After looking at seven prophecies about the resurrection that are quoted or alluded to in the New Testament, I want to look at some other prophecies that I might refer to as sleeper prophecies that the early Christian writers saw, some early Christian writers saw in the Scriptures that may make a lot of sense to you also.
And I'm using the word sleeper in more ways than one as sleeper prophecies because as we saw in the previous session, the expression sleep can refer to physical sleep or to death, as we saw in Psalm 41 in that prophecy. And many early Christian writers pointed to a passage that I never thought about as a prophecy particularly. I've never heard any modern preacher use this, but a number of early Christians referred to this, and this is actually from Psalm 3.
So I want to take a look at that and a little more that's related to that before we wrap up this series. Irenaeus wrote regarding prophecies about the resurrection. He says, " David says, " Thus concerning the death and resurrection of Christ, " I lay down and slept. I awoke for the Lord received me. " David said not this of himself, for he was not raised after death, but the Spirit of Christ who spoke also in the other prophets concerning him, says, " Hereby David, I lay down and slept.
I awoke for the Lord received me. By sleep, he means death, for he rose again. " That's in proof of apostolic preaching chapter 73. So here Irenaeus is quoting from Psalm 3. And let's take another look at this, and I'm going to read from a translation that's based on the Septuagint. Psalm 3, starting in verse 1, " Lord, why do those who afflict me multiplies? " Think about Jesus in connection with this. Many of those who rise up against me, many of those who say to my soul, there's no salvation for Him in His God.
" But you, O Lord, are my protector, my God and the one who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me from his holy hill. " Pause. Verse 6, " I lay down and slept. I awoke for the Lord will help me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord, and save me, oh my God. For you struck all those who were foolishly at enmity with me. You broke the teeth of sinners. Salvation is of the Lord and your blessing is upon your people.
" So this is a Psalm of David, and once again, " I lied down and slept. I woke again because the Lord will sustain me or support me. " So think about the parallels between this Psalm, Psalm 3 and the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. He's attacked by strong enemies, although he done nothing wrong. His enemies are taunting him that God will not deliver him. Recall that's what it says. " Many of those who rise up against me, many of those who say to my soul, there's no salvation for him in his God.
" So they're taunting him that God's not going to deliver him. Recall what happened to Jesus when He was on the cross, Matthew 27. " Likewise, the chief priest mocking with the scribes and elders, he saved others. Himself he cannot save. If he's the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now if he will have him. " Also, it says, " I lay down and slept. I awoke again because the Lord will support me.
" So this obviously would make no sense if he's just talking about natural sleep and waking up again. He's speaking metaphorically about dying and being resurrected, if this is going to apply to David. It's just very similar to Psalm Psalm 16 as he says, " You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you let my body see decay. " This was referring to the one who was in the body of David the Messiah.
Similar with this also about referring to here about sleeping, that it could not have applied to David since he did not die. He was not resurrected after death. And not only did Irenaeus make the point from Psalm 3 based on what I just read to you from the Septuagint, but there were five other early Christian writers, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, Cyprian, and Lactantius all made the same connection. They said, " This psalm here is referring to the passion and resurrection of Jesus.
" And in addition to the reference that we talked about in Psalm 41 and Psalm 3 about someone sleeping and then raising up again, there's another famous prophecy that talks about someone who is sleeping and will be raised up. And this is Genesis 49, the famous deathbed prophecy of Jacob. So Jacob gathers his 12 sons around. He starts with the oldest and he goes down the line. The first three sons, because of grievous sins in their own lives, none of them receive much of a blessing.
The great blessing falls on the fourth son. So this would have been at least 1,600 years before the time of Christ that this prophecy was given by Jacob and then recorded by Moses later on. So it says in Genesis 49 verses 8 to 12, Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Your hands shall be on the neck or some translations will say on the back of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. From being a shoot, my son, you have grown up.
He bows down and sleeps as a lion and a cub. And who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor lawgiver from his loins until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the expectation of the nations, binding his colt to a vine and his donkey's colt to a branch. He'll wash his garments in wine, his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are gladdened from wine. His teeth are whiter than milk. That's Genesis 49 verses 8 to 12 from translation based on the Septuagint.
So we know the reference to the lion of the tribe of Judah from Revelation 5, we know that that refers to Jesus. So we know for sure, based on the New Testament, this is a prophecy about Jesus. Revelation 5:5 says, " Do not weep behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David has prevailed and can open the scroll. " And the lion is then equated with the lamb on the throne, which is clearly the lamb that's been slain clearly referring to Jesus Christ.
And this prophecy about a lion that lies down and sleeps is repeated in the Book of Numbers in Balaam's one of Balaam's oracles in his third oracle in Numbers 24. It is fascinating to me. This is echoed. It says, " A man shall come forth from his seed, " referring to the seed of Jacob or Israel, and shall rule many nations. And then it says, " He lies down and rests as a lion. And like a lion's cub, who shall rouse him? Those who bless you are blessed and those who curse you are cursed.
That's numbers 24 verses seven to nine. So both the Genesis 49 prophecy issued by Jacob and the Numbers 24 in Balaam's third oracle speak of one lying down and resting or sleeping like a lion or a lion's cub and the enigmatic question, " Who will rouse him or who will raise him up? " So in Numbers 24, the word that's used there for who will raise him up is anistemi, which we saw in several of the prophecies in the past in the Septuagint, which his word means raised up.
In Genesis 49:9 and the prophecy there is egeiro. And those two words are essentially synonymous. Both are used in the New Testament as referring to the resurrection. In John 2:19, he uses egeiro. It says, " Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. " He uses that there. And the angel in Matthew 28, verses 5 and 6, when it says, " He is not here, he is risen, " that's the word that's used there.
