Intriguing wear for the road

It is fascinating to reflect on the nudity in humanity’s debut (Genesis 2:25, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed) and the many absurd developments in secular and sacred clothing. Our ideas of shame and confidence get sprinkled across the millennia and over the very territory where clothing is front and centre. In full solidarity with humanity we need clothing like Adam, Eve, and Aaron did, and like all saints do. Dressing up can be a futile venture like the figleaf choices of Adam and Eve, but it can also be found among the highly recommended and urgent activities we need for the life God gives us.

More than clothes

Even though our destiny indicates a genderless – angelic – condition we have been focused on clothing to the detriment of the quality of life.

For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. Mark 12:25

Our Lord evaluated the contemporary attitude towards clothing (plus food and drink) as not sustainable (Matthew 6:25). Life is definitely more than the clothes and other things we accumulate.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Naked humans, all eligible for a new wardrobe

Some parts of the human race did not seem to have latched on to the clothing practices from Eden, and those parts remains a rebuke to the parts of the world where clothing is high on the list of priorities and an integral part of culture and commerce. All humans are exposed and vulnerable in the spiritual and natural realms. We have interdependence hooks and handrails that we do not acknowledge. Amid all our insecurities and adversities we can easily forget that we are all in God’s care. In our Lord’s work he was interested in helping us understand that clothing indicates the interest of caregivers

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:28-29

Just as the ancients had God as tailor and seamstress so we moderns have our wardrobe taken care of by the Heavenly Father.

A sprint or marathon

Imagine that God had adopted us into his family – pardoned us and given us the Holy Spirit – would people not be justified in calling him out if he asked us to go out and purchase our own clothing sporting the family crest? If that was not strange enough there are people who are designing their own wardrobe.

We are pretty sure that priests, and the high priest in particular, dressed and undressed as required in performing their duties. The Christian priesthood, all believers, do not have that dynamic.

We put on Christ and no change is required. Christ is our righteousness. Armour and Spirit-fruit are the benefits of our wardrobe. The things of Christ and God only reach us via the Holy Spirit.

We recognize our clothing in the promise of the Father (Luke 24:49)

We recognize our clothing in the baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5)
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

We recognize our clothing in the power the Holy Spirit brings (Acts 1:8)
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

None of these are loans, therefore our dressing up for Jesus is far from being a lifelong pursuit of right things. Getting dressed is no marathon. It is not even a sprint, because no labour is involved in Christ sending the Holy Spirit to those who believe that God’s Son died and rose for the benefit of humanity.

Another example of the demise of the Mosaic system appears in the consecration of the priesthood. Moses organized the consecration and cleansing of Aaron’s clan with the usual animal sacrifice, including the burning of the carcass. The bull sin offering and its burning is a manifest type of Christ, but we are not able to find its fulfillment in the salvation of the world.

But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering. Exodus 29:14

The way of salvation (and holiness) was prefigured in the tabernacle services. Blood, altar, fire and the mercyseat were the working parts. These all represent a roleplay of creation in service of sin and they seem to have no part in the real thing.

Salvation in Christ completely bypassed the tabernacle. Its detailed processes do not stand the test of effectiveness and reliability

1. There was no altar upon which was Christ offered
2. His death did not occur near the temple
3. His body was not burned
4. The atonement was outside the camp (city)
5. Christ was priest and sacrifice

Change Rejected

Change is hard to do, even when the terms are stark and the facts are unveiling in plain sight. People talk a good game of courage and compliance but they seem to put on blinders when the neccessary shifts arrive.

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. Hebrews 7:12

If there is one law that the Hebrew people acknowledge what madness could bring Christians to keep trying CPR on a corpse centuries after its death was announced?

Hebrews 7:28 is graphic about the law’s inadequacy as is Hebrews 8:6 about the difference between old and new.

For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

What wisdom beside demonic strategy says choose the old and not so great?

The tabernacle was a wonder to see. Without knowing or ever seeing the inside story or the furnishings, Israelites brought their offerings and watched as the cloud and fire appeared (Exo. 40:34-38) year after year. The laver, the altar of burnt offering and its furnishing were all that the worshippers saw. The other atonement-functional pieces of the tent were out of sight and were of two types, gold-plated or pure gold. It seems that the use of gold was intended to represent divine identity and essence, the clear distinction between God and man, and the mystery of incarnation. Solomon or anyone else can try to turn wood into gold, or gold-plated into gold, but upgrades, not being under human authority or power, are a sign of human ingenuity and folly.

Gold meets God

The table-top, the censer, the lamp(stand), and the mercy seat, are inner operating parts of priestly atonement and are pure gold.

