The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 9 -22
As you’ve learned, first God sends Moses to train people, and give them the knowledge of how to live. This is circumcision, and happens, as it did with the Israelites, while you are unrepentant and still very much in Egypt, thoroughly part of the world.
And it needn’t be an actual disciple of Moses who circumcises your metaphorical flesh; any letter-of-the-law preaching minister, any Hagar-like Church, any doomsaying Revelation-obsessed fanatic can start you down this path.
They can’t finish the job, but they can give you the push you need to leave Egypt behind and go looking for a house. They can’t give you the Truth, but they can give you a tiny piece of it; even more importantly than that, they give you the hope that somewhere out there… the Truth exists.
Whether they do this by showing you the truth about end-time prophecy, the false cross, the great whore, or whatever it may be; for what all of these early “hooks” that start most people down the true path have in common is teaching you that Christianity as you know it is not the religion of the Bible.
Thus the SDAs can circumcise you by teaching you about the Sabbath or the JWs can do so by teaching you about the Trinity; they can show you things that shake the world’s authority in your mind, that open your eyes to the possibility that all these Churches can, indeed, be wrong.
They convince you not to trust in the interpretation of flesh, and to listen to God’s words instead. This is, of course, only an ideal they teach, not a lifestyle they practice; so you may go through several places with one or two small pieces of truth on your way to realizing that religion has no answers for you; before you truly give up on them, and turn your back on Church.
But when you finally do, that is a kind of circumcision of the flesh; for all that really means is “not trusting in the flesh” (Philippians 3:4-5). And what could be a more perfect circumcision of the flesh than learning that flesh is not to be trusted to interpret the Bible for you? (Jeremiah 17:5-7).
Once you’ve graduated from this most basic of teachings, you must eventually be sent to an apostle or the prophet of his house or one of their respective elders to be baptized into them. When Moses baptized them in the Red Sea, it symbolized them becoming part of a new nation, a new people in a new house – the house of Moses, the Apostle of God (Hebrews 3:2-6).
Baptism into Moses’ house was the baptism into the ekklesia of the day, the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38). They were literally ekklesia, because they had been called out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1). But notice HOW they came out of Egypt! “With cords of men” ( Hosea 11:4 through the bondage to a spiritual elder!
MEETING GOD
Over the course of seven weeks they trudged towards Sinai, encountering a variety of tests which would make those who were approved stand out (1 Corinthians 11:19) – those who did stand out would form the first generation of elders in this house, those who would help raise their more backward siblings.
During all this time, Israel, both righteous and unrighteous, both Calebs and Korahs, knew God only through their apostle, Moses. To be sure, they could have seen God’s hand in what happened if they had been looking; but the words of God came through Moses, and the people didn’t know God in person.
That changed in Exodus 19, where Moses prepared the people to meet with God (Exodus 19:17). At this point, these people had fulfilled their ministry, and God was going to make the ENTIRE NATION priests over the world – which is to say, ELDERS! (Exodus 19:5-6). Which is to say… parents.
But Israel, as I’ve said so many times, refused God’s spirit (Acts 7:39). Despite Moses’ preparation, the people were still not ready to be teachers! (Hebrews 5:11-12). So Israel chose not to be baptized into the cloud of God’s spirit, for they feared to become the sons of God.
So God gave them prophets, the house of Elijah; tutors to help the remedial students (which was most of them) catch up to the rest of the class (Caleb and Joshua). Moses should have been enough, but he clearly wasn’t up to the job of making these children realize they were God’s children (Numbers 11:11-12).
The first generation of prophets after Sinai was the elders under Hur (Numbers 11:24-29). Note that these were, quite specifically, THE PROPHETS. These men were not merely called out of Egypt, as all Moses’ disciples had been… they were chosen out from among the people! (Exodus 18:25). Thus, called AND chosen (Matthew 22:14).
These elders-prophets-NC-teachers existed to help Moses make the people “grow up in Him in all things” (Ephesians 4:15). As they still do, to this day – for the apostles likewise were called out of Jesus’ house, chosen by Him to be elders (Luke 6:12-13, John 6:70).
And if elders, then father-figures over the people… and if they were fathers, then they were, in a sense, a generation above the rest of the disciples.
