7 SUPERNATURAL SONS
The Bible teaches that mankind began
when God created Adam's body out of the dust of the earth. Then
God breathed into the lifeless form, and Adam came to life. God's
Spirit imparted life.
The Hebrew word for breath is ruakh, which is also translated
as wind or spirit. Genesis 1:2 says, "Now the earth was unformed
and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the
Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters." B'reshit
Rabbah (2:4), the ancient rabbinic commentary on Genesis, says,
"AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD HOVERED: this alludes to the spirit
of Messiah, as you read, And the spirit of the Lord shall rest
upon him (Isa. 11:2)." God's life-giving Spirit will be upon
Messiah.
God created Eve out of Adam. He supernaturally caused them, and
thereby all people, to exist. He gave them life by His Spirit.
How did He do that? We are not told.
He made their physical nature such that they could come together
and produce children. The biological story of procreation is well
known. It is not, however, sufficient to only explain how a new
life is formed from the combination of male sperm with a female
egg. Why does that form a new life? Because God designed man and
woman that way and made it possible. It is an amazing miracle,
nonetheless so just because it has happened billions of times.
Throughout the Bible, there are also cases where God supernaturally
implants life in the womb of a woman who is not physically able
to conceive and give birth. How does He do that? How does He cause
life to come into existence over and above the "normal"
physical way which He designed? By His Spirit.
In Tanakh, we are told that God caused six different Jewish boys
to be miraculously conceived when their mothers were not physically
able to conceive. Then there is a seventh Jewish boy whose story
is more miraculous than all the others. In fact, his story is
told in the lives of the other six.
This is one of the most fascinating stories in the Bible. It is
not a story that is told, as most are, with one line following
another from start to finish. It is one that only God could tell.
It is woven in and out of the Bible through thousands of years
of human history.
For us, the story begins with the birth of Isaac. "Then the
Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah
as He had promised, so Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham
in his old age at the appointed time of which God had spoken to
him. And Abraham called the name of the son who was born to him,
whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son,
Isaac, when he was eight days old as God had commanded him."
(Gen.21:1-4)
Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
"And Sarah said, 'God has made laughter for me. Everyone
who hears will laugh with me.' And she said to Abraham, 'Who would
have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have
born him a son in his old age.' " (Gen.21:16-17) Sarah said,
"Who would have said that Sarah would nurse children."
Who would have believed it?
It was very hard to believe. Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah
was past the age of childbearing. We read that it had ceased to
be with Sarah any longer after the manner of women. (Gen.18:16-11)
She was past menopause. Physically she was not able to conceive
children.
The biological facts are simple. A human child is formed from
the combination of the male sperm and the female egg. After menopause,
a woman's body no longer contains any eggs. Conception is then
no longer possible. How did God enable Sarah to conceive when
it was not physically possible? The Bible does not tell us how
God did it. It only tells us that He did do it.
In B'reshit Rabbah, Rabbi Judah, son of Rabbi Simon, said, "He,
God, in His glory made her conceive. Hence, 'and the Lord remembered
Sarah.'" (Gen. Rab. 53:6) God supernaturally touched her
and caused her to conceive. Her son, Isaac, is the first of the
six supernaturally conceived Jewish boys.
The second was Jacob. "And Isaac entreated the Lord for his
wife, because she was barren. And the Lord let Himself be entreated
of him, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived." (Gen.25:21) Rabbi
Joseph Hertz, in his notes in the Chumash, commented, "She
was barren, like Sarah before her and Rachel after her. This sterility
may have been intended to emphasize that the children who were
eventually born were a gift of the grace of God, the fulfillment
of His purpose."1
God had a purpose which He was going to fulfill, regardless of
the physical circumstances. No matter how physically impossible
conception was, God was not limited by the physical. He is, after
all, the God who created the physical world. He is a supernatural
God, a God of the miraculous. It is only because God is able to
cause supernatural conception that Isaac and Jacob, and therefore
all Israel, came into existence.
Next we read about Joseph, the third of these Jewish sons. His
mother, Rachel, "saw that she bore Jacob no children, and
she envied her sister and said unto Jacob, 'Give me children,
or else I die.' And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel,
and he said, 'Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you
the fruit of the womb?' " (Gen.30:1-2)
Rachel was not able to bear children. She was frustrated. She
was angry at her husband, but there was nothing that he could
do about it. Jacob knew that there was only One who could help.
