At that time the Lord said to Joshua,
“Make flint knives and circumcise
the sons of Israel a second time.”
(Joshua 5:2)

Was Israel disobedient in its failure to circumcise every male born in the wilderness? The Lord never chastised them for this. If this lapse in the practice of circumcision was in the plan of God, what was the purpose of that plan? The example which first comes to mind is the circumcision of the firstborn son of Moses in Exodus 4:24-26.

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In the Bible, everything is confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (James Jordan notes that this is the basis for Hebrew parallelism and also verbal pleonasm. See Symbolism – A Manifesto.) An example of a “dual” witness from God would include the two dreams given to Joseph, and the two dreams given to Pharaoh. We see each Covenant confirmed by two witnesses as well. The Mosaic Covenant was a double witness at three levels: the two tablets of the Law, the second set of tablets, then a second giving of the Law in Deuteronomy.

A sign was given to Gideon to prove that God would save Israel by Gideon’s hand. He requested a second sign, and rather than chiding him, the Lord acquiesced. The Lord Himself asks us to prove all things. That explains the double sign, but not the ingredients of the signs, the fleece and the threshing floor. Fortunately, the consistency of biblical symbolism and structure not only gives us the answer, it reveals the events as a type of the events which followed, and, typologically, also shines light on the process of the first century apostolic witness.

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A Debtor to the Law

“Any commentary that misses the fact that the first century isn’t about Jew versus Gentile, but about the Noahic nations of the old world versus the birth of the Christian nations of the new, is way off the mark.”

We continue with the Deuteronomy section of Galatians, which has seven cycles. Paul moves from a Division/Passover motif to an Ascension/Firstfruits motif. That is, Paul gets all Levitical. It’s all about sex and death.

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In John 16:7-11, we read:

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

What does it mean for the Spirit to “convict the world in regard to righteousness?” And what is the causal connection with Jesus going to the Father?

The phrase “sin, righteousness and judgment” refers to a threefold legal process found throughout the Bible. By Covenant, God chooses and qualifies His representatives.

The threefold legal process relates to the Creation Week because it moves from a “forming” to a “filling” and then to a “future.”

The Covenant pattern itself is fivefold:

TRANSCENDENCE (who’s the boss?)
…..HIERARCHY (whom has He put in charge?)
……….ETHICS (what are we to do?)
…..SANCTIONS (what will we get?)
SUCCESSION (when is He coming back?)

However, this pattern contains the “forming, filling, future” structure of the Creation week:

Transcendence and Hierarchy are the “forming,” as uncreated authority is delegated to a representative. Yahweh is the cause and His representative is the effect.

Ethics and Sanctions are the “filling” of the Covenant. Here, the Laws are the cause and the blessings/curses are the effect.

In each case, as cause becomes effect, “word” becomes flesh. The forming concerns the establishing of the legal parties and the filling concerns the expression of their relationship. It is a “head” and a “body.”

Finally, Succession concerns the “future.” Those who understood that the Ethics were intended for good and not evil (as Joseph did, and Adam didn’t), are given greater authority, just as Jesus promised.

The “forming, filling, future” process found not only within the entire Covenant pattern, but “fractally” within the Ethics step on its own.

The Law is given; the Law is opened; the Law is received. These three steps are the revelation of the Ethics of the Covenant as the beginning of a New Creation.

Aligned with the Bible Matrix, you can see that the Law is given at Ascension (Moses on the mountain as Firstfruits), the Law is opened at Testing (Pentecost), and the legal witness by (or against) Israel is received at Maturity (Trumpets).

This threefold process is seen typologically in a number of key ways.

Firstly, it is seen in the “three-decker” primeval world: the Garden Sanctuary (Adam), the Land (Abel/Seth), and the World (Noah).

Secondly, it is inherent in the three-decker architecture of the Tabernacle: the Most Holy contained the Laws of Moses (conviction of sin); the Holy Place contained furniture which imaged the blameless nearbringing sacrifice (blood/Table + fire/Lampstand + smoke/Incense altar = righteousness); the Court (blood and water = judgment). This construct is a miniature of the primeval world.

