Yeshua pointed to Messianic prefigurements in the TaNaKh like the story of Jonah's release from the Fish, and Messianic Jews have an especially close reading of the TaNaKh. I want to please ask if you share my sense that (A) Yael's nailing Sisera through the temples or (B) Jotham's escape from Abimelech might serve as Messianic prefigurements.
A) Do you think that the nailing through the temples symbolized anything?
To provide background: In Deuteronomy 23:13, the Israelites were instructed to use a spike ("yated") to dig holes for their refuse. In Judges 4, Yael (יָעֵ֣ל) fed sour milk to Sisera, the Canaanite commander who had been attacking the Israelites, made him sleep, took a spike ("yated") and nailed it through Sisera's temples, fastening his head to the ground. In Psalm 22, the Messianic narrator cries that his enemies "gouged (kara) my arms". And then in Psalm 40, David sings, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened (literally: gouged/dug, kara)". I took this to mean that God made ears in David symbolically, allowing him to hear God's word.
My theory was that Yael gouging Sisera's temples symbolized God (Yah, El) digging/gouging/opening symbolic "ears" in gentiles to let them hear His word. I thought that gouging a nail through someone's temples could metaphorically be like gouging "ears" into them. On the other hand, Yael's name is not quite the same as "Yah-El". And I couldn't find anyone else seeing anything special in the nailing of the temples in particular. So I am writing to see whether you think that nailing the temples could represent anything.
I did find that some believers see Yael as prefiguring Yeshua's mother Mary/Miriam, because in Judges 4, Deborah praises Yael as "Blessed among women", reminiscient of Gabriel's praise of Mary in Luke's Gospel. In their theory, Mary's giving birth to Yeshua led to the end of Satan, similar to God's prediction in the Garden of Eden about the Seed of the Woman crushing the Serpent's Head. In their theory, Yael's spike weapon represented the nails in Yeshua's Cross that served as holy instruments in this victory. And the spike going into the skull represented the cross going into Golgotha ("the place of the skull"). But maybe they are also reading too much into these connections?
A) Do you think that the nailing through the temples symbolized anything?
To provide background: In Deuteronomy 23:13, the Israelites were instructed to use a spike ("yated") to dig holes for their refuse. In Judges 4, Yael (יָעֵ֣ל) fed sour milk to Sisera, the Canaanite commander who had been attacking the Israelites, made him sleep, took a spike ("yated") and nailed it through Sisera's temples, fastening his head to the ground. In Psalm 22, the Messianic narrator cries that his enemies "gouged (kara) my arms". And then in Psalm 40, David sings, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened (literally: gouged/dug, kara)". I took this to mean that God made ears in David symbolically, allowing him to hear God's word.
My theory was that Yael gouging Sisera's temples symbolized God (Yah, El) digging/gouging/opening symbolic "ears" in gentiles to let them hear His word. I thought that gouging a nail through someone's temples could metaphorically be like gouging "ears" into them. On the other hand, Yael's name is not quite the same as "Yah-El". And I couldn't find anyone else seeing anything special in the nailing of the temples in particular. So I am writing to see whether you think that nailing the temples could represent anything.
I did find that some believers see Yael as prefiguring Yeshua's mother Mary/Miriam, because in Judges 4, Deborah praises Yael as "Blessed among women", reminiscient of Gabriel's praise of Mary in Luke's Gospel. In their theory, Mary's giving birth to Yeshua led to the end of Satan, similar to God's prediction in the Garden of Eden about the Seed of the Woman crushing the Serpent's Head. In their theory, Yael's spike weapon represented the nails in Yeshua's Cross that served as holy instruments in this victory. And the spike going into the skull represented the cross going into Golgotha ("the place of the skull"). But maybe they are also reading too much into these connections?
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