The systematic typology of the Bible Matrix allows us to follow the structures of the Torah thoughout the rest of the Bible. Here’s something that links the Restoration era with the book of Deuteronomy.

Concerning Esther’s entry into the Emperor’s beauty contest, James Jordan writes:

“[W]hat is Mordecai’s problem? It seems to be this: He is a schemer who seeks to acquire influence through political manoeuvering rather than through faith in God. When the king’s men round up pretty girls as potential queen candidates, Esther is among them. We can dismiss the notion that gangs of Persians went around seizing all the pretty girls. No, Esther shows up as a candidate because Mordecai wanted her to.

She only did what he told her (2:20). Mordecai tells her to conceal her Jewishness, and she obeys him even after she was married and owed her allegiance to her husband (compare Psalm 45). In this way, Mordecai causes Esther to sin.

We do not know why this man wanted to keep his Jewishness and that of his niece a secret. We know full well that this king had allowed the Jews in Jerusalem to rebuild their temple (Ezra 6). So, why conceal one’s Jewishness? There is absolutely no evidence of any anti-Jewish prejudice in the ancient world — we may not read European history back into Biblical history.

So, we don’t know. What we can see, however, is that whatever else good might have been part of Mordecai’s personal makeup, he was playing a political game. [1]

This theory might seem arbitrary, but Jordan’s “mere assertions” have an uncanny habit of playing out as one does further study. There is no more than circumstantial evidence in the text. Or is there?

Surely Mordecai’s “coerced” presentation of Esther near the beginning of the narrative chiastically mirrors Esther’s willing presentation of herself near the end. Despite Mordecai’s “threat” of the possible disaster, the final choice was left up to Esther herself. The external law had become internal. The first “robing” was Delegation (Hierarchy), the last was Vindication (Sanctions). From The Covenant Key:

We saw this exact pattern in Bible Matrix concerning Joseph. In his first cycle, he receives his robe of authority at Division (Hierarchy). At Conquest (Sanctions), the robe is stolen, torn and covered with blood. In this initial cycle, the Covenant pattern is corrupted. It was Joseph who was supposed to execute Sanctions against his brothers. Instead, he was made the scapegoat.

Of course, we see this pattern reversed at the end of the narrative. He tests his brothers with, among other things, a cup, to see whether or not the “wilderness” years have transformed them. He discovers internal Law. When he reveals his face, the Veil of Joseph’s Egyptian office is opened and he is vindicated. [2]

Joseph represented the Covenant Head, and Moses the Body. Daniel represented the Head of a New Covenant (the one predicted by Jeremiah [3]), but Esther represented the Body. The women in the Emperor’s harem represented the nations — both historically and typologically. Babylon had seized them all, disempowered them, and put them under tribute as his “chattels.” But this new king of kings viewed them differently.

The book of Esther retells the entire story. Israel was like Vashti who refused to submit to her Covenant husband and was exiled before her insubordination spread to every household. That Old Covenant is dead, and a New Covenant is to be made.

This emperor is a better Solomon than Solomon’s successors were. He rules in a higher court — a “Melchizedekian” one of all nations – and as Christ He chooses Israel above all the other nations. Initially, He chooses her because of her outward beauty. But later, He chooses her because of her courage and wisdom — inward beauty (2 Tim. 2:9).

Esther is Israel. She is transformed by holy fire. This new Israel is not simply a restoration of the old, and here is where we see a reflection of the process in the Torah. In Exodus, the Ten Commandments include a man’s wife as one of his chattels that must not be coveted. Israel then passes through the “holy fire” in Numbers, and the Law is repeated to a new generation. But in Deuteronomy, the “wife” is elevated from simply being part of the household to being a co-regent over the household. This is the difference between the priesthood of Aaron (Israel) and the priesthood of Christ (the Church), the Law of Moses and the Law of the Spirit. One is a household of servants and children. One is a household of sons and wise men, which brings us to New Covenant baptism.

The book of Esther follows the “Tabernacle” matrix, and there is baptism typology in the narrative. It corresponds to the Laver, and it is when Esther robes herself and bravely stands as a martyr (witness) on the Emperor’s “crystal sea.” [4] She is then no longer one among many, nor even merely an honoured wife. She, like the church, is accepted as an advisor/mediator, and is instrumental in taking vengeance upon those who sought her destruction.

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[1] James B. Jordan, The Astounding Adventures of Myrtle Morningstar, Part 3: Introducing the Troublemaker, BIBLICAL HORIZONS No. 208, March 2010. Available from www.biblicalhorizons.com
[2] Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key, p. 223.
[3] See Jeremiah was a Bullfrog?
[4] Notice Peter doing exactly the same thing after spotting the resurrected Christ on the beach.

The Stoning of Israel

I think it’s worth looking at the literary structure of this passage. Here’s a revised version of the sheet I handed out after the sermon.

As I’ve written before, modern readers (and commentators) only look at the content of the text, but the authors of Scripture also communicate to us through where they place that content within that text, i.e. how it is arranged.

Without any punctuation or text layout, all we have to go on is previous literary structures, all of which can be traced back to Genesis 1. Each phrase is “self effacing,” that is, it is symbolic, a type, pointing away from itself to something else as part of a process of redemption. By its “symbolic” or typological content, we can identify the structure of the text. (When brilliant theologians look at this theory and reject it, I must admit I feel like picking up rocks.)

Because of the complexity of the diagramming, I’ve uploaded the text as a PDF, which you can download here. But the commentary will remain here, so (if you have a wide enough screen) you can have both open at once and not have to scroll up and down.

