In his ground-breaking and fascinating The Handwriting on the Wall, [1] James Jordan writes:

God intends to teach Nebuchadnezzar what true wisdom is, by giving him advisors who have genuine knowledge of good and evil, men who call evil “evil” and good “good” (Isaiah 5:20–21). In Daniel 2-5, we shall repeatedly see the false wisdom of the Chaldeans fail, and the true wisdom of God’s people triumph.

Meanwhile, it will be necessary for the young men to be discerning. Some of the knowledge of the Chaldeans is sound; doubtless they know a great deal about many matters. But the Godly have to sift through this knowledge. And, more importantly, the Godly must maintain their position in the true kingdom of God, and not be “eaten” into the false kingdom of man. As we shall see, the young men retain their position in God’s kingdom by refusing to eat the food of Nebuchadnezzar’s table. That food is the “forbidden food” as far as they are concerned. By refusing it, they put themselves in a position to acquire true knowledge and wisdom.

New Names

The young nobles brought to Babylon included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These men are said to have been “young men in whom there was no blemish, and good of appearance, and skillful in all wisdom, and knowers of knowledge, and understanding knowledge, and who were qualified to stand in the palace of the king.” For this evaluation to have been possible, the men must have been at least teenagers, and probably close to 20 (compare Numbers 1:3). Notice that Daniel was still living and active in the 3rd year of Cyrus, which is 71 years after the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar, so he could not have been much older than 20, and probably was about 18. The meanings of their Hebrew names are:

Dani-El: God has judged
Hanan-Yah: Yahweh is gracious
Misha-El: Who is what God is?
Azar-Yah: Yahweh has helped

Note that two names incorporate El, God, and two incorporate Yah, Yahweh. The stage is set for battle, a battle of the gods, since the Babylonians give these men new names that incorporate the names of their gods.

The four men were given new Babylonian names, respectively Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In part this was also a sign of the apparent victory of Babylon’s gods over Yahweh and His servants. The meanings of these four Babylonian names are not known for certain.

Belteshazzar, the name given Daniel, seems to mean “Protect His Life.” Perhaps the Babylonians understood “God Is My Judge” to mean “God Is My Protector,” and gave him an equivalent Babylonian name. The name proves prophetic, because Daniel will live to be about 90 years old. In 4:8, however, Nebuchadnezzar says that “Belteshazzar” comes from the name of his god, which would be Bel (=Baal), another name in Babylon for Marduk, the chief god.

Shadrach, the name given Hananiah, seems to mean “Command of Aku,” the moon god. If so, perhaps the Babylonians understood “Yahweh Is Gracious” to mean “Yahweh Is Commander.” Also, if they intended to associate Yahweh with Aku, then they were saying that Yahweh is an inferior god (the moon) compared with the sun gods of Babylon.

Meshach, the name given Mishael, seems to mean “Who Is What Aku Is?,” a direct translation/change of his original Hebrew name.

Finally, Abed-nego, the name given Azariah, means “Servant of Nego.” There is no god Nego. The god, prominent at the time, is named Nebo or Nabu, son of and virtual co-ruler with Marduk. The name “Nebu” also occurs in the Nebuchadnezzar, which means “Nabu, Protect My Seed.”32 It seems that the author has changed the name as he wrote this text, in order to pervert its meaning. Perhaps the young men, in private, used this corrupted name. Since a god helps his servants, perhaps the Babylonians intended “Servant of Nebo” to be a good replacement for “Yahweh Has Helped.”

The change of names raises the question of who these men are. Are they servants of El, of Yah, or are they going to become servants of Bel, Aku, and Nabu? To which God will they be related? Whose house and culture will they serve? The conflict and victory in Daniel 1 settles these questions.

Giving a new name is also an aspect of adoption. Nebuchadnezzar is in some sense adopting these men as his sons, in a larger sense. Note that earlier Pharaoh had given a new Egyptian name to Joseph: Zaphenath-Paneah (Genesis 41:45). And later on, we see that the men do not reject the use of these names, for they are in some large sense sons and servants of Nebuchadnezzar—but only as they are sons and servants of The God first and foremost. In Daniel 5, we shall see a contrast between two “sons” of Nebuchadnezzar: the wicked Bel-shazzar and the godly Bel-te-shazzar.” [2]

If the “te” in Belteshazzar was a deliberate corruption by the author, in Daniel 5 we have a face-off between the true Belshazzar and the false one, the one attempting to manipulate the gods, and the other achieving the supernatural through obedience to the ethics of the Covenant. [3]

This chapter is the fifth “seal” in the opening of Jeremiah’s “new Covenant.” It concerns a prophet giving his advice — a cup of Sanctions — to a king. The Lampstand has “enlightened” Belshazzar to a degree, the same degree to which Nebuchadnezzar’s dream enlightened him: Something big is afoot and I need prophetic help.

