Covenant Structure in Zechariah 11

“The meek will eventually inherit the earth but the wicked will always have to buy it.”

Reading the book of Zechariah, like most Bible prophecies, is like tuning in to Season 3 of any good TV series without watching Seasons 1 and 2. Our problem today is not that we haven’t actually read the books of Moses (well, I hope we have) but that we haven’t been taught to read them into the prophets and the New Testament. We treat them like we’ve now switched channels, or shows, and the authors are starting with a blank canvas! However, the canvas isn’t blank. The prophets were God’s repo men, and their messages were all framed in the context of the Covenant contract. What amazes me is how inventive the prophets are (or the Spirit is) in coming up with something new and surprising using the patterns laid down in Moses.

Another strange habit we have is tracing Old Testament quotations in the Gospels and sticking a “Messianic prophecy” label on them without much attempt to understand what those verses meant in their original context. It used to bother me that nobody seemed interested in what they meant and why on earth a particular verse would come to the author’s mind in the first place in support of his case for Jesus. The answer is that God does not work in “snapshots” but in stories, through processes, and within architectures.

One of the more complex references is the mention of “the potter” in Zechariah 11 and Matthew 27:7. Not only is the reference intriguing but the original passage is just as confusing. Zechariah 11 is just plain weird to us, because we think like the viewer who has only just tuned in. If we take the structure into account, it may answer some burning questions.

Firstly, it seems to me that the ‘cycle’ in Zechariah 11 actually starts in v. 4, so vv. 1-3 belong to the previous section. Why do I say this? It concerns the destruction of the “cedars” of the Temple, as an ironic cloudy Tabernacles! (The other name for the feast is Booths, which is more literally “clouds.”) So those verses are the end of the previous cycle.

TRANSCENDENCE – Creation (Genesis)

So verses 4-5 begin the cycle. It begins with a new Initiation. The Lord asks Zechariah to “lead” the flock of God. He condemns the kings who have exalted themselves against the Law. So we have the Call, and also a reference to Divine Authority (the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant).

HIERARCHY – Division (Exodus)

After Initiation comes Delegation, or in sacrificial terms, the cutting of the sacrifice. In verse 6, the Lord pronounces a “Passover,” but one from which no one will escape. The “king” has become a king like Pharaoh, murdering God’s “firstborn”, Israel, so the Lord Himself will not intervene. However, He has commissioned Zechariah for an ironic “tour of duty”: he would lead the flock, not to green pastures, but to slaughter.

ETHICS 1 – Ascension (Leviticus/Priesthood) – Law given

In 7-9, Zechariah becomes the blameless “firstfruits” with two staffs, Favor (Church) and Union (State). Staffs are an extension of a man’s reach, and are “legal” tools. The left and right “hands” of the Tabernacle are the Table and the Lampstand, priesthood and kingdom. Once united in a Man they lead to prophecy, true legal witness.

Zechariah tends the sheep. He destroys the “three shepherds” in “one month”, which is possibly a reference to Numbers 18:15-16:

Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. And their redemption price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

The subject is the redemption of the firstborn, and if we notice that the price was specified in sanctuary silver, it will help us with what comes later on in the passage.

The word “destroyed” is the word used in Exodus 9:15, in the words Moses is to speak to Pharaoh before the seventh plague, because he has exalted himself:

For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.

The theme is “Levitical,” the tithe. Festally-speaking, it is the Feast of Firstfruits, pointing to the Ascension of Christ. But who are the three shepherds? When Jesus appears as the ‘firstfruits lamb” in Revelation 5, He is a union of priest (lamb – forming), king (seven eyes – filling) and prophet (seven horns – future), or in architectural terms, a combination of the three pieces of furniture in the Holy Place. So it would seem the “triune office” is in Zechariah’s cross hairs. Many commentators believe these shepherds are those rulers upon whom Christ pronounced Covenantal “woes.” Instead of being advocates for the people, they were legal accusers, just like their true father, Satan. They had exalted themselves as kings and they would be thrown down. The difference was that Satan knew he only had a short time. From Barnes’ notes:

And I cut off three shepherds in one month – Jerome: “I have read in some one’s commentary, that the shepherds, cut off in the indignation of the Lord, are to be understood of priests and false prophets and kings of the Jews, who, after the passion of Christ, were all cut off in one time, of whom Jeremiah speaketh, “The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew Me not; the pastors also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things which do not profit” Jeremiah 2:8, and again, “As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests and their prophets” Jeremiah 2:26; and “they said, Come, let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet” Jeremiah 18:18.

