“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free;
and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Cor. 12:13

On the BH forum, Michael Jones observed:

“If you look up the words for “drinking into” lexically (Strong’s), you come up with the idea of plants being irrigated and soaking up water through the roots. Is this somewhat valid? Are we like a bunch of trees around an oasis in the desert?” [1]

I believe that very often, the word choices of the biblical writers are hints to the literary structure — especially when their word choices are a little unexpected or ambiguous. This one isn’t unexpected, but perhaps that’s because we are so familiar with this passage. It really is an odd turn of phrase. Could the Bible Matrix shed any light on it?

The “Covenant key” structure is bolded, and the “Matrix” structure is italicized.

Transcendence
For BY ONE SPIRIT (Creation – Genesis)

…..Hierarchy
…..are we all baptized into one body, (Division – Exodus)

……….Ethics
……….whether we be Jews or Gentiles, (Ascension – Leviticus)

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – (Testing – Numbers)

……….whether we be bond or free; (Maturity – Deuteronomy)

…..Sanctions – Oath
…..and have been all made to drink (Conquest – Joshua)

Succession
INTO ONE SPIRIT. (Glorification – Judges)

The first water is external (delegation – Exodus) — the saints are in the Laver; the second is internal (vindication) — the Laver is in the saints. God washes us that we may be instrumental in washing others. So, when the Firmament/Veil is installed the nations are divided (Division); when the Firmament/Veil is torn the nations are united (Conquest).

The central correpondence seems to be sacrificial. It was the Old Covenant which set up a wall between Jew and Gentile. Under the New Covenant, the division is between the bondwoman and the free (Genesis 21; Galatians 4). Israel was bound on the Altar under the Law so that the nations could be free from worldwide (Creational) judgment. The Jew-Gentile division is Adamic. It brings us to the centre of history, to Pentecost. The bondwoman-freewoman distinction is Evian. It follows Pentecost. It is not a “genealogical” division but a legislative one. This is reflected in the change from Old Covenant circumcision (national division) to New Covenant baptism (voluntary allegiance).

The gap in the centre is for the Law of Christ in the Spirit, Who united Jew and Gentile, bond and free. The only other place I’ve seen this central (Day 4) line missing is in the second stanza of Genesis 1, Day 2. [2] As Robert Alter observes, one of the powerful tools in the use of established patterns in literature is deliberately leaving out something that was expected. Here, a “literary gap” is left between the divided waters, a space for the governing lights of Pentecost.

We can we make an application of this typology to our daily lives. As the saints fill up the sufferings of Christ, the “Veil of flesh” is continually opened, and the world is united by the Spirit of Christ.

Besides the idea of the “cup of testing” Numbers 5) appearing at “Sanctions,” which is common, applying the seven feasts (Lev. 23) to this structure gives us a clue as to why Paul might have used an “oasis” allusion here.

At Atonement, Israel “tasted death” for every man (Day 6). This turns out to be the “firstfruits” of Booths, where every man drank to God, including the seventy Gentile nations (Genesis 10). So the idea of an oasis of palms (branches/booths) certainly fits – at least to my mind!

According to James Jordan, we see the same imagery of Israel and the Gentiles in Exodus 15:

“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water [Israel – Laver, Day 6] and seventy palm trees [the Nations, Day 7]; so they camped there by the waters.” (Exodus 15:27)

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[1] This is a private forum. Quoted with permission.
[2] See Firmament of Flesh.

Must be wizards week!

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (NKJV) Hebrews 4:12

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (NKJV) James 2:18

The firmament was a veil to hide God’s throne from Man until he was ready to see God face to face. Of course, we see types of this throughout the Bible, Job, Jacob and Moses being notable examples. But no man had seen God until after Christ ascended and was presented as Facebread.

Your face is a veil of flesh that hides your brain, the source of your intentions. Your head is a microcosm of the Tabernacle at one level, and your entire body at another. You are a Garden and a Land.

Deceivers mask their true intentions with facial expressions and body language. Good spies can even pass a lie detector test. Between their true intentions and the flesh that is supposed to be communicating it, there is a deliberate disconnect. As in the Garden, it is the mind of a beast speaking with the eyes and mouth of a man.

Made in God’s image, our words create or destroy. Christians understand this. Christian writings are a testimony to this. Christian publishing is crucial. The cultures that grew up around Israel and grow up around the church are cultures of words and books, crosswords and blogs. But in God’s economy, in the way He has made things, mere words are not enough. Words are swords. They are made to cut something, even when they are intended to build up and edify.

