to reject this meaning, but it is further confirmed by the Holy Spirit’s writings through Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:27. In this verse it is written “He has put all things under His feet (Jesus)”.

We have just quickly explored the God (Alef) connection to the divine authority (Lamed), that is being given to the Son of God (Jesus) through one name of God “El”. These facts of truth, should cause you to think and ask a lot of questions. For example, why was it necessary for the Supreme Almighty Father God, to delegate all of His heavenly authority to Jesus the Son of God?  This question will need to be answered in a series of lessons all by itself. Let us continue with a short review of Old Testament prophecy patterns of shepherds that point us to Jesus next.

6. Prophetical Patterns Found in Old Testament Shepherds

Hopefully you already know some things about Bible patterns, types and shadows. These are just more of God’s designed tools using natural information that reveals His supernatural intelligent design hidden in His written Word. God uses real historical patterns of real people in real situations, and in real places to disclose greater hidden divine spiritual truth. This is where He uses historical hidden outlined information, like a sewing pattern to create a future dress, shirt, or pair of pants. Most of these were designed by God to teach us about far greater spiritual truths revealing His work to bring about His Son Jesus.

What we will discover by searching in the Old Testament, is that there are repeated types found containing natural shepherds with their “staff”, that represent prophetical patterns for the coming Messiah. Some of them should be very obvious and others have not been seen to be a pattern of Jesus because of their implied implications applying to the spiritual realms.  We will only go through a quick overview of a select few patterns, for the sake of time. Let us get started with Abel.

7. Abel a Natural Type of One of Christ’s Main Purposes

If we go and read the Old Testament, starting at Genesis 4:2, we find the second named son of Adam and Eve to be a son named “Abel”.  In this real historical account, there are two brothers. The elder son or we could also say the “firstborn” son of the first Adam was named “Cain”. This son “Cain’s” name is spelled “Qof”, “Yod”, “Nun” in Hebrew. These are the pictures of “the rising sun” (Qof), “the working hand” (Yod), and the “seed continues” (Nun). This is an interesting name. These letters have the implied meaning of “God’s (who is light) early work of His hand, to create a son (seed)”. This appears to be a hidden reference to Lucifer.

If we go and read Isaiah 14:12, we will discover the created being named Lucifer, is called the “son of the morning”. The Hebrew word H7837 is defined as “dawn” and thus the translation of “morning” meaning the rising of the sun. We know from God’s word that He claims to be “Light” in 1 John 1:5. So if Light (God) is rising in Isaiah 14:12 the implication is given that Lucifer was one of God’s earliest or even a “first” of all of His creation. It also is plainly stated that this created angelic being is called a “son” by the Hebrew H1121. This is the word “ben” formed with a “beyt” house joined with a “nun” seed to mean a son. We already learned in the “Beyt” lesson that this name is used to describe the LORD Jesus as the Son of Man and the Son of God.

Some are probably raising their eyebrows at this information. But it is confirmed in the book of Job, when the angels appear before God in heaven where they are clearly called by the title of the “sons of God” (Job 1:6). The same Hebrew word H1121 (ben) is used by God to describe Lucifer’s and the angelic descriptions as “a son” in both verses of Job and Isaiah. Job states directly the son title of angels is a direct reference to be of “Elohim”, and Isaiah makes Lucifer’s connection to God the Light by indirect symbolic reference. If you struggle with this, don’t let it keep you from continuing to read and see what else we can learn about who Cain could represent.

We have not yet fully covered the letter “Qof”, but this letter contains the meaning of the “gathering” of light at sunrise just as the Hebrew word H7837 means dawn of light. It represents a time of movement from darkness to light. Combining this letter “Qof” with the other two “Yod” and “Nun”, we can also get the meaning the “the early gathering hand of seed”. It is interesting that this is exactly what Cain brought as an offering to the LORD. Genesis 4:2 tells us Cain was a “seed” planter and in verse 3 we are informed Cain brought some of his planted “seed” produced “fruit” as an offering to the LORD. This type of work would involve “metal” tools for sowing the seed, as well as for harvesting the “seed” (Nun).

Another key point is Cain’s offerings of his “fruit” produced from “seed” was rejected by God (Gen 4:5). From this information we can again begin to see how Cain, appears to symbolically represent a pattern of Satan, another spiritual being whose “fruit” (labors) from his “seed” (words) have been rejected by God (Gen 3:15). We can more clearly conclude this by us knowing this man Cain, was the first natural murderer. This natural title for Cain corresponds with Satan being called the ultimate “murderer” by the LORD Jesus. In John 8:44, Jesus calls the “devil” a “murderer” from the beginning. This should be obvious that Jesus is giving us a pointer for us to go back and look at the book of “Beginnings” (Genesis) to find the first “murder”. We will find that we are studying about it right now in Genesis 4.

