What is the referent of “body of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 11:29?

“For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

Is it the members of the Church, as Doug Wilson supposes?

A few years ago, when one of my grandsons first came to the table (he was one year old), he was beside himself. His parents had taught him a basic catechism with signs because he could not really talk. He answered the question “Are you baptized?” by patting his own head. I was administering the Supper, and he was sitting in the front row with his parents and grandmother. When he got his bread, he held it up to show me. Now all this could be dismissed simply as a grandkid doing a cute thing, not really understanding it. But he also turned and pattern his mother’s head and his grandmother’s head. We are all baptized. He was discerning the body. To the extent he understood the Supper, he was discerning the body. To the extent that he did not understand the Supper (as the rest of us do not either), he was learning, just as we are. [1]

Why do paedobaptists always play the “cute” card? Is it not obvious that the corollary to “We are all baptized” is that Christianity is tribal and/or hereditary? That discussion is for another day. I just thought this was a great quote to illustrate what is often understood by this verse. But then what is the meaning of the verse? Its Covenant structure might shed some light on it.

It should be clear from this structure that the Communion table, a place of the kind of self-examination which leads to repentance and faith, is not for infants. It is not intended for the training up of children, except by observation. The “bread” they require first is the hearing of the Gospel. But the main point here is that the context of “discerning the body” is not about figuring out who is in and who is out.

The Lord’s supper is a combination of Israel’s Levitical priesthood eating the sacrifices before God, and Israel vowing to keep the conditions of the Covenant. Before the Mosaic Covenant, all sacrifices were whole burnt offerings. God ate the lot, as a consuming fire. The Noahic priests did not eat with God. To do so required a greater ceremonial cleanliness, a blameless people with “Levitically spotless skin,” as living sacrifices.

Moreover, Israel’s priests only ate before God, they never drank with Him. Between the first Melchizedek bringing bread and wine to Abraham (to vindicate him as a priest-king) and the last Melchizedek bringing bread and wine to Abraham’s children (the disciples), the wine was always to be tipped out as an offering. [2] The symbolism of the cup is tied to the jealous inspection of the bride in Numbers 5. In the big picture, the true priest-king was Christ, the only one who could rightly drink wine before God as a qualified Adam, the true Son of God.

So the distinction here, the “discernment” of the body is not the gathered saints but the act of judging rightly between sacred food and common food, between the house of God and the homes we live in, between the priestly table and the kingly table. When we eat at home, our food is not the body of Christ, and our wine is not the blood of the New Covenant. This is only the case when the saints gather together for self-examination, worship and Covenant renewal.

He whose god is his belly does not discern the Table as the flesh and blood of Christ but merely as food and drink. His outflow is not sacrificial blood and a river of living water but the filth of the bowels of King Eglon of Sodom. Those who discern what the bread and the wine actually are in God’s eyes will rightly discern themselves. Those who see  the Son of God on the Table, judging Jesus as righteous and themselves as unrighteous will, by eating and drinking, humble themselves and exalt the Saviour. His pure words are intended for our hearts, not our bellies (Mark 7:19). For those who love this world, Jesus’ pure words are Ehud’s left-handed (priestly) blade.

For Israel, this discernment was related to the difference between Passover and Tabernacles. At Passover, Israel was set apart for purification. At Booths/Tabernacles, a purified Israel was called to minister to, to “feed” the other nations. [3] For the Christian, this is the difference between the Lord’s table and the love feast. We examine ourselves, eat with God, and will then eat with the unconverted with the right heart, ministering out of God’s abundance.

So much for the basic argument. As always, the identification of the Covenant structure gives us even more information.

It is helpful to note that divisions in the assembly are often instigated by God for the purpose of purifying the church, as painful as this may be. It is not always simple, but in this case, gluttony exposed the swine.

At the Levitical step, we have saints acting like the sons of Eli, who treated the house of the Lord as if it were their own house, and the food of God as their own food. They exalted themselves instead of humbling themselves as God’s butlers, His faithful servants.

At the centre of the passage, Jesus is under the curse of the Law, drinking the cup in the place of the adulterous Bride. Even now He was covering their disobedience through His own death, just as He was still covering the sin of the Jewish leaders who were yet celebrating Passover and building the Temple in kingly (“Cainite”) disobedience to the Gospel.

