[Part I included the Introduction and Proof Points 1 thru 3]
Proof Point 4A) Tzemach, the Branch of the LORD! The Hebrew word for the Branch of the LORD is Tzemach! Tzemach, appears in only five places in the whole Old Testament. The Branch of the LORD is one of many divine titles of our Lord Yeshua as the coming Messiah. And three out of these five places are all about the Messiah prophesied coming from the Zadokite high priest family. We will now look at all of these five places.
Isaiah 4:2 In that Day the Branch (Tzemach) of the LORD shall be Beautiful and Glorious; and the fruit of the earth (the saved believers) shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. [Here Tzemach is the Son of God!]
Next Tzemach is prophesied coming from king David’s family.
Jeremiah 23:5 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that I will raise to David a Branch (Tzemach) of Righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute Judgment and Righteousness in the earth. 23:6 In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is His name by which He will be called, The LORD our Righteousness!”
4B) Next we see Tzemach, the Messiah, prophesied coming to earth from two families, king David’s family and Aaron’s family. Jeremiah 33:14 ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the House of Israel and to the House of Judah. 33:15 ‘In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a Branch (Tzemach) of Righteousness. He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. 33:16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which He will be called in her, The LORD our Righteousness!’ 33:17 “For thus says the LORD, ‘David shall never lack a Man to sit on the throne of the House of Israel; 33:18 nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a Man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice (Hebrew is ‘zehbah’, [strong’s # 2077] a blood sacrifice, a slaughter) continually (Hebrew word is ‘kol ha yamin’, which means ‘for all days’.).’ ” 33:19 And the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 33:20 “Thus says the LORD, ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, 33:21 then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. 33:22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’ ” 33:23 Moreover the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 33:24 “Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the LORD has chosen, He has also cast them off’? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them. 33:25 “Thus says the LORD: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, 33:26 then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’ ”
(a) This whole passage of Jeremiah 33:14-26 is primarily about the prophesy of the coming Messiah, referring to Yeshua’s two divine titles, as a Branch of Righteousness and the LORD our Righteousness. 1) And very important about the two families of the virgin and 2) the Man who would be coming to earth from both king David’s family and also high priest Aaron’s family.
(b) Jeremiah 33:14-17 This is basically pretty much a repeat of Jeremiah 23:5, 6. It is again about the two divine titles of Yeshua, a Branch of Righteousness and the LORD our Righteousness, and about a certain Man (Yeshua) who will be coming from David’s family, the One who will Reign as King over the House of David and the House of Israel forever. This Man is definitely Yeshua,coming from Miriam’s father’s family.
(c) In Jeremiah 33:18, the qualifying words, ‘a Man’ relate either to the Aaronic priests, or a specific Man from an Aaronic priest family, the One who is before God, who does these sacrifices especially a Blood Sacrifice (‘for all days’, in Hebrew ‘kol ha yamim’), and that this Man is ‘before Me,’ (lifanay); which also means that whoever these Aaronic priests are, or this one Person is from an Aaronic priest family, that He stands before God.
By saying ‘before Me,’ tells us specifically which family of Aaron these priests are from, or this Man is from. For this can only be one family of Aaron, the family of the sons of Zadok; the only family of Aaron which was allowed to come before God. This family is found in six different places in the book of Ezekiel, from chapters 40 to 48. Specifically these six places in the book of Ezekiel are 40:46; 42:13; 43:18, 19; 44:15, 16; 45:4; and 48:10, 11.
In chapters of Ezekiel 40 – 48, all the other Aaronic priest families were told by God to leave His Presence. They could no longer come into God’s Presence in the Temple, and that they no longer were allowed to minister before God doing any blood sacrifices; and also they would now only be allowed to minister to the people. This can be seen clearest in Ezekiel 44:6-14.
This information will become extremely important in the weeks and months ahead when the Israeli Orthodox religious Jews come into great political power after the Gog Magog War, and are able to take Mount Zion hill from the Arab Muslims and begin building their temple and doing animal blood sacrfices to the God of Israel.
Ezeziel 44:6-14 “Now say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “O house of Israel, let Us have no more of all your abominations. 44:7 When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to defile it, My house, and when you offered My food, the fat and the blood, then they broke My covenant because of all your abominations. 44:8 And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My Sanctuary for you.” 44:9 Thus says the Lord GOD, “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel. 44:10 And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. 44:11 Yet they shall be ministers in My Sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. 44:12 Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have raised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lord GOD, “that they shall bear their iniquity. 44:13 And they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. 44:14 Nevertheless I will make them keep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it.”
