Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Have you ever wondered what God was doing before He created the world? We'll talk about it today, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive 1st-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Today, we turn our attention to an interesting question: What was God doing before He created this world?

According to our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick, there are at least seven things God was doing before Genesis 1:1. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. And now, with today's installment, here is Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you, and welcome listening friend to another edition of the program. It's good to have you with us as we continue this series of studies on what God was doing before Genesis 1:1. And when we ran out of time on the last program, we were discussing the fact that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all active and interacting with each other long before the creation in Genesis 1:1.

Now, the last time we discussed the Trinity here on the radio, I had a letter from an Orthodox Jewish man who said I was all wrong when I used Genesis 1:26 as an example of self-communication and interaction among the persons of the Godhead. He said the plural pronouns in Genesis 1:26, where Elohim said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," he said that meant that God was talking to the angels.

Of course, the problem with that is that the Bible nowhere attributes creation to the angels. And of all the people on the earth, the Jewish people should know that better than anyone else. God shares His glory with no one. One of the central tenets of Judaism is the concept of Shabbat. And what does Shabbat commemorate? God accomplishing His work of creation in six days.

It wasn't the work of God with a little help from the angels, but the work of God and God alone. We'll talk more about angels a little later in this study, but for now, do you know what angels do? Two things: Number one, they are messengers, and number two, they are ministers. That's what they do. Creative activity simply is not part of their job description, my friend. No, God wasn't talking to the angels in Genesis 1:26; He was talking to Himself.

You say, "Well, if you can show me another instance of self-communication within the Trinity, then maybe I'll believe it." All right, let's turn over to the 110th Psalm. Do you remember Itzak, the Hasidic Jewish man who came to faith in Yeshua HaMashiach several years ago? A very touching story. Itzak was a very zealous Orthodox Jew, and not just Orthodox, but Lubavitch. They're sort of like the Jewish fundamentalists, the defenders of the faith. They wear the traditional black hats with curls down the sides, very sincere and very devout.

So one day, Itzak happened to be flipping across the radio dial and he heard the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee talking about the 110th Psalm. And Dr. McGee said that this was God the Father talking to God the Son. It says, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.'" Well, that irritated Itzak to no end. He had always been taught that the Trinity was a Christian concoction, and here this radio preacher had the nerve to use the Jewish scriptures to demonstrate his point.

So Itzak turned off the radio, pulled his Tanakh, his Hebrew Bible, down from the shelf and started reading the 110th Psalm. He read it over and over again in both Hebrew and English. And he said the more he read it, the more it sounded like the preacher on the radio was right. So let's look at it. Psalm 110:1. This is a prophetic Psalm written by King David. He's overhearing a conversation in heaven between two persons of the Trinity: the Father and the Messiah.

He uses two different Hebrew words: the word Yahweh to designate God the Father and the word Adonai to designate the Messiah. Here's what David says: "The Lord said to my Lord," that is, Yahweh said to my Adonai, "Sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool." Now, if you're an Orthodox Jew, you're going to have a problem with that because the rabbis teach that the Messiah is a mortal man who's born into this world just like any other man.

That's why many Jewish people think of Christianity as idolatrous because they know we believe Jesus is God in the flesh. And in Judaism, idolatry is the most serious sin of all. But here's what it says. First, it says, "The Lord said to my Lord." He said, past tense. At the time King David was writing these words, the conversation had already taken place. He didn't say, "The Lord shall say," but "The Lord said."

Actually, in the Hebrew, it's a passive participle. The Lord was saying to my Lord. And here's what He was saying. He was saying, "Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Now, when will that take place? When will Messiah vanquish His enemies? Well, Jews and Christians both agree that that happens when Messiah comes to institute the Messianic kingdom or the Messianic era.

So 3,000 years ago, David said he heard the Lord say to the Messiah, "One of these days, I'm going to make you victorious over your enemies. But in the meantime, I want you to take the position of honor at the right hand of the throne of glory." Remember, we said that's one of the things the Talmud says existed before the world was created: Kisse ha-Kavod or the throne of glory. That's the seat of God's power.

You see, this teaches the pre-existence of the Messiah. You see, not just the name of the Messiah like the Talmud says, but the Messiah Himself existed in heaven from before the foundations of the world. Not only that, but did you know the Hebrew word Adonai is reserved only for God? The normal form of the word is adone, which means sir or master and refers to human beings.

The intensive form of adone is Adonai and refers to deity. Moses never used Adonai to refer to anyone but God. David never used Adonai to refer to anyone but God. Isaiah never used Adonai to refer to anyone but God. All of the Old Testament writers used it to refer to God. In ancient Judaism, Adonai was one of the names the rabbis would substitute for Yahweh because they didn't want to pronounce it. Like in the Shema, Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.

So here, King David hears the Lord calling the Messiah what? Adonai, God. Now skip down to verse 4 of the 110th Psalm and see what else Yahweh told the Messiah. "The Lord hath sworn and will not repent: thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," He says. Do you remember who Melchizedek was? He's that mysterious King of Salem, King of Shalom, who just appears out of nowhere in Genesis 14 and receives tithes from Abraham.

Now, in what sense is the Messiah a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek? Here's the answer. It's in the New Testament book of Hebrews chapter 7, beginning in verse 1. It says, "For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which means King of Peace."

Now watch what he says in verse 3. This is how Melchizedek typifies the Messiah. It says Melchizedek was, "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." In fact, it's very possible that Melchizedek was, in fact, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Messiah Himself.

The name Melchizedek in Hebrew is Melech Tzedek, literally King of Righteousness. And Melech is one of the Hebrew titles of the Messiah. He is Melech Moshiach or King Messiah. And in the book of Genesis, this King of Righteousness appears out of nowhere. He's instantly recognized by Abraham as his superior and then he disappears just as quickly and mysteriously as he appeared.

So what do you have here in the 110th Psalm? You have the Lord speaking to the Messiah in heaven before the Messiah was ever born here on this earth. Now, some of the rabbinic commentaries beg the question by saying it wasn't really the Messiah Himself that existed in heaven, but the Messianic principle or the name of the Messiah. But how do you carry on a conversation with a principle or a name?

How do you make promises to a principle or a name? And how do you enthrone a principle or a name at God's right hand? You see, the only way this makes sense is if it's the Messiah Himself. The Messiah is Melech Tzedek, the King of Righteousness. He is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. You see, there are two orders of priests in the Bible. First, there is the order of Melchizedek, and second, there is the order of Levi.

The order of Melchizedek springs from the tribe of Judah, but the order of Levi springs from the tribe of Levi. The order of Melchizedek has no beginning and no ending, but the order of Levi sprang from the loins of Abraham and ended in A.D. 70 or shortly thereafter. The order of Melchizedek speaks of immortality with one priest who continues forever in the priesthood.

But the order of Levi included literally hundreds of priests, generation after generation, who lived and died. And that's why the Messiah is a priest, not after the order of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek. Not from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah. In fact, He's the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, the stem of Jesse, the bright and morning star.

He's called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. And even before the foundations of the world, He was seated at the right hand of the throne of glory. So the 110th Psalm speaks in the most unmistakable terms about the deity and pre-existence of the Messiah long before Genesis 1:1.

And before the worlds were created, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were interacting and communicating among themselves. Did you know they even loved each other? The Lord Jesus, when He was here, spoke often of His love for the Father and the Father's love for him. Well, on the next program, we'll start with the second thing God did before Genesis 1:1. I'll see you then. Take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. It's always good to have you with us, whether you're listening from home, at work, or in your car. 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.

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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. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on "Seven Things God Was Doing Before Genesis 1:1" right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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