The Messiah of the Torah

By Drew Slatton

The purpose of this book is to examine the Torah with a specific filter. Also known as the Pentateuch, the Torah is comprised of the books Genesis through Deuteronomy. In this study, using ancient rabbinic and more modern sources, we will concentrate not on the main plots of the narrative; but instead examine the Torah with a specific focus on seeing what is written in it concerning the Messiah and how those passages relate to Y’shua (Jesus): his life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Through a better understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, we can achieve a better understanding of Y'shua's mission as Messiah and what his aims are for those who call themselves his disciples.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Drew Slatton
• Release date: Mar 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005416331

Book preview

The purpose of this book is to study the Torah, also called the Pentateuch, which is comprised of the books Genesis through Deuteronomy. However, the Hebrew Scriptures have multiple layers of meaning, and this book will examine the Torah with a specific filter. In this study, we will concentrate not on the main plots of the narrative; rather, we’re going to examine the Torah with a specific focus on seeing what is written in it concerning the Messiah and how those passages relate to Y’shua (Jesus): his life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

The Christian Church at large has had an unfortunate history of ignoring the Hebrew Scriptures as irrelevant. As an example, there was a time that people sometimes referred to the Church of Christ as The Church of Paul because Church of Christ preachers focused almost exclusively on the books between Acts and Revelation, largely ignoring the Hebrew Scriptures and even the Gospels as under the old covenant and therefore no longer relevant. The Church of Christ is far from the only Christian church to fall into this practice, and nearly every Protestant church as well as Catholic (some more so than others) at some point has treated the Hebrew Scriptures as little more than interesting pages of history with little to no relevance concerning spiritual matters.

We must realize that the Hebrew Scriptures are extremely relevant because they are the basis of the New Testament and they are the scriptures Y’shua (Jesus) read and quoted! There are many examples in the New Testament where Y’shua, Paul, and others spoke about the importance of the Hebrew Scriptures. Here is a small sampling (emphases are mine):

1. John 5:39-40, You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

2. Luke 24: 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

3. Luke 24: 44-45 He said to them, This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

4. II Timothy 3: 16-17 All Scripture is G-d-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of G-d may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

5. Acts 17: 2-3 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah, he said.

If you’ve ever been even somewhat perplexed by any of these passages (much less at sea as to what they are referring), I hope studying what I present to you in this book will be enlightening. Now, I’m not going to give some grand, new teaching; quite the opposite actually. I’m merely bringing out what was written there so many centuries ago. Further, you should know that most of the commentaries that I quote in this book are centuries old themselves. For some, these will be new ideas; but I hope those who have studied some of this already will find the material useful as well, and have their minds reinvigorated to study the Torah in all its depth and beauty.

With this understanding, let me encourage all of us to diligently study the Scriptures, not because they give us eternal life but because they reveal to us more about Y’shua (Jesus), who gives us eternal life.

Sh’ma Yisra’el, Ad-nai El-heinu, Ad-nai echad.

Hear, O Israel: The L-RD our G-d, the L-RD is one. Love the L-RD your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)

I encourage all fathers to be the head of the house and take the initiative to follow the Sh’ma. I encourage women to be just as diligent as mothers. Remember that Timothy was taught the scriptures not by his father, but through the diligence of his mother and grandmother. Impress the words of G-d on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Find the time in the busyness of the day to take a moment to speak the scriptures with your family. Study the scriptures and impress them on your children. Teach your children from the scriptures how to deal with life, how to respect other people, how to respect themselves, and how to respect G-d above all else. Be a blessing to your family and to those around you by becoming the person G-d wants you to be. The way to do that is to become more knowledgeable of him and his will through dedicated study of his word. Nothing can be a greater blessing than to hear the words of G-d. Planning is the best way to see that study happen.

The Torah.

In this first volume, I will specifically concentrate on the Torah for two reasons: first and foremost, because of space. There isn’t room to try to squeeze in the Prophets and the Writings as well without making an unabridged dictionary-sized tome. If the L-rd wills it, I hope to complete two more volumes covering those sections of the Tanakh at a later date.

Second, while we might suspect that the prophets, and particularly Isaiah, would be the scriptures Y’shua quoted the most often during his ministry; it is in fact the Torah that he quoted more than any other part of scripture, with Deuteronomy being the single book he quoted more than any other. While most Christian commentators concentrate on passages from the Prophets, it is my opinion that Torah actually is the most important part of the Hebrew Scriptures to study concerning the Messiah. The amount of references to him within these five books is staggering.

