Song for the afflicted - 4

Why is a kosher animal kosher?

The divided kingdom

The three frogs

Adam, eve, and that dastardy serpent

So what’s this peace-making then?

Why is a kosher animal kosher?

Leviticus 11:3

You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.

Kosher animals are described as chewing the cud and with cloven hooves.

If i say the cud is grass, wherein is the seed which makes bread, which is the knowledge of the first ground, and chewing it is the action one does in contemplation of said knowledge, do i need to say more?

And now i’m going to describe the completely divided hoof, here i need to say more, and it’s  going to take up a huge chunk of this article. Please digest.

This is a reflection of the divided kingdoms of judah and israel(ephraim).

The class of animal described is, let’s say, the ‘israelite’ class, that’s why this class of animal is appropriate for the chosen people. So now i need to describe the divided kingdom.

The divided kingdom

This divided kingdom starts waaay back in the grand story of the Word, but let me keep it within the bounds of the israelites once having crossed the jordan into canaan.

What one notices is right from the start there is an animosity building between specifically the tribe of ephraim and the tribe of judah.

Where the people of judah go off on some adventure, if i can phrase it like that, and the ephraimites get all upset, usually expressed in the terms of why didn’t you call us so that we could also join in? And upset is sometimes putting it mildly, sometimes they actually want to attack judah for it. And judah needs to do a lot of explaining to calm them down.

And this is before there’s even talk of a kingdom.

Then along comes the time the israelites demand the silliest thing, their own king, and saul and david enter the scene, and absalom. Who in his fratricidal mania convinces the ephraimites and the other tribes to split with david, to whom in the end the tribe of judah remains true, plus the benjaminites. The start of the two tribes of judah and the ten tribes of ephraim, completely cloven at this stage.

(And here’s something that still puzzles me, where did simeon slip away from contained in judah to joining the ten tribes? On my to do list.)

And they take different paths. The kingdom of israel specialising in a series of bad to worse kings (culmination in ahab and jezebel), leading to exile in assyria and a strange disappearance in the pages of history, returning only as a bastardised hodgepodge of people becoming the samaritans, and the kingdom of judah, not wanting to be outdone in bad kings, but also having good ones (culmination in hezekiah), and that exile into babylon, with a rather sorry state of return. And a continuation of the story for them, becoming the jews.

Now move to the prophets, their prophecies talk of a reconciliation occurring in the end between judah and ephraim, but only after serious woeful stuff has happened to them first.

A way of looking at this divided kingdom is seeing that judah remained in temple service, corrupted as they were, but still, following that what was proscribed in the Law, and ephraim went off seeking his own righteousness, very wrong of course, but righteousness.

Why do i look at it like this?

I heard someone comment on a question about the parable of the good samaritan, who do the priest and the levite represent? The answer was the Law and the Prophets.

A true answer, but i wonder if that person came to that conclusion in the same way as i did.

Remember i am describing the part of the elephant i touched, others touch other parts yet it’s always the same elephant.

Moses (the bringer of the Law) and elijah (the prophet of righteousness battling with ahab)

Wisdom (of judgement - applied Law) and understanding (the righteousness of brotherhood)

Beauty (of wisdom) and bonds (those silver chains of unity)

The rod (to whack in chastisement) and the staff (to guide and protect) of psalm 23

The two witnesses of revelation fame.

These and more comparisons are indeed all one and the same.

Think not? Look, the Torah of moses is all about Law, and the prophets are all about righteousness, and calling the israelites (both judah and ephraim) back to it.

And here’s a nice subtle one, revelation 11:6 says of the two witnesses that -

These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy

And in deuteronomy 11:13-14 moses says to the people

So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil

This is the moses who because he struck the rock instead of speaking to it is not going to enter the promised land, do you think he’s going to permit himself a slip of the tongue now?

This magnificent conscientious humble greatest prophet of the Lord? Moses says HE will (or will not, depends on them) provide the rain.

And in 1  kings 17:1

Here comes elijah with a bang into the story

Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

Allow me to quickly just decipher the name elijah the tishbite(of tishbe) of (from) gilead.

The strength of the Lord of who shall lead captive from the perpetual fountain.