Abel’s is the name of the “younger” or “second” named son of Adam and Eve. Uh oh! Remember Jesus is called the second man in 1 Corinthians 15:47. If Cain the older son is a type of Satan the murderer from the beginning, then Abel does fit the pattern to be Jesus, since Jesus was not murdered by Satan until almost 4000 years after the death of the pattern type named Abel (1 Cor 2:8). This is still a good fit for Satan being Cain, because we are learning that Satan was created long before even the first man Adam was created. Jesus, the Last Adam (1 Cor 15:45) and Son of Adam (Lk 6:5), was born much later. Remember patterns are only outlines, and all of the details will be filled in by God with more revelations from other verses in the future.

The younger son’s name Abel, is spelled in Hebrew; “Hey”, “Beyt”, “Lamed”.  This name’s meaning becomes much more obvious to us by combining the ancient Hebrew picture language definitions of each letter. Abel’s name could be thought of as saying “Behold (Hey) the Son’s House (Beyt) of the Shepherd’s Authority (Lamed). Please just look up each ancient Hebrew letter’s meanings and you will find this combined application. It is amazing that this name Abel ends with our Bible study letter “Lamed”, meaning authority. It is also amazing the “Beyt” appears as the middle letter the picture of a father’s house where his son and heir is born. Finally, the letter Hey means what is being connected is a revelation to behold and to be amazed with. This is certainly an outlined picture of Jesus, because Jesus was significantly questioned about where He got His authority in the Gospels (Mat 21:23).

We can get a further confirmation about Abel being a type for Jesus by the description of both men’s blood being spilled onto the ground. This is just another parallel between these two individuals. God says to Cain, “the blood of your brother cries to me from the ground” (Gen 4;10).  We know the blood of Jesus certainly flowed onto the ground while hanging on a cross (Tav) (Jn 19:34). Then in Hebrews 12:24, God writes of Jesus “the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than the blood of Abel”. There is no doubt the shepherd Abel was a type of Jesus the “Good Shepherd”. It should become more obvious by how God connected Abel’s blood to Jesus’ blood with both speaking.

It would be great if we could go and study every letter, word, and verse of Genesis 4 to find Jesus in more specifics, but that is not possible in this introduction and overview of the “Lamed”. We should be able to see how one shepherd named Abel is a picture of the great Shepherd named Jesus Christ. Finally, please just realize that we can read in 1 Corinthians 2:8, that Satan would not have crucified the LORD of Glory, if he had known what was going to happen to him, and us in the world. This is truly an amazing application discovering how these will fit with Cain and Abel types found in Genesis 4. We will continue next with the overview and application of Moses as a type of Jesus.

8. Moses Natural Deliverer of Israel from Egypt,
Jesus Spiritual Deliverer of Church from World

The description of Moses being a prophetical pattern of the LORD Jesus is amazingly clear when found and seen in scripture. Moses himself prophesies to natural Israel in Deuteronomy 18:15, that God will raise up a Prophet from among the brothers of Israel, and Him should they hear. This is clearly the coming Jesus Messiah. Then in Hebrews 3:5-6, God compares the servant Moses’ faithfulness over his house, to Jesus the Son of God’s greater service over His own house. These are examples of Moses being type for Christ, and there are so many direct comparisons found in the Bible, that they cannot all be listed in this lesson. We will only touch on a very few.

For example, in Exodus 3:1, Moses is stated to be a servant (Alef) that keeps his father-in-law’s flock. The term flock implies Moses to be a shepherd of sheep. Remember who Moses was. Moses lived in the house of the ruling family of Egypt, before he left to become a shepherd of a “flock” in a wilderness. Moses moved from a life of wealth and luxury to a life of hard work and poverty. This sounds very similar as a type and pattern for the supreme ruling God the ruler in Heaven, coming to the earth as a man to become a “Good Shepherd” of His people. In 2 Corinthians 8:9, we find Jesus being called “a former rich man, but for our sakes He became poor that through His poverty, we might also become rich”. We can further see that this was God’s intent for the people that Moses delivered also. These people were taken out of the slave poverty of Egypt to be given a land flowing with milk and honey (Exo 3:8).

In this verse of Exodus 3:1, we are told that Moses “led” his flock. It just so happens that after the Hebrew word translated as “led” (H5090) there appears the hidden “Alef+Tav” untranslated word H853, which are the two letters that Jesus claimed to be in the book of Revelation. This is just another direct connection that God is prophesying about Jesus in this verse. This information clearly teaches us that Moses was a rich ruler that became a poor shepherd, and he was a pattern of the coming Alpha and Omega Lord Jesus. The parallels to Jesus should be becoming very clear already. Now we need to connect our study subject the “Lamed” staff to Moses as a pattern for Christ.

