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Jesus in the Ancient Hebrew Alphabet Part 23 – The Tav

(Ver 1.1) This lesson is “Part 23” in the Bible study series about the Lord Jesus Christ, being hidden in the Ancient Hebrew Alphabet. Today’s lesson will focus upon the last letter in the Hebrew Alphabet called the “Tav”. The “Tav” is the 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We should have already learned a lot about this letter, by reading from the beginning of the series. But if you have not read the series from the beginning, you might like to go to “Part 1” to start.

The letter “Tav” is one of the two alphabet letters, that Jesus directly claimed to be represented by personally in the Bible. We have already learned that Jesus said in Revelation 1:8, 1:11, 21:6, and 22:13, that He was the “Alpha” and the “Omega”. These are the first, and the last letters of the Greek alphabet. This was Jesus claiming to figuratively be, not only the beginning, and ending of all things, but also Him making the plain declaration that He is even literally every alphabet letter that makes up the languages that we can know Him by. Please make a note that Jesus made this claim in Revelation, 4 times. This number will become a repeated pattern in this lesson.

We must understand that the words of Jesus claiming to be one language’s first and last letters, would definitely apply Him to be found in the exact same corresponding letters, of every language. God knows every language in existence. Just because you speak a language like English, and the New Testament is written in Greek, this does not mean we all have to learn to speak Greek. This means the Greek Alpha and the Omega, could have been translated to be the A and the Z, and it would teach us the same concepts given to us by God from Greek.

Do you remember what Jesus Himself, claimed in John 12:24? In this verse of scripture, Jesus claimed the He was a “corn of wheat” seed. He then said that He would remain alone, unless He died, was buried in the ground to sprout, and then to bring forth much new fruit. Wow, this is very amazing news about His “death” on a “Tav” cross, and what happened afterwards. But please realize Jesus is speaking of Himself as being a spiritual seed, and that this planting will be of Him being raised from the dead, in order to produce His new spiritual fruit called the new creation of the church.

This knowledge should help us understand that these translation concepts, must also include the original Old Covenant Hebrew language, since Jesus was born a Jewish man. Most likely Jesus gave this alphabet representation claim to John by speaking to him in the Hebrew language. And John would have made the translation, from Hebrew to write it in the Greek language for the world to read.

We can easily reach this conclusion, because when Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus, being described in Acts 26:14, Jesus spoke from heaven to Saul in the Hebrew tongue. Remember Jesus was still in heaven when John received this revelation. Therefore, if Jesus spoke the Revelation verses to John in Hebrew, like He spoke to Saul in Acts, then these letters written in Greek would have been the Hebrew alphabet beginning and ending letters, called the “Alef” and the “Tav”, respectfully.

It is essential to realize that in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the “Alef” and the “Tav” are combined to form a mostly untranslatable word. This Hebrew word is H853 in the Strong’s, and it occurs in over 5000 verses of the text. In most of these verses, we can find Jesus being secretly referred to in the words, with God using figurative types, shadows, allegory, and other forms of writings. This is exactly why Jesus looked at the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, and said to them, “Search your scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they that testify of me” (Jn 5:39). Remember, that Jesus was speaking to people who were Jewish, and He was referring to the Old Covenant Hebrew language when describing of their testimony of His personal hidden identity.

These words of Jesus combined with His spoken words in Revelation, claiming to be two direct alphabet letters, should cause us to begin to believe, that if the beginning letter and the ending letter of an alphabet is about Jesus, then every letter in between must also have something to “testify” about Jesus being LORD. So let us get started with the specific last and ending Hebrew letter “Tav”.

INTRODUCTION – THE TAV

We have already briefly seen the “Tav” in previous lessons in the series. The letter “Tav” has been assigned a numeric value of “400”. The “Tav” Ancient Hebrew letter pictogram, is a visual image of a cross. The letter sound in the English language is like the letter “T”. Like most Hebrew letters, there is also a word of the same “Tav” sound. This Hebrew letter sound alike word is “Tav” H8420, and it means “a mark”. Therefore, the basic meaning of the letter “Tav”, is that of a “mark”.

A mark is some kind of inscription, line, or figure that emphasizes or distinguishes something or someone. Marking a date on a calendar makes that date special to someone. But a mark could be a person’s signature. Usually, people sign their name as their mark on contracts or legal agreements, but for those unable to sign, they could simply scribble their identifying “mark”.

This Hebrew word that is translated as “mark” is comprised of two Hebrew letters. The first is the “Tav”, and the second is the “Vav”. The “Tav’, as we are learning is a “cross” picture, and the “Vav” happens to be the picture of a “nail”. A “nail” will certainly leave a mark in the body of a man hanged on a cross. One of the meanings of the letter “Vav”, is that of making a “connection”. People do this by nailing two boards together. The separated boards become joined together by the “Vav” nail. Humans were separated from God before Jesus was connected to the “Tav” cross with a “Vav” nail. Do you think any of this was a coincidence? Of course, it was NOT!

This word H8420 is used in Ezekiel 9 twice, in verses 4 and 6. In this context people who are not in favor of the nation of Israel’s sin, received a mark (Tav) on their foreheads. Everyone that does not have this mark to save them, is slain. This appears to be a type of a parallel of soon coming end time events that are described in the book of Revelation.

In Revelation 13:7, people are doomed to hell by receiving the “mark” of Satan’s beast. But in Revelation 7:4 God seals 144,000 men to save them, by placing a mark in their foreheads. Then, in Revelation 22:4, the people who do not receive the mark of Satan, receive the name “mark” of the Lamb in their foreheads. We can begin to see how there are two “marks” and “names” in which all humans can choose between. The “Tav’ mark represents God’s name and family, and this certainly appears to be the wisest human selection. The other option is to receive Satan’s name as a mark (Rev 13:7), and stay in his family.

Therefore, the letter “Tav” has at the least, six specific, indirect and direct meanings assigned to it as being the “mark” of God.

  1. The number 400
  2. A “cross” mark as pictured
  3. Jesus as the “Last”
  4. The Cross, God’s “goal” or “mark” to obtain
  5. The “sign” or “mark” of a covenant
  6. The “name” and “mark” of the family house we belong

These are just a few of the major meanings found in the letter “Tav” that we will be learning about today. Let us begin with understanding more about the letter “Tav” number value 400, first.

1. TAV – 400

The “Tav” letter has a specific number value of 400 assigned to it. If there were any other number of letters in the ancient Hebrew alphabet, the number 400 would not have fallen on this last letter “Tav”. Therefore, there must be a pre-designed higher intelligence meaning, for this specific number to be associated with this specific cross letter picture.

Remember, that Jesus spoke 4 times in Revelation that He was the last letter of the alphabet, and 4 x 100 = 400, the number value of this last letter. It is interesting that the number 100 is the value of the Hebrew letter “Qof”. This letter is drawn as a picture of a rising sun. In Malachi 4:2, God writing about Jesus says “The Sun of Righteousness, will arise with healing in His wings”. Therefore, we are observing another prophecy of the number 4 being multiplied by 100 as a sign of a man that dies on a cross (Tav), and He will arise (Qof) from the dead to give us His righteousness. We can figure out that Jesus thought that this was talking about himself, since He was the one that claimed to be the letter “Tav”, 4 times. But what does the number 4 have to do with a rising “Qof” (100) sun, in association with the timing of a cross (Tav)? We are about to find other potential prophetic associations with the number 4, 40, 400, and 4000 as we continue.

The number 4, in its various forms, is actually very significant as a pattern in the recorded records of the Old Testament. We should know by reading stories in the Bible, that the number “40” is associated with a time of “testing”, “temptation”, and “judgement”. There was Noah that entered into the Ark, when it rained 40 days to destroy the world. There was Moses that met with God on mount Sinai for 40 days (Exo 24:18), and this time delay away from the people of Israel, caused them to fail a very important test (Exo 32:1). Later in Numbers 32:13, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years to eliminate one generation that refused to possess the promise land. Everyone should also know that Jesus was tested by Satan, for exactly 40 days in the wilderness (Mk 1:13). After the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb, Jesus met several times with His new, New Covenant family on the earth for 40 days (Acts 1:3), before ascending into heaven to sit down. Finally, remember that Jesus waited 4 days before He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:39). That will become very significant to our lesson soon.