Politicians can stand and speak about HopeTM and ChangeTM, but, as Doug Wilson says, smooth words create hard hearts, both in church and outside of it. [1]

But God’s words never return to Him empty. Why is this?

It is the difference between incantation and incarnation. Muslim calls to prayer are very often not read “live” but broadcast recordings. Yet these recorded words do change reality. People obey. Creation. They obey because there is also a sword. Bodies move to mosques. Division. The word becomes incarnate. Hearts are cut because if they are not, flesh will be.

Christianity is the same, but entirely opposite. As mentioned in some recent posts, it is God’s messenger who is the cut one. The sword-Word passes through him first. He is displayed as a living sacrifice on the Altar. It is not coercion. It is a bridal invitation. This is where theonomy over-reaches its God-given intent. God’s Law is for God’s people. We can fill the world with books, but if we are not a people “cut” we might as well be an army of teleprompters. The veil has to be opened.

The religion of Mohammed is power religion. It is the religion of Jannes and Jambres. It is the religion of Saruman. It moves flesh by coercion. Anyone with experience in Satanism will tell you their life becomes filled and controlled by fear. Flesh must be moved, but Saruman hides in his prayer tower, with his words and his books. Pharaoh will feed divine meals to his gods, and then flays the Hebrews. Caesar will cut goats’ gizzards, and then torch Christians. This is power religion. The faces of these gods are permanently hidden. It is the manipulating faith of Cain, and many of us Christians are guilty of this hiding and manipulating and coercing, at home, in church, in business, in politics. I certainly am. Power religion, like Saruman, like Satan, doesn’t get out much. Too risky. Easier to pull strings, name-drop, work the room. The veil stays closed.

Dominion religion is the fearless offering of our bodies as living sacrifices. Jesus offers Himself to us, and then we offer ourselves to the world. When any tribe or city starts killing God’s people, it is almost a sure omen that conversions will follow. The Words of the martyrs (witnesses) never return void. They are carried on a firmament of flesh whose division ends the emptiness of the world and its words.

Books and words are crucial, but they are no good hidden away. God needs them written on flesh as well as stone. “Spells and smells” can be wonderful in worship, but those words and clouds must leave the building as the Warrior Bride. We must be preaching, singing and chanting the Scriptures. [2] If the worship stays indoors, our faith is only “sentimental,” as Oswald Chambers would put it. Sentiment must lead to action. It’s crucial that we get our worship right, but it doesn’t bring the powers crashing down unless the singing soldiers are marching into a (possibly) bloody battle. Then God does His magic.

Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. (2 Chronicles 20:22-23)

Yet the originating words are crucial. Good works without the accompanying truth also fall flat. Instead of returned mail, they are an envelope that is addressed and stamped but empty. Ahasuerus always sends out his fastest horses with a bill that can’t be repealed. Notice that the first section of Zechariah begins with warhorses doing a recce and ends with warhorses charging out of the Temple. It begins with the church in the (literally) “deep” and ends with a new message, a spring of hope rushing down from the mountain of God as four rivers. [3]

The Word becomes incarnate in us. We are called to worship. We are cut to the heart. We leave with an invitation but also an ultimatum. Unbelievers hearts will be cut because if they are not, their flesh will be. AD70 is testimony to that.

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[1] Smooth Words, Hard Hearts.
[2] See Liturgy as Prophecy.
[3] This is the background for the New Covenant blessings and curses, ie. the gospel, being presented as four horsemen in Revelation.

The first ‘cycle’ in the Joseph narrative wasn’t covered in Totus Christus. I have included it in Bible Matrix, and it contains some wonders.

Firstly, Joseph’s first dream (the bowing sheaves) is placed at Firstfruits – Day 3. His second dream (sun moon and stars) is at Pentecost – Day 4.

Secondly, Joseph receives his robe from Jacob at Passover (covering). It symbolises the firmament (Day 2). And his brothers cover it with goat’s blood at Atonement (covering). It symbolises the substitutionary animals and mediatory Man (Day 6). The giving and taking of the robe match chiastically.

Of course, these Scriptures predate the feasts in Leviticus 23.