Thirdly, it is seen in the threefold offices of priest, king and prophet, which correspond to the three furnitures in the Holy Place. The priest makes offerings for sin against the Law (forming a holy place), the king models and upholds righteousness in the light of the Law (filling the place with light), and the prophet speaks of coming judgment (the two-edged “binary” future).

Priest: God’s face is against Adam until blameless blood is shed (Showbread/Ascension).

King: God’s face shines upon Adam (Lampstand/Testing).

Prophet: As a priest-king, Adam speaks as God’s face (Incense Altar/Maturity).

You might also notice that a priest deals only in judgment upon animal substitutes, a king judges human lawbreakers, but a prophet proclaims the end for entire nations and empires. Each role is also threefold, with its own level of dealing with sin, righteousness and judgment:

For the obedient Priest, atoning for sin, it is blood (sin), fire (righteousness) and smoke (judgment – God’s favor).

For the wise King, as righteous son, it is the process of hearing the testimony of witnesses, discerning their hearts by the Spirit, and executing a righteous judgment or showing mercy.

For the commissioned Prophet, it is hearing directly from God (faith: “they do not believe in me”); seeing the Sanctions poured out in a vision (obedience: “I go to my Father”) and speaking to the corrupted kings and priests on behalf of the righteous (legal witness: “the satan/prosecutor stands condemned”).

In the New Testament, Jesus paid for sin in the Garden, the “firstfruits” apostles proclaimed His righteousness and resurrection to the kings of the Land (leading to AD70 and the avenging of the blood of Abel), and the Church now carries their doctrine to the entire world, leading to the final judgment. Of course, each of these stages is a “fractal” extension, a “future” outcome of the previous one.

The triune ethical office also aligns typologically with Genesis 1:

Priest: Days 1-3 – FORMING (dividing light from darkness, etc.)

King: Days 4-6 – FILLING (beginning with the governing lights)

Prophet: Day 7 – FUTURE (entering into God’s rest)

We can also see it in Jacob’s vision of the heavenly Babel in Genesis 28:

Forming: And he dreamed, and BEHOLD, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven (dividing light from darkness, etc.)

Filling: And BEHOLD, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! (beginning with the governing lights)

Future: And BEHOLD, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. (entering into God’s rest) 

Jesus, as priest, king and prophet, is the entire creation in human form. At the centre of history, He is the Ethics of the Covenant given, opened and received for all humanity.

Finally, the causal connection between Jesus going to the Father and righteousness is that after He fulfilled the priestly office of atoning for sin, He ascended to rule as king in righteousness (Revelation 4-5 shows Him ascending as the “firstfruits lamb” and opening the New Covenant scroll, after which four gospel horsemen ride out into the Land). He did not return with tablets of stone, as did Moses, but instead sent His Spirit. The Spirit “convicted the world of righteousness” through the testimony of the apostles, which remains the primary channel, or “opening” of God’s work today.

Notice that Jesus’ kingdom began at Pentecost, where the tongues of fire correspond to the “seeing” of the Lampstand. Jesus sat at the Father’s right hand, as Joseph was Pharaoh’s right hand man, and Daniel was Nebuchadnezzar’s right hand man, with “all power.” He is the Covenant Head, the “Forming.” Filled with His Spirit, His people are made the “righteousness” of God, men and women who are qualified to speak as prophets.

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war… From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.” (Revelation 19:11-15)

The Bible is big on fruit. The first “Covenant Ethic” was a prohibition on fruit from a particular tree. The transgression of Adam resulted in curses upon the fruit of the Land and the fruit of the womb. The book which describes the end of the Old Covenant, the Revelation, shows the dragon attempting to eat the son of Adam, the fruit of the womb, and then to devour the fruit of the Land, the apostolic “firstfruits” Church. [1] But where is the forbidden tree?

Firstly, there were two trees in the Garden, Life and Wisdom, physical and ethical, priesthood and kingdom. One very old idea is that Jesus was the stolen fruit returned to the tree, but if this is the case, and Jesus’ cross is the “Kingdom” Tree, how is Jesus’ death also a Tree of Life?

The answer is that there was not one cross, but three. Adam was given the Tree of Life (like priestly bread) and if he had qualified he would have received the Tree of Wisdom as a gift (like kingly wine). We know this because the same pattern is found throughout the Bible. If Adam had humbled himself he would have been exalted.

