The miraculous gifts given to the firstfruits church are part of a very large pattern, one which we can can see thwarted in the Garden of Eden, and presented as laws in the Ten Commandments. It is the “song of the Woman” after the crushing of the serpent. It is a “legal testimony” that the Word of God is true. We see this epitomized in the life of Paul the apostle, who sought every opportunity to testify in court concerning the resurrection of Jesus. In the greater picture, the witness of the firstfruits church is this part of the picture in the history of the world. That legal witness continues today, but in the first century it had a special purpose, and that was to divide the Jews into “two goats,” two women, Hagar and Sarah (the past and the future) and bring down the curses of the Covenant upon those who rejected the Gospel. The gift of tongues was part of that miraculous witness, a corroborrated legal witness in the courtroom of God, [1] and the purpose of this “Babelic” gift was completed when the Herods and their Temple, the “Babylon” of the day, was destroyed. [2] Consequently, the miraculous gifts ended with the firstfruits church. The time of “childhood” for the Church was over. [3]

Luke Welch has some related observations which are interesting, and he, like Jordan, demonstrates how much we Christians miss because we fail to read the Bible as a united book.

As I read along in Numbers, I keep seeing things that Paul has latched onto. For example, Paul says (1 Corinthians 14.5-9, 24):

“Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?… If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?”

The punch line to this whole thing is at the bottom, but let’s focus on the bugle thing first. Look at Numbers 10.1-3, 9:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Make two silver trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. … And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the LORD your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.”

The bugle gets two things to happen which Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 14:

1. Gets the congregation to assemble
2. Gets the congregation to be ready for battle by breaking camp while making a memorial directed at God.

Having established the passage connection, notice another huge one, which we see when God gives “the Spirit which is on Moses” out to the 70 elders, and two have not shown up at the elder assembly. They were caused to prophecy even in the camp, and Joshua wants to help by saying, “My lord Moses, stop them!” What is Moses’ reply?

But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 10.29)

Remember that? Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14.5). Paul’s heart is Moses’ ministry desire too.

I note also that this prophetic period for both Paul and Moses:

1. was a forty year period between defeat of one enemy and another
2. Pharaoh, and Philistines (for Moses)
3. Caesar, and Satanic Israel (for Paul)
4. Moses took the people INTO the land for conquest.

Throughout Paul’s writing, he is calling the church to the conquest of the whole world, and at the end of those forty years they will be forced out of the land, in a sense, after the destruction of Jerusalem.

_______________________________
[1] See A Tongue of Gold.
[2] See Three Babylons.
[3] See Cessation.

Joel 2: 1-11

Into Joel again, and he knows nothing of our chapter divisions. At least the chapter break occurs at the end of an obvious stanza. We are still within Ethics 3, so this is the Trumpets stanza of a Trumpets cycle (aren’t fractals fantastic?) It’s a bit like that movie Inception — as the prophecy moves forward, each step is expanded to further level of structure, a dream within a dream. In this case, it is a multi-level nightmare, a brewing, billowing thundercloud. [1]

Jerusalem had become a new Babel, so God raised up a real Babel in order to overrun the Land and swallow her up. Joel uses the Creation, Dominion and Feasts structures but applies them to the invading Babylonians in ironies that would go over our head — if we weren’t familiar with these literary devices!

This Trumpets cycle begins with a five-fold Covenant cycle, but one in which each point of the THEOS (Transcendence, Hierarchy, Ethics, Oath, Succession) must have a “Trumpets” theme. Each line is a Covenant point amplified into a warning. The Deuteronomic words of Moses sound in the shofar. Beyond that, each stanza must also carry a successive matrix theme (Creation, Division, etc.)

Creation – The warning Word
Blow the trumpet in Zion, (Initiation)
…..And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! (Delegation)
……….Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; (Purification)
…..Surely the day of the LORD is coming, (Vindication)
Surely it is at hand: (Ironic Restoration – not future but present!)

Division – A delegation of might men
…..A day of darkness and gloominess, (Light)
……….A day of clouds and thick darkness, (Firmament)
……………Like the dawn is spread over the mountains. (Land)
………………..A people great and mighty, (Rulers)
……………The like of whom has never been; (Multitudes)
……….Nor will there ever be any [such] after them, (Mediators)
…..Even for many successive generations. (Future)

Notice the Sanctions divide the past from the future. Judgment time is always an historical watershed.