The difference with Belshazzar was that his city was surrounded by Persian armies. He was invoking the gods kept “prisoner” in his treasury. Only one of the invoked gods could speak, and His judgment was righteous. [4]

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[1] Peter Leithart relies on this book extensively for background in the introductory chapters of The Four: A Survey of the Gospels.
[2] James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall, pp. 137-139.
[3] See Ethics or Magic.
[4] See also The Finger of God.

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at;
but now commandeth all men every where to repent…” Acts 17:30

Reading the Bible without an understanding of Creational and Covenant structures is like watching test cricket without knowing the rules. It’s not unusual for even the best commentators to be distracted by something as inconsequential as a lost seagull. But every moment is part of a bigger picture. Isaiah can seem tedious at times, but it’s a long game. Let’s look at Isaiah 4:2-6, which relates the purging of exiled Israel to the jealous inspection in Numbers 5. In this case, she comes up trumps.

Sabbath – Genesis
In that day the Branch of the LORD
shall be beautiful and glorious;

…..Passover – Exodus – Exodus
…..And the fruit of the [Land] shall be excellent and appealing
…..For those of Israel who have escaped.

……….Firstfruits – Leviticus
……….And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion
……….and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy –
……….everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

……………Pentecost – Numbers
……………When the Lord
………………..has washed away the filth
…………………….of the daughters of Zion,
…………………………and purged the blood of Jerusalem
…………………….from her midst,
………………..by the spirit of judgment
……………and by the spirit of burning,

……….Trumpets – Deuteronomy
……….then the LORD will create above every dwelling
……….place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies,

…..Atonement (Day of Coverings) – Joshua
…..a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night.
…..For over all the glory there will be a covering.

Booths (Tabernacles) – Judges
And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat,
for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

Firstly, notice a few things about this passage that identification of the Feasts pattern brings out:

1. It begins with the Branch, grown from the stump of the old tree that was axed, and it ends with Israel as an entirely new tree, moving from Bridgegroom to Bride.
2. The Restoration era prefigured the New Covenant’s priesthood of all believers.
3. Notice that the names are recorded at firstfruits. In Revelation, that is when the firstfruits saints are sealed, or Numbered.
4. The jealous inspection occurs at the centre (remember what was observed regarding the Ten Words? [1])
5. Zion is mentioned three times, at Ascension (flesh), Testing (fire) and Maturity (smoke), all the action on the Altar. (These three points are combined as Ethics to make the process a five-point treaty). But here it is not Sinai but Zion; not death but resurrection.
6. The smoke by day and fire by night occur at the same point in the passage as the smoking firepot and blazing torch in Genesis 15: head and body. The Ark-Light holds up the water walls, opens the Veil, and allows the Incense-army through the Veil into the Heavenly Land. [2]

My focus is on the central point, Pentecost. The “Levitical” Covenant Head receives the Law as Firstfruits, and opens the Law to purify the Covenant body. Yes, this entire process of “Restoration” was repeated in the first century. When the bride is handed the cup, she becomes a blessing or a curse. She herself is “poured out” as rivers of offspring from the mountain of God at Tabernacles, beginning a new cycle. Being poured out enables Covenant succession.

The cross was Passover, which led to resurrection and Ascension. Christ was enthroned (Revelation 5) and Satan was expelled from his role in God’s courtroom as accuser, thrown down to the Land to make Judaism ripe for judgment. The blood went up and the Spirit came down. Testing. So the Holy Spirit was not the only spirit that fell like lightning. Saul received an evil spirit when David received the Holy Spirit. It was a jealous inspection. The succession was taken from the family of Saul and given to the family of David. In the first century, the kingdom, the future, was taken from the Herods and the Pharisees, the “kings of the earth” (rulers of the Land) and given to a new nation, a new bride.