Based on what follows in the text, this “disempowerment” refers to Jesus’ ministry to the Jews. In each case He was the “firstborn” son who received the Father’s blessing: 1) circumcised as a Priestly Lamb and baptized as a Priest; 2) anointed as a Shepherd King after His baptism and received as the Son of David in Jerusalem; 3) commissioned as Divine Prophet at His transfiguration (just prior to the triumphal entry, which explains the “Hear ye Him” in Matthew 17:5) and authorized to speak the Father’s words to the rulers of the city. At each stage, His qualification disqualified the leaders of Israel, just as David’s anointing disqualified Saul.

However, the three stages of qualification would be “fractally” replicated in Israel. The process of destruction here is Ethical, Social, Physical, a reverse of Genesis 1-3.

ETHICS 2 – Testing (Numbers/Kingdom) – Law Opened

At the centre of the cycle (vv. 10-11), Israel’s Covenantal Favor is broken. The kingdom comes and her priesthood is no longer effectual. The priesthood and kingdom (forming and filling), are like the two bronze pillars of Solomon’s Temple.: they will be broken up. We saw the same action when Moses broke the first set of stone tablets. What is interesting is that these are not Mosaic tablets but Davidic staffs. The Word of the Lord is vindicated among the “peoples,” in this case, the tribes of Israel. The feast here is Pentecost, when many Jews believed. Revelation presents them as saints “sealed and numbered” (only Jews are numbered, and one of the themes here is the book of Numbers). The Covenant has been de-formed, but Israel would be given a chance to “fill up” her sins or her sufferings before the future age arrived..

ETHICS 3 – Maturity (Deuteronomy/Prophethood) – Law Received

This next stage corresponds to the feast of Trumpets, where Israel’s warriors are mustered and “redeemed.” Trumpets are silver. They summon Israel and they warn God’s enemies. It was at this point in Genesis 23 that Abraham purchased a cave and field from Ephron with “bridal” silver, and also at this point in Joshua 7 where Achan revealed his plunder, including silver, was hidden “in the earth” under his tent. Again, something to take note of for later.

The redemption price comes from Exodus 21:32. It is the price for a murdered bull or slave, which actually ties Zechariah’s service to the Bronze Altar (binding) rather than the prophetic Incense Altar (loosing). Remember, these two altars correspond chiastically in the pattern, one being the earthly country (bloody Adam) and the other the heavenly country (fragrant Eve). Silver has to do with loosing, with redemption. It is bridal, and military. It is also the plunder for Covenant obedience, and the legal witness (as fragrant, silvery smoke) that the Law has been satisfied.

The money is thrown into the Lord’s House, however, it is designated “to the potter.” Rather than ascending to heaven, it will be returned to the earth, hidden in the clay under Achan’s “Tabernacle.” The JFB commentary mentions that the Temple employed its own potter, and any “unclean” money went to pay him. It was a “talent” hidden in the ground. The idea is that the Covenant Head is not multiplied as a Body, bearing fruit, as desired by God. The potter worked in the Valley of Hinnom, where Jeremiah threatened the rulers of Judah by shattering pots (Jeremiah 19). This valley was where child sacrifices took place, and God judged Israel for this crime by filling it with their bodies. We see the same thing in the first century, beginning with Herod the Great’s slaughter of the innocents and ending with the Roman siege. The valley of the potter came to be known as Gehenna, a rubbish tip filled with fire and maggots.

The house of God and “clay” are both Ascension symbols concerning the firstfruits. Adam is lifted from the miry clay and made to stand upright. So perhaps the idea is that the “ascended” bridal Land is to be covered in sacrificial blood. The prophet himself has been redeemed and he has purchased a burial cave for the Bride. She will rest in the bosom of Abraham until his heavenly country is a place “prepared” by Jesus.

