2020 Passover
Tonight is about Jesus entering the holy place. No, it’s not the day of atonement, and technically, he wouldn’t enter the true holy place for another 4 days or so from now, at his resurrection. But the whole point of this night was about the entering of the holy place .
Hebrews 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
The priests had to do this once a year, continually. But this would be a one-and-done deal. And yet…Paul said that the priest entered the type of the holy place with the blood of otherS. Plural – so who were these OTHERS whose blood Aaron entered with?
Leviticus 16:2 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy [place] within the vail before the mercy seat, which [is] upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy [place]: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.
It was with the blood of bulls and goats that Aaron entered the most holy place. These bulls and goats died so that Aaron would not die when he entered the most holy place – the presence of God. They created a way for Him to enter God’s presence.
And Jesus’ sacrifice, of course, replaced these sacrifices. These particular sacrifices, but these sacrifices are not all picturing the same person. These sacrifices provided the blood of others. But other whats? Other people… or other fractions?
Leviticus 16:6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.
The bullock was offered by Aaron, for Aaron, because it represented… Aaron. Not his beast; not his heart; not his spirit. But AARON. Aaron’s soul. He also offered a Ram., as a burnt offering, and a kid of the goats, for a sin offering. And another kid of the goats, which was sent off in the wilderness. That’s a total of four things – which would, logically, have to correspond to the soul, spirit, heart, and beast.
All of these are killed and offered to God, except for the scapegoat – for it is the beast, alone, which has no future in the kingdom of God.
RAM
The Hebrew word for “Ram” is Ayil. This is interesting because the word El is simply a shortened form of the same word. Thus, the word for the most high El is derived from the word for Ram. This means that killing a Ram, in a very real sense, represented killing an El!
But what is a El, exactly? John 4:24 tells us “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”. If this were in Hebrew, it would most likely have used the word El or Elohim for “God”, here – meaning that an Elohim is a being made of spirit.
This, an Ayil represents an El, and therefore a Ram represents a spirit!
Now the word for Ram, Ayil derives from a word meaning “Strength”, which comes from a root meaning “to twist”, which implies strength, as in a cord twisted together.
But we could have some fun with this definition by saying that twisting and being strong-willed or stubborn are things a Ram is known for… and also things a spirit is known for.
So then the death of the Ram must represent the sacrifice of Jesus’ spirit fraction. The death of His spirit body, the moment He became a human being in the womb of Mary.
LAMB
The atonement sacrifice specified a “kid of the goats”, but the passover specifically provided the option of either a lamb or a kid: Ex 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
It was to be less than a year old, or less than one spiritual year-day-millennium old. Thus, taken from among the humans, not a being already made into spirit. From a being which was not yet made into a Ram by time, as Adam and Eve would have been, had they remained in the Garden eating the fruit of the tree of life they would have “lived for ever”… become Rams.
Now the word translated “Lamb” is from the Hebrew seh which means “crash” or “ruined” due to the Lamb’s adorable habit of getting out and destroying stuff… or course, that could also be said of the heart, which yearns against the fences and ruins what it touches.
Obviously, if killing a Ram represents the death of an El, then killing a Lamb can only represent the death of a YOUNG El – one of us! For it is as one of us, one of the sons of Abraham – literally, as a son of a man – that Jesus died.
For Jesus did not die on the stake as a ram; he died as a lamb. He was not here as a spirit being, not here as a mature Ayelim/Elohim… He was here as one of us… infant Elohims… young Ayilims… which is, of course, a Lamb!
Isaiah 53:6-7 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Notice something though… if you read this carefully, you see that we are not like lambs which have gone astray! If only it were just our hearts which have gone astray! No, we are like SHEEP which have gone astray!
1 Peter 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
We are like sheep, acting like RAMS which have perverted the truth; just like the full-grown and arrogant spirits who stubbornly twist what they see to their own destruction!
And back in Isaiah 53:7, we see the contrast with Jesus’ own spirit; for He not only went as a lamb to the slaughter, but also “as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth”.
