Bully's Blog » Samson

Dark Sayings

Mike Bull — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 11:25:43 +0000

Covenant Structure in Judges 14-15:8

“I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old… “
Psalm 78:2

The account of Samson’s marriage and the subsequent collateral damage is one of those stories out of which teachers and preachers try in vain to wring a moral. After all, isn’t that what the Old Testament is for? Actually, no. It is a history of God’s Covenants, and every single text, whether historical narrative or prophetic vision, has a Covenant structure. Certainly, there are morals, but some stories resist such an obvious use (unless we are willing to cook the Book). These stories of God’s delegated authorities are intended to illustrate the work of God in the world.

Firstly, a structural overview, using the Covenant steps, the matrix terms and the sacrificial process:

TRANSCENDENCE

Creation/Initiation: A Gentile Bride is right in Samson’s eyes. (Ark – Day 1)

HIERARCHY

Division/Delegation: Samson and his parents travel to Timnah (“to divide”). The Spirit rushes upon him and he tears a lion apart (as if it were a “Passover” kid). Days later, he discovers honey inside it. (Veil – Day 2)

ETHICS

Ascension/Elevation: Samson prepares a feast for the young men. (Altar – Day 3)

Ascension/Presentation: He presents a riddle with a promise of under- and over-garments. (Table – Day 3)

Testing/Purification: On the fourth day, the men threaten to burn Samson’s wife and her father’s house if she doesn’t tell them the answer to the riddle. (Lampstand – Day 4)

Maturity/Transformation: Samson’s wife presses him for the answer, then shares it with the young men, who answer Samson’s riddle. (Incense – Day 5)

SANCTIONS

Conquest/Vindication: The Spirit again rushes upon Samson, who travels to the maritime city of Ashkelon (“I shall be weighed”) and slays men for their garments. Samson comes to his wife (with another young goat) but his wife is given to another. (Mediation/Laver – Day 6)

SUCCESSION

Glorification/Representation: In revenge, Samson torches the Philistine grain stores and olive orchards. In response, the Philistines carry out their threat to burn his Gentile Bride and her father. (Shekinah – Day 7)

Intermarriage

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1

This story begins with Samson’s desire for a Gentile woman. I guess a lot of teachers would tell you this was what led him into trouble, but we must remember it was Aaron’s and Miriam’s condemnation of Moses’ marrying an Ethiopian that got them into trouble. God isn’t against intermarriage as long as He is at the centre of it. Race is irrelevant and always has been. Covenant is everything. It was this way under the Mosaic Covenant and it is this way under the New Covenant. But at this point in history, Israel was engaging in intermarriage with Philistines and their gods. Jordan observes that Samson’s offer of marriage to her was an offer of salvation. [1] So, Samson was actually picturing Christ’s plan for the nations in His desire for this woman. But, like Christ, he went on this mission expecting there to be a conflict, one which would wake God’s people up to Covenant-breaking aspect of their own interracial marriages, and reveal the true nature of the Philistines as oppressors and betrayers.

The Lion Divided

“Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” Psalm 19:2

Jordan speaks of the lion as a sphinx, guarding the Philistine territory as the sphinx guarded Egypt (the Philistines were descendants of Egyptians). The sphinx used riddles, so here Samson conquers the cherubic guardian of the oppressors and takes on its guise. In other words, he cloaks himself as the sphinx. Step 2 of the pattern is Hierarchy and the Veil, which for Joseph meant a robe of office. In a sense, Samson passes through the veil by taking it on as a garment.

I believe there is a second aspect to this, related to the Tabernacle architecture as the garment is. The four points of the Tabernacle relate to the four faces of the beasts which guard God’s throne. The Ark of the Covenant is the Lion face, looking East. So, in some sense, Samson is the true Lion, the priestly Law of Moses incarnate in kingly flesh (as a Judge), the Ark on the move, in the field, scattering God’s enemies. By cloaking himself, he becomes the face of God hidden behind a Veil, as it was under the Old Covenants. But what of the honey?