Matthew 12, and when Jesus speaking about the resurrection, he says, " The men of Nineveh will rise up with this generation and condemn it. " And then after that, he says, " The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation and condemn it. " And it's interesting to me. He uses anistemi in one and egeiro in the other. So obviously, the words are synonyms. They mean the same thing. They're used interchangeably. And the two prophecies there in the Septuagint use both words.
In Luke 11, in Luke 11:7-8, you can see the same pattern there, the two words are used interchangeably. Hippolytus, an elder of the church in Rome is right around the year 200 AD. Speaking about this prophecy, he said, " The prophet in using the expression a lion's whelp, " meaning a lion's cub, means him who sprang from Judah and David according to the flesh, who was not made indeed of the seed of David, but conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the expression he stooped down and lay down as a lion as a lion's whelp refers to the three days of sleep or death in Christ of Christ. And David says to the same effect, " I lay down and slept. I awake for the Lord will sustain me. " That's Psalm 3:5. We just talked about that a little earlier. Okay, pointing is basically pointing the fact of dying and being resurrected. And Jacob, continuing Hippolytus says, " And Jacob says, " Who shall rouse him? " Genesis 49:9.
And that is just what David and Paul referred to. This question, open-ended question, who will rouse him or who will raise him as when Paul says, " And God the Father who raised him from the dead. " In Galatians 1:1. So the question is asked who will raise him and Paul answers the question in Galatians. The Father will raise Him. The Father raised Him. That's Hippolytus' treatise on Christ and the Antichrist Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 5, page 206.
Eusebius, Bishop of the Church in Caesarea, writing around the year 320, says, " But as it was necessary for the mysteries of both his birth and death to be included in the prophecy concerning him, Jacob rightly proceeds to add to what has gone before. Judah is a lion's whelp. From a seed, my son, you have ascended, falling down, you have slept as a lion, as a lion's whelp, who shall rouse you. He calls him then a lion's whelp because of his being born to the royal tribe.
For he was of the seed of David according to the flesh, from a shoot you've grown up my son, Genesis 49:9. He says, " Because he was born of the seed and root of Jacob who foretold it being primarily God the Word and becoming secondarily the Son of man through the dispensation he undertook for us.
And the words, " Falling down, you slept as a lion and a whelp " in Genesis 49:9 are significant of his death because Scripture is accustomed as it is shown in many other places based on their kinship to call death asleep. And who shall wake him is the wonderful reference to his resurrection from the dead. For he who said who will wake him, Genesis 49:9, knew quite well that he would be awakened. And it is remarkable that he should add, " Who then shall do this and raise him up?
So as to impel us to ask who it was that raised up our Lord who died on our behalf. For who else was it, but the God of the universe, His Father, to whom the Savior's resurrection is solely to be attributed. According to the scripture which says whom the Father raised from the dead, Galatians 1:1. This is from Proof of the Gospel, Book 8 chapter 1 by Eusebius.
So the elements of this prophecy, there's so many of them, the idea of who will bow down, the word inception is proskuneo, which is often it means bowing down to worship you to do this to show homage or reverence for a king or to God. So when it's saying that his brothers will bow down, it's their bowing down to prostrate themselves in worship before him. This is the same word that's used when Satan tempts Jesus in Matthew 4. He says, " All these things.
" He says, " All these things I will give you if you will bow down and worship me. " This is the same word. And then Jesus replies, " You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. " So he uses the same word there too. It is the same word that we see in Genesis 49, the Septuagint. His brothers will bow down and basically worship Him there. Same thing in Hebrews 1:6, let all God's angels worship Him. It's the same word.
So while English translations may say your father's sons will bow down to you, keep in mind the meaning of the Word means the same thing in the Septuagint as worship as something we can't even give to angels but only to God. This points the divinity of Christ that His brothers would worship Him. He is the lion's cub who will bow down voluntarily and sleep or die. He will give up his life voluntarily. Who will raise him up is the mysterious question that is not answered in Genesis. Who will raise him up?
And the answer is God Himself the Father. The ruler staff will not depart from Judah until the one comes to which it belongs. Eusebius and other early Christian writers understood this as referring to the sign that Herod, who was an Idumean, he was a non-Jew who became king. Shortly before the birth of Jesus was fulfilling a prophecy that this was the sign that the Messiah was about to come.
This is in Proof of the Gospel, Book 3, chapter two by Eusebius, that he is the expectation of the nations, the Gentiles, not just the Jews. He binds his colt to a vine, his donkey to a branch, as talks about that in the triumphal entry in Matthew 21, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9, that he would bind his donkey. He would enter with riding a donkey in the foal of a donkey, and he would bind the colt would be bound to a branch.
Cyprian writing around 250 about the significance of the Lord's Supper captures many of these insights. He says, " In the blessing of Judah, the same thing as signified is also a figure of Christ. He would have praise and worship from his brothers. He would press down the back of his enemies. His hands with the hands which bore the cross, he conquered death. And he himself is the lion of Judah that he should couch sleeping in his passion and should also rise up.
And he should be the one that would offer hope to the Gentiles. This is in the Epistle of Cyprian number 62 in Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 5, page 360. So in the next segment, I just want to pull all this together and wrap it up and ask ourselves the question, if there are so many prophecies about the resurrection, why is it that Christians today and why did the apostles before Jesus explained it to them? Why is it that so many people miss these wonderful prophecies?
And what's the significance of this practically in our own lives?