His beast, the Lamb, went meekly to the slaughter its soul led it to… but as a sheep, a spirit, He didn’t speak against the injustice of the death of his BEAST!
Isaiah 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
But here we are back to the suffering of His soul; for the “he’s” and “his’s” in this passage are all about Jesus’ SOUL. It was his soul which was put in prison, trapped in a selfish body and a stubborn spirit, like ours; Trapped so that it could be FREED from that prison; which, in turn, created the path the “new and living way” which allows ours to be freed from the same prison and pass through that same veil He did, the one which tore when He died – and had, until then, prevented men from entering the most holy place.
Isaiah 53:9 And he made his [soul’s] grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he [his beast] had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth [his spirit]. His soul went to the grave with the wicked (those who followed their spirit) and the rich (those who followed their heart), even though his beast had done no man violence, and his spirit had done no deceit.
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt 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.
And it is because of this, that his soul could be an offering for sin. The soul, which, of course, is pictured by the bullock! The bullock which was offered for Aaron, and for His house – us!
THE BULL
The death of Jesus’ soul, His death as a coequal Elohim, can only be the death of the bull. The word for “Bullock” is Par, from a root word meaning to break, as in “break a covenant”, no doubt from the annoying habit of bulls to break down fences.
But we could also have fun with this word, for as it is the nature of the spirit to build stubborn fences and the nature of the heart to push through them, it is the job of the soul to break them both. And by doing so, to find solutions to problems they, due to the limited and prejudiced nature of their understanding, cannot find.
The value of a bull is roughly ten times that of a ram; and the value of a ram roughly ten times that of a lamb. In Biblical times, a lamb was worth an ephah of wheat, a ram was worth a homer/shekel of wheat, and a bull was worth ten homers/shekels. Thus, a bull/soul is worth 100 times more than a lamb/beast.
Zechariah 11:10-11 And I took my rod Beautiful, cutting it in two, so that the Lord’s agreement, which he had made with all the peoples, might be broken. And it was broken on that day: and the sheep-traders, who were watching me, were certain that it was the word of the Lord.
The “sheep traders” are those who trade in, and profit from, spirits. These are not the people who raise the sheep – the shepherds, the leaders of individual synagogues or houses. These are the brokers of the sheep, those who held power in the temple and formed dogma and doctrine.
Zechariah 11:12 And I said to them, If it seems good to you, give me my payment; and if not, do not give it. So they gave me my payment by weight, thirty shekels of silver. And the Lord said to me, Put it into the store-house, the price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty shekels of silver and put them into the store-house in the house of the Lord.
The chief priests, the sheep-traders, valued Jesus at 30 shekels of silver; interestingly, that’s half a mina, or exactly 1/100th of a silver talent – which was established in 1 Kings 20:39 as the value of a man’s life.
The life of any other “son of man” is valued at a silver talent; but they valued him at thirty shekels, a hundredth of a talent, a mere lamb in comparison. They valued Jesus at 1/100th of the true life of a man – in other words, they considered Him a beast when He was the only true soul there! Because an arrogant spirit always treats its soul as if it were a beast!
But Jesus allowed them to do this specifically so that HE could break the covenant; the covenant which required death for the first sin, the covenant which required potentially good, well-meaning people to die for a foolish mistake.
As a soul, Jesus sought to break that unfair fence because, again, that’s what BULLS do! 2 Samuel 14:14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
So The Father broke his stick called “Beautiful” in order to be able to save those of us who were banished, that we might not be expelled from Him, forever walled off by the veil of death.
BREAKING BANDS
But that wasn’t the only thing Jesus broke that day. For He broke not only the covenant He had made with them, the old covenant, the marriage to Israel and Judah… but more importantly, the covenant they had made with each other!
Zechariah 11:14 Then I took my other rod, the one named Bands, cutting it in two, so that the relation of brothers between Judah and Israel might be broken. Israel and Judah were the wives of Jesus. They were, therefore, symbolically His body. They were, therefore, yet another representation of Jesus’ heart and spirit.
