Just Beneath the Surface

By M. Shay Holmes

As the biggest jigsaw puzzle of our lives, the Scripture can seem intimidating, sometimes confounding and certainly never ending. We want to find where all of the pieces fit, and we want to see the entire big picture as well and the small details. But we can study and read the Bible for our entire lives and miss out on the golden nuggets that God has placed there to bless us with, hidden within the depths of the Bible. If we dig into the meat, into the depth of God's Word beneath the top layer, it will become so apparent that only the Lord could write with such perfect inerrancy, such perfect symmetry, and such perfect consistency, and we will wonder how anyone could doubt the Word of God as being written by divine inspiration!

Join us as we delve into the depths of the Scripture, discover Christ all over the Old Testament, come to an understanding of the balance and consistency between the Old and New Testament and delve into new heights and depths of the Bible.

Join us as we study God's Word and find incredible meaning Just Beneath the Surface!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685704902

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Just Beneath the Surface

M. Shay Holmes

ISBN 978-1-68570-489-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68570-490-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by M. Shay Holmes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Similitudes in Genesis

Nephilim

Patriarchs

Tabernacle

Feasts

Ruth

Prophetic Math

The Silent Years

Christendom in Parables

Christendom in Revelation

Conclusion

About the Author

Iwould like to extend a special thanks to my husband, Dean. His knowledge of history and the Bible, as well as his passion to continuously study and learn more, has made him a great source of information and a great encourager. His research and wisdom have been invaluable. Also, to my kids, who are the original reason I began to write the book, so that they might have some of their dad's research in print, as well as my own.

Chapter 1

Introduction

The continuity of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is one of the profound confirmations that the Scriptures are the inerrant and inspired Word of God. The division between the Old and New Testaments is best understood not as two separate readings or that the New Testament is newer and more modern and, therefore, relevant Word but rather as a difference in focus while continuing an intricate saga. The Bible is like a huge jigsaw puzzle, and we begin our Christian walk a little overwhelmed by so many loose and apparently unconnected pieces. But just like working our puzzle—if we are willing to continue to sort colors, shapes, and sizes and continue to connect our puzzle, one piece at a time—eventually, we'll begin to see a picture. Gradually, over time, it becomes easier to find the pieces and becomes more apparent where they go.

The New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament. God fulfills his Word in the New Testament; he does not do away with it. I have heard many Christians say that they don't read the Old Testament because the New Testament is the more important Word. Well, brother, if you refuse to work on any of the blue pieces of your puzzle, you will still make some slow progress on parts of the picture, but you'll never get anywhere close to seeing the whole picture. The Old and New Testaments work together to create a complete image of Christ. And yes, Christ and the message of grace are all over the Old Testament. The Old and New Testaments also work together in an intricate and intentional manner that reveals the sovereignty of God and his constant intervention and caring in the lives of mankind.

The apparent contradictions found between the two parts of the Bible, when studied in more depth, turn out to be a divine balance. The focus of the Old Testament is God's judgment and his need for justice. This is an important facet of God. After all, the understanding of the Law is what points us to the need for Christ. If we don't understand God's standard, how can we know if we are capable of upholding it? And if we could uphold the stringent standards of God, we wouldn't need Christ. Throughout the Old Testament, we see the Law, the rules, the harsh punishments and a theme of vengeance. This is indicative of God's standard and his justice. God hates sin, and it must be punished. His sense of fairness can allow for no less than his absolute justice. Though the focus of the Old Testament is justice, it is heavily intertwined with the story of God's mercy and grace. All you have to do is look beneath the surface.

