Bully's Blog

Many of the obscure and apparently obsolete details in the Torah are hints of events later in the Bible. Some of these details are not what is said but what is not said. And some of these unspoken hints are discernible only through identification of common structures. One example is a line missing from Genesis 1.

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CREATION

In the second Stanza, which concerns Day 2, there seems to be a space left deliberately empty that it might be filled.

Genesis 1:6-8

TRANSCENDENCE
And said God, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
(Creation – Ark of the Testimony – Initiation)

HIERARCHY
Let it divide between the waters and the waters.
(Division – Veil – Delegation)

ETHICS
And made God the firmament,
and divided between the waters under the firmament,
(Ascension – Bronze Altar – Presentation)

- – - – - – - – - – - – - -(Testing – Lampstand – Purification)

and from the waters above the firmament.
And it was so.
(Maturity – Incense Altar – Transformation)

OATH/SANCTIONS
And God called the firmament heaven.
(Conquest – Laver – Vindication)

SUCCESSION
And were the evening, and the morning, the second day.
(Glorification – Shekinah – Representation)

Here, there are many hints of future events, such as the “Testimony” in Line 1 parting the waters (As Moses parted the Sea and Joshua’s priests with the Ark parted the river). The interesting thing is that the lower waters became the source of the Land, the earthly Altar (Line 3) and the upper waters the arena of government, the crystal sea below the heavenly Altar (Line 5). The setting for each is hinted at in the structure of this Stanza. (Note that the actual creation of the firmament also seems to be a fivefold pattern with the “Ethics” missing.)

But the focus here is the missing line in the center. Here, God tore open a holy place for the Sun, Moon and Stars. Since Genesis 1 is a fractal, each stanza follows a similar pattern and yet there is a progression in the whole which expands on the one laid down in the first Stanza. What is missing from “the space between” in Stanza 2 is created in Stanza 4. This would be the reason why Day 2, or rather what was created on Day 2, was the only element that was not proclaimed “good.”

Genesis 1:1-2:3

1  Light and Darkness
(Creation – Ark of the Testimony – Initiation)

2  Waters Below and Waters Above
(Division – Veil – Delegation)

3  Dry Land and Firstfruits
(Ascension – Bronze Altar – Presentation)

4  Sun, Moon and Stars
(Testing – Lampstand – Purification)

5  Swarms in Sea and Sky
(Maturity – Incense Altar – Transformation)

6  Animals and Man
(Conquest – Laver – Vindication)

7  Rest and Rule
(Glorification – Shekinah – Representation)

We know that Adam failed to enter into God’s rest, the first Sabbath. A shedding of blood allowed God to open to Adam the fruit of the Land and the womb as He had intended, but with humbling limitations. The curse of death was mitigated only partially, and temporarily, through the sacrifice of animals.
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DIVISION

Israel’s history follows the same pattern, but what was once expressed in the Physical realm was now expressed in the Social realm. What was divided was not the waters but their representatives, the “waters” of the nations. The “stars” (waters above) and “sand grains” (waters below) promised to Abraham find their “Firstfruits” in Joseph, but there is no Pentecostal harvest.

You might notice that Israel’s failure is what stops this pattern being neatly chiastic. The forty years in the wilderness was another, similarly-shaped pattern, with the death of unfaithful Israel in the center, for their worship of false gods.

The stars missing from the original pattern but installed in the greater pattern were not Physical but Social. The serpentine kings of Egypt fell from the sky in a great darkness and a dividing of the waters, but the wise kings of Israel eventually filled the heavenly court and shone like the stars. David and Solomon were “Pharaohs” who listened to the testimony of Moses.
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ASCENSION

In this case, as the book of Hebrews tells us, Israel failed to enter into the heavenly country perceived by Abraham and all those of like faith.
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TESTING

This brings us to the big picture, the shape of Genesis 1 as it is played out across the entire Bible. The question is, who are the stars at the center? Why, the true sons of Abraham, of course, Jews and Gentiles who believed, beginning with those who shone on the day of Pentecost as a human Lampstand.

As with Abraham, God’s household in heaven was a tent of servants — the angels — but there was only one Son, through whom came all Creation. Just as the creation of the firmament between heaven and earth in the Physical realm was not “good” until it was filled, and Abraham’s empty tent was not “good,” so also the human firmament, the mediators between heaven and earth in the Social realm could not be proclaimed “good” until they were filled with the Spirit of God. Subsequently, it should be no surprise that in the book of Revelation, which follows the same structure, the Hierarchy is seven churches, an earthly replica of the seven spirits before the throne, a Lampstand decentralized and surrounding Christ, who communes with them between heaven and earth. This is a new Creation, and it is good.

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On the sons of Abraham as stars, see also Babylonian Bookends.

ART: Abel Pann, Abraham, ‘Look now toward Heaven, and count the stars…’ (Genesis, XV, 5)