Ascension – The Land overrun
A fire devours before them,
…..And behind them a flame burns;
……….The land [is] like the Garden of Eden before them,
……….And behind them a desolate wilderness;
……………Surely nothing shall escape them.
……….Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
……….And like swift steeds, so they run.
…..With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap,
…..Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.

Notice the double “before/behind” at the start. The fire of judgment is a flaming two-edged Covenant sword, and the Land is an Eden vomiting out the failed priesthood (Ascension is Levitical).

Also, Maturity often carries the symbols of donkeys (peacemakers) and horses (warmongers). Conquest here is also double-barreled. It has the smoking firepot (Body) and the blazing torch (Head). This is Israel’s invasion of Canaan replayed in a horrible parody.

Testing – Israel de-formed, and filled with soldiers
Before them (Light of exposure)
…..the people writhe in pain; (Veil of death)
……….All faces are drained of color. (Facebread)
……………They run like mighty men, (Ironic Pentecost)
……….They climb the wall like men of war; (Smoky swarms)
…..Every one marches in formation, (Conquest)
And they do not break ranks.
They do not push one another; (A Corporate Mediator!)

Maturity – The invaders are united in spirit as they enter and plunder
Every one marches in his own column.
…..Though they lunge between the weapons,
……….They are not cut down.
……………They run to and fro in the city,
……….They run on the wall;
……….They climb into the houses,
…..They enter at the windows like a thief.
Before them quakes the Land

It is interesting that “windows” appear in this stanza at Conquest. This ties the idea not only to the “windows of heaven” and window of Rahab, but also the “dark glass” of the crystal sea, and even the window of Eutychus. The open veil is a window into heaven.

Conquest – (Atonement) Israel is torn in two in the dark
The heavens tremble; (No Transcendence)
…..The sun and moon grow dark, (No Hierarchy)
……….And the stars lose their brightness. (Ethics 1)
……………The LORD gives voice before His army, (Ethics 2)
……….For His camp is very great; (Ethics 3)
…..For strong [is the One] who executes His word. (Sanctions/Oath)
For the day of the LORD [is] great and very terrible;
Who can endure it? (No Succession)

This ends the expanded Trumpets cycle. There is no final stanza, no rest, no glory. What follows is the beginning of a call to a true “Day of the Lord,” a day of coverings, a day of torn garments and a torn veil.

_______________________________
[1] It is interesting that so-called random shapes like clouds can now be mapped and predicted with fractal technology, the same software that is used to create such random shapes as clouds and water splashes in CGI. Joel might sound like a formless storm, but there is nothing random about it whatsoever.

Art: Sunset on Babylon by Raphael Lacoste.

“Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps.” Numbers 10:2

The Bible Matrix aligns a lot of apparently unrelated incidents. When certain things appear repeatedly at the same point in the structure, we can confidently conclude, despite the earnest protestations of our learned friends, that these relationships are trustworthy indicators of the symbolic meanings God has given to the corresponding things. Liberal scholars believe that the idea of resurrection was “developed” by Hebrew theologians over the centuries. This is because they fail to see the contant symbols of the coming resurrection beating throughout the Old Testament in types and dark sayings. The drums reach a crescendo in the later New Testament epistles until the trumpets finally blast a terrifying staccato in the Revelation. This is the first resurrection.

Heralds of Change

The Feast of Trumpets was also known as the “ten days of awe.” At this time, Israel was summoned before God as an army, and every male over 20 (the military force) paid for the privilege. These ten days were a time to repent before the Day of Atonement, the “Day of the Lord.”

The first reference to the Feast of the Trumpets is found in Leviticus 23:24 “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest [shabbaton], a memorial proclamation with a blast of trumpets (ziccaron teruah), a holy convocation.” The Hebrew phrase ‘ziccaron teruah’, can be literally translated as “a remembrance blast.”

The second major reference is found in Numbers 29:1 “On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets (yom teruah).”

