Homer Kizer Ministries

October 28, 2011 ©Homer Kizer
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Commentary — From the Margins

The Glory of an Allegory

Part Four

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Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year [on Yom Kipporim], and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic [a parable] for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (Heb 9:1–15 emphasis and double emphasis added)

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7.

A disciple’s fleshly body will not enter heaven, but will perish here on earth as the earthly temple with its Holy Place and Most Holy Place perished when the earthly temple was razed by Nebuchadnezzar, and later, when Herod’s temple was razed by Caesar … the Apostle Paul wrote,

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.  For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Cor 15:36–44 emphasis added)

The moon reflects the light of the sun and has no light, no life of its own; so first, Paul doesn’t write a scientific treatise here but uses the visible light apparently given off by heavenly bodies to make the point that there is as much difference between mud and the sun as there is between human life in an earthly body and heavenly life in a body like that of Christ Jesus’. There is one glory for the fleshly body of a person, and a greater glory for the imperishable body that is raised in eternal life when judgments are revealed. The first cannot be likened to the latter; yet without the first there would be no latter—

There was one glory for the mountain upon which Samaria worshiped God, and another glory, a more excellent glory, for the temple in Jerusalem—and an even more-excellent glory yet for the ministry of spirit that produced the temple of God for which Paul laid the foundation (1 Cor 3:10); i.e., the Body of Christ.

The prophet Ezekiel saw in vision the glory of God:

And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. (Ezek 1:26–28 emphasis and double emphasis added)

The glory of a human person comes from the dark fire of cellular oxidation that sustains life in the flesh, with the linguistic icon <glory> representing <life>. But the glory of God is the bright fire that causes His body to appear as gleaming/glowing metal encasing fire … the dark fire of cellular oxidation lacks the appearance of fire even though the oxidation of simple carbohydrates at the cellular level produces heat energy that fuels human activity; whereas the bright fire that represents life outside of the creation appeared to the prophet as fire.

Fire in this world is sustained through oxidation, the combustion of carbon or another element in an atmosphere of oxygen [chlorine is the only other gas that will support oxidation under certain conditions], with this form of fire being extinguishable through the removal of the oxygen supply … within the creation, fire forms a shadow and type of life-sustaining energy force represented by the Greek icons, pneuma hagion, that are usually translated into English as “Holy Spirit” or breath holy. The heavenly fire encased by the body of the living being that had the appearance of a man that the prophet Ezekiel saw in vision is Holy Spirit, not a personage but the sustaining life within the divine person. And this bright fire (as opposed to the dark fire of cellular oxidation) gave to the divine being a glory that fractured the light spectrum as prisms do; a glory that produced light and that separated this light into its individual wave-lengths to appear as a dazzling array of brightness and color.

Neither the mountain of Samaria nor the earthly temple in Jerusalem had glory like that which comes from fire although Herod’s temple shone as the moon shines, its stones reflecting the light of the sun. Thus, as the fleshly body with its life [soma and psuche] has a glory that can be likened to the dull mountain upon which the people of Samaria worshiped God, the human person born of God [the born-again Christian] has a glory that can be liked to the temple in Jerusalem, in that the Christian reflects in his or her body the light that comes from the indwelling of Christ Jesus through the Christian walking in this world as Jesus walked, keeping the commandments, having love for God and neighbor and brother, this love manifested through the commandments.

The dead inner self of a merely humanly born person [the person’s psuche] is outwardly seen by the acts and deeds of the flesh [the person’s soma]. Likewise the indwelling of Christ Jesus in a person who has been born of God [in the person who is pneuma, psuche & soma] is seen through the acts and deeds of the now-living inner self being manifested in the flesh when the Christian is under a severe trial, not when all is going well with the person. And every truly born of God Christian will experience severe trials, and will come to the point where the Christian wonders if everything the Christian believes is true, if the Christian hasn’t wasted his or her life, if God even exists. And intellectually knowing beforehand that the purpose of the trial is to test the Christian’s faith, the person’s belief, will arm the Christian so that he or she will not fail the test. For when things seem as if they can get no darker, no worse, the most that can befall the Christian is loss of physical life, which must occur for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Again, the flesh with its life can be likened to the woman of Samaria who worshiped God on the mountain of Samaria. The flesh with its life can also be likened to the Holy Place of the temple, with the existence of the Holy Place revealing that the way into God’s presence was barred. Thus, because the mountain of Samaria had no equivalent to the Most Holy Place until Jesus went to Samaria, the people of Samaria worshiped what they didn’t know—they didn’t know the way into God’s presence. However, because the temple in Jerusalem had within it the Most Holy Place, made according to the pattern given to Israel by Moses, Israel worshiped what the nation did know (i.e., the way into God’s presence) even though this way was barred and the nation was unable to enter.

