Yeshua, Metatron, and the Bible Code in the Covenant
We live in a world timed between the revelation of the Eternal at Sinai and giving the Covenant and the revelation of Melech ha-Mashiach (King Messiah) at the end of the sixth millennium. In Judaism, the Resurrection of the Dead and the Messianic Era in the seventh millennium are considered the culmination and fulfillment of Creation with the revelation of the light of the Eternal in this material world. And if we are in the culmination of the fulfillment of the Eternal’s plan, we need to heed the following.
What the reader has to expect below is a matter of private interpretation to the best knowledge of the present author. For the purpose of this study, we will focus on the Second Statement in the Covenant that deals with idolatry. We will try to show that the question of idolatry is far from being uncommon and hope to provide a more complex answer.
Mental sins as idolatry
“After all, if the Bible is God’s Word and it reveals Truth, then the closer we get to the Truth in our presuppositions, the faster we will discover the Truth in the details”. Sir Isaac Newton
The Torah gives answers to all questions sought earnestly. It points to them for those who desire to learn on a deeper level of understanding.
Mosheh went up to the mountain to hear the words of the Eternal and came down and told them to the people. These words the Eternal spoke to them face to face. That happened at the awesome revelation of the Covenant at Mount Sinai. But forty years later, at Mount Nebo, Mosheh addressed the matter of the Ten Commandments as well as the whole Book of Deuteronomy speaking as if from the mouth of the Eternal. Mosheh said, “Yehovah spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the fire” (Deu 5:4), so that the people should remember and observe all the laws of the Torah. This refers to the generation of the Levites, women, and those younger than twenty years old and the generations that was born in the desert and had not heard the Covenant at Mount Sinai (verse3) but also to include all the generations of Israel which would be born afterwards.
In Deuteronomy 5, the Eternal Covenant is repeated from Exodus 20, commandment by commandment, with only a few variations, which have been noticed by the Jewish commentators. Baba Kama 54b explains that the second set of the Tablets had 17 more words than the first. The Eternal Elohim spoke the ten covenantal statements directly to the people, and then everything further He addressed to Mosheh alone, who served as a mediator to the people. In his last address to the nation, Mosheh repeated the Second Covenantal Statement from Exodus, thus,
You shall not make for you a graven image, even any manner of likeness, of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, Yehovah your Elohim, am a jealous El, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them who hate Me. (Deu 5:8-9)
Now, a few things should be addressed here. According to verse 4, the Eternal spoke these words to Israel “face to face” on the mountain. These verses seem to say explicitly that the words and the Covenant as a whole were spoken without an intermediary, for it is indeed written that they were spoken to the people face to face. But because the Eternal has no face, this expression needs to be taken metaphorically simply denoting the directness with which He spoke to the people, although they did not see Him. The second thing is that this commandment forbids explicitly the making of any graven image of what is in heaven, even any likeness of it. In the words of The Tanya, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 20, it is stated, “It is well known that the commandment and admonition concerning idolatry, which are contained, in the first two commandments of the Decalogue— “I am” and “You shall not have any other gods,” comprise the entire Torah”.
But is the Eternal concerned only with graven images, or He is also concerned with any likeness “engraved” in the mind? In this second commandment, the Eternal prohibited all kinds of worship, except to Him only. We shall pause here for a moment to return to it later. At this point in the discussion, however, it is necessary to understand the issue of “mental sin”. Rabbi Ibn Ezra commented the following: “Many people think that with the exception of idol worship there are no sins connected to thought. The truth of the matter is that idol worship is worse than all the other mental sins put together”. In other words, Ibn Ezra is saying that the images of what is in heaven (one has created in the mind, which is to say “mental sins”) are worse than the graven images made of stone, wood, etc.
