or Mr White and the Black Hat

“There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

King David committed far worse sins than did King Saul. Saul was not an evil man, yet his judgments caused the deaths of many people, including Jonathan, his other sons and even the priests of God. Why did a reign that began so well end in such tragedy?

David, for all his sins (adultery, murder, trusting in armies), was not disqualified, yet Saul was rejected by God for lesser sins. What was the difference between them? Besides the fact that David owned his sin and Saul blamed everybody else, the difference was that David understood that his rule as a king over God’s Covenant people would only ever be on God’s terms. He could never be a king like those of the Gentiles.

Although his power was sourced in Israel’s priesthood, David was to embody the Covenant in a greater way than the priesthood. He was to be “Pentecostal” in the sense that he was to be not only under the Law, he was to embody, open and expound upon the Law for his people. He was to be the Law of Moses incarnate, and from David’s anointing by Samuel we see his soul broken as a priestly sacrifice, exalted in kingly fire, and finally taking on a prophetic nature. The fundamental point here is that the Law was a light to David’s path. He saw the future through God’s eyes, which means he could see a lot further ahead, by faith. He had a wisdom beyond his years.

“I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts.” (Psalms 119:100)

Saul’s victories led to a misguided belief in his own divinity, which is possibly why he honoured Agag by sparing his life. As kings, they had something in common. They trusted their own judgment. Saul’s “Pentecost” became instead the ministry of an evil spirit, and the anointing of David by the Holy Spirit. Saul was a wily warrior king, but his was not the serpentine wisdom that is harmless as a dove. His judgments were based on the pragmatism of the flesh, which can only see so far. Guided by his own wisdom, rather than becoming a “Covenant shelter” for his people, Saul’s manipulation of and meddling in the Covenant processes of God put at risk those in his care. Like Walter White, those for whom he fought were the very ones he put at risk, alienated, grievously harmed and eventually lost.

David’s various sins still brought tragic consequences, but when challenged he crossed the courtroom floor to stand with God against himself and received mercy. He listened to God. Saul refused to listen, and when God stopped speaking to him he sought guidance through witchcraft. God simply repeated, through Samuel, what He had said before. The voice of Samuel was “deuteronomic” but not in a good sense. It was a legal witness against Saul from the courts of God and would end his tyranny. Saul’s own blood atoned for his kingly sins. Obedience (prevention) would have been better than sacrifice (cure).

In hindsight, Saul’s unwillingness to be a living sacrifice and place himself in the hands of a faithful, just and merciful God, is easy for us to condemn. But in so many ways this is exactly how we live our lives. Saul loved the gifts of God more than God Himself, which is an incredibly subtle form of idolatry when it is the good things that we love. If we attempt to preserve the mind of the flesh (false Altar), we will then turn to a false spirit (false Lampstand) and the spirit of prophecy, the legal witness, will not be for us but against us. The outcome of our “Covenant” missions will be plagues instead of plunder.

This Saul versus David, first Adam versus last Adam pattern was replayed in the first century. Saul’s sins were lesser than those of David, but we must remember that the anointing of David is what put the brakes on Saul’s reign. It was the Ascension of Christ and the Day of Pentecost which empowered those Jews and Gentiles who were “after God’s heart.” But the events of Pentecost also “enlightened the eyes” of many who saw Jesus for who He is and yet rejected Him, blaspheming His Spirit. From that day on, the Rabbinic Judaism of the rulers of Jerusalem, with its pragmatic compromises and manipulation of the priesthood and Temple, became entirely demonic. The persecution of the saints by the Jewish leaders was inspired by the same jealousy that filled Saul. As Saul employed Doeg the Edomite to slay the priests who had fed the Showbread to David and his followers, so the Edomite Herods slew Christ and then set about wiping out the New Covenant priesthood.

The Herodian “voice of God” which they listened to (Acts 12:22) was Covenantal sorcery, and it was the prophetic witness of the apostles which condemned them to the great Day of Coverings. Unwittingly, the Herods had offered Christ as the Head of the sacrifice and His Church as the Body, making their own Temple redundant. Like Saul and his sons, Jews attempting to escape the Roman armies were “lifted up” for the birds and the beasts in mass crucifixions. Like David, Christ became a Covenant shelter and an eternal table for the remaining sons of Saul. [1]

The Jewish compromise was born of earthly pragmatism, a short-sighted wisdom. They sat in the seat of Moses but they trusted in their own wisdom. Their “Pentecostal” Lampstand eyes were filled with darkness. God’s ways are not our ways, and they are most often veiled to us, but we can trust Him, and walk in His ways, in the knowledge that He knows the end, and our end will not be the end of Saul.

