Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Matthew 2:16-18

Continuing from New Covenant Virility – 2

GLORIFICATION: (Tabernacles feast, marriage, children, rest)

Wow. This last bit really rubs in the kind of offspring (fruit) Israel gave God. It is the seventh stanza of this section, yet in itself it has seven stanzas. Each section submits itself to the common themes in Glorification, yet each section reiterates one step the sevenfold pattern. Tabernacles was the big feast, so in this final ascerbic prophecy, the prophet turns the annual Feasts into curses. [1] What sublime poetry is Isaiah.

Tabernacles is the Feasts of Booths. It is God’s people reaching maturity as a great tree and sheltering the nations. The cycle began with dry trees (eunuchs, etc.) being made fruitful. Here, God lays the ax to the root of the old tree.

CREATION (Un-Sabbath) False Ark-Word (Darkness)

But come here, (Into the Light)
…..You sons of the sorceress, (False Firstborn)
……….You offspring of the adulterer and the harlot!
……….(False Marriage Covenant)
……………Whom do you ridicule? (False Word)
……….Against whom do you make a wide mouth
……….and stick out the tongue? (False Word as flesh)
…..Are you not children of transgression,
…..offspring of falsehood, (False Covering)
Inflaming yourselves with gods
under every green tree, (False Tabernacles)

DIVISION (Un-Passover) Child sacrifice

Slaying the children in the valleys, (No Light)
…..Under the clefts of the rocks? (Division)
……….Among the smooth (gem?) stones of the stream
……….is your portion; (False Springs/False Edenic High Places)
……………They, they, are your lot! (Judgment) [2]
……….Even to them you have poured
……….a drink offering, (Witnesses/Holy War Vows)
…..You have offered a grain offering. (False Atonement)
Should I receive comfort in these? (No Rest)

ASCENSION (Un-Firstfruits) False nearbringing
Tabernacle/Levitical/Covenant/marriage references

On a lofty and high mountain
…..You have set your bed;
……….Even there you went up to offer sacrifice.
……………Also behind the doors and their posts
………………..You have set up your remembrance; [3]
……………For you have uncovered yourself
……………to those other than Me,
…..and have gone up to them;
You have enlarged your bed and made
[a covenant?] with them;

TESTING (Un-Pentecost)
Wilderness references/false hope/no fear of God
God refrained from disciplining Israel immediately, unlike His strategy in Numbers. He expected greater maturity but did not see it. Israel herself is both the harlot and the serpent here.

You have loved their bed, where you saw [their] nudity.
…..You went to the king with ointment,
…..and increased your perfumes;
……….You sent your messengers far off,
……….and [even] descended to Sheol.
……………You are wearied in the length of your way;
……………Yet you did not say, ‘There is no hope.’
……….You have found the life of your hand;
……….Therefore you were not grieved. [4]
…..And of whom have you been afraid, or feared,
…..That you have lied and not remembered Me,
…..Nor taken [it] to your heart?
Is it not because I have held My peace
from of old that you do not fear Me?

Step 5, Maturity, is also Deuteronomy, a new generation. It was the next generation which returned to repossess Canaan. Here, there is a turning point, another reference to the restoration, the resurrection of Israel as an army of priests rising from the Testing fire, refined as gold and leaving their idols behind.

MATURITY (Un-Trumpets)
Multitudes, Clouds (of dust), Riches (works, inheritance)

I will declare your righteousness and your works,
For they will not profit you.
…..When you cry out, Let your collection [of idols] deliver you.
……….But the wind will carry them all away,
……………A breath [Spirit] will take [them.]
……….But he who puts his trust in Me
…..shall possess the land,
And shall inherit My holy mountain.”

CONQUEST (Atonement)
Passing through the veil/Sins covered/Spiritual resurrection/A remnant delivered

And one shall say, “Heap it up! Heap it up!
…..Prepare the way, Take the stumbling block
…..out of the way of My people.”
……….For thus says the High and Lofty One
……….Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
……………“I dwell in the high and holy place,
……………With him [who] has a contrite and humble spirit,
……….To revive the spirit of the humble,
……….And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
…..For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me, And the souls I have made.

GLORIFICATION (New Booths)
Tabernacles, like our bodies, decay and pass away. They need resurrection.
Here, the Lord builds a New Covenant body for His people. It is the Temple seen by Ezekiel, made of Jew and Gentile flesh together, with all the Jews as a holy priesthood. Tabernacles concerns Jews and Gentiles, those far and those near.

Rest, peace and healing and “resurrection” unity come to the repentant.

They are delivered under the hand of Cyrus, a conqueror greater than David.
They receive peace under the hand of Darius/Ahasuerus, a bridegroom greater than Solomon. This new marriage of heaven and earth brings many children.

The Restoration Covenant was a kind of halfway house to the New Covenant.

But no rest for the wicked. They are the dirt in the Laver, the offscouring of Israel’s new baptism. They are the bodies lost in the Babylonian flood.

For the iniquity of his covetousness
I was angry and struck him; (Ark-Law)
…..I hid and was angry, (Veil)
……….And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. (Altar)
……………I have seen his ways, and will heal him; (Lampstand)
……………I will also lead him, and restore comforts
……………to him and to his mourners.
……….I create the fruit of the lips: (Incense/Elders/Law repeated)
……….Peace, peace to the far off and to the near,”
……….Says the LORD, “And I will heal him.”
…..But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,
…..Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. (Laver)
“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” (Shekinah/Rest)

The first festivals above were process of death and resurrection. Israel was sacrificed and rose from the grave. The old Tabernacle was un-covered and torn down, its carcass falling in the wilderness under the Law of God. Then the sheep and goats, the righteous and the wicked, were separated. Instead of a new year, the final feast, a restored Tabernacles, brought another 500 years of Temple worship and a mind-blowing influence among the Gentiles. Synagogues were built throughout the empire, and seed was sown for the coming of the Messiah—from India to Ethiopia.