That’s for interest, point is, except at HIS word, no rain.

Just another point, usually the prophets are very particular in ascribing everything to God, they’re not very eager to ascribe anything to their own endeavours.

If you wish, moses (of the second ground of wilderness fame) and elijah (of the third ground of israel fame) are archetypes of the two witnesses. This as far as grounds is concerned.

The Law and Righteousness, the cloven hoof that needs to be reconciled.

The Law is also concept, idea, male, righteousness is a result, action, female.

I keep feeling the need to emphasize, spiritual function, not physical sex gender, that’s only a shadow, remember?

Because one can also look at the right side of the menorah as the male side of idea (the Law) and the left side as the female side of action (righteousness). I’ve just started looking at the hebrew version, right first, left second. Mirror of my diagram.

Now i want to flow a bit here, so i’m assuming a good level of knowledge of the Word, at the very least having read the Book from cover to cover, if i’ve lost you, well, you will have an edge when you get down to reading from cover to cover. Because i’m going to carry on.

And immediately throw on the brakes.

What i’m going to try to make clear now has potentially a high probability of causing offence.

You’ll see why. Not my intention, and all i can say is please just wait for me to have fully explained everything till the end, then decide. An open mind is a wonderful thing.

The following still needs a lot of work, so please don’t stop reading because of that. I thought about deleting it, but it would be a lie of omission if i did. Thing is, what comes in song number 5 is way more important, the comparison of the gospels, expressed in the passion.

The three frogs

Revelation 16:13

And I saw three unclean spirits that looked like frogs coming out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet

A meander here, to start bringing something else into focus.

The book of job has a spooky element, esp. from the first friend, eliphaz, it is these unclean spirits that are present in the first three friends.

I describe their comments slightly cryptically, but it makes sense to me. Each of them, from the perspective of their respective grounds, and definitely lacking the Spirit, are speaking to the limits of their worldly ability to understand what their ground is about. Two notes, one is that the three friends speak two rounds each, during which job answers, and then in the third round of speaking zophar, of the third ground, does not, and then at last elihu speaks. I will get back to this when i talk of the crucifixions. The second note is that leviathan and behemoth are mentioned here, when the LORD speaks at last to job.

And now i meander in my meander.

Did you know that moses turned his staff into a snake, and so did aaron. Yes, of course, during the time they were convincing pharoah to let God’s people go. But did you also know the word used for moses’ snake is nachash (exo 4:3) and that of aaron is tannin (exo 7:9)?

The nachash of moses is a serpent.

The tannin of aaron is a dragon, sea serpent, or monster.

The nachash of moses comes back in numbers 21, when the venomous serpents, now known still as nachash but also as seraphim(!) bite the israelites, and the bronze nachash serpent is raised so that those who look at it will live. This is referred to in the NT where Yeshua raised on the cross is compared to that bronze serpent lifted up in the wilderness (john 3:14).

Here’s a perfect example of duality usage, because the snakes that bite, seraphim used to ‘bad’ effect, are cancelled out by the raised snake to look at, a ‘good’ effect, no?

God uses everything in His creation to carry out His plan. And things get used both ways.

(That’s assyria’s problem, used to punish the israelites but were too enthusiastic going about it, they enjoyed it too much and went overboard.)

Now aaron’s tannin, comes back in job in the description of leviathan, in english, levitannin, the snake of levi, digging into the hebrew roots one sees to join. One can see the bad side of levi here, joining with the dragon of a serpent. 

That duality of our fallen state which needs to work back to uprightness is going to be addressed now. Back to those three frogs.

They come out of the dragon, who had been thrown down to earth, the beast from the sea, leviathan, and the beast from the earth, behemoth.

A bit before the frogs came out, the two witnesses get killed by that beast from the abyss, which is opened by the star that fell down. Now the star that fell is the dragon, the old adversary, and that beast from the abyss, abaddon, would seem to be hades, as in job 28 abaddon and death have heard a rumour about wisdom, and in revelation death and hades are thrown into the lake of fire later, along with the two beasts of the sea and earth, and they wait for the dragon himself at the end. 

