“A Christian culture is a culture of opportunity because it is a culture that flows from the Covenant.”

The Bible Matrix is found throughout the Bible. It is the shape of Creation but it is also the shape of Covenant. It is the process of promise and fulfilment. We see it in Eden. We see it in Canaan. Every Covenant is a mission, a tour of duty, resulting in a safe place to live, a home of abundance, peace and glory. It should be no surprise to Christians that it is also the process that underpins economic growth.

Capitalism is based on the biblical Covenant structure. Good businessmen understand how it works. It invariably necessitates the risk and sacrifice of what we now possess for a greater reward. Steve Jobs told us that, and demonstrated it again and again. It takes money to make money. This requires faith in the one who made the promise, even though business people do not recognize the source of the abundance is the hand of God.

God calls Man to work, which involves risk (faith), a sacrifice and some obedience to laws (which include natural and business laws), which will bring fulfillment of the promise — a greater abundance than what you sacrificed. That is where capitalism ends, but it is not where Covenant ends, and here is the problem for which socialism is tendered as a solution.

The final step of Covenant is that you, the risk taker, become a shelter, a house, for the helpless. The final step is generosity. Capitalism only works in a moral society. This is why we can correspond the shape of good economics to the shape of the Gospel. Jesus gave His life to give abundant life to us all. He believed in the promise made to Him by the Father, the promise of resurrection—a new body. Poverty was not something to be embraced eternally. Christian socialists forget that Jesus now owns everything. All the great saints were rich people who risked their wealth for even greater wealth, a wealth that included a legacy of other people—a household. The “glory that was set before Him” was also the glory of the Church, a new body that includes every believer. Jesus Himself is our covering. We are only saved because of His atonement, His “covering.” He, the king of kings, the great Land Lord, is our shelter.

But His kingdom is also growing to become a great tree, a shelter for the nations. As Western culture has cut itself free from the contraints of God, it has also cut itself off from the working of His Spirit. [1] The spiritual decline has led to moral decline which in turn has led to demographic and economic decline. And what is our response? Do we turn back to God? No. We attempt to minimize the risk. We don’t want the safety of the “shelter” promised by God and available through risk and sacrifice. We want to keep what we have now and spread it as thinly and as fairly as possible. That is what socialism is, and it is exactly the temptation offered to Adam in Eden and Jesus in the wilderness. It is a counterfeit kingdom at the hand of Satan. It involves no risk, no faith. And no growth. It is a bubble. [2] Worse, it is idolatry. [3]

That is what Americans just voted for. The nanny state is a satanic security. [4] It is a corporate Judas, where the voters, in their President, crucify Jesus with a kiss. Their loyalty exists only in lip service.

But those on the Right also have a misplaced faith. They believe that capitalism per se, the free market, is the saviour. But capitalism itself has no moral constraints. It is the godly Covenant process cut off from God. It is those whom God has put in authority (and whom He deliberately made wealthy) using their position for their own gain, which is why Jesus saved His sharpest words for the Jewish leaders. [5] The rich get richer and the poor get poorer (leaving out for a moment the hardworking middle class who actually produce stuff and support everyone). The opportunity that comes with biblical economics is removed from the reach of those at the bottom. We will always have the poor with us, for numerous reasons, but a society with a growing rank of “helpless” reveals a fundamental problem. A Christian culture is a culture of opportunity because it is a culture that flows from the Covenant.

To sum up, capitalism without God knows little about generosity. The socialists do see the problem, but they don’t replace the greed with generosity. They fill the God-gap by breaking other commandments. They fill it with envy and theft, and then sit enthroned like Orwell’s pigs at the farmer’s table. And once the risk is gone, the abundance is gone too.

Based on Church history, I have no doubt that there is even greater prosperity awaiting the world. [6] But like Israel, like Adam, to enter into God’s rest, we must turn back to Him in obedient faith. The prosperity gospel is a satanic lie, yet true prosperity will only even come through an application of the Gospel. We embrace risk and sacrifice for greater blessing at every step.

If you would like to understand more about the Covenants in the Bible, you can read my Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key, or Ray Sutton’s That You May Prosper. R. C. Sproul’s Biblical Economics is also a good introductory read.

