or OH&S in Eden

I mentioned in a post the other day that silver is bridal, and that silver was relegated to the tent poles, the outer court, until the Tabernacle died, was resurrected and transfigured into the Temple of Solomon. [1] The reason was that the Sanctuary was the King’s Court, a place that was not safe for criminals. It demanded that justice be satisfied with a constant presentation of fresh blood.

As bloody circumcision was a symbol of the enmity between Jew and Gentile, the Tabernacle was a bloody symbol of the enmity between men and God. The Old Covenant was bloody walls and bars and gates. Everything touched by man was unclean, and everything touched by God was exterminated. Israel was a quarantine, a sterile airlock, between God and the nations.

Standing face to face with God (as Facebread) was a role for a bloodied Adam (either his blood or the serpent’s). [2] The Old Covenant was an ongoing courtroom battle, between the Accuser and the accused, and the bloody battlefield is not a place for women or children.

Under Solomon, gold was so plenteous that silver was counted as nothing (1 Kings 10:21). So the incorporation of silver into the Temple furniture was a prefigurement of the New Covenant, a bridal Covenant where Eve was indeed the mother of all living, a glorious, ubiquitous church.

So, Christ was the Tabernacle, a tent where all the glory was hidden on the inside. By His death, justice was satisfied and Eve was invited to stand alongside her husband in the Garden sanctuary, now that the glory of the Law was revealed, or on the “outside.”

“This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee,
and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
(John 2:11).

But what was Eve invited to do, now that the Holy Place was safe?

The Bible history is full of Covenant heads, true and false, and Covenant bodies, true and false. Satan continually attempts to gather the nations against God’s people and their true worship. But the only true gathering is that of the Spirit. [3]

James Jordan observes that Jesus, unlike Adam, protected His “bride” when the serpent-soldiers came to arrest Him. He stood in the gap as Mediator, a human shield. The bride is His army, His disciples, a true gathering.

So too with Joshua, who invited his men, his “bridal army” to stand on the necks of the five kings gathered under the false “Covenant head” of Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem (a bad Melchi-Zedek, a false “priest of the nations”, an anti-Christ). It was the true gathering against the false one.

Adam (Table of the Bread of the Face) steps in between Eve (the Incense Altar) and the serpent (false Lampstand), and crushes its head, snuffs its lights out. [4] He is then given the mantle, the tutorial authority of the Wise Serpent–a promotion. As Lampstand-teacher he invites his bride to partake in his victory. She becomes joint-heir by placing her foot on the neck of the serpent before Adam lops off its head and hangs the false body high on a pole, to be eaten by the birds and other beasts, under the curse of the Law of God which it deliberately twisted for its own purposes (remember King Saul). Eve becomes an army of ten silver-and-gold lampstands.

“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” Romans 16:20

This has huge implications for worship, but particularly for the role of women in ministry.

New Testament worship fulfills the Old. Women are now allowed into the space which fulfills the Holy Place as helpers BECAUSE IT IS SAFE. The serpent has been defeated and expelled. But Adam had to go in there, into the cave-tomb, first, and sprinkle His own blood. Women cannot stand and image the MOST HOLY. They can only enter into the tomb after Adam has left it clean and empty. That is the job of an Adam, always. Adam forms a safe place and Eve fills it. It is no less true in our worship today. It is not a cultural thing. Nor is it a Jew-Gentile thing. It is a Creational thing, and will last until the male/female divide is finally made obsolete by glory.

The Most Holy is not an equal opportunity zone. [5] This is the one place where church and state are entirely separate. The triune architecture, top-down, is

Garden
Land
World

or

Most Holy
Holy
Courts

or

Word
Sacrament
Government.

The outflow of the Word is also top-down (or bottom-up because the Most Holy is also a grave). So Deborah the Judgess, Margaret Thatcher and Julia Gillard are nowhere near the Most Holy. They are in Government, which is in the Outer Court. And they are only there as a judgment of God upon our culture. When Israel sinned, God judged them out of the mouths of their “babes” who had memorized the Law (Deut. 31:21; Matt. 21:16). When we lack vertebrate males, women and children rule over us.