It is my sincere hope that this study will open our minds to the many things G-d has to tell us through the Hebrew Scriptures and that all of us will develop a pattern of using the scriptures to help us to better know him and his will - and to help organize our lives to serve him better.

I’m going to be using a lot of reference material that generally is ignored by Christians because of its Jewish nature. I will reference the better known works, the Talmud and the Midrash, the most often, but I will also be referring to other lesser-known rabbinic writings as well.

While it is true that the Talmud is considered on somewhat equal footing with the Tanakh in Orthodox Judaism as far as religious matters are concerned, I do not think that makes it unusable for Christians nor somehow heresy to study it as it has been considered sometimes in years past. Certainly, largely because of Y’shua’s words concerning following the Oral Tradition (the Torah sh’be al peh), we should walk with trepidation and consider what is written in it with a grain of salt; however, I do believe it is useful as commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures just as I find the writings of William Barclay, the Interpreters’ Bible, and so many other Christian commentaries to be useful insights into the New Testament scriptures. I do not consider the words of those men to be infallible scripture either, but I find many of their insights enlightening. I may disagree with some of their opinions, but I respect the scholarship of their thoughts. I feel the same way about the great rabbinic writings. It is not scripture, but it is commentary useful for enlightening parts of the scriptures I otherwise may not have caught. If we approach the Talmud, Midrash, etc. with this understanding instead of trying to decide whether to consider it either anathema or infallible Scripture, I believe G-d can show us many things through it.

In this study, I have separated the Torah into the portions that are used in the Orthodox Jewish reading calendar; however, here and there, I have inserted a few extra sections to deal with characters or concepts that span more than one portion. For instance, before examining the different portions that include the narrative of Yoseph, I have inserted a section outlining his life and the myriad ways he is reflected in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Y’shua. Because of this, I will repeat certain things within the sections on each portion that follow them, simply reiterating the points of the Messianic fulfillments found therein.

I recommend to you, reader, that you should obtain a copy of the Torah reading schedule following the Orthodox Jewish reading calendar. It is an excellent way to make a disciplined schedule of reading the Holy Scriptures. Follow the calendar, and then read the corresponding chapter here. If all goes well, you will begin to notice things not brought out in this book. G-d has an amazing way of revealing things to us through the suggestions of another: Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another – Proverbs 27:17.

If you choose another reading schedule, that is good as well. The important thing is to make a plan and stick to it. Make time to acquaint yourself with the Gospels, with the Torah, with the Prophets, the Writings, and the New Testament letters. You will find new gems you have never noticed when you study the word on a regular basis, often in scriptures you have read a hundred or a thousand times. The L-rd reveals new levels to us as we go through life and we develop a deeper understanding of his words because of our experiences.

Barukh ata Ad-nai eloheinu melekh ha-olam asher bakhar banu mikkol ha’amim venatan lanu et Torato, barukh ata Ad-nai notein haTorah. May the Spirit bless you with his presence as you read the Word, and consider the things written within this book.

Chapter II. B’resheet (Genesis)

Parashah 1: B'resheet(Genesis 1:1 - Genesis 6:8)

Each Shabbat evening (Friday night) Kiddush (the blessing of the wine) begins with the words Yom ha’shishi va-yekhulu hashamayim, which means, On the 6th day completed were the heavens. These four words are taken from the end of the 1st chapter of Genesis and the beginning of the 2nd chapter. The Hebrew words, yom ha’shishi, the sixth day, close the first chapter of Genesis, while the second two words, va-yekhulu hashamayim, completed were the heavens, are the first two words of the second chapter, in which G-d rests from the labor of creation.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi points out that only on Shabbat does the acronym of these four words – YHVH – become joined together to complete the holy name of G-d (Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Jewish with Feeling", The Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Books, NY, 2005, 35). Thus, G-d reveals his complex nature to us in the combined act of creation and rest. The most holy name reserved for him is a combination of those events.

That complex nature is seen throughout the Torah, and it is notable right in the very first verses of B’resheet. Moreover, from the time of creation constant reference is made in Holy Writ to the Messiah and the Messianic hope of Israel. Sometimes we have to know a little more about rabbinic thought to know that, but often it is clearly on the page for all to see. In the very first verse, the name used for G-d is El-him, which is a plural noun in Hebrew. Thus, in the first few words of the Torah, G-d’s complex nature is stated point blank for the reader to begin to comprehend. Let’s contemplate that profound first sentence:

B'reishit barah El-him et ha'shamayim ve'et ha'aretz.