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[1] See The Exorcism of Christ.
[2] See A Bad Investment.
[3] See Out of the Eater and Worship as Commerce.
[4] See Baal’s Stimulus Package.
[5] See When Judaism Jumped the Shark.
[6] See posts under the Postmillennialism tag.

Behold, when we come to the land, you shall bind this line of scarlet thread in the window from which you let us down… Joshua 2:18

Each Israelite was to wear blue tassels on the four corners of his robe. The tassel was a blue cord that unraveled into threads, a “one” that became many. Using the “systematic typology” of the Bible Matrix, we can see that these four blue tassels correspond to the four rivers the flowed down from the spring under the Garden of Eden. [1]

So, what’s the deal with the “red cord” that Rahab was commanded to display in her window in Jericho? Firstly, the Hebrew word isn’t the same word as the “cord” in Numbers 15.

The Hebrew word tiqvah literally means “hope.” Skip Moen writes:

Line – Usually translated “cord” in this verse, the Hebrew word tiqvah has a different meaning in every one of its additional thirty-one occurrences.  The fact that it isn’t translated in the normal way in this verse isn’t an accident. It’s an intentional word-play; another example of the elaborate interconnections found in the Hebrew Scripture that are invisible to us in English. By now you must realize that the story of the Scripture just wasn’t written to you.  It was written to Hebrew readers because only Hebrew readers can read between the lines.

Tiqvah is usually translated “hope.”  Put this background into the story of Rahab and you will come away with a much deeper understanding of this event. The spies whom Rahab saves tell her to put a scarlet “cord” in her window. What does that cord mean? It means hope, the very same word.

Naomi uses it in Ruth 1:12. Moen again:

When Naomi uses this word, she doesn’t have the projection of future desires in mind.  She is thinking about the color scarlet.  What does scarlet have to do with hope? Frymer-Kensky points out that tiqvah is the Hebrew word meaning “thread” in the story of Rahab.  “The imagery in this idiom suggests that our life is spun out like a cord, and hope arises from the strength of that cord, representing the prospect of a viable future.” [2]  She goes on to show that hope in Hebrew thought is intimately connected with life here and now.  To have a future is to not be cut off. To have a future is to see the continuation of your name in the lives of your offspring.  Tiqvah hope has nothing to do with getting to heaven. It is all about having a legacy on earth. It’s about a scarlet cord that can’t be cut.

Firstly, we must deal with two kinds of cleansing, the “red” and the “blue.” Blood and water both cleansed from sin, but their roles correspond to the “forming and filling” process in Genesis 1. (Even within the “blood” division, there is both red and blue blood, a chiastic structure within the body.) Blood is a witness to the de-forming of the old order. Like circumcision, it cuts off the past. We can think of this as Jesus paying off our incalculable debt to God. “It is finished.” This is mercy. Water is a witness to the investiture of a new order, the “filling up” of the new order. Unlike the “red ink” of correction, water writes a check for us in “blue ink.” It begins a new era. This is grace.

Water and blood are both liquids required for life. One comes out of the body and one goes into the body. The Jews were the blood, the circumcision, the genealogy of Christ, the Land rising out of the water. The Gentiles were the water, the baptism, the office of Christ, brought into the household of faith in the first century to bring new life to the Old Covenant body. The body of Christ is one new man, made up of Jew and Gentile, blood and water. [3]

Red and blue also have to do with heads and bodies. Circumcision is red and baptism is blue. In the Bible Matrix, the crossing of the Red Sea corresponds to Passover (the killing of the firstborn “heads”), while the crossing of the Jordan River is baptism, and associated with the Day of Atonement. [4] Now, there is red and blue in both these events, but when viewed as a whole, the first cleansing is about the end of the old history (the old leaven) and the second is about a new history, a heavenly land. Thus, red has to do with “generations,” the setting apart of a genealogical line. It is about the flesh. This is the blood of the sacrificial system. And blue has to do with “regenerations,” the commission of members of that genealogical line. It is about the Spirit.

Now we can see the correspondence between the four heavenly blue wings on an Israelite’s robe, and the four earthly red horns on the Tabernacle Altars. The blood is male (generation – Head), but the Israelite robe was worn by males and females (regeneration – Body).

