Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Are you one of those people who thinks the genealogies in the Bible are boring? Well, you may change your mind after you hear today's edition of Messianic Perspectives. This is Messianic Perspectives, where we look into the scriptures from a distinctly Messianic point of view.

Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick is leading our Bible study with "The 10 Gentile Patriarchs who Lived Before the Flood." If you have your Bible handy, we invite you to turn to Genesis chapter five and join in. I'll be back at the close of the program with news about a special offer. And now, with today's message, here's Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you, and welcome, listening friend, to another edition of our program. We're talking about the significance of Bible names, and we said God often used a person's name to reveal aspects of his background, character, or destiny. And in the case of the genealogy in Genesis chapter five, God used the names of these 10 Gentile patriarchs to reveal, in a most amazing way, his wonderful plan of salvation.

And what we're going to find as we continue working our way through this remarkable chapter is that God revealed in capsule form, through the names of those first 10 patriarchs, his plan of redemption thousands of years before Messiah Jesus was ever born. And when we finished up last time, we were looking at the seventh of those Gentile patriarchs in Genesis chapter five, a man named Enoch, son of Jared.

And we said that Enoch represented one of the three groups of people who lived in the days of Noah before the flood. First, we said there was one man, Enoch, who was translated or raptured before the judgment of the flood came. Second, there was a family of eight: Noah, his wife, three sons, and their wives, a family of eight who passed safely through the flood. And finally, there was a third group, a great company who perished in the flood.

Just fix those three words in your mind: before, through, and in. Enoch raptured before, Noah's family passing through, and the rest perishing in the flood. In the days of Noah before the flood, all of humanity fell into one of those three categories. Now, remember the words of Jesus Christ, who when talking about his return to this earth, said, "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:37 and Luke 17:26, "And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man."

What was he saying? He was drawing a parallel between conditions on Earth before the flood and conditions on Earth prior to his second coming. And so, just as there were three categories of people on the earth before the flood, there will also be three categories of people on the earth prior to his second coming. And isn't it interesting to note that today, in this dispensation, there are likewise only three categories of people in the world?

Just as God judged the world in the days of Noah, he will judge the unbelieving world in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. The Bible tells us this age will end in a time of trouble, distress, and tribulation such as the world has never seen. Here's what Jesus said in Matthew 24 beginning in verse 21: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened."

What this indicates is that this present age will close with a time of peril and war and destruction and carnage so great that without divine intervention, all biological life on planet Earth would perish. You and I, listening friend, live in the first generation in the history of the world where a literal fulfillment of this prophecy is possible. Never before in the history of the world has humanity possessed weapons of mass destruction so powerful, so potent, that they can actually wipe out all life on planet Earth.

And of this awful day of end-time judgment, the flood of Noah was a type or a foreshadowing. And as in the days before the flood, there were these three categories of people, so it is today. Let me read you what the Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 10 verse 32. He says, "Give none offense, neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor in the church of God." Notice the three categories of people mentioned in this verse: Jews, Gentiles, and the church.

Every single human being living on Earth today falls into one of these three categories. You're either a Jew or a Gentile or a Messianic believer, a Christian, part of the Messianic community. Or what the New Testament calls the ecclesia, the Greek word for church. The ecclesia consists of the called-out ones, both Jews and Gentiles who have become believers in the Messiah. We are Messianic believers: Messianic Jews, Messianic Gentiles, united together in the body of Christ.

So, those are the three categories: Jews, Gentiles, and Messianic believers or Christians. A Jew is a natural descendant of father Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons who were called, with their descendants, Israelites or children of Israel. These descendants of Jacob are represented today by the Jewish people, by direct descent from father Jacob or Yaakov.

Then, secondly, there are the Gentiles, which includes everyone who is not a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The first 10 patriarchs of the human race listed here in Genesis chapter five are all Gentiles. Even Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was a Gentile. So by your natural birth, you are either a Jew or a Gentile.

But there's a third group called the Church of God, or literally in the Greek, the ecclesia of God. The word ecclesia means called-out ones. These are Jews and Gentiles who have been called out of the world to become a new entity known as the Messianic community or the body of Christ. Now, with these three groups in mind—Jews, Gentiles, and Messianic believers—think again of Jesus's words in Luke 17:26.