[1] Walter White has a crippled son. And his lawyer’s name is Saul Goodman.

See also Spiritual Power.

There’s a way of reading [the Bible] with your eyes open and a way of reading the Bible with your eyes closed. Your spiritual eyes are closed when you have a stingy heart. If you have a heart that’s like a bit of beef jerky left in the bottom of the bag when you’re done with it, you’re not going to be able to read the script no matter how many times you read the script.

What kind of man is David? Why is David able to trust God like this?…

A despot knows how to work with bribes and influence peddlers. A despot knows how to work the system. A despot knows how to pay people off. If you flip back to 1 Samuel 22:7, we see Saul’s idea of generosity. Saul is complaining about David.

Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, “Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds…”

“Don’t you understand? I gave you all this stuff. Where’s my loyalty!”

When our despotic federal government is dispensing money, throwing it away by the trillion, they are doing exactly this. But what are they doing it with? They are doing it with other people’s money.  They are buying off one group with what they pillaged from another group.

David, however, is generous with material goods which he gained lawfully. Saul is accruing all sorts of things to himself in the spirit Samuel warned Israel about in 1 Samuel 8. Saul is violating the Deuteromonic standards for the king of Israel, and David is not. David’s role in gaining the plunder was so obvious, David was so magnificent, that all the men rightly said, “This is David’s spoil. It all belongs to David.”

David knew it was his because God had been generous to him, and David resolved to be generous to others.

When Saul tries to work the system by bribing people, that is not the same thing as imitating the generosity of God. Someone who is buying loyalty is certainly giving something, but the heart doesn’t understand the nature of true generosity. The cosmos does work according to the law of reciprocity, but it does so without becoming a vending machine. You can trick a vending machine. You cannot trick a God Who is not mocked, Who says that a man reaps what he sows. God is not a game that can be played. God is not a system that can be worked. God is a God whose mercy overflows, but he sees when you are being like him and when you are only pretending to be like him.

When 200 of his men grow faint, David was an understanding leader. David entrusted his suffering men with the care of the supplies, with some responsibility. When he returned, he gave them a full share of the spoil.

When they came upon the Egyptian slave which the Amalekite master had abandoned to die in the wilderness when he had grown sick, they fed him before they knew whether his information would be of any use to them.

David had it written into law that the supply corps should share in the spoils. Compare this with the sons of Belial who thought they were being generous. “We let them have their own wives and kids. What more could you want?” When David returns to Ziklag, he takes all the spoil that he has recovered and sends gifts all over the region.

They key principle found in the heart of David is here in v. 23:

Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand.

The Lord is giving to us. How can we not be giving. The Lord has forgiven us. How can we not be forgiving?

God’s mercy is overflowing, but it does not extend everywhere. There is one place to which God’s mercy does not extend for the same reason that circles cannot be square. God cannot save you from drowning by leaving you in the water. God cannot show mercy to you and at the same time leave you on the bottom of the lake of your own mercilessness.

David was an open-hearted, merciful king. This is the open hand ruling. Consider that Jesus rules the universe this way, and the rule of every government is founded on this principle. Kings rule this way. Fathers rule in their homes this way. Mayors rule this way. Elders and pastors rule this way. When government is blessed by God, it is this kind of rule.

God loves mercy. The merciful heart is open, honest, generous, glad and much more. If God rules the universe that way, all that the control monkey has, in his efforts to get things going his way, is the illusion of control.

Excerpt from The Open Hand Rules, January 17, 2012.

“Saul is in your bloodstream, in the marrow of your bones. He makes up the very flesh and muscle of your heart. He is mixed into your soul. He inhabits the nuclei of your atoms.”

No one who reads this blog has ever suffered at the hands of self-righteous, authoritarian church leaders, I’m sure.