Interestingly, in the account of the woman with the “issue of blood,” it is Jesus who is “blue” and the woman “red.” This is the interface between the cleanliness of a regenerate, commissioned (baptized) Adam and a helpless “generate” (menstrual) Eve.

Jesus
RED -  Circumcision and circumcised heart
BLUE – Baptism and Spirit-filling

TOUCH

(Daughter) Israel
RED – Issue of blood
BLUE – Forgiveness and cleansing,
the resultant healing from His “wings.” [5]

If Adam was faithful in the Garden, his offspring would have been rivers of living water. The singular red thread of Adamic obedience results in a corporate holiness, a blue cord that multiplies into a tassel. Peter Leithart writes:

In his lecture at the Biblical Horizons Summer conference this morning, Jim Jordan pointed out that the rivers that flow out of Eden are connected with commerce and economy.  The rivers flow from the garden, where there are good things to eat, to the outer lands where there are minerals and gems.

This can serve as a further gloss on my discussion of Psalm 24 earlier today: Rivers are the “foundations” of the humanly organized world, and more particularly rivers are the cords that bind land to land with trade and commerce.  Rivers are not only the foundation of a single land or culture, but of a network of cultures. [6]

The “binding” of the red differs from the “binding” of the blue. It is more a process of “binding and loosing.” Adam, or Isaac, is bound with a red cord in hope. It is a sacrificial death on the altar. It is flesh. The blue tassels are the “loosing,” the freedom of unity of Spirit. [7] It is perhaps more fitting to say that people are bound by blood but united by water. The first is objective, the last is subjective. The first is legal. The last is love. Circumcision was one nation, a bloodied, closed, earthly door (on the ground). Baptism is all nations. It is the Messianic “cord of hope” within a four-cornered open (blue) window in the wall of a city. [8] Rahab became intertwined with the Messianic cord (Matthew 1) that would eventually lead to rivers of living water, tassels of Spirit flowing from the four horns of Israel to the four “wings” of the world.

All Israel was a “bridal” nation. The males were circumcised, but since the other commands concerning clothing cover all Israelites, we can assume both males and females wore the bridal robe, just as both males and females could take the Nazirite vow. This brings us to part 3, which concerns Israel’s Covenantal vow. This is where the sorry arguments for paedobaptism unravel.

There’s an interesting use of red and blue in this music video. Every time I watch it I see something new.

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[1] See Healing in His … Tassels? You will also find some interesting facts here.
[2] Tamara Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Ruth: The JPS Bible Commentary, p. 15.
[3] See The Water and the Blood.
[4] Steven Opp has some interesting thoughts on red and blue in his paper “Heads or Tails: A Colorful Commentary.”
[5] See Border Patrol.
[6] Peter Leithart, More On Rivers. Perhaps Dr. Leithart’s mention of water binding rather than uniting reflects his ideas on “objective” baptism. Genealogy is not a choice. But commerce is a choice. One is not bound by rivers but loosed.
[7] See Binding and Loosing.
[8] See Known in the Gates.

“Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!”
Philippians 3:2 (NKJV)

Jeff Meyers copped flak for his take on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. He says the tax collector was justified for his Covenant faithfulness, and the Pharisee was not. Was it not the Pharisee who was faithful? And, either way, is this not justification by works? Has Jeff got night and day around the wrong way?

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There is a thread that runs right through the Bible concerning men and beasts. When men fail to be wise, obedient stewards—as Adam did—they image the beast. Instead of shepherding, they tear and devour. God actually allowed Nebuchadnezzar to become like a beast so that He might resurrect him as a godly steward.

When you hear the word “economics,” if you don’t think of “stewardship,” your definition of economics is not the biblical one. The modern definition is much less about wise stewardship than it is about opportunistic tearing and devouring. What can I get away with? Hath God said…?

R. C. Sproul Jr. has a great book about stewardship called Biblical Economics. It is more about wealth creation than wealth distribution. Biblical economics is less about dividing up abstract pie charts than it is about actually making pies.

