We shall discover that Satan was the first angel that God created. We shall discover that Michael was the angel that chose to be the most loyal to God and that loved men the most. We shall discover that Michael possessed Jesus during his entire ministry from his baptism until his sacrificial death. We shall discover that Satan lost his firstborn rights when he deceived Eve into losing her life and killing her husband. We shall discover that Michael gained these firstborn rights and more when he gave his life to ransom Adam, when he died sacrificially as an angel inside Jesus on the stake. We shall discover in later sections that Gabriel was loyal to both God and to Michael and played a huge role in the salvation of mankind and possessed John the baptist. These 3 are the key angelic players in the story of mankind. In this section we discover and prove that they were born in the following order:
We start by considering the common demise of the firstborn sons of all of the patriarchs.
Adam's firstborn son Cain lost his birthright to Seth, a son born much later.
Noah's firstborn son Ham, lost his birthright to Shem (proved later in the section).
Abraham's firstborn son Ishmael lost his birthright to the second born Isaac.
Isaac's firstborn son Esau lost his birthright (for a bowl of soup) to the second born Jacob
Jacob's firstborn son Reuben, lost his birthright (due to his taking his father's concubine) to the 11th born Joseph
Joseph's firstborn son Manasseh lost his birthright to the second born Ephraim.
So to cut a long story short, every major patriarch in the bible had a firstborn son who lost his birthright to a more deserving later born son. So what does all of this mean in the greatest fulfillment??
Well, did God not say: Israel is my son, my firstborn (Exodus 4:22)?
But Israel was not originally the firstborn of Isaac (whose father was Abraham whose father was ... whose father was Adam whose father was God). Israel was Jacob who was the second born. But Israel became the firstborn of Isaac and of God due to his spirituality. Likewise did his prophet not say
9 For I have become to Israel a Father; and as for Ephraim,
he is my firstborn (Jeremiah 31)?
But of course Ephraim was not the firstborn of Israel or the firstborn of
Joseph. Manasseh was the firstborn of Joseph.
So the question is: Did this thing that happened with all of the patriarchs in the old testament happen also with the great Patriarch himself, Jehovah??
Was Michael the firstborn originally or did he earn this right as a result of his spirituality, and did he replace the angel that was truly born first? After all he prefigures Jacob, whose name means 'surplanter', in many symbolisms. Consider the following two groups of scriptures, one group set before Jesus died and the other after:
17 Look! Also, there was a voice from the heavens that said:
This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved (Matthew 3).
5 While he was yet speaking, look! a bright cloud overshadowed
them, and, look! a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have
approved; listen to him. (Matthew 17).
11 And a voice came out of the heavens: You are my Son, the
beloved; I have approved you (Mark 1).
7 And a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of
the cloud: This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him. (Mark 9).
22 And the holy spirit in bodily shape like a dove came down upon
him, and a voice came out of heaven: You are my Son, the beloved; I have approved
you (Luke 3).
Nowhere in the gospels or before did the true God say of Jesus or of Michael: You are my
firstborn son, the beloved, I have approved you...
But after the resurrection we read:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1).
18 And he is the head of the body, the congregation. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he might become the one who is first in all things (Colossians 1).
6 But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says: And let all God's angels do obeisance to him (Hebrews 1).
But then we must realise one thing. Satan committed suicide inside Judas on the same day that Michael died in Jesus...
3 But Satan entered into Judas, the one called Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve (Luke 22).
So presumably God resurrected Jesus before he resurrected Satan, thereby reversing their physical birth orders as well as transferring the firstborn rights.
Now why was it that Satan was the anointed Cherub covering Eden?
13 In Eden, the garden of God, you proved to
be. Every precious stone was your covering, ruby, topaz and jasper; chrysolite,
onyx and jade; sapphire, turquoise and emerald; and of gold was the workmanship of your settings and your sockets in you. In the day of
your being created they were made ready.
14 You are the anointed cherub that is covering, and I have
set you. On the holy mountain of God you proved to be. In the midst of fiery
stones you walked about.
15 You were faultless in your ways from the day of your being
created until unrighteousness was found in you (Ezekiel 28).
Well, Adam was God's own son, a son created by God alone, the most important addition to the family.
Satan had
the top job of looking after him because this job was the right of the
firstborn through whom everything would have been done according to the Modus
operandi of God, who gives his firstborn covenanted rights to be his CEO.
Daniel reveals this great secret:
13 But the prince of the royal realm of Persia was standing in opposition to me for 21 days, and, look! Michael, one of the foremost princes, came to help me; and I, for my part, remained there beside the kings of Persia (Daniel 10).
One of the foremost princes? yes, but the foremost prince? no. But Paul explicitly declares that he did eventually become the foremost prince, the archangel:
18 and he is the head of the body, the congregation. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he might become the one who is first in all things (Colossians 1).
He became the firstborn angel of God at his resurrection from the dead. We must harmonise this with proverbs:
22 Jehovah himself produced
me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago.
23 From time indefinite I was installed, from the
start, from times earlier than the earth (Proverbs 8).