And when it is said in verses 8 and 9 that the Eternal will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon his children, this refers exclusively to the sin of idolatry (physical but also mental) and to no other sin. How far in the generations does the commandment extend? It is said: “upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them who hate Me”, thus equating idolatry to hatred towards the Eternal Himself. None except idolaters are meant here and their abominations which He hates” (Deu 12:31). It was, therefore, decreed that the punishment was to be extended to the third and even to the fourth generation, because the fourth generation is the farthest generation of his offspring a man can see: himself, his son, his grandson, and his great-grandson, that is, the fourth generation. However, if the sons of the wicked man do not walk in the footsteps of their father, that is, they have not done the sin of the idolatry which the father was in, then they do not bear the iniquity of their father and will not be held accountable for his sins but will be judged according to their own works (see Eze 18:14-20).
The Bible Code in the Second Commandment
Here is the deeper insight of the Second Commandment. Two Bible codes were found in Deu 5:9 overlapping in the short statement “upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me”. Because of a few variations from the text in Exodus, the Bible code appears only here in Deuteronomy and not in Exodus.
The first Bible code transpires when reading starting at letter yud in the word בָּנִים “sons”. Counting every 5th letter from right to left spells out in Hebrew (in red): the Hebrew name Yeshua (a short form of Yehoshua) The second Bible code is found overlapping the first one. Starting at the last letter yud in the last word of the verse לְשֹׂנְאָי and counting every 3rd letter from left to right, spells out (in green) yesh Yerushalayim, “Jerusalem has”. Both Bible codes intersect in letter vav in the word וְעַל “and upon”.
In English, we read,
(Deu 5:9) You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, Yehovah your Elohim, am a jealous El, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them who hate Me.
The Hebrew text of this verse reads, as follows,
לֹא־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תׇעׇבְדֵם כִּי אָנֹכִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֺן אָבוֹת עַל־בָּנִים וְעַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִים לְשֹׂנְאָי׃
Thus, we read the hidden messaging “Jerusalem has” and “Yeshua”. How are we to interpret the cryptic message encoded in the Covenant of the Eternal? This is difficult.
The interpretation of “Jerusalem has” and “Yeshua”
“The Bible code is the Omniscient’s watermark in His Word to assert genuineness”. Navah
The Bible code is a word or few words, embedded by the Supernal Author into the Hebrew text of the Tanach, which when read in an equidistant-letter sequence gives a hidden message. The sages consider the Bible codes the literal word of the Omniscient, since it is humanly impossible to write such a complex form of messaging. The odds of a certain Bible code to occur randomly is astronomical. Therefore, the only one who can possibly write the hidden messages in the Bible codes is the Creator.
What is the purpose of the Bible code? The purpose of the Bible code is to assert genuineness visible when read at certain conditions. As a genuine banknote can be recognized only by the watermark or other hidden marks, so does the Bible code serve as a “watermark” of genuineness of the Creator’s Word and as verified authenticity. A second purpose of the Bible code is to give a hidden message of wisdom and knowledge, as Psalm 119 states, “Open my eyes, that I may see the hidden things in Your Torah” (Psa 119:18). And in the Book of Jeremiah, “Call to Me, and I will answer you and will tell you great things, and hidden, which you have not known”. (Jer 33:3)
What is not the purpose of the Bible Code? A Bible code cannot and should not be used to predict the future even though it may speak of future events. Rather, the Bible code reflects the fact that there is providential evidence of future events which the Creator has engrafted into the Hebrew text. How this manifestation of His foresightful care for His Word will be interpreted and used by men is entirely adequate to the task they have been called to.
With that said, we have the difficult task to interpret the two codes found in the Covenant: “Jerusalem has” and “Yeshua”. And what does the Hebrew name Yeshua have to do in the Covenant which forbids the idolatry?
Metatron, the messenger of the Face
Behold, I am sending a messenger before you to guard you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. (Exo 23:20)
YHVH would send a messenger (mal’ach) before them to guard them on the way to the Promised Land. According to the rabbis, the Eternal said to the people: “You are presently free from sin and therefore My presence can abide with you and accompany you wherever you go. If, in the future, however, you will sin, My presence will not be able to dwell with you openly. When that happens, I am going to send the angel Metatron before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the Land of Israel”.
