A MESSAGE

BEHIND

PATRIARCHAL NAMES







I was listening to Chuck Missler one day and heard him tell of the message of the Messiah found in the names of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament. This was part of a presentation dealing with some of the codes contained in scripture.

So I decided to look up these names in various reference books. I used Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, indicated below by D. I also used "Who's Who in the Bible", by Joan Comay and Ronald Brownrigg; that's the WW note. Next I looked up the names in Strong's concordance, seen below as the letter H, followed by the Hebrew dictionary number. Lastly, I looked up the names in "Insight on the Scriptures," a two volume "encyclopedia" put out by the Watch Tower folks; those notes are indicated by JW. The number of the generation of each Patriarch precedes the name.

Below each name, in italics, is the phrase I came up with to summarize the name meanings. Please don't be too critical with this backwoods scholar. This study wasn't meant to be exhaustive, only to show that God writes His message in many different places, in many different ways. So, even though some of my phrases may seem to stretch a bit, please recognize that these name-meanings do fit loosely into the context of the Messiah, and not a mess of unrelated ideas.

Now here's the rather neat part. I reasoned, "If the God-oriented Patriarchs told the story of Christ and salvation, what would the names in Cain's line reveal?" Well, I thought sure that we'd hear all about how Cain messed up, and all the bad stuff that happened to him. This would be God's way of saying, "Don't screw up." I was only part right.

You can see for yourself what are the bare definitions of the Cain-line names. They start out telling Cain's failing, but then change to something quite different; and not surprising. It looks to me like God turned the story right back to His message again. See if you don't agree that God ends up telling us that salvation is still available to those who screw up.

The interesting part is that the Cain line doesn't go to the Messiah, specifically. It's as if God is presenting the scenario of the Legalist frame. It doesn't talk of a Redeemer, but of God's discipline to those "People of God."

Regardless, both lists of names can be seen as coherent statements about our walk with God. They aren't, as I said, just a jumble of non-related ideas. And the statements fit nicely with the rest of the scriptural message.

This may strike some as, perhaps, inconsequential, less than important. So are all the individual nails in a coffin. Let me ask: Into what category would you place this information? Does it refer to eating taboos? Is it about walking around the desert for forty years? Is it a history of Paul's journeys? What, in the Bible, do these statements connect with, if not God's dealings with our souls? Instruction in salvation? I might add, that just being able to categorize the statements gives proof of their coherence.

One last reiteration: Noah didn't pick his name. Neither did he sit down one day with his history/genealogy book and change all the names of his grandparents so they fit with each other. The names weren't changed. No one changed the order of birth for those named. Over the course of almost two thousand years, these ten generations of people, headed by the Patriarchs, lived their lives like we do. The origin of the message is not human. God left us this message encoded in those first ten Patriarch's names.

God is Real. That's the true importance of the encoded messages in these two lists of names.

PS- Make of this what you will. There are ten generations in the first list of names, but only seven generations in Cain's list. Both these lists are for the period before the flood (except that I included Noah's sons to see if they would fit into the code). The number ten is the number of responsibility, and the number seven is one of completion.

Now here's the study.





Generation

RECAP: A human being, ground of mankind is appointed, put in place, as a substitute that compensates for mortal man/mankind. A fixed dwelling place for God's praise and out raying, God's servant, who descended, went down, obediently dedicating himself to be the shoot and branch that was pierced, brought (strength and) quiet rest; which allowed - honor, passion and blessing.

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Generation RECAP: The swift striking lance of self-gotten righteousness produces a narrow, disciplining initiation by God, in the form of a quick hiding-away, separating discipline, a stroking (cleaning up) of those called by God; which brings strength, detachment from the physical flow of life, music, weapons against sin, and loveliness, beauty and pleasure.

Neat, huh?






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