What is dance? Theatrical dance encompasses rhythmic movements, meant to be viewed by spectators and to tell a story. Accordingly, dancers coordinate their movements with other dancers, using different parts of their own body, so that their movements generate visual beauty and accentuate rhythm. Usually this coordination occurs in a repeating time interval, called meter. Researchers have documented the crucial role that rhythm plays in our lives. So it is not surprising if we see a similar tilt to rhythm in G-d’s outworking since we are made in His image.
The Cross: Dancing on the Serpent’s head
The Gospel emphatically declares that the crucifixion and resurrection of Yeshua was G-d’s defeat of His Adversary. We see this right at the beginning of human history, when Adam succumbed to the serpent. That Torah scripture (details here) had predicted to the serpent:
15 And I will put enmity
Genesis 3:15
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
So this foretold a coming struggle between the Serpent and the Seed or Offspring of the Woman. Yeshua declared himself as ‘the Seed’ on Day 1 of Passion Week. Then he purposefully drove the conflict to its climax at the cross. Thus, Yeshua allowed the Serpent to strike him, confident of his final victory. In so doing, Yeshua trampled the head of the serpent, making the way to life. Summing up, the Bible (Tanakh) describes His victory and our way to life like this:
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2: 13-15
Their struggle unfolded like a dance, in a rhythmic meter of ‘sevens’ and ‘threes’. We explicitly see this by looking at the Passion Week events of Yeshua through the lens of the Creation account in the Torah.
G-d’s foreknowledge revealed from beginning of Time
How can we know if this was G-d’s Plan instead of some events random with no ultimate purpose behind it? Similarly, could the Gospel story simply have been human engineered?
We know that all people, no matter how clever, gifted, eloquent, powerful or rich, cannot foresee the future. Certainly no one has any ability to coordinate with events thousands of years into the future. Only G-d can possibly foreknow and predestine far into the future. So, if we detect evidence of this kind of coordination through deep history we have evidence that this drama was choreographed by Him. Thus, it would rule out chance or clever people behind the gospel.
In the whole Bible (Tanakh) there are, in fact, only two weeks where the events of every day in the week are narrated. The first week, recorded at the beginning of the Torah, describes how G-d created everything.
The only other week with every days’ events recorded is Yeshua’s Passion Week. No other Biblical characters have daily activities detailed for one complete week. You can read the complete Creation Week account from the Torah here. Correspondingly, we went through each days’ events in Yeshua’s Passion Week. The table below places each day of these two weeks side-by-side. The number ‘seven’, which forms a week, is thus the base meter or rhythm. Observe how all daily events correspond to one another even though separated time wise by millennia. At the very minimum, because the Creation Week is included in the Dead Sea Scrolls the creation account was already in writing hundreds of years before Yeshua walked the earth. And textual criticism analysis of the Brit Chadasha reveals it has not been changed or corrupted.
So how to explain the coordination?
The Rhythm of the Two weeks
Day of week | Creation Week | Yeshua’s Passion Week |
Day 1 | Surrounded by darkness G-d says, ‘Let there be light’and there was light in the darkness. | Yeshua says “I have come into the world as a light…” There is light in the darkness (John 12: 46) |
Day 2 | G-d separates the earth from the heavens. | Yeshua separates that of earth from that of heaven by cleansing the Temple as a place of prayer from commercialism. |
Day 3 | G-d speaks land to rise out of the sea. | Yeshua speaks of faith moving mountains into the sea. |
G-d speaks again ‘Let the land produce plants’ and vegetation sprouts. | Yeshua speaks a curse and the tree withers. | |
Day 4 | G-d speaks ‘Let there be lights in the sky’ and the sun, moon and stars appear, lighting the sky. | Yeshua speaks of the sign of his return – the sun, moon and stars will darken. |
Day 5 | G-d creates flying animals, including the flying dinosaur reptiles, or dragons. | Satan, the great dragon, moves to strike the Messiah. |
Day 6 | G-d speaks and land animals come come to life. | Passover (Pesach) lamb animals are slaughtered in the Temple. |
‘the Lord God … breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life’. Adam started breathing. | “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.” (Mark 15: 37) | |
G-d places Adam in the Garden. | Yeshua freely enters a Garden | |
Adam is warned away from the Tree of Knowledge with a curse. | Yeshua is nailed to a tree and cursed. 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” -Galatians 3:13 | |
No animal is found suitable for Adam. Another person was necessary. | Passover (Pesach) animal sacrifices were not sufficient. A person was required. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; -Hebrews 10:4-5 | |
G-d puts Adam into a deep sleep. | Yeshua enters the sleep of death | |
G-d wounds Adam’s side with which He creates Adam’s bride. | A wound is made in Yeshua’s side. From his sacrifice he wins his bride, those who belong to him. 9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” -Revelation 21:9 | |
Day 7 | G-d rests from creation | Yeshua rests in death |
Adam’s Friday Choreography with Yeshua
Events for each day across these two weeks correspond to each other, resulting in rhythmic symmetry like in a choreography. Then, at the end of both these 7-day cycles, first fruits of new life bursts forth into a new creation. So, Adam and Yeshua link together, creating a composite drama.
