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Conclusion: How Should We Live?

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INTRODUCTION
“Since you were a babe the HOLY SCRIPTURES you have known, which are able to MAKE YOU WISE TO SALVATION, through faith in Christ Jesus.  EVERY SCRIPTURE IS GOD-INSPIRED AND PROFITABLE for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for education in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)

“On the same day [the day of Jesus’ Resurrection], two of them [the 12 Apostles] were going to a distant village sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, whose name is Emmaus…As they conversed and reasoned, Jesus Himself having drawn near went with them; but the eyes of them were holden so as not to know Him.”
-Jesus: “What words are these which you exchange with one another as you walk, and are downcast in countenance?”
-The two: “The chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to judgment of death, and crucified Him.  But we were hoping that He was about to redeem Israel!” [sigh]
-Jesus: “‘O mindless and slow of heart to believe in all that which the prophets spoke! Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory?’  And beginning from MOSES and from ALL THE PROPHETS He interpreted to them in ALL THE SCRIPTURES the things CONCERNING HIMSELF.”
     Later that day…
-The two: “Was not our heart in us burning as He was speaking to us on the road, and as He was OPENING TO US THE SCRIPTURES?” (Luke 24:13-17,20-21,25-27,32)

“And the rich man died, and was buried.  And in Hades, having lifted up his eyes, being in TORMENTS, he sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 
-Rich man: (crying out) Father Abraham, pity me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am suffering in this FLAME…I beg you, father, that you would send him to the house of my father, for I have five brothers, so that he may earnestly testify to them, that they may not also come to this place of torment!
-Abraham: They have MOSES AND THE PROPHETS.  LET THEM HEAR THEM.” (Luke 16:22-24,27-29)

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the KINGDOM of the heavens has been forcefully advancing, and violent men attack it.  For ALL THE PROPHETS AND THE LAW prophesied until John...He that has ears to hear, LET HIM HEAR!” (Matthew 11:13-14)

“The KINGDOM of the heavens is like a treasure HIDDEN in a field [agros], which a man hid after he found it, and from the JOY of it sells everything he has, and buys that field.” (Matt. 13:44)

In order to understand this parable of Jesus, we first need to realize that the Greek word parabole means “thrown alongside.”  Therefore, when Jesus speaks in parables, He has a hidden meaning which is “thrown alongside” many of the words in the parable.  Before I proceed to interpret this parable, keep in mind the following quotation from Jesus about his parables:

“The disciples said to Him [Jesus]: ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’  And He, answering, said to them: ‘Because to you it has been given to know the MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS, but to them it has not been given.  For whosoever has [been given to know], to him shall be given, and he shall be in abundance; but whosoever has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him.  Because of this I speak to them in parables, because SEEING THEY SEE NOT, and hearing they hear not, nor do they understand.  And in them is filled up the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, “In hearing you shall hear, and in no wise understand; and seeing you shall see, and in no wise perceive.  For the heart of this people has grown fat, and with the ears heavily they have heard, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with the eyes and with the ears they should hear, and with the heart they should understand, and should be converted and I should heal them.”  But of you, blessed are the eyes, because they see; and the ears of you, because they hear.  For verily I say to you, that MANY PROPHETS AND RIGHTEOUS MEN DESIRED TO SEE WHAT YOU SEE, AND SAW NOT; AND TO HEAR WHAT YOU HEAR, AND HEARD NOT.’” (Matt. 13:10-16)

What, then, is the field (agros) in which the Kingdom is found?  The word agros, from which our word “agriculture” comes, can mean a “field,” a “farm,” or “the country” (as opposed to a non-rural “town”).  The word agroikos, which is related to it, means a person who has his home in the country, and, by extension, is “clownish [i.e. PROVOKES LAUGHTER], boorish, and rude.”  Some synonyms for “boorish” and “rude” are “ignorant” and “unsophisticated.”  No doubt these secondary meanings of agroikos derived from the fact that people in towns and cities saw country-dwellers as “IGNORANT,” “unsophisticated” people, and therefore laughed at them.  The following two passages explain the parable of the hidden treasure:

“The WORD about the cross is FOOLISHNESS to those perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved…We proclaim Christ crucified, to Jews indeed a cause of offense, and to the Greeks FOOLISHNESS; but to those who are called [by God], both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] God’s power and God’s wisdom… For you see your calling, brothers, that [there are] not many ‘WISE’ according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many high-born.  Instead, God chose the FOOLISH things of the world, that the ‘WISE’ might be put to shame.” (1 Corinthians 1:18,24,28-29)

“The seventy-two men [whom Jesus had sent out] came back in great JOY. 
-The men: Lord, even the demons are subject to us through your name!
-Jesus: I beheld Satan falling as lightning out of Heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of The Enemy; and nothing shall in anywise injure you.  Yet rejoice not in this, that the spirits to you are subjected, but REJOICE rather you’re your names are written in the HEAVENS…I praise you, O Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that You did HIDE these things from the ‘WISE’ and prudent, and did reveal them to babes.  Yes, O Father, for thus was it well-pleasing before you.” (Luke 10:17-21)

The agros, therefore, is “the WORD about the cross”—i.e. the whole Bible, which is the story of the Christ who was crucified, and which seems “to those perishing” to be FOOLISHNESS and the contrivance of IGNORANT country-people!  For, according to the passages I quoted above from Matthew 11:13-14 and Matt. 13:44, “all the prophets and the Law”—i.e., the whole Old Testament—“prophesied” about “the Kingdom of the heavens,” and the same Kingdom is HIDDEN in an agros.  As you can see from the passage I quoted in which Jesus talks to the two disciples after He was resurrected, the Scriptures have to be “opened up.”  Therefore, Matt. 13:44 appears to teach that when you find the Kingdom “hidden” in the Bible, you will find so much JOY that you will gladly go sell everything you own and buy that Bible, if you don’t already own it.  Perhaps it also allows for owning other books and music in which you can see God manifest.  I see no other way to make sense of this parable, for Jesus clearly says that “everyone of you who does not take leave of all he possesses cannot be my DISCIPLE” (Luke 14:33), but the Bible is also filled with many exhortations to meditate on it day and night, which we can’t do unless we own it.  For instance, Jesus says: “If MY WORD abide in you, then truly you are my DISCIPLES.  And you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free…Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:31-32,34) Also, Psalm 1 says concerning the “blessed” or “happy” man that “his DELIGHT is in the law of the LORD; and in his law does he meditate day and night.”  In further support of my opinion that the Bible is the agros insofar as it seems composed by IGNORANT men, I will quote the following passage from the Confessions of St. Augustine, one of the truest Christians who has ever lived:

“I accordingly decided to turn my mind to the HOLY SCRIPTURES and to see what they were like.  And behold, I see something within them that was NEITHER REVEALED TO THE PROUD nor made plain to children, that was LOWLY ON ONE’S ENTRANCE BUT LOFTY ON FURTHER ADVANCE, and that was VEILED OVER IN MYSTERIES.  None such as I was at that time could enter into it, nor could I bend my neck for its passageways.  When I first turned to that Scripture, I did not feel towards it as I am speaking now, but IT SEEMED TO ME UNWORTHY OF COMPARISON WITH THE NOBILITY OF CICERO’S WRITINGS.  MY SWELLING PRIDE TURNED AWAY FROM IT HUMBLE STYLE, AND MY SHARP GAZE DID NOT PENETRATE INTO ITS INNER MEANING.  But in truth it was of its nature that its meaning would increase together with your little ones, whereas I disdained to be a little child and, puffed up with pride, I considered myself to be a great fellow.”1

In brief, the similarities between Jesus and many people and things in the Old Testament prove that every word said by and about Jesus in the Gospels is true, because there are too many similarities for their existence to be simply a coincidence or unplanned, so they must have been planned by one or more “beings.”  Yet, it is very improbable that they were invented by the Gospel writers, especially given how HIDDEN some of these similarities are (such as the ones with Joshua #2 and #3, or with the rock of Gen. 28).  But, if we accept that the historical Jesus did in fact share these characteristics, then we must accept that there is a God who directed world history so that these similarities would exist, and that therefore The Father really did sacrifice his beloved son Jesus on wood as Abraham almost did to Isaac, and that Jesus really did become the savior of the world by being sold for silver like Joseph did, etc.!

I beg you not to pass judgment on what I have written until you have read most or all of what I have written.  Especially for those of you who have not before realized that Jesus is so prevalent in the Old Testament, it might seem to you at first that what I write is simply the product of wishful thinking.  However, the more you read of what I have written, the more you will see, provided that God enables you to see, that the following pages contain nothing but truth.  In fact, many of these people/things are said to symbolize Christ, including Adam (Romans 5), Jacob’s Ladder (John 1:50-51), Moses (Hebrews), the Passover Lamb (John 1:29), the manna from heaven (John 6), the rock spouting water (1 Corinthians 10), and the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:15).  Some of the persons/things are more similar to Christ than others.  Some of the things/persons with more striking similarities are Noah, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, the Passover Lamb, the Joshuas, King David, and King Solomon.