But Jesus stands as a Lamp at the right hand of the Father. His foot is on the serpent’s head, binding him, so that he cannot gather the nations until the end of history, and only then for a short season. Why? Because Jesus is gathering the nations, and He does it by inviting us to stand on the neck of the fiery snakes that threatened us before He was lifted up. [7]

___________________________________________
[1] See No Bronze Wedding.
[2] See The Holy Headbutt.
[3] See Totus Diabolus, There Can Only Be One and Under Your Feet.
[4] See Fighting Over the Children.
[5] See Liturgical Man, Liturgical Woman.
[6] These verses have nothing whatsoever to do with baptism or “paedofaith.” It is the one subject concerning which a level-headed, Spirit-filled Presbyterian or Anglican will handle the Word with the contextual dexterity of a Jehovah’s Witness or a Tim LaHaye.
[7] See Twelve Thrones.

or Ulterior Motifs

Jesus’ reference to sun, moon and stars in Matthew 24 has nothing to do with the physical world, and everything to do with the microcosmic world of the Temple. Because of this, the Covenant Creationists think Genesis 1 is only about the Covenant with Adam, not about physical creation. They’re wrong, just as the literalists are wrong about Matthew 24 predicting the end of the world.

Genesis describes the construction of the world as a Tabernacle. The actual Tabernacle and Temple were microcosms of this (and Christ Himself, as a man, was a microcosm of all of the above [1]). The prophets used de-Creation language such as sun, moon and stars, birds and fish, to describe the end of the microcosmos. Just as Isaiah uses the flood motifs (branch, wolf and lamb, etc.) to describe the end of Israel’s kingdom under a flood of Babylonian troops. Identifying the motifs doesn’t make the source non-historical. Covenant Creationism is false. And having an historical source doesn’t mean the motifs are literal. Dispensationalism is false.

Anyhow, I’ve previously analysed Days 1, 2, and 3. Here’s Day 4. The sun, moon and five visible planets (to the naked eye) are the seven lights on the heavenly Lampstand that watches over Israel (Table) who is/are the firstfruits of the Land (Bronze Altar).

Creation – Ark/Throne
Then God said,
…..“Let there be
……….lights
…..in the firmament
of the heavens

…..Division – Veil - C I R C U M C I S I O N
…..to divide the day
…..from the night;

……….Ascension – Table
……….and let them be (Hailing)
……………for signs (Hierarchy)
………………..and seasons, (Harvest)
……………and for days (Homecomings)
……….and years; (Heritage)

……………Testing – Lampstand watchman over Table
……………and let them be for lights
………………..in the firmament of the heavens
…………………….to give light on the [Land]”;
…………………………and it was so. (Ethics fulfilled in Lights)

……….Maturity – Incense/Ruling Body
……….Then God made (Transcendence)
……………two great lights: (Hierarchy)
………………..the greater light (Covenant Head)
…………………….to rule the day, (Ethics)
………………..and the lesser light (Covenant Body)
……………to rule the night; (Sanctions)
……….the stars also. (Continuity [children])

…..Conquest – Laver – B A P T I S M [2]
…..God set them (as rulers)
……….in the firmament (on the crystal sea)
……………of the heavens (as firstfruits)
………………..to give light (with wisdom)
……………on the [Land], (over the thousands)
……….and to rule over the day (Head)
……….and over the night, (Body)
…..and to divide the light from the darkness. (as Judges, shekinah-eyes!)

Glorification
And God (Transcendence)
…..saw that [it was] (Hierarchy)
……….good. (Ethics)
…..So the evening and the morning (Sanctions)
were the fourth day. (Continuity)

In AD67-70, the angelic “animalia” angels retired. Animal sacrifices ceased. The heavenly court received justified flesh as a new government. As Daniel predicted, the wise shined like stars at the end of the age. [3]

_____________________________________
[1] See A New Heavens and a New Earth.
[2] Just like I keep saying. Look at the subject matter here! Those that have been cut at division are now the ones qualified to bear the sword. Not a bubba in sight. He who began the work was faithful to complete it. The literal word was (ful)filled in flesh (matter/motif). The New Covenant sign reflects this. It is for wise judges, not those who cannot judge between good and evil, or even between mother and father. The curds and honey of the Law is for them (Isaiah 7:15-16; 8:4).
[3] See Jesus’ New Broom, Communion of Saints and Better Angels.