The Land Promised

“There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the [Land], and their words to the end of the world.” Psalm 19:3-4

The curses upon Adam and Eve concerned the Land and the Womb. Honey was a symbol of the abundance of the Land. Milk was related to this but tied it to the firstborn of men and cattle. But the picture here is of a head that dies that a new body might be found inside it, a bridal body, a swarm (Day 5 is related to the clouds of the fragrant Incense Altar, which pictures the resurrection). Deborah’s name means “bee,” and she was the third elected judge of Israel. Day 3 is often a promise of Day 7. Interestingly, Deborah’s victory song follows the same pattern, with a mention of Jael’s blessed “milk of deception” in the Day 3 “Land” region, and Deborah’s mention of those who love God being like the sun in the Day 7 spot. Samson means “sunrise.” So, in some sense, the bees, being bridal, are the “filling up” of the ministry of prophetess Deborah, a potent symbol of blessings and curses contained in the body of the dead king. Hell hath no fury like the Bride of Christ scorned. [2]

The “veiling” begins with Samson not telling his parents where the honey came from. Again, Jordan observes Samson’s incredibly wily nature in all his exploits. He is the only one who knows the answer, which means he can use the unveiling of the riddle to identify a betrayer.

The Heat of the Sun

“In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.” Psalm 19:5

The threefold Ethics at the center of the story is the “thesis” of the pattern, that is, the main point. In the sacrificial process, the cut animal is displayed on the Altar, burned with holy fire and transformed into smoke. The dead body becomes a bridal “cloud,” a sweet-smelling savor for God. Using our “cross-eyed exegesis,” we have here the Levitical Law (Ascension) as a great riddle given by the Judge of Israel, Moses, which contains a wonderful “bridal” promise, the veil of the Temple delegated and multiplied as many “bridal garments” to a Gentile priesthood.

The Smoke of Torment

“Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” Psalm 19:6

But the riddle is opened by a Great Betrayal, a wife who, at Pentecost, fears the holy fire, breaks Covenant with her Sunshine Bridegroom and turns back to Egypt. But she has traded holy fire for strange fire, and her ending will be eternal fire. Her bridal “smoke” will be that which goes up forever and ever. Due to Samson’s cunning and discretion, she was the only person privy to the answer. Dark sayings are indeed designed to enlighten the eyes.

“…the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes…” Psalm 19:7-8

The opening of the riddle is a “retelling” of the Law (Deuteronomy/Sermon on the Mount), and it is fitting that the Philistines’ answer to the double-tongued riddle is framed as a double-tongued question. Only the man who has had the answer, by the Spirit of God, from the beginning, will know the answer before he hears it.

The Day of Coverings

“More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” Psalm 19:10

Matching Division is Conquest. The Spirit rushes upon Samson once again but this time he slays actual Egyptians. (Moses did the same thing by the Spirit, judging and executing a single Egyptian guardian, and then wiping out all of them.) The typology concerning the Gentiles here, as it relates to the ministry of Israel and especially to that of Christ and the apostles in the first century, is complicated, but it follows the same pattern. The point is that the Covenant breakers are destroyed and those who confess the truth are given glorious garments. The Philistines, representing the nations, are divided in two like sheep and goats: those by the sea (representing the laver) are slain and stripped naked, and those who believed the promise received a Great Blessing. All this is a great riddle, and there is much still to to chew on. But we have the Spirit of God who opens things to the mind and the hands and the feet of faithful men.

“Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:11

Cunning or Catastrophe

At Sanctions, Samson has kept his promise. But at Succession (Glorification), which matches the first step, we have fiery judgments. The final feast is intended to be joyous celebration of Jew and Gentile together under God, the bread and wine being a fulfilment of the promise at step 3. But here, Samson burns the fields (bread) and vineyards (wine) and olive groves (oil) in revenge. While in most texts the word is “foxes,” due to the festal structure I think the reading of “handfuls” is probably the correct one. [3] Foxes do symbolize cunning but that is out of place at step 7. If Samson indeed tied bundles of grain to torches of fire, we have a transition from Firstfruits to Pentecost, which in this passage, was the time between the riddle being given and the betrayal by his wife. The burning “firstfruits” sets the whole harvest alight, and appearing at Succession in this structure, means it is possibly a judgment for the loss of offspring, since this wise judge now had no wife. This curse upon the Philistines thus ties the curse upon Adam (the Land) to the curse upon Eve (the womb). It also relates Samson once again to the pattern of the seven elected Judges, of which Gideon is the “Pentecost” with his own 300 torches as the “Lampstand” eyes of God. It seems to me that the only fox in this picture is Samson himself, walking to and fro among the Philistines and placing each firebrand strategically by his own eye and with his own hand. 300 and 3000 are Pentecostal numbers. It is the Land and the Fruits of Day 3 set “alight” on Day 4.

