One
portion of the first part of the redemption plan was to save the dead who
believed in the coming Messiah. As we
looked at last week, they were imprisoned until Jesus could save them. Since that part of the plan has been
fulfilled, today humans do not have to go through the same process at death
that the believers did before Jesus died. Jesus enabled a new way for humans to
live and die so that people are not enslaved to the devil at their death. Then,
because he overcame the grave, Jesus actually gave humanity a choice as to
eternal life, or eternal death, avoiding the captivity of the devil if one
chooses. Adam lost the ability to live in Paradise because he was subject to
the control of the devil and could have been lost forever. Unfortunately, all
humanity was sentenced to the devil’s control. If you can think back to the
days before you were saved, you might remember life as confusing, frustrating,
hopeless, dark, dreary, and generally speaking, a nightmare. While life with
the Holy Spirit living inside does not promise there won’t be challenging
times, it is not confusing, frustrating, hopeless, dark or dreary. The Holy
Spirit makes us centered, grounded, hopeful, and generally positive, because
the Holy Spirit is a small token of our inheritance. Before Jesus died on the
cross, people did not have the internal reality of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus
stormed the gates of hell, he sent the Holy Spirit to humanity. Yet the Holy
Spirit doesn’t blanket everyone, only those who believe on Jesus. While Adam
lost the connection he had to the Holy Spirit, Jesus gained it back for
us.
The
way Jesus gained back our right to choose life or death was to take on all the
transgressions of the world, from Adam up to this present day. Anyone who now
believes in Jesus has their sins, the rebellious things that separate us from
God, erased. Jesus being sinless was able to take back the keys to hell and
death, as legally satan could have no hold on Jesus. While this seems simple to
believers, non-believers in Jesus Christ have a hard time understanding that
they are owned by satan. One reason for this is the Holy Spirit does not live
inside of them, and the devil has blinded their minds. There may be another
reason people have a poor understanding of Jesus as Messiah, which Moses very
clearly pointed out numerous times, but this knowledge has been misunderstood
and disregarded. We will look at that shortly; but first Jesus came to earth
with a plan, he told people they could have eternal life and that the dead would
hear his voice.
John
5:24-25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.25 Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God: and they that hear shall live.KJV
The
righteous dead heard his voice and left the devil’s control to join Jesus in
Paradise. As we studied the tree of life last week, Jesus gives the overcomer
to eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God. This then gives people
eternal life. Paul takes almost the entire book of Romans to explain this and
explain how following the law is unnecessary. In his letter to the Romans, Paul
takes a few chapters and speaks to the Jews and Gentiles regarding the law and
sin. Paul points out Adam’s offence which caused death to reign.
Rom
5:17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life
by one, Jesus Christ.) KJV
He
goes on.
Rom
6:3-6 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into his death?4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.KJV
While
baptism is a symbolic gesture of our death to the old man, Paul mentions we are
no longer a slave to serve sin. That is all there is for the unsaved, all they
can do is serve sin. Sometimes we have a hard time understanding why people
reject Jesus; it’s hard for someone enslaved to sin to see any better way to
live. Religion seems like just another heavy burden. Yet Jesus gives people
freedom.
Rom
6:22-23 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have
your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.23 For the wages of sin
is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. KJV
If
one is a slave, it doesn’t sound very exciting to become a servant. What the
unsaved don’t realize is it is not a burden, but a joy to become a servant of
God. That is because we are no longer under the law of sin and death.
Rom
8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.2 For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.KJV
So
why does it seem that people are reluctant to choose life over death? Have we
missed something that could have pointed to Jesus even more than what we
understood previously?
When
Moses received the Torah, he received it letter by letter. It had to be that precise in order for equidistant
lettering to be so accurate. Really, that is an astonishing subject of which I
am an amateur, but it is certainly worth some study. However God put an
intentional marker throughout the Old Testament, one that we really can’t miss,
but one that has been misunderstood. Hebrew writing has gone through three
different styles of print before the block style which came about during
Babylonian captivity. If we remember, by 300 BC the Septuagint was being penned
as many Jews lost their Hebraic language. Daniel wrote in both Hebrew and
Aramaic. Here is a link to look at the Hebrew alphabet and its transformations.
