36 "Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;
      37 "And this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
      38 "And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem," Lk 2:36-38.

      The Holy Spirit brought Anna up as Simeon finished his testimony and prophecy, and moved her to testify and prophesy to all who were present (both angels and men), and to the myriads who would read these words in time and eternity. Anna "did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." Anna perhaps lived outside the temple, but was otherwise steadfastly in the temple. We should read this passage along with Ps 84; Heb 10:25-31; and similar passages and strive to be in every church service. That is the kind of people the Holy Spirit delights to use, and that is the kind of people we must urgently strive to be.

      "And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him," Lk 2:38.
      The Holy Spirit rewarded Anna's resolute dedication to fastings and prayers and gave her under-standing of the the Scriptures just as He did to Simeon. Anna was also permitted to see the Seed of the woman, and though an infant is still an infant, there was knowledge, and glory, and redemption, and the hope of all that is good and perfect and divine ready to be demonstrated in this Infant Testator of all the last will and testament covenants. Simeon and Anna and others like them understood that God would be born of a virgin and become the Redeemer Testator for all time and eternity, Isa 7:14; 9:6-7; 44:6; 53:1-12; Zec 12:10.

      38 "And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem," Lk 2:38.
      The Infant Jesus was the Testator of all the prior "last will and testaments," and would be the Testator of the New Testament. Simeon understood this, and so did Anna. Either that is true or they did not understand what this unique redemption includes or what a last will and testament is. But Simeon and Anna did know because they spoke of the Infant Jesus as the Redeemer, of His death, and of His future judgment activities. All of this addressed His virgin birth, His sinless life, His vicarious death, burial, and divine resurrection birth as our Kinsman Redeemer and Testator of all the "last will and testaments." Simeon and Anna appear to have understood what they were saying and were immensely rejoicing that this infant would accomplish the great magnitude and glorious redemption ministry of the promised Messiah.