The “Sanctions” part of the passage reinforces the idea that the Lord’s Supper is for the regular public renewal of the public profession of faith made by each saint at his or her baptism. Baptism puts the saint into the resurrection body, as one who has been slain by the Gospel and now possesses new life by the Spirit. The Table is the place of self-discipline for God’s knights, who judge themselves that they may not be judged, something which is insane to expect from a one-year-old unless one has an erroneous tradition to protect.

Notice that those who will not discipline themselves are disciplined by the Lord. This is exactly what we see in the letters to the seven churches in Asia, as Jesus “passes over” them on His way to destroy Pharaoh/Herod. He comes to tend His garden, the children of God (spiritual, not physical children), to feed them with righteousness and holiness. Those whom He finally removes (as He threatens to do in Revelation 2 and 3), are judged that the church might be preserved from being entirely “snuffed out.”

The final section, like the first, mentions the gathering (Booths). The Table is the place where the saints sit as elohim, heavenly rulers, those who are purified and are now fit to sit enthroned with Christ in heavenly places as His elders, His court, His advisors, and judge the wicked and advocate for the helpless by their prayers. The Lord’s Table is for the maintenance of the two-edged sword of the Gospel in our lives. It is a place of death and life, where we eat and drink Jesus, the priest-king, and then become life-giving food for the world.

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[1] Doug Wilson, in his foreword for The Case for Covenant Communion, edited by Gregg Strawbridge.
[2] See “The Forbidden Feast” in God’s Kitchen for more discussion and a diagram.
[3] See “Eat Local and Die” in God’s Kitchen for more discussion.

ART: The Death of Eglon via Sarah Louise 

“Picasso did not paint for the eyes but for the gut. He painted for the gut that the eyes might be opened.”

One only has to compare a portrait of Picasso’s wife to that of one his lovers to prove that his strange perspective on reality worked from the inside out. What we feel as we observe his works is what he feels about his subjects as he paints them. The spirit and desire which animate man and beast not only move flesh but, in Picasso’s world, distort reality. Time and history without fail reveal the true character of objects, people and ideologies. A Picasso is often the exterior of a person or event shaped or distorted by the spirit and emotion within. It is a history in a single frame, an X ray that discovers not the bones but the heart. Emotional reality is revealed in shape and color. In these cases, his subjects are possibly “ethical nudes.”

This post has been slain and resurrected for inclusion in my 2015 book of essays, Inquietude.

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Strange Fire

We’ve reach the central “cycle” of the book of Numbers, the attempt by Balak to destroy Israel. To the unbeliever, it is a story about a talking donkey. For believers, it is a story about a wicked prophet and a carnal people. For those with a wide angle “Bible Matrix” lens, the entire landscape suddenly comes into focus as something familiar and terrifying.

Firstly, we should get our bearings. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it seems we have seven major cycles in the book of Numbers. The first cycle laid out the basic structure of the rest of the book. What was at the centre—Testing—of cycle one? Numbers 5, the strange chapter where a woman suspected of adultery was to be subjected to the “inspection of jealousy.”

Basically, the woman would drink the Covenant, and God would become an internal witness, seeing her from the inside out. Whatever was behind her legal witness, the truth or the lie, would be reflected in her own flesh and in her offspring. In Numbers 5, the priest recites the process aloud (external law) and then carries it out (internal inspection). Like some kind of liturgical X-ray, this process would take what went on behind closed doors (whether good or evil) and expose it, shout it from the rooftops. [1]

That “personal” inspection is what all Israel will now pass through. All the events so far in Numbers have been leading up to this “liturgically.” Testing in the Garden of Eden involved a false king (the serpent), a false prophet (Adam, who failed to speak the Word) and the Woman. The scene is set for a stadium-sized reenactment of the events of Genesis 3. The individuals of Eden have become “corporate.” As Numbers is at the centre of Israel’s sevenfold story, so the story of Balaam and Phinehas is at the centre of Numbers.

Understanding these events “structurally” answers the questions that remain once the action is over and the blood thickens on the ground. One thing we must keep in mind is the sacrificial structure of these events. Firstfruits put Israel on the Altar. Pentecost puts fire on the Altar. The test here is whether Israel will tolerate strange fire not only in their Tabernacle, but in their own tents and hearts.

