What is dance? Theatrical dance encompasses rhythmic movements, meant to be viewed by spectators and to tell a story. Accordingly, dancers coordinate their movements with other dancers, using different parts of their own body, so that their movements generate visual beauty and accentuate rhythm. Usually this coordination occurs in a repeating time interval, called meter. Researchers have documented the crucial role that rhythm plays in our lives. So it is not surprising if we see a similar tilt to rhythm in God’s outworking since we are made in His image.
The Cross: Dancing on the Serpent’s head
The Gospel emphatically declares that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus was God’s defeat of His Adversary. We see this right at the beginning of human history, when Adam succumbed to the serpent. The scripture back then (details here) had predicted to the serpent:
15 And I will put enmity
Genesis 3:15
between you and the woman,
and between youroffspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
So this foretold a coming struggle between the Serpent and the Seed or Offspring of the Woman. Jesus declared himself as ‘the Seed’ on Day 1 of Passion Week. Then he purposefully drove the conflict to its climax at the cross. Thus, Jesus allowed the Serpent to strike him, confident of his final victory. In so doing, Jesus trampled the head of the serpent, making the way to life. Summing up, the Bible describes His victory and our way to live like this:
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2: 13-15
Their struggle unfolded like a dance, in a rhythmic meter of ‘sevens’ and ‘threes’. We explicitly see this by looking at the Passion Week events of Jesus through the lens of Creation.
God’s foreknowledge revealed from the beginning of Time
How can we know if this was God’s Plan instead of some random events with no ultimate purpose behind it? Alternatively, could the Gospel story have simply been human-engineered?
We know that no matter how clever, gifted, eloquent, powerful, or rich someone is, they cannot foresee the future. No one has the ability to coordinate with events thousands of years into the future. Only God can possibly foreknow and predestine far into the future. So, if we detect evidence of this kind of coordination through history we can prove that he choreographed this drama. Thus, it would rule out chance or clever people behind the gospel.
In the whole Bible there are, in fact, only two weeks where the events of every day in the week are narrated. The first week, recorded at the beginning of the Bible, describes how God created everything.
The only other week with every day’s events recorded is Jesus’ Passion Week. No other Biblical characters have daily activities detailed for one complete week. You can read the complete Creation Week account here. Correspondingly, we went through each day’s events in Jesus’ Passion Week. The table below places each day of these two weeks side-by-side. The number ‘seven’, which forms a week, is thus the base meter or rhythm. Observe how all daily events correspond to one another even though separated time-wise by millennia. At the very minimum, because the Creation Week is included in the Dead Sea Scrolls the creation account was already in writing hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth. And textual criticism analysis of the New Testament reveals it has not been changed or corrupted.
So how to explain the coordination?
The Rhythm of the Two weeks
| Day of week | Creation Week | Jesus’ Passion Week |
| Day 1 | Surrounded by darkness God says, ‘Let there be light’and there was light in the darkness. | Jesus says “I have come into the world as a light…” There is light in the darkness (John 12: 46) |
| Day 2 | God separates the earth from the heavens. | Jesus separates that of earth from that of heaven by cleansing the Temple as a place of prayer from commercialism. |
| Day 3 | God speaks land to rise out of the sea. | Jesus speaks of faith moving mountains into the sea. |
| God speaks again ‘Let the land produce plants’ and vegetation sprouts. | Jesus speaks a curse and the tree withers. | |
| Day 4 | God speaks ‘Let there be lights in the sky’ and the sun, moon and stars appear, lighting the sky. | Jesus speaks of the sign of his return – the sun, moon and stars will extinguish. |
| Day 5 | God creates flying animals, including the flying dinosaur reptiles, or dragons. | Satan, the great dragon, moves to strike the Christ. |
| Day 6 | God speaks and land animals come to life. | Passover lamb animals are slaughtered in the Temple. |
| ‘the Lord God … breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life’. Adam started breathing. | “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.” (Mark 15: 37) | |
| God places Adam in the Garden. | Jesus freely enters a Garden | |
| Adam is warned away from the Tree of Knowledge with a curse. | Jesus is nailed to a tree and cursed. 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” -Galatians 3:13 | |
| No animal is found suitable for Adam. Another person was necessary. | Passover animal sacrifices were not sufficient. A person was required. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; -Hebrews 10:4-5 | |
| God puts Adam into a deep sleep. | Jesus enters the sleep of death | |
| God wounds Adam’s side with which He creates Adam’s bride. | A wound is made 9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” -Revelation 21:9 | |
| Day 7 | God rests from creation | Jesus rests in death |
Adam’s Friday Choreography with Jesus
Events for each day across these two weeks correspond to each other, resulting in rhythmic symmetry like in a choreography. Then, at the end of both these 7-day cycles, first fruits of new life bursts forth into a new creation. So, Adam and Jesus link together, creating a composite drama.