If this had indeed happened, Adam would have eaten from both trees as a gift, and their fruit would have been combined, mixed, united, in his body, like bread and wine, and converted into flesh and blood. Adam himself, speaking for God against the serpent like a true prophet, would have brought forth the fruits of righteousness (which are the result of truly hearing and digesting the Law). Adam would have become the third tree, priesthood and kingdom combined as The Prophet.

We see the same architecture in the Tabernacle, which is humaniform. The Table of Showbread and the Lampstand represent priesthood (left hand) and kingdom (right hand/sword) respectively, with the fragrant “bridal” Incense Altar between them as the place of Eldership and mediation. In the Temple, these three “internal” furnitures were represented externally as the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, priest and king. Their names allude to the “forming and filling” process in Genesis 1, which ends with Day 7, “the future.” The complete man of God is the forming, the filling and the future, the prophet. He does not remain in the Garden like the other trees, but walks out of it (on two pillar-like legs) into the Land to take dominion. In the Temple visions in Zechariah and the Revelation, this was represented by spirit-horses rushing out into the world with the decrees of God.

So, Adam himself was to become the third tree, the man as a tree walking, the Prophet, the first Father, a tree of righteousness. If found to be a faithful priest, he would receive the promised kingdom and carry the fruits of the Spirit, as a flaming sword, into the Land. Then God would open the Land and the womb (firstfruits and righteous sons instead of a murderer and the murdered) and the nations (the harvest of righteousness, instead of the lawlessness of Genesis 6).

Jesus was the righteous firstfruits of the Land and the womb, combining priesthood (God’s face against Adam – the Facebread) and kingdom (God’s face shining upon Adam – the Lampstand) into prophethood (Adam as God’s face – the Incense Altar). So the cross is really the third tree, the complete Tabernacle, all three furnitures of the Holy Place united.

Jesus’ blood poured out on the Land began the end of all blood boundaries and all Land boundaries, and transformed Israel into a Prophetic Body, commissioned to leave the Land and walk with God throughout all the world, with the flaming sword of the testimony of Jesus. The sword coming from Jesus’ mouth in Revelation 19 is the Gospel. He has slain the corrupt High Priesthood (Adam – Herod), the now demonic worship centered in Jerusalem (Eve, the harlot – corporate Herodias who “beheads” the prophets), and broken the power of Rome over the Covenant (serpent, the beast – the fourth guardian turned bad), and is shown riding from the Land into the World, just as the four Gospels were shown riding from the Garden into the Land earlier in the book.

So, the crucifixion wasn’t just making restitution for the fruit stolen by Adam. Architecturally, it laid claim on the entire three-decker world. It also lifted up Cain and Abel (the two thieves as “blessing and cursing”, the priestly and kingly sons) and all the nations (unmixed blood and water, Land and Sea, Priesthood and Kingdom under legal Prophecy).

The third tree is a hybrid of the two trees in Eden, priesthood with kingdom grafted in, and like Enoch it walks with God, in the saints, and causes men to call upon God. When you receive the bread and the wine, flesh and blood united again in a new body, you leave the house of God with a great commission.

More on this (with diagrams) in Bible Matrix III: The House of God (forthcoming).

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[1] This is the subject of Revelation 14. The firstfruits saints who were earlier sealed at Pentecost and afterward are slain, “harvested as grain and grapes” under the sickles of Jesus. As He (Garden) was Firstfruits to their Pentecost (Land), so now they (Land) would be the Firstfruits of the entire World. See James B. Jordan’s The Grape Harvest of Revelation 14:17-20.

Numbers 12:3 says that Moses was the meekest man “on the face of the ground [adamah].”

Psalm 37:11 says the meek will inherit the Land [eretz] and delight in abundant prosperity.

Isaiah 11:4 says that

with righteousness [God] shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the Land;
and he shall strike the Land with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips she shall kill the wicked.

Firstly, what is meekness? And secondly, why is it connected to “face of the ground” (Adam), or Land?

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Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 NKJV) [1]

What was this “gathering together” of the saints, and how does it relate to the gathering mentioned by Jesus in Mark 13?