God the Son in Old Testament
The following Old Testament quotations testify that there is a person who is uniquely called “the Son of God” (while Christians are “adopted” sons of God) and who has the same Divine Nature as God the Father, although He is not the same person as God the Father.  The New Testament does not invent this fact.  Compare the following quotations with one another:
-“In the beginning...God said, Let US [God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit] make man in our image...So GOD created man in his own image.” (Gen. 1:1,26-27)
-“You are my SON; this day have I begotten you.  Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.” (Psalm 2:7-8)
-“He shall cry unto me [God the Father], You are my FATHER, my God, and the rock of my salvation.  Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth...His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the SUN before me...But you have cast off and abhorred, you have been wroth with your anointed [Messiah].” (Ps. 89:27-28,37,39)
-“Wisdom [God the Son] cries aloud in the streets...Because you have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity [abstract wisdom cannot laugh: only a “person” with consciousness can]...She [Jesus in the form of God has no gender; remember my introductory discussion on how God conceals] cries at the gates:...By me kings reign [for Wisdom is God]...The LORD [God the Father] possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.  I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was...Then I was by him [or “with” him], as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” (Proverbs 1:20,25-26; 8:1,3,15,22-23,30); “In Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid” (Colossians 2:3); “In the beginning was the Word [or “Reason,” which is necessary for wisdom], and the Word was with God [the Father] and the Word was God [the Son]” (John 1:1)
-“What is his [the Holy One’s] name, or his SON’s name, if you know it?” (Pro. 30:4)
-The angel who saves three people from the fire has “a form like the SON of God.” (Daniel 3:25)

Adam
Adam was a human who had no human father.  Rather, the LORD God formed him from the dust. (Gen. 2:7) Has there ever been another human in history who has been born not of a human father, other than Jesus?
Both Adam and Jesus cause God to treat countless people a certain way.  Because of Adam, countless people were punished.  For it was not just Eve but all women who came to have pain in childbirth and became ruled over by their husbands. (Gen. 3:16)  Here are other similarities: [this comparison is mostly based on Romans 5, where Adam is explicitly said to be a “type” of Christ]

THOSE REPRESENTED IN ADAM vs. THOSE REPRESENTED IN CHRIST:
-Sin is imputed. Righteousness is imputed.
-Treated as though sinners. Treated as though righteous.
-Not thus personally sinners. Not thus personally righteous.
-Not regarded as actually guilty of
Adam's sin.
Not regarded as actually meritoriously possessed
of Christ's righteousness.
-But only sinners representatively. But only righteous representatively.
-Though not personally sinners in Adam, yet born sinful, and naturally becoming actual sinners. Though not personally holy in Christ, yet born again unto holiness, and graciously becoming more and more holy until finally sanctified.
-Condemned to all the penalties of death because of Adam's sin. Released from penalty, and attaining to spiritual life and immortality, because of Christ's active and passive obedience.
-Voluntarily accepting the relation to Adam, and persevering in the life of sin inaugurated by him. Voluntarily, though by God's help and grace, accepting the relation to Christ, and persevering in the holy life into which he has brought them.

 

Abel
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed [Jesus]; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15) [Notice the numbers “THREE” & “ONE” in the chapter & verse #!  For Jesus is one of the THREE Divine persons who share ONE Divine Nature.]
“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, ‘I have BEGOTTEN A MAN, THE LORD [or “JEHOVAH”] HIMSELF.’  And she BORE his brother ABEL.  And Abel was a KEEPER OF SHEEP…” (Gen. 4:2)
“The King James version of the Scriptures translates her language upon the birth of Cain (Gen. 4:1): "I have gotten a man from the LORD." The Canterbury revision reads: "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord." The literal rendering is: "I have gotten a man, the Jehovah himself." The Hebrew particle translated in the former of these versions "from" and in the latter "with the help of" is equivalent to the Greek "autos" and the Latin "ipse." Dr. J. Pye Smith says: "The primary, proper, and usual force of the particle "eth"(eth) placed here before Jehovah is to designate an object in the most demonstrative and emphatical manner. In this use it occurs immediately before and after this clause, and forty times in the first four chapters of these primeval records, not including the instance before us. It is also prefixed to every proper name in the governed ease throughout the fifth chapter. This prodigious number of instances, all occurring in the same connection, in the same strain of topic and discourse, in the same most venerable documents (supposing them to have been pre-existing fragments, before the age of Moses), is surely sufficient to determine a grammatical question. It is true that, in subsequent periods of the language, this particle came to be used as a preposition to denote with, or by the instrumentality of; but this was only a secondary idiom, and many of ifs supposed instances, on a close consideration, fall into the ordinary construction. There seems, therefore, no option to an interpreter who is resolved to follow faithfully the fair and strict grammatical signification of the words before him but to translate the passage as given above" (I have obtained a man Jehovah). [Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, Book II, Chap. IV, Sec. 1.]”3

“[Abel] brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.  And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” (Gen. 4:4)
He is slain by his brother Cain. 

These events mean: A woman gave birth to “Abel”—the LORD, the GOOD SHEPHERD.  He offered a superior LAMB unto God, which PLEASED GOD.  But Abel died, for that lamb was himself.

 

Noah

remains of Noah's Ark on Mt. Ararat
-the only way people on the Earth at his time were able to be SAVED was by being with him on his ark (Gen. 7:23): about Jesus, it is said by Peter that “there is salvation in no other one, for neither is there another name under the heaven which has been given among men, by which we must be SAVED” (Acts 4:12) Do you know many people who are the ONLY means of salvation for people on Earth?
-“I [God] will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights…And the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth…and the mountains were covered.” (Gen. 7:4,17,20)
“And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he hungered.” (Gen. 4:2)
And after Jesus was resurrected, he appeared to his apostles, “during FORTY DAYS being seen by them.” (Acts 1:3-4)  And the visible form of water symbolizes Jesus, as I discussed in Part One!  Rain is a symbol that God really did come down to Earth!  Gen. 7:17 apparently teaches that Jesus really did come back to life and appear on the Earth for forty days!  And that He will lift righteous people up to Heaven!  And that He will destroy all arrogant people, who are often referred to in Scripture as “mountains” and other large things!  For instance, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is called by God “a tree of great height.” (Daniel 4:7)   That such is the teaching of Gen. 7:17 is further supported by the fact that just as after the 40 days of the Flood there was a new beginning of humans; so, right after Jesus walked for the Earth for 40 days before ascending into Heaven, as described toward the end of Acts 1, there was said to be a massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) which caused many people to become “born again” (John 3) as Christians. 
-Both Noah and Jesus are the only “just” men in their generation! 

 

King Melchizedek (Gen. 14:16-20)
-He is not said to have a human father or mother.  This is very striking, because the name of the human father is given of almost every person in the Old Testament, and of perhaps all of the other types of Christ.  Jesus too has no actual human father, for He was conceived by the Holy Spirit! 
-The name of the place he rules over, “Salem,” literally means “peace.”  Hence, he is literally the “King of Peace.”  Jesus is the “Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
-He is a king and a priest, as Jesus intercedes for us with God the Father and offered himself as a sacrifice!
-He brings bread and wine.  Jesus brought out bread and wine at the Last Supper, and Christians partake of bread and wine often during the year in remembrance of Christ’s death. 
-He is greater than Abram, for Abram gives him a tenth of all the possessions he won.  And Jesus is greater than any other human!

 

Isaac
After Noah, the next type of Christ is not Abraham, but Isaac.  That is because Abraham is a symbol of God the Father!  His name was originally “Abram,” but God said to him:
“Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a FATHER OF MANY NATIONS have I made you.  I will establish my covenant between me and you and YOUR SEED after you in the generations for an EVERLASTING COVENANT, to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you.  And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you.  And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the LAND OF CANAAN, for an EVERLASTING POSSESSION; and I will be their God.” (Gen. 17:5-8)

God also said to him: “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, IF YOU ARE ABLE TO NUMBER THEM…So shall YOUR SEED be.” (Gen. 15:5)

“Behold, a great crowd, which NO ONE WAS ABLE TO NUMBER, out of ALL NATIONS and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the LAMB [Jesus], clothed with white robes and with palms in their hands.” (Rev. 7:9)

The “seed” of Abraham and the “many nations” which come from him are not the Jews alone, but rather whoever believes in Jesus!  This is evident from the fact that only the “seed” of Abraham inherits Canaan as an “everlasting possession”; but the land of Canaan includes Jerusalem, and the place in which God’s people are forever to dwell is called the  “New Jerusalem.” (Rev. 21:2) Also, John the Baptist says to some Jews: “Think not to say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham,’ for I say to you that God is able from these STONES [i.e. presumably from Jesus the “cornerstone” (Ps. 118) and His followers who build up the “body of Christ”] to raise up DESCENDANTS TO ABRAHAM!” (Matt. 3:9) Also, Paul says that “those who have faith are sons of Abraham,” and supports this statement by referring to the promise God made to Abraham that “by him all nations would be blessed.” (Galatians 3:8-9, Genesis 22:18)   Furthermore, all the ‘children’ of Abraham, i.e. those who believe in Christ, are “children of God.” (John 1:12) Hence, it is clear that Abraham is a symbol of God the Father.  That is why God gave him a name meaning “Father of many nations” or “Father of a multitude”!  That Abraham is indeed a symbol of God the Father will become very evident from all the evidence I will now present that Isaac is a type of God the Son.

