Bully's Blog

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

We have reached the fifth stage of the matrix in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which is the sixth cycle (as discussed in part 5, stage 3 — Ascension — is often split into two parts, altar and sacrifice).

So this fifth section is the “Deuteronomy” of the epistle. It is a New Covenant version of Moses giving his final words to the children of Israel before the conquest of the Land. Likewise, Paul himself, and all the other apostles (except perhaps for John, the final word) would be gone before the rulers of the Land (Revelation’s “kings of the earth”) would be wiped off the face of it forever.

As in all previous cycles, there are some real literary wonders here, which is especially satisfying to see when the passages themselves (unparsed) are so familiar. It’s like seeing old friends in a new way: the letter resurrected and alive and walking around.

Creation

This is the “Initiation” stanza of this section, and so is a microcosm of the entire fifth stage. In the Tabernacle pattern, the first step is the Ark of the Covenant, so, contrary to many modern expositors who overemphasize the threat of Greek philosophy and the Roman cultus, this is a warning against Judaizers, who were the only dreal bane of the Firstfruits Church until Nero torched Rome. This stanza is thus a warning against listening to the counterfeit “Ark” of a Judaism which had rejected Pentecost and become demonic. The wrath of God was coming upon the disobedient sons, who would be disinherited, hence they are mentioned in the “Succession” line of the stanza.

Of course, the sin of these Jews is common in our society today. We have rejected God’s laws and replaced them with our own. These false laws are already being used to persecute Christians. As it was during the first century, and also during the Reformation, when these lawless begin slaughtering the true sons of God, God steps in and disempowers them, and his saints are vindicated.

Division

The structure of the Ten Commandments is apparent here. (Between AD30 and AD70, the Land and Womb of Israel became irrelevant. Abraham received a heavenly country and Israel became a nation of spiritual sons and daughters by the Spirit of Christ.) I have bolded and underlined where the “yoking” comes in. It is the people’s “bridal” response to God. [1]

Adam (Priest)  /   Eve (People)

(Transcendence)
Word from God   /   Word to God

(Hierarchy)
Land (Sabbath)   /   Womb (Parents)

(Ethics)
Knife (Murder)   /   Fire   (Adultery)

(Sanctions)
False Blessings (Theft)   /   False Curses (Witness)

(Succession)
Coveting House   /   Coveting Contents

Taking God’s name in vain meant “yoking” oneself to Him with an oath but not following through. At a “Division” step in Numbers, I noticed “yoking” used concerning Israel and false gods. The Ephesians are being warned against being yoked with darkness. In the book of Revelation, the Division step is the seven lamps of the Asian churches. I know some readers struggle a bit with this sort of analysis, but I hope you are able to appreciate the complexity and beauty of this “literature of the Spirit” to some degree at least.

Ascension

The Greek word order is important here. “Walk” is the “Delegation” line of the stanza. Ascension is the “Firstfruits” stanza, hence the reference to children. And the Firstfruits line in this stanza also refers to fruit, which is “opened” in its Triune beauty at Pentecost. The matrix strand that seems to shine here, aptly, is the sacrificial one. Notice the word “pleasing” at Sanctions, the step where God smells a sweet savor, and says “these are my beloved sons.” Interestingly, as God discerns our hearts, so we are also to discern by the Spirit what is pleasing to His.

The rest of this “Deuteronomy” stage took me hours to figure out because it is complex, but once “opened” it is a kaleidoscope of Covenant-shaped wonder.

The Ethics stanza is “opened” into its own Pentecostal speech of fivefold stanzas, and it is fitting that its “Oath/Blessing” resurrection stanza is the one that gets fully opened into the sevenfold “Creation.” It is this Testing cycle that is represented in the “fractal” graphic at top, to help you get a handle on what is going on.

Testing

Notice how the torn veil is a curse to those who were hiding behind the Law of Moses, and yet for the believer the torn veil is the blessing of an open veil.  For the unbeliever, the face of God means exposure and death, the fulfillment of Circumcision. For the believer, the face of God means revelation and life, the fulfillment of Baptism: “these are my beloved sons.” [2]

Maturity

The Maturity step fittingly contains wisdom and music. That’s how we know it’s the Maturity step. This is the Law for the resurrection Body.