HEADS OF HEADS
As I’ve said, all of the authority figures in the Bible are father-figures; but just like actual fathers, not all are of the same “generation”, or of the same “house”, even though all these brothers, cousins, uncles, and so on are related.
Clearly, the Father of All is above all houses and names. A generation above the Lord, who was the Father of the prophets (2 Chronicles 18:6); a generation above them, for they were His prophets. The prophets were in turn the spiritual fathers of Moses’ people, the nation of Israel (2 Kings 13:14).
So each of these elders were of a different generation, each tasked with passing graduates of their discipleship off to their own father-figure above them. It was Moses’ job to prepare them for Elijah’s “NC”, who would make ready a people for Jesus, who in turn readied them to meet God.
Each generation trains you to learn from their own master; each is tasked with polishing off the rough edges so that you might not frustrate and annoy the busier, wiser, and more impatient older generations too badly.
Each and every one of these heads was preparing a people to be trained by their head; surrogate fathers training surrogate sons to learn from their own master. And like any good laborer, these babysitters should work to make their own jobs unnecessary by training people to rule their own fractions for themselves.
Thus the ultimate goal of each of these generations was to pass you off to their own father; and when that has been done, obviously, it means you share a father; which naturally would mean you are no longer their symbolic son, but their symbolic brother.
This is really important, so I’m going to dwell on it a bit. If I say to you “be my disciple!” and baptize you, you would be my metaphorical son, and we are not brethren. You would be a sibling of my other disciples, but not of me.
Other heads of other houses would be my brethren (Matthew 23:8-10). But you and I would not be equals, any more than Jesus and His human step-father were equal (Luke 2:51). After all, that’s the whole POINT of you joining MY house and becoming a babe in it (Luke 18:17)…
To place yourself under someone else’s authority, as a little child is, so that you can be re-raised, from scratch if necessary, by better parents than you had the first time around.
WISER THAN THE ANCIENTS
But as has been stressed many times, you are truly God’s child; I’m just babysitting, keeping you in trust until you’ve outgrown tutors and governors like me. Just as, when Jesus outgrew His physical parents, He ceased to be under their authority in favor of His true parents (Matthew 12:46-50, John 2:1-4).
God could have raised you in person, sure; if He had the time, or the patience (Exodus 33:2-3); but instead He sent foolish men to do it, knowing that while they wouldn’t do it right, they would get it close enough most of the time (2 Corinthians 4:5-7, 10-12, etc.) –and of course, learn something themselves in the process.
For even relatively inept human father-figures like myself can create an environment where those who want to grow up have a chance grow beyond their house; a home where they can learn to do greater things than their father-figure has (John 14:2).
Which, again, is the job of teachers and kings everywhere –to make their own job redundant. After all, isn’t that what the teaching of Moses and Elijah did for David? Psalms 119:98-100. With that in mind, read Genesis 48:1-6.
Later in this chapter, Jacob would lay hands on his grandchildren to bless them; to give them, if you will, of his spirit. But first, he told Joseph specifically what that would mean: that as Reuben and Simeon were his, so Ephraim and Manasseh would become his.
Which means Jacob was formally adopting them as his sons! They were already his grandsons; but here, Jacob was going to make them his sons, equal to their uncles – indeed, by replacing the firstborn sons Reuben and Simeon, placing them ABOVE their uncles!
Thus making them Joseph’s brothers! For they would legally be, from that day forward, the equals of Joseph’s generation! So by this laying on of hands, by this giving of HIS OWN spirit, Jacob was elevating Joseph’s sons an entire generation!
Likewise, Timothy had been adopted by Paul as a disciple (1 Timothy 1:2, 18, 2 Timothy 1:2, etc.). As he had most of the Corinthians and others, making them his children (1 Corinthians 4:14-15, 1 Thessalonians 2:11, etc.). And that would always be true; and yet, Paul had also put the holy spirit in Timothy by the laying on of hands.
Thus, the same spirit that made Paul an apostle, now made Timothy an elder (1 Corinthians 12, particularly 1 Corinthians 12:11,25-31). And at the same time… it made Timothy Paul’s BROTHER! (2 Corinthians 1:1). For it made him a son of God, in the same way Paul and Peter had become His sons!