"And God remembered Rachel, and God harkened to her and opened
her womb, and she conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has
taken away my reproach.' And she called his name Joseph..."
(Gen.30:22-24) God had touched her and enabled her to conceive.
The next boy in the Bible to be supernaturally conceived was Samson.
"There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites
whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and had borne no
children. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and
said to her, 'Behold, now you are barren and have borne no children,
but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.' " (Jud.13:2-3)
Like Sarah, Rachel, and Rebecca before her, she was barren. She
had borne no children, and was not able to conceive. But God sent
an angel to tell her, "You shall bear a son." God had
a purpose to fulfill. And so a barren woman conceived and gave
birth to Samson.
The fifth in this series of sons in Israel who were miraculously
conceived was Samuel. Elkanah loved his wife Hannah, but the Lord
had closed her womb. "And she made a vow and said, 'O Lord
of Hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant
and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, and will give
Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the
days of his life, and the razor shall never come on his head."
(1Sam.1:11) God harkened unto her prayer, and she conceived and
bore a son. She named him Samuel God hears.
The sixth son that we read about in the Bible who was miraculously
conceived is the son of a Shunamite woman. This was a woman who
was gracious to the prophet Elisha. She saw him passing by every
so often, and she wanted to prepare a place for him. With her
husband, she prepared a room for the prophet where he could be
at home, rest, eat, pray, whatever he had to do.
In response to her hospitality, Elisha wanted to do something
wonderful for her. He asked her if there was something he might
do for her, but she replied, "No." However, Elisha's
servant told him that the woman was childless. So Elisha spoke
to her and promised, " 'At this season next year you shall
embrace a son.' And she said, 'No, my lord, O man of God, do not
lie to your maidservant.' " (2Kings 4:16) Because the woman
was barren and her husband was old, she knew that it was not possible
for her to bear a son. But God is not limited by what is possible.
"And the woman conceived and bore a son at that season next
year, as Elisha had said to her." (2Kings 4:17)
We read of these six sons miraculously conceived and born. Physical
laws were suspended as their mothers were touched by the power
of God. We also read that there is a seventh son to come.
This seventh supernaturally conceived son is special, even as
the seventh day, the day that God set apart for Himself is special.
God made all the other days as well, but the seventh day He hallowed
and sanctified. It was a day that belonged to Him. So it is with
this seventh son who was to be miraculously conceived. He is hallowed
and sanctified, set apart for God Himself.
In D'varim Rabbah (1:20), the ancient rabbinic commentary on Deuteronomy,
the Rabbis say that Jacob said to Esau, "I have still to
bring forth the King Messiah, as it is written, 'Unto us a child
is born.' " They were referring to Isaiah 9:5 (9:6 in non-Jewish
translations), which says: "Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Indeed, this is a very special child. He has very unusual names
"Mighty God, Everlasting Father." In Is.7:14,
we are told that this child will be called "God with us."
So when we come to look at this seventh son who is to be supernaturally
conceived, we know that in every way his conception, birth,
and life he is to be greater, more supernatural, more miraculous
than all the others. In the most fascinating way, God has told
us his story in the lives of the six others.
As we look at the lives of the other six again who they
were, and what happened in them we will discover the portrait
of the seventh. It is fitting that the story of Messiah, the King
of the Jews, be told in the history of his people.
There is Isaac. who was promised by God and named by God. He was
the first one to be circumcised eight days after birth, the first
one to enter the covenant from birth. In the sight of God, he
was the only son, whom his father loved.
And God said, "Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom
you love, and offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land
of Moriah." (Gen.22:2) So Isaac was taken, led by his father.
He walked up the mountain of Moriah with the wood on which he
was to be sacrificed on his back. In rabbinic literature, in the
Day of Atonement liturgy, the Rabbis appeal to God as though Isaac
actually had been offered, and his ashes serve as atonement for
the children of Israel. The Rabbis hope that there is forgiveness
for Israel in the akedah, the binding of Isaac.
Then there is Jacob. The people of God and God himself are called
by his name. God is called the God of Jacob, the Holy One of Jacob,
the portion of Jacob, the Mighty One of Jacob. God called Jacob
"Israel," a prince with God. Then God called Himself
the Mighty One of Israel, the God for Israel, God to Israel, God
over Israel, God in Israel, the Holy One of Israel, and hundreds
of times in the Bible God is called simply the God of Israel.