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there (Proverbs 8).
The beginning of his way, and the earliest of his achievements relates to the creation of a loyal character not to creation itself it would appear, hence we read:
30 then I came to be beside him as a master worker, and I came to be the one he was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time (Proverbs 8).
Had Michael been the firstborn then he would not have "come
to be" the one he was specially fond of, he would have always been that one.
9 For this very reason also God exalted him to a superior position
and kindly gave him the name that is above every [other] name (Philippians 2).
There is no position superior to God's firstborn angel other than that of a God like Jehovah. So Jesus earned this position by his sacrifice.
14 And to the angel of the congregation in
Laodicea write: These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true
witness, the beginning of the creation by God (Revelation 3).
This is the same statement as: Israel is my firstborn. This is: Jesus is the
firstborn. He is, but not by birth. He is the beginning of creation by God, but
not by originally being the beginning of creation by God, rather by becoming
this beginning.
32 And Noah got to be 500 years old. After that Noah became father to
Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 5).
6 And Noah was 600 years old when the deluge of waters occurred on the earth
(Genesis 7).
10 Shem was 100 years old when he became father to Arpachshad 2 years after the
deluge (Genesis 11).
From these 3 scriptures it is apparent that Shem was 100 years old when Noah was
602, at which time his firstborn son would have been 102 years old so Shem
wasn't the firstborn. But Shem got the blessing of the firstborn:
26 Blessed be Jehovah, Shem's God, And let Canaan become a
slave to him.
27 Let God grant ample space to Japheth, And let him reside in the tents of Shem.
Let Canaan become a slave to him also (Genesis 9).
So Shem was blessed as the firstborn, so either Ham or Japheth lost this right, but Japheth was also blessed and Ham's son Canaan was cursed, so Ham must have lost the firstborn right. This is why the order of their listing is: Shem Ham Japheth. The final firstborn, the original firstborn, and the third born. Since the pre flood humans took at least twice as long before they procreated it is reasonable to assume that their gestation period was twice as long as well. So Shem must have been the second born since he was born 2 years after Ham. So Japheth was the 3rd born.
We have already seen in the cases of all the major patriarchs that the firstborn son represents Satan and a later born son who represents Michael gets the firstborn rights. In the case of Noah, there were 3 sons, one of whom behaved badly and the other two behaved well. So we equate the 3rd son with Gabriel. Then since the birth order of Noah's 3 sons was Ham, Shem, Japheth. We deduce that the birth order of the 3 angels was Satan, Michael, Gabriel.
Adam had no brothers or sisters, so it was impossible for him to lose his firstborn rights. In fact Satan took them from him and Jesus gave them back to him as we shall see in I28.
Note 1
The account in Genesis 9 of Noah's wine production experiment reveals that Ham saw Noah's nakedness, when Noah had had too much wine, and did not cover his father up. Instead he told Shem and Japheth about it, who did cover their father up walking in backwards and not seeing their father's nakedness. But Canaan, Ham's son, ended up being cursed as a result of this little drama. From this we must infer that Ham also told Canaan his son about Noah's nakedness and Canaan then abused this nakedness in some way. We therefore see that Ham incited one of his sons to abuse his father and the situation was rectified by Shem and Japheth.
20 Now Noah started off as a farmer and proceeded to plant a
vineyard.
21 And he began drinking of the wine and became
intoxicated, and so he uncovered himself in the midst of his tent.
22 Later Ham, the father of Canaan saw his father's
nakedness and went telling it to his two brothers outside.
23 At that Shem and Japheth took a mantle and put it upon both
their shoulders and walked in backwards. Thus they covered their father's nakedness, while their faces were turned
away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.
24 Finally Noah awoke from his wine and got to know what his youngest son
[Canaan, a grandson was a son to early man]
had done to him.
25 At this he said: Cursed be Canaan. Let him be the lowest slave to his
brothers.
26 And he added: Blessed be Jehovah, Shem's God, And let Canaan become a
slave to him.
27 Let God grant ample space to Japheth, And let him reside in the tents of Shem.
Let Canaan become a slave to him also (Genesis 9).
Noah (2), Nakedness (3), Mantle (1)
There is a similarity between the actions of Satan who abused God's love and incited demons to do the same and Michael and Gabriel who rectified the situation. Canaan is the body of the serpent, Satan's administration, Satan is the head, that gets crushed. The Tent is the Garden of Eden. The Mantle, the Garment, is the body that Adam was given, the ageing body, that gave him and us a second chance. Noah means Adam, and his sons in Word1 and in Word2. This body is thanks to the CRC and the ARC. The second word symbolic thread has Jesus being exposed as the abuse opportunity, and Canaan is the sons of Jerusalem incited by the pharisees incited by Satan to ask Pilate for the death of the Christ.
Mantle [outer covering] appears once only in Genesis 9 like Garments [twntk] meaning 'inner/total coverings' does in Genesis 3. But the Hebrew root for both words means 'to cover'. So the Hebrew words themselves could be any type of covering from a coat to a body in the literal meaning.