Significantly, the Bible says of Adam that:
… Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
Romans 5:14
and
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
By comparing these two weeks we see that Adam dramatized a pattern that prefigures Jesus. Did God need six days to create the world? Could He simply not have made everything with one command? Why then did He create in the order and with a structure that He did? Why did God rest on the seventh day when He cannot tire? He created in the timing and order that He did to demonstrate that He anticipated the events of Passion week from the beginning of human history.
This is especially true of Day Six – The Fridays of both weeks. Specifically, we see symmetry directly in the words used. For example, instead of simply saying ‘Jesus died’ the Gospel says he ‘breathed his last’, a direct inverse pattern to Adam who received the ‘breath of life’. Surely, such a pattern from Time’s beginning shows foreknowledge spanning time and the world. In short, it can only be a dance orchestrated by the Divine.
Subsequent Prophetic Events of the Divine Choreography
Subsequently, the Bible recorded specific historical events and festivals picturing Jesus’ coming. They were written down and recorded hundreds of years before Jesus walked on earth. Since humans cannot foreknow the future that far ahead, this provides further evidence that this was God’s drama, not man’s, nor simply random chance. The table below summarizes some.
| Hebrew Bible | How it foretells the coming of Jesus |
| Sign of Adam | God confronted the serpent, announcing the Seed coming to crush the serpent’s head. |
| Sign of Abraham’s sacrifice | Abraham’s sacrifice (2000 BCE) was on the same Mountain where thousands of years later Jesus would be sacrificed. At the last moment the lamb substituted for Isaac so he could live. This pictured how Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’ would substitute and sacrifice himself for us so we could live. |
| Sign of the Passover | Lambs were to be sacrificed on a specific day – Nisan 14, Passover (1500 BCE). Those who obeyed escaped death, but those who disobeyed died. Hundreds of years later Jesus was sacrificed on this exact day – Nisan 14, Passover. Like those original Passover lambs, he died so we could live. |
| Where does ‘Christ’ come from? | The title ’Christ’ inaugurated with the promise of His coming – prophesied 1000 BCE. |
| Was Jesus the son of a virgin from the line of David? | The ‘Christ’ would descend from King David, but would be born from a virgin the ancient prophets foretold. Prophecies given 1000 BCE and 750 BCE and fulfilled in Jesus. |
| Sign of the Branch | The ‘Christ’ would sprout like a branch from a dead royal dynasty – prophesied 750 BCE and fulfilled in Jesus |
| The Coming Branch named | This sprouting ‘Branch’ was named ‘Jesus’ 500 years before he lived. |
| Suffering Servant gives his life for all | The prophecy foretelling how this coming Servant would serve all mankind in his death – 750 BCE. Fulfilled by Jesus in the manner of his crucifixion and his resurrection. |
| Christ Coming in ‘sevens’ | The Prophetic Oracle foretelling when He would come, given through cycles of seven in 550 BCE. Fulfilled in Jesus by the precise timing to the day of his arrival to Jerusalem in 33 CE. |
| The Crucifixion Previewed | Vivid details of the crucifixion prophesied 1000 BCE – and fulfilled in the details of Jesus’ crucifixion. |
| The Son of Man Revealed | The vision of a Divine person coming on the clouds in the air is fulfilled in the only way possible by Jesus |
Your Invitation
The Gospel invites our examination. It also invites us to
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Revelation 22:17
The following are available to help both to examine and to ‘come’
- How the remarkable career of Jesus pairs with that of the Jewish nation – showing a Divine Power at work in history.
- A rationale examination of the Resurrection. Is there historical evidence to support it?
- Why did Jesus die on the cross? What does it mean for me and you?
- How our recent world experiences with COVID illustrates the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice.
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