“Many misconceptions arise when the word “economics” is used, not the least of which being that economics is only about money. Noah Webster, in his 1828 dictionary put it this way in the first definition of the word “economy” : “Primarily, the management, regulation and government of a family or the concerns of a household.” Rightly understood, economics is about far more than managing your money, it is about managing your spouse, your children, your time, and your mind. Economics is a measurement of value, where people place their priorities. Biblical economics, then, is about placing value where God places value; esteeming what He esteems, desiring what He desires. In other words, biblical economics is about stewardship…

Families, especially Christian ones, need to learn, live, and exemplify this simple fact that economics is about far more than money. We need to understand that if we decide to watch a movie instead of cleaning the kitchen, we are making an economic decision. We need to understand that choosing Froot Loops over Raisin Bran at the breakfast table is an economic decision. We need to understand that the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 18 is an economic one. We need to understand that the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10: 38-42) is an economic one, as is Jesus’ somber admonition about gaining the world but losing your soul (Mark 8:35-37). Economics is an intensely practical, and intensely necessary, field of study that has much to say about every area of human life.” [1]

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[1] From the book review on AV’s email list.

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Our nation’s public economists usually refer to you in your capacity as consumer. This is in contrast to previous and wiser eras, when citizens were thought of as producers, and as savers. But we have departed from the way, and when disaster strikes, one of the things we think to do, is spend our way out of it. Republicans want to spend out way out this way, and Democrats that way, but we all think that consumption is king. Our understanding of consuming has become deranged.

But this is not because it is bad to consume. Your fundamental identity is wrapped up in what you consume. Here, at this Table, you assemble weekly to consume an oath, to drink a covenant. The issue is therefore an inescapable one—the question is not whether you will be a consumer, but rather what you will consume.

The world entices you to consume according to their principles, according to their law, according to their covenants. You must not. Rather, you come here in order to be disciplined according to the words of our Lord, and to have your desires and wants tamed and regulated by what you eat and drink here.

Learn consumption here. As you have done so, you will be equipped to behave like a sane person when you go out into the market. You will no longer spend as those who are without God and without hope in the world. When you learn consume rightly, you produce more than you consume, and you do so out of love for others. When Jesus fed the multitudes, they always wound up with more afterwards than they had when they started. He is doing the same thing here with us now.

See also Worship as Commerce.

Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.  (Genesis 2:10-14)

After the Herod and Shylock post, I had one complaint that the Worship as Commerce tag didn’t really do what it said on the tin, so I hope to capture it (briefly?) here. Now, where to start? As James Jordan explains, the idea begins in Eden.

“Eden is the land of food, and the outlying lands are lands of other raw materials. The Bible conceives of commerce between these lands, so that those of Adam’s descendants who lived in Eden would have to engage in trade with those who had moved downstream to Havilah. In this way, precious stones would be brought from Havilah back to Eden to adorn the sanctuary. When Israel came out of Egypt, she sojourned in the land of Havilah while the Tabernacle and the High Priest’s garments were made (Genesis 25:18). Here in this land of rocks were made many items of gold and onyx. Indeed, the only reference in the Bible to the onyx stone, outside of Genesis 2, is in connection with the High Priest’s garments. The shoulder stones of the “ephod” were made of onyx, and had the names of the twelve tribes put upon them (Exodus 25:7; 28:9-12).” [1]

When the worship of God is both central and elevated, the priests of God carry the Spirit to the nations. In return, the nations bring to Eden the gold and precious stones of the surrounding lands. Because of Solomon’s request for wisdom instead of wealth, the Lord honoured his selflessness, his godly rule, with wealth from the surrounding nations. The kings of the world brought their glory into the Temple. As Israel’s kings continually disobeyed the Lord, the wealth was stolen away. The Lord was like a thief in the night. The gold shields stolen by Egyptian invaders were replaced with bronze ones. Nebuchadnezzar made Judah a vassal kingdom and taxed it the way Solomon and Rehoboam had taxed the tribes. Finally he took everything.

But this “wealth for wisdom” is not only typological. God is not against wealth per se. He wants a church that is glorious both inwardly and outwardly. It is when the church becomes a shell, as Judah did, a false witness with false whiteness, that God cuts it back to Adams in animal skins. [2] The letters to the Asian churches in Revelation 2-3 recapitulate Old Testament history, [3] which makes Herod’s Judah parallel with Laodicea. Well, not so much a parallel as the same sin but fully grown.

