Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Gospel Hidden in the Torah


Currently Mark and I are working our way through a DVD set that we’re borrowing from a friend (thanks, Chris!).  It’s Chuck Missler’s “Learn the Bible in 24 Hours.  It’s certainly not your typical study.  Chuck enjoys digging deep and can be pretty technical.

I wanted to share something profound from Genesis 5 that he shared.  Now, Genesis 1 – 4 is packed with exciting topics, such as the creation of the world (Chuck delves into scientific topics here that can blow you away).  And of course after Genesis 5, you get into the flood.  But Genesis 5 is a genealogy that most people skim past.  But Chuck brought up the fact that Hebrew words all have specific meaning – even these proper names.  Of course, the names were not translated into their English meanings.  But if you take the ten names listed (Adam through Noah), what do you get?  For example, Adam means “man.”  Seth means “appointed.”  Enosh – “miserable/mortal.”  Kenan – “sorrow.”  Mahalalel – “the Blessed God.”  Jared – “shall come down.”  Enoch – “teaching/commencement.”  Methusaleh – “his death shall bring.”  Lamech – “despairing.”  Noah – “comfort/rest.”

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing comfort.

Right there – hidden in the Jewish Torah – is the Christian gospel.  It’s always amazing to find a fingerprint of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, knowing that the human who penned it could only have been ignorant of the authentication stamp God was putting in His scriptures.  From the beginning, God had his plan to redeem us - it's part of a beautiful love story.

I found this clip if you’d like to listen for yourself.  Enjoy!