Then in Exodus 4:2 God asks Moses, “what do you have in your hand”?  The Hebrew word H3027 translated as hand, means “power”. Therefore, we discover another connection to Jesus who was anointed with the “power of God” (Acts 10:38). Moses replies; “A rod”. We already learned the Hebrew word H4294, translated as “rod” is defined by Strong to be a “branch” indicating it comes from the “wood” from a tree. But we can notice this word is also translated as “staff” as it probably should be in the context of “tending a flock”. This symbol of a staff and Moses designates that in the eyes of God, Moses had authority. Not just over sheep, but also in more powerful ways that Moses did not yet understand. This power and authority status of the type Moses is a continuation of prophecy that is only fulfilled in the coming Christ/Messiah. We will be learning more about how this is true as we continue to learn. We are now going to go through the example of David as a type of Christ.

9. David the Pattern of Christ’s Coming Shepherd’s Authority

It is definitely important to know that David was a key shepherd prophetic picture of Christ. This story of David and Goliath found in 1 Samuel 17, has many amazing parallels.  This real story is a battle between two opposing kingdoms, or nations who are enemies. The Philistines have gathered and arrayed themselves against God’s covenant people of Israel. The Philistines are clearly a figure of the kingdom of darkness in the world ruled by Satan. The natural nation of Israel is plainly a pictured type of the New Covenant church. Goliath the giant is called the “champion” of the evil nation without a covenant to God, and this can only represent Satan/Lucifer. The young boy named David was just a simple shepherd that only watched over his father’s sheep as his primary role in life. This image represents the humble servant of God called Jesus Christ who came into the world to help gather His father’s lost sheep back into His Father’s sheepfold (Mat 15:24). Remember Jesus is called God the Father’s Holy Child in Acts 4:30.

This battle takes place between two mountains, representing the two spiritual kingdoms: darkness and light. The area between them is called “Elah”, and this was a valley of potential death. David writes of this location in Psalm 23:4 when He says, “Lo though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”.  This name “Elah” can be interpreted to mean a “mighty oak”. It is interesting that this is a tree that produces very strong wood. But notice one major root of this name “Elah”, is the name of God’ El” that we looked at earlier. Remember this root is spelled “Alef”, “Lamed”, and means “Strong Authority” or the “God with Authority”. This is because the “Alef” alone represents a picture of “God” who is strong and the “Lamed” alone represents a picture of the “authority” of a shepherd.

The Hebrew word transliterated as “Elah”, combines the name of God El with the letter “Hey”. The letter “Hey” represents an instruction for us to “behold”, “look”, “see” what is being connected and revealed. For example, we learned in previous lessons that the name of Jehovah translated as “LORD”, is spelled “Yod”, “Hey”, “Vav”, “Hey”. These combined letter meanings proclaim, “The hand, behold; the nail, behold”. This was a clear hidden prophecy of who Jesus was, and how he would die on a cross.

This name “Elah” also has the meaning of a “covenant oath” as well as the curses that take place when the oath if violated or broken. Can we think about what this is saying? It would appear that God places a story of two nations in His Word, that takes place in a valley of God’s strong oath of covenant.  But there was only one young boy named David that remembered God’s covenant. The rest of the nation of Israel was cowering in fear of this giant (1 Sam 17:13). This is sounding more like our Christ, when facing Satan and the cross, than many can see at first. Now let us look at some other interesting information concerning the Lamed connections being made by God.

In 1 Samuel 17:7, Goliath had in his hand a great “spear”.  In this verse, the shaft of this spear is called a “staff” in the KJV. It is described to be as great as a “beam”. All of these are symbols of someone who has great power and authority. Clearly this is significant to our discussion of the “Lamed”. God appears to be telling us that Satan has the same kind of ability in the spiritual realm of darkness. We can confirm this in the verse of Colossians 1:13, where we read Jesus has “delivered” us from Satan’s (Lamed) authority (G1849) ruling in the kingdom of darkness. Can we see the parallels being made? David delivered Israel from the authority of the Philistines and Goliath their champion, and Jesus has delivered us from the authority of Satan ruler of the darkness. Thank you, Jesus!

Notice how the battle takes place and see the application into our current times. When David was running to fight Goliath, the giant cursed David saying in 1 Samuel 17:43, “Am I a dog that you come at me with a stave (shepherd’s staff)”. This Hebrew word H4731 means a “stick” and Goliath’s words are a prideful demeaning reference to a weapon called a “staff” held in the hand of the young shepherd “David”. Goliath clearly underestimated David’s power and ability that was backed by God. This was the same for Satan who vastly underestimated God’s plan of deliverance through Jesus Christ.

Here again we see a young boy that tended sheep for his father, who is fighting a huge giant with far greater weapons of war and trained skills. This Goliath is clearly a type of Satan, that has grown in power and size from the earlier little serpent symbol found in Genesis 3:1 where he only defeated one man named Adam and his wife named Eve. It is also very important to see that this same devil has grown into a much larger “great red dragon” in the book of Revelation. This should inform and warn you that his tricks of deception have potentially significantly increased. However, to the Christian, we have still been removed from his authority over us, if we give him no place of entrance into our life.

