Infinite Room – 3
The Fruitful Field
“For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Cor 11:2
Women are Complex
In Eden, as priest to Eve, Adam’s role was to continually bring her to the Father. She was put “below” Adam in the hierarchy. As the first approach of the High Priest on the Day of Covering — with the blood of a bull — Adam would present himself, standing before God as Mediator (head):
F A T H E R > < S O N + B R I D E
Adam’s job was to bring Eve “between” as the fruit, the evidence, of Covenant relationship. By being faithful to the law, he would open and maintain a clean, safe, Holy Place — a firmament — a house for the bride. The second approach of the High Priest was to cover the body, the nation. In this, he presented the blood of the first goat as the faithful bride (goat hair, symbolising the Lord’s cloud of “bridal” glory, covered the Tabernacle). Like the glory between the Father and the Son in heaven, a glorious Eve was both the fruit of Adam’s obedience, and her future fruitfulness a gift from Father to Son:
F A T H E R > B R I D E < S O N
We see this imaged in the search for and presentation of godly Covenant brides in Genesis. Eliezar and Jacob seek brides for presentation to the Covenant fathers.
Adam’s obedience to the Covenant law would have filled the world with godly offspring as a New Creation. Adam’s commission was to keep the Garden and to be fruitful and multiply, to maintain the “field of Covenant fruitfulness” through to and fro with God. The test in the Garden was to image the faithfulness within the Trinity. Maintaining the “creative equation” of the Covenant would eventually fulfill the commission.
Chaos
When the angelic minister distorted the message, the Covenant law, Adam would have recognised this false spirit.
F A L S E F A T H E R > B R I D E < S O N
But he failed to restore the image of the Father for the sake of Eve. He did not step in as guardian:
F A L S E F A T H E R || S O N + B R I D E
Like Esau, Adam despised the Covenant and the inheritance. Instead of being brought into the Covenant, Eve became a “foreign wife” with her own gods. Like the wives of Esau, she became a bitter spring in the eyes of Adam’s Father.
F A L S E F A T H E R > F A L S E B R I D E < F A L S E S O N
At Conquest, the Holy Ones, God’s governing elders, rejoice over the destruction of the Covenant breakers. Later, this is the song of the various Covenant women. In the Revelation it is the song of the firstfruits church, the chaste bride, and army of virgins presented to the Father by Christ. But in Eden there were only the angels, and one in particular. Following the pattern, Satan’s joy was the presentation of a harlotrous bride, a corrupt “church,” to the Father for destruction. This is exactly what we see in Numbers 5, the “jealous inspection.” And of course, this is the exact plan we see in the “presentation” to Jesus of the woman caught in adultery. [1] The answer here was the same: substitutionary blood.
Instead of making the first couple “the meat on the table,” God provided substitutes. Due to this intervention — a covering of blood — the “fractal equation” of humanity did not die, and the corrupt “Holy One” did not get to rejoice for long.
Instead of sinners, innocents (animals) were put in the place of the Adam as head and Eve as body: the first Day of Covering. The blood was evidence of the satisfaction of the fulfilment of the demands (ethics) of the Covenant, just as Adam’s blood on the ground would have been evidence of the origin of Eve. This maintained the “creative equation” but only in an imperfect, temporary and pedagogical way. This imperfect Covenant required frequent renewal by blood.
A Flaming Sword, To and Fro
The process from Adam’s anointing to his expulsion follows the Creation week. It also follows the journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. In his deep sleep, Adam was under the sword (Passover – Circumcision). At the Lord’s assessment of his captaincy, he was to be given the sword — as Israel was — to enter the Land as vindicated conqueror (Atonement – Pass-Through). Baptism is about presenting oneself to be a mediator, a sword-bearer. [2] But, of course, Adam hid.
An Eve filled with light was the host of Israel, the flaming sword, entering the Promised Land and wiping out — to and fro — the cursed children of the Canaanites. But instead of wielding the sword (baptism), Adam was still under it (circumcision), and Eve would be the mother of the cursed children. (In this case it was the potential for cursed children that needed wiping out, obviously.) This, too, is the scenario that plays out in the Revelation. Herodian worship hid behind circumcision and the bride was not tranfigured. This false bride was destroyed.
Like Saul, Adam had submitted to a different spirit, a counterfeit Covenant. He stepped outside the fruitful field of Covenant with God — the infinite equation — and became barren. Instead of imaging the Father, this son of God imaged the father of lies. [3] As Covenant head, barrenness was symbolised by the sweat on Adam’s brow. As Covenant body, multiplier, Eve’s barrenness was symbolised by difficulty in childbirth. And the to and fro between them, between Covenant head and Covenant body, was also accursed. Covenant marriage disintegrated into bitter subjection: exploitation by the head and insubordination from the body.
Fruitfulness, like resurrection, is an instantaneous act of God, as it was on Day 5. Neither Jesus nor Adam came out of the earth bit by bit over millions of years. Chaos is not the source of fruitfulness. Chaos is fruitfulness gone awry. It is previous order suddenly devoid of the integrating Spirit, the faithful to and fro. There is scattering instead of gathering. Following faithfulness to the Covenant, the Ark of that Covenant gathered Israel in ranks around it, and when in battle it scattered the ordered ranks of their enemies. This is true bride versus false bride.
Two faithful cherubim were deployed as substitute guardians, but there was only one flaming sword between them, flashing to and fro. Back to simple binary. No complex rainbow. Adam was expelled from the fruitful field, the Holy Place, the infinite room.
Next: Infinite Room – 4, Smoke and Mirrors.
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[1] See Emancipation of Eve.
[2] See Pass-over and Pass-through and The Angels of Death Are We.
[3] See Fighting Over the Children.
Infinite Room series links here.
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