We have been commissioned to “prepare a way” showing how God’s purpose for Israel and the Promised Land is intertwined with our inheritance in Christ Jesus, as described in Isaiah 62:10, preparing a way for the people to come into their full inheritance in Christ Jesus.
To understand our full inheritance in Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God, we need to understand who Jesus is. In the Gospel of John in chapter one verse one to five the apostle explained the following concerning Jesus “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
In the beginning the Bible started with the following verse : In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. At first glance there seemed to be no reference to our Lord and Saviour, however if we look at the same verse in Hebrew there seemed to be a word that is not translated.
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ Genesis 1:1
For the purpose of searching for Jesus in the beginning, let consider each word on its own. The first word is בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית meaning in the beginning, the second word is בָּרָ֣א that means create. The third word is אֱלֹהִ֑ים that refer to God in the plural form, representing God in His glory. The fourth word is אֵ֥ת that according to the dictionary it is a sign of the definite direct object. The fifth word is הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם meaning the heavens, and then the sixth word וְאֵ֥ת means and followed by the same sign of the definite direct object. The last word in the sentence is הָאָֽרֶץ meaning the earth.
So what is this untranslated word and how does it relate to our Lord and Saviour. Before we get there we need to give some background to understand how we got to the conclusion.
It started during a visit to Israel in 2013, where we stayed in Avula, a town in central north of Israel and close to Nazareth. We wanted to learn more about Hebrew, especially in relation to the Bible. The bible museum had a presentation regarding the development of the Hebrew language, it stated that the language developed from the primitive pictograph language, these pictures formed the basis of the Hebrew alphabet. Even today it is the reason for the richness of the language in that one word has a depth of understanding that you do not find in English.
The first thing we then did is to get the Hebrew pictograph with the translation and meaning of each letter of the alphabet. There the depth of the Hebrew language just gave us so much joy and understanding especially in relation to God’s Word. For us it was as if God develop the Hebrew language so that we could celebrate Him through it.
At first it seems that there was no answer to the question, then when I woke up in the morning asking the Lord again concerning the אֵ֥ת I just felt in my spirit, look at the pictograph. When I look at the pictograph, reading it from right to left as I would read Hebrew I was amazed and excited, realizing that John had a deeper understanding when he wrote “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made”.
So let’s look at the pictograph, the first letter is the aleph, that is also the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is depicted as a bullhead that would have been used to describe strength/leader/ox. The the second letter is tav, that is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is depicted as a cross (X) and was used to describe a mark as in a signature, a sign and a covenant. When we put it together we it would mean strong sign/strong mark/strong covenant.
Then as if the Lord opened our minds, the following was revealed. First, when Jesus revealed Himself to John in Revelation 22:13 He said, according to our translation, ”I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last”. Without going into argument, I assumed that Jesus would have spoken to John in Hebrew and that John would have written in Hebrew based on the fact that Hebrew was their native language! The translators that translated the bible into Greek translated the אֵ֥ת into Alpha and Omega in the knowledge that Jesus is the beginning and the end. But in it they did not recognise the fact the in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. The bible refer to Elohim in the plural, and we cannot comprehend the meaning of God but what John explained to us is that Jesus was in the beginning of creation with God as the Word and the Word called all thing into existence! Then Jesus identified Himself to John as the Aleph and the Tav, as in the beginning!
However based on the pictograph understanding, Jesus apart from being the beginning and the end, is portrayed as the “Strong Covenant”. For us, this revelation, based on the fact that every promise in the Bible is Yes and Amen in the Authority and Character (reference to Name and meaning in Hebrew) of Jesus Christ. The Character and the Authority of Jesus is depicted in the אֵ֥ת, and as God’s Word that manifested on earth. God’s Word by itself is a Covenant of strength, it stands established for ever and ever.
It is also very significant that between the beginning and the end, every single day Hebrews1:3 JESUS SUSTAINS ALL THINGS BY THE POWER OF HIS WORD!
If we look through God’s Word, Jesus was always present as the Strong Covenant, and when Jesus revealed Himself to John as the Strong Covenant, He confirmed that He, Jesus was there in the beginning and will be there in the end! He as the Word of God was First and will be Last, confirming once again what is written in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away”.
Then God said He Himself will give us a sign in Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” What is important to note is that the Word אֵ֥ת can also be spelled א֑וֹת meaning sign. Jesus is the sign God sent to us, not the virgin bearing a child, looking at the pictograph the only added value to the Strong Covenant is the vav that is depicted as a peg or a nail.
In Conclusion, Jesus is the first covenant and the last covenant, the first Strong Covenant was the Word that spoke all things into existence, and is an everlasting Covenant. The second Strong Covenant was nailed to the cross in order to bring in fulfilment a Strong Covenant paid for by the Blood of the Lamb. Confirming God’s Word in Genesis 22:14 “The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
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