First of all, both Isaac and Jesus are said to be born miraculously, and to be of the seed of Abraham. (Matt. 1:1) As Jesus is said to be born of a virgin (Matt. 1:20), so is Isaac born of a woman when she is 90 years old.  You don’t hear about people being born of virgins and 90-year old women everyday, do you?!  Their both being of the seed of Abraham would set them apart from all other people even more.  Now, consider the following passages to discover even more similarities:

“God so loved the world that he gave HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON, so that everyone who believes in Him many not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus: “I made you known to them and I will continue to do so, in order that the LOVE YOU HAVE FOR ME may be in them, and I may also be in them.” (John 17:26)

“When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage towards the MOUNT of Olives, then Jesus sent TWO OF HIS DISCIPLES, saying to them, ‘Go into the village, that opposite you, and immediately you will find an ASS tied up, and a colt with her…This all came to pass so that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, Your king comes to you, MEEK and mounted on an ass and a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”  And the disciples having gone, and having done as Jesus ordered them, brought the ass and the colt, and put upon them their garments, and he [Jesus] sat on them.” [Notice that the TWO DISCIPLES did not get off the ASS.] (Matt. 21:1-3,5-7)

“And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham.
God: Abraham!
Abraham: Behold, here I am.
God: TAKE now your son, YOUR ONLY SON Isaac, WHOM YOU LOVE, and get yourself into the land of Moriah; and offer him there FOR A burnt OFFERING upon one of the MOUNTains which I will tell you.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ASS, and took TWO OF HIS YOUNG MEN with him, and Isaac HIS SON, and clave the WOOD for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Then ON THE THIRD DAY Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.  And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide here with the ass; and I and THE LAD WILL go there and worship, and COME AGAIN TO YOU.  And Abraham took THE WOOD OF THE BURNT OFFERING, and LAID it UPON Isaac HIS SON; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 
Isaac: My father. [Notice how MEEKLY he speaks!!!]
Abraham: Here am I, my son.
Isaac: Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the LAMB for the burnt OFFERING?
Abraham: My son, GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF A LAMB FOR A burnt OFFERING.
So they went both of them together.  And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and BOUND Isaac HIS SON, and laid him on the altar UPON THE WOOD.”  (Gen. 22)

Thus, the hidden meaning of this passage is: “TAKE YOUR ONLY SON, WHOM YOU LOVE, FOR A OFFERING.”  The SON then rides on an ASS with TWO YOUNG MEN AND HIS FATHER on a MOUNT.  “ON THE THIRD DAY THE LAD WILL COME AGAIN TO YOU.”  God then LAID UPON HIS MEEK SON THE WOOD OF THE BURNT OFFERING.  For, “GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF A LAMB FOR A OFFERING.”  So He BOUND HIS SON UPON THE WOOD. 

That such is the meaning of the passage is further suggested by the fact that directly after it, Abraham is promised that because He did not withhold his “only son” (as Jesus is said to be God’s “only-begotten son”), in his “seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18), as people all over the world now are saved because of Jesus the seed of Abraham.  The same promise is made to Jacob in Gen. 28 directly after Jacob’s ladder, another type of Christ, is mentioned.

"Sacrifice of Isaac" by Caravaggio

Gen. 26:12-14 gives an account of the rise of Christ’s Kingdom!  As Christ “sows” the seed of His Word (Matt. 13), so does Isaac “sow,” and as a result “grow richer and richer” and acquire FLOCKS and a “large household.”  JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD WILL RULE OVER MANY “SHEEP” IN THE NEW JERUSALEM!!!!!!

God has Isaac give his blessing to Jacob, who is a sinful person insofar as he covets the blessing of his brother Esau, to show that Jesus elects people like me who are unworthy of his blessing for salvation!!! (Gen. 27)

 

The Angel (or “Messenger”) of the LORD

Jacob wrestles "The Angel" (Gen. 32)
He is called “the LORD” (the capitalized version of this word signifies “Jehovah” and is a title which applies only to God) and “God.” (e.g. by Hagar in Gen. 16:13, by Himself to Jacob in Gen. 31:11, by Hosea in Hosea 12:2-5 in reference to Jacob’s wrestling with the angel in Gen. 32, by the narrator when the angel appears in the burning bush in Exodus 3:2-4) The angel appears often throughout the Old Testament, including many times in the book of Zechariah.  In many of these passages, such as the one in Hos. 12:2-5 and Ex. 3:2-4, it is clear that the angel is not simply a mouthpiece for the LORD but is Himself called the LORD:  “He [Jacob] had power over the angel...he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us; even the LORD God of hosts.” (Hos. 12:4-5) In this passage, the LORD is not simply said to be the one who is speaking, but also is said to have been “found” in Bethel in the form of the angel! 

But clearly the angel is not God the Father, for that would be like saying George’s messenger is George himself!  That’s utterly absurd!  Furthermore, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are never said to have taken on human form, although the angel apparently takes on human form, for He wrestles with Jacob in Gen. 32!    Also, Jesus is called the “angel” or “messenger of the [new] covenant” (Malachi 3:1-2), the covenant that Jesus refers to during the Last Supper and which is referred to by the title “New Testament, for the Greek word for “testament” (diatheke) can be translated also as “covenant.”  Also, it would be fitting for Jesus to be called the “angel” or “messenger” of God the Father, for Jesus is called “The Word” (John 1:1) and claims to speak nothing but the words which come from God the Father. (John 14:10) Additionally, the “angel” who saves three people from being harmed by fire is “like the Son of God.” (Daniel 3:25) Therefore, the angel is Jesus, God the Son, who is called “the LORD” because He has the same Divine Nature as God the Father, though He is not God the Father; as I who have a similar nature to my friend Jeff am not Jeff.

 

Jacob’s Ladder, and the Rock/Stone

Jacob's ladder Jesus: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." (John 4:14)
“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.  And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed.  Your offspring shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.  All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your seed.” (Gen. 28)

After Jesus, because of his omnipresence, tells Nathanael that he saw him sitting under the fig tree even though he couldn’t see him with his physical eye, Jesus says to him: “Greater things than these you shall see.  Verily verily I say to you, henceforth you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:50-51)  JACOB’S LADDER SHOWS THAT JESUS RECONCILES US TO GOD THE FATHER WHO DWELLS IN HEAVEN, AND THEREBY ALLOWS GOD TO BESTOW HIS FAVOR UPON US, for instance by sending His angels to guard those who “take the Lord as their refuge.” (Psalm 91:9-11) God makes this clear by giving Jacob the promise about “all the families of the earth blessing themselves” by the “seed” of Jacob, which is Jesus.  Notice that in Gen. 22, the same promise was given to Abraham right after Isaac was almost sacrificed; God thereby emphasizes that the promise is fulfilled in Jesus.

He also shows that Jacob’s ladder symbolizes Jesus by immediately afterwards having the rock mentioned.  In Gen. 28, it is anointed with oil, as Christ was “anointed” by God; it is called by Jacob “the house of God,” as Christ claimed to be when he referred to Himself as a Temple, insofar as the Divine Nature dwells in him; and it is attended to by Jacob immediately after Jacob has the vision of the ladder which is the gateway to heaven, another type of Christ!  GOD CLEARLY MADE THIS ROCK SYMBOLIZE JESUS!  WHAT MERE HUMAN WOULD THINK ABOUT CALLING A ROCK THE HOUSE OF GOD AND POUR OIL ON IT?!!!  Indeed, apparently nothing else in the world is a “house of God” other than certain buildings consecrated to God and certain people like Christ!  In Num. 20, it is said by God to yield water when asked to, as Christ yields the “living water” which brings eternal life to those who “ask” him for it! (John 4) In fact, Paul says this rock is a symbol of Jesus. (1 Corinthians 10) In Isaiah 8:13-14, God is called a “ROCK of offense to both the houses of Israel” which causes them to “stumble, and fall, and be broken,” as Christ who is God Himself offended many Jewish people and thereby caused them to suffer the pain of eternal punishment.  In Isaiah 28:16, God says “I lay in Zion for a foundation” a “precious CORNERSTONE” and that “he who trusts [or believes] in it need not fear,” referring to the “sweeping flood” (28:15,18) of the multitude of nations that will enter Jerusalem during the Tribulation. (29:7, Daniel 11:40) Similarly, trusting in Christ means that one does not need to fear experiencing the suffering of the Tribulation! Jesus calls himself a rock at the end of His Sermon on the Mount when He says that whoever hears His words and obeys them is “like a wise man who built his house on the ROCK.” (Matt. 7:24) Jesus is also the STONE which the Jews rejected and which becomes the “CORNERSTONE.” (Ps. 118:22, Matt. 21:42) The “rock”/”stone” will reappear below in connection with Joshua #2 and Joshua #4, for those two people, who have the same Hebrew name as Jesus does, are mentioned in connection with a “rock/stone.”

 

Joseph
-he was delivered into the hands of other people in exchange for a very small amount of silver— namely, twenty pieces (Gen. 37:28): Jesus was delivered into the hands of other people in exchange for a very small amount of silver—namely, thirty pieces
-by being sold for silver, he came to bring life to people all over the world (Gen. 41:57): Jesus, by being sold for silver, came to bring life to people all over the world
-he was in captivity with two criminals, and promised pardon to only one of them (Gen. 40:13,19); on the cross, Jesus was in captivity with two criminals, and promised pardon to only one of them (Luke 23)

“And Pharaoh said unto his servants, ‘Can we find such a one as this is, A MAN IN WHOM THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS?’  And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, ‘Forasmuch as God has showed you all this, THERE IS NONE SO discreet and WISE AS YOU ARE: YOU SHALL BE OVER MY HOUSE, AND ACCORDING UNTO YOUR WORD SHALL ALL MY PEOPLE BE RULED: ONLY IN THRONE WILL I BE GREATER THAN YOU…See, I HAVE SET YOU OVER ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT.” (Gen. 41:38-41)

“But when all things have been put into subjection to Him [Christ], then also the Son Himself will be put in subjection to Him who put in subjection to Him all things, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:28)
-his 11 most intimate companions (i.e. his 11 brothers) bow down to him, because he is the lord of Egypt (Gen. 42:6): Jesus’ 11 most intimate companions (i.e. 11 of his disciples, not including Judas because Judas did not worship Jesus) bow down to him, because he is the Lord of the world (Luke 24:53)
How many people do you know who have brought life to people all over the world?  Surely not many, for such people would be quite famous, wouldn’t they?  Of these people, how many do you know who have done this as a result of being sold for a small amount of silver?!  Of these people, how many do you know who also were in captivity with two criminals, and promised pardon to only one of them?!!  The moral of this story is that Jesus, by being sold for silver, really did become the means by which people all over the world could have life!  Just as Joseph forgives his brothers for mistreating him, Jesus is willing to forgive you for sinning against Him and to shower you with kisses of love if you repent! (Gen. 45:15)

 

Moses
Moses is a type of Christ because he, like Christ: was born when the king over his land was killing young sons, was alone with God for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18, Matthew 4:2) , was one of God’s prophets to the Jews, was the only other person who was the first person through whom laws of God were given to His people, was the only other person who had a more intimate knowledge of God than any other prophet because God spoke to him “mouth to mouth” rather than through visions and because God showed him “His likeness” (Numbers 12), was the only other mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5: “there is only one mediator between God and man: the Lord Jesus Christ), and was the only means by which God’s people entered the land of Jerusalem God had promised to them besides Joshua (who has the same name as Jesus in Hebrew) and Cyrus—who too are types of Christ, as I will later discuss!  For, the capital city of the land promised to Christians is the New Jerusalem! (Revelation 21:2)  ONLY CHRIST CAN SAVE YOU, BROTHER!