But just in case you do, here’s some excerpts from A Tale of Three Kings: A Study in Brokenness by Gene Edwards [PDF]. He does take some liberties (and arguably makes some blunders) with the biblical narrative, but his message is both encouraging and convicting.

“Dedicated to the brokenhearted Christians coming out of authoritarian groups, seeking solace, healing and hope. May you somehow recover and go on with Him who is liberty.

And to Christians who have been, or presently are, involved in the heart-rending experience of a division within your fellowship. May this story give you light, clarity and comfort. And may you, too, somehow recover and go on with Him who is peace.

And may you both be so utterly healed that you can still answer the call of Him who asks for all because He is all.”

or The Rapture is History

“And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.” Job 19:26

Full preterism leads logically to gnosticism. If death is already defeated, salvation has come to the world, and all is now perfect, then of necessity all three — death, salvation and perfection — have to be redefined. They are only Covenantal, “spiritual.” You can probably understand why doctrines like these don’t originate from the persecuted church. Some hope.

However, that said, I agree with 97.3963798475% of full preterism. Their take on the parousia texts is logical and contextual. Jesus actually did come back soon, as He promised, to rescue the persecuted firstfruits church. The textual ping-pong of the well-meaning partial preterists (who can’t agree between themselves on which parousia texts refer to the end of history) is a confusion of which our God could not possibly be the author. So what’s the answer?

The answer is structural, and it relates to the nature of God’s Covenants, and to the world as God’s Tabernacle. The final part of every Covenant concerns succession, or Continuity. It dictates the inheritance for the Covenant faithful. At the end of the Old Covenant in AD70, the faithful dead (the saints under the Altar) received a “heavenly country,” a heavenly Land. The earthly Land — the Bronze Altar — was broken in two. There is now a human government in heaven, a golden Altar of Incense. (For those new around here, this is what is going on in the Revelation. The Old Covenant angels retire in Rev. 4. Jesus takes over in Revelation 5. The firstfruits church is converted, then martyred by the corrupt Old Covenant vassals, the Herods, and finally all the martyrs follow Christ into heaven, calling down the Levitical and Deuteronomic Covenant curses upon the Temple. [Lev. 26; Deut. 28])

The 40 year overlap between the Old and New Covenants is what causes the confusion between preterists. Think of it this way. A Covenant is an administation by God’s vassal for a limited period of time. When a vassal violates the terms of the Covenant, for the good of those under the vassal’s authority, God organises “bridging finance.” He founds a new house for the faithful before He demolishes the Old. For the safety of the kingdom, many princes were anointed king before their fathers died. They were anointed when their fathers were no longer fit to rule. The Lord established Ezekiel as Israel’s High-Priest-in-exile, and Daniel as Israel’s king/vassal in exile, before He wiped out the old order. They represented man as a temporary Israel until the re-establishment of Temple worship under Ezra.

Just as the anointing of David spelled the end of Saul’s reign, the ascension of Christ as the mediator of a New Covenant spelled the doom of the Old. As with the reigns of Saul and David, there was an overlap. The parousia was indeed AD70. The Old Covenant ended with a physical resurrection. We know it was physical because it is described as a marriage. Jesus fulfilled Leviticus 1 in the first century. He ascended in the flesh as the Covenant Head. The firstfruits church was martyred and ascended in the flesh as Covenant Body. The marriage supper in heaven required both Head and Body to be flesh and blood, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh – and Spirit of His Spirit as well. That’s marriage. All the promises to Israel were fulfilled.

But that wasn’t the end of the New Covenant, and this is where the full preterists go wrong. [1] It was only the coronation of Greater Solomon. There is another resurrection, and it is also physical, despite their desperate claims. This end is described in Revelation 20, and the New Covenant, like the Old, ends with a physical resurrection when all the New Covenant promises are fulfilled.

Just as the Old Covenant saints and the Firstfruits martyrs entered into heaven as a new administration – in the flesh (flesh finally justified before God), so the New Covenant saints will also be resurrected physically, in the flesh at the final judgment.

So the full preterists get it all right, except for Revelation 20. The so-called “partial” preterists get Revelation 20 right. But both sides tend to spiritualize one of the resurrections, which is an error. Except in type and prefigurement, resurrections by definition involve flesh and blood. [2] Both sides are guilty of gnostic interpretations when it comes to the promises, the blessings of the Covenant.