Yet Jesus could not rule over them; as an Elohim, Jesus never successfully tamed them, as He later would His human body. He failed to convince them, never won them over to His side. For no matter what He did, the second he turned his back Israel was always building golden calves to worship – beasts to worship.
Judah was better, at least at first, but in the end wound up worse than Israel… significantly, because it followed Israel’s sins.
Ezekiel 23:11, 31 And when her sister Aholibah [Jerusalem] saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she [Samaria], and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.
Thou [Jerusalem] hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.
Given that the spirit follows the heart, and not the other way around, and given that Israel had golden calves, actual beasts to worship… whereas Judah followed the high places, looking for spirits to follow… these sisters can only be symbolic of the heart and the spirit of the OT Jesus.
The heart and the spirit are supposed to be hereditary enemies; so opposed, by nature, that if ever they agree the soul can be certain it has the right answer. And Israel and Judah spent much of their time warring, or at least, squabbling, with each other.
But when the spirit is devoted to its beast, or when the heart has been forced to “want” whatever the spirit says, neither can perform their true function. The rod named “Beautiful”, Jesus, died so that the relationship of these two fractions called “Bands”, or bondages, might be broken.
Because when the heart and spirit are in league against the soul, the soul is easily overwhelmed; and so the Father broke His beautiful covenant (which, if a man do it, he shall live in them) so that he could break the covenant of bondage which only existed in the first place because these hearts and spirits would not follow beauty!
Romans 10:15 as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Jesus came so that they could see the beautiful truth and be set free from the bondage to their heart and spirit… by breaking their bond with each other! The relationship between these two had to be broken in order for a shepherd to rule them.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
1 Chronicles 11:1-3 Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we [are] thy bone and thy flesh. 2 And moreover in time past, even when Saul was king, thou [wast] he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel. 3 Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.
Now think about what was happening here; these people, who would later be two sisters, joined together in a covenant, came to David and said “we are your flesh and your bones”. It didn’t say it the other way around, that David was their flesh and bones, in other words, their relative; That’s what we’ve always assumed, and that’s probably even what they meant at the time…but that isn’t what was happening here! They were asking David to be their king! And promising that they would be HIS flesh and HIS bones!
In other words, they were offering to be His HEART and his SPIRIT, if He would be their SOUL! Which casts Adam’s words in a new light…
Genesis 2:23 And Adam said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Eve was made from Adam’s flesh and bones; not the other way around. She was to be HIS body, and HIS spirit! And he was to be her ruler! Her head… her soul! This explains why Paul said… Ephesians 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Because Jesus is our head, just as Adam was Eve’s head and David was Israel’s head. These are all identical symbols, recast in different characters but with the same point: that in order to create new souls, a soul needs a spirit and a body.
A king needs a priesthood to lead a nation. A man needs a wife to have children. And a soul needs bone to have flesh (remember, in Ezekiel 37, the bones come first). Without flesh and bones, a soul is just a disembodied spirit, incapable of really interacting with the material world. Luke 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
FLESH AND BLOOD
So as we already knew, Jesus had a heart like men, and a spirit like other men. Thus, was a partaker of their flesh and their bone, or of their flesh and blood – for bones are what makes blood, thus one can picture another. At least, for now.
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For verily he took not on [him the nature of] angels; but he took on [him] the seed of Abraham. 17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
So when Jesus became “flesh and blood” like his brethren the sons of Abraham, he took upon himself their body and their spirit, but not their soul! For if he had taken their soul, He would have ceased to be Himself. No, He took their flesh and blood, and set about making them both worship their King – His soul. Just as all of us should do.
WASHING
Leviticus 16:3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on.
