Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #30 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are continuing to look at Melchisedec and it has led us to Colossians, chapter 1. God insists in the passage in Colossians 1:18 that Jesus “is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”

You know, God is a jealous God. He will not share His glory with another and when it comes to Christ’s death and resurrection when His name was assigned as the “Son of God,” God is very powerfully declaring that Jesus is the “beginning.” He is the beginning based upon His death, resurrection and sonship. That was the beginning point for all things. In His death and resurrection and the declaration as Son of God, we acknowledge that Jesus has the preeminence and is before all things; He was the firstborn of all creation and in His role as Son of God, He created the world, according to Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 2. He is “before all things, and by him all things consist.” This is the unceasing emphasis placed upon this declaration of “Son of God.”

Before now, we really may not have understood this. We knew that Romans chapter 1 said He was declared to be the Son by (or through) the resurrection from the dead, but we may have thought this “stood alone,” but it does not. Colossians, chapter 1 and Revelation 1, verse 5 and much other information powerfully support this Bible doctrine and teaching by the Word of God that Christ died and rose from the dead first, before all others.

We understand this, but a good number of people do not understand and they insist, “No – Jesus died at the cross the first time and He rose from the dead at the cross in 33AD and that is when He became the firstborn from the dead.” However, if in 33AD Jesus was the first one to die, then when we look in the Bible we should not find that anyone died and rose from the dead before him, but we find it says in 2Kings 4:32-37:

And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto JEHOVAH. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.

Here, there is a young boy who died and resurrected. Or, we can look at 2Kings 13:20-21:

And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

He was dead and he came back to life.

In the New Testament, it says in Luke 7:11-15:

And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

Of course, the most well-known death and resurrection was that of Lazarus, in John 11:38-44:

Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Here, we have read of four instances in which a man died and rose again before Jesus had gone to the cross. And, yet, some might say, “Well, that is not the same thing. It is not as if these men died and rose and went to heaven. They died and rose on the earth in each case. They were dead for a while, but by the power of God they had their lives restored, but in each case, they would (later) have died again.” Okay, I think that is a just claim and it is not the same as when Jesus died, rose again and is forever alive after the resurrection, so there is some accuracy to that argument. So, I would hesitate to say that these are examples that prove that Jesus was not the firstborn from the dead when He died and rose again in 33AD.

However, if we could find even one example of a person that died and resurrected before the cross in 33AD and upon that resurrection, he went to heaven (and did not die a second time), it would be something completely different from these four people, in that he died and rose from the dead and went into heaven in a new resurrected body. Then that would be valid and conclusive evidence to show that Jesus could not have died and resurrected to be the firstborn from the dead in 33AD. There would be a prior incident of this having happened and the Bible does provide an historical record of such a man and that man was Moses. And this may be why God did allow this occurrence to happen in the case of Moses, so that Moses would be the proof that Jesus died and rose again at the foundation of the world to be declared the firstborn Son of God. It says in Deuteronomy 34:4-6:

And JEHOVAH said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of JEHOVAH died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of JEHOVAH. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

There is a clear statement that Moses died. The pronoun “he” can only refer to God as the one who buried him. Moses died and the Bible says that God Himself buried him in the land of Moab and no one ever found his gravesite or sepulchre. No one knew where it was, so no one dug up Moses and did something with his body, like turn his body into some idol. God did not allow that to happen. We would expect that Moses would have experienced the common lot of all God’s children (like Noah, Abraham and every elect of God), in that upon the point of his death, Moses’ body was put in the ground but his soul went to be with the Lord. That is what it says in 2Corinthians 5:8: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” With few exceptions, the basic rule is that the elect person dies and the body stays on the earth, but the soul (which remains alive) goes into heaven to be with the Lord. We read in Revelation 6 and Revelation 20 about the “souls of them” that were beheaded for the Word’s sake. It does not mention their bodies, but only their souls and we would assume that Moses’ soul was counted among these elect. We would assume that, except God specifically tells us in a few places in the New Testament that the normal situation did not happen in the case of Moses. It says in Matthew 17:1-4:

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

This account has become known as “the Mount of Transfiguration” by theologians. Jesus was “transfigured” upon the mountain and Moses and Elias appeared with Him. Peter recognized Moses and Elias, because he said, “let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias,” it means that Peter could see them. This is confirmed in the other Gospel accounts. He could see Moses. He could see Elias. He could see Jesus. So, this is evidence that Moses appeared in a glorified body of some kind, but still recognizable as Moses and not “spirit,” because when someone dies and their spirit leaves the body, we do not see that spirit. If you are with someone that is on their deathbed and that person dies, do you see their spirit leave their body and go up? No – a spirit is invisible. We cannot see a soul. When we see people, we see their physical bodies. We do not see their souls. We may be able to see evidence of the condition of their souls by the way they live in their physical bodies, but we do not see their souls, but Peter saw Moses, Elias and Jesus.