This assertion is also supported by the fact that Samson’s purpose was vindicated by a “burnt offering and a grain offering” accepted by God (13:23), and the fact that this part of the Samson narrative is right at the centre, that is, at the “Pentecost.”

Genesis (Sabbath): Samson’s birth and anointing (13:1-25)

Exodus (Passover): Samson’s exodus to “Egypt” (14:1-9)

Leviticus (Firstfruits): Samson’s marriage and betrayal (14:10-20)

Numbers (Pentecost): Samson’s and the Philistines’ war of fire (15:1-8)

Deuteronomy (Trumpets): Samson betrayed by his brothers; slaughters Philistines with the jawbone of an ass [4] (15:9-20)

Joshua (Atonement): Samson breaks his Covenant vow (Oath/Sanctions). He is betrayed by Delilah and finally shaved, bound as a sacrifice, blinded, and set grinding in a cultic mill. He is forsaken for a time by God (16:1-22)

Judges (Booths): Samson, as the prophetic voice of God between priestly and kingly pillars, finally becomes the “Triune Man,” and cuts off the heads of Philistia. [5]

In retaliation, the Philistines burned the house of the woman and her family. So fire unites the Jews and the Gentiles, but here it is a sick parody of the Feast of Booths, as was the Jewish War and the “year of the four emperors.” It also reveals that the entire passage subtly follows the Ten Words, ending with a “coveting” of house and contents.

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[1] James B. Jordan, Judges, pp. 245-246. [PDF]
[2] See A Woman Scorned.
[3] From Adam Clarke’s Commentary:

Dr. Kennicott, however, objects to the common interpretation; and gives reasons, some of which are far from being destitute of weight. “The three hundred foxes,” says he, “caught by Samson, have been so frequently the subject of banter and ridicule, that we should consider whether the words may not admit a more rational interpretation: for, besides the improbability arising here from the number of these foxes, the use made of them is also very strange. If these animals were tied tail to tail, they would probably pull contrary ways, and consequently stand still; whereas a firebrand tied to the tail of each fox singly would have been far more likely to answer the purpose here intended. To obviate these difficulties it has been well remarked, that the word שועלים shualim, here translated foxes, signifies also handfuls, Ezekiel 13:19, handfuls of barley; if we leave out that one letter ו vau, which has been inserted or omitted elsewhere, almost at pleasure. No less than seven Hebrew MSS. want that letter here, and read שעלים shealim. Admitting this version, we see that Samson took three hundred handfuls or sheaves of corn, and one hundred and fifty firebrands; that he turned the sheaves end to end, and put a firebrand between the two ends in the midst; and then, setting the brands on fire, sent the fire into the standing corn of the Philistines. The same word is now used twice in one chapter, (Ezekiel 13:4, Ezekiel 13:19); in the former verse signifying foxes, in the latter handfuls: and in 1 Kings 20:10, where we render it handfuls, it is αλωπεξι, foxes, in the Greek version.” – Remarks on Select Passages.

[4] Trumpets, step 5, concerns armies but also Gentiles and prophets. The jawbone of an ass here is probably a divine reference to Balaam. Samson’s slaughter was a legal witness from the man who was God’s angel, unmasking the lie and the harlotry and becoming a blessing to Israel. It seems that donkeys refer to the Gentile believers who act as kingly sponsors to the priestly work of God’s people. One other point is that Joseph is also betrayed by his brothers at this point in his first “cycle.”

[5] James Jordan’s outline of the Samson narrative in the notes for his lecture series Samson the Mighty Bridegroom is also very helpful as it demonstrates how the sevenfold process of “seeing a woman | guardian removed | “marriage” | riddles | betrayal | justice | strength” is repeated in microcosm in the Sanctions section of the narrative. You can purchase the lectures from wordmp3.com. The outline is also on page 683 of Totus Christus.