The core of the New Testament is God's grace and mercy—another important aspect of His personality. His justice, however, and his standards remain unchanged. Through God's mercy and grace, he sent his Son to pay the penalty for our sin so that his sense of justice would be satisfied—a son who met God's standard. What a fabulous demonstration of the perfect balance and perfect mercy. God says there must be a punishment to create perfect justice then offers himself to receive the punishment in a show of perfect mercy. We cannot separate God into different compartments based on man's definitions nor can we separate the Old and New Testaments. God is not only grace and love, and He is not only vengeance and justice. For without his need for justice, there would be no need for his mercy and grace. Without his mercy and grace, it's not possible to meet the standard he requires, and his sense of justice would require him to destroy us.

The connections between the Old Testament and the New weave together like a beautiful and colorful tapestry that shines with the glory of God. The colors are vibrant, explosive, and available for all to see. All we have to do is look beneath the surface. A primary example of this intricate connectedness is the genealogies of the Bible. When we study this in more depth, however, we see that nothing is in the Scriptures without purpose.

Within the Jewish culture, the names of their children had meanings. This was important to the Jews, for they were often prophetic of their children's lives or related to events that occurred at their birth. Often, we think that because God gave man free will, he doesn't interfere in our lives; he simply has foreknowledge of our future decisions. We don't recognize the purpose of the Bible. It is not just a history of the Jewish people or a book of interesting stories. It's God's Word, written for us, with the specific purpose of pointing us toward Christ. Old and New Testaments alike point directly to Christ. The events of people's lives are orchestrated for that purpose. God wanted them, and us, and all of those in between to see His hand at work. We see this in the names of Noah's genealogy. It starts with Adam, whose name means man. Adam begot Seth whose name means appointed. Of course, Adam named his son appointed because he was appointed as a replacement for Abel after Cain killed him. God, however, had another plan in mind. Seth begot Enos, meaning mortal. Enos begot Cainan, aka sorrow. The next in line was Mahalalel, meaning the blessed God. Mahalalel begot Jared whose name means shall come down and then there was Enoch, which means teaching. His son was Methuselah whose life was a sign of God's grace. His name means his death shall bring, and sure enough, his death brought the flood. God extended Methuselah's life longer than anyone's, 969 years, thus giving the people in Noah's day the longest opportunity possible in which to repent. Methuselah begot Lamech, meaning despairing, who then begot Noah, which means rest.

If we take their names in order, Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, and then we substitute the meanings for their names, we get a profound prophecy of Christ all the way back in Genesis chapter 5: Man appointed mortal sorrow. The blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring the despairing rest. Here, we have the fall of man and Christ's birth and death leading to our salvation—all written thousands of years before our Lord and all in the names of men. Though these men had free will in naming their sons, God was creating a model of his coming Son.

Another great example of the hidden meanings within the genealogies of the Scripture is the genealogy of our Lord. We have four gospels telling us of the life of Christ. The genealogies appear to contradict one another, but in actuality, when we search beneath the surface of the Scriptures, we find a fabulous balance and complete consistency. But we must use the Old Testament to understand why this apparent inconsistency exists.

First, in the book of Matthew, we see Christ's genealogy through Joseph, the husband of Mary. Matthew was a Jew and presents Jesus as a king and from the perspective of a Jewish man. He begins with Abraham, the beginning of the Jews, goes through David and then Solomon and continues on through Jechoniah and, eventually, Matthew 1:16 says, And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. This genealogy grants Christ the legal right to the throne. The kingship is inherited through the man. Jesus is not a blood relative of Joseph, of course, but is a legal son.

The book of Mark has no genealogy, but he presents Christ as a servant, and the Jews did not keep pedigrees on their servants, so a lack of a genealogy is consistent.

The apparent contradiction of genealogies is between the book of Matthew and the book of Luke. Luke presents Christ as a man. Luke is a gentile and a doctor and takes the genealogy of Christ through the literal bloodline. Being a gentile, he doesn't take it from Abraham but rather all the way back to Adam. If you follow Christ's genealogy in the book of Luke, it continues through to David, and then instead of Solomon, it goes through Nathan, another son of David. It names the father of Joseph as Heli. The genealogy works its way backward and actually starts with Jesus and ends with Adam, so Luke 3:23 says, And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as it was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli. What? I thought that Joseph was the son of Jacob, according to Matthew. This appears to contradict, and if I believe the Bible to be without error, they can't both be true, can they?