Before Aaron entered the temple, he had to wash his entire body and change His clothes. On this same night, even though it was passover and not atonement, Jesus acted out the same ritual:
John 13:2 And supper being ended… He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. 5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe [them] with the towel wherewith he was girded. 6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
No one who has not been washed is worthy of salvation. But the washing takes many forms; the baptisms of fire, the holy spirit, and water, for example; baptisms of blood and Noah’s flood, in the Jordan and in the cloud over Sinai, to name a few.
Tonight there are three symbols we are meant to play out. The only three external symbols which survived the abolition of the external covenant. The flesh of Jesus in the form of the bread; the blood or spirit of Jesus, in the form of the wine. And this water of washing.
John 13:9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also [my] hands and [my] head. 10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash [his] feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
We now know that the symbol of feet is a symbol of the soul, for wherever the feet go, the rest of the body follows. And if your soul truly is in charge, the rest of you need not be washed – for the whole point of this life is that your soul learn to purify your own flesh and your own spirit so that He won’t have to!
But to have any hope of doing that, your own soul – or, in this case, your feet – needs washed first. Then you can feed your flesh the flesh of Christ, to make your beast act like His; and then you can feed your spirit the blood of Christ, to make your spirit behave as His did. But first, your own feet have to be washed.
< DO FOOTWASHING>
John 13:12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? 13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for [so] I am. 14 If I then, [your] Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
He washes our feet because He first washed Himself. He created a path for us to walk, found a way to bring us back from the valley of the shadow of death. As feet lead the body, so He leads us in green pastures.
Jesus is our Lord and Master, our proxy soul. And He has washed our feet, so that we can then make choices as we walk along the path that are pure; choices that will lead our heart to green pastures, and cause our spirit to drink the still waters of Psalms 23, as His did.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Jesus was made in the FORM, or the IMAGE of a servant – He was made in the image of a beast; and was also made in the likeness of men, having a spirit like them. This is the opposite of the divine plan as revealed in Genesis 1:26, where God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion…”
But Man failed to have dominion over his image and his likeness. Man failed to convert the image of the beast and the likeness of the false prophet within him into an image of God and a likeness of Christ.
Man’s soul wasn’t capable, or at least, wasn’t willing, to rule over them as he had been commanded. So then God made himself in the image and likeness of them, to show them how to make themselves into His image, and His likeness!
When any of you fail at something, I tell you how to do it right. But often, that isn’t enough. So I have to come over and show you how to do it right. I stand in the same place, using the same tools to tackle the same problem, and show you what you were doing wrong. And since we failed to have dominion over our heart and our spirit, God came to do it – not to do it for us, but to leave us an example:
1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his [soul’s] steps: Who did no sin [with his beast], neither was guile found in his mouth [spirit]:
So Jesus was a partaker of flesh and blood. Think about that word, “partake”; it means to share. And Jesus became a man in order to share our flesh and blood, experience our heart and spirit for himself, to show us that it could be conquered.
Philippians 2:8 And [his soul] being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself [his beast], and became obedient unto death [his spirit], even the [unjust] death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him [his soul], and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every [beasts’s] knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue [spirit] should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
But then, having shared our flesh and perfected it, He then offered us the opportunity to share in his newly perfected flesh and blood. Which is perfectly fitting – Share and share alike, after all.
It is that bread and that wine which we are here to share tonight. The same bread and wine that we are, but perfected in a way that we have not. And yet, with this head start and His example, we need to take our bread and our wine the rest of the way, ruling it wisely as He did.
The job of the soul is to break the bond between the spirit and the heart; to make them adversaries so they can be friends. To get them to speak the truth they both feel, and then get them to agree once more – agreeing this time because they are both right, not because they are friends.
STONE AND BREAD
It is the nature of the bull to break fences and covenants; not to service the lusts of the heart and the statutes of the spirit, but to find the truth behind them. But it is not just bulls which break things; it is also stones which break things in pieces, and rule over them:
Daniel 2:34,44 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. … And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
The stone, the soul, broke in pieces the image of the beast, which all of us are! For all of us have the likeness of false prophet and the image of the beast within us… but we also have a living soul granted by the breath of God to rule over them both, and convert them into His image, and His likeness.