Better Angels

Mike Bull — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:09:46 +0000

“…of the angels He says:
‘Who makes His angels spirits
and His ministers a flame of fire.’”

God is the source of all things, and He identifies Himself as such in His speeches. Every speech is Covenantal, and every preamble within His speeches is a statement of transcendence. “I am the Lord your God.”

After the initial call comes delegation, Covenantal Hierarchy. A man, a Moses, an Abraham, receives the Word with meekness.

We know that angels are God’s messengers, the sent ones. They administered the Old Covenant as our tutors, Satan becoming the first false teacher, the first corrupt ambassador, or, if you will, the first publican.

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

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Out of the Eater

Mike Bull — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:36:52 +0000

or A Bigger Christendom

“In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river,
was tree of life, which bore twelve fruits,
each tree yielding its fruit every month.
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Revelation 22:2

NOTE: THIS POST HAS BEEN REMIXED AND INCLUDED IN GOD’S KITCHEN.

While the governments of the first global economy in history explore areas of policy for which there is no historical precedent, Christians need to understand that even now, there is nothing new under the sun. It may be true, as some believe, that every war (including World War I) can be traced back to disputes over resources. But all the economic advice we need, whether personal, national or global, is contained in the Bible. The Tree of Life is still at the centre of the Garden, but it is the Church, and God is working on a forest.

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______________________________________________________
[1] R. C. Sproul Jr., Biblical Economics, A Commonsense Guide to Our Daily Bread, pp. 29-37.
[2] See Building Cages Out of Freedom.
[3] This is the heart of Peter Leithart’s timely new book, Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom.
[4] See Church and State.
[5] Check out David Chilton’s Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators. [PDF]

A Man Who Sues God – 2

Mike Bull — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:30:52 +0000

The Slow Wheels of Justice

I am Habakkuk the prophet. And this is the message that the LORD gave me. Our LORD, how long must I beg for your help before you listen? How long before you save us from all this violence? Why do you make me watch such terrible injustice? Why do you allow violence, lawlessness, crime, and cruelty to spread everywhere? Laws cannot be enforced; justice is always the loser; criminals crowd out honest people and twist the laws around.
Habakkuk 1:1-4

[Part 1 here.]

Perhaps there is more to this idea of “suing God” than a mere Puritan quote, especially when God Himself fails to keep His own rules, when God Himself appears to break Covenant.

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Samson’s New Eyes

Mike Bull — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:23:08 +0000

On Day 3 we have grain and fruit plants. They are the promise of bread and wine at God’s Sabbath table on Day 7.

The third elected judge was Deborah. Her song calls for a warrior like the sun. The seventh elected judge was Samson, “Sunrise.”

One theme of Day 7 is the Great Prophet, a man who has been tried and found faithful and included in the council of God. He has passed under the seven eyes of the Law (Day 4) and is now God’s Law incarnate, a lamb (bread and wine) with seven eyes.

Samson, the fallen bridegroom, lost his eyes. He was put to work grinding grain in a mill. There’s the bread. What was the wine? Samson’s blood. The wine of communion is a dose of death. It is a cup of judgment. Blind Samson, now humbled, became the flaming eyes of God among the Philistine rulers (the heavenly lights). Like Christ, in his death he put to an open shame the principalities and powers that had mocked him for sport. Christ was also perfected through suffering, but Samson’s story is more about the bride.

Samson prefigures not so much the crucifixion of Christ, but the suffering of Christ “filled up” in the firstfruits church. The Jews were blinded that the Gentiles might believe. Those Jews who were provoked to jealousy and did believe were humbled in the wilderness, excluded from the heritage they had boasted in, the things Paul called dung.

From the Revelation it seems that a remnant of converted Jews were slain in the besieged city before it fell. They were the true Nazirites, the warrior bride. [1] They brought down the pillars of Herod’s Temple and in death became founding pillars in a New Jerusalem.

For the saints, Jesus’ death as bread and wine was the promise of a greater rest they would enter into. Like Samson’s glorious hair, growing out of a bloodied Covenant head, their strength was made complete in weakness.

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[1] See Power on Her Head.