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realising that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

First century Adam pretended that he was independent of God, that he had life in himself and did not need Jesus, the Tree of Life. Eating from the “Greek” Tree of Wisdom had left him wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked—the state of first century Jewish worship. What does Jesus say?

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich…

In Revelation, worship is symbolised as a commercial transaction. Jesus’ advice here echoes His words in Isaiah 55:1-3, calling on Israel to buy from Him kingdom wine and milk without money.

The Black Horse

This also explains the rider on the Black Horse, who starves the Old Covenant worship but leaves the New apostolic worship unharmed. Moses brought manna, Alpha food, but this old priesthood would be starved to the point of cannibalisation and then death (Zechariah 11:7-9). John would decrease while Jesus increased. The Old Covenant worship, pictured as a commercial transaction in grains, became an expensive exercise. Like the half-ephahs of grain in the hands of the woman suspected of adultery, (Numbers 5) it would be weighed in the balances, offered on the altar and become lean and barren. Jesus made wine. The oil (Spirit) and the wine (blood), the Omega food of the New Covenant, would be given “without price”.

The Beast

In Ezekiel, the King of Tyre is a compromised High Priest, an Adam covered in gemstones. In Daniel 6, the kingdom of Belshazzar is weighed in the balances. The handwriting on the wall is commercial language. In Zechariah 5, the wicked woman in the ephah basket is a counterfeit of the Ark of the Covenant, a box covered in lead instead of gold. Finally, it explains the mark of the beast. Summarising Jordan’s interpretation:

“…no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

Worship again is signified as commerce. Those without the mark were excluded from the Temple. Acts shows a progression from saints meeting in the Temple to Paul being arrested and the doors being shut (Acts 21:30; Acts 26:21). Christians became outsiders. The Temple was a house of prayer for the Gentiles. The Gentiles were supposed to bring their glory into it willingly, but the Jewish leaders were ripping them off. Their role was supposed to be priestly but they were lording it over the sheep. The money wasn’t the problem. It was the manner of the commerce being conducted. The Jews condemned the harlots and tax collectors, but Herod’s Judah was the biggest harlot and tax collector of all, and an unrepentant one. A godly economy is a shepherd. A beastly economy oppresses and devours like a wolf. It settles for bread.

Jerusalem, not Rome

One of the best arguments against the harlot of Revelation being identified as Jerusalem is the commercial language employed to describe her demise. Jerusalem was certainly at the “navel” of the world, but was she really that rich? Jordan brilliantly observes that the description of her wares in Revelation 18 is simply an expansion of the materials plundered from Egypt, Amalek, and then given willingly by the people of God to build the Tabernacle. Worship is described as commerce. The kings of the “earth” are the Jewish rulers of the Land. The Gentile worshippers are merchants, the proselytes who became twice the children of Gehenna. Jesus turned the Herodian Wall Street into the Wailing Wall.

What is even more crucial is the fact that it follows the seven Tabernacle speeches, which in turn follow the Creation week. The Temple, like Noah’s ark, was the “world-in-a-box”, a new creation. Its destruction removes the “buying and selling” from Judaism forever. [4] The centre of worship was now in Jesus, in heaven. [5] During this current age, all nations are bringing their glory into the kingdom. The strong man is tied up and Jesus, through us, is plundering his house. [6] The nations are His riches for sure, but this is not just their souls. It is also their pocketbooks, their businesses and their economies. All is sacred.

Exchange Rates Today

The idea that amassing wealth destroys the world and oppresses the poor is common in Scripture. It occurs when man seizes kingdom instead of waiting patiently for God’s timing. We look at our resources and think that’s all we have to play with. But based on the Bible, if we have been faithful with them, God has a way of making the cup run over in unforeseen ways. Wealth is not the problem at all. God made Christian nations wealthy. After the Reformation, God made Protestant nations wealthy. But we have followed the path of Solomon, who ended up using oppression to build his kingdom “earlier” than God intended. He turned the kingdom of God into Egypt.