Closeup on Numbers 25

What amazing artistry. The first fulfilment of Balaam’s “sceptre” prophecy was Phinehas. And he crushed the “forehead” of Moab by putting a spear through—circumcising—the offspring of the serpent. [5]

One final thought on this closeup. Can you think of another event which involved a “cup of testing,” spiritual harlotry, a spear, and a grant of High Priestly Succession? Yes, the death and resurrection of Christ as Adam. Then the entire process is repeated “corporately” for Israel as Eve, the harlot-bride who must drink the cup and be cut in two by the jealousy of God, into flesh and Spirit.

Okay, back to the major structure.

The beauty of this literature is sublime. And its fractal structure silences every critic. Every mouth will be stopped. Help me to share this material where you can. The lack of interest by Christians stuns me.

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[1] See Behind Closed Doors.
[2] See the notes at the end of What Lies Beneath.
[3] I use the “scroll” division of the commandments because it fits the matrix. See Bible Matrix II for a full explanation.
[4] See Esther and the Ten Words.
[5] See The Circumcision of Satan.

“You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.” (Songs 6:4)

An online friend recently questioned the repetition found in Numbers 7. The offerings of each tribe are identical, yet each is listed in full. Surely, this was a waste of expensive parchment? Architecture is important to God, no less literary architecture, and it seems to me that the “fullness” of the Offertory in chapter 7 is the result—or the liturgical response, to the military “forming” of Israel in chapter 2.

At the centre of the five-fold Covenant pattern is the Covenant Ethics. As the Covenant is opened, this becomes three-fold (Law Given, Law Opened, Law Received), creating a Covenant Head (Ascension/Firstfruits), and a Covenant Body (Maturity/Trumpets) united by the Spirit, Covenant fire (Pentecost). This expansion of the three-fold Ethics is what gives us the seven-fold patterns: Creation week, Feasts and Dominion.

In Exodus, the instructions for the Tabernacle are given, and then Israel is tested. She sins concerning the golden calf and is forced to drink it. Then the actual construction of the Tabernacle is described. As a “legal unit,” we have the architectural plans given, opened, and received. The absence of Moses was a deliberate strategy to rid Israel of those unworthy of Levitical worship. And as it turned out over forty years, that was all Israel.

Ascension: Tabernacle plans (heaven)
Testing: Image of the beast – fire (Spirit – 3000 slain)
Maturity: Tabernacle constructed (earth)

In fact, Israel’s sin is also a perversion of the three-fold Covenant Ethics:

Ascension: Idolatry – strange altar
Testing: Adultery – strange fire
Maturity: Apostasy – strange worship [1]

These events correspond to:

Ascension: Leviticus – heavenly man
Testing: Numbers (In the Wilderness) – fiery serpents
Maturity: Deuteronomy – earthly bride

So the architectural “events” in Exodus take on flesh in the larger historical picture as the Mosaic Covenant is “opened.” (Exactly the same thing happens to Israel in the first century after Jesus opens the New Covenant scroll, hence the use of the phrase “image of the beast.” In that case, the image was the Herodian Temple. I recommend James Jordan’s Revelation lecture series for this and many other phenomenal observations. See Newspaper Exegesis.)

So, based on these similar structures, which all find their source in the Testing of Adam by the serpent, it seems to me that Numbers 1-9 describe the recapitulation of the Tabernacle in human flesh. Israel is arranged architecturally around the house of God (measuring out) in chapter 2. Then Israel, as a liturgical prefigurement of all nations, submits willingly to a “bringing in.” Both chapters describe all twelve tribes individually. Numbers 2 is delegation (office conferred), Numbers 7 is vindication (office honoured).

Now, what is really interesting is that we have the twelve tribes and the cleansing of the Levites at Step 6. In the Creation week, this is Land animals and Man. In the festal “week,” this is the Day of Coverings, with animals and the Man as Holy Mediators. In the Tabernacle, this was the Bronze Laver, later glorified “bridally” as the great Bronze Sea. The two-tiered combination of twelve tribes and Levites is the Priestly Man walking on the waters, the springs of the Garden of Eden, in dominion over priestly animals (oxen picture priestly submission). [4] None of this architectural significance is apparent without attention to the literary structure, which appears very strange to us if we don’t know what is going on.

In the Temple, twelve oxen carried the Sea “out of the house.” Here, the tribes are themselves a “horned altar,” twelve oxen carrying the plunder of the nations, including platters and basins, into the house as a tribute to their King. The Church of God leads the world (for good and sometimes ill) in generosity to God in worship.

The platters and basins are an initial “sea of nations.” The Laver and Sea pictured the firmament and the crystal sea, something “beaten out” by God as a place for his governors. Israel’s willingness to offer so much is what vindicates her representation of the house of God as a “temple of flesh.”

