Who God is
115. Bible Prophecy
The Name of Jesus
Revealed in the Old Testament
This article was taken from the web site of
Grant Jeffrey’s, and is subject to the copyrights therein. “The Signature of
God” by Grant R. Jeffrey, Frontier Research Publications, Inc., July 1996,
Toronto, Ontario.
“Yeshua Is My Name”
In my latest book (author Grant Jeffreys, “The
Signature of God”) I reported on one of the most astonishing and important
biblical discoveries in history. God has hidden the name Yeshua – which is the Hebrew form of the name
Jesus in numerous passages throughout the Old Testament. Especially within the great Messianic
prophetic passages the Lord has hidden at equally spaced intervals in the
Hebrew text the incredible message that “Yeshua is My Name.” This is one of the
most astonishing and tremendous biblical discoveries in the last two thousand
years.
The phenomenon of Hebrew
codes hidden within the text of the Torah gives us one of the strongest
possible proofs that the Bible was truly inspired by God. My friend Yacov
Rambsel, a Jewish Messianic pastor in San Antonio, Texas, made a series of
extraordinary discoveries through a detailed analysis of the Hebrew Scriptures
by individually counting the equally spaced intervals between the letters. Incredibly,
Yacov found the original Hebrew name of Jesus, Yeshua – , encoded
in the very first verse Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth.” Starting with the
fifth letter, yod, in the first word in the Bible, B'raisheet “In the beginning”, the name of Jesus – Yeshua – , is
spelled out by counting forward every 521st letter. The letters spell out the
words “Yeshua Yakhol” which translates as “Jesus is able.”
Ten years ago Israeli
scientists at Hebrew University discovered an incredible phenomenon of Hebrew
Codes in the authorized Masoretic Text of the Old Testament. They asked their
computer program to analyze every possible combination of letters within the
Hebrew text of the Bible. They discovered that meaningful words such as Hitler,
Holocaust and Eichmann were spelled out in the text of Deuteronomy 10:17-22 at
an interval of every 22 letters. They call the phenomenon “Equidistant Letter
Sequences” and have written numerous scholarly articles about their discoveries
in mathematical and academic journals worldwide. In other words, when the
computer found the first letter of the word Hitler, the letter heh, it skipped forward
every 22 letters and found the letters of the Hebrew word Hitler spelled out in the text. However, they also found in the same
passage these words: Eichmann, King of the Nazis, Berlin, Germany, Holocaust,
Crematoria, Fuehrer and the death camp Auschwitz. These discoveries and
hundreds of others are detailed in my book “The Signature of God”. The presence of these complex coded
words in the Hebrew text of the Bible written thousands of years ago is one of
the strongest hard science proofs we could ever hope for proving beyond
question that a supernatural intelligence inspired the writers of the Scriptures.
These discoveries are causing many agnostics to reconsider their position
against the supernatural origin of the Bible. However, the greatest discovery
for a Christian is that God has encoded the name of Yeshua – Jesus repeatedly
throughout the Old Testament.
One of the most
astonishing features is that virtually every one of the clearly Messianic
passages of the Old Testament contains the name Yeshua – Jesus – encoded within
the text at intervals such as every 2nd letter or every 20th letter, etc. As an
example, Yacov found the name Yeshua embedded in the text of Isaiah 53:10 that
prophesied about the atoning sacrifice that Christ made for our sins on the
cross two thousand years ago. “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath
put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall
see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:10).
Beginning with the second Hebrew letter yod in the Hebrew phrase
“He shall prolong,” “ya'arik Kyray,” Yacov counted forward every 20th letter
and discovered the phrase “Yeshua – Shmi” which means “Yeshua [Jesus] is My
Name” encoded in this verse about the suffering Messiah who died to atone for
our sins. Mathematicians
calculated the probability that this astonishing combination of letters
spelling “Yeshua [Jesus] is My Name” would occur by random chance in Isaiah is
only one chance in 50 quadrillion, an inconceivable number!
Genesis declared that
the Lord provided “coats of skin” for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness
after they sinned: “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the
mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make
coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:20-21). God killed the first
animal as a sin sacrifice to provide their covering. This prophetic sign
pointed to the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God to cover our sins. However, beginning with the last Hebrew
letter heh in Genesis 3:20 and counting forward
every ninth letter we find the word “Yoshiah” meaning “He will save.” The word “Yoshiah” is a Hebrew
variation of the name Yeshua (Jesus).
The angel told the virgin Mary that “thou shalt call his name Jesus: for
he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Genesis 3:20-21
revealed another code showing the name Yeshua hidden in this passage. Beginning
with the letter ayin in the phrase “coats of skin” and counting forward every
seventh letter spells out another form of the word Yeshua, which is spelt without
using the letter vav.
A well known Messianic
prophecy describes the exact price of Christ’s betrayal, namely 30 pieces of
silver. The prophet Zechariah gave this prediction five hundred years before
the birth of Jesus: “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price;
and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver”
(Zechariah 11:12). Who is the one who is being betrayed? In the phrase “My
price” se'kari beginning with the letter yod when we count forward
every 24th letter we find the word Yeshua. The Lord obviously inspired the writers of the Old Testament
to choose specific Hebrew words and precise spelling to create this phenomenon.