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark 13: 24-27 ESV)

This period in history would bring about the end of “Israel according to the flesh,” the nation which was elevated above all the nations of the world upon an earthen altar (the Land) as a living sacrifice. Israel was a firstfruits to God, but her own entire history follows the pattern of her annual feasts (see Bible Matrix p. 191).

Israel’s festal calendar has its structural origin in the testing of Adam, the first “high priest.” Day 6 of the Creation week (land animals and Man) corresponds to the sixth feast (as they are listed in Leviticus 23). The Day of Atonement involved Land animals and Man. Only once Israel was purified could she minister to the nations through hospitality in the Feast of Booths.

The four decades between AD30 and AD70 would finish this process with the Atonement of Jesus and the fulfillment of Booths (Tabernacles), the bringing in of both Jews and Gentiles in a union of “Land” and “Sea.” This final feast, the one in which a purified Israel is ready to minister to the other nations, was also referred to as Ingathering.

Ingathering comes after Atonement. The end of the Old Covenant (and inauguration of the Church) would culminate in the first resurrection. [2] But this could not happen until the unfaithful priesthood was dealt with.

This reasoning is based on the first atonement, the shedding of blood to cover the first Man of Sin, Adam. [3] Just as Adam and Eve were refused entrance into God’s rest, so Israel’s Day 7 could only happen after Israel’s Day 6 was done with. The Hebrew Christians were exhorted not to turn back, but to enter into this new rest. Reading Hebrews 4 and 10 in this light is a real eye opener.

Only once the blood of the prophets was avenged could the sleeping faithful, including Abel and Abraham, receive their inheritance. Just as the High Priest approached the veil twice with blood, once for the priesthood and once for the people (as Head and Body), so Jesus, who had ascended as Head, would return “in like manner” to purify the body, and accept her into the place which He had prepared. This is the “ingathering” to which the apostles refer. It is prefigured in Old Covenant language.

“Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.” (Genesis 25:8) [4]

This gathering of the Old Testament faithful in Abraham was only temporary. Christ was the first Man who would not be gathered but instead become the gatherer.

“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.” (Acts 13:36-37)

To gather faithful Israel, He would also have to scatter His enemies, that is, false Israel. Paul’s statement, in the light of Covenant structure, means that the new order cannot have begun if the Day of the Lord, the day when the Overlord turns up to administer the Sanctions of the Covenant, has not yet occurred. The entire New Testament takes place not only in the shadow of the cross, but in the shadow of Herod’s Temple and its claim to divine authority. The God-fest of all nations could not be enjoyed until after the rival priest-kingdom was demolished.

Only a logical reference to the Covenant structure allows us to see all the promises to Abraham fulfilled finally in a heavenly country (though they were certainly fulfilled completely by the end of the conquest of Canaan under Joshua). Before the old Temple would be turned into ashes, all the saints, the “cloud of witnesses” (as sacrificial incense filling the house) would finally find their rest in Christ, a better Adam, in heaven. Daniel saw a vision of their ascension (Daniel 7) and Josephus records the appearance of armies in clouds over Jerusalem, just before the Roman siege, that is, after days of the tribulation of the saints. The saints under the altar, the “grateful dead,” would discover that the promises to “corruptible seed” would all be fulfilled in ways incorruptible (1 Peter 1:23). The courts of God in heaven are now the halls of fame.

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[1] For the literary structure of this passage, see The Breath of His Coming – 1.
[2] See The End is Not Yet and The Last Trumpet.
[3] See also The Man of Sin.
[4] This is much more to this. See What Lies Beneath.

Part 1   |   Part 2

Lifting up the Best

Numbers didn’t seem to be long enough for there to be seven “matrix” cycles, but it seems now that this may be a possibility. For the Covenant “five” to “bloom” into a seven, the “Ethics” of the Covenant structure is split into three: Firstfruits, Pentecost and Trumpets, or “Head,” “Fire’” and “Body.” Since Cycle 3 is “Firstfruits,” we should expect the story to include motifs such as Ascension, the Altar-Land, Levitical ministry, the firstborn, tithing and “devotion.” Hey, guess what comes next in Numbers?

