Ignorance of the Bible’s very consistent architecture has led to the assembly of many well-meaning but errant doctrinal constructs over the centuries. With reference to it, however, the conflicts are made plain. Our own towers to heaven, however historic they might be, and however cherished, must be torn down.

Just as the “tabernacling” of God in human flesh established a new temple, so the architecture of God serves as the measure for the edifices of man in every sphere. As the Bible repeatedly shows, the city of God will only be built according to the blueprint from heaven, the one given upon the mountain. Anything else will be revealed by fire as mud bricks and straw, a house built on sand, or wood, hay and stubble.

Architecture as Process

The Bible’s sacred architecture is not “solid state.” Not only does it become more and more glorious as the story progresses, from garden to tent, from temple to city, from nature to culture, the elements of the building themselves constitute a process of maturity, recapitulating the pattern of “forming and filling” established in Genesis 1.¹For examples, see Revelation – Cycle 2 Just as that pattern underlies the shape of Genesis 2 — the social architecture established in Adam and Eve²See Covenant Structure in Genesis 2 — so it also underlies the dictation and construction of the Tabernacle in the latter part of the book of Exodus. These chapters are the worst kind of tedium unless we are willing to think visually, or architecturally. If, after careful and repeated readings of the book of Genesis, we have the “heavenly pattern” hidden in our hearts, the details of the tent of God are not a boring list but a tour of the gallery of grace, an architectural representation of the work of God in every sphere, from the creation of the world down to the heart of the humblest saint. Although these sequences are far more complex, we can begin to sing along because we already know the tune.³See The Shape of Exodus 25-31

Since all God’s works are “musical” in that sense, we should not be surprised to find the same architecture in biblical worship. Jeff Meyers writes:

Jesus taught us to pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). He thereby established heaven as the pattern for what is done on earth. (Actually, this pattern is symbolized in many places in the Old Testament, beginning in Genesis 1:1-2.) This is especially the case with regard to the church’s worship. Surely the manner in which worship is conducted in heaven functions as a model for the church on earth. When the Apostle John was privileged to observe heavenly worship, as he records for us in the Revelation, he saw an orderly, formal service performed by angels, living beings, and the twenty-four elders (the precise identity of each of these beings is not our concern here). They repeated various rituals and ritual responses (Rev. 4:9-11). They alternated responses antiphonally (Rev. 5:11-14). They sang hymns in unison (Rev. 5:9). They fell down together (no doubt, a prearranged liturgical action), and they jointly recited prayers of praise and thanksgiving that must have been pre-composed and memorized. How else would they have all prayed (or sung) simultaneously?⁴Jeffrey J. Meyers, The Lord’s Service: Worship at Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church, 19, a condensed version of The Lord’s Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship.

Meyers notes that, just like the Creation week, and indeed like any good music, the liturgy of worship “moves from tension to rest, from mourning to joy.” What began as “formless and void” becomes “formed and filled.” Our weekly worship is thus a celebration of the new creation established in the death, resurrection, ascension and enthronement of Christ. The action moves from bloodshed on the earth to rule over the nations. This process is called “Covenant Renewal Worship” because it follows the pattern of all biblical Covenants.

The process begins with the authority of God, purifies His people, then sends them as representatives into the world. This is the Above, Beside, Below architecture found in the Ten Commandments.⁶See God-In-A-Box  The threefold Trinity becomes fivefold by Covenant and then sevenfold in history. The pattern instilled in us in the house of God is then recapitulated in our own houses, tribes, cities and nations.

But this process of the Spirit “coming down” always follows the ascension offering, the sacrifice “going up.”⁷For more discussion on the meaning of the ascension offering, see The First Ascension. The three-level “ziggurat” described in Exodus 20:4 and Philippians 2:10 is turned upside down in the ministry of Christ.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything…

that is in heaven above,
(Step 3: Jesus’ ascension – Authority to Rule: GOVERNMENT)
^
or that is in the [land] beneath,
(Step 2: Jesus’ transfiguration – Authority to Die: SACRAMENT)
^
or that is in the water under the [land].”
(Step 1: Jesus’ baptism – Authority to Testify: WORD)⁸For more discussion, see Jesus’ Three Ascensions

Jesus sent His Spirit only after He ascended into heaven as the ultimate sacrifice. Man must be represented in heaven before he can be commissioned to represent God on earth. This is why Adam was put through a process of ethical qualification. His submission to the word-sword of heaven would qualify him to be its bearer on earth.⁹For more discussion, see “The Spirit of Adam” and “The Meekest Man” in Inquiétude: Essays for a People without Eyes. Just as there was tension and rest in the testing and enthronement of Christ (Below, Beside, Above), so there is now tension and rest is the conquest of the nations by the Gospel (Above, Beside, Below). ¹⁰Interestingly, although the flow of divine authority in the fivefold Covenant is Above, Beside, Below, the sevenfold process includes both an ascent and a descent. God always works in fractals.