If you read the entire story of David and Goliath, you will continue to find that David is very courageous and fearless of this great giant. The only weapons that he is running with to fight this giant is the tools of a common poor shepherd. David places 5 stones in his shepherd’s bag (1 Sam 17:40) and five is a number for God’s grace.  With God’s grace, David takes his staff of authority, and his sling, which projects the stone. This sling can be associated to be a symbol of the human mouth that speaks (the mouth representing a word projectile spiritual weapon system, against our spiritual enemy Satan). Notice, we can confirm this from David’s actions, while facing the giant. Count how many times David “speaks” confidently (projecting and releasing faith words) and says exactly what he is about to do, and then does it by God’s participation of grace. David remembered that this enemy giant had no covenant with his God, and he did.

Please go and read this chapter and we will notice, before the physical battle begins, there is a different war of wills and words fought. Goliath curses David with his symbolic spear of authority and power, using the power of his gods (the devil). We can see where Goliath’s trust and confidence was in his god, who was not named JEHOVAH LORD (1 Sam 17:43). Goliath then proclaims his will of intent to feed the flesh of David to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. We can clearly see a spiritual battle that is taking place between two kingdoms and two gods.  One is Satan the god of this world, and the other is JEHOVAH, the creator of heaven and earth.

Remember we are learning of God’s Old Testament “shepherds” with “staffs” that are types and pointers to Jesus. One common prophetic thread between Abel, Moses, and David, is they all have brothers that are a problem to them. For example, David’s eldest brother is mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:28. In this verse David has to endure verbal abuse by his elder brother. It is very clear that David was not looked upon as a rightful member of their family. Then we can read in Exodus 32, about Moses’ brother Aaron, that gives in to the children of Israel to make them a false god in the image of a golden calf. This sin caused the wrath of God to fall on many.

All of this is in parallel with the very interesting fact that these correspond with Abel’s abuse and natural death committed by his older brother Cain. Now how are all of these types connected with Jesus? When we see Jesus walking the earth in the flesh, his physical brothers also reject him, abuse Him, and kill Him by nailing Him to a wooden cross by Satan’s leading. Wow, these are pretty amazing parallels between all of these shepherds.

There are many other types and shadows found in these stories of shepherds and others. But we will need to conclude this section for now. Hopefully you can see the comparisons from Abel, Moses, and David to Christ. It is essential that our Christ/Messiah is called the “Son of David” in Matthew 1:1. It is highly recommended that you go and read the 23^rd Psalm of David about shepherds now. This Psalm will come to life when seen through the eyes of Jesus and His work to lead us into the path of righteousness, so that we can dwell in His house and family, forever and ever.

10. Jesus the New Covenant Lamed
and Shepherd of the Sheep

Remember the Lamed is a picture of a shepherd’s hook and a staff of authority. Interestingly, the letter picture is of a staff that is pointing down, as if held by someone that is in heaven holding the staff while reaching out to the people of the earth, trying to gather them. That cannot be a coincidence, it is more likely to be a “God Incidence” of prophecy. This picture looks very similar to the English uppercase letter “J”, depending upon the font style.

The essential connections that are implied with God’s selection of this symbol are great and should be obvious, if we know the Bible. We have learned a lot of them today. Let us analyze some of the Bible implied truths about a “staff”.  The “staff” of authority is a useless item without a “shepherd’s” hand to hold it. The main reason for the “shepherd” to have and hold his “staff” in his hand, is for him to guide and protect His sheep. Therefore, without “sheep” the authority symbol of the “staff” is only useful for personal travel. This concept reminds us an old saying “He who leads, without anyone following, only takes a walk”. There is a lot of wisdom in that message.

This section is about Jesus claiming to be the “Good Shepherd” (John 10:14). Jesus by making this faith declaration is claiming to have sheep that will follow Him. Further, by Him making this claim Jesus has just implied that He has come down from heaven to the earth to gather some of His potentially lost “sheep”. In order for Him to accomplish this He had to have been given authority to do so, and this is the symbol of a “Staff” (Lamed). We are all making these connections, right? Let us look at a couple of verses that apply to find His “lost sheep” first:

Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. 

This verse in Jeremiah is a very obvious definition of who “lost sheep” are in God’s dictionary. This verse plainly says “God’s people” in the Old Covenant have become “lost sheep” and their shepherds have caused them to go astray. That is very profound information. God clearly defines “sheep” to be a symbol of people.  Then God informs us there are others in the world that were called to be “shepherds” with authority. It should be obvious by further implied references that a figurative “shepherd” in the natural world is someone that should lead, guide, and feed God’s people into the path of knowing God.

