From the book of Genesis through the Old Testament God reveals His relationship with us through the names He ascribes to Himself. He is Jehovah, the creator and sustainer of our existence. He is Jehovah-M’Kaddesh, the creator and sustainer of our existence who sacrifices for our cleansing. Jehovah-jireh, the creator and sustainer of our existence who provides all our needs. Jehovah-shalom, our creator and sustainer who gives us His shalom, His peace and rest. Jehovah-rophe, the creator and sustainer of our existence who heals us. He is Jehovah-nissi, the creator and sustainer of our existence who places His banner over us, declares us His. He is El-Shaddai, Adonai, Elohim, the only God Almighty who is the totally sufficient One, Lord and King of kings, God All Powerful. The very name of Jesus is synonymous with these names.
God was all these things before our understanding of His nature, is all these things, and will forever always be these things and more. And so God in His revelation to John revealed a new name not expressed before that time.
“’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘the One who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.'” (Revelation 1:8 HCSB)
It is common to forget that Jesus Christ was born Jewish and He spoke and read Hebrew. While it isn’t known what language Jesus spoke when giving John the Revelation, verse eight would be understood as follows when read in Hebrew, “I am the Aleph and the Tav”, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The significance of this phrase in the Hebrew becomes apparent when considering the Hebrew alphabet in proto Hebrew, the first character set of ancient Hebrew. Proto Hebrew used pictographs to form words. The first letter, Aleph, was a picture of an ox. When God gave Moses the rites for cleansing and purification God established that cleansing from the contamination of death would come through the sprinkling of the ashes from a sacrificed red heifer, a red ox, without blemish. In the time of the first temple period the unblemished ox was taken to the Mount of Olives where it was sacrificed and burned. The ashes were then taken back to the Temple. Any person contaminated by touching a dead person or anything associated with a dead person had to be sprinkled with a mixture of living water and the ashes of the red heifer to be cleansed. God is Jehovah-M’Kaddesh.
The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Tav. The pictograph for Tav in proto Hebrew is a cross. Jesus said, “I am the Aleph and the Tav.” In this succinct phrase Jesus sums up the collective work of His sacrifice for our redemption. He is the “Aleph and the Tav”, our Jehovah-M’Kaddesh. He is the “first and the last”, our El-Shaddai. He is “the beginning and the end”, our Jehovah.
John writes of the time Jesus spoke of His equality with God the Father; John 5:18-47. To those who were educated in the Hebrew scriptures Jesus said,
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40 ESV Bold added for emphasis).
Not only the words but the very letters that form the words speak of Jesus. How marvelous is the Word of God.
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May God bless you in your study of His word.