God calls Himself by the name of this man. The people of God are
called Israelites after Jacob, whom God named Israel.
Joseph was chosen by God to be exalted. God spoke to him in dreams.
The first dream that God gave him was one in which Joseph saw
himself and his brothers in the field at the time of harvest gathering
sheaves. His sheaf stood up and all the others came and bowed
down to him. His brothers were very angry with him. How could
he say that they would and should come and bow down to him? "Are
you actually going to reign over us, or are you really going to
rule over us?" (Gen.37:5)
He had another dream. His brothers became angrier and hated him
more when he told them this dream. He said, "I had a dream,
and the sun and the moon and eleven stars came and bowed down
to me." Even Joseph's father, Jacob, came and said to him,
"Indeed, shall I and your mother and your brothers actually
come and bow down before you to the ground?" (Gen.37:9-10)
We read that Jacob, Israel, loved Joseph more than all his other
sons, but he couldn't understand how such a thing could be. In
fact, it was his father's great love for Joseph, together with
these dreams that God had given him, that caused his brethren
to be jealous of Joseph, to despise him, and to plot to put him
to death.
They sold him for a price instead, and he was taken off as a slave
by some Gentiles down into Egypt. He went farther down. Not for
his own sin, but for the sin of an adulterous woman, he was put
in prison. But there God was with him, and God raised him up and
up until, when his brothers came down to Egypt, he was in charge
of all of Egypt, second only to Pharoah himself.
His brothers came down to Egypt because there was a famine in
the land. They were hungry, and their very lives depended on going
down to Egypt where they found Joseph, the only one in the whole
region who had food to keep them alive. They didn't recognize
him the first time they came, although Joseph knew them all the
time. But they came again a second time, and the second time he
revealed himself to them.
The ancient rabbis remarked on the same pattern in the life of
Moses. "Like the first redeemer so will the final redeemer
be. The first redeemer was Moses, who appeared to them and then
disappeared.... The final redeemer [Messiah] will also appear
to them and then disappear." (Num. Rab.11:2)
When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers on their second coming,
they knew he had the power of life and death in his hands. They
didn't know how he would treat them, and feared because of how
they had treated him. But he had forgiven them because of his
love for them. He revealed himself as their savior, but not their
savior only. He was also the savior of the Egyptians and all the
nations round about, because the famine was severe throughout
the whole area. Joseph was the savior of Israel and of the Gentiles
as well.
Next we read about Samson. The angel of the Lord appeared to the
woman, his mother. We read that Samson was a Nazarite, consecrated
to the Lord from the womb. He was anointed to judge Israel and
to deliver Israel from the oppressor. The Philistines were in
the land, oppressing Israel. Samson was raised up by God to deliver
Israel. But Samson was rejected by his brethren, bound by them,
and turned over to the Philistines to be put to death. He broke
those bonds and set himself free when the Spirit of God came upon
him. But eventually Samson was taken again when he was betrayed
by Delilah, his intimate companion.
Then one day the Philistines brought Samson out to amuse themselves.
Samson prayed, "God, give me one more opportunity to avenge
myself on these Philistines." He was taken and placed between
the pillars of the temple. The lords of the Philistines, his enemies,
were seated above and beneath. He pushed and brought the temple
down, destroying all the Philistines, and himself as well.
He willingly gave his life to destroy the power of the enemy.
In his death he killed more than in his life. It was God's way
of bringing judgment on the Philistines.
Next is Samuel, the prophet and judge, who also was consecrated
to the Lord all the days of his life. Towards the end of the life
of Samuel, the children of Israel came to him. And they said,
"Give us a king to rule over us, so that we might be like
all the other nations." (1Sam.8:5) Samuel said, "Don't
do this thing. Don't sin against the Lord. You have the Lord as
King over you." But the people would not listen to Samuel,
and they demanded a king. God spoke to Samuel and said, "This
day they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from
being King over them." (1Sam.8:7) Although God gave Israel
a king, His original and continual purpose was that He alone should
be king over Israel.
