Identity Theft (22 page)

I should have been exhausted, but I was totally alert. “Not at all!
Please
, tell me more!”

“Okay then…” my angel, only too willingly, conceded.

Ariel continued, “The Lord laced the Hebrew Scriptures with prophetic hints, pictures, clues, illustrations, and examples, going all the way back to Adam and Eve—all to help us arrive at the truth. Here is one of those hints that points to Yeshua. See if you recognize the story.”

In rugged terrain I saw on the larger tablet screen an old man on a donkey accompanied by a young man and his servants. They stopped. The old man was quite obviously giving instructions to his servants who were nodding assent. He seemed to be assuring them that they would return. Then, leaving his donkey with the two servants, he and the young man set off up the mountain. They journeyed together in silence, the young man shouldering a heavy load of wood while the old man bore a heavy heart, but never faltered in his step.

“Is it Abraham and Isaac?”

“Not bad! Now let’s listen in.” Ariel tapped the massive tablet in the lower right-hand corner and immediately we were able to hear their conversation.

Isaac spoke first, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (see Gen. 22:6-8).

I watched as Abraham and Isaac arrived at the place God had showed Abraham and together they built a low altar. And then, after arranging the wood Isaac had carried up the mountain, on the altar, Abraham—
to my shock
(yes, I already knew the story, but actually
seeing
it was different!)—bound his son and laid the compliant boy on the wood.

Was he really going to do it?!

Isaac was clearly confused and questioning, yet without a word he obeyed his father, trusting in his father’s perfect love for the son he doted on. Abraham turned away, not wanting Isaac to see the tears which now flowed freely. It was clear that he was struggling with what he knew he must do. I found myself
hoping
he wouldn’t do what I already knew he had to do. He turned back to his son and kissed him. His tears falling on Isaac’s face and hair, Isaac felt his heart and lungs constrict with fear. Terror gripped him. The unimaginable suddenly became a reality when his father took out a knife!

I wanted to scream, “No. Don’t do it!” but I knew it would be to no avail. As Abraham, eyes stricken, raised the knife high to plunge it into his son’s heart, suddenly a voice, not mine, was heard.

“Abraham!
Abraham!
” An angel called to him.

His hand frozen in midair, Abraham replied, “Here I am.”

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (see Gen. 22:11-12).

My heart was still pounding. I was actually sweating. I knew the story, but when I saw the knife raised and Isaac tied to the altar, helplessly submitting to his fate, I was beside myself.

“It’s okay David…” Ariel assured me. “All this happened a very long time ago. Now focus, David, because I want you to see what’s still to come.”

I watched as Abraham looked up, but saw no one. He looked around to see who was calling him, but instead saw a ram caught in the thicket. So Abraham sacrificed the ram that God had supplied in place of Isaac, his son. The tablet went into hibernation as the screen went blank.

“Did you see what took place there, David?”

“Yes, he almost killed Isaac!” I blurted out.

“No, David. Something else. Remember when Isaac, on their way up the mountain, asked his father where the sacrifice was? What did Abraham say?”

“He said God Himself would provide a lamb.”

“Exactly. So where is the lamb?”

“They found him caught in the thickets,” I responded.

“No, David, look at your desktop and read it to me.”

“Okay,” I looked down and read, “‘Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw…a
ram
.’ Okay, he didn’t find a lamb. So? What’s the difference?” And then, as if someone flicked on a switch, “Ohhhh!” I said, indicating that I now understood. “Because
Yeshua
is the Lamb!”

“Bravo, David, Yeshua is the Lamb to whom Abraham referred. He didn’t know it at the time, but when he said, ‘God will provide the Lamb’ he was speaking prophetically. And another prophet, John, whom you now know, publically announced his arrival calling Him ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’”

“Yes, I remember!” I exclaimed. “This is amazing.”

Ariel continued, “Isaac was a
type
of Yeshua. A
type
, in the Bible, is a person or a prophetic event that predicts or foreshadows something in the future. Isaac, the son of promise, was a prophetic type pointing to Yeshua, who was also a promised Son.” A passage popped up on my tablet as I heard the familiar chime.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given
, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
(Isaiah 9:6).

“Think about it. God had an only Son and Abraham had an only son. Yes, he had Ishmael too, but that had been his own doing. Isaac was the long-awaited
promised
son whose birth was supernatural, in that Sarah was not only barren but far beyond the age of child bearing.”