50 Failed Predictions? – #6

Mike Bull — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:11:14 +0000

26. Christ returned in A.D. 70 (?), but according to preterists the literal cloud was missing (see Acts 1: 9; Matt. 24: 30; Rev. 1: 7).

The “Bible matrix” pattern always begins with a Word from God’s glory cloud on the Lord’s Day (Sabbath), the accepted Mediator received into this single-cloud “Tabernacle” (Firstfruits) and ends with multiple clouds, a corporate Mediator (the body). The Feast of Tabernacles (“succoth”) is literally the Feast of Clouds. This was fulfilled in AD70. Christ ascended to prepare the place, and the firstfruits church was received into it at the destruction of the Temple.

The Last Judge

Mike Bull — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:15:49 +0000

As the end of the ‘Creation week’ (slavery to Sabbath) that created a new nation, there were twelve judges. Twelve is the ‘offspring’ number, being the three of heaven married, multiplied with, the four of the Land.[1] However, we know these brave ‘champions’ were not a sabbath society but a rescue operation after the failure of the Levites.

The Creation matrix begins with a single mediator and ends with a corporate mediator-nation. The judges were single mediators, corporate only in a progressive way: a new creation.

But there were seven ‘elected’ judges (seven is 3+4 [betrothal] at the centre of a greater pattern). The basic themes of their respective narratives illustrate a new creation, with Gideon’s ‘Pentecost’ flames at the centre, and the great solar bridegroom at the end.

All this adds deeper meaning to the role of Samuel as the last judge, the eighth judge — the one who carried Israel from tribes to kingdom. Son of a barren woman, he was the beginning of a new week.[2]

_________________________________
[1] This also explains the 42 children mauled by Elisha’s bears, 12 x 3 1/2. See Elisha’s Short Fuse.
[2] This fact is slightly more narrative than historical. James Jordan observes that Samson and Samuel, two Nazirites from birth, and Obed, son of Boaz and Ruth, were all born around the same time: two shoulders and a new head. The Nazirites were miraculous births, and Obed was born to Naomi by a Gentile surrogate. See Judges: God’s War Against Humanism [PDF]. Eli the High Priest was also a judge, whose tenure overlapped that of Samson and Samuel. See the chronology in Peter J. Leithart, A Son to Me: : An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel.

A White Stone – 5

Mike Bull — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:32:41 +0000

A House of Bread

There are two kinds of whiteness in the Bible, and an understanding of this explains a great deal. There is the whiteness of covering and the whiteness of uncovering. And, as mentioned, the Bible makes a great deal out of the concept of covering.

Bone Collector

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Touching a corpse made an Israelite unclean. The remains of those slain in battle were marked with lime for two reasons: so that they could be avoided by the clean, and so they could be gathered up and burned to lime by the bone collectors. Jesus said that the righteousness of the Pharisees was like a whitewashed sepulchre. Not only were they full of the ceremonial uncleanness of broken Covenant, their so-called righteousness was actually a mark from God upon them. They would be gathered to their people not by the Father sending His angels to the four corners of the Land, but by the father of lies and his scavengers sent by God to clean the wound.

This image goes right back to Genesis. Like the angels, the Covenant scavengers, though demonic, are also God’s servants. They are the raven of Noah surviving on floating corpses until the water goes down; they are the scavenging dogs that lick up Jezebel’s blood; they are the maggots in misused manna and abandoned grapes (false bread and wine); they are the unclean birds and animals that screech and howl inside the corpse of a defeated Babylon; they are worms inside Herod ‘enthroned’ as a human Gehenna.

The whiteness of the Pharisees was the whiteness of Miriam’s and Gehazi’s skin-plague. It is the whiteness of flesh and bones exposed as unclean to the eyes of God. Satan himself appeared as an angel of light, but like the Pharisees, he was a false lightbearer, a tutor guiding his children the wrong way.

Vindicated by the Redeemer/Avenger

‘To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

Jesus says this at the end of the letter to the church in Pergamum. As James Jordan observes, the imagery in the seven letters takes us through Old Covenant history, beginning with Eden, and ending with Herod’s ‘Laodicea’. Pergamum is the church in the wilderness, hence the references to Phinehas’ sword, Balaam and Balak, testing by temptation to sexual immorality and the mighty men (Nicolaitans).