 

The Passover Lamb
-it is a lamb: Jesus is called “The Lamb of God” (John 1:29)
-the lamb is “without blemish” (Ex. 12:5):
-the lamb is killed on the fourteenth day of a certain month, which from then on comes to be called the Passover day (Ex. 12:6): the “Lamb of God” is killed on the Passover day
-those who have its blood on their doorposts are not destroyed by God (Ex. 12:7): Jesus “washed us [His people] from our sins by His blood” (Rev. 1:5)
-God commands that the day on which people were saved because a lamb was slaughtered be remembered “for ever” (Ex. 12:14): the day on which the “Lamb of God” was slaughtered always has to be remembered so that we can know that we are reconciled to God if we believe in Jesus (Rom. 5:10)
-those who were not destroyed by God because a lamb was slaughtered on the Passover day commemorate this day for all time by eating bread (Ex. 12:15), just as people commemorate Jesus’ death during Holy Communion
-none of the lamb’s bones are broken, as is true of Jesus when He is crucified (John 19:36)

-How wonderful it will be to dwell forever with Jesus, a being “without blemish!”  Have you ever known someone who said to you “I love you” and who you know said it sincerely?  Did his doing so not bring you great joy?  Well, those who dwell in Paradise will forever experience that joy, because they will be with Jesus and with humans who are “without blemish,” for they will all be “conformed unto His [i.e. the Son of God’s] image.” (Rom. 8:29)
It is only because Jesus poured out his blood that you are permitted to live forever in God’s favor!  (NOT BY PURGATORY OR PRAYERS TO MARY!!!)  “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), but Jesus desires your well-being so much that he preferred to suffer Himself rather than for you to suffer death!

 

Peace Offerings (Leviticus 3), Sin Offerings (Lev. 4)
-animals such as cows, lambs, goats, and bulls (Leviticus 3:1, 3:6, 3:12, 4:14)
-had to be “without blemish” (Lev. 3:1, 3:6, 4:3), as Jesus was without sin
-slaughtered just as God the Son was slaughtered
-the peace offerings were made to bring peace for people, as Jesus through His death is free to bestow peace on His disciples (Romans 1:7: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”; John 14:27: “my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you”
-the sin offerings were offered to make amends to God for the sin committed by humans (Lev. 4:13-14)
-because of their being offered, the sins of the people are “forgiven” by God (Lev. 4:20): sweet Jesus says at the Last Supper when lifting a cup of wine that “this is my blood, that of the new covenant, which for many is poured out for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28)
-they could be offered by an “anointed priest” only (Lev. 4:5,16,25,30): Jesus is called “the Christ” or o christos (e.g. Matt. 16:17), which means “anointed one,” and he claims to be a “priest” insofar as he claims to be making an offering for sins (again, Matt. 26:28)
-taken “outside the camp” (Lev. 4:12)

Have you ignored God often, brother?  Have you not lived every second of your life glorifying Him, even though the whole reason we were created was to bring glory to Him? (1 Corinthians 10:31) I know I have not, before a few years ago.  The moral of this chapter is that, by offering himself, Jesus, an “anointed priest” who is “without blemish,” really does secure the forgiveness of all our sins, if we believe in Him! 
Offerings which make people “clean”
-“red cows without blemish” (Numbers 19:2), as Jesus had no blemish because he was without sin
-slaughtered outside the camp (Num. 19:3), as Jesus was slaughtered outside the city gate (Hebrews 13:12)
-their ashes, upon being mixed with water, were the only way of making unclean people clean (Num. 19:9,11-13): Jesus “washed us [His people] from our sins by His blood” (again, Rev. 1:5), and is the only means of salvation (again, Acts 4:12)
-for all time, this is to be the means by which unclean people—both Israelites and non-Israelites— become clean (Num. 19:10,21); indeed, for this is a symbol of how Jesus makes people clean today!

 

The Tabernacle of Ex. 25-40: GOD TRULY DWELLED IN JESUS’ BODY (also see Part Three: Parthenon, Pyramids, Colossus & Statue of Liberty, etc.)

 

Serpent which brings life

”Moses and the Brazen Serpent” by Sebastien Bourdon
“And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathes this light bread.’ And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.  Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.’  And Moses prayed for the people.  And the LORD said unto Moses, ‘Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live.’  And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Num. 21:5-9)

Jesus says in reference to this passage: “Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)  Obviously Jesus is implying that there is more of a connection between Him and the serpent than simply the fact that they were both “lifted up,” for otherwise He would not have referred to that passage from Num. 21!  Let us then, explore Num. 21 in light of John 3:14-15 to see what the connection is. 
The things which “bite” are called “serpents.”  People who are bitten by snakes suffer great pain and in some cases die.  That is exactly what sin causes: whoever lives in sin will never be happy as long as he remains in sin, and such a person will die (i.e. not have eternal “life”) if he is not cured of his sin.  To be “bitten” in this passage is symbolic of having been caused to sin.  The “serpents” which “bite” are thus symbolic of people and fallen angels, especially Satan, who cause people to sin.  For, John the Baptist called the teachers of Moses’ Law, who caused people to sin by teaching the Law incorrectly, “vipers.” (Matt. 3:7) Also, consider this passage: “And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, who is called Devil, and Satan, who misleads the whole habitable world; he was cast into the earth, and his angels with him were cast.” (Rev. 12:9) Satan was the “ancient serpent” who helped cause Adam and Eve to sin, by misleading Eve into thinking that she really would not die if she ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as God said she would. (Gen. 3)

The Hebrew word used for “serpent” is “saraph,” which is also used in reference to angelic beings called “seraphs” who never die and are constantly in the presence of God (Isaiah 6:2), as Jesus is a being who never dies (the body which he inhabited on earth died but He himself, since He is God, never died in 33 A.D.) and is “sitting at the right hand of the Father”!  Thus, the “saraph” in this passage is a symbol of Jesus (the “Son of Man”) being “lifted up” on the cross, which like a “pole” is long and narrow! 

When God says that whoever looks upon the serpent shall “live,” He uses the Hebrew word “chayay,” which can also mean to be revived “from sickness” or to be “restored to health.”  Jesus does the same thing for whoever “looks upon” Him, for He “washes” people (Rev. 1:5) of the sin which makes them “sick,” and thereby brings health and life to them if they believe in Him!  One of the reasons that Jesus cured people, of leprosy for instance (Matt. 8:1-3), was to symbolize how he cures people of the sickness which sin is.  Notice how Jesus compares “sickness” to “sin” in the following passage: “But Jesus having heard said to them: ‘They who are strong have not need of a physician [or ‘healer’], but they who are ill [or ‘have evil’] do.  Go, and learn what this means: Mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.  For I came not to call just people but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:12-13)

Don’t let “serpents” deceive you into thinking that I am making these connections up!  If you still don’t believe me, notice how this passage even gives in outline the way Jesus saves people from their sins, not just when they first come to believe in Him but throughout their earthly lives, and thereby brings them eternal happiness!  Look again at the Num. 21 passage which I quoted above: the serpent brings life and “health” to those who confess to God “We have sinned,” who pray to God to remove the things which “bite” them, and who “look upon” the serpent on the “pole.”  All humans must confess his sins to God [NOT TO A ROMAN CATHOLIC OR ORTHODOX PRIEST], as the prodigal son does to his father (symbolic of God the Father) in Jesus’ parable when he says: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and no longer am worthy of being called your son.” (Luke 15:18) They need to pray to God to “deliver us from evil” (which “bites” them), as Jesus teaches in the “Our Father” prayer which you are probably familiar with. (Matt. 6:13) And, they need to “look upon” Jesus, which Jesus interprets in the passage quoted above from John to be a consequence of “believing in him.”  This makes sense, insofar as those who believe in everything Jesus says “look upon” Him for guidance, for Jesus says that “if you abide in My word [which you do by frequently reading from or hearing His word], truly you are My disciples.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” from your sins. (John 8:31-34)

 

Joshua #1
-Joshua is the means by which the people with whom God made a covenant (the Israelites) are able to enter into the land which He had promised to them (Canaan, which is today called Israel), which includes the city of Jerusalem.  Similarly, Jesus is the means by which the people with whom God made “the new covenant” (Matt. 26:28) are able to enter into the city of the New Jerusalem which He promises them.  (Rev. 21:2) “There is no other name [than ‘Jesus’] under Heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
-Joshua had an indispensable role in the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land.  God says to him: Thou shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore unto them: and I will be with thee” (Deuteronomy 31:23), and “I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land: And thou shall do to Ai and her king as thou did unto Jericho and her king.” (Joshua 8:1-2) In fact, of the 211 times the name “Joshua” appears in the Bible (not including references to “Jesus”), about 150 of them are in the small 24-page book of Joshua!  Jesus has a similarly indispensable role, for “there is NO OTHER NAME [than ‘Jesus’] under Heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) All the scenes in Heaven in the book of Revelation are just as filled with references to Jesus and to God as the book of Joshua is filled with references to Joshua.
-Furthermore, he was filled with God’s “spirit of wisdom” (Deut. 34:9)
-The way he brought them in was by conquering thirty-one KINGS who dwelled in the land! (Josh. 12:7,24) As God promises, no one is able to resist him as long as he lives. (Josh. 1:5) Compare:
“And I saw the beast, and the KINGS of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war with him who sits on the horse, and with his army.  And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet…The two were cast alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone; and the rest were killed with the sword of him who sits on the horse, [the sword] which goes forth out of his mouth; and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” (Rev. 19:19-21)

Following this event, Satan is “cast into the bottomless pit” (Rev. 20:3), and Christ rules with his beheaded martyrs (though apparently they have their heads back now, after having been resurrected!) for one thousand years. (Rev. 20:4) Then, after God judges all humans who have ever lived (Rev. 20:11-15), “the holy city, the new Jerusalem” comes “down” from God out of heaven. (Rev. 21:2) ALL KINGS OF THE EARTH WILL BE CONQUERED, AND THEN THE REDEEMED WILL DWELL IN THE NEW JERUSALEM, RULED BY JESUS.