Adam couldn’t face God. Cain’s face fell. Moses’ face shone with reflected light when he returned from the mountain of God. Bezalel and Aholiab constructed the Table of Facebread, which corresponded in the cherubim to the Face Of The Man. David and his men ate the facebread. Saul feared Goliath, but David’s face was red, literally “filled with blood,” before he bloodied Goliath’s face and the usurper fell facedown. [1]

What is interesting is that all these and other references to “the face” appear at exactly the same position in the Matrix structure (Ascension). It refers to a worthy Adam, someone who can face God. Throughout the Bible we have Cains and Abels. All the Cains usurp the Abels through oppression and bloodshed.

The book of Daniel, as a unit, follows the pattern. At Ascension, the Herods take control and throw the stars (godly priesthood) down. But by the end of the book, new godly rulers have taken possession of the kingdom and they shine like stars. As Jesus predicted, the first century fake sun, moon and stars were cast down, and the Herods were deposed.

So, what is the face of the deep in Genesis 1? The face reference is again at Ascension.

Creation In the beginning (at the head) (Ark)
…..Division God created the heavens and the earth. (Veil)
……….Ascension The earth was without form, and empty;
……….(Bronze Altar)
……….and darkness was on the face of the deep.
……….(Table of Facebread)
……….And the Spirit of God was hovering
……….over the face of the waters.

What happened when Jesus rose out of the Jordan as a new mediatorial “Land”? He was anointed by the Father as the Man who could face God.

This process is also the pattern of sacrifice. So far, God has taken the sacrifice (Creation), torn it in two (Division), placed it as “facebread” on the empty Altar (Ascension). Then, He puts fire on the Altar.

……………Testing Then God said, “Let there be light”;
……………and there was light.
……………(Lampstand)
……….Maturity And God saw the light,
……….that it was good;
……….(Incense)

At Maturity, in later patterns, we often find the two witnesses. They symbolise the faithful church. They are the body. It is plural. It is smoke. The smoke is a witness in God’s nostrils. It is a pleasing aroma or it is a stench. In later references, we find both, and they are (as far as I have looked) always at this point. When two or three witnesses are gathered together, there is Yahweh in the midst. It is a legal process. We see this when Jesus is flanked by Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets who are witnesses against unbelieving Judah. In Revelation, the firstfruits church is pictured, among other things, as two legal witnesses having exactly the powers of Moses and Elijah. They are slain as sacrifices and ascend to heaven as smoke, a pleasing aroma.

…..Conquest and God divided
…..the light from the darkness.
…..(Mediator)

Here is the Day of Atonement. The High Priest takes the Urim and Thummim, a white stone and a black stone. He uses them to choose which goat will ascend to God, and which goat will descend to the abyss. This is the separation of the Covenant body under the Covenant sanctions. At Ascension, it is a face-off between Aaron and Korah, David and Goliath. Here, it is about their sons, the warrior bride.

So, this division between day and night, evening and morning, corresponds to the Day of Atonement, when God renews the Covenant for another year for the sake of the Body. The evening is the Old Covenant, the Lunar (nighttime) festivals. The morning is the New Covenant.

These were contained all along on the bosom of the Man Who Could Face God, the High Priest. At Atonement, the Facebread-Man is vindicated. He chooses a faithful bride, and the harlot is expelled for another year.

Glorification God called the light Day,
and the darkness He called Night.
So the evening and the morning
were the first day.
(Shekinah)

At Glorification, we always find Judges (the seventh book) and judgment. It is the throne of Solomon and his bride. Even when Adam could not face God and he and his wife hid themselves, God still asked him to judge wisely. He asked Adam to call what he had done “Night.” Adam failed again. He called good “evil” and evil “good.”

Here, God judges His work. It is not yet “very good,” because it is not yet mature. Only God is good. Jesus was not “very good” until He had a Covenant body, until He was condemned under the Pentecostal fire of the Law and resurrected as body of fragrant smoke that could pass-through Atonement doors. Even He was perfected by suffering.

The darkness is about forming (Moses); the light is about filling (Christ). Only after this first-day heptamerous pattern is expanded into a full week will it be “very good” because the world will be formed and filled.