But even when given a covenant (a law) that would lead to righteousness—the eternal Moab covenant—Israel was unable to implement this covenant because of the Most Holy Place being in the temple … in a classic case of perverse logic, since the Most Holy Place reflecting entering God’s presence lay within the temple, Israel believed that by more diligently making sacrifices with their hands, that by more perfectly making sacrifices of calves and goats, sheep and doves, the nation could enter into God’s presence when all along the nation knew that only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and that the high priest could only enter on one day a year, Yom Kipporim, the day in the fall that represented the entirety of the spring holy days: Israel afflicts its soul [the fleshly bodies and breaths of the people] by fasting on Yom Kipporim as a sign and type of Israel eating the bread of affliction [unleavened bread or bread baked without leavening/yeast, with yeast representing sin] in the spring of the year on the First Unleavened (the 14th day of Aviv) and during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 15th through 22nd day of Aviv).

Apparently, it never dawned on Israel that because of the temple with its Holy Place and Most Holy Place, the way for the nation into the presence of God was barred by the Most Holy Place being in the temple … it was easier for the people of Samaria to enter into God’s presence through accepting Jesus as the Christ than it was for Israel to enter into the presence of God—the existence of the Most Holy Place and the practice of the high priest of entering into this Holy of Holies once a year prevented Israel from widely accepting Jesus as the Christ; for the leaders of Israel thought they knew the way into God’s presence. After all, they had the temple and they understood that the Most Holy Place represented entering into God’s presence. It simply never occurred to them that the nation could not enter this Most Holy Place, which earlier men from Antiochus Epiphanes IV entered, found empty, and filled with a statue of Zeus, thereby setting off the Maccabean rebellion. It never occurred to the Jews of the temple that they could only worship God from a distance, that they were like their ancestors at Sinai who could not encroach upon the mountain but must keep their distance if they desired to keep their lives. They were not like Moses who entered into the presence of the Lord (Ex 33:14–23).

From Sinai on, it was the Lord’s intention to make from Moses a great nation (Ex 32:10 et al), a nation that would enter into His presence, and the Lord set about doing this every thing by giving to Israel statutes and rules by which the nation could not have life, the first of which was the prohibition against kindling a fire on the Sabbath. Moses had already entered into the Lord’s presence when he came down from Sinai with the second Sinai covenant, a covenant ratified by the glory that shone from Moses’ face from Moses having entered into God’s presence and a covenant not ratified by the shedding of blood.

The author of Hebrews wrote,

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses--as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. (Heb 3:1–6)

Moses had a certain glory from having entered into the presence of the Lord, a glory that caused the skin of his face to shine (Ex 34:29) to the extent that henceforth he covered his face with a veil except when he spoke with the Lord and spoke the Lord’s words to the people of Israel. This veil, Paul claimed, kept Israel from realizing what was being brought to an end (2 Cor 3:13), that is the ministry of death with its temple that prevented Israel from entering into the presence of God. The veil functioned as a hardening of minds that made the minds of the people like rusty locks for which keys had been lost long ago: the people of Israel simply could not grasp what was being brought to an end … whereas Jesus had told the woman of Samaria that He was the Christ, Jesus refused to permit His disciples to tell anyone of Israel that He was the Christ (cf. John 4:26; Matt 16:20). Israel was not to know that its ministry of death was being brought to an end.

The glory of Moses compared to the glory of Christ is likened to the glory of a house to the glory of its builder … a house has no indwelling life, but houses the life that enters it and remains in it to dwell there; whereas the builder of the house not only has life but is able to construct shelters that house others. And this is an appropriate comparison between the human person that consists of soma and psuche — no indwelling eternal, or heavenly life — and the glorified Christ Jesus who is a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45).

Therefore, the relationship between the human person that consists of soma and psuche and the glorified Christ can be likened to a marriage … Paul said that “the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor 11:3); thus there is one glory for a wife, and a greater glory for her head, her husband, and a still greater glory for the Head of the husband, Christ Jesus, and a greater still glory for the Head of Christ, God the Father.