Furthermore, I’ll wager that this “architecture” is not only a microcosm of the entire process of Dominion (Egypt to Canaan), but it dictates the pattern for the rest of the book of Numbers. If this is the case, there will be a part two. [5]

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[1] We have seen exactly this process in our own culture, and yet it surprises us. See God Gave Them Up.
[2] See The Eighth Letter.
[3] For more on this, see Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key.
[4] See Walking on Water.
[5] Just as the first feast, the weekly Sabbath, set the pattern for the festal year, and Daniel 1 sets the pattern for Daniel 1-6: see Daniel’s Long Shadow.

“Now therefore fear the Lord (T)
and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. (H)
Put away the gods that your fathers served (E)
beyond the River and in Egypt, (O)
and serve the Lord.” (S)
Joshua 24:14

40 Years of Harlotry

Israel famously wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They were tested, offered as a sacrifice and refined with the holy fire of the Law of Moses. This “threshing” process appears at the centre of the Bible Matrix. It is pictured as the time of harvest (Pentecost – the giving of the Law), and as the burning eyes of the Lampstand watching over Israel (sun, moon and five visible planets). In the Covenant pattern it is the “Ethics,” the bit where God lays out the rules for success. Threshing is also a biblical euphemism for sexual relations. At this point, under the Lawful eyes of God, Israel is either shown to be a faithful bride or an adulteress. Is the fire of her desire true or “strange” (foreign). We can see this pattern in James 1:15. It is a sick parody of the Covenant process because it begins with a “false word.”

[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]

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ART: Burning of the Golden Calf by Moses, by Robert J. Tiess, blenderartists.org

“Conservative theologians have bravely held the fort like the guardians of heaven. Unfortunately, when it comes to biblical interpretation, they are boring as hell.“

Paul Washer recently tweeted: “The measure of biblical truth that we have grasped is not determined by the size of our heads, but the breadth of our hearts.”

The divide between the head and the heart is an issue of integrity, of holiness. But even within the realm of “head knowledge,” the intellectual level of Biblical interpretation, there is a sort of left brain/right brain divide. The issue here is not one of holiness. It is one of “intellectual sex.”

[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]

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Have been chewing on Covenant renewal in Communion a lot. I’m starting to think the emphasis on the Table is not so much nourishment as resurrection and commission under oath.

Adam could eat from any tree in the garden. That’s the love feast, the nourishment. The Tree of Life was the key to Covenant Succession, the future. The Tree of Wisdom was the Covenant cup — drinking the sword of the Law (Numbers 5), a ministry of death.

So Jesus wrapped up all the previous history, his genealogy, in the bread, and broke it. He never had any children.

And He turned it into Spirit, a New Covenant Oath. When we eat the bread, Adam is consumed, but He is the new Adam, a new “risen” (yeasted) history. When we drink the cup, we promise to keep His commandments. It ministers both life and death, and we bear spiritual children from those inside our house and those outside of it.

The elements are administered separately, but mixed inside us. We don’t leave the Table — walk out of the king’s court — with full tummies due to Communion. We are Covenant nobles who miraculously walk out of there alive. The Table is for spiritual grown-ups, i.e. those no longer under external Law, but internal Law.

“But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.” Exodus 24:11

Communion isn’t nourishment. The flaming-sword-in-a-cup consumes us and makes us Jesus’ body. This is related to credobaptism. We can’t import the Old Covenant into the New Covenant without qualification. God has a process, and things have changed, matured. We have moved from the firstborn redeemed at the bloody Altar, through the Laver, to a priesthood of elders around the fragrant Altar where the blood is in small, memorial doses. We are 24 elders before the Throne. Just as baptism is not for infants, so the Table is for New Covenant knights. We’ve been “dubbed” under the sword (beheaded for the testimony of Jesus) and now we are qualified to carry it.

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at;
but now commandeth all men every where to repent…” Acts 17:30

Reading the Bible without an understanding of Creational and Covenant structures is like watching test cricket without knowing the rules. It’s not unusual for even the best commentators to be distracted by something as inconsequential as a lost seagull. But every moment is part of a bigger picture. Isaiah can seem tedious at times, but it’s a long game. Let’s look at Isaiah 4:2-6, which relates the purging of exiled Israel to the jealous inspection in Numbers 5. In this case, she comes up trumps.