Also, as described in Bible Matrix, beginning with Jesus’ resurrection (and Matthew’s testimony that saints physically came out of their graves to testify), God reclaims the territory corrupted by Adam (Garden/Priest – AD30), Cain (Land/Kings – AD70) and the Sons of God (World – yet future). This triune pattern runs right throughout the Scriptures, architecturally, historically, and also in the literary structures. It is also the  pattern laid out in 1 Corinthians 15.

Finally, if Revelation 20 is basically the only text that remains to the partial (or orthodox) preterists to prove a final judgment and resurrection, is there much of a case? Yes, much in every way! The answers are structural, and built of extremely sturdy girders founded in the solid concrete of the Torah.

Revelation is a Covenant lawsuit, as Ray Sutton describes (although I disagree slightly with his breakdown of it. He puts the Trumpets and Bowls in the wrong place. The Trumpets are part of the Ethics, and the Bowls are the sanctions.) Revelation 1-19 also follow the Feast pattern, ending with Tabernacles, the marriage supper, Jew and Gentile in one new bridal body. But chapters 20-21 can’t be forced into this final feast. This section is a unit. It has its own chiastic “Tabernacle” structure. [3] There is a good reason for this.

Full preterists sometimes accuse partial preterists of being “futurists.” Well, the final chapters of the Revelation concern, briefly, the Continuity of the New Covenant, the succession arrangement made for the heirs of the Old contract. It is of necessity “futurist.” This is the only part of the Bible that is, for us, future. It is being fulfilled as the gospel spreads throughout the world during this new administration of “1000 years.” [4] The final section of every Covenant concerns the future. A Covenant is God’s means of bringing history to fulfilment, to maturity. At the end of every Covenant age there is  a combine harvester. The New Covenant is the same. [5]

So the rapture described by Paul is first century history. [6] It was imminent. It was the end of the old administration. But the second resurrection, the reckoning of the New Covenant, is still in our future. Like Job, Abraham and Paul in the first century, we shall also see Jesus in our flesh, flesh justified in His sight (!) through transfiguration in the fiery Spirit. We shall see Him because we shall be like Him: holy flesh, His body.

______________________________________
[1] See A Chronic Hysteresis
[2] See Ten Days of Awe.
[3] See The Altar of the Abyss – 7
[4] See For a Thousand Years.
[5] One thing that amazes me about the Bible is God doing the same thing over and over and over, and yet in new and surprising ways every time. The Gospel really shouldn’t have been a surprise at all, but it was. It was just like everything that had gone before, and yet nothing like it. In any trade we ply, our best work is done at the end. The best wine is still to come.
[6] See That Which Is Perfect.

It’s a temptation to water down the Bible to make it palatable for “normal” people (let alone watering it down for ourselves!). Problem is, before we know it, what we are teaching bears little resemblance to the actual Bible. The Bible has odd corners where we think it should be smooth, and it says nothing about many things we moderns deem crucial. So let the hungry eat cake.

Many youth leaders, and even pastors, present the Almighty as being desperate for our company. Although He is not needy, what He desires is more than relationship. He wants “friends,” but His definition of this word is not ours. Even if we don’t go down the track of using the actual phrase “heavenly buddy” in our teaching, we are still further off the biblical mark concerning friendship with God than we might have thought possible.

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“And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, in order to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, then, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Thus, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” —2 Cor. 12:7-10

What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh? Theories abound, from a bad temper, to bowlegs, to eye trouble and even epilepsy. Why is it that so many commentators fail to check their concordances for “previous.” These days, with Bible wordsearch software, we have no excuse.

Thorns are the curse of the wilderness. Thorns are the theme of the original curse upon Adam and his offspring. Thorns easily catch fire. The Canaanites whom the Israelites failed to drive out of the Land would become irritants in their eyes and thorns in their sides. Thorns are the opposite of vines; they are a Covenant curse because all Covenants are “agricultural.” God gives Adam the Land as a tenant and comes to collect His part of the crop. The grain, grapes and olives are gathered and the fruitless branches are thrown into the furnace.