The fleshly body of the human person [his or her soma and psuche] is comparable to the woman before or after she marries: if she never marries, she remains as the human person composed of soma and psuche, but if she marries, she acquires a head, her husband, that can to likened to the indwelling spirit of God [pneuma Theon] in the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christos] that is shorted to one word, [pneuma]. Thus, the woman has a glory that is again comparable to the mountain of Samaria and to the Holy Place of the temple in Jerusalem, but the married woman has a glory that is comparable to the temple in Jerusalem [the Holy Place plus the Most Holy Place], with her husband representing her head as the Most Holy Place represented the way into the presence of God. If her husband is also born of God, he has a Head, the glorified Christ Jesus, the true High Priest of Israel who enters into the Holy Place one time and one time only. If she is born of God as a son of god has a husband who has not also been born of God, the woman will submit to her husband on earthly matters, but will submit to her inner Head, the glorified Christ, in matters concerning spiritual or heavenly things, thereby establishing within the marriage the basis for conflicts that cannot be resolved. If these conflicts cannot be resolved amicably, the woman should separate from her unconverted husband for she has a Head, Christ Jesus, and according to Paul, the woman is free to remarry but only in the Lord (1 Cor 7:13, 15, 39). The same applies to the man who is born of God and cannot live in peace with his still unconverted wife; for marriage between a believer and a non-believer should not occur and can be likened to Israel marrying foreign spouses. For the peace and purity of the nation, such marriages were not allowed under Moses. But there is now one greater than Moses that serves as Israel’s intercessor before God, one who can turn the foreign spouse into a born-of-spirit son of God. Thus, if the foreign spouse desires to live in peace with his or her converted mate, deferring to the converted mate in spiritual matters, Paul said to let the union stand for the unconverted spouse will be sanctified by the converted spouse’s relationship to Christ Jesus as the converted spouse’s head.

One head is all that’s needed for a marriage to occur … the woman, because of her physiology, has no head that can be circumcised until she marries. Then her husband, because he can be circumcised, is her head. Or if she is born of God as a son of God, Christ Jesus becomes her Head for her heart can now be circumcised since inwardly, she is a son of God even though her physiology remains unchanged.

Paul wrote,

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:25–29 emphasis added)

The allegory that John records in the fourth chapter of his gospel is not outwardly identified as an allegory as Paul identifies his tour-de-force allegory in Galatians chapter four, in which Paul identifies the natural descendants of the patriarchs and earthly Jerusalem with Hagar, the slave woman (see Gal 4:21–31). … Paul does in his allegory of the slave woman what Jesus did using the mountain upon which Samaria worshiped God, using the woman of Samaria to represent the fleshly body and the man of Samaria to represent the fleshly body born of God:

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He [Jesus] said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?"  And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He [the lawyer] said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise." (Luke 10:25–37)

The Samaritan who had love for someone whom he didn’t know responded as a Christian with the indwelling of Christ would respond in a similar situation … there didn’t used to be a need to distinguish between Christians born of God and Christians who have not yet been born of God, but so many people not called by the Father have stormed the kingdom of the heavens, attempting to take by force what is only available through entrance into the Holy of Holies, that self-identification as a Christian has no bearing on whether the person has truly been born of God. All that self-identification as a Christian does is make the person responsible before God to live as a righteous Judean without the person coming under grace, the garment of Christ or of Christ Jesus’ righteousness.

To have eternal life—for which the lawyer asked—is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself, with the lawyer quoting from Deuteronomy:

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deut 30:15–20)

And,

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Deut 10:12–19)

And,

Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deut 6:1–7)

And,

You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Lev 19:17–18 emphasis added)

The lawyer knew what to do to inherit eternal life: Scripture is plain, easily read, not difficult to comprehend, and a person doesn’t need to be born of spirit [thereby already having the indwelling of heavenly life] to do what is necessary to inherit eternal life. The person needs to simply be a doer of the law, what Paul said: “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rom 2:12–13).

 

8.

Unlike Herod’s temple, the mountain upon which Samaria worshiped was stone not shaped by any iron tool, but was like MountEbal:

Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, "Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you. And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on MountEbal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them; you shall build an altar to the LORD your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God, and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God. And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly." (Deut 27:1–8)

In the analogy John introduces when presenting Jesus’ exchange with the woman of Samaria, the mountain in Samaria bore to the temple in Jerusalem a relation represented by the flesh, with the writing of the Law on the hearts and minds of disciples under the New Covenant analogous to the writing of the Law on the uncut stones of Mount Ebal and to the writing of the Law on the tablets of stone Moses placed in the Ark of the Covenant, with Mount Ebal now forming a type of the mountain in Samaria and with Herod’s temple forming a type of the tent [tabernacle] in the wilderness … the finger of the Lord wrote the Law on the tablets of stone placed in the Ark whereas the elders of Israel wrote the Law on the stones of Mount Ebal in the Promised Land.

Again, the writing of the Law on stone tablets before Israel enters the Promised Land is symbolic of the Law being written on hearts and minds before Israel is glorified as the firstfruits of the Most High God; whereas the writing of the Law on the uncut stones of Mount Ebal in the Promised Land (i.e., after Israel enters into the Promised Land) by the fingers of the men of Israel is symbolic of the Law being written on the hearts of all humankind in the Millennium, when Israel is glorified as the firstfruits of God. Hence, the sin that presently dwells in the fleshly members of all human persons will cease to exist when these persons are baptized in spirit and thereby liberated from indwelling sin and death—and glorified Israel as the firstfruits of God will be to human Israel in the Millennium as Yah was to Moses when He, Yah, wrote the Law on two tablets of cut and dressed stone.