Now, the two witnesses i described as the Law and righteousness, placing them as second and third ground individuals, and as the two sides of the menorah, looked at as a whole. And the beast from the sea leviathan and the beast from the earth behemoth are the two ‘bad’ dualities of the two witnesses. The second ground Law’s duality is behemoth, who is only mentioned in job, described as feeding like an ox, and let that be the symbol of the second ground, and the beast from the earth, leviathan, well, his name already says he’s third ground, duality of righteousness. I’m lifting the veil a bit regarding the spiritual aspect of revelation, but it’s not there quite yet, because so what about the dragon?

Well, that adversary is in direct competition with God, he wants to be the ruler of the first ground where he can be worshipped instead of God. so looking at the grounds he’s first ground and looking at the menorah as a whole he’s the duality of the stem of the lamp.

(this is not actually correct. The adversary may not enter the fourth ground, nor the stem itself, the Spirit of the Lord, it is. So he remains in the first ground, wanting to be the duality of the stem, to take it over, to be worshipped.)

So this is all a battle to see who conquers the spiritual world that each of us is.

Hey, i’m sure revelation is also going to play out in the physical world, i’m busy with the spiritual, which plays out in ourselves in our own lifespan on earth.

Looking at revelation spiritually just removes veils, and what i have found is the better one understands the spiritual side, the easier to see what’s potting on the physical (shadow) side.

And now i’m sure some of you can guess what i’m going to be saying next, when i discuss adam, eve, and that serpent…

Adam, eve, and that dastardy serpent

Got there at last.

I am working toward seeing ourselves as a spiritual ‘trinity’ composition of a whole world, reflected in one way through the first three grounds and in another by looking at the menorah as a whole, with two sides off a stem. That’s our ‘life’ we cling to in the physical world, as the fourth ground has to do with dying to oneself, to one’s ‘life’.

Let me just note that i picked up a rabbinical comment that said genesis chapter one was the creation of the spiritual world, and genesis two was the creation of the physical world.

Interesting, but i go a step further.

I say genesis one was either the creation of the ‘general’ spiritual world, or of the actual physical world itself, and genesis two was the creation of our ‘individual’ spiritual world.

Genesis three is our fall down to the physical world, in the sense that from chapter four on the story is fully reflected in the physical shadow typing. More or less i’m saying the first three chapters of genesis are told far more true to the spiritual reality than to the physical reality.

(Something that i would love to go look at in depth, there are so many things i’d like to, but i have to keep focussed on my main theme, is how solomon’s wisdom is described. 

1 kings 4:33 - He spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing in the wall, and he taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.

This is specifically how the subject matter of his wisdom that does get described is described. This is what drew the great of the earth to him, even the queen of sheba.

This can only be a great understanding of the spiritual significance of these creations.

And he knew about them all. Wow. the Book does not talk of the spiritual reality to be found in things we consider great, having been made by our own hands, but when it talks of it, it talks of it to be found in God’s creations.)

These first chapters of genesis contain a lot more information than might be supposed at first glance.

I’m not going into everything of genesis, i’ve covered the aptness of the spiritual generation of eve from adam’s rib, and i want to go to chapter three, the tempting of eve and then the consequences.

God told adam not to eat from the tree (Gen 2:17), eve wasn't there yet. eve heard from adam what God had said, read her reply to the serpent carefully (Gen 3:3), where did touching the tree come into it?

also, this incident regards three persons, let's not forget that serpent.

to sin is to miss, to go wrong. it can be seen as the failure to do right. let's bring Isaiah 7:16 into this

'For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.'

now this is a (shadow) prophecy regarding Immanuel (Yeshua), and so the meaning in His case is different, see the previous verse, verse 15, but what is clear is that a child has to learn not to sin.

in fact, the word sin is only introduced in the next chapter of Genesis, with regard to cain (Gen 4:7).

and so adam and eve had yet to learn not to sin, being infants in their adulthood, as it were.

but eve heard from adam that God said she'd die if she ate, and then heard from the serpent that she wouldn't, and he portrayed it as a desirable action. so her problem was she believed the wrong person, she believed the serpent, not adam. but i can't say she did this knowingly, this smacks of ignorance. But also remember what i said about an action lying down with an idea from which it was not drawn out of. 

adam, on the other hand, knew first hand that he should not do this.

he knowingly failed to do right. even worse, he made no attempt to dissuade eve, as he was with her at the time(Gen 3:6).