I think a good contender for this particular thorn might be the persecution Paul suffered from his brothers, the Jews who rejected his gospel. The New Testament is full of references, both subtle and blatant, to them being spiritual Cainites. They were a bad crop that came out of good ground, ground-crawling thorns like Abimelech in Judges, a hybrid between true and false worship, financing a first century temple of Baal as did this wicked Israelite “king.”

The key is The Land. Jesus turned the curse into glory by wearing it as a crown. He became the cursed Land, Israel. He became the harlot people, drinking the cup of testing. He became Abimelech and Herod, the thorn kings who murdered the innocent brothers. The word “thorn” that Paul uses can also mean an impaling stake. Jesus was “crowned”, lifted up on this “throne”, and took all Israel’s barren, thorny history with Him to the grave. Then He rose again as a new Israel, a New Land capable of fruit pleasing to God. He turned thorns into vines.

Is there any clue for us in the structure of the passage? Yes, I am going to try the Bible matrix on it.

Genesis – Word – Sabbath
And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself,

Exodus – Delegated Representative – Passover
there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, in order to keep me from exalting myself.

Leviticus – Ascension of High Priest – Firstfruits
Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

Numbers – Testing in the Wilderness – Pentecost (Law given)
And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’

Deuteronomy – Resurrection/Witness – Trumpets
Most gladly, then, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Joshua – Conquest – Atonement
Thus, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Judges – Covenant Succession – Tabernacles
I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing.

The last point often concerns wisdom, so Paul’s reference to being thought a fool is telling. Paul contrasts himself with the self-styled Solomons of Corinth, the super-apostles. We might speculate that the Corinthians were just like Israel in Canaan, handed the Land but too unwise to govern. Paul was held in disrepute both within and without the church.

Just as God used Saul as an “angel” to humble David, the Lord used the Jews to humble Paul. Paul calls on the Corinthians to be humble. He is pierced and he begs them to be willingly pierced also. When God’s people are proud, he hedges their way with thorns (Hosea 2:6). Wisdom understands humiliation, by whatever means it comes to us, as a work of God.

Jordan surmises that Paul’s thorn was symbolically in his foot. Well, thorns do grow on the ground. That is the whole point! They sprout but are bowed down like beasts, not upright and reaching heavenward. The second step of the matrix often involves God’s man bowed down to the ground or falling as dead before he is lifted up and given a task or a revelation. All men fall, but God’s man does not stay down. He turns thorns into vines.

The most the Jews could do to the apostles, even when they succeeded in assassinating them, was to bruise their heels. Like thorns—and scorpions—they would soon be crushed underfoot along with their “father”, the ultimate creeping thing.

“And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house.” —Ezekiel 2:6

or Smells Like Holy Spirit

A friend recently gave me a unique gift. With some difficulty and great expense, he sourced the ingredients for the anointing oil of the Aaronic priesthood and I was the grateful recipient of a small, blue vial.

The scent of the oil is intoxicating. You breathe it in and in some strange way you can “taste” it as it goes down. It is extremely complex and yet a single fragrance. The recipe is in Exodus 30:

Moreover the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Also take for yourself quality spices — five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of [calamus], five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil. With it you shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the Testimony; the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense; the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base. You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests. And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on man’s flesh; nor shall you make any other like it, according to its composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people.’ “

James Jordan observes that there are a number of “holy mixtures” prescribed for the Tabernacle, including the High Priest’s robe of a combination of linen and wool. The Law of Moses consists of boundaries, divisions. In God’s house, however, everything is integrated. It is a house of resurrection; of bread and wine, flesh and blood, heaven and earth (and of course, eventually even Jew and Gentile) recombined in a way beyond the skill of mortal men. Just as the Tabernacle would eventually be torn apart and “resurrected” as the Tabernacle of David, even the Law of Moses itself would be torn apart, taken to the grave, and resurrected as the Law of Christ.

“For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

Incense is the most complex symbol in Scripture. It begins in Genesis 1, as clouds of birds and fish created on Day 5. They symbolise an army consisting of many but combined as one. Five is a military number. Israel marches five abreast. David chooses five smooth stones. The oil of anointing had five ingredients. All the Bible’s Covenants have five parts. The fragrant clouds from the Incense Altar are the “bridal” hosts of God.