BECOMING A SON
Think for a moment about what exactly makes someone the son of a father figure. How is Jesus, for instance, the Son of the Father? He wasn’t always the Son, as you know; as Melchizedek, He had no Father. And the answer is, as always, absurdly obvious: the Father’s spirit is in Him.
What makes you the son of your own physical father? The spirit that your father put into your mother. The living water which united with an egg to create your life. It is the presence of that spirit, that DNA in you, which makes you his son!
Timothy was Paul’s son because Paul put his own words into Timothy’s mind (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). If Paul’s words, which is to say, Paul’s spirit was in Timothy (John 6:63), then naturally Timothy was a kind of son – for Paul’s seed was in him!
Paul’s spiritual DNA was the foundation of Timothy’s spiritual thought process. Just as every human son picks up mannerisms from his own father, so the way Timothy thought about God, even the phrases he subconsciously used when he spoke about God, had been heavily influenced by Paul’s words.
And yet that was merely a stepping stone to the goal of having God’s words in Timothy, untainted by passing through Paul’s lips; which was the offer the Lord made in Isaiah 59:21; specifically, the offer to put HIS spirit in the mouth of Paul’s seed, and Timothy’s seed!
Once that happened, Timothy would no longer be Paul’s seed, for Paul’s words would be displaced by the seed of this NEW spirit which was put into him! Which would mean that Timothy would be God’s son, for the same seed which was in Paul would be in him… making them effectively brethren!
So when Moses laid hands on Joshua, it elevated him above all other elders, made him one with Moses (Joshua 1:17), for now he had the same spirit Moses had! The spirit of WISDOM. Since they now had the same seed in them, they now had the same father; which meant they were now of the same generation of elders.
And yet Joshua was still subject to Moses (1 Corinthians 15:27). Just not as a father – as an elder brother. For obviously, even if Paul and Timothy were brethren, Paul was the elder, and thus, retained authority over Timothy (1 Peter 5:5).
Thus, as the laying on of Jacob’s hands made Ephraim the brother of his uncles and of his own father; and as the laying on of hands made Timothy Paul’s brother; and as the disciples became elders in Acts 19 through Paul’s hands, receiving the spirit which made them elders (Acts 20:28);
And as the spirit upon Moses going onto the 70 elders made them elders, thus a generation above the other people… So also the laying on of the elder’s hands makes his disciples into the brethren of that elder; for by conveying the spirit of the FATHER, they become the CHILDREN OF THE FATHER! (Romans 8:14).
For if you have the spirit of the Father in you, that makes you the son of God, just as much as it made Melchizedek the son of God! No longer a son of an elder, but his younger brother, since now you share the same inheritance of the same Father – by sharing the spirit of the same Father (Acts 11:17). Making us at that point Jesus’ own (much younger) brother for we have the spirit of the same Father in us!
COMMENDING TO GOD
Serving, as always, as our perfect example, all of Jesus’ disciples were a type of children to Him; but He had chosen the twelve out of the multitudes following Him, and given them special attention to train them to be elders. And when that training was just about finished, Jesus told them that their relationship was changing (John 15:13-15).
That same night, He had praised them for calling Him their “Lord and Master” (John 13:13). Yet now He was redefining their relationship as friends, specifically not Lord-and-servant. In John 16:23-27 He went on to declare them sons of the Father; or did He?
No, actually He said they would soon have that relationship with the Father. For this was clearly not going to happen YET! A few days later, Jesus made it very clear that they were now His brethren, because they were God’s children (John 20:16-17).
Now you could point to Matthew 12:47-50 and say they had always been His brethren; and they were brethren in spirit… but not brethren in soul by the spirit!
For by that definition, they had to do the will of His Father; and denying Jesus thrice, as Peter did, is not something Jesus’ soul-brother would do. His flesh was too weak to do that, even if his spirit was willing; his soul just wasn’t capable of ruling it yet (Matthew 26:40-41).
And even if Peter had been the lord of all, he would still be expected to obey tutors and governors in his youth (Galatians 4:1), treating them as father-figures until the time appointed of the Father ( Galatians 4:2)… for they were sent in the name of the Father, in his place!