The Torah begins with these seven words, corresponding to the seven days of creation. It is not any coincidence that the first sentence is seven words: it is meant to help the reader remember and respond to the seven days of creation, and that the words contained in it are divine in nature rather than secular. It implies that the Torah itself is a complete revelation, something of which G-d would say' It is good when it was finished being written.

In 1882, a Russian immigrant Ivan Panin converted form atheism to Christianity because he had discovered the mathematics of the scriptures. Panin was a mathmetician, multi-lingual scholar, and had great literary influence on many authors of his day. He discovered mathematical patterns recurring through the books of the Bible, mostly based on prime numbers 7, 11, 13, 17, and 23; 7 being the most prominent. The following are some of his findings:

The Hebrew sentence consists of exactly 7 words, which have exactly 28 (4x7) letters. There are 3 nouns: God, heaven and earth. If we add together the numerical value of each of the letters in these three Hebrew nouns, we get exactly 777 (111x7). The numerical value of the Hebrew word created is 203 (29x7). The first three words contain the subject, with exactly 14 (2x7) letters, and the four remaining words contain the object with also exactly 14 letters. The Hebrew words for heaven and earth have 7 letters each. The value of the first, the two middle and the last letters in the sentence is 133 (19x7). The total value of the first and last letter of every word in the verse is 1,393 (199x7). The value of the first and last letter of the first and last word in this verse is 497 (71x7). The value of the first and last letter of each word in-between is 896 (128x7). In this single verse there are 30 different combinations containing the factor 7. We have only listed 11. The possibility of those combinations all happening by chance is basically impossible. Without a doubt, it was done intentionally. Panin believed it had to have been accomplished by deity, because it would have taken a man at 40-50 years to work out the exact combinations of words needed to do that. Even then, it likely would not have been a coherent sentence had someone done so. That this Hebrew sentence, with its heavy message of who the Creator is and what the Creation is, also is loaded with this hidden code speaks to the immensity of the engineer who put it together. But then, what is one sentence to one who created the entire universe?

English speakers know the translation of those 7 words very well: In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth. The rabbis say if one cannot bring himself to believe this first sentence of the Torah, he may as well close the book, because the rest of the Torah isn't going to make any sense. Man's very existence hangs on these words; they tell us that the world is not an accident, but something that was intentionally designed and that man and all creation were made with a purpose. What that purpose is, along with the character of G-d himself, is a mystery for man to discover; and, indeed, those subjects are largely the concern of the rest of not only the Torah, but most of the books of the Tanakh as well.

The first letter of the Torah is ‘beth'. It is fascinating to note that when the letter beth is put on a page, a person who knows the Hebrew alphabet can see the outline of the letter ‘peh' created since the ‘beth' fits inside the opening made by a ‘peh': Beth: Peh: Beth inserted into Peh opening: Why is this interesting one might ask? Because Deuteronomy 8:3 says the following: He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of YHVH. The letter ‘peh' is also a word in Hebrew. Peh means mouth. So taking Deuteronomy 8:3 and looking at the beth as the first letter of the Torah, rabbis have noted that every word that comes from the mouth of YHVH is the Torah itself since the ‘beth' forms out of the center of the letter ‘peh'.

Y'shua quoted this verse to Satan when he tried to tempt him to turn the stones into bread, which would have fulfilled a superstitious belief among the Jewish people of that day that the Messiah would bring manna from heaven just as Moshe had. Y'shua tells Satan (and his disciples to whom he told the story of his temptation) that he is here to do the will of the Father as it is spelled out in his Torah, not to fulfill human superstitions or human desires that are not from the Father. He is the true Messiah who was with G-d from the beginning, not some pretender who intends to fulfill earthly desires of conquering their neighbors.

Genesis 1: 1-5

1 In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of G-d was hovering over the waters. 3 And G-d said, Let there be light, and there was light. 4 G-d saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 G-d called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

There are two things in this passage I wish to address concerning the Messiah, which will culminate in a single thought:

1. The Spirit of G-d was hovering over the waters. We find in the Midrash that this phrase was understood by rabbinic authorities to mean that the Messiah was present with G-d before the creation began.

The Midrash, Gen. Rabbah 2:

From the time of creation constant reference is made in Holy Writ to Messiah and the Messianic hope of Israel.’The Spirit of G-d moved upon the face of the waters': the Spirit of G-d means Messiah. (also Lev. Rabbah 14.) and the spirit of G-d was floating - this is [a reference to] the spirit of the king, messiah, as you would say (Isaiah 11:2), And the spirit of the L-rd rested upon him."