This section ends with a familiar “Trumpets” symbol of the brothers. Judah (the head) and Israel (the body) are divided. The reference is to the “new Covenant” made with these two houses, as predicted in Jeremiah 31 (known by some as the “Restoration Covenant”). It takes us from the beginning of Zechariah to the first century. Here they are not united but separated. There would be no real outcome in history in the first century. The point is that this “tribal” unity would be replaced by a greater unity, the one between Jew and Gentile, as Hebrews 8 explains.

“In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Hebrews 8:13)

This brings us to the end of the triune “Ethics” section of the prophecy. At Ascension, the prophet united priesthood and kingdom, enabling him to speak as a prophet (Adam was to be the third tree in the Garden, whose fruit was righteousness, representing God as His Word). At Testing (Pentecost), the face of God stopped shining upon Israel-according-to-the-flesh. Maturity is about a “many” which are united with one mind. Here, the old Feast of Trumpets was annulled forever through the legal witness of the apostles, the testimony of Jesus, who like Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Gentiles. The Trumpets warned of the old walls coming down.

SANCTIONS – Conquest (Joshua/The Triune Man)

Now we come to the Day of Coverings, when the High Priest approached God for the Priesthood and the People, the head and the body. Atonement is about healing the Land, but God was raising up a shepherd who would not heal but devour. At this point in Jesus’ pattern, the High Priest exalted himself against the Son of God, the veil was torn, and a Roman soldier testified to Him. In the larger apostolic cycle, the Temple was completed (in defiance of Jesus’ words) and then destroyed only a few years later by armies of Roman soldiers. But it seems that the prophet is still speaking hear of the ministry of Jesus.

SUCCESSION – Glorification (Judges: Israel serves the Gentiles)

The cycle has covered de-forming and de-filling (Days 1-6) and now moves to de-future! The worthless king will be cut off. The right side of the Adam/Tabernacle is the kingly side. The sword-arm and the eye of judgment will be taken away. Israel will no longer have her own king sitting at court. Because she would not be a priest to the nations, she will serve a Gentile Solomon, the emperor (an ironic Booths). The initial fulfillment of this was the death of Herod on his throne, sitting in the Temple of God. The Lord turned him into a human Gehenna, filled with worms.

Jesus or Judas?

This brings us to an interesting aspect of the prophecy. Is the prophet predicting the actions of Jesus or Judas? Zechariah was from the tribe of Judah, and Judah would be divided like the two goats on the Day of Atonement. Judas (Judah) was himself a sign of what was coming upon all Judah. The Last Supper follows the order of Israel’s annual festal calendar, with Judas being expelled as the second goat, filled with the devil and carrying the sins of the nation to destruction. [1] Jesus and Judas are the positive and negative coordinates of the prophet’s “formula.”

Whose purchase?

Matthew 27 says that the chief priests and elders bought the potter’s field with Judas’ silver, as a place to bury Gentiles, the unclean.  Acts 1 implies that it was Judas’ purchase, but the theme that unites these two statements is Covenantal. Abraham purchased a parcel of the Land but his children would later inherit it as a gift. The meek eventually inherit the earth but the wicked will always have to buy it. [2]

The Valley of Hinnom

The Jews were no longer merely murdering their sons in a horrific reenactment of Passover, they were once again giving them to foreign armies in a horrific reenactment of the fall of Jericho. After Pentecost, the children they were killing were the children of God, that is, the regenerate. [3] The idea is that they were not honoring the firstfruits and redeeming the firstborn at all but slaughtering them and keeping the money, just like our own culture is today. God would cut them off for their theft of a tongue of gold (the false prophet, Adam) [4], a robe from Babylon (the deceived harlot, Eve), and the redemption silver (the beast, the offspring of the shining Serpent), them and their children, like the family of Achan.

Why Silver?

Besides the obvious references, silver is an Old Testament type. It is bridal. Under Solomon, the great bridegroom, Jerusalem was filled not only with gold but silver.

