Bully’s Blog

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matthew 3:11 

I remember a scene from X Files where they printed out a binary code and laid the pages out on the floor. When viewed from a distance the ones and zeros made the image of a face. There was a similar scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies, where there was a search for a secret passage and it turned out to be a large X on the floor when viewed from above. This is just my view, but it seems a lot of theologians spend a great deal of time walking in circles in the jungle, lost in the details of prooftexts when we have Old Testament “Google maps” at our fingertips.

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Revelation can’t be fully appreciated without attention to its literary structure. I’m no expert, but have a gander at this…

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or Daniel’s 70th Week Postponed

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”  Isaiah 9:2

A great deal of time has been spent on the chronology concerning Daniel’s seventy sevens. Quite frankly, chronology is not my strong point [1], but perhaps the solution for this enigmatic problem is not chronological but theological.

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“And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.”  Judges 6:20

“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  Matthew 16:18

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or The Holy Voodoo Doll

The Lord’s plan from the beginning has been to take each man through three stages of development before transfiguration. The first is to give him access to the Tree of Life (bread) and test his obedience as a priest. Adam failed this test. The second is to give him access to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (wine) and test his wisdom as a king. Solomon failed this test. The third is to give him access to and membership of God’s council of elders as a decision maker, one whose words in and of themselves change history. This is testing as a Prophet, one who has been willing to be broken bread and poured out wine, and whose final years are spent giving wise words to the next generation.[1] The Old Covenant prophets passed this test.

Under the new Covenant, we are all Prophets in Christ. He is broken bread and poured out wine for us, and the riches once hidden away in the Ark, all the riches of wisdom and knowledge, are now opened to us (Colossians 2:3). We eat the bread and drink the wine. We are still tested as individuals as Priests and Kings, but as a body, the church is Prophetic. How do we, now as part of God’s heavenly council, change the world by our words?

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“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.”

Jesus prayed these words shortly before these disciples betrayed, deserted and denied Him. As High Priest, the twelve were still just names etched on His shoulders. Unformed and uninteresting.

After Pentecost, with God’s breath breathed into them, each would become a precious stone, differing in glory from the others. They would be fully formed elders surrounding the slain Lamb (Rev. 5:6), walls and gates of a new Jerusalem.

With the seven eyes of the High Priest, the light of the Lampstand flames, Jesus could already see Pentecost, when the disciples would become the ‘angelic glories’ sent to warn Herod’s Sodom (Rev. 11:8) and curse it with blindness. Old Jerusalem was sulphur in God’s nostrils, but the apostles became an incense altar of aromatic smoke.

The twelve spoke words that changed the whole world in a matter of decades. Jesus sees us with those same eyes. We deny Him. We betray Him. We desert Him. But we are His, and He sees our future. Breathe into us, breath of God.

“How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes… Then they came to the valley of Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men. (from Numbers 13)

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

The Tabernacle is an architectural model of the world. Each of the seven speeches of the Lord (Exodus 25-31) is introduced with a variant of the phrase “Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying.” The seven speeches follow the pattern of the seven days of the Creation week, and also the seven feasts in Leviticus 23.

The Table of Showbread corresponds to both the grain and fruit created on Day 3, the Feast of Firstfruits and to the Asension of Moses.

This pattern began in the garden, when after Adam’s “Red Sea” death and resurrection, he was united to his bride by Covenant. He “ascended” as covenant head of a new family, with God’s one Law.

On the table in the Holy Place were twelve loaves of bread and jugs of beer (from grain), and later, wine. Like the manna and the grapes of Eshcol, these were a promise of rest and rule with God on a future Sabbath as priest and king. Here is the last supper. As with Adam and Moses, this initial promise of wine was followed by exposure to the serpent for testing under the Law - Pentecost.

Just as the marriage covenant of Adam and Eve at Firstfruits is really a betrothal of their united marriage to God on Day 7, so this Table of Israel was a promise of future glory to the whole world at the final Sabbath feast, Tabernacles.

To use Doug Wilson’s phrase, human marriage is “manifest glory.” It is a Day 3 picture of the Day 7 rest to come at the union of heaven and earth.