Jesus, we find in Matthew 9:36 had great compassion upon the people, because He saw them as sheep without a shepherd (G4166). This clearly teaches us that God saw the need for good “shepherds” as a requirement for His people. We can see this concept again repeated in the New Covenant. We will find that God has established “shepherds” in the church. This Greek word G4166 is most often translated as “shepherd” but it is also translated as a “pastor” in Ephesian 4:11. In this verse God writes that He has established some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some “pastors” and some teachers. That is very interesting information to remember. Let us now focus upon our first verse about Jesus claiming to be a “Shepherd”:

Mat 15:24  But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 

This verse is very applicable to our subject and contains a vast amount of implied information. This verse begins with Jesus saying He was “sent”. This simply implies He came from somewhere else, and we know from other verses that He came from Heaven (Jn 6:38).  Then Jesus narrows His reasons for His personal appearance to focus only on finding the “lost sheep” from the house of Israel. This clearly says the people of natural Israel were lost people that were apart from God and needed to return to Him. There are multiple parallels found in this statement, to the information we read about in the Old Testament shepherd types and shadows. Even though they were focused upon helping natural sheep, we can relate these to what Jesus was doing with spiritual lost sheep.

Now let us focus upon some other direct claims of Jesus that were spoken from His mouth to confirm His fulfillment of the prophecy of the ancient picture of the “Lamed”.  This should not be a lot of new information for most serious Bible students. We will turn to the book of John and chapter 10 to read some selected verses:

Joh 10:1  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
Joh 10:2  But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 
Joh 10:3  To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 
Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. 

Reading from verse 1, we find Jesus claiming to be speaking in a “sheepfold”. His claim is that He has entered into the sheepfold by going through the legal doorway. His appearance is contrasted with someone else called a “thief” that entered illegally. We must understand Jesus is speaking of the “world” as the symbolic sheepfold. This is the realm of the earth’s atmosphere, where humans breathe air. Jesus says His entrance into the world was lawful and this was because He was born of a natural woman like every other human since Adam and Eve.  Jesus’ entrance into the world is being compared with someone that was not created here or born here legally. This can only be the devil.

Notice the concept given about a shepherd’s voice being known by his sheep. This is essential to understand. A shepherd is not a “cattle wrangler” forcing or driving his animals to go where he desires. Every sheep has their own freewill choice to follow. Because the good “shepherd” is so caring and loving to his flock, they will willingly learn his voice and follow him happily to the next green pasture to feed.

In these verses we can see Jesus, speaking and comparing His purpose for coming into the world’s sheepfold. This is being compared with someone called the “thief” that is being implied to be significantly evil and harmful to God’s sheep (people). This thief is not someone that a true sheep will want to follow, and they are usually tricked or forced to go where they would not really want to go. This “thief” we must know is Satan, and Jesus speaks more directly about His role as a shepherd versus this thief in verse 10:

Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 

Joh 10:11  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 

We can see this more clearly in John 10:10 where the thief, who is Satan, only came into the world to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus says His purpose was to give His sheep “life abundantly” and this will be achieved by His personal death. This is the basics of the Gospel being proclaimed. Let us move down to verse 14 next:

Joh 10:14  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 

Joh 10:15  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 
Joh 10:15  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

As you can further see, Jesus is now directly claiming to be the “Good Shepherd” of the sheep. As we saw in Jeremiah earlier, He came to show people the truth and the right way to the Father. Notice the intimate and personal relationship between Jesus and His sheep. The term “know” represents personal close fellowship. Jesus said I “know” my sheep and they will also “know” me. This represents “covenant” relationship, as between a husband and his wife. Let us move down to verse 26 next:

Joh 10:26  But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 

Joh 10:27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 

Joh 10:28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 

We can clearly read that it is “believing” in Jesus that causes anyone to become a following known sheep of Jesus.  Jesus again in these verses, says all of my sheep can hear His voice and recognize Him as their Good Shepherd. These verses and the others that we did not cover prove Jesus to be a “Shepherd” that had authority to gather all of His believing people to save them. Therefore, let us go analyze the subject of Jesus’ authority to learn more about how this relates to the Lamed.

11. Messiah Jesus – The Shepherd’s Authority

One of the most key aspects of the physical ministry life of Jesus on the earth for three and half years was all of the people that took note of His authority. The fact that we can see Jesus had great authority over the kingdom of darkness, made Him unique above all others on earth.

Mat 7:29  For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 

A good shepherd is a guide to the blind, hurt, lame and hurting sheep. Jesus operated with this role by teaching His lost sheep things that had been kept secret since the foundation of the world. Jesus taught them using mostly parables that were on their level of natural understanding. When they came to the saving position of believing in Jesus being raised from the dead, and calling Him LORD, then they would be able to understand the spiritual applications of these natural truths. If they had not believed in Him or did not want to make Him their Messiah, they were unable to understand these truths.

Mat 21:23  And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
Mat 21:27  And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. 

Here is an example of the religious Jewish leadership demanding to know where Jesus got His authority to teach what He was teaching and to do what he was doing. Clearly, they were clueless to whom they were speaking. They had no idea that this was their God of the Torah in the flesh. Since these were men in authority, they recognized that Jesus was acting with greater authority than they even possessed. They could not go into towns and heal everyone. But Jesus did this more than once.