Being on the mountain—atop Mount Sinai—separated Moses from Israel as the stage separates Solomon, his beloved, and the daughters of Jerusalem from the audience in Canticles … for Moses to climb the mountain and be with the Lord symbolically represented Moses entering into the presence of God in heaven. Mount Sinai formed a barrier akin to the gulf between the creation and heaven. Hence Israel not being able to ascend Mount Sinai in the wilderness of Sin formed a type of the physical separation of the flesh from God, a separation that ends when Israel enters into the Promised Land, with Israel on Mount Ebal symbolizing the end of this separation; symbolizing the glorification of Israel as sons of God that are like their elder brother, Christ Jesus.

Once again, the mountain upon which Samaria worshiped can be likened to the flesh; i.e., to the Holy Place and its ministry of death in Herod’s temple. And as there was a certain glory attached to the ministry of death (2 Cor 3:7–11), the glory of the temple far outshone the glory of the mountain in Samaria in the 1st-Century CE as the glory of the ministry of the spirit outshines the ministry of death—as the Most Holy Place outshone the Holy Place in the temple.

On the mountain in Samaria, there was no equivalent to the Most Holy Place; but in the temple was the Holy Place that was equivalent to the mountain in Samaria and there was also the Most Holy Place in a relationship analogous to Yah [YH] and YHWH … I have previously deconstructed the Tetragrammaton YHWH and would here refer the reader to one of those times, with Section 2 of Chapter Two of A Philadelphia Apologetic — 2011 being a reasonable place to look for this deconstruction.

The ministry of death could not enter into God’s presence even though His presence in the temple was represented by the Most Holy Place … the woman of Samaria—the people of Samaria—had no opportunity to enter into God’s presence because the mountain upon which they worshiped God had no Most Holy Place; yet their worship of God was just as acceptable as was the worship of Israel in Jerusalem, and perhaps was more acceptable. For sin at Mount Sinai in the gold calf incident prevented Israel from entering into God’s presence from that time forth so the Most Holy Place and its inaccessibility in the temple continually reminded Israel of the same thing that not being able to kindle a fire on the Sabbath reminded Israel: the way into the presence of God had been opened to Israel but was closed to the nation because of its sin, thereby making Israel like Eve, like Adam, with these two being analogous to flesh and blood (with life in the blood) that cannot inherit heaven.

The mountain upon which Samaria worshiped God could only be represented by a woman with no head, no husband; whereas the male Levitical priesthood of the temple represented the naked head of the woman, Eve, the fleshly body of the person.

Christians have not understood why Jesus spoke to the woman of Samaria—neither did His disciples at the time nor the woman of Samaria understand. But apparently John came to understand … Jesus was to the woman of Samaria as the spirit of Christ [again, pneuma Christos] is to the Gentile convert.

The preceding sections are enough for one Commentary; so here I will close even though there is more to be said about young King Josiah ordering a clean-up and repair of the temple:

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the LORD, saying, “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the LORD, repairing the house (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house.” (2 King 22:3–6)

And because the Holy Place had been neglected, the Book of the Law had been lost—

And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD." Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. (2 Kings 22:8–11)

For a final time, the High Place in the Temple—again, this High Place serving as a metaphor for the fleshly bodies of Christians—had been neglected, and the Book of the Law had been lost in the rubbish that had collected … the fleshly bodies of Christians have committed fornication with each other, with sticks and glass dildos, with demons and with unrighteousness, their fornications forming the reality that casts as its shadow the idolatry of ancient Israel prior to the destruction of Solomon’s temple. The fornications of Christians have been an offensive stench before the Lord, who brought the earthly king of Babylon against Israel for the nation and the temple’s destruction. The righteous reforms of King Josiah could not undo the condemnation brought upon Israel by his grandfather, King Manasseh, who burned his firstborn son as an offering: in the days of King Manasseh, the Lord stretched out over Jerusalem the measuring line with which He had measured Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab (2 Kings 21:13) and the Lord would not repent of the disaster that He intended to bring upon Jerusalem and Judah. Thus, even though Josiah walked in the way of King David and did not turn aside to either the right or the left (2 Kings 22:2), his kingdom was doomed: it would be delivered into the hand of the earthly king of Babylon, just as Christians will be (following the Second Passover liberation of Israel) delivered into the hand of the spiritual king of Babylon for the destruction of the temple of God, both the first section, the Holy Place [the fleshly bodies of faithful and unfaithful disciples], and the second section, the Holy of Holies [the living inner selves of unfaithful disciples].

As Solomon’s temple was razed by the earthly king of Babylon and his minions, with both the first section and the second section destroyed, the spiritual king of Babylon and his angels will raze the Christian Church in the Affliction, leaving Christendom dead except for the Remnant of Revelation 12:17.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."