He said, "And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man." As in the days before the flood, there was a company caught out before the flood came, Enoch. Another company who passed through the judgment of the flood, Noah and his family. And a third company who perished in the flood, the unbelieving multitude. So it is again in these last days before the coming judgment of the tribulation.

Now, watch this. The three categories today are first of all the church, or the Messianic community, which will be caught out before judgment falls, like Enoch was in the days before the flood. Then, secondly, there is Israel, the Jewish nation, which will go through the time of tribulation like Noah did and come out safely on the other side. And thirdly, there is the rest of unrepentant humanity which, like the multitudes in Noah's day, will perish in the sweeping tide of God's judgment at the end of the tribulation period.

Now let me tell you something very exciting that I believe we're seeing in our generation. There are three categories: Jew, Gentile, and the church. But once the church is removed in the rapture, the Bible shows us that God begins dealing with his people Israel once again. And at that point, there are two subgroups under the Jewish category. First, there are believing Jews—that is, Jewish people who believe in Yeshua the Messiah. And second, there are unbelieving Jews who do not believe in Jesus the Messiah.

And it's intriguing to think about who these believing Jews will be. They're not part of the church. They're not members of the Messianic community in the New Testament sense of that term. They're Jewish believers in Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah, but they're not part of the church. You say, how do you know that? Well, it's very simple. When you look at Revelation chapter seven, you find an enumeration of Jewish servants of God who are sealed in their foreheads during the tribulation.

And it lists them: 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, 144,000 in all. These are Jewish believers who are in the tribulation, and God uses them to proclaim the gospel of the coming kingdom throughout the world. Remember in Matthew 24 where Jesus said this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come? This is what he was talking about: the ministry of these 144,000 Jewish servants of God during the tribulation period.

And their ministry of evangelism will be so effective during the tribulation, so many people will come to faith in Jesus Christ, they won't even be able to count them all. Revelation chapter seven verse nine: "After this, I beheld and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands."

So here in the tribulation, this multitude of the redeemed recognizes Jesus, the Lamb of God, as the Messiah of Israel. And those 144,000 Jewish evangelists are used of the Lord during the time of Jacob's trouble to proclaim the gospel of the coming kingdom to the four corners of the earth. These are Jewish believers who are not connected with the church. They're not members of the body of Christ in the New Testament sense. They are Jews. They're even identifiable by tribe: Judah, Reuben, Asher, Naphtali, and so on, just like in the Old Testament.

Is it possible that some of these Jews are already alive today? Quite possible, maybe even probable. When we travel in Israel, we're finding this phenomenon more and more: Jewish people who believe in Jesus but they go to synagogue, not church. They don't even consider themselves "Christians." At least not in the popular sense of that word. They are Jews, Torah-observant Jews, who live as Jews and talk as Jews and believe in Jesus.

In fact, the only Jew in modern times to take the ancient Nazirite vow is a Messianic Jew who lives in Israel. He's a believer in Yeshua. These are Jewish believers in Jesus who apparently will not be taken in the rapture. They will stay behind and begin forming the nucleus of what God will be doing among his people Israel during the tribulation. You say, well, does that mean that all Jewish believers will be left behind? Not at all. Those who are part of the body of Christ will be taken, but others who are identified primarily with Judaism apparently will not be taken.

Well, that's all of our time for today. Pretty heavy stuff, huh? We'll get back to Enoch on the next program. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in to Messianic Perspectives. It was good to have you with us today, and if you're one of our newer listeners, we hope you'll make our program a part of your daily routine. If you found today's program especially helpful and insightful, you'll be glad to know that we have placed the entire series of programs on one compact disc.

The title is simply "What's in a Name?" and it's available for your gift this week of just $6. Or if you prefer to have it in printed form, you can order the pamphlet. The pamphlet includes a helpful chart with the Hebrew names of the 10 Gentile patriarchs. It shows how those names together form a remarkable acrostic that may be the first mention of the plan of salvation in your entire Bible.

Again, the title of the pamphlet is "What's in a Name?" and it's available for your contribution of any amount to help us keep this program on your radio station. Just visit our online store at messianicspecialties.com. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, P.O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292.

To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. This is Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you? As Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series on "What's in a Name?" right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the free-will contributions of our listeners in this area.