2. The repeating phrase And G-d said…

a. The spoken word was a powerful thing to ancient Jews. A word set things in motion that could not be undone. It was something living and tangible. There are whole schools of study devoted to the meaning of each word and even each letter of the Torah. A man’s word was completely binding among the ancient Hebrews (so much so they eventually made oral rules as to exactly how binding each oath was depending on what words were used – Y’shua refuted this legalistic practice as recorded in Matthew 5:33-37). Throughout the creation narrative, we read and G-d said and whatever he said was so. The idea of his powerful word occurs again and again throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, sometimes in reference to creation, others in reference to his ability to make anything happen simply through his word:

1) By the word of the L-rd the heavens were made. Psalm 33: 6

2) Then they cried to the L-RD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Psalm 107:19

3) He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.20 Psalm 147: 15

4) As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

5) Is not my word like fire, declares the L-RD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29.

b. The phrase The word of G-d was one of the most commonly used expressions in Israel during the time of Y’shua. This was due to the Targums, translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic, the common tongue. Hebrew was essentially a dead language by the time the Jews returned from Babylon/Persia. The rabbis who understood Hebrew rectified this by creating the Targums, thereby allowing the common people to understand the Scriptures. There are some peculiar translations in the Targum and the liberal use of the phrase the Word of G-d is one them. There were two reasons the translators used the phrase so often throughout their Aramaic translations:

1) They were extremely prejudiced against any phrase that anthropomorphized G-d in any way, largely in reaction to the ideas of the Greeks who had ruled them for so long. The Greeks had fashioned their g-ds into very human forms and the Jewish translators wanted to avoid any of that mindset creeping into the thinking of their Hebrew brethren. Therefore, any time they felt the Hebrew Scriptures used a term for G-d that might be misunderstood to be anthropomorphizing him; they would use the phrase the Word of G-d instead. For example, I Samuel 5:11 reads, So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, Send the ark of the g-d of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people. For death had filled the city with panic; G-d’s hand was very heavy on it. The Targums rendered it like this: For death had filled the city with panic; The Word of G-d was very heavy on it.

2) They also used the phrase to avoid using the names of G-d because they felt it did not show proper reverence to translate the names of G-d from Hebrew into Aramaic, and that doing so might be using his name in vain. Therefore, whenever one of the names of G-d (YHVH, El-him, El, El Shaddai, etc.) appeared in the Hebrew, they used the phrase the word of G-d in its place. Due to this practice and the people’s acquaintance with the Targums, the phrase was one of the most common the Jews of his day heard.

Taking these two ideas into consideration, the beginning of the Gospel of John comes across as a sort of modern language translation for 1st century Jews of the first verses of Genesis, incorporating the traditional rabbinical thoughts so well known to the Jewish people.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G-d, and G-d was the Word (this is how the Greek actually reads). He was with G-d in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. - John 1: 1-5

While some critical scholars look upon John's words as an addition or re-creation of the beginning verses of the Torah, if we apply the rabbinical thought to the first verses of Genesis, we can see that John is simply offering the rendering of those words through that filter. He presents Y'shua as the Messiah who was understood to be present at creation with G-d and who was an integral part of creation. Therefore, he used the Greek word logos (which means word) with specific intention. The people were familiar with its meaning and would understand fully his meaning that the Messiah existed before creation (as was believed already) and that Y’shua was the powerful Word of G-d with whom they were familiar.

Further, logos had deep meaning to both Jews and Greeks. For Jews, word was a powerful thing, particularly the word of G-d; for Greeks, reason (the other meaning of logos) was equally powerful and the notion of Y’shua as the reasoning of G-d clicked in their religious thinking.

Thus, when we read and G-d said, we can understand the full meaning of everything being created through the word G-d spoke. It was through his word that everything was set irrevocably in motion, and Y’shua is that word spoken by G-d.

Genesis 3: 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

From very early times, this passage was understood to be a reference to the Messiah and how he would defeat Shaitan (Satan, the Adversary).

1. When the 70 Jewish scholars made the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures compiled between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC), they translated the phrase as he will crush your head whereas the Hebrew text literally says it will crush your head (meaning the offspring of Eve). Most Jewish and Christian scholars say that the Septuagint scholars translated it this way because they understood this to be a specific reference to the Messiah, and therefore used he instead of it" to make the reference clear to those reading the passage in the Greek.

2. The Jerusalem Targum and the Targum of Jonathan (the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Scriptures) speak of a healing from the bite of the Serpent in the days of King Messiah.