But what about all those other golden items: dishes, spoons, books and rings? They are a reminder that divinity is woven into all our ventures and their functions contrast with the exclusive golden functions, those in which God exclusively takes care of our situations. They do not directly provide atonement and are connected with food, drink and washings (cleaning up).

So why does Solomon try to give the impression that the whole project is golden? Well because it wasn’t, and it being a palace for the monarch of monarchs, ought to have the best of everything. That being said, we realize that God was not going to live there. He was fully aware of this paradox, yet he covered the place with gold.

The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and its height was 120 cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. 2 Chronicles 3:4

So he lined the house with gold—its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors—and he carved cherubim on the walls. 2 Chronicles 3:7

Moses ordered golden cherubim (Exodus 25:18)

And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.

Solomon conversely made wooden cherubim.

In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of wood and overlaid them with gold. 2 Chronicles 3:10

He also seems to have made the table of wood instead of wood

They offer to the Lord every morning and every evening burnt offerings and incense of sweet spices, set out the showbread on the table of pure gold, and care for the golden lampstand that its lamps may burn every evening. For we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but you have forsaken him. 2 Chronicles 13:11

Moses had ordered a wooden table.

You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. Exodus 25:23-24

All of these examples of innovative design are a problem we can explain. The place where God was going to put his name obviously was going to be monumental even if human hands were involved. The tent would surely have to be replaced as surely as the wanderings were over. Thirdly, if Yahweh was not going to live there the atonement promised was not so personal as one might be led to think after all.

True temple or residence upgrades have nothing to do with gold, silver, bronze, cedar, or precious stones. They have nothing to do with levitical priests or the law governing the priesthood. The temple upgrade that sits at the centre of God’s plan is the human body in which the Holy Spirit lives.

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” John 8:56

Be very sorry for yourself if you keep trotting out your acquisitions and triumphs, flexing your right “things” muscle, all the while squeezing the traffic off of joy’s highways.  When Yeshua told his contemporaries that their most celebrated ancestor had an occasion to exult over the Christ Event,  he created a sharp contrast between their murderous conspiracies to silence and murder him and Abraham’s preview and exultation. When Abe exulted he had no land and innumerable children were yet millennia away.

Abraham’s vision sets the tone for all believers to experience contentment with divine promises and to be comfortable with the paradox of not seeing and not possessing the promised thing(s). Land and children were Abraham’s treasures, both promised by God, yet he was 90 years old when his promised child was born, and his children (not yet countless) did not possess the promised land until 400 years after Abraham died. This puts his exultation in raw faith space.

Faith and sight are related even though we have adopted a quick filter for accessing faith matter. 2 Corinthians 5:7 – for we walk by faith, not by sight – helps us determine when a matter truly belongs to faith or performance. However faith needs to have something to motivate the walking without sight. That thing we hope for can be like Noah’s vision of flood and ark (Heb.11:7), or Sarah’s desire and expectation for children (vs. 11), or like the escape from the destroying angel (vs 28). When it comes to life and inheritance, we are all separated from the final object of our faith, and need to hope.

Abraham’s exultation was obviously about something more distant from his reality than children and land. It was Messiah’s day.  It is not mere sloganeering nor sentimental energy to call Abe “Dad”. The entire Gentile world is God’s target when our Lord and his followers separate Jew from Gentile in order to establish a new person (the new man) in the image of God, and discard the things unrelated to lifegiving faith.

and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Rom 4:12

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad

Rejoice (CHAIro) appears in 68 verses while exult (agalliAo) appears in 11 verses. Rejoice and exult are not synonyms. They appear together too, four times, and with precision, with focus on (a) the persecution of those who follow Christ, (b) those convicted by the preview of, (c) the glory and (d) the consummation of the Christ Event.

1. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matt 5:12
2. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. John 8:56
3. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1Pet 4:13
4. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Rev 19:7

Peter helps us see the difference between joy and exultation. If a smile is rejoicing, then a belly-laugh is exultation.

But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1Pet 4:13

1. Rejoice for being co-sufferer with Christ
2. ye may exult when glory dawns

From smile to belly-laugh

It is indeed humbling to have this exultation experience subjected to someone or something other than Christ. No prophet, priest, or king can deliver the catalyst for the kind of exultation that Yeshua says Abraham had. At some time our smile, our joy, will burst into a belly-laugh at the very promise of life, into an expression too intense for words. Like Abraham, not having the land or children as promised, we have access to exceeding joy; exultation. Having eternal life we are glad, but the promise of immortality, assured by the gift of Holy Spirit to us, is reason to exult. The end becomes real only because of faith and hope. Even now, having been adopted, we do not yet have what God’s sons will eventually possess.  Yet, it is full or glory, needing nothing added.

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice (exult, agalliAio) with joy (chara) unspeakable and full of glory: 1Pet 1:8