The symbol is used constantly. Israel’s obedience is fragrant to God, but He also tips the symbol on its head when she betrays Him. In the prophets, the literary structure often puts the “smoke” of her destruction at this point. Ezekiel’s reference to Judah as a stick that is burnt at both ends and good for nothing also appears at step five. Her burning of incense became a cloud to hide her disobedience. It became a stench in God’s nostrils.

The Tabernacle not only follows the form of the Creation week, but also of the human body. Even more interesting is that the human head is a mini-Tabernacle itself. Your brain is the Ark, hidden behind a veil, with your eyes as the cherubim, two witnesses. I figure that since the priests’ right ears were daubed with blood, this refers to the Table of Showbread, and the left ear is the Law/Lampstand. The nose is in the centre, the place of the Altar of Incense. And vegetarians, please note that your mouth as the Bronze Altar is where the animals are consumed! [1]

According to Jordan, just as gold is “solid light” (Day 1 is the Ark), so holy oil is “liquid light.” It is the Word from heaven that begins something new. Peter Leithart writes:

No human being gets anointed in Genesis; only pillars (Gen 28:18; 35:14). The pillars represent the “house” of Yahweh, the cornerstones of the future temple.

It’s not until Exodus 29 that we read of a human being anointed with oil. Aaron is the first Christ. He is also Bethel, the gate of God, the living house of Yahweh. [2]

Imagine being Saul or David, anointed with this wonderful oil that had been restricted to use by the Aaronic priesthood since its inception.

The Tabernacle was a place filled with sensory experiences, from the fragrance of the anointing oil (Day 1) to the delightful aroma of roasting meat (Day 3) to the air of the Holy Place perfumed by the Altar of Incense (Day 5). This is the transition from blood to Spirit, from the old creation to the new. Like Esther, the church puts Herself on the Altar and ascends to stand on the Emperor’s pavement of gemstones and mother-of-pearl. She has spent a year under a regime of oils and perfumes, and presents herself boldly before him as a fragrant myrtle, robed in His own righteousness.

This sample oil of anointing is a unique possession, and a fantastic teaching aid as well. Memories are very often connected to smells. Smells are things we never forget. But does this have any relation to our worship today? We are to anoint our sick with oil, but is the Lord concerned about the recipe?

In his lectures on Zechariah, Jordan observes that the new oil flowing from the two olive trees is not the same word as the holy oil of the Tabernacle. It is ordinary household oil. What this signifies is an expansion of holiness. It corresponds to even the pots and pans becoming as holy as Temple vessels. This progression continued, and by the work of Christ, everything is sacred. The Holy Space has grown larger than any of the Old Covenant territories, and will keep growing until it encompasses the world.

Back to Zechariah. This ordinary household oil expands the Lampstand into a blaze, squared from seven to forty-nine lights. This is a picture of the Restoration era. The two witnesses that flanked the now missing Ark no longer keep Adam from the gate with flaming sword. The symbols here are all agrarian. The angels have actually beaten their swords into plowshares. Israel would no longer be a nation of warriors but a nation of priests. She had been transfigured from an earthly body to a spiritual (but just as physical) body. Like Jesus, she could now walk through doors.

This is the nature of resurrection. It is a harvest. The seed has fallen into the ground and there will be a bumper crop. This harvest of what was planted at the beginning of the Restoration era is the white field Jesus referred to. Israel’s national death was not only a judgment for idolatry, but also a scattering of seed. It resulted in the Gentile God-fearers who very often shamed the limited faith of Jews in the New Testament.

Jesus’ death made Him into a door: Passover. Jesus’ resurrection enabled Him to pass through doors: Atonement. The apostles’ biggest challenges in the book of Acts concerned this new requirement to pass through doors, passing through the Land of the Canaanites and taking it as an inheritance for Christ.

Revelation 9:17 “…and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.”

The Old Covenant concerned the fragrance of covered sin: perfect blood that founded a new house. The New Covenant concerned the fragrance of a new body (Eve), the filling of that house. It completes the story of the entire Bible as a full extension in human history of the perfect Creation Week.

In Revelation, both the resurrected bride and the unfaithful wife are pictured as smoke, ie, elders who rule in worship. Both are sacrificed in the first century and final fulfilment of Yom Kippur.

Revelation 15:8    The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

As with Saul and David, the end of the old administration meant the vindication of the new.

