Part 1 here.
One thing the Bible Matrix demonstrates is the nature of history. Sure, it repeats itself. Everyone knows that. But our personal histories are microcosms of the lives and deaths of families, churches, nations and empires. Reading the Bible is like looking through a glass onion.
Christ cast Satan out of the Garden. He bought it with blood. The Garden ascended. The Garden is now out of his reach. Satan was bound, then released for a time.
Satan took up residence in the Land. The firstfruits church bought it with blood. [1] The Land ascended. The Land is now out of Satan’s reach. Satan was bound. He will again be released for a time.
The Lord “called” Adam as Day 1, giving him one law (light). He divided him as Day 2 and built Eve as a Holy Place, a firmament to be filled with stars (godly offspring). As Day 3 He made a new covenant and married them, the first nearbringing. Adam as the Bronze Altar (dust elevated from the Land) then became the first High Priest, the Table. In his obedience, together they prefigured totus Christus.
Day 4 follows. As Adam represented singular light, Eve was plural light. She was the holy fire on the altar, the glory of Adam. [1] Day 4 is the Lampstand. Day 4 is also the wilderness. If Eve was seduced, it was because Adam’s priesthood was corrupt. There was strange fire on the altar, the biblical theme of harlotry. In the garden, the strange fire was the false lightbearer who filled the “firmament” with darkness.
With that background, look at how this plays out in Daniel 7. It also supports James Jordan’s assertion that the fact that the beast’s body is “feminine” carries some importance. [2] The false church is the body of totus diabolus, the locust swarm gathered as a tabernacle by the fallen head. Daniel seven is the history of the first century church as the Woman in the wilderness. But the faithfulness of the new Adam brought an end to the priesthood of the sons of Aaron.
“According to I Chronicles chapter 15, 16:4-6, 37-43, David rearranged the Levitical priesthood into 24 courses (orders); he assigned 16 courses to Eleazer, and 8 courses to Ithamar. This rearrangement was chartered because of a population explosion in David’s reign.” [1]
More evidence for a human government installed in heaven in AD70 (the firstfruits church). If the rebuilt Tabernacle (the Tabernacle of David [2]) prefigured both the restoration of the Jews after the captivity (which is what Amos is actually referring to) and the Jew-Gentile church, what could David’s rearranged priesthood mean typologically?
The New Covenant is not about salvation. It is about dominion. Before you call in the inquisitors, have a look at this diagram from my book:
“Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.” 1 Cor. 13:8-10
I remember hearing a Southern Baptist pastor many years ago teaching that “that which is perfect” was the completed New Testament. He was forced to find some point in first century history that would justify his belief in the cessation of miraculous gifts like tongues. Well, to a point, I think he was right.
The first ‘cycle’ in the Joseph narrative wasn’t covered in Totus Christus. I have included it in Bible Matrix, and it contains some wonders.
Firstly, Joseph’s first dream (the bowing sheaves) is placed at Firstfruits – Day 3. His second dream (sun moon and stars) is at Pentecost – Day 4.
Secondly, Joseph receives his robe from Jacob at Passover (covering). It symbolises the firmament (Day 2). And his brothers cover it with goat’s blood at Atonement (covering). It symbolises the substitutionary animals and mediatory Man (Day 6). The giving and taking of the robe match chiastically.
Of course, these Scriptures predate the feasts in Leviticus 23.
“Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.” John 19:27
Although they are spread throughout the four gospels, Jesus’ seven words from the cross are easy to put in chronological order. Once in order, they follow the themes of the annual Feasts.
At Firstfruits, Christ on the cross is Moses, mediating between heaven and earth. From the mountain, He transfers His legal responsibility for His mother to John.
He calls her Woman. At this point in the garden, the Lord married Adam to Eve. Of the seven elected Judges, this is Deborah, the warrior-mother. This step is always about the Covenant head lifted up to make a house for Greater Eve.
With this loving act, Christ prefigures the responsibility for the faithful remnant of Old Covenant Israel being transfered to the Apostles.
Interestingly, Revelation 18:7-8 follows the same structure. At the Firstfruits/’Woman/Bride’ step, Israel, who has rejected and killed her Messiah, says, “I am no widow.”
This event would explain the massive discontinuity between the apostles and the church fathers. James Jordan writes:
The true Fathers of the Church are Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Jeremiah, Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John, and the other Fathers in the Bible. These men, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, created the apostolic deposit from which the Church always grows. The men who came after them, in the first and second and third centuries, are not Church Fathers but Church Babies. We may think that because these men lived right after the apostles, they must have known a lot. Remarkably, this is not the case. Anyone who reads the Bible, climaxing in the New Testament, and then turns to the “apostolic fathers” of the second century, is amazed at how little these men seem to have known…
“How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes… Then they came to the valley of Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men. (from Numbers 13)
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:20)
The Tabernacle is an architectural model of the world. Each of the seven speeches of the Lord (Exodus 25-31) is introduced with a variant of the phrase “Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying.” The seven speeches follow the pattern of the seven days of the Creation week, and also the seven feasts in Leviticus 23.
The Table of Showbread corresponds to both the grain and fruit created on Day 3, the Feast of Firstfruits and to the Asension of Moses.
This pattern began in the garden, when after Adam’s “Red Sea” death and resurrection, he was united to his bride by Covenant. He “ascended” as covenant head of a new family, with God’s one Law.
On the table in the Holy Place were twelve loaves of bread and jugs of beer (from grain), and later, wine. Like the manna and the grapes of Eshcol, these were a promise of rest and rule with God on a future Sabbath as priest and king. Here is the last supper. As with Adam and Moses, this initial promise of wine was followed by exposure to the serpent for testing under the Law – Pentecost.
Just as the marriage covenant of Adam and Eve at Firstfruits is really a betrothal of their united marriage to God on Day 7, so this Table of Israel was a promise of future glory to the whole world at the final Sabbath feast, Tabernacles.
To use Doug Wilson’s phrase, human marriage is “manifest glory.” It is a Day 3 picture of the Day 7 rest to come at the union of heaven and earth.
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