Sabbath – Genesis
In that day the Branch of the LORD
shall be beautiful and glorious;

…..Passover – Exodus – Exodus
…..And the fruit of the [Land] shall be excellent and appealing
…..For those of Israel who have escaped.

……….Firstfruits – Leviticus
……….And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion
……….and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy –
……….everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

……………Pentecost – Numbers
……………When the Lord
………………..has washed away the filth
…………………….of the daughters of Zion,
…………………………and purged the blood of Jerusalem
…………………….from her midst,
………………..by the spirit of judgment
……………and by the spirit of burning,

……….Trumpets – Deuteronomy
……….then the LORD will create above every dwelling
……….place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies,

…..Atonement (Day of Coverings) – Joshua
…..a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night.
…..For over all the glory there will be a covering.

Booths (Tabernacles) – Judges
And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat,
for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

Firstly, notice a few things about this passage that identification of the Feasts pattern brings out:

1. It begins with the Branch, grown from the stump of the old tree that was axed, and it ends with Israel as an entirely new tree, moving from Bridgegroom to Bride.
2. The Restoration era prefigured the New Covenant’s priesthood of all believers.
3. Notice that the names are recorded at firstfruits. In Revelation, that is when the firstfruits saints are sealed, or Numbered.
4. The jealous inspection occurs at the centre (remember what was observed regarding the Ten Words? [1])
5. Zion is mentioned three times, at Ascension (flesh), Testing (fire) and Maturity (smoke), all the action on the Altar. (These three points are combined as Ethics to make the process a five-point treaty). But here it is not Sinai but Zion; not death but resurrection.
6. The smoke by day and fire by night occur at the same point in the passage as the smoking firepot and blazing torch in Genesis 15: head and body. The Ark-Light holds up the water walls, opens the Veil, and allows the Incense-army through the Veil into the Heavenly Land. [2]

My focus is on the central point, Pentecost. The “Levitical” Covenant Head receives the Law as Firstfruits, and opens the Law to purify the Covenant body. Yes, this entire process of “Restoration” was repeated in the first century. When the bride is handed the cup, she becomes a blessing or a curse. She herself is “poured out” as rivers of offspring from the mountain of God at Tabernacles, beginning a new cycle. Being poured out enables Covenant succession.

The cross was Passover, which led to resurrection and Ascension. Christ was enthroned (Revelation 5) and Satan was expelled from his role in God’s courtroom as accuser, thrown down to the Land to make Judaism ripe for judgment. The blood went up and the Spirit came down. Testing. So the Holy Spirit was not the only spirit that fell like lightning. Saul received an evil spirit when David received the Holy Spirit. It was a jealous inspection. The succession was taken from the family of Saul and given to the family of David. In the first century, the kingdom, the future, was taken from the Herods and the Pharisees, the “kings of the earth” (rulers of the Land) and given to a new nation, a new bride.

After Pentecost, like Saul, Judaism became demonic, filled with a strong delusion, spiritual swine cast out and heading for a cliff. Pentecost flames were also prefigured in the battle of Midian. Gideon’s men exposed the flames and God sent the spirit of confusion amongst His enemies. They destroyed each other. In the first century, the Herods sleazed with Rome. Eventually, the Romans besieged Jerusalem and set it alight. Inside the city, even the Jewish zealots were slaying each other. Christians are not taught this history for some reason.

In some comments on Daniel 7, James Jordan speaks about the Word awakening the Monsters from the Id. The Jews were scattered as seed, and beastly empires arose. Plato read Moses and it changed the world. [3] The light comes and men are made conscious of their beastly nature. The gospel wakes the dead, but they are beasts, not men. Initially, it brings out the worst in us. We suddenly see ourselves as we are, and as Paul states, knowledge of the Law can actually cause us to sin more. The Spirit of God gives men the ability to judge, but there is still a choice. Men perceive the fragrance as life or death, and respond accordingly.

The Spirit enlightens (as the Lampstand, the governing lights on Day 4) and makes rulers, but enlightenment forces a decision, a “judgment” call. The choice itself brings either enlightenment or a greater love of darkness. King Saul turned into a monster, despite continual challenges. But when David was challenged by Nathan, the Law was a light to his path. The Lampstand showed Belshazzar the writing on the wall. [4]

Revelation shows the Day of Pentecost as coals from the Altar tipped out upon the Land. A coal was taken from the Altar to set ablaze enemy cities under the ban (devoted, or accursed). The coals purged the lips of the Apostles, as it did with Isaiah, and the fiery words they spoke put the entire city on the Altar. Pentecost put the Old Jerusalem under the ban. The Spirit was the fire that Jesus wished was kindled already (Luke 12:49).