There was exactly 400 years stated in Genesis 15:13, when God tells Abram, that his seed would be in bondage to a nation that was not of God. There, they would be treated harshly, and be as servants and slaves. But God said He would judge that nation, and his people would be delivered, and come out from them with an abundance of His blessings. This was God speaking of the natural nation of Israel that would be delivered from Egypt, through God’s chosen servant named Moses.

This Old Covenant story of deliverance, is full of types, shadows and prophetical patters of the coming New Covenant, implemented by Jesus Christ on the cross (tav). We learn this truth by reading 1 Corinthians 10:11, where God says the words written in the Old Covenant are “ensamples” for us in the New Covenant. The Greek word translated as “ensamples” is G5179, and this word means a “die” as struck, a “stamp”, or a “scar” as a mark. Especially remember the “scar” reference, because this is a very specific type of “mark” (Tav) symbol, that we will see again soon. But the main definition states that the Old Covenant was a “type” of the New.

God informs us by using this specific Greek word selection, that the Old Covenant, has applications for covenant examples, and covenant warnings for everyone in the New Covenant. These words were given for us to learn from, to not repeat their mistakes. But what does the number 400 associated with a natural nation being freed from physical bondage, have to do with the church? Could it be that it is because the church is called a spiritual nation (1 Pet 2:9) by God, and we have been freed from our spiritual bondage from Satan (Col 1:13), a hostile enemy of God?

Let us please remember, that from Abraham to Christ was approximately 2000 years, and from Adam to Abraham was also approximately 2000 years. Adding these together we have a total of 4000 years of human history from the first Adam to Jesus, who is called the “Last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45). Isn’t that interesting that we are studying the “last” letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and Jesus is also called the “last” Adam? It should be easy to see the “Tav” connections to Jesus taking place.

Then, know that no human was ever spiritually saved until after the Last Adam, Jesus died on the cross that is representative of the last letter (Tav). When Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He was raised up 4000 years after the first Adam sinned to allow Satan to rule over our world (2 Cor 4:4).

It should be becoming more obvious now, how the “Tav” being a cross, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and having the number value of 400, is a prophetic pictured image and timed prediction of the crucifixion of Jesus. God is shining a light upon the timing of Jesus’ coming death on a cross, as a pattern of the number 400.

Therefore, the number of 4000 years appears to be the essential timing for God’s detailed work of salvation. The number 4000 is simply “400” (Israel’s natural captivity period) multiplied by 10. The number 10 is the Hebrew Letter “Yod”, and this letter has the meaning of “work”. Can you begin to see the connection, to what God was doing in Jesus on the cross, was His greater work of all human spiritual salvation?

If Israel, was in physical bondage for 400 years, why can’t the number 4000 years, be a greater reality relating to humans being in spiritual bondage to Satan, the time from Adam to Jesus? 400 years of physical bondage, must be a type of the greater 4000 years of spiritual bondage. But how do we confirm this transition?

It is interesting that in the Hebrew mindset, multiplying any number by the number 10, can be viewed as “a completeness of order”. Or in other words, multiplying a number by 10, brings that number to a stated “fulness” of “completion”. Therefore, multiplying 400 x 10 = 4000, causes the number 4000 to be the fulfilment of the prophecy of the number 400 as a type. God confirmed this pattern with reading in Galatians 4:4. This verse states Christ’s appearance on earth, happened at a very specific planned and timed event within all of human history, and God called this event “the fulness of time”. This word can also be understood to be the “fulfilling of”. For example, Romans 13:10 says “love is the fulfilling of the law”. Do you see the concepts being taught by this word selection?

If we look up the Greek word G4138 that was translated as “fulness”, we learn it can be defined to be “completeness”, as in a cup that has been filled. It appears that God has reused specific patterns of events of previous time periods that happened to natural Israel, to reveal prophecy of Jesus’s work for all humanity. Please remember, that patterns are prophecy (Ecc 1:9). And, the Spirit of true prophecy is always a testimony of Jesus (Rev 19:10).

This one Old Covenant pattern describes their physical bondage to, and deliverance from Egypt. This recorded natural event and timing, appears to represent something spiritual, that happens to the New Covenant church through Jesus. Hopefully, you are already knowledgeable to what this work of Christ was.

In studying the Bible for many years, I have come to the conclusion that the 7 days of creation described in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, are an outlined prophetic view into the entire history of man upon the earth during this age. If we apply God’s time of one day representing 1000 years, as defined by 2 Peter 3:8, and divide 4000 by 1000 years, we arrive at 4 days within God’s defined scale of all human time as 7 days or 7000 years total.

Now take this number back to “Day 4 of creation” and see what God did. If we read Genesis 1:13-19, we will find God’s description of day 4 of creation. On this day God set two rulers into place. The rulers were called the greater light, that rules the day, and the lesser light, that would rule the night.

These two lights are called in other parts of the Bible, the “sun” and the “moon”. These two ruler separations, represent two “kingdoms”. The Day is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, who we know is called the “Sun of Righteousness” in Malachi 4:2. We saw this earlier in this section with the mention of the “Qof” Hebrew letter that is the number 100.

The kingdom of “darkness” and the “night” is the dominion of the devil (Col 1:13, Eph 5:8). It is amazing that by humans choosing to enter into God’s “Kingdom of Light”, they have been freed from the spiritual kingdom of the darkness of this world (Col 1:13). There are multiple other lessons available here to confirm all of this with many scriptures. It is most interesting that this event of dividing spiritual night from spiritual day, took place 4000 years after Adam sold us into Satan’s authority, and this was prophesied exactly on Day 4 of creation.

Therefore, we can see how the “Tav” representing the number 400 has significant value and application to the work of God to die on a cross, and this occurred 4 days in God’s spiritual timeline, when Jesus died 4000 years in the timing of the human calendar. These 4000 years represented spiritual captivity to a spiritual enemy of God and man. There is much more that could be written about this, but this was the quick overview of the number 400 of the Tav, and how it relates to Jesus’ deliverance of humanity on a cross (Tav).

2. TAV – THE OBVIOUS MARK OF A CROSS

The first and most obvious meaning of the letter “Tav”, is taken from the plain, direct, and clear picture of it, as a Roman style “cross” of execution. We all need to take the Bible as “literally” as possible when reading and studying. Think about how intelligent God is compared to us. Then imagine Him not being able to “Say what He means and mean exactly what He says”. This is why I believe firmly that every pictogram of the Ancient Hebrew alphabet was designed by God, to get across a plain message meaning of the picture, to point us to the main subject of the entire Bible, named Jesus.

The first known crucifixions in human history, took place 500 years before Christ. This means this cross letter was written in Hebrew texts, 500 – 1000 years before Christ would die upon a cross. The first usage of a cross occurred during the “Persian” empire. It was used to make examples of at least 3000 people during the time of Darius, the King of Persia. But this method of execution became especially perfected during the Roman empire when Jesus was physically living in Israel.

Observing the picture of the ancient Hebrew letter, we all can plainly see that the “tav”, represents two crossed wooden poles, that are overlapped to form the exact shape of a common style of Roman execution device, called a “cross”. Today, many people wear this symbol as jewelry, with most not having a clue to its meaning, purpose or what God has accomplished for us in Christ hanging on a cross (Gal 3:13, Rev 5:9).

The death sentence on a cross was designed for ultimate pain, and a slow death. This “crossed” wooden pole device was implemented as the cruelest, and most humiliating method of a slow death. This method of death took place by “nailing” a human’s feet and hands, to two crossed wooden posts. The posts were made of the wood from trees, that were able to hold the large nails. This combination was able to secure the weight of the human, being hanged on it. With every breath the crucified human would have to force themselves upward creating ultimate pain, to allow air into the lungs and to exhale. Eventually the human would not have the strength to breathe again, and would suffocate.