1. We have seven stanzas, following the Bible matrix, which means that as a body of text, these stanzas will work through (a) a process of Creation or renewal, from forming to filling; (b) the “festal” process of agriculture, from planting to harvest; and (c) a process of Conquest (Dominion), from Egypt to Canaan.
2. Within these, each stanza works on the same pattern (“fractally”) which is where it gets interesting, because the authors of the Scriptures, and the authors of any good literature, often play with well-established structures (and our expectations) to make a point. They slay them (open the Word) and resurrect them (expound the Word) as something new, taking us from where we are to where they are, like all good preachers.
3. The first stanza is five-fold, following the Biblical Covenant structure. We can tell where this ends because the second stanza begins with “you also,” the Hierarchy.
   The first stanza begins with the source of their life, the Son of God. Notice where His rejection is placed in the text. Jesus was judged under the Law of Moses—at least according to the PR campaign of the Jewish leaders. As I mention in The Covenant Key, men cannot live without rules, so the best way to avoid obedience to the Laws of God is to replace them, and to then work on classifying actual obedience to God as an offensive hate crime.
   The words chosen and rejected occur many times in this passage. This is the Urim and Thummim process of the judgment of God, light and dark, night and day, the two goats of Atonement, the execution of the Covenant sanctions. This line stands in this stanza where the High Priest stood on the Day of Atonement, the true Adam able to stand face to face with God. This puts the word “precious” at Glorification, the finished product, a New Covenant for Israel. If we group the centre three stanzas together under “Ethics,” we see the five-fold Covenant structure of the first stanza played out in first century Israel as a new seven-fold Creation. The Law is split into three, recreating the structure of the Trinity administered by the Spirit in the people of God: Father – Spirit – Son here becomes Head (Son) – Spirit – Body.
4. Stanza 2 is seven-fold because the Law is opened in the people of God. Notice “built up” at Ascension and “offer up” at Maturity. Built up is the bloody bronze altar and “offer up” is the fragrant golden altar. The passage forms the house, then fills the house. We see the same thing in Peter’s ministry. At the house of the High Priest, he condemns himself by denying Jesus, who then “looks” at Him from above (the fiery eyes of the Lampstand-Law). This is the altar of death, a sentence carried out on the Land. But later, Peter sees Jesus by another fire, a fire by the Sea (Gentiles). This is the altar of resurrection, and Peter’s threefold Covenantal “no” is resurrected as a threefold Covenantal “yes” or Amen.
5. Notice that all the mentions of stone are in the first four stanzas. The passage itself calls the nation of Israel into the courtroom of God. She is presented with a new Law written on flesh, Jesus as the tablets of God. Like Moses, the Law of Moses in this passage doesn’t make it past Deuteronomy. In fact, it is “cut off” in the “midst of the week.” The house of unbelieving Israel became demonic after Pentecost. Perhaps the phrase “rock of offence” means a rock of transgression. In this stanza, Adam’s feet trip on Day 6, and there is judgment, not rest, on Day 7.
6. The sixth stanza matches the second. Stanza 2 is delegation, the oracles given to Israel. Stanza 6 is vindication, their fulfilment. The hearts of stone in 2 are now hearts of flesh, and the particular thread of the matrix that shines here is the festal one.
   We think that the difference between stone and flesh is only their hardness, but there is also the comparison between Lot’s wife and Abraham’s. She who had children became barren and she who was barren became fruitful. The New Israel is not a barren Land, and the Old Israel became the incestuous cave of Lot and his daughters, who manipulated nature to obtain a future, but only bred enemies of the Covenant. (They can most certainly be redeemed, as Ruth was.) The old Israel was not only stoned. She was a Land “sown with salt,” a mineralized miscarriage of justice (2 Kings 2:21).
   The Ten Commandments were good, but they could not have true children (paedobaptists, take note). In a sense, the Old Covenant itself, the Succession of Moses, stones without the Spirit of God, was a eunuch, and could not enter into the heavenly Tabernacle. But a eunuch with the Spirit of God could enter. Not only would he not enter to serve, but he would be enthroned at the feast. [1]
   It is fitting that the word “possession” is placed at Pentecost. It is followed by the fulfilment of the feasts in the apostolic ministry and the first resurrection. The firstfruits martyrs saw God face to face and now reign with Him.
7. The final stanza concerns the finished house. It is a shelter for the nations, the shelter that Israel was called to be, but could not truly be until the True Israel arrived.

Can you imagine the length of a Bible commentary that took literary structure into account?

[1] See New Covenant Virility.

“The point is, we had this relationship the Law. The Law was our husband—over us—and we were bound by the Law through the angels. Now, what died? The Law didn’t die. We died. We died in Christ, and that was the end of that relationship to the Law. It snapped that Covenant string… It was like a rubber band. When we tried to get away from it, it snapped back. But now it’s gone, because we died. Now we’ve come back to life and there is a string joining us to Jesus. We are married to somebody else. That’s the picture.

The Law is still there, but it’s no longer our husband. It’s our tool. We are no longer under Law. We are over Law and we use the Law as a tool.

In the Old Testament, the angels used the Law as a tool to train us up. Angels ruled the world. Who rules the world now? You do. God has always ruled the world; now Jesus rules the world and with Jesus we rule the world because we’re His wife. We sit right next to Him on the throne.

We rule the world, and what do we use to shape up the world? The same tool. We are now the angels who use the Law to shape up the world—and to shape up ourselves, because there’s still a big part of me that wants to do wrong. So I have to use the Law on myself. The Law is like a whip and I have to beat myself with it. And then I have to beat you with it.  ; )

Look at the book of Revelation. The pastors of the churches are the angels. We’re the angels now.”

James Jordan, Romans, Lecture 7. Available from www.wordmp3.com