Note: The term mal’ach simply means one who is sent by another to do his business. It is related to another Hebrew word, מְלָאכָה melachah, meaning work, as it appears in Gen 2:2. It comes from מַלְאָךְ mal’ach, an unused root meaning to dispatch someone. Hence mal’ach means a messenger.
Jewish tradition teaches that Metatron is a real name but substitute for the name of מַלְאָךְ mal’ach (the messenger) spoken of in Exo 23:20, wherein YHVH states: “My name is in him”. “Metatron” means “guide”. In rabbinic tradition, Metatron is the unique mal’ach (messenger) of the Presence (literally, the Faces), who bears the Name of the Eternal and guided Israel through the wilderness to Sinai, as it is said,
And the messenger of Elohim, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the column of cloud went from before them and stood behind them, (Exo 14:19)
The Name of the Eternal was in this messenger, and hence he is called, literally, the Face of the Eternal, because His essential nature was manifested in him, which is to say, this messenger represented YHVH in any way of power and authority, and hence Mosheh called him in Exo 33:15, “Your Face”. But because it was the Eternal who was guiding the people in the person of the messenger, He demanded unconditional obedience, and if they provoked Him by disobedience, the messenger would not pardon their transgression as Elohim would not pardon them either, as it is said,
Guard from his face and listen up his voice. Do not rebel against Him, for he does not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in him. (Exo 23:21)
According to the rabbis, the meaning of these words is that whatever this messenger says he says only in His Name. This explains verse 22 which speaks about listening to the “voice” of this messenger rather than “listening to what he says”, because he does not have anything of his own to say. Rashi (Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 18) says that this messenger is “not accustomed to sin, for he is one of a class of beings who never sin. Besides he is only a messenger and only carries out the mission entrusted to him”. In other words, he has no right to pardon, for this is the Eternal’s prerogative; whatever he does, he does in His Name. Ibn Ezra adds: “Every angel follows God’s command. The angel Metatron does not add or subtract from what God has commanded him”.
Ramban commented that the decree of “I send an angel before you” did not actually take place and was not fulfilled in the days of Moses. However, after the death of Mosheh He did send His messenger to Yehoshua before the battle of Yericho. The Rabbis have said in Shemoth Rabbah 32:4: “The promise that Israel would not be turned over to a captain all the days of Moses now became void; thus, as soon as Mosheh died the captain returned to his position”. “And our Rabbis”, continues Ramban, “have said that this is Metatron, a name which signifies “the guide of the road”. According to the Midrash, “as long as Moses lived the angel who was captain of the host did not go with them, for Moses filled his place”.
But the people sinned with the golden calf, and the Eternal commanded Mosheh to lead the people to the Land and promised him the guidance of a messenger (mal’ach), who would drive the Kana’anites out of the land. But He expressly distinguished this messenger from His own personal presence (Exo 33:1-3). Sanhedrin 38b says that this messenger was Metatron with the Eternal’s Name inside of him, to serve as the nation’s leader in place of Elohim. He, however, warned them to be very careful of this messenger as he does not have the power to forgive and will meet out justice as is warranted. Upon hearing this Mosheh said to the Eternal Elohim in Exo 33:15-16 that if He would not accompany the people, they would not travel to the Promised Land. To which the Eternal said, “Even this word you have spoken I shall do, for you have found favor in My eyes, and I know you by name” (Exo 33:17).
Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 18:2 urges us to observe the difference between the two generations of Mosheh and Yehoshua. “When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Mosheh: Behold, I will send an angel before you, he replied: I desire no one but You, whereas, when Yehoshua the son of Nun beheld an angel, he prostrated himself on the ground (Jos 5:13-14)”. While Mosheh rejected the messenger sent by the Eternal to lead the people, Yehoshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said unto him: “What does my lord say to his servant?” (For further knowledge of this awkward situation in which Mosheh refused the guidance of the messenger, refer to the article When Mosheh Declined the Messenger of YHVH.)