Architecture as Drama

Now, as a visual thinker, some things are obvious to me that are not obvious to other people. Thinking visually not only allows one to think spatially or architecturally (how things are placed in a given space), it then allows you to make some observations concerning the spatial “relationships” between those things. In dramatic terminology, this placement of people is referred to as “blocking.” Eric Sean McGiven writes:

Blocking is the positioning and movement of the characters to tell the story in visual terms. This placement can suggest the attitudes of the characters toward one another so the story situation is conveyed to the audience with or without dialogue. It makes the audience understand, at times contrary to the dialogue, the inner meaning existing within and between characters.

Blocking should make the dramatic or comedic purpose of the scene so clearly apparent to the viewer that even a deaf man could understand it. For example, silent films were almost all physical behavior. A whole generation grew up understanding and enjoying these films.

The visual story reflects the moment to moment failure or success of each character’s struggle toward their objective, as well as the intensity (commitment) and focus (direction) of their emotions. Blocking is thus the accumulation of several components: the dramatic relationship, the character’s wants, what he feels, what stands in the way, and how is the conflict presently resolving. Now when I say winning or failing, I don’t mean whether the character achieves their end goal, but whether they are succeeding or failing at specific moments along the way.

Blocking, is therefore, a comparative portrayal of strong and weak movements, and relative positions. This means that certain body positions; stage areas, planes, and levels along with character movements have definite values. They inject meaning into the picture and the telling of the story.

For instance, a strong movement of a figure is one rising from a chair, straightening up, placing weight on the forward foot, raising the arm, or walking forward. A weak movement, on the other hand, is stepping backward, slouching, placing the weight on the rear foot, sitting down, lowering the arm, walking backward, or turning around and walking away from a figure or object.

We could also define, in general, whether physical behavior is strong or weak, whether it signifies a winning attitude or one of struggle or failure.¹¹Eric Sean McGiven, Blocking and Movement.

The first point that should be made here is the importance of physical posture in liturgy. The saints kneel or prostrate themselves to confess sins because we are slain as living sacrifices. The saints stand to sing and pray because these are priestly acts of service, and servants stand. The saints hear the word and receive communion seated because we are priest-kings, friends of God. Covenant renewal worship (or whatever you choose to call it) purifies our hearts and leads to the saints walking among the nations as prophets.

Liturgy, under the Old Covenant and the New, is sacred drama. People used to go to church to absorb patterns for life. Now, sadly, they watch TV and movies to learn how to live, and entertainment rather than the Bible informs the pattern of modern worship as it does the method of modern Bible teaching. It is little wonder that Christians learn nothing new at church. It is also telling that the first generation to skip Sunday School is responsible for the current plague of corruption in public and private institutions. Cultus always leads to culture. Men must learn to kneel before they can stand and walk with authority.

When it comes to the Bible, obtaining an understanding of the blocking of all the actors on the ubiquitous “sacred stage” explains many mysteries.¹²See Orientation Day My favourite example is the blocking of the actors in the account of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. The placement of all the people in the “legal” architecture of the court of God reveals it to be a replay of the events in Eden, only this time there is a better Adam. Not only this, but the careful mentions of Jesus sitting, bending down and standing are also architectural cues. There is no drama so deep and rich as even the simplest Bible story.¹³See The Emancipation of Eve.

Children And Liturgy

Since every Bible story has the same shape (the Bible Matrix), and each of the seven steps in that process corresponds to some element in the Tabernacle, every Bible story is an expression of the house of God, the heart of the city of God. This is very obviously the case with Exodus 24, and this chapter exposes one of the “architectural conflicts” mentioned above.

The pattern of biblical worship is not compatible with the doctrine of paedosacraments held by Jeff Meyers. Why? Because God never puts children in the Sanctuary. As it was in Eden, even before the children were born, the Sanctuary was only open to those who legally represented them.¹⁴For more discussion, see Cultivation and Representation. Even in the account of the woman caught in adultery, where the real target of the serpent is Jesus, the Offspring of the Woman, it is Jesus as the Man. Those whose intention is to include children in worship patterned after the biblical order should look more closely at that pattern, and this is where Exodus 24 is extremely helpful. The children were included, but we ought to observe how and where they were included.