So the disciples were in bondage to Jesus as Lord and Master until they could be counted on to obey the Father’s will – at least most of the time. Once that was accomplished… once the bondage had served its purpose, they no longer needed that relationship.
Likewise, in Acts 19 Paul singled out a dozen men to train as his own elders in Ephesus; they, likewise, were trained as children in Paul’s house; but in Acts 20:32, Paul “commended them to God”, and addressed them as brethren.
In a sense, they had always been his brethren; and yet in another sense… not so much, for he was their surrogate lord and master! Yet now they were brethren in every sense, for Paul commended them to God.
The Greek word literally means “set before”; thus, Paul was setting them before God, making their judgment God’s problem from now.
Paul, knowing he would never see them again ( Acts 20:25), was cutting himself out of the relationship and presenting them to God; just as Moses was trying to do on Sinai; just like Jesus did for the twelve when His own departure was imminent, when He commended them unto God in John 17 (particularly John 17:1,6 John 17:9-11 etc.).
And if a man presents you to his father, and says “this is now your father”, then – provided the father accepts you – you are entitled to a portion of his inheritance, for you are now the elder’s joint-heir (Romans 8:17).
Which is exactly what Jesus was asking His Father: to accept Jesus’ twelve spiritual sons as His, the Father’s, sons, transforming them into Jesus’ brethren. Entitling them, as His brethren, to share in the inheritance God promised Jesus as firstborn among many BRETHREN ( Romans 8:29).
SPIRIT OF JOSHUA
Read Numbers 27:15-23 carefully. Then read Deuteronomy 34:9, and think about what that means. See the contradiction? It clearly says that God chose Joshua because he was “a man in whom is the spirit”… before Moses laid hands on him.
That was in fact why he was CHOSEN to have hands laid on him! And yet later, it says Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands upon him! So how could he have the spirit both before and after, both without and because of Moses’ hands?
Clearly, we have a problem – which came first, the spirit or the hands? And just as clearly, both are true. The spirit did come before the laying on of hands. But the spirit OF WISDOM came after the laying on of hands!
See, even though we’ve had dozens of lessons about it, we sometimes forget that “the holy spirit” isn’t one thing, it’s either of two things… for Jesus AND His Father both have “holy spirits”! Thus, it is possible to have a holy spirit and not have the OTHER holy spirit! (Romans 8:9-11).
Remember, Joshua means Jesus. It’s literally the same name. So Joshua already had the spirit of JESUS for HE WAS a Jesus! So he had the spirit of Jesus, in every sense of the word. And yet he did not have the spirit of Moses in him; why would he? Moses had never GIVEN it to him!
He was Moses’ servant (Exodus 24:13), but their relationship had to go deeper than that, since Joshua was always present, even half-way up Sinai or inside the tabernacle (Exodus 33:11) which was off limits to all but priests; so clearly, he was Moses’ disciple, thus, Moses’ son-figure.
But if he were to replace Moses, Joshua had to be more than Moses’ son, a generation beneath him; Joshua had to be as Moses, had to “come in the spirit and power of Moses”! Just as Elisha, to truly fill Elijah’s role, had to have the spirit of Elijah resting upon him (2 Kings 2:15).
And just as John, to be Elijah’s heir, had to come in the spirit of Elijah (Luke 1:17, Malachi 4:5). Because to be someone’s heir, you must have their SPIRIT IN YOU! So when Moses laid hands on him, it was to give him the spirit that was upon Moses… the spirit that had made Moses the eldest in Israel!
Not of the spirit, a small piece, as he had given it to the other 70 (Numbers 11:17); but without measure… the full amount Moses himself had to give him. Exactly as the Father, whom Moses represented to Israel, gave to the OTHER Joshua! (John 3:34).
Because to be the SON OF GOD… you must have GOD’S spirit in you!
THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM
Joshua already had a holy spirit in him, for as the disciple of the Lord’s apostle, the spirit of the real Jesus was in him, not just in symbol. For that was the JOB of the apostle, remember: to prepare disciples to hear Jesus!