Thus Jesus’ soul as the bullock sacrifice, and Jesus’ soul as the stone that breaks all nations, all beasts into their fractions so He can rule over them, are the same symbol. And it’s tempting to say that Jesus’ soul as the bread of life is also the same symbol, but it isn’t. Not exactly. For He plainly said…
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And yet that can’t be the whole story, for Jesus’ flesh was not from heaven, but from the Earth like Abraham! His flesh was earthly, that was the whole point! So how can His Earthly flesh be BREAD which came from heaven?
THE STONE BECOMING BREAD
How can bread be both the human flesh of Jesus, and the soul of Jesus which came down from heaven, having no flesh? The Devil gives us the answer in… Luke 4:3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
The devil said this to tempt and mock Him; yet this is exactly what Jesus came to do… to turn a stone into bread. For Jesus, when He was the Lord of the Old Testament was indeed a stone: Deuteronomy 32:31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
That rock, Paul says, was Christ. And that Jesus who ruled over ancient Israel was excellent at breaking sinners, but ill-equipped to feed them. When we eat something, it becomes a part of us. It provides the building blocks for new cells, the energy we feed our spirit… and it literally converts us into whatever we eat, for we are what we eat.
And the law of Moses was ill-equipped to feed people – it was only good at judging and ruling them. Proverbs 29:19 A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understand he will not answer.
Israel heard God, but they didn’t want to be like Him. They were willing to obey Him, as a servant obeys His master. But a servant raised by a harsh master will never learn to be like Him.
Proverbs 29:21 He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length.
There was no delicateness in the law of Moses; if you break the law, you die without mercy, crushed under the stone of the law’s judgment – of the OT Jesus’ judgment. So that stone needed to be softened. It needed to learn to feed, and not only to crush. It needed, in short, to become bread.
Matthew 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
This was not His body as Melchizedek. That body was a rock, which followed them through the wilderness – a rock which smote their enemies, a soul which judged all sinners. But that soul, by the things that he suffered, softened.
For Hebrews 5:8 “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
As a stone cut out of the mountain of God, He was a son; a judgmental soul like the Father. And yet He softened, and became edible and nutritious, through the things which he suffered. He actually changed from stone to bread, from soul to flesh!
In nature, stones are softened by the rains, the wind, and the rivers – all types of spirit. And stones are slowly, over the eons, broken into smaller and smaller pieces, and eventually become the fertility in the valleys which feeds all nations.
John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
This is why Jesus called us friends, for though we began as servants, by bringing us up “delicately”, we shall become the son of God in the end.
But this was not something the preincarnate Jesus could offer us; indeed, when Moses received the tablets, He did not receive Jesus’ body, nor His spirit… only His soul to give to Israel:
Deuteronomy 9:9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone [soul], even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread [body] nor drink water [spirit]:
This night is about the final conversion of that stony soul into bread; so that it could be baked and turned into something better than either bread or stone… a talent of gold, immortal and untarnishing, and worth 3.6 million omers of grain.
BREAD LIKE A ROCK
Jesus is bread to us, in fact He is the Manna; the same Manna which the Israelites loathed – because to others, He’s a rock-hard loaf of stone.
1 Peter 2:7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
Which is just another way of saying
2 Samuel 22:26-28 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury. And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down.
Are we pure of heart? Are we merciful of spirit? Is our soul upright? Then God will be all those things to us. If we share His body with our fractions pure, merciful, and upright, then God will be light and nutritious manna to us.
But if we eat it with a froward soul, a spirit which afflicts the innocent, and a haughty heart, then He will be us a stone of judgment, breaking us in pieces. He will be a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling to us.
1 Corinthians 11:28-30 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
And yet we have failed to rule our fractions as we should. We have failed to reason with them, to convince them, to show them the truth our soul believes in and loves. And for that, God should judge us. God should smite us, and break us in pieces.