When the Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation, it is talking about the outflow of personal and family government in prosperity and political clout. Europe had it and lost it. Britain had it and lost it. The US has it and is losing it. It seems the nation that faithfully invests by sending out missionaries to serve and die ends up as a world power. The Christian’s refusal to pursue money ends up with greater wealth for all (Matthew 6:32-33). The promise that the meek will inherit the earth (Land) is not just about the hereafter. Like Christ, when we fall into the ground and die to ourselves, there is a greater harvest, and it is not just about winning souls. Jesus died and then the Father gave Him everything, including the cattle on a thousand hills. Dominion follows faith, not coercion. Christians think they have to compromise to gain votes to get into power when all God asks of us is to pray, tithe and wait. The dominion will come, as it always does, when we can be trusted with it.

The gospel is holistic. Saved souls change culture, and history shows that it does not take many souls to do so, usually a few committed, praying people around a table over a few decades. To limit the harvest to pie-in-the-sky is the rankest gnosticism. True worship is directly reflected in economics. Cultus becomes culture. The God who sees worship as a commercial transaction paid our debt, but He still loves and blesses just weights and measures. It is most certainly Jesus in all of life. This project will end when the entire world actually is a Tabernacle for God. [7] This includes our economies.

All this stuff is in JBJordan. You should get into him and put those lesser theologians away for a while. I doubt you’ll want to go back to them after such rich fare.
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[1] James B. Jordan, Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World, p. 73. [PDF] For more on onyx and the High Priest, see Gold, Onyx and Bdellium.
[2] See Rags to Robes.
[3] Check out Jordan’s Revelation lectures, and there is a summary in Totus Christus).
[4] See Totus Christus for a full outline. The light of the Lampstand is at the centre, of course. Judah’s sun, moon and stars came crashing down as Jesus predicted. See Thief in the Night. But also, the references to musicians and craftsmen corresponds exactly to those of Tubal-Cain, Jubal and Jabal. Herod’s Temple had become inherently Cainite. See The Significance of Tubal-Cain and The Significance of Jabal and Jubal. On craftsmen, see Unashamed Artisans.
[5] For the Roman Catholic readers, the centre of worship is still Jerusalem (the one above) and not Holy Rome. See Schism or Resurrection?
[6] See Under Your Feet.
[7] See A New Heavens and a New Earth and Blood and Soil.

or Cooking the Golden-Egg Goose

Gary North has a free course on reducing your debt. Part of the plan is an application of the 5-point Covenant structure. Basically, God calls a man, gives him a job to do, and returns at the end to assess the man’s work. North refers to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:

“Jesus often used what I call pocketbook parables. People understand money. They are interested in money.

The parable of the talents teaches about personal responsibility and final judgment. It uses money to explain this. This parable reveals how God expects us to use our money. We are to expand it — meaning our influence — rather than waste it.

There are five principles governing this passage:

1. God is the owner.
2. He delegates administration to representatives.
3. Each representative adopts a plan of action.
4. The owner requires a final accounting.
5. There is a system of inheritance and disinheritance.

This structure reflects the five points of the biblical covenant model. (On this model, read Rev. Ray Sutton’s book, That You May Prosper [1987]. Download it for free here.)

1. The sovereignty of God
2. The delegated authority of man
3. The law of God
4. The judgment of God
5. The kingdom of God

Put more commonly:

1. Who’s in charge here?
2. To whom do I report?
3. What are the rules?
4. What do I get if I obey or disobey?
5. Does this outfit have a future?”

This correlation between Covenant and economics is crucial to understanding the Bible and its irrefutable dominion theology. The Bible repeatedly describes worship as commerce, “buying and selling.” [1]

Even more interesting is the correspondence which I believe exists between the 5-point Covenant model and the 7-point Creation model. [2] Human history in its entirety follows this “economic” pattern. Why did God allow these tragic, bloody millennia to begin in Eden? Because at His coming, He will receive back what He put into it—with interest.