Here is the pattern of Covenant Renewal Worship in its sevenfold form (from Bible Matrix, p. 217):

As in Genesis 1, the process begins with the authority of heaven and concludes with the establishment of a representative authority on earth. This is also what we see in Exodus 24.

The events of Exodus 24 occurred just before the dictation of the instructions for the Tabernacle. In this chapter, the people of God are not only gathered, cleansed, consecrated, commune with God and are commissioned, they are also divided up within the different stages of the “ascension” process on Mount Sinai. The entire nation, as the “corporate firstborn” of God became a picture of the process of sacrifice, and what we must notice is that the process not only moves from Below, to Beside, to Above, it also takes us from the sons of men on earth to the Sons of God in heaven:

The most common arguments for paedosacraments rely on Circumcision (for paedobaptism) and Passover (for paedocommunion). However, even though women served at the Tabernacle, and even young children had a place in the courts of Solomon’s Temple, not even Israel’s children qualified as legal representatives with Sanctuary access.¹⁵My friend Luke Welch totally screws this up, architecturally-speaking, here. Both Circumcision and Passover concerned the households of men, and their earthly offspring. What we see in the books of Exodus and Leviticus is the establishment of divisions within Israel to accommodate the house of God. Just as Israel was the “firstborn” of God, corporately speaking, the Levites were set apart as legal representatives for those sons of Israel.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine, for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast. They shall be mine: I am the Lord.” (Numbers 3:11-13)

This shifted the focus from the Land and womb to the Sanctuary, from the firstborn of the womb to the firstborn from the dead, or, in Tabernacle terms, from bloody flesh to fragrant smoke. Where the Bronze Altar represented the four-cornered earthly inheritance, the Incense Altar represented the coming “heavenly country,” the inheritance of the resurrected saints, the courts of God. The architecture on Mount Sinai prefigured the ascension of the saints at the end of the Old Covenant as a mature, human representative government in heaven. To use Circumcision and Passover as proof of the veracity of paedosacraments is to lift raw flesh into heaven without purification by fire. Paedosacraments are the liturgical equivalent of the tower of Babel, or gathering sticks on the Sabbath to warm your own tent instead of gathering around God’s. Sons of men are not Sons of God.

The conclusion is clearly that children, indeed anyone, is welcome in the New Covenant house of God. The Garden is now free of the accuser, so Eve now rules as co-regent with her Bridegroom. Baptism and table are thus for “both men and women” (Acts 2:18; 5:14; 8:12) as New Covenant “Levites” (men) and “Nazirites” (men and women), but restricting the sacraments to believers does not exclude the children any more than restricting ministry of the Word to men excludes the women. Just as the restriction of priesthood to “Adams” who “died” made worship a safe place for women and children, so the restriction of priesthood to “Adams” and “Eves” under the New Covenant makes worship a safe place not only for our children, but for anyone else who wishes to attend. New Covenant worship is open worship, a drama for all the world to see, and the sacraments are part of the liturgical story which we dare not get wrong. They do not constitute “an intellectual fence” which divides the Church any more than did the divisions within Israel upon Sinai or around the Tabernacle.

Now, we all know a picture is worth a thousand words. It has taken me almost three thousand to explain an inconsistency I noticed by comparing Exodus 24 and Covenant Renewal Worship in a single mental image. This might be why software companies are employing people with varying degrees of autism to find bugs in computer code. I am no genius, but I do know my way around the house.

In a Land from which Cainites were being dispossessed, Israel herself would not only judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, but provide cities of refuge to the “firstborn” Levites as a gift.

The Avenger of Blood

Like Adam, Cain would not “bear” his sin. But unlike Adam, Cain was rejecting the covering of animal substitutes. As the “offspring” of the serpent (kinghood without priesthood), he only understood law as tyranny. There was no place for mercy (Atonement) because mercy required Covenant confession.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

In this final post on the structure of Ephesians, we will cover stage 6 (Conquest/Atonement) and stage 7 (Glorification/Booths). (Unfortunately, I can’t refer to them as cycles because there are 8 cycles, as previously discussed.)

A common interpretation of the “armor of God” relies on the assumption that Paul is using the kit of a Roman soldier as a metaphor. This shows how fragmented is our understanding of the Bible, an organic text which is not fragmented at all, and not reliant upon the various contemporary cultures anywhere near as much as we assume. The armor in Ephesians 6 is that of a priest, a priest with a sword, fulfilling his guard duty at the gate of God.