So we’re usually being told of adam being the first sinner, even though eve ate first . But before she ate he did not dissuade her. So i see adam sinning first, not by eating of the fruit, but as not directing eve’s action.

but, like the children they were, they were not yet fully aware of the consequences of their sin. Those consequences  quickly became clear.

the serpent himself was cursed (all Gen ch 3, verse 14)

eve was (only) allocated pain (verse 16)

adam had the ground cursed for his sake (verse 17)

and he was doomed to return to the dust (verse 19). 

I cut and pasted this last bit of text, and played with it a bit to suit what i’m saying here, so now i continue painting in flowing strokes, read the verses for verity (fancy word for fact-checking).

Let’s start with eve, it’s all about eve.

Our goal is to end up as the bride of Christ, expressed in super-church terms.

Note that eve is not cursed, but is allocated affliction in the process of fulfilling her primary function, to engender the child of the next ground, until such time as the fourth ground is reached, which is expressed through desire for her (true) Husband.

Now adam. The ground is cursed for his sake, stronger yet, as from it he was taken, to it he shall return. There’s a lot happening here. Let me show you the three grounds, and let me point out that cyclical journey we have to make too.

(Sometimes things are expressed obtusely, if everything in the Word had been a clear-cut full-blown everything in correct order explanation of everything only in a spiritual way, what separating of the wheat from the chaff would take place? We would take note, say thank you very much and do absolutely nothing with it in preference to enjoying the moment, there’s always tomorrow to get round to things, ‘cos we know what to do... Desire and effort leading to insight and the sense of urgency separate us.)

So the first two grounds’ references are worded a tad out of order, is what i’m saying.

You will eat (knowledge) of the (first) ground through (the) toil (of following counsel in the second ground).

Thorns and thistles it will produce (that thorny third ground comparison in the parable of the sower; thorns, barbs, darts, spears, pointy things poking are referencing third ground, folks)

And now we’re halfway, and we cycle back.

And you’ll eat them too. It’s that conflict in the divided kingdom between law and righteousness, at times one pulling from the good side and the other the bad, at times both bad. All foolish stuff, fools that we are.

By the sweat of your brow (second ground)

Will you eat your bread (first).

And then dust.

Now adam was a type of the Law, on the right side of the menorah, and eve of righteousness on the left. Adam failed dismally as a type, and is going to be replaced by the true Husband, a type no more, and so he’s going to die, returning to the dust. He’s sort of limited to three grounds only…sort of, read on.

Eve is not going to die, she’s going to be refined to a satisfactory purity to become the bride.

From that perspective, that’s what life on earth is all about, the Father making a bride for His Son.

Let me pull jer 31:22 in now, and the good wife of proverbs 31:10-31 (That full acrostic of 22 verses, just saying.)

Jer 31:22

How long will you wander,

O faithless daughter?

For the LORD has created a new thing in the land—

a woman will shelter a man.

Again i point out that another, better, translation is ‘encompass’ a man.

(especially apt if you went and looked at rabbi mordechai kraft’s video explanation)

If i say that the good wife (for all that she acts on the ideas of her Husband), in the description of what she all accomplishes, shows a decided amount of independent acting out of her own ideas (which are fully aligned with those of her Husband) and command of her household, can you then see a description of a woman function encompassing a man function? Subordinate to the King, of course.

So adam, in his role as husband/king, seems to be being cancelled, or somehow having been surrounded as simeon was by judah.

This is reflected in revelation, among other places like the prophets, so often bringing up a destruction of a THIRD of things. Another third is destined for the fourth ground, once refined of dross (leaving only a remnant), and what about that last third then?

The serpent is directly cursed (to the lake, in the end), and basically war is declared, the rebellion will be crushed.

This root of evil, this desire to usurp the position of the Father, is a consequence of creation.

The Father made creation and gave autonomy of choice to it. Well , as there are created things that have no choice but to obey, we represent the side of creation that does have choice given. Inevitably the created is going to conceive of questioning the order of things, once given the freedom to. And that’s what this grand plan is addressing.