God then forms and fills Adam (which is described separately in Genesis 2 because it follows this pattern independently of the greater, not because it is a myth, despite what over-educated, yellow-bellied theologues tell us), and then He forms Eve, a Covenant body, as the filling of Adam.

So, what is the face of the deep? It is the face of Goliath. It is Adamic meat, uncut by the sword of the Word (uncircumcised) and without the Spirit.

As mentioned in Deus Ex Machina, in Revelation 5, John wept because the deep, the Gentile abyss, was once again ready to sweep across the disobedient Covenant people (the Land), and there was no one worthy to face God.

Until John saw the missing table, the Lamb. As New Covenant Head, Jesus opened the New Covenant scroll, and there was Pentecostal Light. Only those in the ark, in Christ, survived the flood of Rome (Daniel 9:26) that closed the Old Covenant scroll.

As long as Jesus stands before God, that New Covenant scroll remains open. In Him, we cannot lose face.

________________________________________
Art: Crossing the Red Sea by Justin Gerard, 12stoneart.
[1] See The Holy Headbutt and Horns of Moses.

“…woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” Matthew 23:13

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

All Creation is Covenantal, and therefore all relationships within it have a hierarchical structure. God calls a vassal (Creation), separates/sanctifies him as a delegated authority (Division). He gives him a job to do (Ascension), and a period of time to accomplish it.

This Adam, the Covenant Mediator, stands between heaven and earth (Land). The Land was raised out of the Sea, and the Man was raised out of the Land as “grain and fruit.” Then this new house, this body of broken earth, was filled with heaven, with the Spirit of God, sun moon and stars: This Adam was to be a singular prism that expands the white light of God into plural lights, a greater body, the full spectrum of colour. But he was to be a broken man. The light had to pass through him.

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________________________________
[1] James B. Jordan, Slavery in Biblical Perspective, 1980.
[2] See The Significance of Adah and Zillah.
[3] See Behind Closed Doors.

or New Covenant Stunt Double

Doug Wilson wrote something recently to correct our misunderstanding of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness:

When our Lord was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He answered with Scripture, as we all know. Three times He was tested, and each time He replied in the words of Deuteronomy. But this is sometimes misunderstood. We tend to think that Jesus was quoting Scripture at the devil, as though the devil ought to start obeying it. But this was not His intent. When the Lord cited the words of Moses, each time it was because He would have been disobeying the text of Scripture if He had followed the suggestion of the tempter.

And this, in its turn, shows us the Lord’s attitude toward Scripture—what He believed the authority of Scripture to be, with regard to Him. We know that Jesus was obedient to the will of God (as seen in His prayer at Gethsemane), but we sometimes miss the fact that Jesus obeyed the Bible. In the wilderness, Jesus was not relying on a hidden, mysterious hot line to the Father that only He had. No, He bowed His head and His heart and refused to do what was wrong, as wrong was determined and settled by the sacred text.

If this is what He did, what should we do? In a moment we will be confessing our sins, and we will also be keying off the words of Deuteronomy. As a people who have neglected to do what God required of us, we acknowledge that righteousness belongs to the Lord, while shame of face belongs to us. And this is entirely determined by our relationship to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus Under The Word, www.dougwils.com

As Peter Leithart has discussed, Jesus is Israel.[1] The process is as it was in Joshua 7 concerning Achan. The cloud of nations is whittled down to one nation. The nation is whittled down to a tribe. The tribe is whittled down to one Man. And what does that one man do? He becomes a body-double for everyone else. In particular, in the wilderness, He is Israel. Like Achan, He suffers for the defeat of the whole nation, and takes His entire family with Him to the grave. Like Achan, His death results in a track-jump concerning the Messianic line [2]. But unlike Achan, He brings them back from the grave, too, and incorporates them into the new Messianic line.

