Today we’re continuing our series called “The Aleph Tav.” Remember, Aleph Tav is where we see Jesus in the Old Testament.

The key passage for this entire series is this one:

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Revelation 22:12-13 (ESV)

The Apostle John ends his incredible Revelation of Jesus Christ with this word from Jesus Himself in Revelation 22. 

Jesus reveals that He is also Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end, which is a phrase that only the Lord Himself could say.

I mean, we even get this in the first chapter of Revelation:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8 (ESV)

If Jesus calls Himself Alpha and Omega, He is declaring Himself to be the Lord God. This is no surprise to us, because we believe Jesus is God. God is made up of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Every person of the Trinity is God Himself. God is not divided; He’s three-in-one.

Remember, alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. A and Z are the first and last letters of the English alphabet, so Jesus could have said, “I am the A and the Z,” in English. 

Or if Jesus was speaking Hebrew, He would say, “I am the Aleph and the Tav.” 

And we talked about how there are aleph-tav’s scattered throughout the Old Testament Scriptures that show the “strength of the covenant,” which is what the Hebrew letters aleph and tav put together would literally mean. And Who is the strength of our covenant? It’s Jesus Himself.

As a side note, this is not a popular belief. My feeling is that there are a lot of Hebrew scholars out there who are not Christians who are NOT interested in finding the so-called “Christian” Messiah in the Old Testament Scriptures. But Jesus is their Messiah too.

And you don’t have to believe that the presence of aleph-tav in the Old Testament is indicative of Jesus. But hopefully through this series, you’ll be able to see where Jesus shows up all throughout the Old Testament, and that’s He shows up in more places than we have previously realized. 

Jesus is the Beginning and the End. He is all throughout Scripture.

Gideon’s True Identity

Today we’re going to review the story of Gideon during the time of the Judges of Israel. The story is found in Judges chapter 6.

Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 

And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 

And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save [aleph-tav] Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save [aleph-tav] Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 

And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike [aleph-tav] the Midianites as one man.” And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my [aleph-tav] present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” Judges 6:11-18 (ESV, brackets mine)

The Angel of the LORD

Many people have wondered who the Angel of the LORD is. After studying it, and after hearing our co-pastor Mickey’s sermon last Christmas, where he systematically went through the Scriptures showing all the references to this Angel, and basically proved that it was The Son of God, Jesus Himself, showing up physically in the Old Testament. By the way, theologians call this a “Christophany.” Sometimes another term is used, “Theophany,” which is a general term for the visible manifestation of God, perhaps like the Holy Spirit appearing like a dove.

But in the case of Gideon’s story, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Jesus stepped into Gideon’s life to stop the cycle.

Stopping the Cycle

What is this cycle, you ask? Well, during the period of the Judges, the Israelites had been living in the Promised Land for many decades by now. Except they forgot about Yahweh God. They were meant to drive out the evil inhabitants of the land and all of their territorial gods and idols, but they didn’t do this completely. 

Because of this, the Israelite people started worshipping false gods, these spiritual entities who were likely fallen angels, according to the Book of Enoch. Included in this worship was sacrificing babies in fire, having sex with temple prostitutes, drinking blood, and all sorts of other horrible atrocities. God did not want His people to participate in the worshipping of these demonic entities and evil practices.

It was a stench in the land, and the land was suffering because of it.

Enter Gideon

Now Gideon was born into this time. He didn’t experience the miracles of the Exodus, when God parted the Red Sea and led the Israelites out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Gideon wasn’t there when the 10 Commandments were delivered, or when they wandered around for 40 years eating manna, the bread from Heaven. Gideon wasn’t around when Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River, having it miraculously stop up so they could also cross on dry ground.

But Gideon heard the stories. He even referenced these stories when he spoke back to the Angel of the LORD. And besides, the Lord had commanded the Israelites to tell all of these stories to their children.

Even though the people knew these stories, they still started worshipping other gods. And because of the covenant they made with the Lord through Moses at Mt. Sinai, if they followed other gods, they would suffer consequences. (These are clearly articulated in Deuteronomy chapter 28.)

These consequences included other nations coming in and taking from them. And this is where we actually find Gideon at the beginning of the narrative. He’s hiding down in a winepress beating out the wheat, which was something you normally did up on a hill in the open, so that the wind would take the chaff away from the wheat berry. But the Midianites would send in raiding parties and steal their food and all their valuables.

And this was a pattern that would happen over and over again. The Israelites would turn away from the Lord, bad things would happen, they would cry out to Him, He would send a judge or deliverer, the people would repent and turn back to the Lord, things would get better again for a while, and then they would turn away from the Lord and start the cycle all over again.

What are the Israelites to do? How will they be saved from the oppression? We will talk about that and more next week! I hope you will join me!