Revelation 19:3    Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!”

For the Christians who had suffered at the hands of apostates for a full generation, the death of state-compromised Herodian worship was a sweet-smelling savour.

The truth is bigger than symbols. But modern evangelicals are so cerebral that they don’t teach the symbols. To understand the truths, we still need the symbols. Their withholding of these potent Scriptural elements, things that appeal to our “five senses,” is possibly the main reason the average modern Western Christian — and even those with theological degrees — still has baby teeth when it comes to much of the Bible.

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[1] This seems to make the palate the dome-like “crystal sea.” Perhaps then, seeing as we now know that the Revelation shows a change in administration from angelic elders for human ones, can we speculate that the created heaven has lost its baby teeth? The first century becomes the teething period of a more adult creation. Tooth and ivory concern judgment. This is the symbol behind the great white (ivory) throne of Solomon.
It is also interesting that if the right ear is the Table, it is Adam’s face facing “upwards” towards God, as an earthly mediator communicating with heaven. But with the Tabernacle as a complete body, Jesus has the seven stars of the Lampstand in His right hand. He is facing “downwards” as our heavenly Mediator. The minister, during worship, faces the front as part of the congregation, but faces the congregation as he brings the Word from heaven. The blood goes up and the Spirit comes down. Both are Christ.
[2] Peter Leithart, Living House, www.leithart.com

Here’s a charming quote discovered and posted by Doug Wilson over a year ago. Being exactly the opposite of the so-called “party” image portrayed on TV and in glossy mags, it kind of stuck with me. It is not sinful like they are, yet it is so “incorrect” that it must be true.

“I wish you well. May your table be graced with lovely women and good men. May you drink well enough to drown the envy of youth in the satisfactions of maturity. May your men wear their weight with pride, secure in the knowledge that they have at last become considerable. May they rejoice that they will never again be taken for callow, black-haired boys. And your women? Ah! Women are like cheese strudels. When first baked, they are crisp and fresh on the outside, but the filling is unsettled and indigestible; in age, the crust may not be so lovely, but the filling comes at last into its own. May you relish them indeed. May we all sit long enough for reserve to give way to ribaldry and for gallantry to grow upon us. May there be singing at the table before the night is done, and old, broad jokes to fling at the stars and tell them we are men . . . The road to Heaven does not run from the world but through it” (Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb, p. 180).

What a delightful image! This is a kind of glory the Christian west has largely forgotten. This is the kind of parties we want to be throwing.

To coin a phrase by Douglas Adams, I think the real reason many Christian stuffed shirts disapprove of such gatherings is because they don’t “get invited to those sorts of parties.” What winebibbers those Christians are! In one sense, we get our wings the same way The Hungriest Caterpillar did.

Yes, in the bigger picture, there is still a time for fasting. But our New Covenant feasting is just as glorifying to God. In Esther, the fast lasted for one day and it resulted in the permanent Feast of Purim. The sufferings of David lead to the end of Saul and the feasts of Solomon.

As Christians fast, the world consumes the church (in the same way we “eat Jesus”). That was the theme of the Old Covenant. [1] But when victory comes, as it always, inevitably does, we feast. Then the kings of the earth bring their glory into it: the church consumes the world. This is how it will be until both church and world are transfigured figures.

This is the perfect marriage of thrift and largess, and it takes a king’s wisdom to stay balanced on such a muscular steed.

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[1] See Touch Not, Taste Not, Handle Not and Eat Local and Die.

6. Jesus Christ was not judge of the quick and the dead, because (according to preterists) He only judged the dead.

Jesus judged between the living and the dead in AD70. The true bride and the false bride were bodies of living people. Of course, part of the true bride was the Old Covenant saints (those “under the Altar”) who were dead.

The context of Acts 10:42 is Christ’s resurrection and ascension. Jesus, as judge, opened the New Covenant scroll (Rev. 4-5). The gospel “horsemen” brought both the taste of life and the taste of death to those living. It began the New Covenant in earnest (Pentecost) and also began the end of the Old.

It was the same with David and Saul. The anointing of David meant the end of Saul—eventually. The ascension of Christ meant the end of the Herods. Metaphorically, they were dead already.