The Veil is removed as we confess our sins. The wine is a worldly substitute for wise drinking of the blood of Christ on the Altar, an abuse of the Table of self-examination. Israel’s priests could not drink the wine of God, yet we can. We are kings but we are still Priest-Kings. The Lampstand/Ethics is expanded into a fivefold Covenant scroll; the Shekinah/Succession/Glorification is expanded into a sevenfold Creation resulting from the opening of that “little book” in our worship.

Other than that, words actually fail me here. This is so beautiful.

Conquest

Conquest corresponds to the Covenant vows, and to Adam and Eve on Day 6, so that’s why Paul puts these exhortations here.

Notice the symmetry: Husband | Wife | Church | Savior | Church | Wives | Husbands, yet is moves from a singular husband and wife to a plurality, the Church being a multiplied Body of Christ’s faithfulness in the Garden.

The matrix really shines here, don’t you think? Marriage is presented as a sacrifice to God. Notice Christ’s love at the “Passover” step, and the washing of water at the “Pass-through” or “baptism” step.

Although these two previous stanzas each follow the pattern, they actually follow the pattern when combined as a forming and a filling, a head and a body, with the word at the centre as the “Ethics” and the presentation of the Bride at Trumpets. If you don’t get that, don’t worry. There’s another example coming up which is easier to see. This mystery of which Paul speaks is an unlocking of the sacrificial rite, the head and the body being presented to God separately, both by fire, but only the body requiring washing (baptism). With both transformed into sweet smoke, the body is reunited with the head in the heavenly realms, the sons of God approaching the throne of Christ “in clouds” in Daniel 7.

We are now at the Sanctions step of the Sanctions stage in this section, so it is “vow upon vow.” Here, the husband’s body is on the Altar. As it is “cut open” as Adam, Eve comes out of the “scroll” as a wonderful “there-and-back-again,” with Adam as her Alpha and Omega. Just as the Father sends the Spirit to the Son, who replies in righteousness, so the Son sends the Spirit in love, who gathers the Bride and presents her to Him as a perfectly complementary body. The “hating” appears at Testing, which is where Adam failed, and supports the position that Adam was right there watching when Eve was being seduced.

You can see the Ten Commandments here once again, very subtly. The promise of Land comes in Genesis and is postponed in Numbers. Deuteronomy is the Bridal Body, a new Israel, at Joshua we have blessing and cursing, Adam and Eve on Day 6 before God in the High Priest, the captain of Salvation (and we will cover his clothing in the next post). One flesh refers to the union of Jew and Gentile at Booths, of heaven and earth in the Shekinah, where Adam and Eve are joint-heirs, representing the glory of God. As Doug Wilson wonderfully puts it, “marriage as manifest glory.”

This one is more subtle, but again we have a head and body, which also work as a single structure:

Glorification

This is the Succession step, so Paul moves to Israel and the nations, the womb and the Land of the New Covenant. Here is it children and slaves and masters, but it is intriguing in that it puts the slaves in centre, so it is a subtle retelling of the Abrahamic Covenant and its fulfillment under Moses and Joshua, a “there and back again” from Canaan to Egypt to Canaan:

Notice the blessing upon Joshua at Conquest/Sanctions, and “live long” at Succession in this stanza.

Child rearing is to be festal. Enough said.

Notice “eye-service” as the seven eyes of the Lampstand. It means attempting to fulfill the Law without the Spirit dwelling within us as internal government.

Slave or free is multi-faceted here. It refers to the fact that all Christians, regardless of station in society, have the same inheritance in Christ. But at the “Booths” step, it also points back to the types of Jew and Gentile which were now redundant, Jews being “bound” sacrifices like Isaac that the Gentiles might eventually be free from the curse. (See the chapter “Binding and Loosing” in God’s Kitchen.)

Again, the Greek “giving up” is a deliberate reference to Ascension in this stanza. Everything is sacrificial.

____________________________________
[1] For the reasons why I present the Ten Words in this fashion, see Bible Matrix II.
[2] See A King Among Sons.