The white stone speaks of a faithful priesthood publicly vindicated, the wilderness manna transfigured into glorious metal by resurrection.

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died…”
(John 6:48-49)

The Hebrew word for redeemer is the same as avenger. A kinsman redeemer not only rescued his brother’s widow and inheritance by marriage, but was charged with avenging and vindicating her over her enemies. Like Boaz, he was to bring her in from the wilderness, cover her, and give her ‘a new name’ by adoption (like Ruth). Resurrection always involves a judgment, a division between those who are covered (Ruth) and those who love their widowhood and choose to remain uncovered (barren) and return to the fields of Moab (Orpah). The choice is between the bread of the Covenant and the bread of Moab, Covenant children or the children of Lot’s incest.

Beth-lechem Ephratah (fertile house of bread)

The Revelation is Jesus’ judgment between two women like Ruth and Orpah, and in fact, as the story is expanded it becomes a judgment between two prostitutes. Each has a son, but one is dead and one is alive. The woman who lies is uncovered by the words of wise Solomon as the destroying angel of Passover. She is left barren like Egypt.

There are the harlots and tax collectors who come into the kingdom and take up the Messianic line as Rahab. Then there is Judah herself, the greatest of all tax collectors, riding the Roman beast and saying in her heart “I sit a queen. I am no widow.” She was indeed married, but not to Boaz. She had returned to the incestuous bread of Moab like Orpah, a wicked and adulterous generation who shunned a Bethlehem (House of Bread) restored (after the sins recorded at the end of Judges) and made fruitful again by Greater Boaz.

A false house of bread is a false resurrection, a whited sepulchre. It is bread made glorious with the leprous leaven of the Pharisees. It is a phantom pregnancy, a ‘rising’ that turns out to be a mere breaking of wind. But Jesus as Boaz has His children (Hebrews 2:13).

Big White Stones

At the centre of the Creation matrix that runs right through the Bible is the wilderness. It is the burning bush, the Lampstand eyes of God’s Law judging–threshing–His people. The annual feasts follow the same pattern. In that case it is the harvest of Pentecost and its tongues of fire.

The wilderness is God’s threshing floor. It is the place where Boaz covers Ruth as the foundation for a later Temple. And the grinding of the millstone is a euphemism for sex.1 The Old Testament helps us make sense of Revelation 18. Not only would Judah’s Temple no longer enjoy the light of the lampstand filled with olive oil (the Spirit), the fruitfulness of the millstone would be taken away. No more bread.

The face of the unfaithful Old Covenant ‘baker’ would be uncovered as the bread in white baskets was eaten by ravens under the Covenant curse. He would be executed by Jesus as Pharaoh. The cupbearer was resurrected from the ‘tomb’, but the baker was not. The Old Covenant priesthood was exposed, but the New Covenant oil and wine would not be harmed.

Jesus as wise Solomon built His new house on the rock of obedience. The Herods ignored Jesus’ warnings for forty wilderness years and built a great and glorious house–on sand. Even in Jesus’ day, long before its completion, the disciples admired it. At the end of the Restoration Covenant, it was the ultimate form of Zerubbabel’s white capstone, covered in gold and white marble. When it reflected the early morning or afternoon sun, people had to avert their eyes from its brightness. It should have been a house for Eve built upon the sacrificial obedience of Adam, but it was a pretense, a covering of leaves. Jesus saw its future.

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more.”

Herod’s house of bread was submerged under the Gentile sea, a big white stone sinking to the bottom like Pharaoh’s armies. It was not Ezra’s Resurrection Temple as he had hoped. Zerubbabel’s white stone, the Restoration Temple, had been the outcome of a priestly people who put their pagan wives away. But Herod’s kingdom was built on the intermarriage of red Edomite clay and Roman iron–sex with the beast in the wilderness. It was not a capstone but a gravestone.

After the end of the Roman siege, not one stone of this white house remained upon another. Roman soldiers tore up the masonry to retrieve the gold that melted in the fires and ran into the cracks. As the Man of Sin, the Herods had spoken as though they were God, sitting in Moses’ and Solomon’s seat of judgment where they ought not. But their house was left desolate, uncovered and eaten by scavenging maggots. As anti-Christ, Herod was the living dead instead of the dead living–the manna of disobedience. It was not another restoration of Ezra’s Temple. It was the whiteness of a false resurrection, a leprous house that would be torn down.