And of course, contrary to hyperpreterists, Christ WILL judge the dead—and Satan, on the last day. Like Cain, they have been put on hold. They’ll keep.

7. The “mortal bodies” of the saints were not quickened by the Holy Spirit in A.D. 70. Romans 8: 11.

The context of Romans 8 is the first resurrection. See Peter Leithart here.

8. The saints were not delivered from “this body of death” (Romans 7: 24).

Paul’s context is Spirit-filled living, I believe. Although this leads into Romans 8. For Paul, Spirit-filled living and resurrection were connected. Christ would be vindicated not only in those who fulfilled the Law, but also in AD70 against those who abused the Law for their own ends.

9. The 12 apostles didn’t see Jesus return in A.D. 70 (Acts 1: 8-11). (Most of them were dead by that time).

They were resurrected, so they saw Him. See In The Air. On the “Tabernacle” cloud in Acts 1 and in AD68-70, see Not Just Any Old Cloud. Christ went to prepare a place for the martyred firstfruits church. At His ascension, He became the Most Holy in heaven. At their ascension, they replaced the angels in the Holy Place. Everything in the Tabernacle had always symbolised people. Now it was fulfilled. In AD70 it became a permanent Temple, firmly established on the mountain of God and no longer “flying around” as a tent. See Landing Gear.

Of course, the final, general resurrection, will fulfill the “courts of the Gentiles.” The entire world will then be a house for God.

10. The Sanhedrin didn’t see Jesus at the right hand of God (compare Matthew 26:64 with Acts 7:55-57).

This one’s a hum dinger. It will, I hope, make those who don’t read James Jordan realise not only what they are missing, but how much we are liable to misinterpret the words of Christ and His apostles because of our ignorance of the Torah.

Literary structure is everything when it comes to interpreting visions. Jesus is referring to Daniel 7, which follows the ritual of the Day of Atonement.

The “son of man” here is not only Christ, but also the firstfruits church as body. Daniel 7 follows the Day of Atonement, where the High Priest made two approaches to the Most Holy: one for the priesthood (bull’s blood) and one for Israel. The one “sitting” is the ascended Christ, who took His seat as Covenant Head. The one “coming” is the body, completing the totus Christus.

“…hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Daniel 7 follows this structure. In between these two “approaches”, the beast makes war with the saints. The second half of the chapter, the interpretation of the vision, follows the same pattern. Here, the second approach (one like a son of man) is very clearly the saints receiving the kingdom. From James Jordan’s The Handwriting on the Wall, pp. 338-339.

So what the rejected priesthood saw was the saints receiving the kingdom, approaching the throne boldly, under Christ’s blood but also presenting their own to “fill up” his sufferings as a witness—the second approach.[1] They saw Jews suddenly unable to cast out demons any longer. They saw Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles speaking in tongues and even eating together. They saw amazing miracles performed. They heard the apostolic witness. They would have been aware of the final pages of the Scriptures being written. They saw all of this but they hardened their hearts. According to Josephus they also saw armies in the clouds and other heavenly signs.

The Herodian worshippers actually massacred Christians, pictured in the structure of Revelation as the first goat. What this did was remove the last believers from Sodom, allowing Christ, through Titus, to expel Judah as the second goat. The Covenant curses were spoken by Christ—and the apostles—over the old worship and the old Temple carried the sins into the wilderness, into outer darkness—outside the true camp. That is what is going on in the Revelation. It is a horrific irony.

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[1] We see the same pattern in Esther: the fragrant “myrtle” boldly approaching the right hand of the power. The author even replicates the Atonement structure not only in that passage but also in the entire book! (See Totus Christus.) 

50FPDZ

“…when the blood goes up, the Spirit comes down.”

The battle between the Son and the serpent rages throughout the Old Testament. Every time the Lord renews the Covenant, Satan is ready with a counterfeit. God uses the phonies to test and purify His people, wipes the failures off the slate, then starts again.

Aaron and Jeroboam set up patently false worship in their golden calves. But false worship in the guise of true was much more difficult to discern, especially when it usurped the exact location of the true. When the Lord took Ezekiel to the Temple as a legal witness, it was a whitewashed tomb. He dug through the wall and discovered that it was a house of hypocrisy, the synagogue of Satan. All that remained of Israel’s witness to the nations was a thin veneer. 

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