Couple Cool Things

I have been reading quite a bit lately, and want to share some of the things that were revealed to me. I gorged myself and purchase a few books on Amazon, and I do not regret it, because they have been some of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. One such book was called Messianic Christology by Arnold Fruchtenbaum and deals with prophetic words in the Old Testament dealing with the first and second coming of Christ. I thought these were so gnarly and cool. Bear with me, as this might take long to describe and explain.

The scripture I am about to examine are the relation between Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 4:1. Lets start with Genesis 3:15, in which God is speaking with the serpent, which states (NIV): "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

This is the first instance of prophecy for Jesus. The serpent he is talking to is obviously Satan, and this statement is saying he will have hostility with the woman's offspring. Now an interesting aspect about this verse is that it mentions the offspring of a woman. Among all genealogy in the old testament, the woman is rarely mentioned, so why would she be mentioned here? This verse is referring to the virgin birth of Christ, and the offspring that is referred to is Jesus.

This causes the verse to make more sense, because Jesus crushed Satan when he was crucified, while Satan merely "struck" his heal.

Lets move on to Genesis 4:1, which in the Hebrew language, LITERALLY states "And the man knew Eve his wife, she conceived and bare Cain and said 'I have gotten a man: Jehovah.'" This same sentence construction is used when proclaiming the birth of Abel in the next verse: "Again she bare his brother: Abel." Notice the colon, followed by the declaration. 4:1 is usually translated in English to "I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah." No I could break down the different translations, but I will spare you and say that most of the Aramaic translations correspond to a divinity with Cain. Eve understood that what God was saying in Genesis 3:15 was referring to God coming to earth as a man. And according to the literal Hebrew translation, she thought that Cain was Jehovah. With the birth of Abel, she understood that she was incorrect in her assumption, and named her second child Abel, or "Vanity".

I thought this was very interesting, and it makes sense to me. If anyone sees any biblical flaw in this logic, then please respond, I do not wish to be uncorrected.

The second of the two cool things I found out by listening to Ravi Zacarias. He was speaking on the account of when Jacob was wrestling with God. It is located in Genesis 32:22. A man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak, "Then the man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' The man asked him 'What is your name?'"

Why did God ask Jacob his name? God wanted to know where his heart was. Years ago, he deceived his father Isaac and pretended to be Esau. This time around, his heart was in the right place and he responded with "My name is Jacob."