Giving the Firstfruits back to God was an act of faith. It was an acknowledgement that the blessings of life come from the hand of God. Once the firstfruits were presented, God was “free” to send the rest of the harvest. Interestingly, this is the principle in the practice of “devoting” a city. Cities “under the ban” were like a “firstfruits” to God. The complete offering of Jericho as the “firstfruits” of the Land would free God to trust Israel with the plunder of the remaining cities. We also see this principle in the offering of Isaac by Abraham, whose faith in God to resurrect him if necessary meant that God could send many more sons.

Finally, this principle is what supported the Levitical ministry of the Tabernacle. Israel, arranged in “four corners” around the house of God was a symbolic Altar-Land, with the Levites continually presented “above” the Land as firstfruits. This has an amazing bearing on the next cycle, but I will have to leave that to the next post in this series.

The structure of the book is amazing, and I would also like to remind readers that this same structure exists (fractally) in these passages at two levels (at least) within this level illustrated above.

This brings us to the beginning of the story of Balak and Balaam, which is where the real fun begins.

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[1] See Half Man, Half Beast.
[2] The sacrificial “week” consists of Initiation / Delegation / Presentation / Purification / Transformation / Vindication / Representation. See Bible Matrix II, p. 119.
[3] Notice that touching the holy water made one not clean but unclean. I believe this cycle is a process of death and resurrection, so the first half concerns the uncleanness that comes from touching unclean things (anything to do with rotting flesh) and the second concerns touching “clean” things, holy things that are “white witnesses” to death. Bones with no flesh remaining, like a completely white leper, were not unclean but “holy.” Death had finished its work. The structure supports this. See Bone and Flesh and The Bone of a Man.
[4] For members only, here is a link to some charts from Bible Matrix II which demonstrate the relationship between the five-fold Covenant pattern of the Head and the seven-fold Creation pattern of the Body, and how the timing of the end of the Torah prefigured in microcosm the timing of end of the Bible.

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[5] Commonly, these two are related by the “Atonement” of a smaller cycle becoming the “Passover/Firstfruits” of a larger cycle. Jesus’ Atonement on the cross became the Passover of the entire first century “Head and Body” pattern. Jesus’ bread and wine become the grain and fruit promise to the disciples of greater things if they will suffer as He does.

Art: Offering of first fruits (Illustration from a Bible card published between 1896 and 1913 by the Providence Lithograph Company)

Few passages have caused as much discussion as the one concerning “the spirits in prison” in 1 Peter 3. It’s also one of the few texts where I found that not a single one of the explanations offered was satisfactory. Well, I’ve run the matrix over it, and I reckon I’ve solved it.

To understand the context of “the prison spirits,” we have to identify the structure which contains it within Peter’s letter. Or, to put it another way, to get his structural point, we have to see the entire structure.

SABBATH – PEACE
Unity among the brethren

Finally, all [of you be] of one mind, (Sabbath unity)
…..having compassion for one another; (Passover)
……….love as brothers, (at the Altar, Matthew 5:23-24)
……….[be] tenderhearted, courteous; (Law of Covenant love)
……………not returning evil for evil (Eye for eye)
……….or [insult] for [insult], (“Bridal response”)
…..but on the contrary blessing, (Sanctions)
…..knowing that you were called to this, (Mediators)
that you may inherit a blessing. (Succession)

DIVISION – A NEW HIERARCHY

For “He who would love life and see good days, (Transcendence) [1]
…..Let him refrain his tongue from evil, (Hierarchy – teachers)
……….And his lips from speaking deceit. (Ethics – serpent)
…..Let him turn away from evil and do good; (Sanctions – mercy)
Let him seek peace and pursue it. (Succession – Future Rest)

ASCENSION – THE BREAD-AND-WINE MAN

For the eyes of the LORD
…..[are] on the righteous, (The facebread man)
……….And His ears [are open] to their prayers;
…..But the face of the LORD [is] (Face to face)
against those who do evil.” (No Succession)

TESTING – LIVING THE ETHICS OF THE LAW

And who [is] he who will harm you
…..if you become followers of what is good?
……….But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake,
…..[you are] blessed. (Positive Sanction)
“And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.”