Relating the wilderness situation to Eden, it is the Law of the ascended, invisible Moses in the place of Adam here, not Jesus. Eve was faced with two “Lampstands” – a false one (Satan) and a true one that sinfully remained silent (Adam). In one of those weird Old Testament Nazirite-type gender bendings [3], Jesus is in the place of Israel, the bride. Here, she is filled with the Law of Moses. Jesus is not only reversing Adam’s silence but also undertaking this test as Greater Eve, Israel. It is holy war. A Nazirite’s hair is the glory of the bride “filled” with Law at Pentecost — Adam and Eve united against the lie. As both Adam and Eve, Jesus in the wilderness puts the spear through the false union of the couple in the tent. He puts Adam, and Adam’s race, to death by proxy.

For a New Covenant to be made, the Covenant head goes through a “liturgical” death and resurrection as head, and the people of God goes through a historical death and resurrection as body. Among many others, we see this in Moses’ personal exodus, in that of King Manasseh, and of course in that of Christ.

This practice was prefigured in the Tabernacle. We see bridegroom and bride in both beams of the cruciform house. The bull on the altar (Moses) dies under the Law from the lion throne (Ark). The Man on the table (Christ) dies under the Law at Pentecost (Lampstand). In each case, the bridegroom steps in to die for the bride. And of course, as a complete Tabernacle man, the entire structure bears Greater Eve as gems on His bosom (the Altar of Incense). In this, the New Covenant church is now the stunt double for the nations of the world as the pattern is postmillennially reversed, or “un-whittled.” Achan’s death brought victory to the whole of Israel.

______________________________
[1] Peter J. Leithart, Jesus As Israel: The Typological Structure of Matthew’s Gospel [PDF].
[2] From Doug Wilson, The Whore Becomes A Virgin Bride: “Rahab did not just marry into Israel. She married into the line of Phares, which had become the royal line because of the apostasy ofAchan. Achan was not just a pillaging foot soldier in the back ranks of Israel. He was a royal prince, and because of his sin, that royal line came to an end. The scarlet cord of election was transferred—from Zerah’s wrist to a prostitute’s window. This is so that we might never forget that everything God gives us is always all of grace, nothing but grace, grace to the uttermost.” (Emphasis added)
[3] See Power on Her Head.

Leaving Wilderness Behind

In Through New Eyes, James Jordan notes that the wilderness was Havilah, the place mentioned in Genesis 2 that was rich in raw materials. Israel stripped Egypt of her gold, then plundered the desolate places of hidden wealth. She came out of the desert with a High Priest clothed in gems, and a new generation of soldiers born of God’s threshing floor.

The manna began to fall just after the Hebrews’ victory over Pharaoh. As with Jacob, the Lord was faithful to provide for His chosen one. But perhaps, in covering the ground, there is also the idea of a firmament (this might sound strange to some readers, but I have found the concept is a frequent one). The wilderness is the place of the humble bread of priesthood, displayed in obedience to God. It was the next generation that would drink the wine of Canaan after obedience under Joshua.

A Memorial

The Lord commanded that some manna be put into the Ark as a memorial. Symbolising manna, the white stone is a memorial of faithful priesthood. Joshua’s crossing of the Jordan was memorialised by large, engraved, white stones.

And it shall be, on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with lime. “You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the LORD God of your fathers promised you. Therefore it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ebal you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, and you shall whitewash them with lime. And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them. You shall build with whole stones the altar of the LORD your God, and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God. You shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God. And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.” (Deut. 27:2-8)

Coming at the ‘Trumpets’ step of Israel’s journey from slavery to Sabbath, these white stones were a symbol of her corporate resurrection. Neither faithful Moses nor faithful Israel left a body to be found in the howling tomb. The dirty birds of the Covenant curse were empty-bellied.

From Gravestone to Topstone

The Hebrew bdl is the word used to describe God’s dividing at Creation. In post-exilic texts it is used to describe the division of the priesthood from the people, and sinners from the people. It is an act that brings about a new Creation. This is the word in the hand of Zerubbabel. It is not a plumbline. It is a metal stone symbolising a priestly division, a cutting in two that brings new life. What was the cutting in two? It was the future death of the Lamb that allowed Joshua to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly court, under the very eyes of the very dirtiest bird, the Accuser.

Zerubbabel brought forth the engraved “altar” stone as a craftsman brings forth his chiselled work. As an altar stone, it was not cut by human hands, but engraved by the finger of God. Just as the prophets brought the stones of the Law down upon Israel under Nebuchadnezzar, so too this small white stone would be exalted. The two pillars of Solomon’s Temple (priest and king) were slain, but now replaced with a single element that was divided as priest and exalted as king. It was permanent bread from heaven that would never, ever be filled with worms, the very public face of the hidden manna in the lost Ark, and the Facebread hidden to all but the priests.