The Hebrew word in both references is teruah, which is a term for the series of staccato sounds on a wind instrument with the purpose of sounding an alarm. This unique feature of the ritual of the Feast of Trumpets was the blowing of the shofar, the curved ram’s horn announcing the beginning of the heavenly trial each year during which God judged each person with mercy and compassion before the execution of His judgment on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) when the destiny of each Israelite was revealed for the coming year determined by his response or failure to respond, to the call to repentance and reconciliation. Those who had fully repented before or by the end of Yom Teruah, were exempt from the process of the heavenly court trial in the ten days which followed.

The blowing of the Shofar is an awakening call upon the people to examine their lives, mend their ways, and experience divine cleansing and restore their relationship with God. “In the trial imagery,” writes Rabbi Irving Greenberg, “the shofar blast communicates: Oyez! Oyez! This court is in session! The Right Honorable Judge of the World is presiding!” (Rabbi Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way. Living the Holidays ( New York, 1988), p. 195)

God has always had a heart to warn people before He executes His judgment and this shofar ritual reflects Yahweh’s desire to alert and summon us to repentance so that He can vindicate us on His judgment day. [1]

Silver Nemesis

Now, here’s some correspondences.

1. The Feast of Trumpets correponds to Maturity in the Bible Matrix. It is about the summoning of the body. The symbols that communicate this are plural. It is not the Feast of “Trumpet.”
2. The trumpets were silver. At this point in the account of Abraham’s purchase of the field from Ephron, he buys it with silver. Gold is the head and silver the body, sun and moon. Trumpets also celebrated the new moon. In Solomon’s “bridal” kingdom, the king as head amassed gold so that silver became a common thing. The head was lifted up and the body became ubiquitous. This is postmillennialism in type.
3. The body is the body coming out of the grave. This sounds a warning to those who put it in the grave. It is music that cracks the ground. When Jesus rose, the soldiers became as dead men. But new soldiers rose from the grave as a testimony and went to Jerusalem to witness.
4. Throughout the Bible there are “two legal witnesses” after Testing. They always occur at Maturity. Firstly, two or more witnesses were required to make a judgment. Eyes and ears (and nostrils!) are plural. The apostolic witness is symbolised as these two witnesses, trumpeting a warning to those who slew the firstfruits church. The heavenly court was in session. [2]
5. Even more interesting is the time span of ten days. Daniel and his friends were (symbolically) resurrected after ten days (Dan. 1:15). The church in Smyrna was about to suffer severe persecution. Jesus gives them the symbol of ten days. If they were faithful they would be judged worthy of the crown of life. But this also carries the connotation that their suffering would be a testimony against their enemies, the Judaising synagogue of Satan.
6. Guess what also appears at Maturity? Yes, there is plunder (very frequently). But there are also plagues. In Exodus, Moses and Aaron were the two witnesses. Israel is the body coming out of the grave, and there are ten plagues. And then much Egyptian plunder. [3] The plagues, like the Ten Words from Sinai later on, are two groups of five, like two trumpets. Five is the number of military power. The blood and frogs and hail and lice were the fingers of God. They bore the sword of judgment against Egypt. They warned Pharaoh that the court was in session: the first plague being a reminder of his murder of the Hebrew infants, and the last being an atonement — Pharaoh’s “day of the Lord”  — for his crime.
   Later, twelve spies were sent into Canaan. The ten who were unfaithful were struck down (as plagues) and the faithful two, Joshua (Jew) and Caleb (Gentile [Kenizzite]) were the two trumpets. These two men were the only two who survived the wilderness. They pictured the resurrection body, a miraculous New Covenant.
   All these warnings were military in nature. They were two cherubim. God raises up armies ex nihilo, from the very created order. In the New Testament, John says He can raise up the rocks to praise Him, [4] which brings me to the final point.
7. The death and ascension of the Covenant head is silent. He is led as a lamb to the slaughter. The resurrection is the time for music and song. Hence Moses’ tent was silent — the sacrifice of blood — and David’s was filled with music (including Gentile worshippers – together in one body) — the sacrifice of praise. [5] The Old Covenant was the silent witness of the Law. The New is the worldwide testimony of the church. Jesus stood before His accusers and was basically without defense. Paul stood before his accusers and they couldn’t shut him up. One day in court wasn’t enough! The Trumpets are warnings, but they are also the song of the bride. She is an army of Holy Ones rejoicing over the destruction of her enemies like Miriam and Deborah and Mary.