It is very interesting in this discourse, they asked Jesus one question and Jesus asked them one question back. Jesus said you answer me this question, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. But they refused to answer, because His question would have exposed them and answered their question simultaneously.

Mar 1:27  And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. 

Jesus constantly did things of such great authority, that He cast out evil spirits continually. Even when the devils questioned His authority to cast them out, Jesus only said “Shut up and come out of him” (Lk 4:35).

These were just a sampling of verses in the Gospels that declare Jesus was operating with great authority, in His teachings to His lost sheep, and in the casting out of evil spirits that possessed and oppressed the sheep. All of these verses clearly show Jesus was a guiding shepherd teacher and a protecting shepherd from the wolves that wanted to devour His lost sheep.  These facts show that there was a symbolic Lamed “staff” of very great authority present in the spiritual hand of Jesus. Praise the LORD!

12. Personal Application of God’s Lamed Authority!

We need to learn how to personalize each ancient alphabet letter picture.  How do we apply this ancient picture of a shepherd’s staff to us as Christians in these last days?  The first application is do you know Jesus the Great Shepherd? Can you recognize His voice? Do you follow where He is leading you?  If you answered no to any of these questions, it is time to turn your life over to the God who created you and knows everything about you and loves you enough to save you from an eternal existence separated from Him. There is a link at the bottom of this lesson that will help you to be introduced to Him. Please go and click on this and follow the basic instructions. Then leave a message to proclaim you accepted Him as your LORD. If you have already done this, then we need to begin to learn what God has given to us by entering into the LORD Jesus Christ. Here is one verse that will help us:

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 

This verse is Jesus telling us to take a new look at how His “staff” of authority applies to us right now. In this declaration from the mouth of Jesus, came His personal authority that was given to Him by His Father. He has delegated the most awesome gifts of righteousness and authority that people could possibly imagine (Rom 5:17). Jesus says “I give unto you power”. This Greek word is G1849 (exousia) and it should be translated as “authority”. The applicable definition of this word comes from Thayer and it is defined as “the power of rule or government” and is further said to be “the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed”. Did you know Jesus gave you this ability over the devil?  

But many will say: I don’t feel like this is true! Others will say: “it doesn’t work for me”. But yet God is not a man that He should lie” (Num 23:19). Therefore, it must be true regardless of if we know it or believe it, or it looks like it is working or not. Do you remember the time when a man came to Jesus asking Him to help his lunatic son? This son had a spirit like “epilepsy” that would cause the child to fall on the ground and shake. His father said it oft times made him fall into waters or fires trying to kill him (Mat 17:15).

The disciples were given “authority” to heal this boy. But the disciples tried to cast out this spirit and failed because of the deception of the enemy. Jesus looked at His disciples and was very frustrated at them, calling them “a faithless generation” (Mat 17:17). He further informed them that it was because of their unbelief that they could not cast this spirit out! What caused their unbelief in this case, when their faith was sufficient in many other cases of deliverance? The reason they failed for this child, was because the demon in the boy made it look like it was not working this time, and they gave up.

When Jesus cast out this spirit, the same thing happened that must have happened with the disciples. When Jesus commanded the devil out, the child fell on the ground and looked dead (Mk 9:26). But Jesus just ignored what the devil made it look like, and simply took the boy by the hand and lifted him up totally free (Mk 9:27). This implies that when the disciples tried to cast out the demon, the devil tore the boy the same way and he fell on the ground. The boy could have appeared dead, or he just could have continued to make the child shake and foam at the mouth, and one of these delaying tactics caused their faith to change to unbelief. Do you see the difference?

We have been given this authority regardless of how it looks on the outside world, and in our personal circumstances. God says it will work, if you will not change when it is applied in your life. The devil will try to delay you to change your mind also. He will even try to distract you away from using your spiritual authority. But where is this authority and why have many not known about this before?

We need to give God a chance to reveal a new Hebrew word translated as “heart” in the Old Testament. This word is H3820, and it is only two letters. The first letter is the “Lamed” representing “authority”, and the second letter is the “Beyt”, representing the house where a family resides within. In this application we need to see that a tent must be entered into in order to be experienced. We can all look at the outside of a mansion, but never go inside to experience it. Therefore, the concept being taught by these two letters represents a man’s “Authority is Inside”. Or it can also be expressed as “the authority of the human is inside”.  Did you get what this is saying? Please don’t miss it. What God is expressing is the location of human authority is in our spirit.

When Jesus was physically present upon the earth in His mortal flesh, we saw that He had great authority, even over the demonic spirits. We have also seen how He could delegate this authority to His disciples. But this authority was spiritual and not a natural ability. It required spiritual “faith” to be effective to release God’s power. What is “faith”, or a better question would be “where is our faith”? Everyone has “faith” in something, but do we have any faith in the words of Jesus? God answered this question in many verses but Acts 8:37 is a good one. Here we are told to believe with all of our heart.