“And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone…” (1 Kings 10:27)

The silver of Abraham was a downpayment on a heavenly country, the silvery smoke on the Incense Altar of resurrection. The silver of Achan and Judas fell like ashes through the grate in the Bronze Altar, into the earth like the sons of Korah, the false priests whose incense was rejected. Like Adam, like Judas, like Judah, an earthly altar without Pentecostal fire will only ever be a place of death, a field of blood. It always splits open in the end and returns to the dust (1 Kings 13:1-5). [5]

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[1] See One Taken, One Left Behind and Fool’s Gold.
[2] James Jordan sees the fulfillment of the Jubilee in the conquest of the world by the Gospel. All the Land is returning to its original owner, and His brothers.
[3] See Provoking the Dragon.
[4] See A Tongue of Gold.
[5] See Bridal Men for how Esau and Jacob correspond to the two altars.

Joel 2: 1-11

Into Joel again, and he knows nothing of our chapter divisions. At least the chapter break occurs at the end of an obvious stanza. We are still within Ethics 3, so this is the Trumpets stanza of a Trumpets cycle (aren’t fractals fantastic?) It’s a bit like that movie Inception — as the prophecy moves forward, each step is expanded to further level of structure, a dream within a dream. In this case, it is a multi-level nightmare, a brewing, billowing thundercloud. [1]

Jerusalem had become a new Babel, so God raised up a real Babel in order to overrun the Land and swallow her up. Joel uses the Creation, Dominion and Feasts structures but applies them to the invading Babylonians in ironies that would go over our head — if we weren’t familiar with these literary devices!

This Trumpets cycle begins with a five-fold Covenant cycle, but one in which each point of the THEOS (Transcendence, Hierarchy, Ethics, Oath, Succession) must have a “Trumpets” theme. Each line is a Covenant point amplified into a warning. The Deuteronomic words of Moses sound in the shofar. Beyond that, each stanza must also carry a successive matrix theme (Creation, Division, etc.)

Creation – The warning Word
Blow the trumpet in Zion, (Initiation)
…..And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! (Delegation)
……….Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; (Purification)
…..Surely the day of the LORD is coming, (Vindication)
Surely it is at hand: (Ironic Restoration – not future but present!)

Division – A delegation of might men
…..A day of darkness and gloominess, (Light)
……….A day of clouds and thick darkness, (Firmament)
……………Like the dawn is spread over the mountains. (Land)
………………..A people great and mighty, (Rulers)
……………The like of whom has never been; (Multitudes)
……….Nor will there ever be any [such] after them, (Mediators)
…..Even for many successive generations. (Future)

Notice the Sanctions divide the past from the future. Judgment time is always an historical watershed.

Ascension – The Land overrun
A fire devours before them,
…..And behind them a flame burns;
……….The land [is] like the Garden of Eden before them,
……….And behind them a desolate wilderness;
……………Surely nothing shall escape them.
……….Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
……….And like swift steeds, so they run.
…..With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap,
…..Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.

Notice the double “before/behind” at the start. The fire of judgment is a flaming two-edged Covenant sword, and the Land is an Eden vomiting out the failed priesthood (Ascension is Levitical).

Also, Maturity often carries the symbols of donkeys (peacemakers) and horses (warmongers). Conquest here is also double-barreled. It has the smoking firepot (Body) and the blazing torch (Head). This is Israel’s invasion of Canaan replayed in a horrible parody.

Testing – Israel de-formed, and filled with soldiers
Before them (Light of exposure)
…..the people writhe in pain; (Veil of death)
……….All faces are drained of color. (Facebread)
……………They run like mighty men, (Ironic Pentecost)
……….They climb the wall like men of war; (Smoky swarms)
…..Every one marches in formation, (Conquest)
And they do not break ranks.
They do not push one another; (A Corporate Mediator!)

Maturity – The invaders are united in spirit as they enter and plunder
Every one marches in his own column.
…..Though they lunge between the weapons,
……….They are not cut down.
……………They run to and fro in the city,
……….They run on the wall;
……….They climb into the houses,
…..They enter at the windows like a thief.
Before them quakes the Land

It is interesting that “windows” appear in this stanza at Conquest. This ties the idea not only to the “windows of heaven” and window of Rahab, but also the “dark glass” of the crystal sea, and even the window of Eutychus. The open veil is a window into heaven.