We should all be able to understand that a “tav” represents crucifixion. We know from reading the Gospel eye witnesses accounts, Jesus was crucified and died. We can find that Jesus was hung upon a cross from 9 am (Mark 15:25) until 3 pm (Mark 15:34), a period of 6 hours, with half of them in sunlight and half of them in darkness (Mark 15:33). We can also read in Psalm 22:16, and Zechariah 12:10, that Jesus was prophesied to be “pierced” in His flesh. We know these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus by reading John 19:31, and Revelation 1:7. This information clearly confirms the “Tav” as a cross, in the eyes of God, was speaking about Jesus.

This “Tav” cross death of Jesus and the release of His blood to die, is exactly what has been pictured in the ancient Hebrew alphabet letter “Tav” for approximately 3500 years when Moses first wrote the Torah. I call this God, hiding His truth in plain sight.  Now let us look at the important concept of this letter being the last in the alphabet.

3. TAV THE LAST LETTER = JESUS THE LAST

The fact that the “Tav” is the last letter of the alphabet, causes it to figuratively represent “completion”, “conclusion” and “closure”. As we know from studying Revelation 22:13, Jesus directly claimed to be, “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”. This was a very profound statement. In this statement He used the first and the last letters of the alphabet. Therefore, all of the words of Jesus in Revelation 22:13, were in clear agreement with the “Tav” being the “Last” letter.

Obviously, being the last is the opposite of being the “first”. When two human captains are picking a team for a game from a selection of possible players, usually they pick the best player first, and the least desirable player last. Therefore, being called “last” in a normal human mindset, usually carries the connotation, that the final option being chosen, discussed or observed, is not the best choice. However, in God’s mindset, He usually saves His last option, or selection to be His greatest work.

We have already seen where Jesus is called the “Last Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15:45. So this was the first picture of Jesus as being called a final, or ending “Adam” (man), that is implied to never occur again. Clearly, we learn Jesus was God’s best selection saved for “last”, and only He could save us all.

Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. 

Wow, could these words being spoken by Jesus, reveal something very profound that was happening in God’s work hanging on a cross?  I believe it does. Keep this in your mind as we continue learning about Jesus being called the “Last”. See if you can think how God’s Last Adam could possibly become a new beginning to be called the “First”? This is going to be amazing, and I hope you can see, and receive it. We will continue, by looking at some “last” words of Jesus while hanging on the Tav cross.

This “last” Hebrew letter “Tav”, further becomes directly connected to Jesus’ recorded death while hanging on the cross (Tav) by us observing this letter was a cross, and it helped manifest the death of Jesus. But we should know that it was actually Jesus’ choice to give up His spirit willingly (John 19:30), that caused His death (James 2:26). Everyone in Israel was shocked that Jesus was already dead including the Roman soldiers when they came to Him to break His legs to force death quickly (John 19:33).

Before the willing departure of His spirit, Jesus spoke some very specific “last” spoken words. One of His “last” recorded statements, was with Jesus crying out, “It is Finished” (John 19:30). This Greek word G5055 translated as “finished’, literally means to be “completed”, “concluded”, or “fulfilled”. It is definitely true that everything that the Holy Spirit wrote would happen to Jesus was being fulfilled. We can read in Matthew 26:54-56, Mark 16:49, and John 19:36 to name three, that many scriptures were “fulfilled” in the work of Christ’s death on a cross. Therefore, the words “It is finished” may mean, “Everything spoken of me, has been completed”. But that application could not be completely accurate, because Jesus had not yet risen, not yet ascended into heaven, and not yet returned to the earth to reign 1000 years, etc. Or maybe we are not seeing clearly what God has just accomplished in the words “It is finished”.

When anyone speaks the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with the “first” Alef and continuing in alphabetic sequence, they will always arrive at the Tav “last”. The alphabet speaker could be described as being “finished” speaking when they arrive at the last letter “Tav”. Isn’t that interesting? When were the “First” recorded words of God found in the Old Covenant Hebrew text?

Do you remember how God created our world in Genesis? Creation was accomplished with God’s spoken words. 10 times in Genesis 1 it is recorded “God said”. Therefore, God created everything in our world using “spoken” words that held His power to create. God formed these words from selected specific alphabet letters. Are you beginning to see how alphabet letters that form words, could be viewed as potential creation building blocks? Could this be the reason Jesus is claiming to be the alphabet letters “Alef” and “Tav”?

Who is God’s Word? The “Word of God”, if you do not know is Jesus Christ, the second member of the trinity (1 Jn 5:7). The Bible says in John 1:1-3, that God in the beginning, through His spoken Word, created everything that was created. In John 1:14, God writes that the “Word”, who is God, became flesh as the man Jesus. Colossians 1:16 further confirms that God created everything that exists in heaven and on earth, by Jesus Christ whether they are things that are visible, or invisible realities. Now remember in Revelation 19:13 that Jesus is named the “Word of God”. Therefore, we have Jesus the Word of God who was God, being spoken by God, to create our physical world. If Jesus, is the WORD of GOD, which He clearly is, He must also be the individual alphabet letters that create the words.

God’s chosen words of creation were made from specially selected alphabet letters. The precise organization of each specific chosen letter to form the correct words, caused everything in the mind of God to manifest in our newly created world, after God spoke them. Think about this! Do you even know what this is saying, based upon us knowing John 1:1? This verse says, that in the beginning before there was anything created, there existed the Word, and this Word was with God, and this Word was God the Creator! Therefore, these spoken words that created are still God? The answer is yes, He is still the Word.

All of this information, is saying to us that the spoken words of God created everything that we can see around us in our universe. This information claims that the “God Particle” that is being searched for by modern scientists are, divine “sound waves”. These spoken words of creation, made up of alphabet building blocks, are the seed elements that are holding all of the universe together (Heb 1:3).

Wow, this is a very amazing revelation to many Christians, but it can become still even more amazing. Could Jesus who is God’s spoken living word, who created everything, and is holding all of our world together, could He say anything that could cause His creation to begin to “end”?  Remember, in Matthew 24:35 and Luke 21:33 that Jesus makes the direct prophecy, that both heaven and earth will pass away. But when does this coming end, begin? Could it be at the cross?

Remember according to John 14:24, Jesus claimed whatever He spoke only came from what He heard His Father tell Him to say. We also know it was this Father God that spoke the Word (Jesus) to create the universe. What then would you think happened when the same creator God who said “Let there be Light”, would come to the earth to die, and while hanging on a cross, He says “It is finished”? What would manifest in all of our creation, through these words spoken by Jesus the creator of heaven and earth? Do the spoken words of Jesus hanging on a cross, still have the same power to cause changes for life or death to occur? The answer must be YES! Therefore, we must ask this question, what did these pre-death spoken words upon a cross (Tav) the last letter, cause to occur when He said “It is Finished”? What was being “completed”, “closed” and “concluded”? When you figure this out it will help set you free completely from the devil.

By Jesus speaking “It is Finished”, causes us to see potential new meaning for these words using His claims of being the first and the last, and the “Alef” and the “Tav”. When He died on the cross, His physical mortal life’s work was definitely “finished”. His mortal work to pay for the penalty of the first Adam’s sin, was completed with His death. But that was not everything that had to happen to save us. Maybe, you do not yet “fully” understand the power of God’s three little words “It is finished”, but they will become more amazing as you study the Bible. We will only be able to be introduced to this potential new concept in this lesson, or we would need to write an entire book to teach it more completely.

But also remember after death, that Jesus had to spend 3 days, and 3 nights in the heart of the earth (Mat 12:40), and then He had to be resurrected from the dead by the Holy Spirit (1 Pet 1:3). Believe it or not, this God designed resurrection from the dead reality, began a brand-new creation that never existed before (2 Cor 5:17). Jesus died upon the feast of “Passover” to save all humans from the old creation, and He was raised from the dead on the feast of “first fruits” to begin a brand-new creation of freedom from Satan. Satan is a type of Pharaoh holding humanity as captive slaves, and his spiritual kingdom of the dark world is a type of Egypt.

This information alone, should be turning on several light bulbs in your heart and mind. Why does God in His Word, claim that there is coming, a new heaven and a new earth? God says this will happen in Isaiah 65:17, 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13, and Revelation 21:1. Why are there exactly 4 verses in the Bible that use the words “new”, “heaven”, and “earth”, in them? In these “4” verses God clearly reveals there is coming a new heaven and new earth. We can foresee from reading Revelation 21:1 that this new heaven and new earth will come to completed “fulness” after the 7000 years of total human history.  This represents the fulness of the one week of God’s Genesis 1-2 creation pattern of prophecy.