Of the greatest significance is that fact that Joshua’s name means “Jehovah [God’s name] is salvation,” and has the same name in Hebrew that Jesus does!  This proves that Jesus truly will conquer every king of the Earth, and that He really does lead into God’s Promised Land those who follow Him!  In order to help God erase any doubt of this from your mind, I will now discuss in detail the only three other people called “Joshua” in the Bible, and hopefully God will help you see that they too are all detailed portraits of Jesus Himself! 

 

Joshua #2
LOOK AT THIS PASSAGE!  (I just found this one, so I am especially excited about it!) But first, here is some background information, upon which I will build my interpretation of this passage:
-It occurs right after the Philistines of three of their cities were struck with hemorrhoids (“emerods”) and their ships and fields infested with mice as a result of carrying the Ark of God into those cities, which they had stolen from the Israelites. (1 Samuel 5:1,6-12)
-The Hebrew word for TRESPASS OFFERING—“asham”—is the same word used in Lev. 7:1 to describe one of the offerings which symbolize Jesus.  I already discussed how the peace and sin offerings of Leviticus 3-4 symbolize Jesus.
-The Hebrew word for BETH-SHEMESH, the city in which Joshua resides, means “House of the Sun.”  The city still exists today in Israel’s “Jerusalem District” with only one other city: Jerusalem. (Josh. 15:10)
-“diviners” are prophets: ones who claim to be means by which God communicates to men.  It will become clear after I interpret this passage or perhaps while you are reading it that God must have been speaking through these diviners, considering the instructions which they give. 
-carefully consider the words I capitalized
“And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, ‘What shall we do to the ark of the LORD?’…And they [the priests and the diviners] said, ‘If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a TRESPASS OFFERING: then you shall be HEALED, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.’  Then said they, ‘What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him?’  They [the priests and the diviners] answered, ‘Five GOLDEN emerods, and five GOLDEN mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.  Wherefore you shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall GIVE GLORY UNTO THE GOD OF ISRAEL…Take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a TRESPASS OFFERING, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go’…And the kine [animals] took the straight way to the way of BETH-SHEMESH…And the cart came into the field of JOSHUA, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great STONE: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine [as] a BURNT OFFERING unto the Lord.  And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great STONE: and the men of BETH-SHEMESH offered BURNT OFFERINGS and sacrificed SACRIFICES the same day unto the LORD.”  Then, the Philistines placed the golden mice and golden emerods “unto the great STONE of ABEL, whereon they set down the ark of the LORD: which STONE remains unto this day in the field of JOSHUA, the Beth-shemite.” (1 Sam. 6:2-5,8,12-18)

This story teaches that God HEALS the people on behalf of whom a TRESPASS OFFERING, which we have seen is a symbol of Jesus’ offering of Himself on the cross, is made.  In this case, God promises healing from “hemorrhoids,” but remember that sicknesses of the body in the Bible often symbolize the sicknesses of the soul which are caused by sin.  Notice how the offering is GOLDEN: this is because it symbolizes Jesus, who is of the highest value!  I don’t think that the “emerods” or “mice” symbolize Jesus, though: the offerings are images of these presumably only because those were the things with which God had afflicted the Philistines in the previous chapter, as I mentioned in the background information.  Notice also how by giving these offerings, the men GIVE GLORY UNTO THE GOD OF ISRAEL: this is because it is only on account of Jesus’ sacrifice that there will be countless people of every tongue and nation worshipping God in Heaven! (Rev. 7:9)

Notice how JOSHUA lives in the city called the “House of the SUN.”  That is because Joshua symbolizes Jesus, the Son of God, whom the Sun symbolizes!!! (See my discourse on the Sun, which establishes this fact) Furthermore, this city is adjacent to Jerusalem, the name of the city which Jesus will rule over after the Earth is destroyed and then renewed! (Rev. 21:2-3) Notice how Joshua is associated in the same sentence with a STONE and with the OFFERINGS or SACRIFICES which are put onto the stone along with the Ark of the Lord.  There is an extremely important message which God is trying to communicate here, but before I explain it, I will describe the last Joshua of the Old Testament, who is also associated with a stone and with offerings! 

God is telling us here symbolically that Jesus, who has the same name as Joshua, really was the stone and a golden sacrifice which causes God to forgive they who believe in Jesus!  
The Hebrew word for “stone,” eben, can also mean “precious stone,” for Jesus is very precious!

 

Joshua #3: Jesus rules over the New Jerusalem!!!
He is the governor of the city of Jerusalem during the time of King Josiah reigned over Judah.  He is mentioned only in the following passage.  This passage occurs within 2 Kings 22-23, in which chapters holy King Josiah tries to turn the Israelites away from their false gods, to which the priests “burned incense” in “high places,” back to the one true God. 

“He [King Josiah] brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of JOSHUA the GOVERNOR of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.  Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in JERUSALEM, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.” (2 Kings 23:8-9)

The Hebrew word used here for “governor”—“sar”—is applied elsewhere in the Bible to God, the “Ruler of rulers”!  And the name of the city that Jesus rules over after the Earth ends is…”THE NEW JERUSALEM!” (again, Rev. 21:2-3) The “breaking down” of the “high places” is perhaps an echo of Isaiah 40:4-5, a passage referring to Jesus’ First and Second Coming: “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low…And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”  Look how wise God is!  He mentions Jesus in such an unprominent place in the Bible, to show how common Jesus appeared in the 1st century A.D.!!!!

 

Joshua #4
He is the son of Josedech, which in Hebrew means “Jehovah is Righteous.”
“And he [the LORD] showed me [Zechariah] JOSHUA THE HIGH PRIEST standing before the ANGEL OF THE LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.  And the LORD said unto Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, O Satan; even the LORD that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: is not this a brand plucked out of [“SAVED from”] the FIRE?’  Now Joshua was clothed with FILTHY garments, and stood before the angel.  And he answered and spoke unto those [other angels, according to 2:7] that stood before him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.’ And unto him he said, ‘Behold, I have caused your INIQUITY TO PASS FROM YOU, and I will clothe you with change of raiment.  Let them set a fair mitre [i.e. a jeweled headband used as a crown for a KING] on his head.’   So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments.  And the angel of the LORD stood by.  And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
‘Thus says that LORD of hosts; If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my charge, then you shall also JUDGE my house [“household” or “family”] and shall also keep [“PROTECT”] my courts, I will give you places to walk among these that stand by.  Hear now, O JOSHUA THE HIGH PRIEST, you and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at [the Hebrew word can mean “signs” of a future event, perhaps as a “wonder” or “miracle” is a sign of God]: for behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.  For behold the STONE that I have laid before JOSHUA; upon one stone shall be SEVEN eyes: behold I will engrave the graving thereof,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and I will REMOVE THE INIQUITY OF THAT LAND IN ONE DAY.  In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘shall you call every man his neighbor under the VINE and under the fig tree.” (Zec. 3)

Notice that JOSHUA is not just a PRIEST, but rather a “HIGH” PRIEST, for he is a “sign” of Jesus who is “at the right hand of the Father,” and the angels surrounding Joshua are a “sign” of the angels which currently and forever will attend Jesus. (Isaiah 6)  Jesus is forever a HIGH PRIEST not only because He offered Himself in 33 A.D. for the sins of the world, but also because “He is able to SAVE completely those who approach by Him to God, always living to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) Joshua’s INIQUITY is removed, for he symbolizes Jesus who has no iniquity.  He is dressed like a KING in order to symbolize Jesus.  The “ANGEL OF THE LORD” (i.e. Jesus) says to him that he will JUDGE God’s people and PROTECT his “courts” (which refers to the New Jerusalem: “Better is one day in Your ‘courts’ than a thousand days anywhere else.” [Psalm 84:11]) because He symbolizes Jesus, who will do these things.  God says to Joshua that He will REMOVE THE INIQUITY OF THAT LAND IN ONE DAY because Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) in one day—the day He was crucified!   The Hebrew word for “LAND”— “erets”— can refer to the Earth or to all the inhabitants of the Earth, and is often used in contrast to the land of Canaan—i.e. it is often used to refer to the Gentile nations, which today contain many believers!  I think the “you” of the last line is referring to all people who read and understand this chapter.  If so, God is saying to such people that all the people who have their iniquity removed will be so filled with love for their neighbor that they “shall call every man his FRIEND!”  The Hebrew word for “neighbor” —“Rea”—more literally means “friend”!  What a wonderful effect Jesus had on the world!  Notice how God proves that this passage is referring to Jesus by grouping all those words which I capitalized in one place!  For instance, Jesus Himself (the ANGEL OF THE LORD) gives these instructions!  Do you notice how we have another JOSHUA here associated with a STONE, just like Joshua #2?!  Remember how in that passage, the SACRIFICES were placed on the STONE in the field of JOSHUA?!  That’s because God is trying to help you believe with certainty that Jesus the “rock” was in fact sacrificed for the sins of the world, and thereby gives life to those who believe in Him!  The STONE is clearly referring to Jesus the LORD, as the following passage makes clear:

“Who are you, O great mountain?  Before ZERUBBABEL you shall become a plain: and he shall bring forth the HEADSTONE thereof with shoutings, crying, ‘Grace, grace unto it!’  Moreover the WORD OF THE LORD came unto me, saying, ‘The hands of ZERUBBABEL have laid the foundation of this HOUSE; his hands shall also finish it; and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me unto you.  For who has despised THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS?  For they shall rejoice, and shall see the PLUMMET [a heavy weight; refers to the STONE of Ch. 3 and Ch. 4] in the hand of ZERUBBABEL with those SEVEN; they are the EYES OF THE LORD, which run to and fro THROUGH THE WHOLE EARTH.” (Zec. 4:7-10)

That is why when Jesus appears as a “Lamb” in Revelation 5:6, He has “SEVEN EYES, which are the seven spirits OF GOD which have been sent THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH”! (SEVEN is often associated in the Bible with God and with perfection)  Notice now how God juxtaposes ZERUBBABEL and the STONE: that is because he is another type of Christ, as I will explain below.  In order for you to have more confidence in the interpretation of Zec. 3 which I just supplied, consider the following passage:

 

“And the word of the LORD came unto me [Zechariah], saying,
‘Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah [“Jehovah is good”], and of Jedaiah [“Jehovah has known”], which are come from BABYLON, and come you the same day, and go into the house of Josiah [“whom the LORD HEALS”] the son of Zephaniah; Then take silver and GOLD, and make CROWNS, and set them upon the head of JOSHUA the son of Josedech [“Jehovah is Righteous”], the HIGH PRIEST; and speak unto him, saying,

“Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the TEMPLE OF THE LORD: Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his [God the Father’s] THRONE; and he [God the Son] shall be a PRIEST upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them.  And the CROWNS shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the LORD.” (Zec. 6:9-14)

The word “CROWN” appears very frequently throughout the New Testament as a reward given to those who enter Heaven.  For instance, Paul says: “For what is our hope or joy or CROWN of boasting?  Are not even you [the Thessalonians whom he converted] in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?  For you are our glory and joy.” (1Thessalonians 2:19) Also, look at the following description of people in Heaven: “Around the throne [of God] were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments; and they had GOLDEN CROWNS on their heads.” (Revelation 4:4)

Notice here that God tells Zechariah to refer to Joshua as the BRANCH!  Yet that Joshua who lived in Zechariah’s time is not the BRANCH, as the following passage about the BRANCH from Jeremiah 23 will make clear; rather, Jesus is!  Jesus’ body was the TEMPLE OF THE LORD, because He, the LORD Himself, dwelled in that human body!  Look at John 2:19-21: “Jesus said unto them: ‘Destroy this TEMPLE and in three days I will raise it up’…But He spoke concerning the temple of his body.”  And as the following passage will also make clear, Jesus indeed “shall sit and rule upon his [Father’s] THRONE!”  And there indeed is “counsel of peace” between the Father and the Son.  Notice how this passage proves the Trinity doctrine, according to which there are three persons who all are called God because they all have the same Divine Nature: that doctrine is no invention of the New Testament!  Here is another passage about the BRANCH:

“Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will raise unto David a RIGHTEOUS BRANCH, and a KING shall reign and prosper, and shall execute JUDGMENT and JUSTICE in the earth.  In his days Judah shall be SAVED, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS [“Jehovah is our Righteousness”].  Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that they shall no more say, ‘The LORD lives, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ but [rather] The LORD lives, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jeremiah 23:5-8)

The BRANCH is Jesus!  He is called “Jehovah is our Righteousness” because, as Paul says: “as by one offence [Adam’s], [it was] towards all men to condemnation, so also by one accomplished RIGHTEOUSNESS [Jesus’], [it was] towards all men to justification of life.  For as by the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one man [Jesus] shall the many be constituted RIGHTEOUS.” (Romans 5:18-19) This prophecy has never been fully fulfilled yet, so you can see that it is referring to the future time “when the Son of Man [Jesus] comes as KING” and “gathers all the Earth’s people before Him,” both people who have died and people who still live, in order to JUDGE them (Matt. 25:31-46, Rev. 20:11-15).  Then, because God alone will be KING, the Earth will be filled with “JUSTICE.”  “Israel shall dwell safely” at that time because there will be no more wars! (obviously, since there is “no pain” in Paradise) I am almost certain when He says “Israel” and “Judah” in Jer. 23, He is talking about the actual Jewish people, for there are several prophecies throughout the Bible that a “remnant” of the Jews will be saved (e.g. Zec. 13:1,8-9 refers to the
salvation of 1/3 of “the House of David” and “the inhabitants of Jerusalem”) after that remnant “look upon me [Jesus] whom they pierced” and “mourn for him as one mourns for his only son” (for Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God!) and “for his firstborn” (for Jesus is the “firstborn over all creation!” [Colossians 3:15]). (Zec. 12:10) Of course, though, there will be plenty of other people saved besides Jews, as if very clear from many passages in both Testaments. 

In the whole book of Zechariah, the only people who appear and are named are “THE ANGEL OF THE LORD,” Satan (3:1-2), other angels (3:3-8), JOSHUA, ZERUBBABEL, the people who receive CROWNS (6:14), and the MESSIAH KING/GOOD SHEPHERD (9:9, 11:4-14)!  Of these persons, the ANGEL OF THE LORD and the MESSIAH KING/GOOD SHEPHERD are Jesus Himself; JOSHUA and ZERUBBABEL are “signs” (3:8) or foreshadowings of Jesus; and the angels and the people who receive CROWNS are the beings who will be accompanying Jesus in Heaven!  Thus, the whole book of Zechariah [“Jehovah Remembers”] is about Jesus!!!  And it was written hundreds of years before He came to be crucified!!!

Similarly, Jesus (whose Hebrew name is Yeshua) is a priest insofar as he expiates our sins, and He like the rock is the LORD, removed the guilt of those who have faith in him on the day when he was crucified, and causes such people to be hospitable to one another!  Rev. 5 confirms that this rock is referring to Christ, because the Lamb of God is there described as having seven eyes!  These are just a few of the many references in which Christ is typified by a rock!

 

David (especially in 1 Samuel 16- 1 Kings 2, Psalms)

 Odysseus [David] attacks giant Polyphemus [Goliath, symbol of Anti-Christ] in the forehead
In 1 Samuel, God calls David a “man after his own heart” because He is a symbol of Jesus the Lord!

In 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel seeks out God’s anointed, he comes to David last of Jesse’s SEVEN sons to show that Jesus will be the final king of the Earth!!!  God made him the son of JESSE to show that he is a symbol of JESUS!!!  He is a shepherd in Bethlehem to show that Jesus truly was born in Bethlehem and is the Good Shepherd!!! 

One reason God makes David have Jonathan as his dearest friend is to show that there truly was a man named John who was “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” moreso than any other human, as is said frequently in the Gospel of John.  No other disciple is called this.  The words used to describe Jesus’ love for him are filia (John 20:2) and agape (e.g. John 21:20).  Filia is the kind of love that one person has for another with whom he is very intimate. Look at the similarities of John and Jonathan’s names in the New Testament and the Greek Septuagint, respectively: IwannhV  and Iwnaqan.  God has these  name resemblances elsewhere, as with JESSE & JESUS. Thus, David’s love for Jonathan shows us that if we are endearing to Jesus, He will kiss us all over as David does with Jonathan. (1 Samuel 20:41)

Similarly, one reason God has Saul persecute David from 1 Samuel 16-26 is to show that Saul who later became Paul truly persecuted Jesus Himself in the Acts of the Apostles before his conversion experience in Acts 9, as Jesus affirms when He says from the sky “SAUL, SAUL, WHY DO YOU PERSECUTE ME?” (Acts 9:4) For, as this whole part of the book shows, ALL JESUS’S FOLLOWERS ARE JESUS HIMSELF.  Paul truly says, “It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  Also, as Gerard Manley Hopkins says in his poem “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” Jesus’ face is “in ten thousand places”!  Both Sauls have the same name in Greek!  Also, both are of the tribe of Benjamin, “the smallest of the tribes of Israel.” (1 Sam. 9:21, Phillippians 3:5) This can hardly be considered coincidental, for there are 11 other tribes of Israel, all larger than Benjamin, that either of these Sauls could have come from.  That Saul king of Israel is a symbol of Saul/Paul is also suggested by the fact that the Psalms describe mainly two persecutions: the persecutions of David especially by Saul (e.g. Psalm 18, 52, 54, 57, 59) intermixed with those of Jesus (e.g. Psalm 16, 22 [prophecy of Jesus’ Crucifixion], 41 [prophecy of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas], 71 [prophecy of Jesus’ persecution, death, and resurrection], 89 [which contains many important prophecies])!  In fact, the connection between David and Jesus is so strong that David, when speaking for instance in Psalm 22:17 of Jesus having his hands and feet “pierced,” speaks in the first person, although he is clearly not talking about himself!  Rather, Jesus is speaking through him!  The “anointed one” or Messiah is even called “David” in Psalm 89:20, although He is not literally David since David is not  the “firstborn” Son of God (Ps. 89:27)!!!!!!!  I propose, therefore, that the reason God had the prophet Samuel anoint Saul of Benjamin as king rather than anyone else was in part to show that there was a Saul/Paul who persecuted Jesus as well as a Saul that persecuted David.  Jesus truly spoke to Saul/Paul from the sky saying: “SAUL, SAUL, WHY DO YOU PERSECUTE ME?” (Acts 9:4)  When we suffer, fellow Christians, it is for God’s glory, even if we don’t realize it at first, for David suffered in part to show that God truly suffered for us when He dwelled in Jesus’ body! 