Moses
wrote in Paleo Hebrew, influenced by hieroglyphs from surrounding cultures,
that is what the style of writing was at that time. Therefore when God gave
Moses each letter, he wrote what he was told to write. By the time we get to
the Greek Septuagint we have the elimination of a particular word marker as it
was assumed it was unnecessary. However if we go back to reading scriptures in
the Hebrew, we find this marker or signal, over 11,000 times. One can hardly
miss it and would have to work very hard to try. This word marker is used (to
my best calculation) 11,058 times in the Old Testament, and of that number, it
is used 4,197 times in the Torah alone, slightly more than one third. What is
this marker? It is seen in our language as ‘et, it is the Aleph and the Tav; the
beginning and the end, the first and the last. In Greek it is known as the
Alpha and Omega. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Tav is
the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. They were written in word pictures in
the Paleo Hebrew and later became letters. This ‘et (Strongs # 853) is in Modern
Hebrew language as a marker for the object of a verb or preposition. In other
words, it is considered today to be a marker to link the verb to the object of
the verb, or the preposition to the object of the preposition. But that is the
modern spin of ‘et, the deeper understanding of ‘et is more profound.
As
Moses would have written it, it would have looked like a bull’s head and a
cross. The meaning of that would have been a man who is strong like an ox, and
a cross as a sign. Another way it could be looked at is a strong man on a
cross. Around the second century BC, the Jews, discounting the Septuagint, were
trying to discount Jesus as the Christ from the Old Testament scriptures. After
all, the religious leaders had Jesus murdered. Someone probably thought
discounting Jesus as Messiah by changing the meaning of scriptures was a good
idea.
In the Early Christian Church, the presumption that the Septuagint was translated by Jews
before the era of Christ, and that the Septuagint at certain places gives
itself more to a christological interpretation than 2nd-century Hebrew texts was taken
as evidence that "Jews" had changed the Hebrew text in a way that
made them less christological. For example, Irenaeus concerning
Isaiah 7:14: The Septuagint clearly writes of a virgin (Greek παρθένος) that shall conceive.[34] While the Hebrew text was, according to
Irenaeus, at that time interpreted by Theodotion and Aquila (both proselytes of the Jewish faith) as a young woman that shall conceive. According to
Irenaeus, the Ebionites used this to claim that Joseph was the (biological)
father of Jesus. From Irenaeus' point of view that was pure heresy, facilitated
by (late) anti-Christian alterations of the scripture in Hebrew, as evident by
the older, pre-Christian, Septuagint.[35]
If we look at ‘et in
a sentence, identify the verb or the preposition and the object of the verb/preposition,
we then have to ask ourselves if this changes the meaning of the sentence. Let’s
look at one sentence David wrote.
Ps 103:12
|
12
|
qj)r+K!
As far as 7368 kirµœq |
jr`z=m!
the east 4217 mizr¹µ |
is 9999 |
br`u&M^m!
from the west, 4628 mimma±r¹» |
so 9999 |
|
qyj!r+h! far hath he removed 7368 hirµîq |
WNM#m!
from us. 4480 mimmennû |
Áta#
853 °e¾- |
.Wnyu@v*P=
our transgressions 6588 p®š¹±ênû. |
(Interlinear Transliterated Bible (TR Edition). Copyright © 2011
by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved. [For more detail see the full copyright
page.])
What we see here is that the word “is” and the word “so” are added
(#9999); there are no Hebrew letters above the English. These were added, and
in a KJV Bible, added words are usually denoted by being written in italics. Here,
we have it reading “As far as east from west, far hath he removed from us ‘et
transgressions.” We read it as
“transgressions from us”. What if we read it this way, “As far as east from
west, far hath he removed our transgressions (Alpha Omega) from us”. It tells us who removed our transgressions. Is
this a coincidence? No, it’s a marker. Sometimes translators use an ‘et as the English
word and, it, or something else, but technically it is az or Aleph and Tav.
Let’s look at the definitions of ‘et and transgressions.
OT:853 ta@ 'eth (ayth);
apparent contracted from OT:226 in the demonstrative sense of entity;
properly self, (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a
verb or preposition, even or namely):KJV - [as such unrepresented in
English].(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with
Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc.
and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
OT:226 toa 'owth (oth); probably from OT:225 (in the sense of appearing); a
signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy,
evidence, etc.: KJV - mark, miracle, (en-) sign, token.(Biblesoft's New
Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew
Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International
Bible Translators, Inc.)