God knew that His creation would conceive of rebelling, it would be strange if it didn’t (think about that), and put everything in place to allow this to happen, with the solution also already in mind of a sublime way to resolve the rebellion, all the time upholding His truth, His righteousness, His Justice, His love for the created, simply everything that makes Him such a wonderful God.

And, of special relevance to us, through this process shaping a companion for His Son, who He begat, not made, and knowing that now His creation freely CHOOSES not for rebellion.

Now, as in the world there is a separate being who is the adversary, and he is destined for the lake, so in our spiritual world there is that third portion of us that is destined for the lake, that worm Jesus was referring to. A sort of mini-me, if you like.

So i’m saying we (that third sinful part of all of us) are ALL going to be thrown into the lake of fire colloquially known as hell. Hehe.

Or, we’re all (everyone who received the call, to the wedding, excepting the one who was kicked out for not having bothered at all with correct attire, the matthew first ground version) going to enter the kingdom, that third part of us, just not everybody crammed into jerusalem. There’s israel and the nations needing inhabitants too, all on merit, that’s what the judging is about. And no, i have not thought too much about moab, and all the supporting cast of nations, on my to do list.

I must state here that i am not sure about those who, let us say, are referred to as the amalekites (the very un-called children of the adversary). They may be fully consigned to the lake. This possibility is also mentioned, after all. They just may also be fully consigned to the dust, as it’s the process of being called that creates our eternal spiritual being, for their sakes i hope so. Physically the first-birth breath of life returns to the Father on death. I just know the second-birth life is eternal. 

Only the adversary, behemoth, leviathan, abaddon and death are specifically mentioned as consigned to the lake, plus anybody else, but remember what i said about in the end every knee shall bow. However it works out to be, i trust in the rightness of our Father. 

And now the trinity of serpent, adam and eve is replaced in jerusalem by the Father residing with us, the Son sitting on His throne in us, and the bride that we have become. The Father waits all  the time to take up residence, for us not to be destroyed in our impurity by His light.

Last little point. So they covered themselves with fig leaves, but God gave them animal skins just before banishing them, to fall down. They were being downgraded to the wild beast bottom ground, the fig leaf is from higher ground, not the correct covering.

So what’s this peace-making then?

Well, i spoke of the need for judah to be reconciled to ephraim, by this time, once at this stage, we’re talking about correctly following the Law, and walking in a resultant truly righteous way. Not wanting to insult you, so let me talk about me, i can look in the mirror at myself and see the areas where this reconciliation and walking in harmony with the correct motivating reasoning definitely need peacemaking. A big element of this is paul’s what my spirit wants is warring with what my flesh wants. So we’re fighting with ourselves. 

1. Not loving our neighbours.

Then comes the jabbok.

Back to genesis, jacob fighting with a ‘man’ in genesis 32. And he gets the name israel, for he strives against the Lord. we’re always fighting God, and because that doesn’t even satisfy us, we fight with ourselves too. But, back to God, and in fact, to what the seventh part of the proofs to john the baptist’s question in luke say.

Blessed is he who is not offended in Me. 

2. Not loving God. the greatest commandment.

There's a process happening that requires the two witnesses to be killed first, so that they can then be resurrected (the one witness encompassed now by the other…). This is that dying to oneself process, expanded spiritually, and so it reflects itself in this fight between Law and righteousness. They fight while both are wrong, or while one has moved to the right way, but the other not yet. Only once we reconcile that, in fact doing ‘as we forgive those indebted to us’, can we be ‘forgive us our debts’, and cease being offended, warring with God, in the form of His Son, and make our peace with our God.

And only then, now we have reconciled spiritually within ourselves, can we turn and be of true help to our physical brethren.

And matthew’s seventh blessing, blessed are the peacemakers, is reality.

Now of course, one already can love Jesus before all this takes place, and one can think one is not offended in Him, but if entrance to the fourth ground is hindered because of offence, somewhere one is not looking truthfully at one’s reflection in the mirror. Peace has not been made yet, that peace expressed in the greatest commandment.

Enough already, it’s time to get gospelized, let’s look a bit at the gospels, and the other books of the New Testament.

Song number 5 coming up.