Here are two Scriptures from Ezekiel 43 and Ezekiel 44 about the high priest family of the sons of Zadok …
Ezekiel 43:18 And He said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘These are the ordinances for the altar on the day when it is made, for sacrificing burnt offerings on it, and for sprinkling blood on it. 43:19 You shall give a young bull for a sin offering to the priests, the Levites, who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach Me to minister to Me,’ says the Lord GOD.”
Ezekiel 44:15, “But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord GOD. 44:16 “They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.”
(d) We know in Jeremiah 33:17, the Man from David who reigns as King is Yeshua. So then the Man mentioned in verse 18, is this verse about Aaronic priests in general, or about a group of Aaronic priests from the specific family of Zadok? Or is this verse really about one specific Son from Zadok, the Man Yeshua, who is always before God, (אִישׁ מִלְּפָנָי), the One who does the Sacrifice ‘for all days’ (זֶּבַח כָּל-הַיָּמִים), the Eternal Blood Sacrifice?
Answer, this Man can only be Yeshua, seen coming from the Zadokite high priest family, from Miriam’s mother’s family.
(e) If you could superimpose Yeshua over these two Jeremiah 33 verses, 17 & 18, we can see that Yeshua perfectly fits these verses. If Yeshua is the Man being talked about in verse 17, then Yeshua must also be the Man of verse 18, who was prophesied to also be coming from the Zadok high priest family. He, as the High Priest of Heaven, head of the Melchi Zedek Priesthood, does this blood Sacrifice. Psalm 110:1, 4; Ezekiel 43:19; Ezekiel 44:15, 16.
Remember that angel Gabriel had told Miriam that her Son Yeshua would Reign on the throne of His father David, and would Reign over the House of Israel forever. And indirectly that Yeshua would also be from the same family of Aaron (Luke 1:36, 5) as Miriam’s relatives Elisheva and Zechariah, whom God had said in Luke 1:6, were both righteous (what Zadok means) before God!
These were the qualifying words proving that both her relatives were from this Zadokite high priest family, which was Yeshua’s own blood kin family from His virgin mother Miriam.
Yeshua‘s mother being a virgin, meant that her Son Yeshua could never be an Aaronic priest, since He had no earthly father. And He could only be from one tribe, the tribe of Miriam’s father, which was the tribe of Judah. Yeshua could therefore never be from the tribe of Miriam’s mother, Levi. But our Lord Yeshua is always from the two families of His virgin mother!
(f) Proof Point 5) This whole passage in Jeremiah 33:14 to 26, is a future Messianic prophetic passage with Yeshua’s two divine titles, Tzemach, the Branch of Righteousness, and the LORD our Righteousnes! “The days are coming …” This is future!
Also this passage is about the two families of the Messiah, king David’s family and the Aaronic priest family, which God had specifically repeated three different times in verses 17 -24, to make sure that nobody would miss the key point of 33:24.
Jeremiah 33:24, about the two families that God had chosen, David’s family and Aaron’s family. Chosen for what? Chosen, related to the coming Messiah, the two divine titles of Yeshua, as both Branch of Righteousness, & the LORD our Righteousness.
What did God just say?
That these two families had been specially chosen for God’s Son Yeshua to be able to come to earth through the virgin! Isaiah 7:13, 14
We know this from Luke 1: 5, 6, and Luke 29-36, that Yeshua is from the two families of David and high priest Zadok’s family of Aaron. This is what the mystery of Jeremiah 33:24 really meant.
(g) There is another major mystery which has been overlooked … In 70 A.D., at the destruction of the Jerusalem’s 2nd Temple, all the genealogy records of the Aaronic priests were destroyed when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed. Therefore today no records exist of who may still really be from this Zadokite’s high priest family.
Therefore this whole Jeremiah 33:14-26 Scripture passage can only be about Yeshua, and cannot be the Aaronic priests, for only Yeshua’s Blood Sacrifice perfectly fits this Jeremiah 33:18 verse.
Yeshua has to be the Man being referred to in verse 33:18, the One who does the Eternal Blood Sacrifice “for all days!” That means that only Yeshua could be the fulfillment of this whole Messianic passage from Jeremiah 33:14 – 33:26.