MATURITY – TRUE AND FALSE WITNESS

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, (Transcendence)
…..and always [be] ready to [give] a defense (Hierarchy)
……….to everyone who asks you a reason (Altar)
……….for the hope that is in you, (Table – Firstfruits)
……………with meekness and fear; (Trembling – Ethics)
……….having a good conscience, (Trumpets – Witness)
……….that when they defame you as evildoers,
…..those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
…..(Miscarried Sanctions)
For [it is] better, if it is the will of God,
to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (Judges – elohim)

ATONEMENT – COVERING

For Christ also suffered once for sins, (Sabbath – Ark)
…..the just for the unjust, (Passover – Veil)
……….that He might bring us to God, (Nearbringing – Altar)
……….being put to death in the flesh (Firstfruits – Table)
……………but made alive in the Spirit, in which also (Pentecost – Lampstand)
……….to the prison spirits having gone, He preached (Trumpets – Incense)
…..who formerly did not comply, (Atonement – Sanctions)
when once was waiting the longsuffering of God (Rest/Inheritance)

Now, here is where the tracks of the Bible Matrix stanza panzer draw a line in the sand. The longsuffering of God has nothing to do with the days of Noah. The Greek has no punctuation, but the literary structure often tells us where to make a break.

This means that the “spirits in prison” are not angels. Angels cannot be atoned for. The word “prison” here apparently also carries a connotation of refuge, which fits the Day of Coverings. Although the use of “spirits” for dead men is unusual, the structure demands it. We have “spirit” and “spirits,” the one and the many. It follows the process of sacrifice, and the order of the Dominion pattern. The prison spirits are the slain saints, under the Incense Altar. They, too, were put to death in the flesh, but when Peter wrote, they still awaited their High Priest, and their entrance through the Veil with Him as the fragrant “clouds” to inherit the kingdom and sit on thrones (Rev. 20).

They are at Step 5 here, and relate to the fifth seal in the Revelation — the Old Covenant martyrs. They obviously witnessed – or were witnessed to — of Jesus’ ascension. They ask Him “how long” will it be before they are avenged. They are told to wait a little longer, until the New Covenant martyrs, the apostolic Church, is sealed, has time to witness as Trumpets, and is slain. These two witnesses — Old and New — then called down vengeance upon the Old Creation together, as a united witness. Their stories corroborated, so the Cainite/Herodian whore could be executed under the Law. The patience of God waited until these saints could enter into the rest, the heavenly country, for which they had waited. They could only inherit these promises once Christ opened the heavenly veil for them and covered their sin.

But it has nothing to do with Noah. Peter actually changes his subject here for his final stanza, and the theme of that entire stanza is rest.

GLORIFICATION – REST

In the days of Noah,  (Sabbath – “Noah” means “Rest”)
…..the ark was prepared, (“cut according to plan” – Veil)
……….in which a few, that is, eight souls, (Firstfruits)
……………were saved through water. (Ethics – Pentecost)
……….There is also an antitype which now saves us — (Atonement – Clean Garments)
…..(Atonement – Clean Garments:)
…..baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh,
…..but the answer of a good conscience toward God),

Peter expands the final line into its own pattern. It is the rest of Jesus, who now sits on the great white (ivory) throne as the true Solomon (the real king of peace) and the true Noah (the first man to qualify as a judge and executioner).

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (Light)
……….who has gone into heaven (through the Veil)
……………and is at the right hand (Ascension)
………………..of God, (Ruler)
……….angels and authorities and powers (Elders)
…..having been made subject (Conquest)
to Him. (Rest)

Now, of course this is not the entire epistle. This structure appears within an even larger one. I suspect that the letter follows the five-fold Covenant document. As far as I can tell, the basic theme of this passage above is the Covenant Ethics.

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[1]  I think this is an allusion to the Ten Words, the “second tier” of which concerns Adam’s work and Eve’s children (Hierarchy). You can see my layout of this in The Covenant Key, p. 63).

“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you
and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” Matthew 21:43

We unpacked the “face of the deep” of Day 1 and the “flat universe” created on Day 2. Time to analyse Day 3!

Land of Promise

The third day has two parts, Land and raw food. The raw food has two parts: grain and fruit, the foundation for the Two Trees at the centre of the Garden, nourishment and taste, life and wisdom, priest and king, bread and wine.