Matthew 25 describes His coming in AD70, the end of the Old Covenant. He received all the saints into the place He had prepared for them, and slew all those who had murdered them. Just like Adam, Herod had seized the riches of kingdom rather than patiently receiving them as an inheritance. He had turned the Law into a self-serving tool and wilfully ignored the Spirit in which it was given. The abundance promised for faithfulness became scarcity.

The ascended martyr-church cried out for vengeance. The rich would weep and howl. [3] The words of Portia to Shylock spring to mind:

“Tarry, Jew. The law hath yet another hold on you… your wealth is forfeited to the state for having conspired against the life of one of its citizens. Your life lies at the mercy of him you conspired against.” [4]

Consequently, we see this pattern in the book of Revelation:

1. God is the owner.
2. He delegates administration to representatives.
3. Each representative adopts a plan of action.
4. The owner requires a final accounting.
5. There is a system of inheritance and disinheritance.

But this first century judgment was a type of the future judgment to come, the end of the New Covenant, at which Christ, the only truly faithful Adam, will hand the kingdom as abundant produce from Eden, full repayment with interest, to the Father. Then God will be all in all.

For those who support this misguided “Make Wealth History” campaign, money and economy are blessings from God to be received with gratitude and used with wisdom. The Bible is full of rich people who were faithful with their money.[5] That is why micro-loans are transforming third world countries that well-meaning foreign aid has weakened.

The West’s problem is not wealth but debt, which is the original sin multiplied into a culture. [6] Like Herod, we have sold the farm for trinkets. Jesus is very obviously taking the Land and giving it to those who will bring forth the fruit of the Kingdom.

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[1] Follow the tag Worship as Commerce.
[2] See Lambs in Limbo. The significance is multiplied when we take into account that both the Creation Week, the Tabernacle and the Annual Festivals of Israel all follow this same pattern. All is sacred, but all is commerce. See The Go-Betweens. On Ray Sutton’s model, see A Jaw Dropping Book.
[3] See Fool’s Gold.
[4] Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Scene 3.
[5] See Charity, Not Revolution.
[6] See Building Cages Out of Freedom.

I saw in my dream, that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage. Now the man seemed very sad. He sat with his eyes looking down to the ground, and his hands folded together, and he sighed as if his heart would break.

Then said Christian, “Who is this?”

“Talk with him and see,” said the Interpreter.

“What used you to be?” asked Christian.

“I was once a flourishing professor, both in my own eyes, and also in the eyes of others,” answered the man. “I was on my way, as I thought, to the Celestial City and I was confident that I would get there.”

“But what did you do to bring yourself to this condition?” Christian asked.

“I failed to keep watch,” the man replied. “I followed the pleasures of this world, which promised me all manner of delights. But they proved to be an empty bubble. And now I am shut up in this iron cage—a man of despair who can’t get out.”

No further explanations were given. No one said who put him there. But the Interpreter whispered to Christian:

“Bear well in mind what you have seen.” [1]

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Another thought related to the ideas in Behind Closed Doors.

The whole aim of the construction process, whether in sex, foetal development, education, business, art, music, family or state government, is the ultimate revelation of a mature glory. We are given the opportunity to create, and that involves certain God-given freedoms. If the freedoms are abused, what we construct for ourselves is a cage. Lust is a cage. A dysfunctional family or state is a cage. Enforced egalitarian socio-economics is a cage. Undisciplined children are a cage.

Jesus laid down His life for this world, and the freedoms of western culture have been a direct outcome. In its final stages, we have rebelliously inverted each of these freedoms (including the economic ones) and turned both our Christian protection (including our God-given wealth) and Christian mandate into a cage. Ancient Israel did the same. Why does this inversion process seem such a logical path for fallen human nature?

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Desert Trees for a Crystal House

Trees are elementary Bible symbols. James Jordan writes:

We have noted that God’s people are spoken of as trees. Genesis 2 sets up the connection by saying that both men and trees come out of the ground (Genesis 2:7, 9). We have mentioned already such passages as Psalm 1 and Judges 9, where trees symbolize men. An interesting sidelight on this symbolism is provided in Mark 8:24, where the blind man healed by our Lord initially saw men as trees walking.