Ramban in his comments on Exo 14:19 also says that, “It is possible that the word mal’ach (messenger) is not in a construct state [meaning “angel of”] but instead is in apposition [meaning “messenger the Elohim” or “the supernal messenger”]. Onkelos, a Roman convert to Judaism who lived in the first or second century, translates this word into Aramaic as “Metatron of the Eternal”, an allusion to the agent Metatron who has been entrusted by the Eternal to run the universe. Similarly, Or HaChaim says that this angel is not “an intermediary, one of God’s ministering angels, but the great angel, the one who redeemed the patriarchs”. Thus far the rabbis.
“Do not replace Me for him!”
We will now return to complete what we commenced to explain in the beginning. So, is the Eternal concerned only with graven images, or He is also concerned with any likeness of Him “engraved” in the mind? The Bible code in the Covenant is to be explained in consonance with the plain meaning and intent of the Second Commandment. The correct interpretation, in line with the simple meaning of Scripture, appears to be: “You shall not bow down unto them, nor serve them” is a commandment that stands. It is to be observed in any manner of worship whatsoever, even if the worshipper’s intent is to serve the Eternal in truth. Understand this!
We need to understand also why Yeshua appears in this particular commandment, which forbids the making physical and/or mental images of heavenly beings or objects, is not incidental. The Bible code encrypted in the Covenant is beyond the shadow of a doubt. Understand this, too! Whether or not one will accept the rabbinic teachings regarding the agent of the Eternal, Metatron, is a matter of interpretation. Stephanos’ testimony to his faith in the messenger of the Eternal (Acts 7) is a matter of fact and the cryptic messaging is still there and valid, and the commandment “You shall not have others upon My Face” [which is to say “to substitute Me”] is eternal as He is.
Even though this celestial being Metatron bears the Name, the rabbis stated in Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 38b, that Metatron may not be worshiped. They taught that the Eternal commanded, “Do not replace Me for him!” The sages also taught that Metatron is the ruler of the world, a teacher of the Torah, and a power in heaven. The Zohar states that Metatron is the “Son of Man” who is only slightly lower than the Eternal, as it is stated in the psalm,
Yet You have made him a little lower than Elohim and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all under his feet, (Psa 8:5-6) (See also Heb 2:7)
Besides Mosheh, Yeshayahu was an unparalleled prophet whom the Eternal chose to reveal the Messianic age and the following messages, which we need to heed,
And to whom would you liken Elohim? And what likeness would you compare to Him? (Isa 40:18) And to whom then do you liken Me, or to whom am I compared? (Isa 40:25) I am the First and I am the Last, besides Me there is no Elohim. And who is like Me? Let him call and declare it, and lay it before Me, … You are My witnesses. Is there an Eloah besides Me? There is no other Rock, I know not one. (Isa 44:6-8) I am Yehovah, and there is none else. There is no Elohim besides Me. I gird you, though you have not known Me, so that they know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none but Me. I am Yehovah, and there is none else. I form light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, Yehovah, do all these. (Isa 45:5-7) I am Yehovah, and there is none else. (Isa 45:18) And there is no Elohim besides Me, a righteous El and a Savior, there is none besides Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am El, and there is none else. (Isa 45:21-22) … I am El, and there is none else. I am Elohim, and there is no one like Me. (Isa 46:9) I am He; I am the First, I am also the Last. (Isa 48:12)
These words of the Eternal are to be understood without difficulty as meaning, “There is none besides Me”. This is not difficult to perceive.
And as for the overlapping code “Jerusalem has”, we need to interpret it in the plain reading of the hidden message. The correct interpretation appears to us to be: “Jerusalem has Yeshua”. Metatron watches over Israel and Jerusalem acting as the Father’s agent. When Exodus speaks of the messenger (mal’ach) the Eternal sent ahead of the people to guard and protect Israel on its journey in the desert, that messenger is described as embodying the Name, the Tetragrammaton, because his name is identical with the Name of the Eternal: Yehovah and Yehoshua.
Suggested reading: Anointed Metatron and Mediator. The Messenger of the Presence. of Time of Reckoning Ministry.
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