Armour of God
Paul seems to use the Matrix consciously in his letters, as Jesus did (the sermon on the mount, the Lord’s prayer, the seven woes to the Pharisees and even the seven words from the cross follow the pattern). There are two possibilities. Either I am seeing things that are not there, or a lot more work needs to be done in this particular area of “progressive chiasmus” based on Genesis 1.
G E N E S I S
Stand therefore,
E X O D U S
having girded your waist with truth,
L E V I T I C U S
having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
N U M B E R S
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
D E U T E R O N O M Y
above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
J O S H U A
And take the helmet of salvation,
J U D G E S
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
If you look carefully, you can see the Creation/Tabernacle sequence as well. The Word comes as command from the Ark, the Light on Day 1. The holy warrior’s robe is the veil, the firmament. The Nazirite vow is his Covenant with the Altar, with the warrior as the priestly firstfruits. Then, the warriors’ shoes do not wear out in the wilderness. The gospel of peace is the new Law, with the saints as tongues of fire on the Pentecost Lampstand, the governing lights. Day 5 is again the military number presented to God. This one is always about a multitude in unity. Day 6 is New Adam, the Captain of the Lord’s armies (Joshua = Salvation), the High Priest with a golden forehead, the Kingdom of David. Finally, the last step is always about succession, the offspring of this Creation process pictured as kingly letters, a decree carried by swift horsemen, or rivers of life, travelling out of the Temple into the world to bring healing to the nations. It is the Sabbath Kingdom of New Solomon.
As usual, the pattern begins with the sanctification of a single mediator (Adam - Lamb), progresses through the establishment of a corporate mediator (Eve - City), and ends with the beginning of a new cycle in their godly offspring (Abel - Rivers).
Even when poor, naked and wretched in the eyes of the world, the saints are covered in robes of Light.
See also High Priests of Ephesus and Ish and Isha.
(According to the ESV Study Bible notes, Ephesians can be divided into 5 sections, which supports my theory that the 7-fold Dominion pattern is actually an expanded 5-fold Covenant pattern (a la Ray Sutton’s That You May Prosper), but with the central “sanctions” divided into three points: Law-Testing-Law, ie. Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. This does cause a problem in that the Pentateuch alone is supposed to follow the 5-fold pattern. However, I think there is a solution. For Moses as judge, Leviticus is about Sanctions. For Israel, failing after the first Law brings the wilderness and the second Law (Deuteronomy). For Moses as head, Deuteronomy is about succession as he hands over to Joshua. For Israel as body, however, this does not come until Judges.)