Significantly, the Bible (Tanakh) says of Adam that:
… Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
Romans 5:14
and
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
By comparing these two weeks we see that Adam dramatized a pattern that prefigures Yeshua. Did G-d need six days to create the world? Could He simply not have made everything with one command? Why then did He create in the order and with a structure that He did? Why did G-d rest on the seventh day when He cannot tire? He created in the timing and order that He did to demonstrate that He anticipated the events of Passion week from the beginning of human history.
This is especially true of Day Six – The Fridays of both weeks. Specifically, we see symmetry directly in the words used. For example, instead of simply saying ‘Yeshua died’ the Gospel says he ‘breathed his last’, a direct inverse pattern to Adam who received the ‘breath of life’. Surely, such a pattern from Time’s beginning shows foreknowledge spanning time and the world. In short, it can only be a dance orchestrated by the Divine.
Subsequent Prophetic Events of the Divine Choreography
Subsequently, the Bible (Tanakh) recorded specific historical events and festivals picturing Yeshua’s coming. They were written down and recorded hundreds of years before he walked on earth. Since humans cannot foreknow the future that far ahead, this provides further evidence that this was G-d’s drama, not man’s, nor simply random chance. The table below summarizes some.
Tanakh | How it foretells the coming of Yeshua |
Sign of Adam | G-d confronted the serpent, announcing the Seed coming to crush the serpent’s head. |
Sign of Abraham’s (Avraham’s) sacrifice | Abraham’s (Avraham’s) sacrifice (2000 BCE) was on the same Mountain where thousands of years later Yeshua would be sacrificed. At the last moment the lamb substituted for Isaac (Yitzhak) so he could live. This pictured how Yeshua the ‘Lamb of G-d’ would substitute and sacrifice himself for us so we could live. |
Sign of the Passover (Pesach) | Lambs were to be sacrificed on a specific day – Nisan 14, Passover/Pesach (1500 BCE). Those who obeyed escaped death, but those who disobeyed died. Hundreds of years later Yeshua was sacrificed on this exact day – Nisan 14, Passover/Pesach. Like those original Passover lambs, he died so we could live. |
Where does ‘Christ’ come from? | The title ‘Messiah’ (or ’Christ’) inaugurated with the promise of His coming – prophesied 1000 BCE. |
Was Yeshua the son of a virgin from the line of David? | The Messiah would descend from King David, but would be born from a virgin the ancient prophets foretold. Prophecies given 1000 BCE and 750 BCE and fulfilled in Yeshua. |
Sign of the Branch | The Messiah would sprout like a branch from a dead royal dynasty – prophesied 750 BCE and fulfilled in Yeshua. |
The Coming Branch named | This sprouting ‘Branch’ was named 500 years before he lived. |
Suffering Servant gives his life for all | The prophecy foretelling how this coming Servant would serve all mankind in his death – 750 BCE. Fulfilled by Yeshua in the manner of his crucifixion and his resurrection. |
Christ Coming in ‘sevens’ | The Prophetic Oracle foretelling when He would come, given through cycles of seven in 550 BCE. Fulfilled in Yeshua by the precise timing to the day of his arrival to Jerusalem in 33 CE. |
The Crucifixion Previewed | Vivid details of the crucifixion prophesied 1000 BCE – and fulfilled in the details of Yeshua’s crucifixion. |
Your Invitation
The Gospel invites our examination. It also invites us to
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Revelation 22:17
The following are available to help both to examine and to ‘come’
- How the remarkable career of Yeshua pairs with that of the Jewish nation – showing the Divine Power at work in history.
- A rationale examination of the Resurrection. Is there historical evidence to support it?
- Why did Yeshua die on the cross? What does it mean for me and you?
- How our recent world experiences with COVID illustrates the meaning of Yeshua’s sacrifice.