After Pentecost, like Saul, Judaism became demonic, filled with a strong delusion, spiritual swine cast out and heading for a cliff. Pentecost flames were also prefigured in the battle of Midian. Gideon’s men exposed the flames and God sent the spirit of confusion amongst His enemies. They destroyed each other. In the first century, the Herods sleazed with Rome. Eventually, the Romans besieged Jerusalem and set it alight. Inside the city, even the Jewish zealots were slaying each other. Christians are not taught this history for some reason.

In some comments on Daniel 7, James Jordan speaks about the Word awakening the Monsters from the Id. The Jews were scattered as seed, and beastly empires arose. Plato read Moses and it changed the world. [3] The light comes and men are made conscious of their beastly nature. The gospel wakes the dead, but they are beasts, not men. Initially, it brings out the worst in us. We suddenly see ourselves as we are, and as Paul states, knowledge of the Law can actually cause us to sin more. The Spirit of God gives men the ability to judge, but there is still a choice. Men perceive the fragrance as life or death, and respond accordingly.

The Spirit enlightens (as the Lampstand, the governing lights on Day 4) and makes rulers, but enlightenment forces a decision, a “judgment” call. The choice itself brings either enlightenment or a greater love of darkness. King Saul turned into a monster, despite continual challenges. But when David was challenged by Nathan, the Law was a light to his path. The Lampstand showed Belshazzar the writing on the wall. [4]

Revelation shows the Day of Pentecost as coals from the Altar tipped out upon the Land. A coal was taken from the Altar to set ablaze enemy cities under the ban (devoted, or accursed). The coals purged the lips of the Apostles, as it did with Isaiah, and the fiery words they spoke put the entire city on the Altar. Pentecost put the Old Jerusalem under the ban. The Spirit was the fire that Jesus wished was kindled already (Luke 12:49).

“…thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,
and the LORD shall reward thee.” Proverbs 25:22

Our culture has seen itself in the light of the Gospel, but current generations have decided to defiantly remain “content” with beastliness, to “fill up” our sin in the face of God’s revelation. The greatest despots in history are always men who take Covenant wisdom and use it for evil, apostate sons of the Church. [5]

“And for this reason God will send them strong delusion,
that they should believe the lie…” 2 Thess 2:11

When the Gospel comes, God’s Lampstand can no longer “overlook,” watch over, our sin. The stars can no longer wink or twinkle. They come crashing down as burning coals on our heads. Once exposed, our sin is not a wandering astray, but high handed. This is what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is: the Word comes to you and you BACK-CHAT. Instead of being filled with the Seven Spirits of God, the watching “eyes” of the heavenly Lampstand, you are filled with seven devils, darkened eyes devoid of judgment. The sin of the rulers corrupted the entire first century generation, the Old Covenant “body.”

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good,
your whole body will be full of light.” Matthew 6:22

This blasphemy is unforgivable because it is a rejection of mercy. It is inherently Cainite. It is high-handed, sin with full knowledge of the Law. In Leviticus, the only atonement for high-handed sin was the blood of the person who committed it, hence the so-called problem verses in Hebrews, written to first century Jews who saw the Day approaching:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:4-8

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins…” Hebrews 10:26

The sin of the Israelite who brazenly fornicated with a Moabite woman was a high-handed sin. Jesus returned in AD70, and like Phinehas, put a spear through the harlot and the beast, Herodian worship and the Roman state. As in Numbers, they were speared through the point of contact, the reproductive organs (“bellies” is a euphemism).

The Gospel is daylight. To Israel, it brought the end of the Old Testament shadows, and the false additions the Pharisees had burdened men with. [6] The age of angels and animals was over. Only by following this wake up call with obedience can we become true men. The gospel brings a sword to a sleeping but stagnant world and wakes the monsters. The Lord disturbs us from our moral slumber to purge us and then bring us true rest. It makes us better or worse. We choose enlightenment or delusion. We open like flowers or scuttle like cockroaches who call on the rocks and hills. Neutrality is impossible.

Interestingly, the early chapters of John follow a similar pattern to the early chapters of Daniel. Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath incited the unbelieving Jews. Like the captive Jews, Jesus ‘stirred the water’ and raised up a man — and monstrous Pharisees. [7]

We drink the strong drink, the goblet of fire, every week. It judges us to make us judges. It doesn’t make us perfect. God’s intent is to bring us wisdom. The Spirit opens our eyes and makes our sin apparent. Sometimes we feel we are going backwards. The continued application of the Law makes us exceedingly sinful in our own eyes. That can be discouraging. But is your sin becoming more detestable to you, more worthy of death (mortification) or more justifiable? That is the question. The mercy of God is a withholding of judgment, sins laid upon the Temple of Christ. It is an anointing for greater service or an opportunity to fill up our sin, a reason to draw nearer to God in humility or to pull away in pride. The cup is a sacramental dose of death, [8] shalom for the wise and strong delusion for the unwise, who drink it to the dregs.