In Jeremiah 33:18 Yeshua is this Man from the family of Aaron, who does this Eternal Blood Sacrifice!
This Truth of Yeshua’s Blood Sacrifice is not taught!
h) Numbers 18:20 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “… ‘I am your portion and your inheritance’ ...” also see in Ezekiel 44:28.
Only as the Son of Man could Yeshua ever provide Atonement for both the sins of mankind and also sins committed on the earth, because the earth was given to man. Genesis 1:26; Deut. 32:43;
Also only a sinless Man could redeem both mankind of all sins and also break the curse over the earth originally spoken by God.
Genesis 3:17 “Cursed is the ground for your sake …”
An Aaronic priest could never redeem the earth from sin on it. Numbers 35:33 “ ‘So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. 35:34 Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”
Proof Point 6) Zechariah 3:1-10 …
Zechariah 3:1 Then he showed me Joshua (Yehoshua) the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 3:2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” 3:3 Now Joshua (Yehoshua) was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. 3:4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” 3:5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the LORD stood by. 3:6 Then the Angel of the LORD admonished Joshua, saying, 3:7 “Thus says the LORD of Hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways, and if you will keep My command, then you shall also judge My house, and likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk among these who stand here.’ 3:8 ‘Hear, O Joshua (Yehoshua), the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you, for they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the Branch (Tzemach). 3:9 For behold, the Stone that I have laid before Joshua (Yehoshua): upon the Stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 3:10 In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ”
This prophetic passage from Zechariah 3:1-10 clearly shows us God’s Servant, Tzemach, (Yeshua) the Messiah, would also be born from the Aaronic priest family of Yehoshua, from the family of high priest Zadok, besides being born from king David’s family.
God’s Servant the Branch (Tzemach), is also the Messiah Yeshua. Here Tzemach is prophesied coming from Yehoshua’s high priest family. In this Messianic prophesy Tzemach’s shed Blood will both cleanse this Zadokite high priest Yeshoshua, and also this Blood will cleanse the land, verses Zechariah 3:4 and Zechariah 3:9. Only God could do that, born as the Son of Man!
An Aaronic high priest could never cleanse the land from man’s sin; but only the Blood of our promised Messiah could do that.
See Numbers 35:33, Genesis 3:17. See also Deuteronomy 32:43,
“He will provide Atonement for His land and His people!”
Point 7) Zechariah 6:11-13, “Take the silver & gold, make elaborate crowns, and set on the head of Yehoshua the high priest, son of Jeho-Zadok. 6:12 Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, saying, “Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the Temple of the LORD; 6:13 Yes, He shall build the Temple of the LORD. He shall bear the Glory, and shall sit and rule (as King) on His Throne; so He shall be a Priest on His Throne, and the counsel of Peace shall be between them (King and Priest) both.”
Here the Man Tzemach (the Branch) is again prophesied from Yehoshua’s high priest family of Zadok, the One who will build the Temple of the LORD; besides coming from king David’s family of Judah. This Temple which He builds will not be the same temple which the Israeli Orthodox religious Jews will soon build in Jerusalem.
The Temple which Yeshua will build will be elevated high above all the other hills around Jerusalem, and will not be as Mount Zion hill is today, below the hills around it. See Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1
Here Yeshua is returning to earth as the King and High Priest of Heaven. He is also the King of Israel, born of the virgin’s two families, king David’s family and also high priest Zadok’s family.
In Revelation 19:12 King Yeshua wears many crowns …
Revelation 19:11 Now I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in Righteousness He Judges and makes war. 19:12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 19:13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in Blood, and His name is called The Word of God!
8) Ezekiel 44:15 “But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My Sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord GOD. 44:16 “They shall enter My Sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.” [See Ezekiel 40:46; 42:13; 45:4; 48:10, 11]
Both Ezekiel 43:18, 19 and Ezekiel 44:15, 16, 23,24, says that only a son from the family of high priest Zadok would be allowed to do a blood sacrifice that God would honor. This is the real reason why Yeshua’s sinless Blood Sacrifice was totally accepted and honored by His Father in Heaven! (Leviticus 23:11)
In Ezekiel chapters 43-48, God removed all other Aaronic priest families from ever again being allowed to come into His Presence, or minister to Him, or do a blood sacrifice before God which God would honor, except for only sons of the Zadok high priest family.