And yet, our soul does love the truth. Our soul does want to do the right thing; we just don’t always know how. And God is only a stone to those who force him to be;
Matthew 7:9-10 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
Jesus is a stern soul to those who require punishment to obey. But Jesus is nourishing and a helpful soul to those who want help. Are any of us different? Would we smite a son who asked for help?
1 Corinthians 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
If you’re not being rebellious, just hungry, why would your soul smite you? If you’re not sinning on purpose, just thirsty, why would He hand you over to the power of the serpent to be condemned with the world?
He is a stone to those who will be ruled by nothing less. But He is a loaf of bread, made without leaven, which provides a path to salvation, for His children who ask for Help. Tonight, is about us asking for help.
<DO THE BREAD>
HUNGER AND THIRST
Our souls are hungry. Our souls yearn for the approval of the Father. And we devote our lives to earning money to buy that which is not bread, approval which will not fill us.
Isaiah 55:2-3 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
But by the symbol of this bread, we have the approval of the Father. Because Jesus, by giving us His flawless flesh to eat, has allowed us to share with him the same flesh He shared with us… thus, God can look at us and see Jesus’ body, instead of our own, because a part of us is now made of His body; we are, by this sacrifice, a part of the body of Christ and approved with along with Christ.
But we know we are not worthy of this approval. It’s not a secret. Which is why Jesus said “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” (Luke 4:4). Bread isn’t enough; you need bread and spirit; body and spirit; flesh and blood. Bread and wine.
Bread pictures the father’s approval, but wine pictures the mother’s forgiveness – the validation of church, the woman, of whom Jesus is the head. The voice of someone who has succeeded at something you tried to do, and knows how easy it is to make a mistake, and can say “you know what, anyone could make a mistake like that… just do better next time”.
So the spirit we are thirsty for is the one that tells us (and the Father) that our mistakes are understandable; that, in our flawed way, we did our best; and that our best was good enough. And it is that which right to the water of life. This water, of His life, which He turned into wine. For as the stone became bread, the water became wine.
THE WINE
Water is a cruel master, just as stones are. It is vital for life, yet provides no actual nutrition. It gives no benefits to mood, it doesn’t replace eletrolytes lost through sweat, nor does it help you to forget your sins.
So when Israel was baptized in the red sea… note that, while it was just water, the sea was red, picturing the wine… they were baptized into a perfect, but inflexible and unforgiving spirit – as harsh as the stony soul it served was.
Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
But just as the stone became bread, the water was turned to wine. Wine, and milk, flowing out of a spring which is purchased without money. Symbols of a spirit with a much more understanding perspective on life; a spirit which was tested in all points like as we are, and found that life is, indeed, complicated.
Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
If Jesus’ soul learned that it was hard to judge righteously on Earth, hard to rule a spirit and a heart, then Jesus’ spirit learned that righteousness must be judged not only objectively, as it had before, but subjectively as well.
Matthew 12:41 ¶ And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
We see this as something Jesus was teaching the disciples. But what if He had just realized this? What if part of the purpose of His life on this Earth was to realize this? To realize that the objective offering wasn’t what mattered, what mattered was the size of the offering relative to the person giving it?
Isaiah 44:20 [the idolator] He feedeth on ashes [instead of bread]: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? 21 ¶ Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. 22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
For it is such an offering, the righteousness of our spirit, that we bring to the passover service. Our spirit is not right. In a variety of senses it has been, and still is, idolatrous – feeding on ashes that is not bread, seeking the approval of other men which doesn’t satisfy; unable to deliver our souls, not realizing that there is a lie in our right hand – in our spirit.
But Jesus’ spirit, as the symbol of blood/wine, is capable of overlooking that fact and judging us based on where we are compared to where we started from – not on where we are right now. And that is why we need this wine.
<DO THE WINE>
APPROVAL BEFORE VALIDATION
We are not worthy of the approval Jesus has, by this bread, shared with us. We know we’ve sinned. We know we are imperfect. And we know, in order to deserve the bread, we must have the wine. And yet Jesus gave us His bread first, before He gave us the wine.