But then in Deuteronomy 34:9 the apostle Moses’ hands gave him an additional holy spirit; because it’s not possible to have the spirit of the Father without first having the spirit of Jesus (Ephesians 2:18-22). Note that Ephesians 2:21,22 speak of two different temples, for the spirits of two different Beings. Bearing in mind that this is the immediate context, read Ephesians 1:11-19. The inheritance is from God; because we trusted in Christ.
And after trusting in Christ enough to follow Him, you received the “spirit of PROMISE”; this is certainly the spirit of Jesus, who was the Son of promise (Galatians 4:28). And His spirit is the earnest, the down payment of the spirit. This is not the Father’s spirit, this is the spirit that LEADS you to that spirit!
When you become part of the ekklesia, you are becoming part of Jesus’ body (1 Corinthians 12:13); and everything in that body naturally shares in the spirit of that body (1 Corinthians 2:11), the spirit of Jesus! But it doesn’t, necessarily, share the spirit of the FATHER of that body!
Which is why Paul continually prayed for the NC Ephesians, who had been his disciples for who knows how long, already “servants of one Lord”, “sealed with the spirit of promise”… and prayed that they MIGHT receive that second spirit, the holy spirit of WISDOM! (Ephesians 1:15-17).
Because they, though baptized, though part of his house, did not yet have the spirit of the Father! Because they COULD NOT HAVE received that spirit, until they had heard Moses, and the Prophets/Apostles, and Jesus… and obeyed them all.
And then, only then, would they be ready to meet God. And then, only then, would they be worthy of being elders; and then, only then, would there be any reason to give them the spirit of the Father, which is what MAKES them fathers.
ONLY ELDERS?
Am I really saying that only elders have the holy spirit of God? Well, technically, Acts 20:28 said that; but I admit, it sounds like a reach at first. For Romans 8:11 makes it clear that without the spirit of the Father in you, you have no life in you. Jesus’ spirit isn’t enough!
So is it really possible that the Bible teaches that only elders will be saved?? This flies in the face of every religion in history, all of which promise salvation to everyone in their houses (even those who don’t try that hard). But is that really what the Bible teaches? 1 Peter 4:18, Hebrews 4:1, etc.
This is not news to you, after all these lessons… and yet, I think even you may have underestimated just how high the bar for the first resurrection is. What is the purpose of our lives here? Revelation 5:10, Revelation 20:6, Daniel 7:18, 27, etc.
The world has this picture that the church exists to save people from their sins. And yeah… that is something that it does. But that’s not what we’re doing, it’s just a necessary early step in the process of weeding out those who should not lead (2 Samuel 23:3).
The church exists to make manifest those who CAN lead others. We’re training to become kings and priests; to be capable of judging angels; to rule cities. To lead houses. This life, as I’ve said many times, is not about our own petty salvation; it’s an entrance exam for a job that God needs done; one He wants us to do – 1 Timothy 3:5.
Paul reminds Timothy that if you can’t lead your own house, you can’t lead a house of God. But take that logic one step further… if a man doesn’t know how to lead the ekklesia, an Earthly type of the house of God… how will he lead one in the heavenly kingdom of God?
Said differently… if you have no desire and/or no ability to raise children in God’s house today… WHY ON EARTH would He want you in the first resurrection where it will be your entire job? Because God wants grandchildren, and if you won’t give Him any, He has no reason to make you His son or daughter!
So step back for a moment and think; the spirit of God makes you His children, and His children lead houses. So if you don’t want the job of being a father-figure, why, exactly, would you want the SPIRIT OF THE FATHER?
For that is the SPIRIT which MAKES YOU LIKE THE FATHER… thus, A FATHER YOURSELF!
TUTORS
Thus, what God was trying to accomplish at Sinai was the baptism of all Israel under the cloud. The giving of His free spirit to every single one of them. So that all of them could be prophets, heads of spiritual houses, and all of them take orders directly from Him, without a mediator.
So that all of them could be His sons, and not merely His servants. Remember, it was His Son whom He called out of Egypt – He had servants aplenty already (Daniel 7:10). So Sinai’s goal was the graduation of these servants of God into sons of God through the receipt of His spirit.