In 70 A.D., when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, so were all the Aaronic priest records. Therefore nobody knows for sure today who is really from this Zadokite high priest family, the only Aaronic priest family God said was allowed to do a blood sacrifice.
This information will be extremely important in the near future when the Israeli Orthodox religious Jews build their temple on the Mount Zion hill, and begin doing their animal blood sacrifices.
Point 9) The Path of the Righteous Seed of Eve (Genesis 3:15) which ran to Miriam. This Seed would first travel through Abel to Noah, to Abram, to Isaac, to Jacob (Israel), and to Jacob’s son Judah, and on to Amminadab. This Seed went to Amminadab’s son Nahshon, and ran on to king David. And then this Seed went on to Miriam’s father from king David’s family.
But this Seed also went to Amminadab’s daughter, Elisheva (from Judah), who married high priest Aaron (from Levi), and to their son Eleazar, and on to high priest Zadok. It went through the Zadokite priests on to Miriam’s mother from high priest Zadok.
This ‘Seed of Eve’ continued for 2000 years, finally going into the virgin Miriam. What’s rarely seen is high priest Aaron of Levi married Elisheva of Judah, and their four sons were really from the two tribes of Levi and Judah. This Seed would run through both the family line of kings from king David to Miriam’s father, and it also went from high priest Eleazar to the Aaronic high priests to high priest Zadok, and then on to Miriam’s mother.
Then this Righteous Seed, through intermarriage would go on into the virgin Miriam. And then through the Holy Spirit, Yeshua, the Son of God, was then born in Bethlehem of Judea.
The Holy Spirit showed me many years ago that you can actually trace the path of this Righteous Seed with three words, ‘right’, ‘righteous’, and ‘righteousness’, looking up where these three words related to a real specific person in Bible history!
10) Genesis 14:18 Then Melchizedek, King of Salem brought out bread and wine; He was the Priest of God Most High. 14:19 And He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; 14:20 And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he (Abram) gave Him (Melchi Zedek) a tithe of all.
In Genesis 14:18-23, a Man appeared to Abram who was both King and Priest (from Heaven). His three titles: Melchi Zedek (my King of Righteousness), King of Salem (Jerusalem), and the Priest of God Most High. He blessed Abram, and He also blessed Abram’s Seed. Abram really believed that this Man was God, for Abram gave Him a tithe of all. In Genesis 14:22, Abram said, “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth …”
This God Man then directed the path of Abram’s Seed, so that this Seed would travel through the line of kings from David and also through the line of high priests from Zadok, converging into the virgin Miriam.
Abraham was a man of great faith, believing in all the promises of God! (Genesis 15:6) Abram trusting God, began his journey of faith at age 75 in Haran. It was 25 years later when Abraham was 100 years old, that his son Isaac (laughter) was finally born to him and to his wife Sarah, who was then 90.
King David had written about this Man, in Psalm 110: 1, 4, whose title is Melchi Zedek. This Man in Heaven is God’s Son
Psalm 110:1 Psalm of David. The LORD (Father יהוה) said to my Lord (Sonלאדני ) “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” 110:4 The LORD has sworn and will not relent, “You (God’s Son) are a Priest forever, by My Word, Melchi Zedek (my King of Righteousness)!”
11) Around 165 B.C., the Maccabees, besides the nice Chanukah story that we all know, kicked out the Zadok high priest and all the other Zadokite priests from the Jerusalem Temple, and took over the priesthood, violating the Word of God given only to the Zadok priesthood. They corrupted all the Jerusalem Temple sacrifices till God’s Temple was finally destroyed in 70 A.D. For the Messianic prophesies had foretold that Tzemach (the Branch), the Messiah, would be born from the Zadokite high priest family, besides being born from the family of king David. Zechariah 3:1-9 and 6:11-13;
So just how would God keep His promises given to the Zadokite high priests to be able to accomplish this? For the whole Zadokite priest family had been thrown out of the Jerusalem Temple by the Maccabees and had disappeared going underground, and perhaps as many have believed they had formed the Kumran community out by the Dead Sea.
For God had promised in the Scriptures of the Tanakh that the promised coming Messiah (the Branch, Tzemach) would not only be born from the family of king David of the tribe of Judah through the virgin’s father’s family, but also that the Messiah (Tzemach) would also be coming to earth through the Zadokite high priest family of Aaron. Again, this can be found in Jeremiah 33:17-24; in Zechariah 3:1, 8; and also in Zechariah 6:11-13;