“…thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,
and the LORD shall reward thee.” Proverbs 25:22

Our culture has seen itself in the light of the Gospel, but current generations have decided to defiantly remain “content” with beastliness, to “fill up” our sin in the face of God’s revelation. The greatest despots in history are always men who take Covenant wisdom and use it for evil, apostate sons of the Church. [5]

“And for this reason God will send them strong delusion,
that they should believe the lie…” 2 Thess 2:11

When the Gospel comes, God’s Lampstand can no longer “overlook,” watch over, our sin. The stars can no longer wink or twinkle. They come crashing down as burning coals on our heads. Once exposed, our sin is not a wandering astray, but high handed. This is what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is: the Word comes to you and you BACK-CHAT. Instead of being filled with the Seven Spirits of God, the watching “eyes” of the heavenly Lampstand, you are filled with seven devils, darkened eyes devoid of judgment. The sin of the rulers corrupted the entire first century generation, the Old Covenant “body.”

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good,
your whole body will be full of light.” Matthew 6:22

This blasphemy is unforgivable because it is a rejection of mercy. It is inherently Cainite. It is high-handed, sin with full knowledge of the Law. In Leviticus, the only atonement for high-handed sin was the blood of the person who committed it, hence the so-called problem verses in Hebrews, written to first century Jews who saw the Day approaching:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:4-8

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins…” Hebrews 10:26

The sin of the Israelite who brazenly fornicated with a Moabite woman was a high-handed sin. Jesus returned in AD70, and like Phinehas, put a spear through the harlot and the beast, Herodian worship and the Roman state. As in Numbers, they were speared through the point of contact, the reproductive organs (“bellies” is a euphemism).

The Gospel is daylight. To Israel, it brought the end of the Old Testament shadows, and the false additions the Pharisees had burdened men with. [6] The age of angels and animals was over. Only by following this wake up call with obedience can we become true men. The gospel brings a sword to a sleeping but stagnant world and wakes the monsters. The Lord disturbs us from our moral slumber to purge us and then bring us true rest. It makes us better or worse. We choose enlightenment or delusion. We open like flowers or scuttle like cockroaches who call on the rocks and hills. Neutrality is impossible.

Interestingly, the early chapters of John follow a similar pattern to the early chapters of Daniel. Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath incited the unbelieving Jews. Like the captive Jews, Jesus ‘stirred the water’ and raised up a man — and monstrous Pharisees. [7]

We drink the strong drink, the goblet of fire, every week. It judges us to make us judges. It doesn’t make us perfect. God’s intent is to bring us wisdom. The Spirit opens our eyes and makes our sin apparent. Sometimes we feel we are going backwards. The continued application of the Law makes us exceedingly sinful in our own eyes. That can be discouraging. But is your sin becoming more detestable to you, more worthy of death (mortification) or more justifiable? That is the question. The mercy of God is a withholding of judgment, sins laid upon the Temple of Christ. It is an anointing for greater service or an opportunity to fill up our sin, a reason to draw nearer to God in humility or to pull away in pride. The cup is a sacramental dose of death, [8] shalom for the wise and strong delusion for the unwise, who drink it to the dregs.

This is why people continually exposed to the gospel without obedience to it become “immunised.” They have hardened their hearts, like Pharaoh, like the first century Jews. God eventually gives them up to the outer darkness they loved.

“…enlightenment wasn’t the diamond. Enlightenment was the choice.”

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[1] See Warp and Weft.
[2] See Pass-over and Pass-through.
[3] See Did Plato Read Moses?
[4] See The Finger of God.
[5] See How to be Really Evil.
[6] See The End of Shadows.
[7] See Stirring the Waters.
[8] See Sacramental Doses of Death.

The Mosaic Tabernacle was silent. It was a place of mysterious words, dark sayings, carried out in secret. Eventually, it was violated, torn apart. It was the body of death, with sacrifices of blood carried out by Israelite priests. Like circumcision, it was a place of silent witness (the tablets) and the cutting off of the old leaven. (The fact that Hannah was not drunk makes this her holy war – the OC ministers of death could not drink wine in God’s presence.)