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[1] See also Un-Passover and Un-Passover – 2.
[2] As discussed in God’s Gamble, the coming of the Spirit was prefigured in the Urim and Thummim and the lot. The lot as a judgment falls here at Pentecost. But the “governing lights” here are Israel’s false gods. So, what spirit was this? The spirit given to Saul.
[3] Remembrance refers to memorials of Covenant.
[4] Maturity often has a motif of the resurrection body. Israel here seems to have manufactured their own blessed hope. Hands, five fingers, are also a military symbol.

Picture is the entry to the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks. It is the Un-holy of un-holies. I probably wouldn’t recommend watching it. Kinda wished I hadn’t all those years ago. Notice the Un-laver, a pool of burnt engine oil, and a circle of sycamore trees. Our culture has a hard time thinking outside the Biblical square.

Daniel was taken to Babylon before the destruction of Jerusalem. As the ruler over the king’s advisors, it is highly likely he was involved in the razing of Jerusalem.

The Lord sent Joseph into Egypt as a forerunner, established his house and integrated the old house of Jacob into it. Pharaoh was converted under the ministry of Joseph, humbled himself before Jacob and requested a blessing.

The Lord did the same thing with Daniel. A new house was being established in Babylon before the final demolition of the old Temple. Daniel ascended as “firstfruits”. He stood on the mountain of God as Abraham, as Moses. At the right hand of the power he would bring the curses of the Law raining down upon the Covenant breakers. As Abraham bargained with God, perhaps the mercy shown to Judah’s poor was the work of Daniel.

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Eli’s corrupt priesthood came to an end when the Ark was taken by the Philistines. Saul’s corrupt kingdom came to a full end when the Ark returned (hence Michal’s barrenness). The last of Eli’s priesthood (Abiathar) was exiled when Solomon’s government began. Solomon’s kingdom was a new firmament (1 Kings 10:19). Isaiah, however, saw it being rolled up like a scroll (Is. 34:4).

Solomon’s corrupt priesthood came to an end when the Ark was taken by God to heaven. [1] But spiritually, Solomon’s corrupt kingdom did not come to a full end until the Ark “returned”. Zechariah saw it as a flying scroll, and the ephah-ark of false worship was exiled when Zerubbabel’s and Joshua’s government began. [2] Cyrus’s empire was a new firmament, with the Jews as priests.

Caiaphas’ corrupt priesthood came to an end when Christ ascended to heaven (Daniel 9:27). Herod’s kingdom came to a full end when Christ returned to judge in AD70. The last Herodian High Priest was thrown into outer darkness, and Greater Solomon kept the concubine of Greater David.

Once again, we see a link between the grain and fruit of Day 3 as a promise of consummation on Day 7, only this is the negative side.

What goes up must come down. The Ascension replaced the priesthood. The Parousia replaced the kingdom.

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[1] Like Enoch and Elijah, the Ark was the Firstfruits. See The Lost Ark.

[2] The literary structure of Zechariah’s visions makes these two Arks the two goats of Atonement. See Furnishing the New House.

“The wicked Hashmoneans took over the Temple for themselves, and did not give glory to God and restore the true High Priest. The Hashmoneans “buy” the Temple for thirty pieces of silver, but Yahweh rejects their offer, which treats Him and His people as slaves. These evils result in the Jews being broken apart and set at each other’s throats.”1

Either way, the pattern is the same, as the Jews’ apostasy under Greek rule was repeated under Rome, with the “Temple” they sold in the second instance being Christ Himself. Both “Greek” and “Roman” interpretations link the events of chapter 10 to chapter 12, and echo the judgments upon false shepherds by the pre-exile prophets. And in both cases, it is the “Temple” seen by Ezekiel that is being judged. The flock is divided and the Temple made desolate under Antiochus Epiphanes (Greece), and under Christ and Titus (Rome).

The most important factor is that in both events, the Jews’ compromise left them without a true High Priest, and thus no true Atonement.

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See James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall, p. 585-587.

“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

“…though Jews returned to the land after the decree of Cyrus, they did not enjoy the fruits of it (Haggai 1:1-11). They were still alienated from the land. They did not really occupy it until they rebuilt the Temple, which was completed in the sixth year of Darius, 20 years later.”1

Darius listened to those who opposed the Jews and ordered the Temple reconstruction to officially cease, so the Lord raised up two witnesses, Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai would chastise the people for neglecting the house of God, and stir up their hearts to finish it. Zechariah would deal with the spiritual war going on behind the scenes.

Zechariah’s visions perform the same function as Abram’s animal sacrifice. (In Abram’s time, there was a famine in the Land, and later it did not support Abram and Lot’s flocks). In Zechariah, the mediator who is “passed over” is not Abram but Joshua the High Priest. The sins are atoned for again, but not with animal sacrifices. In Zechariah it is the Angel of the Lord who steps in, chases away the accusations of Satan (as the ravens), and provides clean robes as a New Covenant.

Then the Temple could be completed, and the abundant fruits of a recreated Land were enjoyed by a new Israel.

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1 James B. Jordan, Jubilee, 
Biblical Chronology Vol. 5, No. 4, www.biblicalhorizons.com