As further evidence that Saul the 1st king of Israel is a symbol of Saul/Paul, consider that just as there are only four people named “Joshua” in the Bible, there are only four people named “Saul” in the Bible, according to one Bible concordance.  One, in Gen. 36:37, is a king, just as Saul of 1 Samuel was a king.  This is very unlikely to be a coincidence, given that not many people are kings.  The other Saul is mentioned last in a list of the six sons of Simeon in Gen. 46:10; according to the concordance, he is  mentioned only three times in the Bible and nothing is said about him other than that he is a son of Simeon, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and unlike the other sons of Simeon is the son of a “Canaanitish woman.”

A reason that God chooses David as his second king rather than as his first one is apparently to show that Satan will rule the world for a while (although he will still be only a tool to carry out God’s plans), but ultimately Jesus will rule in the New Jerusalem, as David rules in Jerusalem!   God indicates this by saying that an “evil spirit” entered Saul, something that is not said very often in the Old Testament, if ever!!!  (1 Samuel 19:9)

He is a ruler of God’s chosen people.  First, notice that, including David and Jesus, there are less than fifty such rulers, and for the most part they are named in the books of I Kings and 2 Kings.  Next, realize that he, Moses, Joshua, and Solomon are by far the four most prominent rulers of God’s chosen people who are mentioned in the Old Testament!  This is apparent from the fact that, if you don’t consider God, David is the main character of precisely half of 1 Samuel, all of 2 Samuel, and the beginning part of I Kings; and is the human author of the vast majority of the Psalms, the longest book of the entire Bible.  Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible, and he is very prominent in the latter four of them.  Joshua is extremely prominent in the book which bears his name, but is also mentioned several times in the first five books of the Bible.  Out of the almost fifty kings discussed in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings, Solomon is by far the most discussed one.  While almost all the other kings have only about ten lines said about them, Solomon’s reign is discussed for eleven chapters in 1 Kings 1-11.  Furthermore, he is the human author of more books of the Old Testament than anyone else except Moses: most of Proverbs, The Song of Solomon, and most likely Ecclesiastes. 

Notice also that David and Solomon are technically the only “kings” of the four people I mentioned above, for Saul of 1 Samuel was the first human called the king of Israel.  Moses and Joshua, on the other hand, were “rulers,” but God was their king.  This is very significant!  As David and his son Solomon are more exalted than any other “king” of God’s chosen people, so is there a Father God and a Son God who are more exalted than all the kings of the Earth, for they rule them and will reign forever and ever!!!  And David and Solomon have almost exactly the same nature, for their teachings about how humans ought to live, as presented in the Psalms and the Proverbs, are mutually compatible and non-contradictory!  And they both abided by these teachings, except when they each committed a major sin. 

“David was THIRTY YEARS OLD WHEN HE BEGAN TO REIGN, and he reigned FORTY YEARS.  In Hebron he reigned over JUDAH seven years and six months: and in JERUSALEM he reigned THIRTY AND THREE YEARS OVER ALL ISRAEL AND JUDAH.” (2 Sam. 5:4-5)

When Jesus died in Judah, He was thought to be THIRTY AND THREE, not twenty, or twenty-four, or seventeen, or forty-one, or any of the other tens of numbers of years between one and one-hundred-twenty for which a man can live!  And Jesus too “was THIRTY YEARS OLD WHEN HE BEGAN TO REIGN” over the hearts of his disciples, for he began his ministry at “about age 30.” (Luke 3:23) In order to confess that He reigned over them, they called him “Lord”!  And after Jesus was resurrected, he appeared to his apostles, and continued to REIGN over them, “during FORTY DAYS being seen by them, and SPEAKING TO THEM THINGS CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: and being assembled He charged them not to depart from JERUSALEM.” (Acts 1:3-4) Jerusalem is in JUDAH, where David “reigned FORTY years.”  Furthermore, consider one of David’s psalms: “I will extol you, my God, O king…EVERY DAY WILL I bless you…Your saints shall bless you.  They shall SPEAK OF THE GLORY OF YOUR KINGDOM.” (Psalm 145:1-2,10-11) so both Jesus and David REIGNED over people in JUDAH for a period of FORTY units of time during which they spoke THINGS CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD!  So do not doubt for a second that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead at the age of thirty-three and then appear among his apostles for forty days!  Speak of the glory of His Kingdom every day and all day!

“And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and WEPT: and as he went, thus he said, ‘O MY SON Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!  WOULD GOD I HAD DIED FOR THEE, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam. 18:33)

You are now looking into the very heart of Jesus!  O, Jesus’ love for me moves me to tears!  “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP.” (John 10:11) And he did!

 

Solomon (especially in 1 Kings 1-11)
He, like Joseph, was allied with the Pharaoh of Egypt (1 Kings 3:1), as Jesus is allied with God the Father.

“I have given you a WISE and understanding heart; so that THERE WAS NONE LIKE YOU BEFORE YOU, NOR AFTER YOU SHALL ANY ARISE LIKE UNTO YOU.  And I have also given you that which you have not asked, both RICHES and HONOR: so that THERE SHALL NOT BE ANY AMONG THE KINGS LIKE UNTO YOU all your days…And he came to JERUSALEM and stood before the ARK OF THE COVENANT of the LORD, and offered up burnt OFFERINGS, and offered PEACE OFFERINGS, and made a FEAST FOR ALL HIS SERVANTS.” (1 Kings 3:11-12) Notice how Solomon in Jerusalem is more like Jesus will be in the New Jerusalem than any other mere human, according to this passage!  Truly “in Christ are found all the treasures of WISDOM and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3)

Jesus, like Solomon, will have more “riches and honor” than any other human being, for just as the Queen of Sheba comes to Solomon in Jerusalem on "CAMELS bearing spices, a great quantity of GOLD, and precious stones" (1 Kings 10:2); so has it been foretold that to God in the New Jerusalem will come "camels" which "all shall come from Sheba" and which "shall bear gold and frankincense" (Isaiah 60:6), and that "the kings of the earth shall bring their glory [which includes their wealth] and honor into it." (Revelation 21:24) (Note also that the Magi brought “gold and frankincense” to Jesus at his birth: this event was a foreshadowing of the future time in which all the kings of the Earth shall bring such things to Jesus in the New Jerusalem) Just as a "Tarshish fleet on the sea" comes in "once every three years...bearing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks" (1 Kings 10:22) to Solomon in Jerusalem, so has it been foretold that "ships of Tarshish" will bring their "silver and gold" to God in the New Jerusalem. (Is. 60:9)

In 1 Kings 4, Solomon is said to have ELEVEN PRINCES and “TWELVE OFFICERS OVER ALL ISRAEL.”  Of the ELEVEN PRINCES, mentioned in verses 1-6, there are only two pairs of brothers, just as there are only two pairs of brothers among the eleven disciples of Christ, excluding the traitor Judas (Matt. 10:1-3)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Furthermore, only one person is called the king’s “friend,” and he belongs to one of the two pairs of brothers, just as only John, one of the two sons of Zebedee (Matt. 10:2), is the only disciple called Jesus’ “beloved disciple” throughout the Gospel of John, and he is one of only three of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples who are allowed to be with him at the Transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These resemblances are not due to coincidence!  The king’s “friend” is held in such high esteem by King Solomon that he is made the “principal officer.”  Notice how carefully God concealed these resemblances: I had to count the number of princes, because the number “eleven” was not mentioned!  Therefore, truly did Christ say to His disciples:

“Verily verily I say unto you who have followed me, in the Regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, you also shall sit on TWELVE thrones, judging the TWELVES TRIBES OF ISRAEL.  And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for the sake of my name, a hundredfold shall receive, and eternal life shall inherit.” (Matt. 19:28-29)

“And He had PEACE ON ALL SIDES ROUND ABOUT HIM.  And JUDAH AND ISRAEL DWELT SAFELY, EVERY MAN UNDER HIS VINE AND UNDER HIS FIG TREE, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, ALL THE DAYS OF SOLOMON.” (1 Kings 5:5) THE WHOLE BIBLE IS AUTHORED BY THE TRINITY!  Compare this passage with the following two which I have already quoted, especially with the words in bold; these passages are about what the world will be like after Jesus, symbolized by Solomon, returns:

“And he [the LORD] showed me [Zechariah] JOSHUA THE HIGH PRIEST standing before the ANGEL OF THE LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.  And the LORD said unto Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, O Satan; even the LORD that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: is not this a brand plucked out of [“SAVED from”] the FIRE?’  Now Joshua was clothed with FILTHY garments, and stood before the angel.  And he answered and spoke unto those [other angels, according to 2:7] that stood before him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.’ And unto him he said, ‘Behold, I have caused your INIQUITY TO PASS FROM YOU, and I will clothe you with change of raiment. Let them set a fair mitre [i.e. a jeweled headband used as a crown for a KING] on his head.’   So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments.  And the angel of the LORD stood by.  And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
‘Thus says that LORD of hosts; If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my charge, then you shall also JUDGE my house [“household” or “family”] and shall also keep [“PROTECT”] my courts, I will give you places to walk among these that stand by.  Hear now, O JOSHUA THE HIGH PRIEST, you and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at [the Hebrew word can mean “signs” of a future event, perhaps as a “wonder” or “miracle” is a sign of God]: for behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.  For behold the STONE that I have laid before JOSHUA; upon one stone shall be SEVEN eyes: behold I will engrave the graving thereof,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and I will REMOVE THE INIQUITY OF THAT LAND IN ONE DAY.  In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘shall you call every man his neighbor under the VINE and under the fig tree.” (Zec. 3)

“Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will raise unto David a RIGHTEOUS BRANCH, and a KING shall reign and prosper, and shall execute JUDGMENT and JUSTICE in the earth.  In his days Judah shall be SAVED, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS [“Jehovah is our Righteousness”].  Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that they shall no more say, ‘The LORD lives, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ but [rather] The LORD lives, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jeremiah 23:5-8)

“He was WISER THAN ALL MEN…And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five.  And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springs out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of the fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.  And THERE CAME OF ALL PEOPLE TO HEAR THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON.” (1 Kings 4:31,33-34)

Similarly, people from all nations of the Earth are seeking the wisdom of Jesus, just as was remarkably predicted of the Messiah in Isaiah 49:6 (that he would be a "light to the nations," so that God the Father's "salvation may reach the ends of the earth") & Isaiah 50:4 (that this "light" would consist in showing the nations what the commands of the Jewish God are), and will listen to Him in the New Jerusalem!  Here is a small sampling of the glorious work God is doing throughout the world to bring people to Himself.  Notice that the countries listed below are on three different continents: South America, Africa, and Asia! 