Then God said,
…..“Let the waters under the heavens be
…..gathered together into one place,
……….and let the dry [land] appear”;
……………and it was so.
……….And God called the dry land Earth,
…..and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas.
And God saw that it was good.

Notice:

1. the first half of the structure is “Word” (Covenant Head) and the second is “Flesh,” a physical Covenant body for the Word. God speaks to the void and it becomes full. The “and it was so” is the Covenant obedience of the natural order to God’s Law. God speaks, and only then does nature have Laws;
2. the Land is called at Ascension (the Bronze Altar) and named at Maturity (the Incense Altar). Being called lifts the Land into existence; but being names lifts it higher again, to a Covenant significance written in heaven. The most obvious application would be Israel’s bloody Land before the exile and the “resurrected” Israel of elder-priests after the Law-curses were applied.
3. The waters at Division are a firmament hiding the Land. The dry ground is commanded, literally, to “be seen.” But when the reader “sees” it, it is still naked. It is formed, but not filled. It is an Adam waiting for a glorious bride, a Land awaiting Covenant “generations” that, despite gaining further glory through variation, will remain faithful to the original kind.

Kingdom Fruits

Man has a budget; but God has abundance. For obedience, He promises fruitfulness in every area of life. Again, Adam is ordinary. “…as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” But the plunder of His faithfulness unto death is everlasting life, an entire people, a New Jerusalem founded on His obedience. These crops come out of the Land as fruitful Eve would come out of dusty Adam.

Then God said,
…..“Let the Land bring forth grass,
…..the herb that yields seed,
…..and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind,
…..whose seed is in itself, on the Land”;
……………and it was so.
…..And the Land brought forth grass,
…..the herb that yields seed according to its kind,
…..and the tree that yields fruit,
…..whose seed is in itself according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.

Notice:

1. this only seems to divide into the 5 point Covenant pattern. This means it is a “Word,” a dark saying, yet to be opened. The commandment to grass, grain and fruit is the delegation (Hierarchy) and the fulfilment of that Word is the Deuteronomic response of the Land (Sanctions).
   …..God says
   ……….Delegation
   ……………Obedience
   ……….Results
   …..God judges results
2. Notice that “on the Land” ends the commandment. The grain and fruit are a promise of bread and wine on the Table (of Showbread). They are the Firstfruits of the Land offered to God on the Land-Altar. Yet the fulfilment doesn’t mention the Land, but only God’s assessment. I can only guess that this means the fruits are the harvest God expected, trees instead of thorns, etc. He desires godly offspring (seed) and godly-ness (fruits). Obviously, in this first case there were no thorns. The Land was obedient to the gospel.
   “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” Matthew 7:16
3. Grass, Grain and Fruit seem to be World/Land/Garden, listed in order of height from the bottom up – an ascending order, and also an order of delight. Day 3 corresponds to Ascension and Leviticus. It is the building of God’s microcosmic 3-level house within His macrocosmic 3-level world. It is the founding of an Israelite “world,” a centralised priesthood as Covenant Head, mediating above, and for, the lower Gentile Sea of nations (that grow as quickly as grass and wither even more quickly) with a ministry of innocent blood.
4. In the Tabernacle, the Land is the Bronze, and the crops are the Table. Yet, as one reader pointed out, the Table is not outside the tent with the Altar, but inside the Holy Place. This is because the crop is the bread-and-wine Man Who ascends to stand before God as Mediator for His brothers. Yet the Hebrew Word for Land is feminine. This grain and fruit Man bows to the Father – in submission – as a Holy Warrior, a “virgin.” This table is only a betrothal, a promise of a better one to come on Day 7, a true feast, if Adam is faithful to enter into God’s rest.

So the evening and the morning were the third day.

Then, perhaps we can see that Day 3 as a whole follows the matrix:

Waters gathered [Creation]
…..Land and Sea separated [Division]
……….Land and Sea named (Covenant) [Ascension]
……………Fruit commanded [Testing]
……….Fruit delivered [Maturity]
…..Evening and morning (Sanctions) [Conquest]
Day 3 [Glorification]