Wow, is God’s current created world going to end totally at a sudden and surprising single moment of time, or will the ending be a transition period of delay, with a possible big grand finale? If it is a delayed event, that means it is all future. But if it is a transitional phased overlap, that means it could be happening now, which it is. Therefore, when did this ending, begin to happen? What did God accomplish to guarantee the final ending outcome that He desired?

From what God has revealed to us in scriptures, there was a new creation transitional event that occurred at the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  We are learning that God initiated a new creation transition by planting a new “seed” named Jesus. This new seed Jesus, died and was planted in God’s current old creation. It was this new surprising “seed” planting, that will result in an amazing new reality, and Satan was clearly caught off-guard by this plan (1 Corinthians 2:8). It will be this new “first seed” planted that will grow, and increase to produce God’s desired “fruit” of harvest that He has waited for, for a long time (James 5:7). This new creation was initiated by God, and began to manifest at the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Perhaps you do not understand the concept that Jesus was a “seed”, so let us cover this briefly.

Many “new” creation things happened at the resurrection of Jesus. For example, at His resurrection, God initiated a New Covenant that never existed before between the risen Jesus and any believer in Him (Heb 8:18). In the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, God created a new Kingdom of Light, without any darkness in His Son Jesus (Col 1:13).  Remember also that God created a new royal priesthood and a new holy nation (1 Peter 2:9) and Jesus is called the King of all kings, and Lord of all lords of these people (Revelation 19:13). In the New Covenant, Jesus gave a “New Commandment” of Love, to govern in the hearts of everyone in His new creation (John 13:34). In this new creation is being built a “New Jerusalem”, and this new Holy city has never existed before (Revelation 21:2). In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God raised the God man Jesus, from the dead “first”, before everyone else. Jesus Christ, is now called “the Firstborn from the dead” in Colossians 1:18, and Revelation 1:5.

Why was it necessary for Jesus, the sinless Son of God to be born-again, and to be named the “first” one that this happens to? Uh oh! There appears to be a new connection revealed, that is recurring to Jesus being called the “Alef”, the first letter of the alphabet, the “beginning”, and the “first”!  We have just found a new reoccurring pattern being revealed. That is about all we can cover on this subject today. But hopefully it will raise your curiosity to find more on your own.

But remember this key! The resurrection of Jesus from the dead, initiated a New Kingdom, house and family of God called “Day and Light”, and this kingdom was separated from the “night and dark” kingdom ruled by the lesser light Satan, as we saw earlier in the Genesis 1 prophecy. This new life that Jesus experienced first, simply initiated His immortal eternal work after death. All of this information implies, that there was something very significant that was wrong with God’s current creation, that needed to be fixed using a new “beginning”. The full transition of God’s new beginning in Christ, is still awaiting completion to occur. This will transpire after the full “end” of our current creation. Check out this verse that Paul wrote about this creation transition that was being eagerly awaited to come to fruition.

Romans 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 

Do you see what God is saying here? The word “creature” literally means “creation”. God is saying His current creation in heaven and on the earth, are earnestly awaiting the full appearance of the “sons of God”.  This is an astounding statement, since Paul himself wrote 2/3 of the New Testament, and when he wrote this book Paul said creation was still awaiting the appearance of the Sons of God. If you do not know what this means, let us take it back to the pattern of the Genesis 1 old creation.  On the end of Day 6 came God’s creation of a fully mature righteous man and woman, and God gave them dominion over the entire planet. This is believed to be a pattern for what is being waited for, at the end of day 6 or 6000 years, when the church is awaited to spiritually mature enough to use their spiritual authority over their spiritual enemy Satan.

This new coming beginning, was decided by God to emerge in a new-birthed spiritual Son, who was the uniquely combined earth and heaven participant, named Jesus. Jesus the God/Man, was the “first” one to be born and risen from the dead.

Let us conclude with a discussion of one possible meaning of the “Tav” as a letter that represents the “Last” or “ending” of God’s original creation (Gen 1:1). We have learned that “to be finished”, means a termination has been initiated by the death of Jesus on a “Tav” cross. We can confirm this by reading this verse in 1 John:

1Jn 3:8  He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 

First take notice this verse claims the devil has been sinning from the beginning of creation. Do you understand what this verse is saying? God clearly says Jesus was “manifested” as a human (implied to die), in order that the works of the devil can be “destroyed”. But this Greek word G3089, translated as “destroyed” does not mean to cause the devil to be demolished, as in obliterated or cease to exist. Hopefully you do know that you cannot kill a spirit being like Lucifer.

This new knowledge implies to us, that Satan has done a lot of evil to corrupt God’s creation in both heaven and on the earth. God personally becomes a man (Mat 1:23), so that He could use a single “Tav” cross work, to move His current creation into a transitional time for undoing all of these works of evil, and to begin a new creation that never existed before. This is confirmed in the Greek word definition. This word means to cause to be “loosened” from. Anything that needs to be loosed, implies something was previously “bound”. In our case all humans were in bondage to Satan for 4000 years, and were bound for hell. Therefore, Jesus’ resurrection started a new creation work to untie the devil’s bondages that he has placed upon those in heaven and on the earth to whom he was in covenant with.

Then after God’s work in Jesus dying on a “Tav” cross, He reveals to us a new beginning for a new spiritual way of living in a new kingdom, and these two works occurred simultaneously, but with three days of separation apart. Wow, did you notice what God just said? There was three days of tomb transition for the one-man Jesus, to move from being fully dead to becoming fully alive forever.  This appears to be prophetical time that will reveal the 3,000-year time period of God’s old to new spiritual transition. After these 3,000 years, Satan will be fully and completely eliminated from the earth. This is again the concept of one day representing 1000 years as we used in the 7 days of creation.

This time will include the 2000-year (2 day) church age, which is followed by the 1,000-year (day of rest) time of the millennial reign of Christ. We are at the end of the 2,000-year church age, so the return of Christ is very imminent.  Only after 3000 years from the resurrection of Christ will; 1) the devil and all evil be placed in final eternal bondage (Rev 20:10), 2) the old heaven and earth creation can be consumed with fire (2 Peter 3:7), and 3) a new heaven and a new earth can be created (Rev 21:1).

It appears from Jesus’ words that He was proclaiming “His physical work on the earth as a mortal man was to die for human sin, and to redeem mankind out of the kingdom of darkness, was completed”. This work was His most direct accomplishment, by Him fulfilling the plain picture of the “Tav”. But as we have learned, there is another meaning for it is finished, by what happens directly 3 days after His death. This act of God clearly “signifies” and “marks” a creative new beginning, that had never been available before. This resurrection work of God in Christ, sealed the coming demise of Satan, and lifted Christ followers into a new creation reality of living “in Christ”. Being made “In Christ” a new creation, we are now far apart from the evil of this world, having been fully reconciled to be with God forever. Praise the LORD!

4. TAV – GOD’S CROSS MARK TO OBTAIN

We have covered this subject in other lessons, but it is worth reviewing again, for all the new readers and subscribers that were led by the Holy Spirit to come and study the Bible here. This Hebrew letter “Tav” has an interesting application for the church today. We are told in Matthew 16:24, that Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (Tav) and follow me.

What was Jesus saying to us, by speaking the words for us to take up our cross (Tav)? He has basically instructed us to stop living for ourselves and for our independent purposes. In other words, He says come end your mortal life and become a born-again spiritual follower after dying to self. In order for us to take up a “Tav” cross and follow Jesus, we are required to come to the “cross” and pick it up. Let us talk about this concept in more depth.

This “cross” symbol of the “Tav” can be viewed as a turning point of opportunity for every human. We could also call it, God’s most significant “cross” road choice for a new direction, provided for all of mankind. This cross picture represents a map of two roads with a center intersection.  When we arrive, and we will all arrive at this decision point, we are standing at the center of an intersection that represents the ultimate eternal decision point for eternal consequence.