Alexander Schmemann writes:

“O Lord our God, crown them with glory and honour!” says the priest after he has put the crowns on the heads of the bridal pair. This is, first the glory and honour of man as king of creation: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue and have dominion…” (Gn. 1:25). Each family is indeed a kingdom, a little church, and therefore a sacrament of and a way to the Kingdom. Somewhere, even if it is only in a single room, every man at some point in his life has his own small kingdom. It may be hell, and a place of betrayal, or it may not. Behind each window there is a little world going on. How evident this becomes when one is riding on a train at night and passing innumerable lighted windows: behind each one of them the fullness of life is a “given possibility,” a promise, a vision. This is what the marriage crowns express: that here is the beginning of a small kingdom which can be something like the true Kingdom. The chance will be lost, perhaps even in one night; but at this moment it is still an open possibility. Yet even when it has been lost, and lsot again a thousand times, still if two people stay together, they are in a real sense king and queen to each other. And after forty odd years, Adam can still turn and see Eve standing beside him, in a unity with himself which in some small way at least proclaims the love of God’s Kingdom. In movies and magazines the “icon” of marriage is always a youthful couple. But once, in the light and warmth of an autumn afternoon, this writer saw on the bench of a public square, in a poor Parisian suburb, an old and poor couple. They were sitting hand in hand, in silence, enjoying the pale light, the last warmth of the season. In silence: all words had been said, all passion exhausted, all storms at peace. The whole life was behind—yet all of it was now present, in this silence, in this light, in this warmth, in tis silent unity of hands. Present—and ready for eternity, ripe for joy. This to me remains the vision of marriage, of its heavenly beauty.

Then secondly, the glory and and the honour is that of the martyr’s crown. For the way to the Kingdom is the martyria—bearing witness to Christ. And this means crucifixion and suffering. A marriage which does not constantly crucify its own selfishness and self-sufficiency, which does not “die to itself” that it may point beyond itself, is not a Christian marriage. The real sin of marriage today is not adultery or lack of “adjustment” or “mental cruelty.” It is the idolisation of the family itself, the refusal to understand marriage as directed toward the Kingdom of God. This is expressed in the sentiment that one would “do anything” for his family, even steal. The family here has ceased to be for the glory of God; it has ceased to be a sacramental entrance into His presence. It is not the lack of respect for the family that breaks the modern family, it is the idolisation of the family that breaks the modern family so easily, making divorce its almost natural shadow. It is the identification of marriage with happiness and the refusal to accept the cross in it. In a Christian marriage, in fact, three are married; and the united loyalty of the two toward the third, who is God, keeps the two in an active unity with each other as well as with God. Yet it is the presence of God which is the death of the marriage as something only “natural.” It is the cross of Christ that brings the self-suficiency of nature to its end. But “by the cross, joy [and not "happiness!"] entered the whole world.” Its presence is thus the real joy of marriage. It is the joyful certitude that the marriage vow, in the perspective of the eternal Kingdom, is not taken “until death part,” but until death unites us completely.

– For the Life of the World, p. 89-91.

See Marriage as a Promise of Wine for some related thoughts.

A thought from a student exam: In Mark’s gospel, as soon as the veil of the temple is torn, the centurion confesses Jesus as Son of God. It’s a crucial scene because it’s the first time any human recognizes Jesus as Son.

And the sequence of veil and confession is crucial. The temple existed to keep people away from the presence of Yahweh. Jews were called to be nearer, and Gentiles further. If the temple is open, it doesn’t fulfill this function anymore. There’s a way into the holy place, and at the very moment a way is made into the holy place the division of Jew and Gentile becomes irrelevant.

Peter Leithart, www.leithart.com

Brilliant observation. It reminded me that the firmament of Day 2 (and the 2nd Tabernacle speech, which concerns the veil) correspond to the Confession in the liturgical pattern set by the Creation week.

We know Jesus was temporarily “torn in two” under the curses of the Covenant, His flesh being the veil (Hebrews 10:20). But what about the relationship between the Father and the Son? They are eternally united by the Spirit, who throughout the Bible is the ‘matchmaker’ who also assembles and brings the bride to the Son. At His crucifixion, Christ was separated from the Father by the deep – the Abyss – to send sin to destruction and allow the bride into His relationship by the Spirit with the Father. God Himself became two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim.

By allowing Himself to be divided, the indivisible God has made something new. Now the Son will reign until all His enemies are His footstool.

What a God.

“But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” – John 19:34

The spear reminds us that Jesus was a victim of both Goliath, the Gentile Sea Beast dressed in chainmail scales (Leviathan), and Saul, the Israelite King turned Land Beast (Behemoth). He was executed as a Balaamite (false prophet) by an apostate Phinehas, the corrupted High Priest who wished to retain the Covenant. The spear was thrust by the conspiracy of the serpent/dragon (Rome), and Adam and Eve (Herod and ‘Babylon’).

The 70 foot high veil in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The veil was His body (Hebrews 10:20). In Passover/the Red Sea, and in Jordan/Jericho, blood and water opened the door.

“I am the door.” – John 10:9