“And Abraham,” I jumped in, “was willing to give to God his dearest possession, his only beloved son. In turn, two thousand years later, God reciprocates by providing the Lamb of which Abraham spoke, the One most dear to Him, Yeshua—His only Son!”

D’ling!
John 3:16, written in huge letters, filled the screen:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life
(John 3:16).

“There were multiple prophecies foretelling just about every aspect of Yeshua’s life and ministry. I don’t know how anyone could have missed them,” Ariel added.

“The problem is that most of us aren’t looking. It was only recently that I found myself concerned about the fact that I don’t know what God expects from me. I am twenty-eight years old, and this is the first time in my life that I am taking God seriously. I never thought to study the prophecies. I couldn’t see what they had to do with me. I think most Jewish people are like me. I am not speaking of Orthodox Jews, but secular, cultural Jews. I mean, my life is good. I make a good living, I am healthy, I love my wife, and have two wonderful daughters. It simply never occurred to me,
until now
, that there might be more.”

“Oh David, there is more…so much more,” Ariel reassured me. “And it was always there for you, if you had simply searched. For instance, the prophet Isaiah foretold the Messiah’s mandate seven hundred years before He came.”

The passage from John faded as the prophet Isaiah himself took center screen and began to recite portions from the ancient prophecy. He was clearly well along in years and squinted as he read from a very ancient-looking parchment. As he read, the passage scrolled across my desktop tablet, with certain words highlighted:

Just as there were many who were appalled at him—His
appearance was so disfigured
beyond that of any human being and His
form marred
beyond human likeness—He was
despised and rejected by mankind
, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

…Surely he
took up our pain
and
bore our suffering
, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was
pierced for our transgressions
, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him
, and
by his wounds we are healed
. … And the
Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet
he did not open his mouth
; he was led
like a lamb
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open His mouth. …
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked
, and
with the rich in his death
, though
he had done no violence
, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer
, and though the Lord makes his life
an offering for sin
, he will see his offspring and
prolong his days
, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied
; by his knowledge
my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities
. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because
he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors
(Isaiah 52:14; 53:3-12).

As Isaiah disappeared, I protested to Ariel, “But that’s not in the Tanach,”
¹
I protested, “that’s got to be from the New Testament!”

“Look it up for yourself,” he said.

“Seven hundred years
before
Yeshua,” I pondered aloud. “How could that be? He describes everything!

“He would be rejected. He would suffer for us. He would be sinless and ultimately He would die for us, willingly bearing the punishment for our sins, and then come to life again. But why does it say He would see His
offspring
? Yeshua didn’t have children.”

“He didn’t? There are over one billion people on earth who claim Him as Savior and Messiah. You don’t think they qualify as children?”

“Ohhh, I see. It’s talking about
spiritual
children!” The familiar chime directed my attention back to the screen. I read out loud: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

“And Isaiah also prophesied that He would die a sinner’s death—in His case, that was crucifixion, ‘He was pierced for our transgressions’—and that He would be buried with the rich. This was fulfilled when Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man and a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council among the Jews, donated his own tomb for Yeshua’s burial. What he didn’t know, of course, was that He wouldn’t be needing it for long.”

“Yeah, because Yeshua would rise from the dead. Like Isaiah said, ‘He will see the light of life again.’”

So much! So much to take in! I was finally feeling like I was nearing overload.
Yeshua, the Jew…our elder brother…He was the Passover Lamb…He gave His life willingly for me…like Isaac, He was the Son who was sacrificed…this is it! This is what I have been longing for…this is what has been missing in my li—

Suddenly, lights and colors were going in every direction, and I was flying out of control, with no angelic escort. “Ariel!” I shouted. Where was Ariel!? “
Ariel!
” I shouted louder.

I was spinning in circles. I was terrified. What was happening?

Note

1
.   
Tanach
is an acronym for
Torah, Writings, and Prophets
. It refers to the Hebrew Scriptures.

I hit the ground with a thud and knew somehow that I was back in Jerusalem,
but where?
There was shouting coming from what looked like a palace courtyard. So I walked in the direction of the noise, curious to see what all the commotion was about. As I did so, I felt a strange draft around my legs. Looking down, I saw I was wearing sandals, and…what?
Was I wearing a dress?