This is why people continually exposed to the gospel without obedience to it become “immunised.” They have hardened their hearts, like Pharaoh, like the first century Jews. God eventually gives them up to the outer darkness they loved.

“…enlightenment wasn’t the diamond. Enlightenment was the choice.”

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[1] See Warp and Weft.
[2] See Pass-over and Pass-through.
[3] See Did Plato Read Moses?
[4] See The Finger of God.
[5] See How to be Really Evil.
[6] See The End of Shadows.
[7] See Stirring the Waters.
[8] See Sacramental Doses of Death.

Of course, God’s new golden-haired boy got things wrong, as all Adams do when given the opportunity of glorious kingdom. The metal man in his dream (the new “empire-Tabernacle”) only had gold at the head, but King Nebuchadnezzar’s obelisk was gold from head to foot. This new king, under whom Israel was now a “Covenant vassal,” would be taught by God that he, too, was subject to a higher authority.

James Jordan observes that the four “animal” empires correspond to the four cherubim guarding God’s throne. The animals do not match exactly, because symbols are relationships. The animals describe the relationship of each empire to the people of God.

A couple of years ago, I heard Al Stewart at the Katoomba Men’s Convention give a good summary of the first part of the book of Daniel. Unlike liberal scholars, he corresponded the four beasts with the empires beginning with Babylon, not the Medes (the liberals can’t believe that Daniel wrote about Rome because it didn’t exist at that time in history, so they have to make Greece number 4. They split Medo-Persia into two empires, which doesn’t work at all since they were contemporaneous.) When Al got to Rome, he told us that Daniel’s prophecy doesn’t match history. He didn’t do what dispensationalists do and tell us that God’s Jewish clock stopped, but he didn’t have an explanation.

The explanation is one you will only find in Jordan’s work. The Roman empire did continue to exist after AD70, but Daniel, and all the prophets, view the world as God’s Tabernacle. The characters on the stage are viewed by their respective Covenant callings as they contribute to the plan of God in history. They are priestly or kingly ministers in His court.

This is a crucial factor to understand. It solves the mystery of the identity of the sons of God in Genesis 6. It explains why the Revelation describes the destruction of the Roman “Sea beast” in AD70. And it also explains why, in God’s economy, there are no more Jews. Their calling as “sons of God” was terminated with the Temple. Or rather, it was transformed through death and resurrection into a new calling. As John says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God…”

Just like Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar came to a full understanding his calling as a vassal king through a process of death and resurrection. He was exiled by God as a Gentile beast into the wilderness and returned as a Man, an Adam, a Covenant head. Just as Joseph converted Pharaoh through his faithful service, Daniel converted Nebuchadnezzar.

The fact that these four Gentile empires were under God’s throne, vassal subjects in the kingdom of God, explains why their authority was transferred over the 500 year Restoration period. It was a form of “Covenant succession.” If the emperor cursed the people of God, the empire would be cursed, the kingdom handed over to another who would bring forth the fruit desired from their delegated authority, their Covenant calling. Belshazzar lost his kingdom overnight. Esther and Mordecai saved Persia from an unspeakable fate at the hands of God through the intentions of the serpent Haman. But Persia eventually fell to Greece, and Greece to Rome. The Revelation describes Rome’s “de-conversion” from a metal man back into a beast. The guardian put in place by God to provide a framework of law, protection, infrastructure and civilisation for the spread of the gospel was manipulated by Satan against the people of God. The family dog was turned against the children it was called to guard.

Rome did not cease to be an empire in AD70. Just as the calling of the Jews passed to the Christian church, Rome ceased to be a guardian for the people of God when the fifth empire arrived. Adam succeeded the animal kingdom on Day 6 and was supposed to be enthroned over it, rule over it, on Day 7. Jesus as Adam succeeded the animal kingdom—the Gentile empire—and took on the calling of the vassal emperors as guardian of the church. In these last days of the Old Covenant, God shook the world one more time, and the “times of the Gentiles” came to an end. [2]

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[1] Have you got The Handwriting on the Wall yet? You will find all this and much more in Jordan’s groundbreaking work.
[2] This is actually the context of the “sheep and goats” judgment of the nations in Matthew 25. It is history, although it was most certainly a microcosm of the final judgment at the end of the Revelation.