Conquest – (Atonement) Israel is torn in two in the dark
The heavens tremble; (No Transcendence)
…..The sun and moon grow dark, (No Hierarchy)
……….And the stars lose their brightness. (Ethics 1)
……………The LORD gives voice before His army, (Ethics 2)
……….For His camp is very great; (Ethics 3)
…..For strong [is the One] who executes His word. (Sanctions/Oath)
For the day of the LORD [is] great and very terrible;
Who can endure it? (No Succession)

This ends the expanded Trumpets cycle. There is no final stanza, no rest, no glory. What follows is the beginning of a call to a true “Day of the Lord,” a day of coverings, a day of torn garments and a torn veil.

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[1] It is interesting that so-called random shapes like clouds can now be mapped and predicted with fractal technology, the same software that is used to create such random shapes as clouds and water splashes in CGI. Joel might sound like a formless storm, but there is nothing random about it whatsoever.

Art: Sunset on Babylon by Raphael Lacoste.

The prophets were God’s “Covenant sheriffs,” hammering on the door with the broken contract like repo men from hell. They don’t want your car. They want your blood.

It should not surprise us when their words follow the Covenant structure. The first chapter of Joel is, once you know what you are looking at, a beauty and a terror. The prophet uses the Annual Feasts as a theme. It turns out that the Lord’s rebellious people will be the meat on the table.

T R A N C E N D E N C E – SABBATH disturbed
The word of the LORD (Transcendence)
…..that came to Joel ["The Lord is God"] (Delegation)
……….the son of Pethuel ["mouth of God"]. (Covenant Head)
……………Hear this, you elders, (Un-ethic-al Rulers)
……….And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! (Covenant Body)
…..Has [anything like] this happened in your days, (Day of Coverings)
Or even in the days of your fathers? (Succession)

Notice that the Word-baton is passed from the Lord to Joel to the people in stanza one. Then, we take one step out in the fractal, and it is the same Word being passed from these people to their children, children who will not be passed over, children who will suffer the plagues as the offspring of Pharaoh.

H I E R A R C H Y – PASSOVER removed
Tell your children about it,
…..[Let] your children [tell] their children,
……….And their children another generation.
……………What the chewing locust left,
……………the swarming locust has eaten;
……….What the swarming locust left,
……….the crawling locust has eaten;
…..And what the crawling locust left,
…..the consuming locust has eaten.
[No Rest, no Glorification, no Day 7]

The second half of this stanza is an ironic Covenant body, a glorious swarm united by an unholy spirit that brings de-Creation.

E T H I C S  1 – Firstfruits fail
Awake, you drunkards, and weep; (Creation)
…..And wail, all you drinkers of wine, (Division – Mourning)
……….Because of the new wine, (Ascension – Firstfruits)
……………For it has been cut off
……………from your mouth. (Testing – Wilderness)
……….For a nation has come up against My land,
……….Strong, and without number; (Maturity – Gentile Hosts)
…..His teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, (Conquest – Atonement)
…..And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.
[Again, failure to abide, dwell, in God's rest.]

The next stanza had me confused for a minute. The vine and fig tree looked to be the “Tabernacles” of stanza 3. But stanza four is a de-Creation. The prophets runs the matrix backwards, winds the days of the Creation week back to nihil.

E T H I C S  2 – Pentecost (harvest) fails
(Booths destroyed – no Shekinah fire)
He has laid waste My vine,
And ruined My fig tree;
…..(Day of un-Coverings, un-Atonement)
…..He has stripped it bare and thrown [it] away;
…..Its branches are made white.
……….(un-Trumpets – no bridal fanfare)
……….Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
……….For the husband of her youth.

(un-Pentecost covers all the feasts but as a single failed harvest):
……………un-Sabbath
……………The grain offering and the drink offering
……………Have been cut off from the house of the LORD;
………………..un-Passover
………………..The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD.
…………………….un-Firstfruits
…………………….The field is wasted, The land mourns;
…………………………un-Pentecost (Spirit taken away)
…………………………For the grain is ruined,
…………………………The new wine is dried up,
…………………………The oil fails.
…………………….un-Trumpets (brothers ashamed)
…………………….Be ashamed, you farmers,
…………………….Wail, you vinedressers,
………………..un-Coverings
………………..For the wheat and the barley;
………………..Because the harvest of the field has perished.