It was clearly Moses’ wish that all of the people were prophets, not just the 70 (Numbers 11:29); if they had been, then the whole congregation could have learned directly from God, and left Moses out of the loop. Which, of course, is only possible through God’s spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Moses, acting as any NC Apostle would, had baptized them in water into his house, to prepare them for Christ; just as the prophet of Moses’ house, John, would much later do (Matthew 3:11). Just as every house of God does to this day (2 Corinthians 11:2).
This ekklesiastic immersion was to prepare them for the second baptism, that of the spirit… which in this case was the cloud over Sinai (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). That baptism would convert these disciples of Moses into sons of God, thus brothers of Moses; formally transferring them out of Moses’ house and into God’s.
It would elevate an entire nation of them a full generation, making them all prophets like Moses; making these disciples into the near-equal of their teachers, by giving them the same source of truth their teachers had: the spirit of the Almighty God.
Thus, Exodus 20 was about doing for Israel as a whole what Paul did for Timothy or Jacob did for Ephraim and Manasseh, making Israel into the elders of the world, so that the law could go forth from Jerusalem (Micah 4:2).
An idea God has obviously not given up on, just shifted His aim to “spiritual Israel”, which is to say, settling for those from any nation who have the spirit Israel should have had, by birthright! (Genesis 17:7). The spirit of God.
The spirit which had to be offered to them first (Acts 13:46-48), but which, once they had refused it, God was free to give to someone else (Luke 14:16-24). Because Israel had “counted themselves unworthy of it”, declaring themselves unwilling to be elders… and choosing instead to be eunuchs.
EUNUCHS
God isn’t interested in church goers; the first resurrection exists to discover kings and priests, HOUSE BUILDERS.
The baptism into the Red Sea which immersed them in someone else’s house was all they needed… if a servant was all they ever wanted to be. But Jesus said that wasn’t enough to inherit the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). And why would it be?
The first resurrection is about creating CHILDREN of God… not eunuchs of God (1 John 3:1-2). What’s the difference? Sons and daughters can pass on their life to new beings. Eunuchs, by definition, cannot pass on their seed because they HAVE no seed to pass on to others.
So if your goal is to be part of “God’s church” then water is the only baptism you’ll ever need. If your goal is to care for your own salvation and nothing else; if you have neither the ability nor the desire to have spiritual children of your own one day… then you are a spiritual eunuch.
And that’s what the OC is – a covenant of eunuchs, a covenant of impotent house-managers. Who can potentially earn great respect and considerable reward in their master’s house… but absolutely not become sons, nor elders over their own houses.
A spiritual eunuch can live a full and happy life but will never have a house in his own name, since he is not capable of having children. There is no shame in this, no guilt, no harm done… you’ve just opted out of the gene pool for now.
But God wants to plant the heavens (Isaiah 51:16)… and eunuchs can’t do that. In fact, for that job they are worse than bastards (Deuteronomy 23:2); at least bastards can have children, nameless children can earn a name; but the children of eunuchs don’t exist at all.
So He has no need for sterile people in the first resurrection (Deuteronomy 23:1). No need for people who would never pass His spirit to their children. But that’s why there is a second resurrection (which as I’ve said many times, is not bad at all). 1
So if you choose to be a spiritual eunuch today, raising no one in your image, passing on your knowledge to no one else, you’ll be a happy and blessed house servant in the ekklesia, serving God’s house in many ways.
But you will never be an elder in God’s house, for an elder is, ipso facto, capable of having children! If you don’t want that burden; if you, like Israel, fear the responsibility of being a leader; no one can or will force you.
But if you aren’t ever going to lead a house of God and raise spiritual children in His name, then you’d have no need for God’s spirit… the spirit which makes you an elder child of His! And this is the covenant Israel was demanding, a covenant of eunuchs and servants; they adamantly rejected the proffered sonship!
They chose the covenant of death (2 Corinthians 3:7), one which fated their houses to die out, one which left them incapable of conceiving spiritual children since they themselves did not have the spirit of God to give to their children (Galatians 3:21, 2-3).
And this is why their house was left desolate – empty (Matthew 23:37-38). Because they were incapable of conceiving spiritual children (Job 39:13-16, Matthew 23:15). Which means, ironically, Israel was circumcised after all… they just circumcised off the wrong parts.
FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN’S SAKE
Still, in Matthew 19:10-12, Jesus seems to praise eunuchs; and while He does, it is certainly ambivalent praise: “eunuchs are good but it’s fine not to be one, too”. Clearly He was speaking of the physical eunuchs, those who, through mutation, mutilation, or by choice, had no physical children of their own.
Obviously, Jesus wasn’t praising spiritual eunuchs. His praise was for men like Paul who devoted their lives to raising a church, and didn’t get bogged down with the cares of a genetic family (1 Corinthians 7:32-34). Spiritually, Paul was no eunuch; indeed, few are the men who have had more children than he (Galatians 4:27).
But Israel feared the responsibility of being sons of God; even more, they feared the responsibility of being parents to God’s children; so they chose spiritual castration over the spirit of God. Not for the Kingdom of God’s sake, but out of fear and distrust of God (Luke 19:21-22).
This man kept the truth God had given him, but hadn’t made it grow at all (Luke 19:12-20). Not only had he not been fruitful and multiplied, through taking responsibility of building a house and spreading his seed; as the others had begat five, even ten children;
No, he hadn’t even made it grow incrementally, by offering what little he did know to those in someone else’s house for the fractional gains of usury! (Luke 19:23). He had studied in his closet, learning what little he could, but never risked it in an argument on Twitter or in the office – not even when he had nothing to lose.
And so the thing he feared most happened, and he lost what little he had (Luke 19:24-27). Because, as always, you get what you want; and the last thing he wanted was to head a house, to be responsible for defending his beliefs and building them. And so that responsibility he had never wanted was taken away from him – as he wanted.
And every church goer, indeed, every disciple who says “I’m just a lay person, I don’t have a calling to be a teacher or pastor” has made themselves a eunuch; everyone who said “I don’t know the Bible that well”, or “I’m not a debater”, has taken a knife to their metaphorical testicles and declared themselves out of the race for the first resurrection.
TRANSITIONING
The goal of this life is not to save your own petty life; not to “get saved”, but to become a child of God who can, one day, have children of his own – a task which you will practice here, now, in this life. Which means that you must, at some point in your life, become a parent-figure;
For if you are not capable of being a elder, what possible use could God have for you in His family? At least, this time around, among the firstborn; for you would, by definition, make His “name” empty by not obeying the third commandment!
God didn’t give us the truth for our sakes; but so that we, through the truth, could bear children in His name. He has plenty more “talents”, just as a man has billions more sperm. But this man missed the point of the spirit God gave him.
If God had wanted His sperm protected, He certainly wouldn’t have entrusted it to this man (Matthew 6:19-20). No, He gave it to him solely to see if the man was capable of being fruitful and multiplying it. But, counting himself unworthy of that trust, he missed the point completely.
He was so busy guarding this single sperm, so fearful God would kill him for losing it; when it wouldn’t even matter if he had because God has plenty more! The point was that he TRY, so he could LEARN how to multiply it, some day when he had life in himself (John 5:26); someday when did matter.
The parable of the talents is meant to be a cautionary tale for those who are so busy protecting the life in them (in every sense of the word – their own life, and the spirit of life), that they lose it (Luke 9:24). And yet every man must lose control of the life that is in him before he sees it if it conceives, and multiplies. He doesn’t worry about those wasted sperms… why do you?
If you can’t bring yourself to take that risk with the spirit of God, then you’ve been as baptized as you ever will be – you can remain in the house of Moses, even the house of the apostle, and do good things; but you’re meant to press through these houses and come out the other side wiser than your teachers, wiser than the elders over you.
So if you ever settle for the baptism of that house, and don’t press on to receive the baptism of the spirit of the Father and become an elder… then you’re castrated, cut off from the Father until the second resurrection.
No further baptism would benefit you anyway, since you’ve already decided you can’t take the pressure and God can’t be trusted. That’s why, in a world where there is less pressure, where God is more active in your life, you’ll have a new chance to decide whether you want a family or not; for you’ll have a new body, and nothing you do to these genitals will affect those.