“So with about 10% of planet earth claiming to have been born again, where are all the believers?  Non-Western lands. 34% of the people of Kenya say they’ve been born again. One in four Ugandans has followed Jesus’ call. Indeed, the East African revival has been going strong since the 1930s. The Central African Republic is about 25% evangelical, the Congo (former Zaire) about 22%. And I’m not the only American Christian to find that believers from Nigeria are a lot more serious about Jesus than we are. Remember: it was Zambia, not the United States, which formally declared itself a “Christian nation” in the 1990s. At his inauguration, their president confessed publicly a national prayer of repentance that renounced the sins of idolatry, witchcraft, occultism, injustice and corruption, pleading before Jesus Christ for forgiveness upon the nation through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross. That’s not Western culture and sure isn’t a “white” thing!
And look elsewhere in the world. Chile, formerly the home of dead Catholicism, is now 33% evangelical. South Korea has turned its back on Buddhism to follow Jesus—there are more Presbyterians there than in the United States. Almost half of Koreans today are Christians—and they’re sending about 3,000 missionaries out of Korea to the rest of the world, to pagan lands like the United States, so we can know Jesus too!”4

1 Kings 10, the chapter in which the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon, tells us WHAT THOSE WHO ARE SAVED BY CHRIST CAN HOPE FOR: to have every one of their questions answered (v.3); Christ’s “wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard”; the saved “stand continually” before Christ and continually hear His wisdom (v.8); to attain everything we desire (v.13)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that I have discovered this hidden meaning of 1 Kings10, I see more fully why we need to pray to God in order to know how wonderful Heaven is, as the following passage shows:

“I do not cease giving thanks for you, and making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you might know Him.  I ask that the eyes of your mind be ENLIGHTENED, FOR YOU TO KNOW WHAT IS THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING, WHAT ARE THE RICHES OF THE GLORY OF HIS INHERITANCE AMONG HIS HOLY PEOPLE, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power in us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:16-19)

 

Elisha (2 Kings 2-8)
-receives the Holy Spirit by means of an older prophet (Elijah, in 2 Kings 2), just as Jesus receives the Holy Spirit by means of the older prophet John the Baptist (Matthew 3)
-John the Baptist is said to have the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Luke 1:17, Matthew 11:10, Malachi 4:5): this fact creates an even stronger connection between Jesus & Elisha
-Elijah & Elisha’s names begin with the same letter, as do John the Baptist & Jesus’ names
-as Elisha multiplies twenty loaves of bread for a hundred men with some bread “left over” (2 Kings 4:42-43), so does Jesus multiply five loaves for a thousand men with some bread “left over” (Matt. 14:18-21); no one else in the Bible performs this miracle
-both Elisha and Jesus resurrect the dead (2 Kings 4:34) and cleanse lepers (2 Kings 5:14), actions that few people in the Bible do
-both Elisha and Jesus are prophets of Israel, as few people are

 

Cyrus the Great (Isaiah 40-46)

Cyrus the Great's Empire
-both he and Jesus conquer/will conquer many nations (45:1)
-both he and Jesus rebuild Jerusalem (45:13) [for Jesus rebuilds Jerusalem as the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21]
-both he and Jesus allow God’s people to enter “Jerusalem” “without price” (45:13, 55:1); you cannot enter the New Jerusalem unless Jesus lets you!  You only need to believe and thereby obey Him, for Jesus paid the price with His blood!
-As the ruler of the land attempted to kill both Moses and Jesus, so did Astyages the ruler of the Median Empire attempt to kill Cyrus, according to Book One of Herodotus’s History.  Furthermore, both Herod and Astyages attempted to kill Jesus and Cyrus, respectively, because they feared that the latter men would usurp their power!  For, Astyages made this attempt after he learned in a dream that Cyrus would come to rule all of Asia.
-as I discuss in Part Three, he along with Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar were respectively rulers of the three largest empires of the pre-Christian world, and Alexander the Great & Julius Caesar were made by God to highly resemble Jesus Christ.
-his name comes from the Persian word for the “Sun,” for Jesus is truly the Son of God and is symbolized by the Sun!

 

Daniel 3:25, 9:24

"4 men walking in the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (Daniel 3:25)
The “angel” of the LORD (3:28) who saves three people from being harmed by fire has “a form like the Son of God.” (3:25)  Indeed, for the “angel of the LORD” is God the Son, as I proved above right after my discussion of Isaac!  Jesus can save you from the fire of Hell, if you believe everything He says and consequently obey Him completely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The following is perhaps the most amazing prophecy in the entire Old Testament:
“Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins [whoever believes in Jesus receives the Holy Spirit (John 7:38) and are thereby gradually freed from sin (Galatians 5:22)], and to make reconciliation for iniquity [Jesus pays God the Father for our sins], and to bring in everlasting righteousness [we are forever “justified” in God’s eyes through faith in Jesus (Romans 3)], and to seal up the vision and prophecy [Jesus fulfills many prophecies], and to anoint the most Holy [Jesus is the anointed Messiah].  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two [i.e. 62] weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.  And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself [rather, for us sinners, in about 33 AD]: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary [as happened to Jerusalem in 70 AD!]; and the end thereof shall be with a flood...And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [the 70th week, right before Jesus’ Second Coming, foreshadowed by World War II & the ~3 ½ year Holocaust]...” (Dan. 9:24-27)

The word “weeks” literally means “sevens,” as there are seven days in a week.  This is true in the Greek text as well, for the Greek word for “weeks” in the Septuagint, ebdomades, is the plural of ebdomas, the number seven.  In the plural, the word can mean sets of seven days or sets of seven years.5  Here, the weeks are sets of seven years, as is evident from the fact that this prophecy would otherwise be false.  Thus, the prophecy says that “reconciliation for iniquity” would be made 7+62=69 “weeks” after the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, which was given “in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes” of Persia. (Nehemiah 2:1,3,7) If you carefully read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah (including Ezra 4:5-7), it is clear that the “King Artaxerxes” of Nehemiah 2 is Artaxerxes I, son of Xerxes (called “Ahasuerus” in the Bible), the famous Persian who was talked about at great length in Herodotus’s History and who amassed a gargantuan army against Greece about 490 BC.  It is generally agreed by historians that Artaxerxes I began to rule about 465/464 BC, which would make his 20th year about 445/444 BC.  If you add 69x7=483 years to 445 BC, you get AD 38.  Or, if you adjust for the 360-day Babylonian year which was commonly used during Daniel’s time, you get (483 years/365 days)*360 days=~476 years, which added to 445 BC yields AD 33.  Jesus is said to have died sometime between AD 33 and AD 38, but the exact year is not known with certainty because the year of his birth is not known within certainty and is thought to be sometime between 7 BC & AD 4.  In my discussion of Alexander the Great in Part Three, I argue that he died in AD 33.  Jesus truly paved the way to the “end of sins,” made “reconciliation for iniquity,” and brought in “everlasting righteousness” by His death on the cross in about 33 AD in the “holy city” of Jerusalem, although the complete “end of sins” won’t come until the end of the 70th “week” which occurs right before Jesus’ Second Coming!!!!!!!!!

 

Jonah
-both Jonah and Jesus are prophets of Israel, as few people are
-both Jonah and Jesus were in a large dark place for three days and nights, Jonah in the belly of a huge fish (Jon. 2:1) and Jesus at the heart of the huge Earth.  Jesus points out how both he and Jonah were in those places for “three days and three nights” as a “sign” of his identity. (Matthew 12:40) Thus, the reason that God commands the fish to spew Jonah out on the third day rather than on any other day is so that we could be confident that Jesus rose from the heart of the Earth on the third day!!!!!!!!

 

*Paul: "SUN" OF GOD RESURRECTED AFTER 3 DAYS (see Part Three: Athet Paulu, Buddhist monk who returned from dead after 3 days & immediately became a zealous Christian)

Paul blinded by Son; can't see Sun for 3 days Peter
*Peter: THE BODY OF GOD THE SON WAS CRUCIFIED
*John: …BUT GOD THE SON NEVER REALLY DIED

 

 

Types of the Anti-Christ in the Bible: (see http://www.biblebelievers.com/Pink/antichrist15.htm, and all the antichrists in Part Three!!!!):
Cain (Genesis 4)
Lamech (Genesis 4)
Nimrod (Genesis 10-11)
Cherdorlaomer (Genesis 14)
Pharaoh (Exodus 1-12)
Balak (Numbers)
Abimelech (Judges 9)
Saul (1 Samuel 8-31)
Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
Absalom (2 Samuel)
Sennacherib (2 Kings 18)
Adoni-zedek (Joshua 10)
Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 1-4)
Haman (Esther)
Adoni-kam (Ezra 2:13)
Herod (Matthew)

 

THE REST OF THE BIBLE IS ABOUT JESUS TOO, AS I HAVE DISCOVERED AFTER MUCH CAREFUL STUDY OF THE WHOLE OF IT.  ALTHOUGH I WON’T DISCUSS THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN JESUS AND THE REST OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, I MENTIONED THE NAMES OF SOME OF THESE OTHER CHARACTERS WHICH ARE TYPES OR SYMBOLS OF JESUS IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS, such as Hosea, Job, and Boaz, so you can investigate them yourself.