      15 "And for this reason He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
      16 "For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
      17 "For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives," Heb 9:15-17
.       We will briefly review how Gen 2 and 3 require a divine resurrection birth of the Seed of the woman, based upon the all-pervading Bible truth of this passage in Hebrews, Heb 9:15-17.
            a. Adam and Eve and their descendants were promised divine life in the tree of life. That divine life continued to be promised in all the last will and testaments, beginning in the Garden of Eden in Gen 3, but including Gen 1 and 2 because Christ was as a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world as we know it, 1Pe 1:18-20; Eph 1:4-5,11-14. The tree of life promised life beyond what Adam and Eve had before they sinned and therefore more than they had thereafter, Gen 3:22-24. The promised "inheritance" of all the last will and testaments still excels the life Adam and Eve had before they sinned. Again, the promised "inheritance" of all the last will and testaments excels the life the physical body of Christ had before His resurrection birth into a divine state of being. The earthly body of Christ was a human body of the first Adam, and was not the heavenly and divine body of the Second Adam until His resurrection birth, Col 1:18; Rev 1:5; Act 13:29-33; 2:25-28; Ps 16:8-11; Heb 1:5-6; 5:5; 1Co 15:44-50; et al.
            b. In order to perform His purpose according to Rom 9:22-23, God permitted Adam and Eve to sin, but at the same time made His grace sufficient for them to overcome His covenant testing experience in the temptation of Satan, Gen 3:1-7. God's grace (knowledge, power, help, Heb 4:16) was not fatalistic, but was sufficient for Adam and Eve to overcome the temptation of Satan in the Garden, but they failed by their own volition – and we also failed in them, Rom 5:12. God's purpose, according to Rom 9:22-23, was to show His infinite love, compassion, mercy, longsuffering, justice, wrath, etc.
            c. Adam and Eve failed the test and became dead in sins: separated and alienated from God, though still alive in the flesh for nine hundred plus years. In this state of being they also stood condemned to be punished eternally, except that mercy toward the undeserving is one of God's divine attributes which God from eternity had purposed to freely demonstrate toward Adam, Eve, and their descendants, Rom 9:22-23. God was willing to demonstrate these divine attributes of love, compassion, mercy, forbearance, justice, wrath, etc., in wooing and winning the deep love and affectionate obedience of His estranged creatures, with whom He will share His divine fullness, Eph 1:22-23; 3:19; 4:13-24; 5:31-32; Col 1:19; 2:9-10; Jn 10:30-36; 14:8-11; 17:21-23; et al.
            d. God promised a Kinsman Redeemer who would redeem Adam and Eve and their descendants from death and its eternal punishment. This Redeemer is prophesied throughout the Bible from Gen 1 to be greater in His Person than His adversary, the serpent, of Gen 3:1-15. The Spirit moved Paul to write of God (the Son of God) humbling Himself to become a human, even to the extent of suffering the death of the cross, and being raised back into a state of being where He in His person is worthy of possessing a divine name above every name, Phi 2:6-11. That name of "Jehovah" in the Hebrew Old Testament is associated with crucifixion, Zec 12:10. The word "redeemer" is used 18 times in the Bible, and 13 of those times is in Isaiah associated with Jehovah. We can clearly see this in Gen 1, 2, and 3, and throughout the Scriptures many hundreds of times over in the animal sacrifices, and in many other ways.
            e. The Kinsman Redeemer was appointed to be the Testator of all the Bible last will and testaments. This appointment was according to the counsel of the Godhead before the foundation of the world, 1Pe 1:18-20; Eph 1:4-5,11; 2Ti 1:9; Tit 1:2; Phi 2:6-11. It was Christ as the Testator (Heb 9:16-17), who through the Holy Spirit, gave the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20), which is a very general and brief statement of the New Covenant or New Testament, Heb 9:16-17, 12-28. But Christ was unequivocally the Testator in all the last will and testaments from the Garden of Eden on. Since the Testator must die, Christ was the Testator who symbolically died in all the Old Testament last will and testaments from Eden on. Of course, Christ always did the will of the Father, and all that Christ did, He did by the Holy Spirit, Mt 3:16-17; 4:1; 12:28; Mk 1:10-12; Lk 4:1,14,18-19; Jn 1:33; 3:34; Rom 1:4; Heb 9:13.
            f. The Testator, who is also the Kinsman Redeemer, must live a perfect "clean" life, represented by the "clean" animals which the Testator killed in order to obtain the "skins" to cloth Adam and Eve. Simeon and Anna and Nicodemus and all other Jews knew that no animal would do except a "clean" animal. Noah took seven each of the "clean" animals into the ark (Gen 7:2-3) and sacrificed only those that were Gen 8:20-21. The clean animals and unleavened bread testified (prophesied) that the Kinsman Redeemer and Testator would be without sin. This is a testament (covenant) requirement and requires that the Testator would be tested through covenant disciplinary training and thereby be made perfect by suffering and overcoming, Heb 2:10,18; 4:15; 5:8-9; 12:2-3. The testimony of Simeon and Anna reveals that they well understood Isa 53 and related passages.
            g. The Testator must "die" for Adam's sin and for the sins of all mankind in order for the last will and testament to become effective. This includes God's just wrath against all the sins of mankind, 1Jn 2:2. The Bible may be compared to the unsealed "open copy" (Jer 32:6-16) of the sealed Testament in the hand of the Father, Rev 5:1-6. The Bible provides for the "death" of specified "clean" animals in order for the effective worship under the preliminary last will and testaments of the Old Testament, Heb 9:16-23.
            h. The Testator must arise from the grave in order to destroy "death" and all included in sin's condemnation.
      54 "So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
      55 "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" 1Co 15:54-55; Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14.
      Death alone would not crush the Serpent's head and disarm him of all his usurped dignity, power, and authority in the eyes of all. And death alone would not bring back the righteous dead who have believed and obeyed in their turn. There had to be resurrection from the dead, and this fact is made clear all through the Bible beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Gen 2:23-24; 3:20-22. That a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two should become "one flesh," was a prophetic statement beyond this earthly lifetime. The Holy Spirit used Paul to apply this verse (Gen 2:24) to Christ and His bride into the ages to come, Eph 5:31-32; 1Co 6:15-17. See also Jn 10:30-36; 14:8-11; 17:21-23; 2Co 5:16-17; et al.
            i. A divine resurrection birth was necessary, and was made explicitly clear in the initial disposition of the last will and testament in the Garden of Eden. First, this promise of divine life was inherent in the fruit of the tree of life, which God forbad Adam and Eve to eat after they had sinned by driving them out of the Garden and putting cherubims there to guard the entrance and the way to the tree of life, Gen 3:22-24.
      Second, this promise of divine life is also inherent in Adam's statement concerning marriage that the husband and wife should be "one flesh," Gen 2:23-24. The Holy Spirit draws from this statement by moving Paul to apply the statement to Christ and His faithful covenant people, Eph 5:31-32. This "oneness" with Christ signifies "oneness," in deified life with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Jn 10:30-36; 14:8-11; 17:21-23; Eph 1:22-23; 3:19; Col 1:19; 2:9-21. We will continue to demonstrate the harmony and repeated emphasis in the Scriptures on this divine "oneness" of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with the faithful covenant people.
      Third, Adam called his wife's name "life," and that she would be the mother of the living ones. The word "Eve" means "life." Certainly, Eve was and is the mother of all mankind, but this name came after the Testator had said the Seed of the woman would be the Redeemer, would crush Satan's head, and would be the way, the truth, and the divine life (Jn 14:6) promised in the tree of life. Again, Adam named his wife's name "life" immediately after the Testator had said that they would die and return to the dust from which they were taken, Gen 2:19-20. This death must be followed by resurrection into the promised life (divine life) of the tree of life. This divine life was and still is the item of excelling urgency, perhaps more so than it was in the tree of life before Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree and died.
      This divine human body was created by Christ in His resurrection birth (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5; Act 13:29-33; 2:25-28; Rev 1:5-6; 5:5; 1Co 15:44-50; Co 2:9-10; et al), and is promised to all who are joined to Him in covenant faithfulness, 1Co 6:15-17; 15:1-2,29-34,57-58; 2Co 3:18; 4:7-12,17; 5:1-5-21; Phi 3:7-14,21; et al. Those who ate the Passover lamb, the unleavened bread, the other sacrifices, the showbread, the manna, etc., were "partaking of Christ" "by faith." And those who from Adam on who believed and obeyed by grace through faith, were "partaking of Christ" "by faith," Mt 4:4; Jn 6:27,29 (27-67). All the covenant people who believed and obeyed in their turn through the ages will share this divine oneness with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They all had the Holy Spirit in the covenant way, and under the New Covenant we have the Spirit in a still more special way since the Testator has died and His body raised and deified (glorified), Jn 7:39; Gal 4:4-7; Rom 8:23-25; 2Co 5:1-5-21.
      The above enumeration is required by the words that Simeon and Anna spoke as they looked upon the infant Jesus when He was only 40 days old. Lev 12:1-4; Lk 2:22. Jesus was only an infant, but He was their Redeemer, their Messiah ("the Lord's Christ", Lk 2:26), their Son of David, born of a virgin (Isa 7:14; 9:6-7), and their God who will judge the living and the dead, Lk 2:26-35,38. Nicodemus and all Israel could and should have understood all these things. They require the new birth of both body and spirit when Christ returns.