And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. (Lev. 14:45)

Herod’s house pretended to be the top of the mountain of God, but it was filled with corpses like the Valley of Hinnom, covered with bones like the altar of Jeroboam, unclean and outside the true city of God.

Jezebel was indeed thrown down, and all that the dogs left were her head, hands and feet, a cruciform memorial for the bone collectors. The angel had said, “He is not here. He is risen” and the apostles and prophets rejoiced. Now the angel said, “She is not here. She is eaten,” and the apostles and prophets rejoiced again (2 Kings 9:37; Rev. 18:20). Her whited bones remain as a memorial to the leaven of the Pharisees, a faith that is a collection of unclean bones. Only the breath of Jesus can resurrect a Jew from the dust.

But there were two lime-washed pillars that Joshua set up as a memorial to his church’s river crossing. At the church’s crossing of the crystal sea into the promised heavenly country, Herod’s Temple was the second pillar. What was the first?

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Samson’s adultery condemned him to a symbolic harlotry, pushing the millstone, grinding grain in the house of a foreign god. But his repentance made him ‘fruitful’ again, and the once adulterous and barren ‘warrior-bride’ rejoiced to see the destruction of that house.

WHITSTON-5

Power on Her Head

Mike Bull — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:07:06 +0000

The Nazirite Vow

(Article requested by Drew J.)

This vow in Numbers 6 follows the “inspection of jealousy” in Numbers 5. Mark Horne observed that, just as the woman in Numbers 5 was to be inspected for harlotry with her hair untamed, so the Nazirite (whether male or female) was not to cut his or her hair. A Nazirite is a human picture of the church as a warrior bride. Hair is glory. Hair is the cloud of angels (and now, saints) surrounding the throne of God.

“Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” (1 Cor. 11:10)

A woman is the glory of her man. A woman’s hair is a symbol of submission, but also a symbol of her own “cloud of angels” – her godly offspring (See Ezekiel 5 for the children of Israel symbolised as the prophet’s hair, Micah 1:16, Matthew 10:30 and also my comments on Nehemiah and his hair-pulling). In battle, a Nazirite was like a blazing torch (the Ark-chariot/Adam) and smoking firepot (the smoke clouds of the incense altar/Eve army), parting his enemies like the pillar of God.

The hair is her “crop”, the twelve stars around her head (Rev. 12), and the question constantly posed to Israel concerns her role as God’s mediatorial Land. Is her crop one of thorns and thistles, or is it godly grain? This is also the question in Numbers 5, and the Lord put Israel to this exact test after the idolatry with the golden calf. The “harlots” were slain with the Levitical sword.

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Trinitarian complexity in Samson

Mike Bull — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:11:18 +0000

Samson is often presented as a moose.

A commonly held opinion is that Samson was stupid. However, his earlier acts were inspired by the influence of the Spirit, carefully calculated, spectacularly executed and achieved the desired results.

For instance, Samson only told his wife the answer to his riddle so he would know where the leak came from when she was tested.

This reminded me of the test for harlotry in Numbers 5. The priest administers the bitter word to the woman, and if she passes the test, she will be a fruitful blessing.

Samson’s wife failed the test, and the outcome was a bit like that after the harlotry with the golden calf, with Samson as the slaughtering Levite.

Speaking of which, Numbers 5 comes right before Numbers 6 — the Nazirite vow. Men who took this vow became, basically, warrior brides. Their uncut hair was a sign of submission. Revelation draws on this imagery to describe the apostles and first century saints as virgins.

So Samson’s wife betrayed him, and Samson betrayed his own covenant ‘husband,’ the Lord.

Doug Wilson points out (somewhere) that biblical relationships are more complex than those of Islam. In Islam, the line of authority is linear, the natural outcome of a simple god of power. Might is right, from top to bottom. With Christianity, the submission of the members of the Trinity within the Godhead overflows into family and society, with the members submitting to one another, and constantly bestowing good upon one another.

So Samson can be both a bride and a bridegroom. Facing heaven, a minister is part of the bride. Facing his church, he images the bridegroom.