OT:6588 pesha`
(peh'-shah); from OT:6586; a revolt (national, moral or religious): KJV -
rebellion, sin, transgression, trespass.(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's
Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright ©
1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
OT:6586
pasha` (paw-shah'); a primitive root [identical with OT:6585 through the idea
of expansion]; to break away (from just authority), i.e. trespass, apostatize,
quarrel: KJV - offend, rebel, revolt, transgress (-ion, -or).(Biblesoft's New
Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew
Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible
Translators, Inc.)
The Aleph and Tav is
a grammatical marker, but it is also telling us to look for a strong man on a
cross, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Let’s look at another
verse where Jesus, the Aleph and Tav, shows up.
Isa 53:6
|
6
|
WnL*K%
All 3605 K¥ll¹nû |
/aX)K^
like sheep 6629 kaƒƒœ°n |
Wnyu!T*
we have gone astray; 8582 t¹±înû |
vya!
every one 376 °îš |
|
oKr+d~l= to his own way; 1870 l®¼arkô |
Wnyn]P*
we have turned 6437 p¹nînû |
hw`hyw~
and the Lord 3068 Wayhwâ |
u^yG!p=h!
hath laid 6293 hi¸ggîa± |
oB
on him 871a bô |
|
ta@ 853 °¢¾ |
/w{u&
the iniquity of 5771 ±¦wœn |
.WnL*K%
us all. 3605 k¥ll¹nû. |
(Interlinear Transliterated Bible (TR Edition). Copyright © 2011
by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved. [For more detail see the full copyright
page.])
Is
it a coincidence that Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, or the Aleph and Tav, had all
our iniquity laid on him and He is marked here in this verse? I again would say
that the Paleo Hebrew idea of a strong man on a cross, is another accurate
rendering. Let’s look at some of the definitions here that further explain what
Jesus accomplished.
OT:6293
paga` —to encounter, to meet, to reach, to entreat, to make intercession a) (Qal)
1) to meet, to light upon, to join
2) to meet (used of kindness) 3)
to encounter, to fall upon (used of hostility)
4) to encounter, to entreat (used of a request) 5) to strike, to touch (used of
boundary) b) (Hiphil) 1) to cause to light upon 2) to cause to entreat 3) to make entreaty, to interpose 4) to make attack 5) to reach the mark (from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon
and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible
Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation
Research.)International Bible Translators, Inc.)
OT:5771`avon
(aw-vone'); or `avown (2 Kings 7:9; Ps 51:5 [OT:7]) (aw-vone'); from OT:5753;
perversity, i.e. (moral) evil: KJV - fault, iniquity, mischeif, punishment (of
iniquity), sin. (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance
with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft,
Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
OT:5753 `avah (aw-vaw'); a primitive root; to
crook, literally or figuratively (as follows): KJV - do amiss, bow down, make
crooked, commit iniquity, pervert, (do) perverse (-ly), trouble, turn, do wickedly, do wrong.(Biblesoft's New
Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew
Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International
Bible Translators, Inc.)
Jehovah interfered between man and spiritual laws by sending the
Alpha and Omega to take on all the moral perversity of mankind. It was
announced that the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Aleph and
Tav would have our perversities and evil behaviors put on Him. It is a marker,
Jesus had our iniquity laid on Him.
For perspective let’s see what Isaiah says about his vision.
Isa 6:1
|
6:1
|
Átn~v=B!
In the year 8141 bišna¾- |
tom
that died 4194 mô¾ |
El#M#h^
king 4428 hammele½ |
WhY`Z!u%
Uzziah 5818 ±U¡zziyy¹hû |
ha#r+a#w`
I saw also 7200 w¹°er°eh |
|
Áta# 853 °e¾- |
yn`d)a&
the Lord 136 °A_¼œn¹y |
bv@y{
sitting 3427 yœš¢» |
Álu^
upon 5921 ±al- |
aS@K!
a throne, 3678 kiss¢° |
<r`
high 7311 r¹m |
aC*n]w+
and lifted up, 5375 w®ni´´¹° |
|
wyl*Wvw+ and his train 7757 w®šûl¹yw |
<ya!l@m=
filled 4390 m®l¢°îm |
Áta#
853 °e¾- |
.lk*yh@h^
the temple. 1964 hahê½¹l. |
(Interlinear Transliterated Bible (TR Edition). Copyright © 2011
by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved. [For more detail see the full copyright
page.])