The sixth son supernaturally conceived was the son of the Shunamite
woman. When he was a young boy, he went out into the field where
his father was working. Suddenly he cried, "My head, my head,"
and fell down. He was taken up and carried off to his mother.
She laid him on her lap, and there he died. She took him up and
laid him on the bed in Elisha's room. Then she went to search
for the prophet.
When she found him, the one who had promised her a son, she said,
"Didn't I tell you not to lie to me?" When Elisha came
into the woman's house, the boy was lying dead on his bed. Elisha
shut the door and prayed. The Lord raised the boy from the dead.
We don't know the name of the son of the Shunamite woman. His
name is not known in Israel. It is not revealed, but he was raised
from the dead.
The lives of these six who were miraculously conceived through
the power of God are fascinating, but the story told by their
six lives together is even more fascinating, more supernatural.
Their lives tell the story of the seventh, who is Messiah, the
King.
Messiah is promised by God, even as Isaac was promised. He is
promised by the prophets, even as the son of the Shunamite woman
was promised by Elisha. The Talmud says that all the prophets
prophesied not, except of the days of Messiah. Messiah is central.
He is the key to understanding God's plan for Israel and for all
the world. The Bible is his story. Messiah is the summation of
all.
Even as an angel appeared to the mother of Samson, we read in
the gospel of Luke that God sent the angel Gabriel to a young
Jewish maiden, an almah, engaged to a man, and the angel said
to her, "'Do not be afraid Miriam, for you have found favor
with God and behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bear
a son, and you shall name him Yeshua. And he shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall
give to him the throne of his father David. And he shall rule
over the House of Jacob forever. And his kingdom shall have no
end.'
"And Miriam said to the angel, 'How can this be since I am
a virgin?' And the angel answered and said to her, 'The holy spirit
will overshadow you, and for that reason the holy child shall
be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:30-35)
It was going to be a miracle, but God is the God of miracles.
As we read in the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, the Lord Himself
will give you a sign a supernatural occurrence the
virgin will conceive and bring forth a son." It is a miraculous
sign from God Himself. Who else but God could cause it to happen?
Even as Jacob responded to Rachel, "Am I in the place of
God who has withheld children from you?" God alone is able
to cause a woman to conceive when she is not physically able to
do so.
The supernatural births of the six point to the supernatural birth
of the seventh. Isaac was the first one to enter God's Covenant
with Abraham, the covenant of circumcision, from birth. To enter
into God's promised New Covenant with the House of Judah and the
House of Israel, it is necessary to be born of the Spirit. Yeshua
the Messiah is the first one born of the Spirit.
Messiah was consecrated to God from the womb like Samson and Samuel.
Samson was a Nazarite; Yeshua is, of course, the Nazarene. He
lived a life of perfect obedience and consecration to God. He
was anointed and appointed even as Samson was, to be a judge and
a deliverer for Israel. Yeshua came to deliver Israel from the
oppressor, and yet he was despised and rejected by his brethren-but
not all of his brethren. In the case of Joseph, his full brother
Benjamin did not reject him, but only his other brothers. In the
same way there were Jews who did not reject Yeshua. They believed
in him.
As with Joseph, Yeshua was sold for a price, thirty pieces of
silver. He was betrayed by an intimate associate, Judas, even
as Samson was betrayed by Delilah. Like Samson, Yeshua was bound
by his brethren and turned over to the Gentiles to be put to death.
They put the wood on his back, and Yeshua went up one of the mountains
of Moriah, carrying that wood on which He was to be sacrificed,
just as Isaac had done before. As God said of Isaac "Your
only son, whom you love" so He said of Yeshua, "This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
Yeshua went up, led by his Father, to make atonement for Israel,
to bring forgiveness to all the world. Many in Israel believed
in him, but the nation as a whole, even as on that day before
Samuel, rejected the Lord from being king over them.
Pilate said to the religious leaders, "Behold, your king."
" 'Shall I crucify your king?'
" 'We have no king but Caesar,' the chief priests responded."
(John 19:14-15)
He was put to death underneath the inscription, "This is
Yeshua of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." That was his crime
in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek for all the world
to know.
"Whoever makes himself out to be a king is an enemy of Caesar,"
they told Pilate. (John 19:12) So he was put to death, and his
jealous brethren led Israel to believe "He's dead, and that's
the last we will hear of him." Joseph's brethren brought
the same news to Israel, their father.