Stage 6 – A NEW PRIESTHOOD

Here’s an outline of this penultimate cycle, which concerns the Church as the Body of the totus Christus, standing in the open veil, mediating for the nations. [1] Corresponding also to Day 6, it is the glorified “new Adam,” able to stand and face God because He is sinless, and thus qualified to rule (which leads us to the final cycle, describing the character of this rule).

This cycle is thus the Day of Atonement transfigured in Christ and given to the Church as a ministry of cleansing, an outflow of blood and water, death and resurrection, from the Body of Christ.

Christ’s Power (Genesis – Creation)

The first line is a new beginning, a new history. The old leaven has been cut off, entirely cleansed from the house, and must not be allowed to multiply in the new. The stanza is fivefold, meaning that it is a Covenant scroll waiting to be opened (through sacrifice) into a sevenfold history (Ethics opens into three stages: priest, king and prophet, or head, fire and body.)

Priestly Armor (Exodus – Division)

As the “Exodus” step, the New Israel, empowered in stanza 1 is now sent into battle. The ESV does not use the words craftiness or slanderer, which, to the English-speaking mind, tie this stanza to the events in Eden. This stage is Day 6, after all. The final line is interesting because one of its referents is fatherhood, that is, the beginning of a new Succession, a “gospel outflow.” Here it is Satan’s lies about the goodness of the Father.

Power of the Cursed Heads (Leviticus – Ascension)

The New Covenant battle is different in character to the Old. Here it is reinterpreted in the light of the victory of Christ. Since we are now indwelt by His Spirit, we deal not with the flesh-and-blood bodies animated by evil, wrestling physically with angels (as Jacob did and Adam was called to do) or with demonic men (as David and Jesus did) but with the very evil itself, as Jesus did in the wilderness, in the Garden and on the cross.

At Ascension, the “chiefs and authorities” are those like Satan, like Haman, like the Herods, who had “ascended” not through obedience to the Covenant but through a usurping of God’s power. They have thrown Covenant truth to the ground and attempted to “take on bodies,” false gatherings (church or state) that enslave and tyrannize. It is not ascension but levitation. It is the rule of Cain, who put his kingly offering before the priestly advocacy of his brother.

The word often translated “wickedness” in step 6 has the connotation of painful toil, which is interesting because it ties Satan’s power to that of the curse upon Adam, the Covenant Head. Satan had been cast down in the Garden. His ministers, the Herods and their priesthood, would soon be cast down in the Land…

The Evil Day (Numbers – Testing)

This is the centre of this cycle/stage. The Ephesians were being asked to persevere against all the powers of the Old Creation, all the false gods Satan could muster, including the idols of the Jews who had rejected both Christ and His Spirit. [2] The position of the “evil day” is interesting. This is the Day 4 cycle, the power of the sun, moon and stars, but the “day” here is the Day of Atonement, the Day of the Lord, which was coming upon not only Jerusalem, but upon the entire oikoumene. [3] Through the faithful witness of the martyrs, the noonday darkness of the old “sun, moon and stars” would be thrown down as Satan had been thrown down.

Power of the Resurrection Body (Deuteronomy – Maturity)

This stanza concerns the sacrificial Body, a cloud of fragrant smoke. It is the Church in preparation (at Trumpets), ready to be presented for battle and to appear in the court of God. It is at this point that “fragrant” Esther put on her royal robes to appear before the King, “awesome as an army with banners.” In the Revelation, the saints are described as having “Tabernacle armor.” The High Priest’s clothing was a replica of the Tabernacle itself, and I recently noticed that Mordecai’s glorious robes at the end of Esther are a replica of the king’s Garden court at the beginning.

Notice that truth appears in this stanza where slander appears in the entire cycle: step 2. Loins here might be reference to a priestly New Covenant circumcision. The breastplate refers to the High Priest. The “binding” of the feet is a connotation of being “shod.” Binding is both Covenantal and sacrificial. It is not clear whether the priests, whose feet and hands were washed before service in the Tabernacle, wore footwear within the compound, but I think it is likely. None is described, but the terrain was rough, and the Lord promised that their footwear would not wear out. As “standing” is the role of the Priest, serving as a butler and watchman, and “sitting” is the role of the King, so “walking” is the role of the prophet (like Enoch and others), who bridges the gap between Israel and the nations, extending the domain of God. The Church is a prophet Body, serving among the nations. At Maturity/Deuteronomy, the idea is also readiness for Conquest., feet bound by Covenant vow, washed by Christ in the Laver and now ready to walk on the stormy “waters” of the nations. [4] The Church was the entire tent on the move, but with all the old veils removed, worship open to all, and even the mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant open for all to see, prepared to scatter God’s enemies and gather His people.