Isaiah saw the Alpha and Omega, the Lord Addonai, sitting on a
throne, high and lifted up, and the train filled, Alpha and Omega, the temple.
It’s a marker, “Look at the Aleph and Tav, look at him seated on the throne”;
he hadn’t come to earth yet and Isaiah saw him high and lifted up. Yet he is
the one who took our sins upon himself, the one seated on a throne looking
glorious. It makes one wonder how lowly humans could be so valuable to Jesus
that in order to rescue us he had to be beaten on a cross. Disfigured beyond
looking human, Jesus endured the pain for us, to rescue the entire world. David
had a huge heart’s desire to be in the presence of the strong man on the cross,
the Alpha and Omega.
Ps 27:2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon
me to eat up [Aleph Tav] my flesh, they stumbled and fell.KJV
Ps 27:4 One thing have I desired of [Aleph Tav] the Lord, that
[Aleph Tav] will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his
temple.KJV
Ps 27:8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee,
[Aleph Tav] Thy face, Lord, will I seek.KJV
David was looking at the Aleph and Tav, or in Paleo Hebrew the
strong man on the cross. David prophesied the very words Jesus would say.
Ps 31:5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me
[Aleph Tav], O Lord God of truth.KJV
Jesus spoke these words on the cross, the strong man on the cross;
spoke what David wrote as recorded in Luke 23:46.Steven also spoke the same
words. While we cannot look at all 4,000 plus verses Moses wrote, let’s look at
two verses where he used Aleph Tav five times.
Gen 1:16-17 And God made two great lights; the greater light to
rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, KJV
Gen 1:16
|
16
|
cu^Y~w~
And made 6213 Wayya±a´ |
<yh!ýa$
God 430 °E_lœhîm |
Áta#
853 °e¾- |
yn}v=
two 8147 š®nê |
tr)a)M=h^
lights; 3974 ham°œrœ¾ |
<yl!d)G=h^
great 1419 hag¼œlîm |
|
Áta# 853 °e¾- |
roaM*h^
light 3974 hamm¹°ôr |
ld)G*h^
the greater 1419 hagg¹¼œl |
tl#v#m=m#l=
to rule 4475 l®memšele¾ |
<oYh^
the day, 3117 hayyôm |
Áta#w+
and 853 w®°e¾- |
|
roaM*h^ light 3974 hamm¹°ôr |
/f)Q*h^
the lesser 6996 haqq¹‰œn |
tl#v#m=m#l=
to rule 4475 l®memšele¾ |
hl*y+L^h^
the night: 3915 hallaylâ |
ta@w+
also. 853 w®°¢¾ |
he made 9999 |
|
.<yb!k*oKh^ the stars 3556 hakkô½¹»îm. |
|
17
|
/T@Y]w~
And set 5414 Wayyitt¢n |
<t*a)
them 853 °œ¾¹m |
<yh!ýa$
God 430 °E_lœhîm |
u^yq!r+B!
in the firmament of 7549 birqîa± |
|
<y]m*V*h^ the heaven 8064 hašš¹m¹yim |
rya!h*l=
to give light 215 l®h¹°îr |
Álu^
upon 5921 ±al- |
.Jr\a*h*
the earth, 776 h¹°¹reƒ. |
(Interlinear Transliterated Bible (TR Edition). Copyright © 2011
by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved. [For more detail see the full copyright
page.])
Aleph Tav is used five times in these two verses. Let’s read it
this way.
Elohim, Aleph Tav, made two lights, great, Aleph Tav, light the
greater to rule the day, Aleph Tav, light the lesser to rule the night, Aleph
Tav, stars set, Aleph Tav, Elohim in the firmament of heaven to give light upon
the earth.
We have to ask, was Moses simply making a picture of a bull’s head
and a cross five times here as this was part of the grammatical rules of Paleo
Hebrew, or was Moses marking or signaling the one who will be strong on a
cross, called the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega? It would be silly to
think that in hieroglyphic style that there are grammatical markers for verbs
and prepositions. People of that era never heard of a verb or preposition.
Moses was given each letter/symbol one at a time. Therefore, to think Moses was
a grammar king (at a time when there
was no punctuation, paragraphs, or capitalization) again is ridiculous. Moses
used this ‘et more than any other Old Testament writer. In the new heaven and
earth Jesus is the light.