Flintstone-Faced

Ezekiel was promised a hard face so that he could face the hardened faces of God’s rebellious rulers. As a High Priest in exile, he was not given the golden forehead-plate with its seven holy eyes, but the real thing. The Bible speaks often of Adam’s face relating to priesthood. The ‘face of a man’ in Ezekiel 1 corresponds to the Table of Showbread in the north (always facing south). The account of Cain and Abel is structured according to the Creation/Tabernacle pattern, and at the Facebread step, the representative Man at the Altar, Cain’s face fell. He was no longer his brother’s keeper, his watchman. Ezekiel was made a new watchman because Israel’s priesthood had become like Cain.

Jesus also set His face like flint. As Facebread, it was covered in blood, first as the cursed brow-sweat, then with the cursed ground-thorns, Adam and Cain. He was set apart, cut asunder, as a bread fragrant with frankincense before God, then resurrected. An angel dressed in lightning-white sat on the stone to speak as a memorial. The howling waste of Sheol was empty, and so was the dirtiest bird, who like Herod and Haman and all those before, had anticipated a feast. He was a serpent exposed on a pole to disempower its fiery children, a man impaled by the emperor whose ungodly sons were also slain, a false god-voice devoured alive by death-eating worms on his stolen throne like overripe manna. There is no Sabbath without resurrection. All faces will be lifted to face God, and all faces will be covered – either in a bloody human firmament (Christ’s) or in a black hood, a veil. We are white stones, or whited sepulchres.

The Word is ‘Yes’

“Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide open” (Jacob Neusner, The Yerushalmi, p.156-157).

Both Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds record these strange events. After the crucifixion, it is written that

1. the most important lamp of the Temple menorah went out every night despite every precaution. Judah’s Lampstand would be removed, and not shine in her any more. It was given to the witnessing Firstfruits church (Rev. 11:4; 18:23; 22:5).
2. the crimson thread that reportedly turned white if the Day of Atonement had been successful no longer did so
3. the Temple doors kept swinging open of their own accord. The Jerusalem Talmud states:
   ”Said Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai to the Temple, ‘O Temple, why do you frighten us? We know that you will end up destroyed. For it has been said, ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars’ ” (Zechariah 11:1)’ (Yoma 6:3).
4. the Day of Atonement ‘lot’ that chose the goat for Azal, a black stone and a white stone, came up black every year between AD30 and AD70.

The scapegoat was chosen by lot, the Urim and Thummim engraved stones in the ephod – a miniature Ark worn by the High Priest. The Last Supper, as I have mentioned before, follows the feasts pattern, and at Atonement, Judas is chosen by Christ as the scapegoat. His replacement is chosen by lot, and then the Holy Spirit is poured out, after which we never hear of the lot again. Faithful saints are given the white stone by the Spirit, the Law engraved on tablets of flesh.

Zerubbabel’s exaltation of the white stone was a resounding ‘Yes!’ from the Lord. Atonement was accepted. The Temple of God would be completed and Israel’s resurrection would again turn the howling waste into a true vine and figleaf Feast of Tabernacles.

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”  
2 Corinthians 1:20

If the Talmudic accounts above are true, and the black stone denotes that the atonement after the once-for-all death of Christ could never again be accepted, the white stone promised in Jesus’ letter to Pergamum takes on bloody connotations for the receiver. In context, it was written just before the biggest corporate massacre and resurrection of saints in history. They had received the Word-bread with thanksgiving. Now they themselves would be broken bread covering the ground in Herod’s howling waste. If the Herodian priesthood’s right hand would not be marked with the blood of the bdellium (divided) stone, it would be marked with the blood of the saints.

WHITSTON3

The Bible is big on mediators. Adam’s role as faithful Showbread would link heaven and earth. He would be a god-man. Fulfilled by Christ, this is the liturgical role of a minister. He faces God as representative of the Bride, and faces the church as the representative of the Bridegroom. He is Solomon at the completion of the Temple dedication.