Priestly Cleansing (Joshua – Conquest)

Because the epistle is a fractal, we can correspond the previous stanza to the “Deuteronomy” cycle of the letter. The preparation of the New Israel is ethical. It concerns relationships, the fulfillment of the Law by the Spirit. Unlike the Ten Commandments and the Levitical Laws, it is not “inward looking,” concerning prohibitions and didactic laws for cleansing that we may approach God. Christ has fulfilled that on our behalf. It is generally positive and outward looking, concerning testimony to each other and to the nations.

In this stanza, the shield is a veil. Those who are face to face with God in Christ are those who keep Satan “thrown down” from his position as the accuser. The darts appear here as Covenant curses, and Satan’s little fires as false “Shekinahs.” Those who are filled with holy fire, like Phinehas, who fulfilled the Covenant by dealing with idolatry and adultery, are impervious to strange fire. Faith is indeed the victory. A shield is defensive, but a sword is defensive, so in the final stanza we move from corporate coverings to commission.

Christ’s Mission (Judges – Glorification)

Notice the move from salvation to supplication. Here is the true Shekinah glory of the Church as representatives of Christ.

Stage 7 – A NEW COMMISSION

The final cycle of the epistle is an expansion of this ministry of supplication.

Creation (Gentile Ark of the Covenant)

Line 2 concerns the saints as “watchers,” as Lampstands (the Lampstand is literally a “watcher” tree). Interestingly, the second major cycle of the Revelation displays the churches of Asia as priestly lamps tended by Christ.

Division (Gentile Veil)

“Mystery” often appears at this point. The veil is now open. Notice Paul’s bold witness in the usual place, and the mystery itself as the new “house” containing both Jew and Gentile at Booths/Succession.

Ascension (Gentile Altar)

Now, Paul is putting himself on the altar, bound as the sacrifice, blameless in Christ, the Lamb who was worthy to open the New Covenant scroll.

Testing (Gentile Lampstand)

Being the Pentecost step, this is the “opening” of the Law, God’s intentions revealed. Just as Christ sent the Spirit to the Church, so Paul here sends Tychicus as “good fortune” or providence to the Ephesians, which also ties this central stanza to the purpose of this final cycle: commission.

Maturity (Gentile Incense)

A short sentence, repeating “the Law,” and concerning revivification.

Conquest (Gentile Mediation)

At the Sanctions step of the cycle, we have no curses, only peace with God. It begins with the Sabbath (the first feast in Lev. 23) and ends with Christ as our shelter (the final feast).

Glorification (Gentile Rest)

The final stanza concerns “Ingathering,” our gathering to the Father in His Son. Peace and Grace are the results of the blood and the water (land and sea) of membership of Christ’s new Body. [5]

________________________________________
[1] See Under Your Feet.
[2] See When Judaism Jumped the Shark.
[3] See Peter Leithart, Jewish War.
[4] See Walking on Water.
[5] See The Water and the Blood.

And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. (Zechariah 14:21)

Working on a post about the use of seals in Revelation, I was looking through the uses of the word “seal” throughout the Bible. Daniel 9:24, a very famous verse, showed up, and its structure struck me as worth some analysis. If structure is indeed part of the means of the Author’s communication, it is not an optional extra.

Firstly, this stanza has an obvious “Covenant” shape. The time spoken of by the angel would bring all the promises made to Israel to fruition.

Sabbath is the first feast listed in Leviticus 23. Its seven day structure “determines” the shape of the entire festal year. Here, it is seventy sevens, 490 years, the “latter days” or latter half of the era of Temple worship.

City and people are the Covenant Hierarchy here, those set apart by circumcision, and the veil of the Mosaic law. People, city, circumcision and Mosaic law would all be cut off when this future time arrived.

In the big Bible picture, Israel’s entire history is “Firstfruits” (Land, then Grain and Fruit). The Bible Matrix shows us that this corresponds to Leviticus (the Levites lived “above” the Land as the “nearbringing” tribe.) The time described above would bring all nations near to God. How? By putting Israel on the Altar and setting her alight as an Ascension Offering (mistranslated “whole burnt offering.”)