SCAREDIUS
The house of the apostle is not separate from Jesus’ house, nor is Jesus’ house separate from God’s house. And yet they are distinct houses. Remember, these are generations within the same house; God sent Jesus, Jesus sent apostles, apostles sent elders, elders work with disciples, and so on.
So before a disciple becomes an elder, he must take upon him the spirit of that elder – which requires an apprenticeship, conversion, and a great deal of time (Titus 1:5). Which makes sense, because elders are heads of houses, fathers, and before you can be a father you must have the spirit of a (or the) Father.
Before that elder becomes the head of the house – thus, replacing the apostle – he must either have the spirit of that apostle, or formally break free of his authority and found his own house as Paul did (Acts 13:1-2).
So let’s imagine a disciple of Timothy’s named Fedius. Fedius, along with some others, apprenticed to Timothy for 7 years or so; Fedius stood out among them, as Peter, James, and John stood out among the twelve.
So Timothy, having to leave to go back and help Paul, laid hands on Fedius to convey the spirit of the Father, the spirit by which Timothy himself became an elder. Fedius, though in a sense Paul’s grandson, by this spirit became Paul’s brother, as Timothy had.
Now let’s imagine Fedius’ brother-disciple Scaredius. He was raised by Timothy, heard and willingly obeyed Timothy’s words. But for whatever reason, he simply couldn’t ever quite believe that he could do Timothy’s job.
Due to his own deep insecurity and lack of approval from his genetic parents, he simply couldn’t imagine that God would trust him with that job, since he couldn’t trust himself. Timothy’s approval and correction was meant to overcome this; but perhaps Timothy didn’t do it right, or perhaps Scaredius was just not willing to do what it took to overcome his nature.
Regardless, after 7, 14, 21 years of not showing the fruits of the spirit, Scaredius was still just a disciple; still not someone Timothy could trust with authority. And so Scaredius remained a eunuch, never going through spiritual puberty, never developing the hormones needed to compel him to go off and put his seed in a house.
Like Scaredius, it was the seed of God that Israel was being offered on Sinai; the seed which would have given them the opportunity to give life to children of their own. The seed that would make it possible for them to head spiritual houses across the world.
They were, in effect, going through spiritual puberty, and beginning to create sperm and cycle eggs. But Israel, fearing the responsibility of “adulting”, chose instead to be eunuchs – members of God’s house, but not capable of having children of their own.
If Israel had been going through puberty today, they would have started hormone replacement therapy after Sinai and begun transitioning to another gender, giving up on the chance of having a genetic family. And this is exactly what Israel did…
For Israel had been on track to become a nation of priests – father figures.
Instead they became a church – a woman.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The one verse which sums up this, and several other lessons on the same theme, is Psalms 119:98-102. The commandments of God are what circumcised us out of our enemy’s house in Egypt (though our enemies, internal and external, are still with us) (verse 98).
The OC teachings of Mosesites are what gives us understanding – but they are TEACHERS, not parents or masters (verse 99). And their teachings prepare us for the ancients. Which is just another word for… elders. Which is to say, prepares us for baptism into a house (verse 100).
Verse 101 shows David keeping thy WORD, and staying on the correct WAY. The teachers taught our hearts; the ancients taught our spirits; but now, the WORD is teaching our SOULS (John 17:17-19). They were sanctified by this Word, set apart by Him, baptized by His spirit and trained to walk on the way!
And finally, Psalms 119:102 tells God “thou hast taught me”. And who is it that teaches everyone, sooner or later? John 6:45. Because I cannot make you wiser than I am; I can, perhaps, make you nearly as wise; but to become wiser than I, you must learn from Him who taught me.
And so this section of this Psalm, which starts in Psalms 119:97 with David telling God how much he loves the law is recounting how David – which is to say, Jesus – passed through the houses. For Jesus, too, was called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15), and circumcised.
And He was taught by Moses’ priests (Luke 2:46-47). And He was baptized into the house of John (Matthew 3:14-15). Like Joshua, He already had the spirit of Jesus; all that remained was to have the Father lay hands on Him and declare Him to be coming in the spirit of the Father (Matthew 17:5).
So Jesus, like all true Christians, outgrew these houses in time and became wiser than His teachers, wiser than His parent-figures.
For that is the goal of all of these teachers: to commend you to the Father of All.