According to this Hebrew word, we discover a mystery of where Jesus obtained His authority. Remember the Hebrew word H3820 is normally translated as “heart”. This represents the center of a human being. This location is within the unseen spiritual interior of the physical body. Remember a tent is God’s symbol of the human body where the human spirit resides inside. This human body spirit container is called a tabernacle in the New Testament (2 Peter 1:14), because this is also where God’s Holy Spirit comes to live when we ask Him inside to sup with us. When God is invited into our tent, He joins with us to become one Spirit (1 Cor 6:17). Therefore, we have just learned and confirmed:

1. Our Body is a Tent/Tabernacle
2. The temporary tent residence of our human spirit
3. The tabernacle that we invite God into,
   to be joined with our spirit to be One
4. And God calls this place “inside” to be our heart (Lamed + Beyt)

Whose spirit did Jesus have on the inside of His physical Tabernacle body? You better answer God’s Holy Spirit, because that was the temporary temple residence of God in person. Jesus confirms this speaking in John 2:19. All of the people believed Jesus was speaking of their stone temple, but we are informed He was speaking of His mortal body, being buried for 3 days and being raised up again to eternal life. This is very amazing information.

But how does that help us? The answer is because Jesus died and was raised from the dead, He obtained all authority in heaven and on the earth (Mat 28:18). He immediately gave this fully obtained authority to everyone that believed on Him. He further sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us, so that we would have the spiritual power and authority on the spiritual inside to release this on the outside in the physical realm. Do you see how Jesus was a pattern for us today? How He operated with power and authority is how every believer can do the same. Don’t believe this? Jesus said in John 14:12; “Whoever believes on me, the works that I do, shall you do also, and greater works will you do because I go to my Father”. Wow, when was the last time you raised anyone from the dead? Don’t feel bad, because we are all rising to a higher dimension of authority everyday by learning the truth.

Some may still say I don’t believe any of this. You may ask, why don’t I feel like I have any authority? Why doesn’t this authority seem to work over the devil in my life? Just don’t forget what we learned at the beginning of this section. The devil is going to try to make us doubt it is not working, even when it is working, to get us to fail.

Also remember what we have just learned from God’s chosen spelling of the Hebrew word “heart”. God gave us spiritual authority over our spiritual enemy only on the inside of our body, hidden within our spirit. It is NOT normally an external feeling that can be experienced with our five physical senses. God requires us to have “faith” in Him and His Word. This includes us believing in even how He chose to spell the words that have important revelation within them. Do you see the parallels in that last statement? There are hidden messages in letter definitions that were not understood for a long time. These were opened up now so that we could believe in our unseen human heart, about His spiritual works.

Another great Hebrew word that is created with the “Lamed” as the first letter is the Hebrew word H1980. This word has the root word “LK” which consists of the “Lamed” + “Kaf”.  The letter “Kaf” is a picture of a man’s open hand.  It is the letter that directly precedes the “Lamed” staff. Thus, they are already intimately connected by alignment, association, and usage.  It requires a Kaf “hand” to hold the Lamed “staff” of authority. These two letters together have the meaning of in the hand of a man. This certainly applies to Jesus, but it also applies to Christ followers called His sheep.

The word H1980 is most often translated as a form of to “walk”. This is because a man with a staff in his hand implies that he is traveling somewhere to arrive at his destination. In Biblical times, many travelers were the only source of information from other locations of the world. Thus, this word also means to be a “messenger” with a “message”. But this word is also used as a form of “relationship” between two individuals that were “walking together” in unity.

For example, in Genesis 3:8 we find God walking in the garden of Eden to fellowship with His created man and his wife. It is implied that God and Adam did this walk together often, because Adam recognized the sound of God’s voice walking in the garden and ran and hid because of their sin.  However, the second time this word is used it has a different ending result. In Genesis 5, we read of a man named Enoch. This man also walked with God, and their relationship was so very close that God took Enoch off of the planet without him seeing physical death. Wow!

Do you see how us having a staff in our hand has any application to our lives on this earth? God is saying to us, that we need to have close intimate relationship with Him personally daily, minute by minute. We must use our faith to walk with Him to get the messages that we need for our lives. A part of this must be fellowshipping with the Word of God, and the other part fellowshipping with the Spirit of God in prayer, worship and praise. But it does not stop there, because we still live in a natural world right now. We have this staff of authority in our hands to walk to others and bring them the “Good News” from the Kingdom of God. This is exactly what Jesus did personally in the flesh when He was here, and this is the example for us to follow.

Our spiritual authority has been given to us in our spirit, residing in a temporary spirit tent dwelling called our body. God accomplished this by joining our spirit with the Holy Spirit of Christ, and this was all defined by the Hebrew word “labe”, that is translated as “heart”. In or physical body, we have been given the “staff” of authority to walk with God and to bring His message to others.  Christians have been given great gifts from God that contain His authority. This authority is inside the house where the Spirit of God abides forever. We have been given a powerful “staff” of authority and we are told to hold it in our hands and never to turn loose of it. Jesus transferred this staff with His commands (words); “Go into all the world”, and “in my name you will cast out devils”.  God desires for us to continue finding and inviting lost people to become a part of His sheepfold.