Trees represent men, and trees are found in association with men. Such associations often convey imagery to us, and so let us briefly trace this imagery as it appears in Scripture. To begin with, of course, is the Garden of Eden, a planting of trees and also the first planting of humanity. Cast from Eden, man could only expect the scorching sun; it is a sign of God’s blessing whenever we find the righteous dwelling at groves of trees.

I recommend reading this entire chapter, Trees and Thorns (from page 81) in Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World [PDF]. It is wonderful stuff.

The Tabernacle furniture was made of acacia wood.[1] It symbolised the wilderness. The tree was most common in stream beds. It pictured a godly man planted in the Word. It pictured Eden, an oasis garden supported by springs.[2]

Just as the saints plundered Egypt and Amalek, they plundered the waste places of gemstones and quality wood for the worship of God.[3] Eventually, these were brought into Solomon’s Temple, which was made of “Promised Land” timbers, cedar for the outer areas and olive for the holiest places.

The acacia wood was tried and tested in the wilderness, but it came out glorified, covered in fine gold. It was carried from the outlying lands back to Eden by the saints. The Tabernacle furniture always symbolised God’s plan for the nations. The gospel flows out as water for the nations, and the resulting glory of their kings is brought back to the Temple.[4] For every man, the wilderness test is the way to the judicial seat at God’s right hand.

______________________________
[1]  I need to fix this in my book!
[2]  The word “mist” in Genesis 2 should be translated “spring.” The symbolism of the Temple as a garden over a spring which sends rivers into the world can also be found in Psalm 24.
[3]  The Bible often pictures worship as commerce, “buying and selling.” See Gold, Onyx and Bdellium.
[4] Note that when there is a “backwash” of idolatry (sewerage) into the Temple, the children of the compromise, the “mighty men” of the wilderness, the sons of God in Genesis 6, Tyre and Sidon in Ezekiel, and the four empires from Daniel and Revelation, are destroyed in the “waters of Noah”. Each time, the Lord planted a new Eden and then wiped out the old one.

Picture: Water in the Wilderness by M. Mandel

Gold, Onyx and Bdellium

(The Tabernacle imagery is as much fun as it is grand and terrifying. I was thinking about rainbow striped onyx. In “Behind the Scenes”, James Jordan wrote:)

“These glorious gems represent the sons matured into tribes. A baby has not yet matured into anything specific. We don’t know if a child will become a good person or a bad one. We don’t know if he will be a musician or a minister or a farmer or a sailor or a computer engineer. As we grow, we grow from being “striped onyx” into a specific glory, which each of us has unique to himself. Thus, as the twelve sons of Jacob matured into tribes, each tribe took on a distinct glory of its own, represented by its gemstone.”

Gold, onyx and bdellium were raw materials from the original World. The white capstone in Zechariah was bdellium, representing glorified bread. With the correspondence between manna and bdellium, there is perhaps the idea that the white stone is the bread of obedient priesthood finally glorified as metal—an eternal priesthood. The root word for bdellium also means “to divide”. The bread is a sacrifice, but the white stone is bread resurrected, or bread and wine, service and glory, united. A white stone is a metal (robed) man with a new, more glorious name (Revelation 2:17). He is lifted up between heaven and earth as a human firmament.

With a golden forehead (Word) and onyx shoulders (angelic proto-Government), the High Priest himself was the bdellium-bread (Sacrament) (John 6:48-51). The twelve “rainbow” gems on his breastplate were the resulting mature “offspring” of rivers (fulfilled human Government) that flowed down to glorify the World. This supports the view that Revelation shows the matured saints leaving Abraham’s bosom and entering the bosom (breastplate) of Christ.

Also, if bdellium is the Table (hidden manna), the rainbow striped onyx-elders are the Incense Altar (Aaron’s rod), and of course the gold forehead would be the seven-eyed Lampstand (the Law). (Edit: Actually, I got this a bit wrong. The gold is Word, the bdellium is Sacrament, and the onyx is Government. It works top down and also left to right: Ark/Incense/Altar and Lampstand/Incense/Table.)

Havilah, the prototype World, was for “Holy Place” commerce, for worship asbuying and selling (Revelation 3:18; 13:17; 18:11). As the saints carry the rainbow waters in baptism, the New Covenant economy puts the world into God’s cloud.

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