One major difference between Jordan and other preterists is his identification of Paul’s “man of sin.” Jordan is correct in naming the Herods rather than Nero because he understands biblical typology better.

The pattern during the Restoration era was that God’s representative, a Jew, would sit at the right hand of the power, like Daniel, like Mordecai. In this, like Joseph, they prefigured Christ. This man would first qualify by passing God’s tests of obedience. Daniel passed with flying colours. Mordecai fumbled the ball and Haman was given the post instead. Haman was an Amalekite.

In the first century, instead of a ‘Jacob’ on this throne under the Gentile emperor, it was an Edomite, an Esau. One of Esau’s grandchildren was deliberately named Amalek (Genesis 36), a compromise with a Gentile power from “the Abyss” that God had specifically named as an eternal enemy.

Here’s the biblical pattern. With the circumcision of Abraham, God tore the world in two. The Bible uses creation symbols to denote his descendants as the mediatorial “Land”, and the Gentile nations as the “Sea.” A Gentile power is a Sea beast. A Jewish king compromised with Gentile political power is a Land beast.

In Revelation, the Sea beast is Nero’s Rome, called up by Satan after his failed attempts to destroy the embryonic church with Jewish persecution and false Judaising doctrine. This is the serpent. But there is another “beast” with the horns of a lamb and the mouth of a dragon–a false prophet, a lying Adam (High Priest). This is not a Gentile power. It is a Jew who names his offspring after a hated enemy of God. It is a Haman sitting at the right hand of the Gentile power, a little horn with the eyes and mouth of a man (a Jew), the human face on the faceless beast of Rome, steering the empire against the people of God.

So the reference to the number of this man, 666, becomes easy to interpret. The first rule for Israel’s kings that Solomon broke was the one against amassing gold. Solomon received 666 talents of gold in one year. Gold was so abundant that silver was just about treated like refuse. 666 simply denotes a corrupt Jewish king. Yep, that’s it. (See my book Totus Christus for further support of this from the structure of the passage. Nero isn’t even in the picture. Judgment begins at the house of God. As Jordan points out, the references to wisdom and understanding are ironic references to Solomon also.)

Paul refers to this man of sin sitting where he ought not to be sitting, in a seat of judgment, the temple of God. The Herods styled themselves as Solomons, sitting in Moses’ seat and judging wisely. They were certainly street-wise, cunning foxes, like Emperor Ming–excelling in government by manipulation for their own bestial ends. But by God’s standards they were fools.

The Spirit of Jesus’ coming in judgment against a Judah that had hardened her heart beyond repair destroyed this false Joseph/Daniel/Mordecai. Revelation shows the saints, already slaughtered or still under threat, praying for deliverance from the “justice” of this counterfeit messiah (anti-Christ) in his shiny new Temple. Who else deliberately and repeatedly denied Jesus’ incarnation at this level of government PR?

And this scene from Flash Gordon (a cheesy movie, but gourmet cheese) captures the drama of the return of Christ for his firstfruits church perfectly. Go Flash go.

“He’ll save every one of us.”

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In The Handwriting on the Wall, Jordan notes the progression of authority in Israel’s mediatorial history, from Land under David and Solomon, to empire-Land under Esther and Mordecai, to true world power under Christ, who steers, or Advocates, at the right hand of the true Power. The four empires were  pictures of the cherubim under the throne of God. This included Nero, as a beast from the Sea (Daniel 7). Each time one of these guardian beasts went bad, it was swiftly replaced by God, beginning with the fall of Belshazzar’s Babylon.

See also Jordan’s article The Abomination of Desolation.

Belshazzar curses the day he let the Chaldeans talk him into signing up with Facebreadbook.

“In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” Daniel 5:5

“The fact that the Watcher Lampstand oversees the Facebread in the Temple means that Israel undergoes a continual inspection of jealousy. God watches all the time. In Daniel 5, the Lampstand “arrives” and sees Belshazzar’s face, “facebread” because it is at his great “bread”, and his face is undone as his “splendours change”. It is precisely as Belshazzar is drinking the wine that the judgment appears, as in the case of the woman in Numbers 5. As a priestly agent is involved in bringing judgment in Numbers 5, so Daniel is involved in bringing judgment in Daniel 5. As the woman’s loins are undone, so are Belshazzar’s. The woman’s judgment is barrenness; in the case of Belshazzar the king, the judgment is the same: no future.”1

Notice the “Holy Place” configuration. The Lampstand, the Table, and the graven Word (Ark). Daniel is the Incense Altar, the accepted elder. Why do pictures of this event never include the Lampstand? It is crucial.