Like Samson, Yeshua the Messiah accomplished more in his death
than in his life. As wonderful as his life was, as powerful as
it was he healed the sick, he raised the dead, he opened
the eyes of the blind, he glorified God in all that he did
in his death he accomplished more. In his death he broke the bonds,
the chains, even as Samson did, and he willingly died to destroy
the power of the enemy, and to set free all those who are enslaved
to the power of sin and the power of death.
He paid the penalty that God's righteousness requires of every
sinner. "The soul that sins shall die." (Ezek.18:4)
He had no sins of his own, and so he went as a willing, voluntary
sacrifice for the sins of others. He said, "No one takes
my life from me. I lay it down. I have the power to lay it down
and I have the power to take it up again." (John 10:17-18)
He went willingly so that whoever believes in him, whoever lays
their hands upon him, even as one had to lay his hands upon a
sacrifice in the Levitical system, places their sins upon him.
Isaac was not actually offered to atone for the sins of Israel,
but Yeshua was. In his death he broke the bonds and set the captive
free, by the power of God, by the Spirit of the Lord.
By that same Spirit he rose from the dead. Just as the son of
the Shunamite woman was raised from the dead by the power of God,
so Yeshua the Messiah was raised from the dead.
For most in Israel, his name is not known, like that of the Shunamite's
son. It is not even mentioned. "Let's talk about anyone,
but not him, not the Nazarene." But though there are those
who refuse to mention his name, there has always been a faithful
Jewish remnant who believed in Yeshua, King of the Jews. Isaiah
prophesied that Messiah would be called "Mighty God,"
and he prophesied that, "A remnant will return, a remnant
of Jacob will return to the Mighty God." (Is. 10:21)
All the early believers were Jewish. They found it hard to believe
that someone who wasn't Jewish could believe in Yeshua. They were
called by his name. They were talmidei Yeshua, disciples of Yeshua.
As it is with Jacob, who is called Israel, so it is with Yeshua,
"who is called Christos," the Messiah. All his followers
are called by his name.
As with Jacob, so with Yeshua. God delights to be called by his
name as well. The God of Jacob, the God of Israel, the God of
Messiah Yeshua, the God who raised him from the dead.
Like Joseph, he will be revealed to all of his brethren, but not
the first time, not at the first coming. But with his second coming,
he will be revealed to all his brethren. When he returns, the
Lord says, "I will pour out on the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They
shall look upon Me the one whom they have pierced, and they shall
mourn for Me as one mourns for an only son." (Zech.12:10)
The ancient Rabbis recognized this as referring to Messiah. (cf.
Suk.52a)
As it was with Joseph's brethren in their greatest need,
in their hunger, they went down to Egypt in the famine and were
saved by Joseph there so it will be with the Jewish brethren
of Yeshua who don't yet know him. In their hunger and their greatest
need they will cry out to God, and will see Yeshua revealed as
their savior. He is not their savior only, but the savior of the
Gentiles as well, even as Joseph also was.
When this age is over, the story will still not be finished. There
are the dreams of Joseph. When God reaps the earth, when God brings
in the final harvest, the sheaf of Yeshua the Messiah, will stand
up, and all the others will bow down before it. He will be exalted.
His name will be exalted high above every other name. Even the
sun and the moon and the stars will come and bow down. The Midrash
Tanchuma (on Is.52:13) says that Messiah is "more exalted
than Abraham, more extolled than Moses, higher than the archangels."
Jacob said to Joseph, "Shall I and your mother come and bow
down to you?" But Joseph's mother was dead. She could not
in that life come and bow down to him. The dream referred to the
age to come.
In the life to come, in the resurrection, every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that Yeshua is Lord. His is a story that
is woven throughout history and throughout the pages of the Bible.
It continues today after thousands of years, because even today
there are people who are coming to know and receive the life of
Yeshua the Messiah. They are also miraculously, supernaturally
born of that same Spirit.
Some people don't believe that God can do anything supernatural.
That's the same as saying there is no God. The Creator is greater
than His creation.
God created the universe out of nothing. All things, including
you, exist because God is. Nothing is impossible for God.
If you let Him, God will continue this divine story in your life.
NOTE
1. The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. by J.H. Hertz, Soncino Press,
London, 1956, P.93
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