He gave us his approval, while we were yet unworthy, on faith in us that we would receive the validation; because we are not judged by the total sum of right and wrong that we do. Nor are we judged by the right and wrong that our spirit believes to be true. For souls are not judged by that.
Ezekiel 18:27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
The body’s past deeds are relevant, to the judgment of the flesh. And the spirit’s beliefs are relevant, to the judgment of the spirit. But the only metric by which the soul can be judged is how well it makes the next choice.
The soul’s past deeds are not the point; have never been the point. If the next choice will be a good one, you deserve to live. If the next choice is an evil one, you deserve to die. It’s pretty much that simple.
Because Jesus didn’t come here to save beasts, nor to save spirits. If a soul is converted, it can save it’s own spirit and flesh – and if it’s not able to do that, then it isn’t really converted! So if you wash your feet, you don’t need to wash your hands and your head. What would be the point? Wash them yourself, later; let your spirit ask your soul at home.
Jesus came here to create souls that can judge wisely. He knew that would take time, and He knew that there would be a lot of bumps in the road. But it’s literally all He cares about. The law cares about other things, objective right and wrong. But Jesus died to satisfy that law because the big picture is all about souls.
FUTURE DEEDS
God doesn’t need people who didn’t murder yesterday. He needs people He can trust not to murder tomorrow. If you’ve learned the lesson by harming your neighbor who (in the eyes of the law) deserved anything he got, your body can die for that, or Jesus’ can, but your soul needn’t. Because the only thing that matters to God is, what did you learn from this? Will your next choice be right?
God doesn’t care what you did. Nor does He care why you did it. Because souls don’t dwell in the past, nor even the present; souls dwell in the future, and it is by their future deeds that souls must be judged – just as God judged Jacob and Esau based on their future deeds alone.
Psalms 63:1… O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 3 ¶ Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: 6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. 7 ¶ Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
And so it is for our future deeds that God approved of us with the bread. Because our soul “follows hard after God”, that his right hand – His spirit – upholds us, and advocates for us. For where else would we find God’s spirit?
Romans 8:33-34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [It is] God that justifieth. Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
And it is because of Jesus’ faith in those future deeds of ours, faith in our ability to rule our spirits, that He has justified us, until one day we need no justification.
Romans 8:30-32 … and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Thus, we have been freely given the approval and validation we so desperately need, even though our soul has not yet earned it. We have been given an example of a perfect flesh and a perfect spirit, to compare our own flesh and spirit to; so that we can make better decisions tomorrow than we did yesterday.
Notes
The wages of sin is death. But sin is something that, by definition, is strictly external. You cannot harm your neighbor in your heart. You can think about it, you can do something that leads to it, but you cannot physically harm your neighbor by thinking bad thoughts.
Romans 6:10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
You harm your neighbor only when you yield your body as an instrument of sin. So technically, your soul can’t actually sin. Your body sins, and your soul makes a choice to allow it or not to allow it.
1 Peter 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body [beast] on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Because a three-fold cord is not easily broken – just like none of Jesus’ bones were.
Proverbs 9:1 ¶ Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: 2 She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. 3 She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, 4 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 5 Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. 6 Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
THE FLOCK OF DEATH
Zechariah 11:4 ¶ This is what the Lord my God has said: Take care of the flock of death; 5 Whose owners put them to death and have no sense of sin; and those who get a price for them say, May the Lord be praised for I have much wealth: and the keepers of the flock have no pity for them. 6 For I will have no more pity for the people of the land, says the Lord; but I will give up everyone into his neighbour’s hand and into the hand of his king: and they will make the land waste, and I will not keep them safe from their hands.
In one sense, these people are the shepherds of Israel; the rabbis, the sanhedrin, the pharisees. Yet in a more relevant sense, these “people” are really the souls of this world. Souls who rejoice in their prideful bodies, who glory in the shame of their sinful spirits, and use up and wear out their bodies instead of dressing and keeping them.
