Bully's Blog

The Wrong Kind of Blood, the Wrong Kind of Spirit

These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
…..A proud look,
……….A lying tongue,
……………Hands that shed innocent blood,
………………..A heart that devises wicked plans,
……………Feet that are swift in running to evil,
……….A false witness who speaks lies,
…..And one who sows discord among brethren. (Proverbs 6: 6-19)

Although Revelation describes two women, there was really only one. Solomon dealt with two prostitutes who lived in the same house. What Revelation does is cut the prostitute in two. At Atonement, Rahab was separated from Jericho; Mary Magdalene was delivered of her seven demons. Peter Leithart writes:

“Mary Magdalene functions in the same way in John’s gospel. She had seven demons (like Israel in Jesus’ parable!), but by the end of the book has become a new Eve, recognising Jesus as the New Adam in the garden of the resurrection. Since she is new Eve, it is entirely appropriate that Jesus call her ‘Woman’.” [1]

The theme of Revelation is the transformation of the whore into the bride, of the fallen old Israel into a beautiful new Israel. This requires the old flesh, the old generations, to be cut off. As David Chilton observes in The Days of Vengeance, the Revelation is an ironic worship service, and old Israel herself is the sacrifice.

The instrument used by Jesus, as Solomon, is the gospel sword. The gospel is Spirit-filled Law, and it brings both Covenant blessings and Covenant curses. For those who refused the Spirit, the judgment was an eye for an eye, just as God’s judgment upon Egypt’s firstborn was payback for the murder of the Hebrew infants.

The following stanza is the second of a group of seven, so it has an “Exodus” (the second book) or “Passover” (the second feast) theme. And within every stanza we also find all seven feasts: wheels within wheels. God’s Word creates its own independent field of gravity, like a gyroscope. Every utterance is Covenantal.

Genesis – Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, (Light/Ark)

Exodus – “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;

Leviticus – for her sins are heaped high as heaven, (defiantly drawing near with the wrong kind of innocent blood as an ascension offering: the murdered firstfruits church as grain and fruit: Rev. 14)

Numbers – and God has remembered her iniquities. (a la Numbers 5, a memorial cup of testing, the jealous inspection)

Deuteronomy – Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; (plunder – second law, second warning, judged in a “second death” [2])

Joshua – (Atonement) mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.

Judges – (Booths) As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning…

The double portion alludes to restitution according to the Law, and to the double covering required to atone for sin (inside and out, skins and cup). [3]  It also conveys the irony that because of her refusal to be filled with the “double portion” inheritance of the Holy Spirit in an Old-to-New Covenant succession, (being clothed with Christ), the Whore would be filled with wrath wine instead (Mark 3:29; Ephesians 5:18). Jerusalem-Babylon would finish the Covenant cup she had given the nations to drink (Jeremiah 25:26). Blood for blood. [4]

Think about it. Jesus drank the Covenant cup in her place. She turned around and filled her cup with the blood of the prophets and apostles. Drinking this cup would tear her in two, from the inside out.

Or, for the dispensationalists who believe that modern Jews still have some place in God’s economy as “the circumcision,” Jesus tore the veil in two, but the Jewish rulers stitched it back together again. So Jesus tore down the whole luxurious Herodian whorehouse and reestablished a bridal city with greater glory.

So, this stanza is the Exodus/Division step in this larger cycle. The next stanza concerns the “false ascension” of Herodian worship, and what does she say? “I sit as a queen…”

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[1] Observations from lectures by Warren Gage as summarised by Peter Leithart, Gage On John And Revelation, www.leithart.com
[2] See The Second Death.
[3] See James B. Jordan, Introduction to the Ascensions, BIBLICAL HORIZONS, No. 143.
[4] See Peter Leithart’s very helpful recent article: He Bears His Iniquity.

I probably won’t be posting much now until the end of the year. I want to get into The Covenant Key. But there’s many moons of material to read in the “back catalogue.” If you feel lucky, try the random posts in the right column. Thanks for reading. Catch up soon!