13. CONCLUSION

We have been going through a brief study of the ancient Hebrew letter “Lamed”. We have learned that this letter is a picture of a shepherd’s staff. It represents God’s ultimate authority. We should have seen how this authority was given to the Son of God, named Jesus after His resurrection from the dead. This authority was further delegated to His body on the earth with Him being the “Head” (Resh) in heaven. We have not yet learned about the “Resh” letter, but that was your first introduction to Christ being the head of the body, called the church.

We have seen several verses that can help us to see Jesus as the ultimate “Good Shepherd” in this lesson. Every “Good Shepherd” will have a staff in His hand, and Jesus is no different.  Here is just another verse relating to Christians being “sheep” and Jesus being our Shepherd:

1Pe 2:25  For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 

This verse in 1 Peter is an obvious reference to Jesus as the Shepherd that was being prophesied in the ancient Hebrew letter “Lamed”. This is just another confirmation that Jesus is our Shepherd that David wrote and prophesied about in Psalm 23. Remember this verse is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:6 where the prophet wrote that we were all like sheep that went astray. We can again confirm those saved in the church body, are the sheep that have returned to their true shepherd. Let us conclude this lesson with another ending prophecy of Jesus in the book of Revelation:

Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 

Rev 19:12  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 

Rev 19:13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 

Rev 19:14  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 

Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 

Here is an awesome description of Jesus coming back to the earth to rule for 1000 years with His saints. We know this is Jesus because Jesus claims to be the Faithful and True witness in Revelation 3:14. Then we can confirm Jesus is God, because these identical terms were used to describe the LORD in Jeremiah 42:5.

Notice in these verses that the coming Lord Jesus is clothed in a robe dipped into blood (v13), and is riding a white horse (v11). God further describes a sharp sword in his mouth, which is a representation of His words of authority, eminence and power. We can also clearly see the church riding behind Jesus on more white horses, with clean and white robes, representing purity and righteousness. But it is verse 15, that we need to focus upon.

In verse 15 of Revelation 19, we are told Jesus will rule the nations of the world with a “rod” of iron. Notice the transition that has occurred during this context. Instead of a wooden shepherd’s staff, this one is made of strong iron. This iron rod/staff is for a much different purpose than the wooden staff of the Shepherd Jesus, that managed docile loving sheep that follows Him willingly. No, we are seeing two different rods, and purposes for two different groups of people.

Notice the Greek word G4464 that is translated as “rod” in this passage, means a stick or baton that presents the holder to be royalty in a kingdom. This certainly fits Jesus as the King of kings”. It is normally translated to be a “rod” like we saw in Moses’ hand of authority.  We again see in Revelation 17:14 that Jesus the Lamb of God is called the LORD of lords, and the King of kings. Clearly there are many references to the multiple roles of Jesus within God’s Kingdom.

What we are confirming is the fact that during this current church age of grace, Jesus offers humans a loving Shepherd. Anyone can join His flock by believing and confessing Jesus as their LORD. But when the age of Grace ends and the fulness of the gentiles come in, there is a new transitional time for judgment that will begin.  This time will initiate a 7-year period called the time of Jacob’s trouble. Jacob as you know is the foundational member of the natural nation of Israel. There were 490 years prophesied about these natural people by the prophet Daniel. This is 70 weeks of years. Every week has been fulfilled, except for the last week that many call the 3 ½ year “Tribulation”, followed by the 3 ½ year “Great Tribulation”.

This final week of prophecy to the natural people of the earth will end the ability to be saved during the 6 days (6000 years) of God’s work for humanity. There will be a 7^th day of “Rest” called the Millennium, that will follow the “Great Tribulation”. These verses in Revelation 19 describe the ending battle to fully subdue the devil’s kingdoms ruled over the people on the earth. This is why this battle is brought about with the stronger authority of iron. The weapon that will ultimately defeat the devil, will be the sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus. It is this picture that represents His powerful words. We will hopefully talk about these concepts when we arrive at learning the ancient Hebrew letter “Zayin”, the LORD be willing.

Thank you for reading and studying the Bible with us. We are greatly blessed when anyone reads, learns and shares these lessons. It is also a great blessing to receive feedback, questions, comments and positive constructive criticism. If you run across any grammatical or typographical errors, it is greatly appreciated when you let us know. God bless you all. Remember Satan is very angry because he knows that, JESUS IS COMING SO VERY SOON!

Intro Alef Beyt-1 2 Gimel Dalet Hey Vav Zayin Chet Tet Yod Kaf Lamed Mem 1 2 Nun Samekh Avin Pey Tsade Qof Resh Shin Tav Alef-Beyt Chart (Series updated as LORD directs and permits)

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