Being Cornucopia
The Table on God’s Mountain
“Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat
falls into the ground
and dies,
it remains alone;
but if it dies,
it produces much grain.”
John 12:24
Israel was given a “firstfruits” taste of the Promised Land in Numbers 13. As with all Covenants, it was bittersweet. There were grapes, but there were giants. It was the same challenge as the one given to Adam. They were called to be judges who made their decisions based not on sight, but on faith in God’s Words.
(Creation)
And Moses
…..called
……….Hoshea
…..the son of Nun, (“son of fecundity“)
Joshua.
(Division)
Then Moses
…..sent them
……….to spy out
…..the land
of Canaan, (“lowlands”)
(Ascension – Altar-Land)
and said to them, (Sabbath)
…..“Go up this [way] into the South, (Passover)
……….and go up to the mountains, (Firstfruits)
……………“and see what the land is like: (Pentecost)
……….whether the people who dwell in it
……….[are] strong or weak, few or many; (Trumpets)
…..“whether the land they dwell in
…..[is] good or bad; (Atonement)
whether the cities they inhabit
[are] like camps or strongholds; (Tabernacles)
(Ascension – Table of the Facebread)
“whether the land [is] rich or poor;
…..and whether there are forests there or not.
……….Be of good courage.
…..And bring some of the fruit of the land.”
Now the time [was] the season of the first ripe grapes.
(Numbers 13:6-20. Testing is the 12 spies as “Lamp-eyes” in the Land for 40 days.)
The Promised Land was the shelter, the rest, for that generation, but in Israel’s history it was only Day 3. God put the nation on the Altar-Land as a kind of firstfruits (the Kings followed as Day 4). Day 5 is about fruit, about clouds and swarms, plunder and/or plagues. It is the bridal “Body” harvest that results from the sacrifice, death and burial of the Bridegroom “Head.” Day 5 in Israel’s history was plagues. It was two Trumpets, the armies of Assyria and the armies of Babylon. Because Israel was bad fruit, her grapes would be left to rot on the vine, filled with scavenging worms (Deuteronomy 28:39).
from Isaiah 5
Creation
Now let me sing
…..to my Well-beloved
……….A song
…..of my Beloved
regarding His vineyard:
Division
My Well-beloved
…..has a vineyard
……….On a very fruitful hill.
……………He dug it up
……….and cleared out its stones,
…..And planted it
with the choicest vine.
Ascension – Tabernacle
He built a tower in its midst, (Ark)
…..And also made a winepress in it; (Veil)
……….So He expected to bring forth grapes, (Altar)
……….But it brought forth wild grapes. (Table)
……………(Lampstand – the Watchmen of the Table
……………called to Judge as Governing Lights)
……………And now,
………………..O inhabitants of Jerusalem (Transcendence)
…………………….and men of Judah, (Hierarchy – Facebread/Praiseworthy)
…………………………Judge, (Ethics)
…………………….please,
………………..between Me (Sanctions)
……………and My vineyard. (Continuity)
……….(Incense – the Covenant Body)
……….What more (Creation)
……………could have been done (Division)
………………..to My vineyard (Ascension)
…………………….That I have not done in it? (Testing)
………………..Why then, when I expected [it] (No Maturity)
……….to bring forth [good] grapes, (No Conquest)
…..Did it bring forth wild grapes? (No Glorification Wine)
Ascension is the Altar and the Table. The Altar is the Land, in this case the vineyard, built by God. But the “firstfruits” of Israel were toxic. In the next stanza, Day of Atonement (Coverings), the vineyard is dis-covered, smashed up, and the Laver (rain) is taken away from both the just and the unjust.
Concerning the fruitful hill in verse 1, things get weird. Peter Leithart writes:
Most translations say that the Beloved planted his vineyard on a “fertile hill,” but Isaiah wrote that He planted it on “a horn, a son of oil” (Heb. beqeren ben-shamen). Phrase might refer to a fertile hill, but that’s not what the words mean.
The passage closest to Isaiah’s usage is in Zechariah 4, where the two olive trees are called “sons of oil” (v. 14). In Zechariah, the phrase refers to Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two anointed ones who lead the post-exilic community. Zechariah doesn’t use the word “horn,” but it fits the context, since the anointed ones are anointed from horns filled with oil, and become the horns of Israel, the victorious wild ox.
What would it mean to say that Yahweh had a vineyard on a “horn, a son of oil”? Verse 7 says that vineyard is “the house of Israel” and the men of Judah are the “delightful plant” within the vineyard. That vineyard was planted “on” the anointed one, David and his descendants. The links are complex but fairly clear: David is anointed, hence a “son of oil”; Yahweh regularly raises David’s horn on high; David is also mountain “horn” on which Israel rests.
Maybe. But that doesn’t satisfy.
I like a challenge. Here’s my attempt.
Could the vineyard have been planted in the horn? Horns and anointing are Altar and Table, Land and Firstfruits: the Tabernacle, the “nearbringing” ascension offering. In the Revelation, this Firstfruits Lamb (Table) is the Lamb with seven eyes (Lampstand) and seven horns (Trumpets/Incense Altar). Through death, he becomes the Holy Place, good soil, and the Spirit fills it with bridal fruit.
As in marriage, the “living sacrifice” of the head is the life of the body: like the kingdom honey (Gentile swarm) comes from inside the Jewish lion king’s carcass. The emptied, bloodied horn is followed by the Spirit, and the buried head brings a harvest.
That’s also what we see in Zechariah. The cherubim that exiled Judah from the Garden-Land have hammered their flaming swords into flaming plowshares, and the result is a new, multiplied Lampstand with 49 lights. The Davidic Israel became a dead lion. The Restoration era was a spiritual Cornucopia, whatever the blind scholars may say, and when Jesus came to inspect it, it was ready for harvest.
And of course, taking one further step out, we see Totus Christus. Judah (the horn) died for the life of the world (plenty).
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Wikipedia on Cornucopia:
The cornucopia (Latin: Cornu Copiae) is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC, also referred to as the food of worship and holiness, Horn of Amalthea, harvest cone, and horn of plenty.
In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk, in a cave, on Mount Ida of Crete. Her horn was accidentally broken off by Zeus while playing together. The god Zeus, in remorse, gave her back her horn with supernatural powers, which would give whoever possessed it whatever they wished for. The original depictions were of the goat’s horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, were depicted with the horn of plenty. The cornucopia was also a symbol for a woman’s fertility. The story is said [by whom?] to be a predecessor of the Unicorn and the Holy Grail stories.
