Can Jesus be found in the “Old” Testament? Yes, once you know where he has been hidden by the translators. I do not think less of those brave translators who spilled their blood to bring the words of the Almighty to me and you in a language we can understand. There were some things the Almighty hid from them. There were no conspiracies in their life’s work.
O LORD, in Your strength the king will be glad, and in your salvation how greatly he will rejoice!
You have given him his heart’s desire, and You have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
For You met him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of fine gold on his head.
He asked life of You, You gave it to him, length of days forever and ever.
His glory is great through Your Salvation, Splendor and majesty You place upon him.
For You make him most blessed forever; You make him joyful with gladness in your presence. Psalm 21:1-6 nasu
Did you see Jesus? He is mentioned twice by name and once more as the “Alpha and Omega” in this passage. Let me unmask Him for you.
Salvation. The Hebrew name of our Jesus is Y’shua. The name Y’shua has become a popular way to call upon the name of the Lord in this era. The name is almost always translated from Hebrew as “salvation,” do you see him now?
21:1 O YHVH (LORD) in Your strength the king (David) will be glad, and in Y’shua (Jesus) he will rejoice!
David said that in Y’shua he rejoiced! That is the first unmasking.
21:5 His glory is great through Your salvation, splendor and majesty You place upon him.
Salvation. David recognizes that his worth (glory: a manifestation of deity) is because of Y’shua. Through the ages there have been many kings of multiple nations. Few of them are remembered the way David is. What sets him apart? He tells us that it was Y’shua; it wasn’t the “things”. I agree with him. Psalm 21 declares that YHVH gave David “good things” including the crown of Israel (verse 3). But the “things” were not the desire of David’s heart. Most people fix their eyes on the “things” just as Eve fixed her eye on the beautiful fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Like Eve, we miss what is really valuable, and like Adam, we want what someone else seems to have instead of seeing that our God really is our greatest treasure.
21:6 For You make him most blessed forever; You make him joyful with gladness in Your presence,
‘ot The Aleph and Tav. Have you ever wondered why Y’shua-Jesus said that He is the Alpha and Omega? I have heard a lot of preachers and teachers come up with a lot of different reasons. I will tell you what I know, you can decide if the facts lead to my conclusion.
The “New” Testament sitting in your lap has been translated from the Greek language. The first and last letter of Greek is the Alpha (we get our Latin letter A from it). The last letter of the Greek alphabet is Omega. Track with me… Salvation (Y’shua-Jesus) is from the Jews. The Jewish language is Hebrew. Throughout the Hebrew Scripture you will find a little word, ‘ot. That word is spelled with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, and the last letter of Hebrew, Tav. When Aleph-Tav is translated to Greek it became Alpha and Omega. Most English translators simply transliterated Alpha and Omega instead of translating it to A and Z. They must have known it was important but did not make the connection.
Hebrew is a unique language. Letters in Greek and English represent sounds. When the letters are put together into words, we readers are able to “sound them out” and speak the written word. Hebrew letters are different. Most of them represent sounds, but not all of them. Aleph, the first letter, does not represent a sound. That is why it is often represented with an apostrophe instead of a letter. (the “o” in this word is from the vowel marker, not from the Aleph) Hebrew words are pictographs of ideas. Aleph represents “Almighty God”. Tav does represent a sound, it is the same sound as our letter “t” but there are two Hebrew letters that make that sound. The more important aspect of Tav is “a sign” from the Almighty. Tav is the cross! When you put them together, you can say that the Aleph and Tav are “the God of the cross” (…and this shall be a sign, the ‘ot, for you… Luke 2:12; the angel was telling the shepherds who the babe is. The sign was not the swaddling cloths, that was just how they would distinguish this baby from all the other babies in Bethlehem)
Three times in the Revelation, Y’shua-Jesus told us that He is the ‘ot, the Aleph-Tav, The God of the cross. But what does that have to do with Psalm 21:6?
The Almighty kept the ‘ot a mystery. You can find it all over the place in the “old” testament. Translators did not know what to do with it. It is in Genesis 1:1 but it is not translated into English. Plenty of times it has been translated “the”. My Hebrew teacher told me that it is usually the “definite article,” but not always. He believes in Jesus the Messiah (a big deal for a Jewish man). When I asked him about the Alpha and Omega, he sat back. I could see him making the connection as he thought it through, but he did not answer me at that moment. It seems that the Almighty kept ‘ot a mystery to more then just the translators. It is mistranslated in Psalm 21:6 as “with” in kj. In Hebrew the phrase is ‘et-panneykaa. Panneykaa, or Paniym (H6440) means “the face” and is translated “presence” or “countenance” in kj. Strong’s says that the word is plural but is always used as a singular word (like many of the words for deity). David says, ‘YHVH (You) makes David (him-the king) joyful with gladness in ‘et-panneykaa (‘et because of a different vowel marker) in the face of the Alaph-Tav is joy! Have you experienced it?
In His presence is fullness of joy!!!
Debs in Everett, Wa. September 21 (Rosh Hashannah) 2017
The Toy Box Suburban Farm 