God bless you in the exalted name of Jesus Christ, the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15).
God called every believer to be His son. He gave His Word so that we could know what is going on around us. Otherwise, without His Word, man would be completely lost. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead so we could live a more than abundant life today and look forward to eternal life in His presence. God will never send another savior. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.”
Jesus hasn’t left us alone either. He is a most vital part of our lives through holy spirit. Never make the mistake that Jesus is still a man like each and every one of us. Yes, he started out that way. He was born of Mary. He learned obedience by the things he endured, but now he has been changed. He has been transformed by the power of God and is head of all principality and power. He is super human and we will be like him one day when we see him face to face (I John 3:2). There is a change a comin’! What a joy that will be. Jesus is our forerunner (Hebrews 6:20). He went there first and will usher us in, in the fullness of time.
Before we close this series, I’d like to share one more hidden insight from God’s Word. I love to find hidden gems in the Bible. Hidden in the very first verse of the Bible is this wonderful truth we are looking at in this series. You are aware by now that alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Well, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet are aleph and tau.
There is an untranslated word in Genesis 1:1. It is comprised of two letters aleph and tau. It’s important to note that this aleph-tau combination is used as a grammatical element to indicate a direct object. Most grammarians consider what I am about to share with skepticism thinking these two occurrences are coincidental or contrived. However, I think God hides things like this in His word to bless those who are willing to think and search out a matter (Proverbs 25:2).
Those of you who took the Esther teaching series should remember the hidden names of God around which the Book of Esther revolves. God does indeed hide truths for those who want to search out the matter. I believe we find another one in Genesis 1:1.
The Greeks had many prepositions, but the Hebrews had few. Hebrew prepositions in the Old Testament had various meanings and functions which had to be inferred from the context. (When aleph-tau is used to indicate a direct object, it is usually accompanied by a maqqeph, a kind of “connector dash,” which bonds two words together into a single unit.).
According to my Bible works program aleph-tau occurs over 7300 times in the Old Testament. It occurs 668 times in Genesis, which is more than any other book of the Bible. Of those 668 occurrences, only 50 times does it stand alone as an untranslated word, not attached as a prefix connected by a maqqeth.
In the KJV the phrase “the heavens and the earth,” “the heaven and the earth” and “heaven and earth” occur 31 times and Genesis 1:1 is the only one where alpha-tau before the phrase stands alone and is not attached with a maqqeth.
We find the same idea as the Greek alpha and omega, the Hebrew aleph and tau, used of both God and Jesus in the Old Testament.
Here’s the interlinear Hebrew of Genesis 1:1: [https://biblehub.com/
Look at what God had hidden in this untranslated word. In the beginning God, the aleph and tau, created the heavens and the earth. This God who created the heavens and the earth was the aleph and tau, the one and only.
Let’s look at another verse Zechariah 12:10
Zechariah 12:10:
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son. . . .”
Of who do you think this is speaking prophetically? Who was pierced? Who was an only son for whom people mourned? This is speaking prophetically of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We find the same untranslated word in Zechariah 12:10. This passage speaks prophetically of the Messiah of Israel as the “One Whom They Have Pierced,” an allusion to the crucified Messiah. Here’s how in looks in the Hebrew Interlinear. [https://biblehub.com/interlinear/zechariah/12-10.htm] Remember, the Hebrew reads from right to left.
Notice that there is the same untranslated word between the “me” and the “whom.” It is simply two letters, the aleph and the tau, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The aleph can signify the first in a list or rank; the tau, the last, or completing, element in a list or rank. I’d like to suggest a more revealing translation: “…and they shall look upon me, the Aleph and the Tau, whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son. . . .”
You might say it’s contrived. I’d say it’s hidden. It’s hidden by God just like the acrostics of the names of God in the Book of Esther. This gem illuminates the unique and unequaled majesty of God and His only son Jesus and discloses the unity of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Aleph and the Tau, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the one and only God and His one and only begotten son, Jesus.