It just so happens that they are both indeed true. You will notice that in Luke, it says, As it was supposed. You see, Heli wasn't the father of Joseph, he was the father-in-law. Luke is giving the genealogy of Jesus through his bloodline, through Mary. Women are rarely mentioned in genealogies, and Jesus did inherit the right to the kingdom and the land that Heli had through Mary because she had no brothers. For a full understanding of what is happening here, we have to go back to Numbers chapters 26 and 27. In Numbers 26:33, we are introduced briefly to a man named Zelophehad. It is said that Zelophehad had only daughters and no sons. Later in chapter 27:1–11, we see the daughters of Zelophehad approach Moses with a petition. They complain to Moses that their father has died in the wilderness but has no sons to inherit. If he had no one to inherit his land, then his name simply disappeared into their history. The daughters petitioned Moses for a solution. Moses went to the Lord, and the Lord told Moses to allow daughters to inherit in the event that the father had no sons. So what would happen is that the daughters would marry and then inherit in their husbands name, with the husband as was supposed the son of the wife's father. Well, thousands of years later, this has huge implications. Jesus was not the blood relative of Joseph, but he was the blood relative of Mary. The genealogy of Jesus in the book of Luke is actually the genealogy of Mary. Mary's father had no sons, only daughters. So like Zelophehad's daughters, Mary inherited her father's inheritance through the name of her husband, and Jesus, therefore, inherited the right to the throne, not only through the legal line of Joseph but also through the bloodline of his mother. He would not have inherited this right if his mother had brothers because they would have inherited it instead. In addition to that, had Mary not married within her own tribe, then according to Numbers 36, she couldn't then inherit in her tribe. But this wasn't a problem for Christ because Joseph was of the same tribe—the tribe of Judah.

There is one other important thing to point out regarding the importance of Christ's inheritance through Mary. This line allows Christ to avoid the curse of Jechoniah. God cursed Jechoniah, the Old Testament version of his name is Coniah, in Jeremiah 22:28–30. He cursed him and stated that, No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah. Satan must have celebrated when God put this curse upon the descendant of Solomon—the ruling line and the supposed line that the Messiah would come from. This man was the ancestor of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and is named in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. Satan must have thought that he had finally tainted the line of the Messiah and thwarted God's ultimate plan. But, alas, when Jesus sits on the throne of David as the ruling king, he will not be under this curse because he is not of the seed of Jechoniah. He is no blood relative to Joseph and, therefore, no blood relative to Jechoniah. Satan's plans never come to fruition the way he intends, praise God!

The last genealogy is the one in the book of John. While Matthew presents Christ as king, Mark presents him as servant, and Luke presents him as man, but John presents him as God. All of these are true. So what is the genealogy of God? It is the genealogy of time past from an eternity past. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made (John 1:1–3). And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). John does have a genealogy of our Lord, but as you can see, it is the story of his eternal status: Jesus presented as God. He is man, servant, king, and God. He is also the Word, and God would not, therefore, allow mere mortal men to corrupt his Word! It is inspired, inerrant, and complete.

Do you want a relationship with Christ? Do you want to know him more fully? Understand him better? Grow closer to him and he to you? Then study the Word because Christ is the Word. You cannot know him and not know the Word. He wants you to know him, that's why he gave us the Word!

In the process of studying both halves of our Bible together, the question may arise, How do we know the Bible is complete? A careful look at the messages in both Genesis and Revelation will show finality in this work of art and tie the beginning to the end.

Again, the Old and New Testaments are unified in their message and consistent in the telling. The Bible is not a history of a people, though it does contain an incredible amount of history. It is the story of Christ and his relationship, throughout time, with man. Revelation completes this story