So, we get the picture of what the apostolic testimony was really about. This makes a great deal of the historic interpretation of the diaspora epistles irrelevant, or at the very least, badly focussed. [6] All this imagery also makes sense of a testimony from the Jewish historian, Josephus:

On the twenty-first of the month Artemisium [the last day of the 2nd Passover season In A.D.66, there appeared a miraculous phenomenon, passing belief. Indeed, what I am about to relate would, I imagine, have been deemed a fable, were it not for the narratives of eyewitnesses and for the subsequent calamities which deserved to be so signalized. For before sunset throughout all parts of the county [everywhere throughout Judea] chariots were seen in the air and armed battalions hurtling through the clouds and encompassing the cities. [7]

Two trumpets sound the warning — ten days. Seven trumpets bring the bowls — atonement.

“So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” Revelation 8:6

Sharp Words, Soft Hearts

This subheading turns around one of Doug Wilson’s titles, “Smooth Words, Hard Hearts.”

Are you suffering? It is the conviction of the Spirit. Chastening that makes us chaste. The court is in session. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Although it often feels like 400 years, the staccato of the trumpets will come, and if you are faithful to Jesus, they bring vindication. That’s only personally, of course. You are a member of a body, and as a body, the church is faithful, an army of wise virgins. The day of corporate rejoicing will come. There is no “if.” In its way, the hard words of the Spirit are music in our ears.

During the Ten Days, God judges His people. We are judged now that we might not be judged later. At the end of this process comes Atonement. The veil is torn. The walls come down and we see Him as He is. He makes His face to shine upon us, as gold and silver, like sun and moon.

________________________________________
[1] From Hebrew Roots on wikibooks
[2] See Two Witnesses.
[3] See Vile Bodies or Bright Young Things.
[4] See Crying Stones.
[5] See The Sacrifice of Praise.
[6] See The Cosmic Lawsuit and Hebrews as Deuteronomy.
[7] See Angels in the Trees – 2.

Ark (Word) – Creation
Jesus answered and said to them, ”Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard:

Veil (torn!) – Division
that the blind see,

Altar (new four-cornered mediatorial Land from the Sea) – Ascension
the lame walk,

Lampstand (new rulers) – Testing
the lepers are cleansed,

Incense (new eldership) – Maturity
the deaf hear,

Laver (Jordan) – Conquest
the dead are raised,

Shekinah (Rest) – Glorification
the poor have the gospel preached to them.

I thought the lepers being at the centre was a bit weird, but the centre of the pattern is very often the cross or the tomb, or some symbol of these. Perhaps because the centre of the matrix is the wilderness testing (Numbers) and lepers had to live outside the city, outside the camp (Hebrews 13:13). He makes a new priesthood out of those who were the living dead, those who were excluded under the old Law. The Law itself would be slain and resurrected, transfigured by Jesus. It would become a Law (structure) filled with the Spirit (glory) that could truly impart Aaron’s priestly “clean”. The singular “Light” of the Ark (Day 1) became the plural “lights” of the Lampstand (Day 4 – Pentecost).

On point 5, Kelby commented:

“Seems to make sense, though I’m not completely sure how ‘the deaf hearing’ fits into the pattern of summoning an army/maturity/incense clouds. Seems to me a central idea of testing would be cleansing (baptism/investiture), or possibly the revelation of such a cleansing.”

I think Maturity here is a new generation of Israel who will hear a new Moses and His transfigured Law. Step 5 is Israel summoned to Moses in Deuteronomy. The clouds/swarms in the greater NT pattern are the Gentiles who joined the new Israel and rescued her from barrenness. [1] The completion of the Jew-Gentile church was Revelation’s seven trumpets to Herod’s Jerusalem.[2]

“Since they could not agree among themselves, they started leaving. But Paul said, ‘The Holy Spirit said the right thing when he sent Isaiah the prophet to tell our ancestors, “Go to these people and tell them: You will listen and listen, but never understand. You will look and look, but never see. All of you have stubborn hearts. Your ears are stopped up, and your eyes are covered. You cannot see or hear or understand. If you could, you would turn to me, and I would heal you.”‘ Paul said, ‘You may be sure that God wants to save the Gentiles! And they will listen.’”  Acts 28:25-28

All Christians recognise Christ’s fulfilment of Passover (crucifixion) and Firstfruits (ascension), followed by Pentecost. Futurists, who major on all things Jewish, recognise that Trumpets and Atonement follow, but they push them into the future.

