New Covenant Virility – 2
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Some more thoughts on New Covenant Virility.
The minute details of the Bible matter. What was the Ethiopian eunuch, keeper of the queen’s treasure, reading, and why? In sacred history there are no accidents.
Isaiah 53 is about the barrenness and woundedness of God’s Man. He is circumcision epitomised. Like a eunuch, He is judged by men as unfit for Tabernacle service, judged in the gates (kingdom doors shut) and sent outside the city. He is “stricken,” or afflicted with stroke, God’s “lash” of plague, as unacceptable-for-priesthood as a leper.
“…and who will declare His generation?” Here is an important detail. What does this mean?
“So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.” Matthew 1: 17.
Is this where His generation ends? No. It’s where the barrenness of Abraham and Sarah ends. The bloodline of Abraham, as far as Israel was concerned, was a single cord that joined Abraham to Christ. That blood was presented to God at His ascension, seen by John in vision in Revelation 5. The blood no longer matters. It mattered to the Jews who rejected Christ, but all their genealogies were destroyed in AD70. [1]
At Pentecost, the Messianic line became Spirit. As mentioned in the comments after the other post, the New Covenant is not about a “bloodline” succession that can be cut by Athaliah, Haman, or the Satan hiding behind them all. In fact, any time Satan tries to stamp out this new Messianic line, it simply grows, because of the testimony of those who suffer. This “multiplication by Spirit” is Satan’s worst nightmare. It miraculously raises living sons out of dead stones.
“Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” Matthew 3:8-9
This is exactly what we see in Isaiah 53. This gelding-for-us, the one Whom circumcision pictured over the centuries, the cut-off One, the One Who, like the prophets Jeremiah and possibly Paul, never married or had children, would yet see offspring:
When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
Imagine that. Perhaps this is why the eunuch, who would have known the requirements for priesthood, wondered what this all meant. Who was this Royal Slave who would end up with, not only all the treasure, but also a throne and offspring?!
And then, after Philip’s rapture, he probably continued reading from where he left off (as one does with scrolls). If so, he would have come across this passage, the structure of which reinforces my comments on Acts 8. We see faithful Jews (the Adams), faithful “cut” ones, and faithful foreigners all brought into the house. No, they are the house. What follows is terrifying. The unfaithful Israelites who were squatting in God’s house are at Testing. The old house, the corrupted Temple, became a Garden given over to the serpent, ie. a wilderness. (From Isaiah 56-57)
CREATION: (Garden)
Thus says the LORD: ”Keep justice, and do righteousness,
…..For My salvation is about to come,
…..And My righteousness to be revealed.
……….Blessed is the man who does this,
……….and the son of man who lays hold on it;
……………Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
……………and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
……….Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has
……….joined himself to the LORD Speak, saying,
…..“The LORD has utterly separated me from His people”;
Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.”
DIVISION: (Land)
For thus says the LORD:
…..“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
…..and choose what pleases Me,
……….and hold fast My covenant,
……………Even to them I will give in My house
……….and within My walls a place and a name
…..better than that of sons and daughters; [2]
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
ASCENSION: (World)
“Also the sons of the foreigner who
join themselves to the LORD,
…..to serve Him,
………and to love
………….the name
………of the LORD,
…..to be His servants –
……….Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
……….and holds fast My covenant –
……………Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
……….And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
…..Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
…..will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called
a house of prayer for all nations.”
TESTING: Assessment of worship that has compromised with the serpent. All the unclean beasts (Gentile armies) are invited to dine on the abandoned House. This refers in context to Solomon’s Temple, but typologically to Herod’s Temple. They are presented as those who have defiled God’s feasts. They will be eaten. Jesus uses the same language in Matthew 24. [3] It is the Tabernacle, and Tabernacles, turned upside-down.
The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, (Ark)
…..“Yet I will gather to him others
…..besides those who are gathered to him.” (Veil)
……….All you beasts of the field, come to devour,
……….All you beasts in the forest. (Altar/Table)
……………His watchmen are blind,
……………They are all ignorant; (Lampstand)
……….They are all dumb dogs, They cannot bark; (Incense)
…..Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. (Adam)
Yes, greedy dogs which never have enough. (Rest)
Beasts are unclean Gentiles, scavenging outside the city. Dogs are unclean (scavenging) Jews, false prophets, inside the city, hence Paul’s reference to Judaisers as dogs. Here, instead of being the Body responding to, repeating the Law, they are dumb.
MATURITY: (Plagues and plunder, multitudes and fullness. Here it is sins that are filled up, full-grown.)
And they are shepherds Who cannot understand; (Light)
…..They all look to their own way, (Waters divided)
……….Every one for his own gain, From his own territory. (Land, fruits)
……………“Come, I will bring wine, (Lights/Government)
……….And we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink; (Swarms, fullness)
…..Tomorrow will be as today, (Mediators, Day of Covering)
And much more abundant.” (Rest, Shekinah, Offspring [very ironic!])
CONQUEST: (False atonement: The sinners cover their sin with the blood of the innocent. Same structure as the events in Revelation.)
The righteous perishes and no man takes it to heart;
…..Merciful men are taken away,
……….while no one considers that the righteous
……………is taken away from evil.
……….He shall enter into peace;
…..They shall rest in their beds,
each walking in his uprightness.
GLORIFICATION: (Tabernacles feast, marriage, children, rest)
Wow. This last bit really rubs in the kind of offspring (fruit) Israel gave God. It is the seventh stanza of this section, yet in itself it has seven stanzas. Each section submits itself to the common themes in Glorification, yet each section reiterates one step the sevenfold pattern. [3] Tabernacles was the big feast, so in this final ascerbic prophecy, the prophet turns the annual Feasts into curses. What sublime poetry is Isaiah.
It’s long enough to warrant a post of its own, so I’ll publish that separately tomorrow. It will blow you away.
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[1] See Pedigree Papers.
[2] This possibly corresponds to the many times in the Old Testament when a son or daughter died as “Atonement.” I think of David’s first son by Bathsheba, and Jeroboam’s son. The ascension of Jephthah’s daughter also occurred at this point in that passage. It is Adam and Eve before God as a corporate mediator. The curse concerns barrenness, with Adam as head (sweat of his brow) and Eve as body (pain in childbirth). They become spiritual eunuchs.
[3] Isaiah loves to do this, and the poetic “Covenantal” subtleties of his poetic vision are mind-boggling. See Wizards the Peep and Mutter and Bad Tabernacle in Isaiah 66 and the “Mandelbrot” Feasts chart in 50 Failed Predictions #8. I’ll just bet another step out would find that these greater structures also form a heptamerous pattern.
