“The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.” Leviticus 14:14

This is one of those weird things we Christians don’t like to talk about. But James Jordan loves to talk about the weird things. He says somewhere that these three bloody points on the body plus circumcision make a cross. Well, there are certainly four points, but does it look like a cross to you?

To me, it’s only half a cross. God’s Creation was divided into heaven and earth, waters above and below, Land and Sea, Grain and Fruit, Man and Woman. All these things (or what they were designed to represent) can only be united by the Spirit in a “resurrection.” Each of these is a half waiting for its other.

The Tabernacle was, among other things, a human body, an Adam. In his left hand is the bread of priesthood. In his right is the rod of kingdom (seven stars of the Lampstand). So when God tore humanity in half in Abraham, cut down the middle in circumcision, Judaism was only half a man, a priesthood. Wine, the right hand Man, could not be consumed in God’s presence. The right side was covered in blood, the blood of a beast. It was a beast the offered a false kingdom. As Jordan says, the blood of a beast opens the door.

So Jesus opened that door as a beast slain at the foot of the mountain of God (Hebrews 12:20). He slew the Beast, completed the cross, blood on the left and the right, priesthood and kingdom, and His new priests are able to both eat bread and drink wine in His presence. Like every new Covenant, the old history was wrapped up and transfigured into a new commission. Jesus is the Father’s right hand man, and the stars in His Lampstand hand are filled with the Spirit of God. This is the kingdom age, Jew and Gentile together in one new body. The middle wall is gone. The Abrahamic bipolarity is over. After the blood comes the Spirit:

“And of the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass offering.” Leviticus 14:17 (Notice the “Pentecost” reference in verse 16, between the blood and the Spirit: seven sprinklings of oil before God before it can be applied to Man.)

“Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”  (1 Cor. 3:12-17)

Are the gold, silver and precious stones our heavenly bling? From the structure of this passage, I think what Paul is referring to is the church. If we are building disciples who remain despite trials and testing from God, we will be rewarded. The immediate context of this is the false doctrine of Judaisers, and their house of gold, silver and precious stones (Herod’s Temple and his puppet High Priest’s robes). While Paul was building a Temple out of people, Herod was busy polishing the brass on the Titanic that he knew Jesus had said would be submerged under a Gentile flood (Daniel 9:26). Herod’s precious stones didn’t make it through God’s judgment. The Day declared what it was in truth.

The question is, are our disciples a robe/house for Jesus, or are they kindling in His nostrils? When He comes to judge, what will our ministry be revealed as?