At the Feast of Trumpets, Israelites were summoned before God, and they paid money for the privilege. Ten days later, following a time of mourning and fasting, was the Day of Atonement. Finally, the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths, a celebration to which the world was invited.

Why do we not see these feasts in the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem? The church is summoned throughout the Book of Acts, and there is holy war. There is a symbolic “ten days” of testing (Revelation 2:10) and then the Day of Atonement, where the church ascends to God (the first resurrection – the first goat) and the Roman Beast and Herodian false prophet (and of course, Jezebel) are exiled as the second goat. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb fufils the Feast of Booths.

Pushing these last feasts into our future makes a long time between meals, but there is a good reason for the confusion: the entire Bible follows the same Feast pattern (from Leviticus 23). I have outlined the first century picture, but in the big picture it was the patriarchal era as Passover (the beginning of circumcision), the entire history of Israel as Firstfruits (the priesthood draws near). The life and ministry of Christ is the centre of history, the giving of the Law at Pentecost. He was both the Law-Word and our representative under the Law. The history of the first century church was Trumpets, the mustering of the holy army. With Jerusalem as Jericho, our own gospel era is Atonement, with the High Priest, totus Christus, representing the nations before God at the open door. The saints are dividing up the Land as their inheritance. And of course, the end of history brings the big fulfilment of the glorious Tabernacles, the feast where God lays on oxes and strong drink for all the redeemed.

The hyperpreterists, however, confuse the first century pattern with the big Bible pattern. So they think AD70 was the consummation, when it was only the end of the first century pattern. In the big picture, the final party is yet to come, and the noise will split the ground (1 Kings 1:40).

The sign of the Covenant has progressed from the removal of Adam’s sin (Passover) to Eve’s removal from sin (Atonement).

Circumcision was only for males, because Israel’s history concerned the coming of the Adam. Baptism, however, is for both males and females, imaging the resurrection for war of a corporate Eve—the body (Trumpets).

Circumcision brought near those who could not stand on their own (Isaac). Baptism brings near the mature (Esther), who present themselves before God’s ministers as plunder from the nations, submitting to church government to be enrobed, washed, and seated in the royal priesthood.

Obeying the gospel identified us with Greater Adam (circumcision – death), a circumcision “made without hands” (Colossians 2:11).

Submitting to baptism, however, identifies us with Greater Eve and her government over us—the Saturnine sword of the Covenant (resurrection).

Circumcision and Passover looked forward to Christ’s death. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are Covenant memorials, but also look forward to the final Conquest cleansing and resurrection.

A New Covenant believer’s baptism is a knighthood, or “Nazirite-hood.” One mature enough to publicly testify to his faith bows before his Captain and is symbolically beheaded by the sword of Conquest, smashed by the rod of iron—the church. We must be dominated before we can dominate. He rises and stands on the Laver (“Arise a knight!”) – the Jordan, picturing the crystal sea before the Throne. After access to the “marriage feast” he rides into battle as an authorised emissary. Only he who has submitted to the sword is enabled to carry it. As an image it certainly communicates the gravity of the responsibility.

As far as the world is concerned, the Christian has hoisted the Jolly Roger. As far as Christ is concerned, he has nailed the colours of Eve to the mast and deliberately, publicly, joined the brotherhood.

Infant baptism dims the glory of this New Covenant sacrament of corporate maturity.

Israelite males presented themselves before God at Passover/Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Booths. (Exodus 23:14-17) picturing the death, resurrection and marriage of the “bridegroom.” Trumpets summoned the people to prepare for Atonement, making ready the “bride.”

Sabbath - God’s Word initiates the pattern in Adam

000Passover - Adam is summoned and dies (Israel’s circumcision – Red Sea)

000000Firstfruits - Adam is resurrected

000000000Pentecost - Eve is tested in the wilderness

000000Trumpets - Eve is summoned and dies

000Atonement - Eve is resurrected (Christian baptism – Jordan)

Booths - Marriage feast of the Lamb
WEPOW