Zechariah 11:7 So I took care of the flock of death, for those who made profit out of the flock; and I took for myself two rods, naming one Beautiful, and the other Bands; and I took care of the flock. 8 And in one month I put an end to the three keepers of the flock; for my soul was tired of them, and their souls were disgusted with me.
There are no doubt many fulfillments of this, Caiaphas, Annas, and Herod, or something like that; but for our purposes, the three keepers of the flock can only be the heart, soul, and spirit of the leader of the flock.
Zechariah 11:9 And I said, I will not take care of you: If death comes to any, let death be its fate; if any is cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest take one another’s flesh for food.
Those souls who belong to this flock of death who are disgusted with God must take care of themselves; “let death be their fate”, as God told Cain…
Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Because see, that’s the only way Jesus ever reached Israel and Judah; the only way His heart and spirit ever listened to Him: by making their lives difficult.
Zechariah 11:15 ¶ And the Lord said to me, Take again the instruments of a foolish keeper of sheep. 16 For see, I will put a sheep-keeper over the land, who will have no care for that which is cut off, and will not go in search of the wanderers, or make well what is broken, and he will not give food to that which is ill, but he will take for his food the flesh of the fat, and let their feet be broken. 17 A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from the flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his arm will become quite dry and his eye will be made completely dark.
The “foolish keeper of sheep” is obviously the soul. And God put all of our fractions under the souls of fools. We are bound to obey the president, the police, each other; and the only way for us to rise above this is to become better at ruling ourselves so that no one else will have to do it.
The only way to humble a spirit and heart under a new soul is by humbling them under another soul; one less interested in their well being than their own soul would be. And by doing that, make them yearn to be ruled over by a soul who CARES for their happiness!
Israel BEGGED David to rule over them; And when your soul can demonstrate that life is hard because other people must rule their fractions, because they won’t submit to it’s own rules, the heart and spirit should beg your soul to rule over them.
Because only when the heart and spirit are truly hungry, will they eat the true manna. Since He was the only one of us to rule His heart and spirit without help, His soul is a better soul than all of ours; and thus, every heart and spirit should bow under him, and be a part of his Name – His soul’s name. Which is exactly what Israel and Judah were asking David to do – be their king, and make their nation known forever as “the house of David!”
See, Jesus made the “mistake” of turning his back on his heart and spirit in the garden. He did it again in Exodus, when He sent an angel to lead them, instead of going Himself. Israel was not led by God personally, but through mediators; and so it was impossible for him to rule that symbol of his spirit, to break that symbol of his heart.
The job of communicating with the heart and spirit cannot be entrusted to a messenger, however well intentioned. The old covenant proved that; and so to show us how to rule our heart and spirit, he had to come in person and give us an example. There was simply no other way to break them, than to do it yourself, in person. And so he did.
And because Jesus never turned his back on His spirit, it never had to be broken; for breaking his spirit would have required it to get corrupted in the first place. So His spirit was kept pure. Thus, his spirit… it bones …. never had to be broken. There is no one here who hasn’t acted as if they knew more than everyone else, more than God Himself;
4-8 I will answer thee … If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand? Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man. 9 ¶ By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
Job 35:10-11 But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven? [spirit=song, beast=heart, wisdom= soul]
The beast thinks it has earned something merely for living by the laws. It thinks that failing to kill someone is worthy of praise. The fowls of heaven think the same thing. Job, in his OC state, felt this way – but this book is about Job passing from OC into NC, from a smoky basement to a star-studded canopy.
And this speech by Elihu – Hebrew for “He is My God”, which is, interestingly, almost exactly the meaning of Melchizedek “My king is the righteous one” – was the one who ultimately convinced Job’s beast that it was oppressing Job’s soul. He was the one who delivered that poverty-stricken child out of prison. And that made Elihu wiser than Solomon. For He brought the truth – which set Job’s soul free of His beast. And when Job saw that, he abhored himself, abhored the fact t