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1 James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall, p. 289.
See also Jesus at Belshazzar’s Feast: An Explanatory Disquisition on an Aspect of the Story of the Woman Taken in Adultery for an interesting read.

“In order to understand this, we have to think like ancient Hebrews, and not like modern people… Adam was supposed to guard the garden, and he was also supposed to guard his wife.

The Song of Solomon compares the woman to a garden several times in the course of the book. In all languages, the words for city, garden, and the like are feminine, and we speak of a city as “she” in English today.

Let us take a look at the city in the Bible, remembering that what is said of the city is also true of the house, tent, Temple, Tabernacle, and other enclosed homes for humanity. The city has walls and gates. The purpose of these walls and gates is to keep the enemy out. The goal is that the city be impregnable, and note that English word – it directly connects the city with the woman. Thus, the city has to be a virgin, sealed against attack. Jerusalem is referred to as an impregnable virgin repeatedly in Scripture (2 Kings 19:21; Is. 37:22; Jer. 14:17; 18:13; Jer. 31:21; Amos 5:2). The attack on Jerusalem is thus the rape of a city (Lam. 1:15; 2:13)… Just as Eve was “built” from Adam (using an architectural term, Gen. 2:22), so Jerusalem would be rebuilt as a virgin (Jer. 31:4)… Thus, the safety and security of the virgin daughters of Israel was a symbol of the safety and security of the whole land. Their inviolability corresponded to the inviolability of the whole culture (Lam. 1:4; 2:10).”

In the case of Babylon, its walls and gates were impregnable. The city was built on the Euphrates river, which ebbed into the city under the wall. Even the banks of the river were protected by metal gates from any invaders who could hold their breath long enough. Under Belshazzar, Babylon lost her virginity (Isaiah 47:1-3), and during the feast her river gates had been left open.

In a brilliant military manoeuvre, Cyrus the Great gave the signal for his troops upstream to divert the river. The invading army marched into the city dryshod and took it with little resistance.  There were hints of this in the prophecies of both Isaiah (44:27) and Jeremiah (50:38, 51:36). The waters of the bringer of the “flood” were dried up. The Land was rising from the deep.
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James B. Jordan (concerning the virginity of Jephthah’s daughter), Judges: God’s War Against Humanism, p. 211-212. Download from www.biblicalhorizons.com

“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.” Mark 16:9

The relationship of the Ark to the Lampstand is important. The Ark is the single ‘light’ in the darkness of the Most Holy Place. It rules the first three days of creation. The Lampstand is the seven governing lights (sun, moon and five bright planets) and it rules the next three days of creation. The Ark is the Adam-light (Sabbath) to the Eve-lights (Pentecost). The Ark ascends first (head) and the Lampstand ascends later (body). This might sound weird but it runs right throughout the Bible. (For this pattern in the exile and restoration, see here.)

Now to the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount follows the Creation Week/Tabernacle pattern. When Jesus gets to the Lampstand, He says this:

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23)

Now I want to relate that to this statement in Matthew 12:45:

“Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

Jesus had cast the evil spirit (false Ark – “Adam-light”) out of the house of God, and the Temple had remained intact. It was completed and glorified by the Herods. Covered in white marble and gold, it dazzled the eyes when it reflected the early morning and late afternoon sun. It was finished in AD64, and the demon returned with seven others worse than itself (false Lampstand – “Eve-lights”) to a house that was clean, decorated and empty (Matthew 12:45). How great was their darkness! (Matthew 6:23). The Jews had blasphemed both witnesses—the Son (bridegroom) and the Spirit (matchmaker)—and the true glory-light had departed. They had substituted the prophets with their own traditions, and received the “Emmanuel” they deserved—the Accuser instead of the Advocate.

Just as the Lampstand “conquered” Belshazzar and led the vessels to Ezra’s restored Temple, Herod’s house was a counterfeit Restoration. His seven-fold demonic Lampstand was a false Pentecost. In the darkness, he could not see the writing on the wall (Matthew 6:23).

Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene, picturing the Jewish ‘greater Eve’ who would believe. But the harlot who refused was blinded and her kingdom taken away. TAOTA