Day 1 – Light – Sabbath – Genesis (animal called)
…..Day 2 – Waters – Passover – Exodus (animal cut)
……….Day 3 – Land, Grain & Fruit – Firstfruits – Leviticus (animal presented)
……………Day 4 – Governing Lights – Pentecost – Numbers (holy fire) [1]

My point is that these “latter days” of Israel’s history would prepare the world for Pentecost. To do so, she would have to be torn apart, presented as bread broken and wine tipped out. This is what is going on in the Book of Revelation, when the New Covenant words sealed in Daniel are finally opened, bringing an end to the Old. And Daniel 9:24 shows it would be done in the exact manner described in Leviticus 1-7. The words used in the three “Ethics” stages echo the five offerings:

Since we are aligning these offerings with the five-fold Covenant process and the seven fold festal year, we can see that this final offering pictures the “de-consecration” of all Israel, that is, the end of the Jew-Gentile divide in AD70. Booths/Tabernacles was a party thrown by Jews for Gentile guests. The entire festal history was spent cleaning Israel up so she could serve the nations. Once the Gospel was preached, believing Gentiles came to celebrate together — EAT together — with believing Jews. After the party, God sent Gentile scavengers to “clean up” the remains of unbelieving Judah, with Roman eagles circling her carcass.

Now, what is really scary is that Daniel 9:24 appears to run these offerings backwards, a factor I have noticed in numerous places in Scripture. (If you don’t know the patterns, you can’t tell when God is messing with them to make a point!) I suppose this means that the very offerings made by Israel in her “latter days” would be her de-consecration, leading to, as Dr. Leithart notes, the de-sacralizing of the priestly nation. [5] Even her final guilt offering would be five-fold, but it would result in two Israels: one unclean, and one merely common but cleansed by Christ. For those who rejected Christ, there would be no escape from the curses of Moses. There would be no more sacrifice for sins.

The de-consecration of Israel was not a bad thing. Covenant history was moving from “Levitical” Head to “Deuteronomic” Body. All the Lord’s people are commoners, but they are also priests and prophets. Under the New Covenant, even the pots and pans are holy.

My friend Albert Garlando noticed a gem in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on Leviticus. He states that the five themes of Leviticus are:

A Holy God
…..A Holy Priesthood
……….A Holy People
…..A Holy Land
A Holy Savior [6]

Now, compare this with the structure of Daniel 9:24 above.

________________________________________
[1] Jesus follows the same pattern with each of the elements, bread and wine, in the last supper. See Bible Matrix II, p. 189.
[2] See James B. Jordan, Re-creation in the Ascension Offering. I know Ascension is step three, but this five-fold process as a unit is the “Levitical” step 3, the near bringing.
[3] Peter Leithart runs through these in a very helpful way in his A House for My Name, but presents the process as fourfold for some reason (pp. 87-97).
[4] The man “inside the tent” is the bridal man, the one who values the Covenant. More on this in another post.
[5] See A Jew Gets Baptism, quoting Peter J. Leithart, Defending Constantine.
[5] See also Leviticus as Literature.

Communion in the liturgy corresponds to Atonement. The saints carry the creation before the throne of God as mediators (Tabernacles). Then, after the doxology, we ride out into the world as “chariots” carrying the decree from the emperor (notice this pattern in Revelation 18-19).

So, if we follow the biblical pattern for liturgy, we are re-enacting every week what Christ accomplished in the AD30-70 “wilderness to Canaan” period. This is exactly where Israel failed in the book of Judges. It was a Levitical failure. God raised up judges to preserve His people from total destruction, but it began with the priesthood losing the plot as mediators, a failure of both judgment (manward and worship (Godward).

A pinch of bread and a thimble of cordial while breast-beating in silence is a Levitical failure. Communion is a celebration. The time for breast-beating is the confession at the beginning of the service. You wash before you come to the table.

: ( Confession - Christ crucified – Passover – Red Sea (we are “passed over”) Judgment

: ) Communion - boasting in Christ crucified – Atonement – Jordan (we “pass through”) Worship

At Communion, the “stigmata” of Christ are rewritten in us as living epistles, tablets of flesh, an invitation to Tabernacles. The pattern is renewed in the mediators, and we ride into the world with a renewed Covenant in a new week, as the Word to the world.

Well, that’s the plan. In the west, we seem to be at the mercy of the Philistines. This liturgical pattern often has children at this last step as the horses and chariots. It concerns the next generation. (Elisha’s bears appear at this step to deal with the “children” of Jezebel!) After Communion, we are the renewed children of the Table, offspring of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.