Every human has been given the freedom right to choose to remain moving in the direction towards the “mark” of eternal death in hell, or we can repent and change our direction point to life eternal. We do this by choosing to believe in Jesus, and to change directions towards knowing God’s eternal life cross “mark” destination. This is God’s purpose for everyone, and He provided it, by the death of the LORD Jesus who came to bring us into His Light and Life of knowing Him.

From the death of one Man named Jesus hanging on a cross, He has provided every human the only available exit point, from continuing on the default wide highway path to hell. Jesus said the majority of the world would choose this path of destruction, but no one is forced to do so. Jesus died on a cross (Tav) to become the only exit gate/door from the chosen road Adam gave to us leading to eternal death.  God in Jesus selected to become the right human choice for us, by Him freely offering anyone the gift of eternal life. We simply need to believe in Him being nailed to the posts of a wooden cross, experiencing death for us in hell, and then being raised back from the dead. This act of LOVE gave us something, unexpected, new, meaningful, powerful and profound to believe in.

One of the ultimate messages of the “Tav” (cross), was God giving to us a new cross (Tav) “mark” to travel towards. And it is by our faith in His visible marked signpost of His death, burial, and resurrection, and us calling Him our Lord, that gives us the confident “hope” of our same resurrection experience in the soon future.

By Jesus calling Himself the Alef and the Tav, being the first and the last letters of the Hebrew language, He was giving us a major clue to who He was and what He was doing for us. Please recall, that the Alef is the first letter of the alphabet, and the “Tav” is the last letter. And by joining these two letters together we get the Hebrew word H853 and this word occurs more than 6000 times in the Old Testament. I still believe that every occurrence points us to Jesus in some way.

The first letter Alef as we should know, is the “Ox” picture as a strong servant. The last letter picture as we have learned today is the “Cross” picture in ancient Hebrew, meaning a “mark” or “sign”. Placing these two together we arrive at the meaning, “driving the servant ox to the mark”. Remember, in ancient times, farmers would be placing a yoke upon their strong oxen, and then attaching them to a plow. The land owner would then place a “marker” in the distance to plow towards. This was done so that they could travel in straight lines through the soil to plant seeds, to produce fruit. Doesn’t that sound interesting?

Do you realize that these two letters (Alef+Tav), just described the work of God to save every human? You do know this, if you have studied the parables of Jesus in the Gospels. It would be worth your time to go now, and re-study them and find how many have something to do with farming and producing fruit. You will find in these natural examples, that sowing is done with God’s Word and if fruit is produced this growth causes human salvation.

What we have found, is that in these two letters (Alef+Tav) that Jesus claimed to be, were the combined overview of the entire plan of salvation and the work of God to spread His saving seed, which is the Word of God. God sent His Seed into the world and He became His Son. Jesus was God the manifested strong servant, to sow seeds into the hearts of everyone that would listen. All that listened intently and placed their determined confidence in Jesus, would be saved to enter into the New Covenant church creation.

We can further expand this topic with the fact that when we are saved, we are loosed from Satan, and newly bound and joined together with Christ like two yoked oxen that are pulling and working together to reach the end mark for our life’s calling. Jesus invited us all to “take His yoke, because it is easy” in Matthew 11:29. In this statement, Jesus is claiming that He is the “Alef” who is God, for us to be yoked with.  To be “yoke” means to be in covenant with, and this is our next subject.

5. TAV – THE COVENANT MARK

The next very significant meaning of the letter “Tav”, is it also being defined as a “sign” or a “mark”. But this mark is different than the life target mark we learned in the previous section. This “sign” or “mark” was implemented by God first in the flesh. This was an external mark as a scar, that was performed when making a covenant between two individuals.

This type of covenant “mark”, occurs multiple times in the Bible, and is still done in many places around the world today. Let us describe the basic process of what God is teaching. During the making of a covenant between two humans, each of them would use a sharp instrument, like a knife to make a cut mark in their flesh, either on their hands or wrists to cause blood to flow. Both bleeding covenant partners, would then mingle their blood by touching their cut hands or wrists together, and this would cause the covenant to be bonded as long as they were both alive. This cutting of the covenant, would also result in a lasting visible personal “mark” called a scar.

An individual covenant scar could be seen on that person’s body, as a continual reminder to him that he was in a covenant with someone else. Or one covenanted human could show his covenant mark on his hand or wrist, to remind his covenant partner of their covenant commitment to both keeping the promises of the covenant. This mark could also be shown to anyone else on the earth, even an enemy to verify that they had a covenant relationship that their enemy would have to deal with, if they attacked them. If someone was smart, they would make a covenant with the strongest person they could, and this would ensure their peace and safety against all enemies. Wow!

The very first covenant making event between two humans, occurred in Genesis 2. God created one man, named him Adam. God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone, and God put Adam to sleep and took a rib from his side. This type of surgical procedure would normally cause the flow of blood. From this rib. God made a woman, who would be Adam’s wife. This was the God created model for a male and female marriage covenant (Gen 2:24), and it is the pattern for every ongoing marriage covenant, including Christ and the church (Eph 5:32). From that day forward Adam could have shown Eve the scar in his flesh, as a sign/mark that they were both made from one body. Wow!

Do you remember when God made the covenant with Abram in Genesis 17? As part of this covenant, God required that every male, was to be circumcised. And by anyone not agreeing and submitting to this mark in their flesh, caused that man to not be a part of that covenant. This cutting of Abram’s flesh, left an external covenant scar, and it could not be undone or redone.

At least, three things resulted in performing this covenant act. First, there was the initial cutting of the flesh, and this caused pain, and bleeding. Second this made a permanent mark upon the man’s flesh as long as he was alive. Third, making this covenant, made this man unique, separate and different than all of the rest of the people on the earth, because he had a covenant with the “Most High” God, and they did not. Finally, it is important to know that God’s covenant mark was normally, never seen by other humans, since it was uniquely private and covered.

This pattern of circumcision continued throughout the history of the natural nation of Israel. But God also killed animals in the Old Covenant, and their blood was sprinkled on all of the covenant people coming out of Egypt in Exodus 24:8. Therefore, the pattern of cutting flesh, producing blood and causing it to be mingled upon those agreeing in covenant, is continuing.

But now we jump to the New Covenant in Jesus, and find that the patterns of these natural covenant marks are still taking place. But they are now being implemented by God in the unseen spirit realm, instead of the external natural human visible flesh realm:

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 

Heb 13:20  Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant

It is very clearly written in the New Testament, how the shedding of the blood of Jesus on a cross (tav), implemented a brand-new God covenant between any human (Jew or Gentile), that would receive His blood. Because Jesus shed His blood, we are not required to cut our external flesh and bleed to create a visible flesh covenant mark. But this does not mean that no flesh has any scars in it, in the New Covenant.

Here is an important fact of all God covenants ever made. No created being, has been able to keep a God covenant. The first known revealed covenant in the Bible with Lucifer the highest angelic being failed, because of his rebellion. The Adamic Covenant between God and man, failed because of his rebellion. The marriage covenant with Israel also failed because of their rebellion. Because God is Holy and His standards of perfection are so pure, God had a challenge of how to save his most loved creation man, who He had made in His image, after His likeness.

Therefore, in God’s wisdom, He solved this problem by becoming a man in His creation that could, and would keep His necessary covenant standard of perfection. Then by Grace through Faith in Jesus, God included every human that would believe in His work, the right to be identified before God in the name and the body of Jesus, who is our eternal mediator between every imperfect human and the Holy God (Heb 12:24).

It is very essential to recall, that because Jesus’ body was hung on a cross for us, the external scars in His hands and feet from the nails, and the Roman spear that punctured His side, will always be a visibly “marked” reminder to all humans that are identified to be “in” Him. This will be an eternal reminder of His great love, grace, mercy and sacrifice (Jn 20:27) that took place to save us. Every time we will see Jesus during our eternal existence, the external physical scar reminders will be sufficient proof to cause us to remember, what He did for us. We can easily recall, how our saving covenant was implemented through His flesh and blood given for us freely. But there is also another new spiritual covenant “mark” given to every saved human. This spiritual mark is unseen with natural eyes, and it is very much like the mark of Abram.