      The foregoing discussion on the "last will and testament" will perhaps be repositioned when put into book form. Here we continue a sketch of a few major passages in the book of Isaiah which require a divine resurrection birth of the faithful covenant people when Christ returns. This should close out The Firstborn Sonship of Christ "introduction" to the Old Testament. These articles are being somewhat put together as we proceed, and will be a little better arranged when put into book form. After finishing this introduction to the Old Testament, there will be more articles from the Old Testament on The Firstborn Sonship of Christ particularly from the Law Covenant.

      1 "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
      2 "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
      3 "Many people shall come and say, 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
      4 "He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore," Isa 2:1-4.

     This passage speaks of a vision Isaiah saw concerning "Judah and Jerusalem." The word "mountain" signifies "government" that is lifted up above the people and rules over the people. In this case, the mountain is the mountain of the Lord's house that God has appointed to rule over all the nations (mountains, hills, or goverments) of the earth from Jerusalem, as we see here and will see below in the correlation of other passages. Christ, the Redeemer and Testator, will reign over all nations; in fact, He will reign over all creation from Jerusalem through the seventy day Millennium of rest for which all the creation is waiting, Rom 8:19-22. When Christ, as the last will and testament Testator, has put down all enemies, He will deliver the kingdom over to the Father, 1Co 15:24-28. When God created Adam, He put all creation under man's rule (Gen 1:26-31; Ps 8:3-6; Rom 8:19-22); however, when Adam sinned, man and all his possessions became the possessions of Satan whom Adam obeyed, Rom 6:16; Mt 4:8-10. This made Satan the ruler over all creation, which Christ as the Seed of the woman must redeem. The redemptive work of Christ (the Redeemer and Testator) was and is to destroy sin, Satan, and all the works of Satan, Heb 2:14; 1Jn 3:8. This does not mean the annihilation of Satan, since the Bible reveals otherwise that Satan, demons, death, the unrepenting of mankind, etc., will be cast into the lake of fire and punished for ages of ages, Rev 20:10-15; 14:9-11.


      2 "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Gen 2:1-3.