One Good Friday at a Baptist church we used to attend, we were treated to the creepy sight of a mannikin onstage in a wedding dress. [1] The lady speaker (who is not the pastor) told us of a dream she had in which she saw the church as a bride. In the vision, Jesus was brushing the bride’s hair. Ew.
There’s some weird stuff in Leviticus. It is deliberately so, forcing us to chew on it, which in turn forces us to see the world in terms of symbols, as God intended. Most of us moderns can’t be bothered with it. It’s beyond our capacity. We think such notions are childish when in fact they require an uncommon wisdom.
There’s nothing better than theologians who basically agree on lots debating the finer points. Jordan and Wilson have different ideas on what a classical education should consist of. Somehow, I agree with both of them. Typical fanboy. You can watch the video here.
Memorials are a big deal in the Bible. When the Lord sees a covering—a firmament—whether it be a rainbow, or blood displayed, He remembers.
When Jesus asks His disciples to perform the Lord’s supper as a memorial to Him, it is not for our memory but God’s. He sees the bread and wine, remembers the blood of His son, and we are spared, covered.
I have a friend who owned and ran a small restaurant for six years. Very hard work. He tried to sell his business for the last three of those years without success. We prayed and he sold it at 9.20am the next morning.
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Other friends also have a business. They are well past being ready to retire and have been trying to sell their business for a couple of years. Their prayers seemed to be answered but the buyer dropped out. What is God doing?
The hidden God has you where you are for a reason. The bad things in life crush us to show us what we are. If good comes out, it is a fragrance that blesses and encourages everyone. If bad comes out, and we are like a lanced boil, we can still use it as a step towards obedience and healing in our lives and others. It’s better to be like the son who verbally disobeyed his father then thought better of it.
Mike Lawyer’s exhortation at ChristKirk on March 7 is encouraging:
On Mount Carmel, Elijah had built an altar of 12 rough-hewn stones. They substituted for the tribes of Israel. They were built and then consumed. The priests of Baal were slain and “washed” in the brook as atonement. The Land was clean. But we know Jezebel trampled this sacrifice underfoot. [1]
Elijah headed for the wilderness. He was a man with a mission. He went to the same cave in which Moses stood, a cleft in the rock. Once again, the Lord “passed over.” He was making a new Covenant, a new Creation, a new Heavens and a new Land.
Okay, so The Earth is Flat after all. The Atlar’s being a symbol of the mediatorial Land, (a priesthood between the heavenly sky and Gentile sea) is the key to a fair amount of weird stuff in the Bible. It also means that a lot of what goes on in the Torah is the key to understanding some later enigmatic events.
The Bronze Altar had a grate inside it to support the sacrifice. The ashes would fall through the holes in the grate and the smoke would rise as a pleasing aroma to God.
In Numbers 16, concerning the rebellion of Korah and his sons, after the “censer” showdown between them and Aaron, the ground opened up and swallowed their tents, all their belongings and their families. However, fire consumed the wannabe priests who were offering the “false” incense. Even the rebellion was divided according to the priestly divisions within Israel. Ashes and smoke. [1]
Understanding the “Trinity” of the Bible’s Garden, Land, World architecture is one of the most helpful keys to making sense of the prophets, Matthew 24 and the Revelation. [1] James Jordan writes:
“The Bible repeatedly speaks of the ‘ends’ of the earth. Sometimes the word in Hebrew is ephes, which means ‘end, extreme limits, nothingness.’ Other times it is qatsah or qetsev, which means, again, ‘end, extremity.’ Deuteronomy 13:7, for instance, uses the expression ‘from one end of the earth to the other end.’ Continue reading
“It often seems to me that the night is much more
alive and richly colored than the day.”
—Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo in 1888
Last week I had the privilege of viewing seven Van Goghs, all in one room, including Starry Night Over the Rhone, the depth and texture of which has to be seen to be believed.
The impressionists went out of their way not to paint what they saw. They stretched and strained the norms to communicate how it made them feel. They were expounding—explaining—reality. As Jordan writes, made in the image of God, man is the only symbol which is also a symbol-maker. [1]
This post has been slain and resurrected for inclusion in my 2015 book of essays, Inquietude.
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