In a parallel account, it says in Luke 9:28-33:

And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.

Peter saw the two men with Jesus. He recognized them as Moses and Elias. Yes, they were in a glorified condition and I do not know what that would be. Of course, Christ was also transfigured and He was shining with a brilliance. Nonetheless, these two men were visible to men like Peter that were still on the earth in their physical bodies and they recognized them, which means that Moses was not in spirit but was in a body. And Elias was there and we know he was a man that never died, but was translated directly into heaven. We can read about that in 2Kings. When someone is translated, his body is transformed and he would receive the new body and he would not have gone through the normal process of death and resurrection because he never died. So, Elias was not in heaven just in his soul existence, but Elias was in heaven in his soul and new translated body. And Moses, as far as we know, had the same sort of body as Elias. There is no distinction made between them, so, again, we would say Moses was in a resurrected body (not a translated body) because he had died and was buried and God resurrected him. That would have been the only way he could appear as he did on the Mount of Transfiguration and speaking with Jesus.

It also helps us to understand another Bible verse in the Book of Jude where it speaks of Michael the Archangel. Michael is another name for Christ and the name “Michael” means “who is God” or “who is assuredly God.” The word “archangel” can be understood as “chief messenger.” It says in Jude 1:9:

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses…

This is interesting. When we think of all the saints of God the devil could have chosen to contend about with Jesus and with all those bodies that had died and been buried, the devil selects Moses’ body. And it very carefully says that the devil disputed about Moses’ body, not Moses himself. Why? We read in Deuteronomy 34 that Moses died and was buried and he was not like Enoch, who was translated, or Elijah, who was translated. The latter two never died. As far as everyone else goes, why is Moses in heaven in his new resurrected body when nobody else is? “Why did you resurrect Moses? Why is it he appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah? It should have been Elijah and Enoch.” Of course, Elijah and Moses represent the Law and the Prophets, but the point the devil was trying to make was to accuse God of doing something wrong. It is as if the devil is saying, “After all, you said Jesus was the firstborn from the dead. He is the first one to have died and resurrected and to have gone to heaven without dying again, or so you say. That is what the verses imply when it says He is the first begotten from the dead and the first to experience the resurrection in a permanent form. But it is not true!” You see, the devil is the accuser. That is what he loves to do. He thinks he has something here against God. He has found a mistake. He has found an error and Jesus is not the firstborn from the dead because Moses was the firstborn from the dead. Moses died in the year 1407BC. Since God buried him, it is not specific about when He resurrected him, but we do know that the event on the Mount of Transfiguration took place before the cross and before that Sunday morning when Jesus arose from the dead in 33AD. Therefore, the devil thought that Moses died and resurrected before Jesus and that Moses was the firstborn from the dead.

Do you see the problem that always results when you have wrong doctrine and when you do not have the true teaching of the Bible? When you are wrong about a teaching of the Scripture, then other things are not going to fit; other things will not harmonize. And here was a major problem. How could Jesus be called the firstborn from the dead? (Read Colossians 1, verses 14-18 to see the tremendous emphasis placed upon that fact.) But, here was Moses with a resurrected body long before Jesus in 33AD.

What solves this mystery? What harmonizes all these things together? What harmonizes these things is that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He died. He resurrected, declared to be the Son, the firstborn from the dead before the world was. As the resurrected Son of God, He created the world. As the first begotten of the dead, He is before all things. He has the preeminence. He died and resurrected well before Moses was even born to lived 120 years and die, to be resurrected at a later point. There is no difficulty. Another mystery solved! That is when we know we have truth because it answers all these things.

We are well past the point when people should be holding on to a doctrine that is only producing inconsistencies and contradictions, with no harmonization and even uprooting things that should harmonize. I would say to these people: “Then you had better make correction and repent and turn from holding onto that lie and acknowledge the truth, even if you do not like it and even if it goes against your pride and stubborn nature. You must humble yourself and submit to the teaching of the Bible.” This is the nature God gives His people.