The tent was resurrected as the Tabernacle of David, an open place of dancing and loud music, with a new body of worshippers, both Jews and Gentiles. It was a new body of life, the flesh and the blood reunited in an impossible hybrid, with sacrifices of praise. [1] Like baptism, it was a place of reunion and bold testimony.

Hannah’s prayer was silent. She mouthed the words with a despair that felt like death. But after the miraculous delivery of the desired son, (offered to the Tabernacle as a symbolic ascension) she prayed aloud.

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The Wrong Kind of Blood, the Wrong Kind of Spirit

These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
…..A proud look,
……….A lying tongue,
……………Hands that shed innocent blood,
………………..A heart that devises wicked plans,
……………Feet that are swift in running to evil,
……….A false witness who speaks lies,
…..And one who sows discord among brethren. (Proverbs 6: 6-19)

Although Revelation describes two women, there was really only one. Solomon dealt with two prostitutes who lived in the same house. What Revelation does is cut the prostitute in two. At Atonement, Rahab was separated from Jericho; Mary Magdalene was delivered of her seven demons. Peter Leithart writes:

“Mary Magdalene functions in the same way in John’s gospel. She had seven demons (like Israel in Jesus’ parable!), but by the end of the book has become a new Eve, recognising Jesus as the New Adam in the garden of the resurrection. Since she is new Eve, it is entirely appropriate that Jesus call her ‘Woman’.” [1]

The theme of Revelation is the transformation of the whore into the bride, of the fallen old Israel into a beautiful new Israel. This requires the old flesh, the old generations, to be cut off. As David Chilton observes in The Days of Vengeance, the Revelation is an ironic worship service, and old Israel herself is the sacrifice.

The instrument used by Jesus, as Solomon, is the gospel sword. The gospel is Spirit-filled Law, and it brings both Covenant blessings and Covenant curses. For those who refused the Spirit, the judgment was an eye for an eye, just as God’s judgment upon Egypt’s firstborn was payback for the murder of the Hebrew infants.

The following stanza is the second of a group of seven, so it has an “Exodus” (the second book) or “Passover” (the second feast) theme. And within every stanza we also find all seven feasts: wheels within wheels. God’s Word creates its own independent field of gravity, like a gyroscope. Every utterance is Covenantal.

Genesis – Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, (Light/Ark)

Exodus – “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;

Leviticus – for her sins are heaped high as heaven, (defiantly drawing near with the wrong kind of innocent blood as an ascension offering: the murdered firstfruits church as grain and fruit: Rev. 14)

Numbers – and God has remembered her iniquities. (a la Numbers 5, a memorial cup of testing, the jealous inspection)

Deuteronomy – Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; (plunder – second law, second warning, judged in a “second death” [2])

Joshua – (Atonement) mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.

Judges – (Booths) As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning…

The double portion alludes to restitution according to the Law, and to the double covering required to atone for sin (inside and out, skins and cup). [3]  It also conveys the irony that because of her refusal to be filled with the “double portion” inheritance of the Holy Spirit in an Old-to-New Covenant succession, (being clothed with Christ), the Whore would be filled with wrath wine instead (Mark 3:29; Ephesians 5:18). Jerusalem-Babylon would finish the Covenant cup she had given the nations to drink (Jeremiah 25:26). Blood for blood. [4]

Think about it. Jesus drank the Covenant cup in her place. She turned around and filled her cup with the blood of the prophets and apostles. Drinking this cup would tear her in two, from the inside out.

Or, for the dispensationalists who believe that modern Jews still have some place in God’s economy as “the circumcision,” Jesus tore the veil in two, but the Jewish rulers stitched it back together again. So Jesus tore down the whole luxurious Herodian whorehouse and reestablished a bridal city with greater glory.

So, this stanza is the Exodus/Division step in this larger cycle. The next stanza concerns the “false ascension” of Herodian worship, and what does she say? “I sit as a queen…”

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[1] Observations from lectures by Warren Gage as summarised by Peter Leithart, Gage On John And Revelation, www.leithart.com
[2] See The Second Death.
[3] See James B. Jordan, Introduction to the Ascensions, BIBLICAL HORIZONS, No. 143.
[4] See Peter Leithart’s very helpful recent article: He Bears His Iniquity.

I probably won’t be posting much now until the end of the year. I want to get into The Covenant Key. But there’s many moons of material to read in the “back catalogue.” If you feel lucky, try the random posts in the right column. Thanks for reading. Catch up soon!