My Lord, What a Mornin’
or Matthew’s Literary Artistry 2.
Sabbath (Genesis) – Light
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,
…..Passover (Exodus) – Firmament
…..Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
…..…..Firstfruits (Leviticus) – Land (Altar)
…..…..There was a violent earthquake,
…..…..…..Pentecost (Numbers) – Lights
…..…..…..for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven
…..…..Trumpets (Deuteronomy) – Hosts
…..…..and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
…..Atonement (Joshua) – Mediators
…..His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
Booths (Judges) – Rest
The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
Notes:
Day 1 is obvious. Day 2 has women in veils (Ezekiel 13:17-21 aligns women’s veils with the veil of the Temple as well).
An earthquake is literally a land-quake. The Altar-mountain is split in two as the old worship dies to bring life to the new. Olivet was symbolically split in two as Ebal and Gerizim, or Zion and Gerizim, the blessed and the cursed. Jesus’ resurrection body was new grain and fruit sprouting up out of the Land on Day 3, the Firstfruits.
The angel came down, just as the Spirit would come down at Pentecost. The new Lampstand Law was being tipped out, and the old stars were beginning to fall.
My Lord, what a morning!
My Lord, what a morning!
Oh, my Lord, what a morning
when the stars begin to fall.
Oh, you will hear the trumpet sound
to wake the nations underground,
Looking to my Lord’s right hand
when the stars begin to fall.
Peter Leithart mentioned recently that Gilgal means “wheel.” [1] Just as Jacob rolled back the stone from the well to bring new life, and God “rolled back” the flesh through circumcision, rolled back sin through the wilderness wandering, and rolled back time for Hezekiah [2], so now the stone was rolled back. He was restoring the years eaten by the locust. Smooth, round stones, angelic hosts and resurrection are always at step 5. [3]
What is even more interesting is that the angel sits on the stone at the same point in the structure as Moses sat on the stone between priest and king when Joshua fought against Amalek.
The angel is robed as a priest, a mediator. The tomb was “whitewashed” in an integrated way: it was clean on the inside and the out. And the stone was a “white stone” from the ephod, which signified that the atonement by the High Priest had been accepted. Also, we have the appearance of the head (lightning) and the covering of his body (snow), the singular and the plural (collective) Mediator.
At ingathering, the armies sent by the Jews are scattered, as all Babels are. The Ark was now in the field, but now the field was the world. The Jewish “succession,” their Covenant continuity (Land), was coming to an end, eclipsed by a greater commission.
In the greater structure, these dead men match chiastically the “falling down dead” of the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus in the Garden. Then, He was “passed over” with the sword. But now, now, He was passing through their midst unmolested as a blazing torch. [4]
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[1] See Peter J. Leithart, (I’ll add this link when I can find it. The search mech on his blog isn’t the best.)
[2] See If I Could Turn Back Time.
[3] At Step 3, we have unhewn, rough altar stones. At Step 4 they are hurled at the Bride caught in adultery and she dies under the Law. At Step 5, she is resurrected, picks up hewn, smooth Temple stones from the brook and hurls them back at her accuser, Goliath, the serpent. Time is rolled back as a smooth tombstone. He is exiled at Step 6.
[4] See Pass-over and Pass-through.
