Bully's Blog

This overlaps the passage Kelby did the other day, so we may of course be chasing our tails. There is definitely a progression in the passage, however, and such analysis does help in meditation on the text. Perhaps there is a way of combining them.

Notice that in this structure, different words become key. For instance, here it is cross instead of peace because that statement is now at the centre. Paul as a minister is at the end of the passage. See Paul the Epistle.

The structure begins with Christ as a single mediator.

Notice the silent-as-a-Firstfruits-lamb Tabernacle of Moses (creation formed) and the awesome-as-an-army-with-banners’ battle-cry Tabernacle of David at Trumpets (creation filled). The Old Covenant built a new sky and sea, and the New Covenant filled these spaces with multitudes of “birds” and “fish”.

The reconciliation here is not just man to God, but Jew to Gentile. The cross fulfills the circumcision. The wilderness step includes the end of Adam (as He opens the Law) and the beginning of Eve, in whose place He stood under that Law as a substitute.

At Atonement, Christ as High Priest carries us holy and blameless before God.

Ministry of Adam – head

Genesis  /  Sabbath
“And he is the head of the body, the church. 

Exodus  /  Passover
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 

Leviticus  /  Firstfruits (Tabernacle formed)
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 

Numbers  / Pentecost
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross…

. . . . .

Ministry of Eve – body

…And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, 

Deuteronomy  / Trumpets  (Tabernacle filled)
in order to present you before him holy and blameless and above reproach,

Joshua / Atonement
if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, 

Judges  /  Tabernacles
which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”  (Colossians 1:18-23)

The structure finishes with our testimony to the nations as a corporate mediator in a new Land. Paul here matches Christ as head, as he begins the next cycle as an incarnation of Christ in His resurrection power.