……………un-Booths (no Ingathering)
……………The vine has dried up, (No King)
………………..And the fig tree has withered; (No Covering Veil)
…………………….The pomegranate tree, (No Tabernacle)
…………………………The palm tree also, (No Wilderness Oasis)
…………………….And the apple tree — (No Fruits – Maturity)
………………..All the trees of the field
……………are withered; (No Succession)

How amazing was that!
Ethics 3 is the Incense Altar, the fragrant smoke from the sacrifice, the Elders with bowls of Incense.

E T H I C S 3 – Trumpets warnings to the elders
Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. (Ark – Genesis)
…..Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; (Veil – Exodus)
……….Wail, you who minister before the altar; (Altar – Leviticus)
……………Come, lie all night in sackcloth,
……………You who minister to my God; (Table – Scarlet cloth)
………………..For the grain offering and the drink offering
………………..Are withheld from the house of your God. (Lampstand – Numbers)

……………(Incense Altar – Deuteronomy – Law repeated)
……………Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; (Genesis)
……………….. Gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land (Exodus)
…………………………[Into] the house of the LORD your God, (Leviticus)
……………………………..And cry out to the LORD. (Numbers)

Looks like their bodies would be scattered in the wilderness. How subtle.

……….(Mediators – Joshua – Day of Atonement)
……….Alas for the day!
……….For the day of the LORD [is] at hand; (Ironic Light!)
………….It shall come as destruction from the Almighty...
………….(Firmament ripped, rolled up – Judge at the door)

The “Pentecost” of this stanza ends with no rest. Notice that there is a three-level de-forming (the “seed” Bridegroom’s House), then the Pentecostal grain, then a three-level de-filling (the bridal “herds” who need shelter). The first triplet works from the ground up, and the second works from the top down to the ground. Then follow the sacrificial animals, the sheep who “suffer punishment.” This is some sublime poetry.

…………………….(Return to a Landless—cropless—wilderness)
…………………….Is not the food cut off before our eyes,
………………………..Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
…………………………….The seed shrivels under the clods,
…………………………….Storehouses are in shambles;
…………………………….Barns are broken down,
…………………………………For the grain has withered.
…………………………….How the animals groan!
…………………………….The herds of cattle are restless,
…………………………….Because they have no pasture;
………………………..Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

Finally, the chapter ends with Israel on the Land as a sacrifice on the four-cornered altar. The holy fire descends and she is consumed. What is interesting is that the symbols in this cycle point largely to the Temple, the Edenic spring, which would be devoured by fire. It even has the trees at the centre of the garden (as many cycles do).

…………………………O LORD, (Ark)
……………………………..to You I cry out; (Veiled face)
………………………………….For fire has devoured
………………………………….the open pastures, (Altar)
………………………………………And a flame has burned
………………………………………all the trees of the field. (Lampstand)
…………………….……………The beasts of the field
………………………………….also cry out to You, (Incense)
…………………….……….For the water brooks are dried up, (Laver)
………………….     … And fire has devoured the open pastures. (Shekinah)

Notice that the final line is not missing from this stanza. Rest for the Land will be achieved because the incineration will be complete.

Now, we are still within the “Day of Atonement” cycle, (the prophet likes to expand some points into their own cycles!) Trumpets should follow, and we find that chapter two begins: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!” At this stage of the game, I’d say the book of Joel is a single, fractal, de-Creational chiasm.

This might all seem too much for some Bible commentators, but it does work like clockwork. There are those who still dispute this method, and this amazes me. Yes, one needs to be something of a poet, but if I were a Bible scholar who had no poetic sense, I might be tempted to go home and find something more useful to do, like set myself alight.

“Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?”  Acts 7:42 [NKJV]

James Jordan observes that in using the phrase “The Book of the Prophets”, Stephen refers to what we call the minor prophets, considered as one book in the Hebrew canon. The main themes in this Book were the jealousy of the Lord and the day of the Lord. Another judgment, death and resurrection of Israel was on the horizon.

The Book of the Twelve, Lecture 1, available from www.wordmp3.com