Cheryl
Blessed Be the Lord God of Shem
Drnhawkins, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” Genesis 9:26,27
“Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,” Luke 3:36
These scriptures, one from the Old Testament, and one from the New Testament, indicate the the Messianic line will come through Shem, one of Noah’s sons. Indeed, we see that did happen in the New Testament. This is one of the indicators of the genealogy of Jesus.
Let’s Talk About Names
Drnhawkins, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In Genesis chapter 5, there is a list of names. Let’s look at them in the light of Jesus.
Adam – Mankind
Seth – Substituted
Enos – Mortal, a man, singular or collectively, suffering man
Cainan – Fixed, Possessor
Mahalaleel – Praise of God
Jared – Descent
Enoch – Initiated
Methuselah – Man who is of God
Lamech – Overthrown
Noah – Rest
These meanings were drawn from Strong’s concordance an a Bible dictionary. They are a forerunner of Jesus. A mortal man, a suffering man substituted for mankind (for the sin of Adam passed onto generations). This man (Jesus) possessed praise of God. He descended into hell (Acts 2:31) and took away the keys of death and hell (Revelation 1:18) from satan. He was initiated as the firstfruits of the resurrection, the God-Man who rose from the grave. This Man who is of God overthrew the work of satan. His work brings rest to mankind to those who will receive it. (John 1:12)
Names are important. They were much more important in Hebrew times than they are considered today. Sometimes people pick non edifying names for their children. In Hebrew times, names were considered prophetic of the destiny of the child. Names were considered so important that God himself changed the name of Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah in order that the promise of a son would come to pass. John the Baptist was named by a message from an angel. Gabriel told Mother Mary that the name of her child would be Jesus.
Types and Shadows
In considering the prophecies regarding Jesus’s first coming, it is such an immense topic that it takes a while to wrap your mind around the immensity of it. Not only are there specific prophecies, such as the prophecy of Micah 5:2 that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, but there are other indicators regarding the coming of the Messiah.
One type of indicator are types and shadows. These are stories within stories, stories with a hidden message. They come in many ways. Some are stories where the events that happen to the individual parallel events in the life of Christ. Other stories are found hidden in the meanings of words. Since the indicators of Jesus are found in varied ways from Genesis to Revelation, there is no one way to start in Genesis and end in Revelation using only one kind of indicator. Clues are sprinkled about the Old Testament in numerous ways.
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2
Beyond this, it is important to realize that language has degenerated over the years. Now people text without even fully spelling out words. YCLIU (You can look it up) here for examples.
But life was not always like this. There was a time when scholars knew several languages such as Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. They dug into the root words of meanings. Nowadays, you would not know that languages have roots, but the fact is, their meaning and spelling usage evolved over time, and to correctly understand the meaning you need to understand how it was used at a particular time in history. Do you remember recently when there was a phase when people said “that’s bad” when it really meant that they liked it or thought it was good? That is why you cannot go by current understanding, but have to dig into historical meanings of words and even customs. That’s what Bible Dictionaries, Concordances, Maps, Atlases, Dictionaries and other study aids are all about.