The Altar of the Abyss – 5
“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.” Mark 16:9
The relationship of the Ark to the Lampstand is important. The Ark is the single ‘light’ in the darkness of the Most Holy Place. It rules the first three days of creation. The Lampstand is the seven governing lights (sun, moon and five bright planets) and it rules the next three days of creation. The Ark is the Adam-light (Sabbath) to the Eve-lights (Pentecost). The Ark ascends first (head) and the Lampstand ascends later (body). This might sound weird but it runs right throughout the Bible. (For this pattern in the exile and restoration, see here.)
Now to the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount follows the Creation Week/Tabernacle pattern. When Jesus gets to the Lampstand, He says this:
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23)
Now I want to relate that to this statement in Matthew 12:45:
“Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
Jesus had cast the evil spirit (false Ark – “Adam-light”) out of the house of God, and the Temple had remained intact. It was completed and glorified by the Herods. Covered in white marble and gold, it dazzled the eyes when it reflected the early morning and late afternoon sun. It was finished in AD64, and the demon returned with seven others worse than itself (false Lampstand – “Eve-lights”) to a house that was clean, decorated and empty (Matthew 12:45). How great was their darkness! (Matthew 6:23). The Jews had blasphemed both witnesses—the Son (bridegroom) and the Spirit (matchmaker)—and the true glory-light had departed. They had substituted the prophets with their own traditions, and received the “Emmanuel” they deserved—the Accuser instead of the Advocate.
Just as the Lampstand “conquered” Belshazzar and led the vessels to Ezra’s restored Temple, Herod’s house was a counterfeit Restoration. His seven-fold demonic Lampstand was a false Pentecost. In the darkness, he could not see the writing on the wall (Matthew 6:23).
Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene, picturing the Jewish ‘greater Eve’ who would believe. But the harlot who refused was blinded and her kingdom taken away. TAOTA