3. The Midrash also identifies this passage with the Messiah. This is that 'SEED' that is coming from another place, and who is this? This is the KING Messiah (The Midrash, Gen. Rabbah 51, commenting on Gen. 19).

4. Paul makes reference to it in Romans 16:20 - The G-d of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our L-rd Jesus be with you.

5. Revelation 12:9-12 makes note of this as well:

The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our G-d, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our G-d day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."

6. The early Christian writer Irenaeus pointed to this as one of the first references to the Messiah in the Scriptures.

Each of these examples point to the final coming of the Messiah in the Day of Judgment when he will recall his own and Satan will be hurled into the lake of fire. The passages from Paul, John, and Irenaeus point to the final destruction of Satan on judgment day as the final fulfillment of the verse.

Often, scholars point to the crucifixion as the fulfillment of this prophesy, and it certainly is a major part of it. John’s verse also brings in the idea that the banishment of Satan from the heavens was another partial fulfillment of the prophesy; and that it was brought about by the cross and by the witness of the Gospel.

The Adversary (Satan) is clearly called that ancient serpent. Make note that the time frame John describes in Revelation states that he was not thrown out of heaven until after Y'shua had been taken up and indeed that they defeated him because of the Lamb's blood and because of the message of their witness. The seed of the woman indeed has crushed the head of the serpent and hurled him out. The passage in Revelation tells us that not only Y'shua himself crushed the head of the serpent, but that those who are his followers also crushed his head by the message of their witness.

I would be remiss not to mention some critical scholars' assertion that this trait of Y'shua is something copied from other religions. One particular picture of Hercules crushing a snake under his foot has led some critical scholars to claim that this fulfillment is borrowed from that Greek legend. However, since linguistic scholars tell us written Greek comes from the Hebrew, it seems obvious that it was the Greeks who borrowed the image out of the Torah from their Jewish neighbors. Even the most liberal scholars date the writing of the Torah at the time of the Babylonian exile, and even that late date precedes the Greeks by hundreds of years. Thus, the promise Y'shua fulfilled pre-dates the Greek copy by quite some time.

Y'shua is indeed the fulfillment of the Messiah seen in the Torah from the very beginning. Praise be to G-d and praise be to Y'shua, our Messiah!

Parashah 2: Genesis 6:9 - 11:32 Noach (Noah)

As the first portion told of the fall of man, the second reading lays out the theme of salvation for man coming from G-d through the Messiah. One might read that ask, How are you coming up with the salvation of man from the story of destruction found in Noah? While certainly it is couched in destruction, the story of Noah actually centers on salvation and uses two of the great salvation themes that run throughout the Tanakh and the New Testament.

The first of these themes is that salvation comes from the word of G-d. To understand that as a major point of this story, we must explore the Hebrew language and the concept of Hebrew numerology, called Gematria, as the rabbis understand it.

First, there is the ark itself. The Hebrew word translated into English as ark is te-vah. Te-vah means ‘box’ or ‘coffin’, but it also is used in Hebrew to mean ‘letter (of the alphabet)’ or ‘word’. Thus, the rabbis contend that Noah and his family are being delivered from the destruction of the flood by the ‘letter of G-d's word’.

Yet there is more still to the image, for the dimensions of the ark, which are designated by G-d, further this picture. G-d tells Noah to build the ark 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits. Those three numbers are highly significant in meaning. In Hebrew, there is not a separate set of symbols for numbers. Instead, each letter in the Hebrew alphabet doubles as a number. The letter la-med is used for the number 30, the letter shin is used for the number 300, and the letter nun is used for the number 50. Rabbis were not long in pointing out that when these three letters are put together, they make the Hebrew word lashon, which means speech, language, or tongue. Thus, both literally and figuratively, the ‘letter’ or ‘word’ of G-d, whose dimensions are the ‘tongue’, ‘speech’, and ‘language’ of G-d, deliver Noah and his family from the destruction of the flood.

This theme, like the first letter of the Torah as discussed previously, echoes in Deuteronomy 8:3, which reads, He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of YHVH.

As mentioned in the first portion, this is the phrase Y'shua quoted when Satan tempted him to follow the earthly picture of the Messiah. This theme recurs again in Exodus 2: 2-10 wherein Moshe is placed in a basket among the reeds of the Nile. The basket used by mother is called a te-vah, the same word used for Noah's Ark. Thus, we see Moshe saved by the letter or word of G-d from the murderous decree of Pharaoh.

Is anyone seeing Y’shua present in the flood story yet?

Y'shua is the fulfillment of this theme of salvation. The words of John’s Gospel echo forth from the Ark just as they did in the first portion: "The Word