Advent images in the Torah / 24
Balaam prophesied in 4.Mose 24:17: “A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel”.
In 132 a rebellion against Roman rule broke out under Simon Bar Kosiba. Rabbi Akiba saw in him the Messiah, the star that the prophet Balaam had seen rising over Judah. So he was named Bar Kochba – son of the star.
After initial successes, the revolt was bloodily crushed by the Romans in 135. His name was reinterpreted as Bar Koziba – son of lies. Jerusalem was turned into a military settlement called Aelia Capitolina and Jews were forbidden to enter the city.
About 140 years earlier, scholars from the East had come to Jerusalem because they had seen in the stars that an important king would be born in Israel. It is striking that only the astrologers knew about the star, not the people of Jerusalem. This suggests that it had something to do with the constellation.
In any case, they were not just waiting for a local king. They wanted to worship him. This suggests a heavenly king. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:36: “My kingdom is not of this world”.
Did the wise men know the promise of the Son of Man in Daniel 7:14? Daniel was a wise man in Babylon and he prophesied: “To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve (worship) him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed”.
In remembering the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the divine light that comes into our world. “The light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). Jesus says in Luke 18:31: “Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished“.
more Advent images in the Torah
Messiah images in the Torah
- God seeks us – Adam where are you?
- The possibility of a choice – Two trees in the Garden of Eden
- Neediness instead divinity – A new view
- God’s master plan – Salvation through a human being
- A divine clothing – God acts
- A world upside down – Kai and Abel
- Living in the presence of God – Enoch
- God is calling – Noah
- A king-priest like Melchizedek
- God visits Abraham
- Life through a sacrifice – Isaac
- The ladder to heaven – Jacob
- New identity from Jacob to Israel
- Messiah Ben Joseph – Joseph the son of Jacob
- Shiloh, whom all nations will serve – Blessing on Judah
- Moses, the prototype of the Saviour
- References to Jesus in Moses
- The Passover Lamb
- The pillar of cloud and fire
- God wants to be with us – The tabernacle / The temple
- The snake on a pole – An image of a new beginning
- The rock in the desert – Faith is not a method
- A prophet greater than Moses
- A star from Jacob – Bileam