Jesus did not personally need any internal spiritual marking to take place for His saving work. But humans did. Humans will receive a new immortal body at the resurrection. But when we were saved, we received a brand-new spirit (2 Cor 5:17), and God did a spiritual covenant work inside of us, as His “signed” evidence of our salvation. Instead of an external “mark” like Abram, Christians are given an internal spiritual reminder mark for the benefit of our spiritual enemy the devil to see. This new internal “mark” takes place only in our unseen spirit:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh

Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. 

Col 2:11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ

Wow, do you see how God places His new covenant mark inwardly upon the unseen human spirit? Do you see how it is done by divine spiritual hands, and not natural human hands? These are amazing parallels that are patterned after the Abram covenant. Any human can be made clean by receiving the finished work of Jesus’ shed blood by faith. And the new covenant mark (tav) is made by the Spirit of God inwardly in our hearts when we believe, and confess Jesus as LORD.

6. TAV – MARK OF THE FAMILY YOU BELONG

The next significant meaning of the “Tav” alphabet letter, is that of a representation of a family “name”, or the “mark” of the family house. We are going to learn a potentially new concept for some, and for others it will be a review of some items we learned in the description of the Ancient Hebrew letter “Beyt”.

As an introduction to a Tav family mark, please allow me to write about some personal human family examples of a family mark. This human example, is patterned after the Tav God created concepts. This natural human example, will help some to understand the spiritual concept that is taking place by God’s spiritual handiwork.

My great grandfather, owned and raised some livestock, many years ago. This was a common type of human farm work 150 years ago. But there existed the possibility of losing one or more of them, because of broken fences, unexpected storms, natural disasters, or other potential unforeseen problems. These lost, loosed or stolen animals could present significant ownership problems and disputes when they were lost or found by the true owner, or other human neighbors. The loss of any owned livestock would be a significant risk for a greatly reduced personal income and wealth.

Therefore, to resolve the legal disputes, and losses of income, the owner would mark their cattle externally, with their identifying family mark.  This mark would be a unique sign or symbol identifying the owning farm or ranch, and it helped to eliminate the risk of loss. Can you begin to see how this “mark” is very similar to the covenant mark we learned previously? This concept clearly represents a “mark” of identity and a relationship of ownership.

This “marking” of cattle was called “branding”. And it was done by a custom-made medal device, usually made of iron. This device could be called a branding iron. The branding iron end, containing the identifying family “mark”, would be placed into a fire of intense heat, to make it glowing red hot. The hot end of the iron containing the mark, would then be applied to the leather cow hide of the living animal. And this action would leave the lasting scar, that would identify the animal for its entire life. So, this process is almost identical to what we learned about before in the “covenant mark” discussion about Abram. This is why this concept of marking a beast for a mark of ownership, sounds a lot like the same covenant terminology and patterns. Both concepts left a visible “mark”. This human implemented process of branding, copies the pattern of a God created family covenant mark, like circumcision.

I included a picture of my great grandfather’s branding irons, above. These were handed down from generation to generation. No, they are not still being used today. But they teach us and remind us about God’s created concepts that He has done for us in our spirit by placing His mark upon our heart. Just as the children of Israel were circumcised 8 days after birth, to receive God’s “covenant mark”, so it is with the New Covenant. The number 8 represents a “new beginning” and when a child of the living God is circumcised at their new birth, God places His Holy Spirit inside of our spirit as a “seal” of the covenant that has taken place (Eph 4:30).

What we are learning, is the fact that every human belongs to someone. We are either owned by God, or owned by Satan. If we read 1 Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23 we will find God with the price of the blood of Jesus, “bought” us out of the kingdom of Satan. We can clearly see that a very significant financial transaction took place to transfer ownership from being lost to being saved. Silver and gold were not a sufficient price, for this legal purchase. It required the life blood of God Himself to make this purchase (Ps 72:14, 1 Peter 1:19).

Satan was the default owner of every human, after Adam sold himself, and all of his children, to the devil (Isa 52:3, Rom 5:19). if you have not given your life to Jesus, and made Him your LORD, intentionally and voluntarily, you are still an owned slave of Satan (Rom 6:20). Because, God worked such a great work to save us He has caused a legal transfer of ownership to be made available to every human. This concept teaches us that God gives us the freewill choice to which family we will belong. Therefore, we have not been permanently “marked” yet! As long as a human is living on this earth, they can make that choice, but any delay would cause a great risk of not entering into God’s family. Now let us explore the concept of how and when we are “marked” for ownership within one of two families, for final ownership.

Let us look this God identifying family mark by reading in one ending verse in Revelation, found in the “Last” book and the “Last” chapter:

Rev 22:4  And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 

This verse in context is describing God’s people. It very clearly states that God will write upon us, “His Name”. Uh oh, sound a lot like a branding, but I do not believe it will hurt. But this concept will be Him giving us His personal ownership “mark”. This act of receiving God’s name as His family mark, is the same as when a loving wife marries her husband and takes his name to be her own. This is what Christians lovingly do with God.

In this section we have been talking about this “mark” concept because the Hebrew word H1004 translated as “house”, has its roots in two Hebrew letters. The first letter of the word, begins with the second letter of the alphabet called the “Beyt”. You should recall that the beyt, represents a tent dwelling, and has the meaning of a house, and the family that lives within the house. Therefore, this letter also signifies the location of the Father’s house, where the Son comes from.

The last letter of the word H1004 translated as “house”, is the last letter of the alphabet the “Tav”, representing a “mark”. Placing these letters together, we get the meaning, the “mark of the house”. God uses this word to teach, each house is formed and governed by the home’s founding father’s name. The strong father would be the designated family originator, like the “House of the LORD”, the “house of Jacob”, the “house of David”, and etc.

To conclude this section of the lesson about a family mark decision point of a cross, we need to remember that Satan has a family house, and is a father of many children that do evil (Jn 8:44). Satan demands humans to take the permanent “mark” of his name in Revelation 13. Everyone that does this, will be forced into hell with Satan, and an everlasting torment with him. This too will be like the concept of getting branded or tattooed. Satan will coerce people with very strong motivations to willingly take his mark. He will do this by starving people. Everyone without his mark will not be able to buy or sell normally through the government created system.

When this motivation is not enough, there will be stronger consequences for not taking his mark. If seeing your relatives starve was not enough, Satan will cause everyone not taking the mark, to have their heads cut off (Rev 20:4). All of this will be a last desperate measure for Satan to control the planet entirely. But those that have read the Bible and believe what God says will happen will never take the devil’s mark, no matter what.

Please evaluate which marked family you are in right now! Please make the wise choice to live and not die, by receiving the “mark” of the cross (Tav). Believing in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and calling Him your LORD, will insure a new family life.

7. CONCLUSION

Thank you for reading and studying this Bible series about the ancient Hebrew alphabet containing the hidden meanings that point us to Jesus Christ. God gave us this language with intentional intelligent design pointers. These “signs” were pathway directions to obtain eternal life. These signs were multi-dimensional. These clues existed in plain sentences, the words contained in the sentences, as well as every letter that created the words. Wow!

By finding and following God’s freely given “signs”, we could live with Him, know Him personally, and never die spiritually to be separated from Him. This is why Paul wrote this verse indicating his direction of travel was to achieve the end destination of a very specific “mark” (Tav).

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus

This is an amazing verse about our study subject of the “Tav”. As you can read, the end of Paul’s calling of God in Christ Jesus, was a direct prize to obtain. Paul said this prize was a called “mark” for him to travel towards. This describes the definition of the last ancient Hebrew letter “tav” precisely, especially when joined with the first letter of the alphabet. This is because Paul also called himself a servant (purchased voluntary slave) of Jesus Christ (Rom 1:1).

The Greek word G4649 in Philippians 3:14, was translated as “mark”. This word has the base meaning of “to peer”. Peering can be defined as someone who looks “intensively”, and “searchingly” to find, or reach to obtain a destination. Therefore, this “mark” is a personal “goal” to achieve to reach in this human life before death. This is clearly speaking of humans to become Christians, and then continue on the right path looking to obtain the reward, of what Christ has given to us all on a cross.