The ‘hell’ hybrids are the Land-beasts of the Bible. This is what Adam became, conspiring with Satan. It was an unholy alliance between God’s mediator and the Creation, in which the Creation called the agenda. The resulting peoples are hunters like Nimrod and Esau, wolves instead of shepherds, bloodthirsty children of the daughters of men.

Revelation shows the unholy alliance between Herod and Pilate (as heads) matured into full-grown bodies. The Land Beast is allied to the Sea Beast (Nero’s Satanic Rome) with Rome calling the shots.

The Bible is big on intermarriage. The Herodian line was an attempt at intermarriage between the Temple and the Roman State. Solomon’s marriage to an Egyptian was godly, because Solomon called the shots. His later marriages were ungodly, because he was no longer calling the agenda according to the Law of God.

Herod’s Jew/Gentile intermarriage was a counterfeit parallel of the one being painstakingly sewn together by Paul. Revelation is about the marriage of Paul’s ‘Esther’, and the despatching of ‘Greater Herodias.’ It portrays the Herods as a false Solomon with the symbol of 666.

The Bible begins with waters above and waters below. Symbolically, this becomes the crystal sea above, and the Gentile nations below. The rulers on the crystal sea call the agenda concerning the nations.

The mediator is now Christ’s crystal city. Totally faithful, since AD70 she is beyond reproach. Her pattern is being measured out on the earth by faithful churches.

Churches down here, however, are not beyond reproach. Churches are always mediators, for heaven or hell. They are always spiritual doorways. If, like the Pharisees, they close the door to seekers, there is still a door open–the one to outer darkness.

What is the nature of your church’s alliances? Who is calling the agenda in your church? Is it coming from above or below? Is it a flow of living water or Wormwood? Is it distributing the broken bread and poured out wine of the Man-Table, or a false promise of Dominion without sacrifice? Are the elders fathers or manipulators, Abrahams or Nimrods?

Intermarriage is God’s plan for the world, but it is the marriage of Joseph, Boaz and faithful Solomon, heavenly hybrids that produce godly warriors through the daughters of men.

The Tabernacle was not only a “portable Sinai”, the mountain of God laid out across the ground, it was the cruciform Man. We see Jesus, with the Throne of God on His shoulders (the Ark – government), bread and wine in His left hand (the Table - servanthood), the ‘seven stars’ of the Lampstand in His right (dominion), and His feet on the crystal sea (the Laver – resurrection). And He is lifted up “in the air” between heaven and earth (the Altar-Land) as the Mediator Who unites God and man.

As the Ark (Moses), with arms outstretched (Bread – Aaron, and Ruling Lights – Hur), He is the prophet, priest and king Who defeated Greater Amalek at Sinai.

“…the political task of Christians is to be the church rather than to transform the world”–Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens.

This presents a false dichotomy. When Gideon and David were faithful, God went ahead of them and defeated their enemies. Would it be fair to assume that Hauerwas is just saying that political activism is getting the cart before the horse? If so, then I agree with him. When the church is faithful, the blessings of God transform the world around her.

In his lectures on worship, James Jordan notes that the religions of the world offer life, knowledge and glory. For Israel, these three were locked away in the Ark as the hidden manna, the Law and Aaron’s rod that budded. These three are from God manward.

Then, the Holy Place responds to the Most Holy with the Showbread (life), the Incense (prayer in response to God’s words), and the glory of the blossoming almond tree, the Lampstand. These are from man Godward.

With the coming of Christ, the Ark was opened to the church. In our worship we receive these three as Word, Sacrament and Government. As we live these out through the week, the very culture around us is transformed. The church’s “culture of the Book” has resulted in unprecedented literacy. Her self-sacrifice has built hospitals, orphanages, and given western culture a conscience that extends to foreign aid. Her government has been the foundation for welfare, social justice and government accountability. The faithful church measures out heaven’s government on earth and the world is transformed.

All this was basic stuff for the Reformers. How far have we fallen that we need theologians like Hauerwas to spell out the basics for us again in such simple terms? We are like Ezekiel’s house of Israel, trying to maintain an abused and worn out authority while God is starting from scratch, sending us prophets in Adam’s animal skins. WEPOW

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