The Book of Leviticus
reveals an astonishing hidden coded message about the blood of Jesus Christ
being shed for our sins. In this passage Moses gave God’s detailed instructions
regarding the rules of the holy priesthood and the sacrifices for the sins of
the chosen people. “And he that is
the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was
poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his
head, nor rend his clothes; Neither shall he go into any dead body, nor defile
himself for his father, or for his mother; Neither shall he go out of the
sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing
oil of his God is upon him: I Am the Lord” (Leviticus 21:10-12). Beginning with
the first heh in Leviticus 21:10 and counting forward
every third letter, it spelled out the phrase hain dam Yeshua, which means “Behold!
The blood of Yeshua.” It is awesome to realize that God has secretly encoded
these profound messages regarding His Son Jesus in these significant passages
throughout the Old Testament.
One of the most startling
of the Messianic codes was found within Psalm 41:7-10 which predicted the
betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot: “All My haters whisper together against
Me; they plot evil against Me; saying, A thing of ruin is poured out on Him;
and He Who lies down shall not rise again. Even My own familiar friend, in whom
I trusted, who did eat of My bread, has lifted up his heel against Me. But
Thou, O Lord, be merciful unto Me, and raise Me up, that I may repay them”
(Psalm 41:7-10). Verse 8 contained the phrase “they plot evil,” yach' shvu
rah'ah.
However, beginning with the letter yod, when we count forward every second
letter we find the word – Yeshua.
The Book of Ruth
contains a wonderful love story that reveals the ancestry of King David and
Jesus of Nazareth. It is fascinating to note that the name Yeshua is encoded in the very first verse, Ruth
1:1. Counting every fifth letter from right to left from the letter spells out the name of
Yeshua . The
prophet Isaiah announced centuries before the birth of Christ that He would
come as the great liberator to mankind. This prophecy of the Great Jubilee at
the end of this age reminded Israel that their Messiah would finally cancel all
their debts and proclaim liberty to all of those who were captives to sin. “The
Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because The Lord has anointed Me to preach the
Good News to the meek. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and complete opening to the bound ones; to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to
comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2). Starting with the yod in the phrase, “The
Spirit of the Lord God,” “Ruach Adonai Yehovah,” counting nine letters from
left to right spells Yeshua.
Of the many incredible discoveries made
by Yacov Rambsel, one of my favorites concerns Daniel’s great prophecy of the
Seventy Weeks found in Daniel 9:25-27. Verse 26 reads: “And after threescore
and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of
the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the
end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are
determined” (Daniel 9:26).
Students of the Bible are familiar with the controversy over the last
century about the correct identity of the “Messiah the Prince” referred to in
the passage. Those who deny that the prophecy teaches about Jesus Christ’s
first coming have usually claimed that “Messiah the Prince” was Hezekiah or
some other individual. However, the name Yeshua – is encoded within Daniel 9:26 starting
with the letter yod in the phrase “the city,” v'ha'iry, by counting left to
right every 26th letter.
The significance of
Yacov Rambsel’s discovery is overwhelming. When added to the awesome research
in Israel on the hidden codes of the Torah we can see the sovereign hand of God
bringing about an incredible proclamation of His inspiration of the Word of
God. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world, mostly Jews, have heard
about these secret Torah codes. These people, who have reaffirmed their belief
in God’s inspiration of the Old Testament because of this phenomenon, will now
learn that God has secretly encoded the actual name of His Son, the Messiah,
Yeshua, within these Messianic texts.
This revelation of God’s
matchless wisdom and inspiration of the Scriptures in this decade as we
approach the new millennium reminds me of the angel’s prophecy to Daniel: “But
you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end;
many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase…” (Daniel 12:4). The
discovery of these astonishing codes revealing the name of God’s Son Yeshua –, hidden
within the text of the Bible for over three thousand years, is part of the
fulfillment of this prophecy. Our knowledge of the Bible and its prophecies is
increasing at a phenomenal rate in these exciting last days as we approach the
time of the Messiah’s return to set up His kingdom.
Over the course of my
research on The Signature of God, Yacov Rambsel and I have had many
conversations about the tremendous significance of his discovery of the Yeshua
codes. There is much more exciting material in Yacov’s book than I could cover
in this chapter. As a result of
these discussions, our ministry will be publishing Yacov’s fascinating book
“Yeshua – The Name of Jesus Hidden in the Old
Testament.” If any reader is interested in studying this phenomenon and
documentation in greater detail, they can order the book from any Christian
bookstore or directly from our ministry, Frontier Research Publications, Inc.
As Yacov wrote in his book, “Without a doubt, the Messiah’s Name is Yeshua – , but in
English, His Name is Jesus.”
This
article was copied from the Internet Web page of Grant Jeffreys, author of “The
Signature of God.” It is not to be
used for resale or the enhancement for the sale of any product.