These words are both an encouragement to continue as well as a warning not to quit. Paul wrote about this in other verses like this chapter in Corinthians:

1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 

In this chapter God writes through Paul, about a race contest that we are running in. God says if we continue running His race to achieve his ending mark, we will obtain an incorruptible crown of life. This should encourage everyone to continue.

Thank you again for taking your valuable time to study the Word of God. Hopefully these lessons are a blessing and will give you the strength to continue your race to obtain God’s final “mark” of victory.

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 Chart (Series updated as LORD directs and permits)

Are You Saved? Do you Know Jesus? Life is Short! Jesus wants to Know You! Please come and get to Know Him!

Understanding Bible Faith – Faith, Patience and Time Delays Part 19

(Ver 1.1) Today is “Part 19” in the Bible study series describing the subject “Understanding Bible Faith”.  Faith is a Bible essential theme and topic. I will warn you up front that I have been working on this lesson very fast for only a short time today.  It probably has more than one typing and grammar items that is less than perfect and needs to be fixed and I will attempt to do that in subsequent revisions, the Lord willing. Please just extend me mercy as God does to us all and forgive my haste to get out what I believe, the Lord was saying to me today and wanted to say to everyone around the world and especially in the United States during these challenging times.  As a reminder the document version number begins every Bible lesson.  Version 1.0 (Ver 1.0) is the initial publication and this is what is emailed to everyone initially who subscribes.  But later I will usually make changes and improvements as time and the Lord permits me..  Therefore, if you get an emailed version it is still advisable that you go and review the online version because this one will be improved over time.  I hope that helps new readers and subscribers understand my geek computer programmer style of writing updates.  Let us go back to the subject of faith.

Faith can be found and has been described by God from Genesis to Revelation. We should have learned from reading Hebrew 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please God”. That should cause us all to stop and evaluate yourself and ask “Am I in Faith?”  In 2 Corinthians 13:5 we are all commanded to “Self-evaluate or do a self-examination to determine if we are in the faith”. This means if we are worried about what we prayed for, or in fear it is not going to happen in time, or just simply doubt that God hear or will answer us, then we are not in faith and must change course as soon as possible.  I know that we can all be challenged to fall into Satan’s trap of doubt and unbelief almost daily.  I’ve been there and if you have been saved very long, you also have been through the exact same test.  This is why we must learn to recognize the signs of faith failure during the tests of time and delays.

Uh oh? What did God say to us?  Are there delays?  What does the factor of extensive time do to cause us to doubt God?  What is different about today from when we first started to believe and stand over 70)\+ days earlier?  Are we feeling any stress?  Are we experiencing any pressures, or fear of what might happen if God does not come through to answer us?  Wow, if you are human like I am, we all have been there and done that and can buy and wear that faith vacation T-Shirt.   I am trying to recommend that we do not depart from the lifestyle of faith to leave it and take a vacation from it.  Amen!

INTRODUCTION TO FOCUSED FAITH

This election process that we have been going through in the United States of America is one of the greatest trials of faith that I have ever witnessed. It appears that evil has declared victory and appears to have won at every turn removing our natural hope.  Just when we appear to have seen a way to victory a door is slammed shut by the devil.  Do you know God allows this to happen on purpose to cause our “faith” to be stretched? Satan tries to break our faith by turning every hopeful situations into sudden defeat and lost opportunity for victory.  This happens in almost every trial of our faith whether, physical illness, emotional challenges, financial needs, relationships, jobs, etc.

What we must begin to learn is that when all of the natural possibilities for human solutions have been exhausted, it should be the beginning for us to finally stop and just relax to trust in God’s supernatural possibility of us believing in His Word only. It is a severe mistake to leave God as our last resort possibility for our solution.  Do you know what I mean?  I recall the story in 2 Chronicles 16:12 where King Asa was diseased in his feet.  Asa failed to seek the Lord first and to expect God to answer to what he should do about his problem.  Instead, Asa went to physicians and he died, never seeking or trusting God.

In another example found in 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 King Saul enquired of an evil spirit rather than focusing upon the LORD only and he was also killed for doing evil in the eyes of God.  God turned over the kingdom of Saul to David.  These were just two examples of humans not seeking and trusting in God first but they teach us what we should not be doing right now by not seeking God first and ignoring the other possible solutions.

Now let us examine a different type of challenge.  God came to Abraham in Genesis 15 and promised him personally that he would have children that numbered like the visible stars of heaven.  That was an incredible promise directly from the mouth of God.  That sure sounds like that should have caused Abram to never doubt what was going to happen.  Then over the course of time and many years going without the promised son coming from his wife Sarah, they began to waiver and look for their own solutions.  Sarah gives up completely that she will have the child and she turns over her slave woman Hagar to her husband and they had a child of the flesh named Ishmael in Genesis 16.

It only took one chapter for Abram and Sarai to lose their faith and try a human possible solution without trusting in God.  It would appear from reading this that it was the factor of time that played into causing their belief that they needed to have God solve their problem.  Wow, is that not what is happening in the church today?  Are not one Christian after another giving up the fight and losing heart not to believe and trust in God? I believe it is exactly what is happening in the U.S. 2020 elections.

We have placed all of our focused confidence and trust in looking for human possibilities instead of just focusing our faith and trusting in the Word of the LORD only.  Just as Abram and Sarai got their eyes off of God’s promise and trusting that He would fulfill His promise so are many people doing the exact same thing right now because of what the circumstances and long delays appear to be saying.  We are focused upon only what is possible and failing to focus only upon the God of the impossible.

OUR GOD IS STILL A GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

Luk 18:27  And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

God has been waiting for the church believers and the world to get their eyes off of all of the possible human avenues of winning the election to defeat evil. We have placed our confidence in the election, the vote counters, the President, the Vice President, the Attorney General, the Justice Department, the FBI, the state legislatures, the State and Federal Courts, the Supreme Court, Congressmen, Senators, the Electoral College, etc. and have had our hopes dashed every time.  I wonder why?  Could this be our wrong focus?

Now finally with only a couple of days before the apparent looming deadline, a lot of Christians have totally given up all hope and resigned to believe the evil will rule us for the next 2 or 4 years completely.  So many have abandoned their faith in God’s promises to hear and answer their prayers simply because it looks so bad and too much time has passed.  Wow, but this is when God always comes through for His people if they do not give up.

Over and over in the Bible God waited patiently for all possibilities of human solutions to be eliminated so that He would receive all of the Glory for the victory that He is about to give us.  Did you hear what I just said?  I am sticking out my neck in faith saying God’s victorious breakthrough is about to come to pass, don’t give up!

What do I base my faith upon?  How can I claim victory is still going to happen?  I first have learned from reading the Bible that this is exactly when God never failed to show up for His people and show off His majestic hand and arm of power.  Remember Abraham and Sarah?  Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when their victory came.  It was totally impossible for them to have a baby for themselves.  Yet they DID!  That was just one example of a God miraculous victory being placed upon display as an example to learn from.  Only God could get the praise for their son named Isaac.

Take the children of Israel being freed from captivity from Egypt. There was 400 years delay of them in captivity before God’s process of deliverance was initiated.  There was pharaoh’s edict for murdering all of the male children so that a deliverer could not be born.  There was a delay of the deliverer escaping Egypt for 40 years because he killed an Egyptian.  There was the intense delay with the battle of wills between the ruler Pharaoh and the man of God Moses.  Whose will, would give in or give up first?

There was the display of God’s power in 10 plagues.  Yet the evil ruler lied and did not let the people of Israel go until the last plague.  Finally, the death angel took the first born of every creature except those that had the blood on the door post.  That was finally the straw that broke the back to defeat the evil ruler’s will.  Moses led the children of Israel from Egypt and proceeded to go forth following God.  Then the evil Pharaoh had a change of heart and started to pursue them.  He brought his soldiers and chariots and overtook them.

The children of Israel were at the ends of their pathways of human possibilities for escape, freedom and victory and faced certain death.  Their backs were up against the Red Sea and the Egyptians were on the other side of them.  There was no possible way to escape the apparent end. From the natural perspective of circumstances, it would be certain defeat. Yet God was not concerned and when the human possibilities were ended, the supernatural possibility opened up by God’s design.