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the
moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof.KJV
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light
of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life.KJV
Did Moses make a mistake? Did Moses know that the Alpha and Omega,
the Aleph and Tav, would come to earth declaring He is the light of the world?
If Moses simply wrote what God wanted him to, it would seem God wanted people
to know there was someone known as the Aleph Tav, the beginning and the end, or
the first and the last, coming, and this was the symbol God used to announce it
to the people. This is why, once Jesus died, people understood he was the Aleph
Tav. They could search the scriptures to see that the things prophesied of the
Aleph Tav matched Jesus as Messiah.
For comparison, Daniel has a section where he uses this marker
several times. Since he wrote this, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as holy
men of God spake moved by the Holy Spirit, it would seem that it was quite
intentional to add these markers.
Dan 10:1-14 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was
revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was
true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, [Alehp Tav]
and had understanding of the vision…. 5 Then I lifted up [Aleph Tav] mine eyes,
and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded
with fine gold of Uphaz:6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the
appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his
feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the
voice of a multitude.7 And I Daniel alone saw [Aleph Tav] the vision: for the
men that were with me saw not [Aleph Tav] the vision; but a great quaking fell
upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.8 Therefore I was left alone,
and saw this great [Aleph Tav] vision, and there remained no strength in me:
for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.9
Yet heard I [Aleph Tav] the voice of his words: and when I heard [Aleph Tav] the
voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward
the ground.10 And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and
upon the palms of my hands.11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly
beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for
unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word [Aleph Tav] unto me,
I stood trembling.12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first
day that thou didst set [Aleph Tav] thine heart to understand, and to chasten
thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.13
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but,
lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there
with the kings of Persia.14 Now I am come to make thee understand [Aleph Tav] what
shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many
days.KJV
If this marker was placed by the Holy Spirit in over 11,000
places, we must wonder why this has been so “unseen”. Throughout Old Testament
times they were to look for the Aleph and Tav, The Beginning and End, The
First and Last. They knew when he came he would take away sins and set captives,
held by satan, free. Jesus came and accomplished this but some still didn’t
believe. They didn’t believe what Jesus said, and John wrote.
Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:
and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches
which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto
Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.KJV
Rev 1:17-19 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he
laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the
last:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for
evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.19 Write the things
which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be
hereafter; KJV
Rev 2:8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These
things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; KJV
Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last.KJV
Who is the one Isaiah prophesied of?
Isa 44:6 Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah] the King of Israel, and his
redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me
there is no God [Elohim].KJV
Today, there are some who would say that Jesus was not the
Messiah, he was not Jehovah, the first and last, the beginning and the end, the
Aleph and Tav, the strong man on the cross, or the Alpha and Omega. Truly though they have to work very hard to
keep denying it. With over 4,000 uses in
the Torah, over 11,000 usages throughout the Old Testament, one has to accept
Jesus as Messiah, the one the Old Testament says is a sign or evidence. Jesus
came to earth with a plan as we saw in Luke. He was on a mission setting
captives free. Now we have the choice to either live under bondage to the
devil, or live in freedom
2 Cor 3:17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). [Isa 61:1,2.] AMP
Jesus declares himself as the Alpha and Omega, but if this were
just an announcement with no proof, it would be a hollow declaration. Yet we
know from history and scripture that Jesus came to earth, taught, and was
crucified. We know graves opened, we know people came out of the graves and
told what had just happened. We know the veil of the temple was torn from top
to bottom, Jesus showed himself to many disciples for forty days by many
infallible proofs (Acts 1:3), and we know that since the day of Pentecost the
Holy Spirit fills humans who make Jesus Lord. Those things are not disputable,
therefore it truly must be as Paul said that blindness is due, in part, until
the fullness of the Gentiles come in to saving faith (Romans 11:25).
1 Peter 2:24-25 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on
the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose
stripes ye were healed.25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now
returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.KJV
Rev 1:5-8 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and
the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto
him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,6 And hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for
ever and ever. Amen.7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see
him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him. Even so, Amen.8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty.KJV
The choice all humans are given is to live for Christ, or live for
self. Considering Jesus gives us eternal life, and self simply gives us short
gratification but is never satisfied, we should consider changing our
citizenship to becoming citizens in the Kingdom of God. In so much as the Aleph
and Tav is marked throughout the Old Testament, and declared by Jesus as being
Himself, we now have a fuller, richer understanding of the prophecies of our
Messiah.