Do you see how this is a perfect parallel to how we are right now on January 16, 2021?  There are only three days till evil triumphs and we can choose to believe that report of impossibility or we can stop and take our eyes off of the human impossible pathways for victory, to remain looking at only the unseen God of the supernatural possible pathways to victory. He can open a brand new way where we have not even imagined just as He did for the children of Israel and the Red Sear. This will allow God to get all of the Glory and all we need to do is believe.  Why is that hard to stop looking at the natural and praise God for the victory?

Do you trust God?  Do you believe God is still powerful enough to be able make a way when there appears to be no way?  I do!  I choose to believe in a God of miracles and it really does not matter if January 20, 2021 comes and goes and I still do not see the answer.  I’m not going to allow the circumstances to overcome my beliefs.  By beliefs in God’s Words and Promises will overcome my circumstances.  I will stand with God’s promises until I see the victory. Aman!

BELIEVE IN HOPE

Rom 4:18  Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be

Rom 4:19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb

Rom 4:20  He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God

Rom 4:21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform

Remind yourself of these verses for every faith situation you find yourself in.  God uses Abraham in these verses as our example of a man to be repeated and followed because, he believed in supernatural hope when in the natural realm of possibilities there was no other hope available to him.  Again, this is when victory can manifest and only God is given the glory.

These are some of the most amazing verses of faith in the Bible. God teaches how one man took his eyes off of his natural circumstances to place all of his beliefs and confidence only in his God’s ability to answer no matter what the world declared against his victory.  Abraham is commended to not waiver in his faith by giving all of the Glory to God even before he saw his child named Isaac be born.  Can you believe and praise God even before the answer comes?  Can you say “Glory to God for the answer” even if you do not see how it could happen?  If you can, then you are in the right place at the right time for victory.  If you can praise God and say glory to God you are strong in faith no matter if you feel strong or not.  Clearly the 100 year old Abraham did not feel strong and he still had a child.

Let us not go by our feelings.  Let us ignore the news media and circumstances.  Let us ignore the calendar.  Let us ignore what our spouse, family and friends are telling us to do, to give up.  Please just join with me and get back into faith and give God all of your praise and give Him all of the glory just believing He is the same God that He was to Moses, Abraham, Joseph, David, etc.  All of these people had significant delays before their victory came forth.

CONCLUSION

I’m not going to have time to tell you everything that I base my faith upon in this quick encouraging faith lesson.  But I will tell you that on December 8, 2020 God woke me up in the middle of the night and said “Joe Biden would admit defeat and fraud had taken place”.  Wow, does that sound impossible or possible?  Most people would say that is impossible.  Yet I believe that this is what the LORD said to me and I choose to believe Him and not what I see.  God tells us that the “just” shall live by faith and not walk according to what we see.  There are other things that I have been encouraging myself daily with, but I will end upon this that occurred recently.  I listen to the Bible almost every night using an MP3 player while I fall asleep. Whenever I wake up, I become conscious that the Word of God is still playing in my ear and many times God is saying something to me that really stands out and this is what I recently was given by the LORD:

Luk 1:49  For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.
Luk 1:50  And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
Luk 1:51  He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
Luk 1:52  He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
Luk 1:53  He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
Luk 1:54  He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy

Wow, these verses spoke volumes of hope to me.  I know these verses come from the Song of Mary in Luke and they do not appear to directly apply to our faith lesson or the current election. But until we analyze what was really said don’t throw these words away too quickly.  I believe these words were given as a prophetical statement for what is about to happen in the United States.

Verse 49 starts with God has done mighty things for us and this is exactly what is needed against this evil enemy trying to overtake us.  Next notice verse 50 is spoken to a people that fear Him and they are given His mercy.  We qualify for this to be written to us because we should fear the LORD and this will cause His mercy to be extended in our current situation. Next verse 51 was what caught my attention in the middle of the night.  The arm of the LORD is not mentioned that many times in the N.T.

The first time the arm of God is mentioned is here in Luke.  The next time it is mentioned is in John 12:38. John quotes a verse from Isaiah concerning the church.  “Who has believed our report and to who is the arm of the Lord revealed”.  This is a verse about a people that have faith and that should be the church.  God clearly says that His arm will be revealed to people that believe Him.  Wow, that is encouraging.  Finally, God’s arm is mentioned in the book of Acts.  In Acts 13:17 Paul is preaching and informing people that the arm of the Lord was displayed to them when God took the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Therefore, God has made a direct connection to Israel’s deliverance being parallel to the church’s deliverance from the bondage of this world and the ruling god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) as being a type of Pharaoh.  This makes the prophecy of Luke 1 spoken and sung by Mary apply to us.  So what else does God claim to do with His arm to help these people?

Verse 51 ends with “He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts”. Wow, we can observe very proud people in the government that appear to be very unconcerned with being caught in doing obvious evil acts within our government. I have not seen any of these crimes that have been committed in the last 12 years be judged.  It appears they are covered up or either just ignored like noting ever happened.  But that is about to change according to God.

Verse 52 continues with judgments of evil people taking place.  God says “He has put down the mighty from their seats”.  Wow, again we see people in government today that are so consumed with having their power that they will do anything illegal to take it and keep it.  These people are about to be put down and removed from their seats of power permanently.  Verse 52 ends with God’s exaltation of the lowly people with humility that have a servant’s heart not containing a motivation for greed or power to be raised up to these positions of authority.  The Bible says when the righteous rule it will bring forth joy to all that have elected them to office (Prov 25:2).

Finally verses 53 and 54 prophecy a reversal of the financial classes.  God declares the hungry will be filled with God’s good things and those that are extremely wealthy will be taken away void of their money that used to corrupt and try to overthrow our nation.  God’s mercy of deliverance has been extended in these last days.  It will be our time for victory and celebration before He returns.  No this is NOT ALL ABOUT US!  God is doing this to show mercy to the nations of the world.  God wants to show mercy to the unborn children in the womb that have not had the opportunity to be born.  God wants a great end-time harvest and revival in the church to go into the entire world to preach the gospel to every nation.

I am believing God for over 1 billion views on this website. Wow, that is stretching our faith since so far, we are only working on 4 million views.  But please join your faith with us and agree that God will do great and mighty things to get His Gospel out to these billion people.  God has already given us views from over 250 nations.  There were over 25 nations just today that read something on this website. We already have subscribers on every inhabited continent North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. People even in China have been viewing these Bible lessons. Pray that the seeds sown here will produce a lot of new believers with spiritual fruits.

We love you and hope this Bible lesson was encouraging.  I have really declared some very bold things that God said would happen.  I believe I heard from God and I believe they will happen in His perfect timing.  I have not heard that this will happen in the next 3 days.  I can only tell you what I heard and leave it at that trusting Him to make it happen.

Remember the principle of Hebrews 6:12 that it is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God.  This literally means faith is required and there will be delays to God bringing us the answer in most situations because, Satan is trying to keep it from coming to pass.  Satan has been doing everything possible to keep God’s chosen servant out of the White House.  But it will not work this time.  It is not yet time for the antichrist to manifest and control the world.  How do I know that?  Because you and I are still here.  It is time for church to overcome the devil and then we will be taken out of the world and then Satan will be allowed to rise to world domination and control.  That will only be a short time of 7 years when we come back to the earth with Jesus and Satan will be thrown into hell for 1000 years.

Keep the faith!  Stand strong!  Do not let the circumstances sway your faith. Do not allow the absence of human solutions get you down either. Do not allow delay to discourage you.  Remember when it looks impossible for man, it is still entirely Possible for God.  All we are required to do is to give Him all of the Glory and praise Him for the victory before we see it happen.  This is a Bible principle.  Joshua and the people of Israel marched for days around the walls of Jericho and then shouted and blew the trumpets to sound the victory and then the walls fell down.

God bless you and if this lesson offends you, stand back and just watch what God will do and then leave us your  comment after a month or so.  If this encouraged you then please like it at the bottom of the webpage and share it with all of your friends.  Be a blessing to us and to others.  God is working whether you see what He is doing or not.  Be patient!  Be kind! Walk in LOVE!  Shout the Victory! Praise the LORD! Rejoice in the LORD and I again I say REJOICE!  It is time to Celebrate.  Amen