Everlasting Arms

The details of Israel’s battle against Amalek at Mount Sinai not only prefigure the architecture of the Tabernacle but also explain some of the enigmatic images in the book Revelation.

The roles of Priest, King, and Prophet comprise what is known as the “triune office.” This office is three-in-one, yet each of the three office that comprise it is also threefold as a process of maturity.

At the personal level, every office-holder in any human sphere is required to fulfill the three fundamental elements that these roles represent: submission to heavenly authority (Priesthood), action in light of that authority on behalf of others (Kingdom), and testimony as God’s legal representative with the wisdom resulting from this holy obedience (Prophet).

At the governmental level, the demarcation between the nature of the service of the three offices relates to the spheres in which they operate. The Priest stands as a servant in the Garden, the King sits enthroned over the Land, and the Prophet walks with God throughout the nations of the World. So, although all three must submit, act, and speak, they do so within three different domains: the Levitical priests bore the sword like kings but only as cherubim within the domain of the Sanctuary. The kings of Israel were to submit to God and pronounce righteous judgments like the stars of heaven but only within their royal courts. The prophets submitted to God and bore the sword where necessary but like the birds of heaven and the beasts of the sea they carried authority over apostate priests and kings.

At the historical level, Israel’s history passed through priestly, kingly, and prophetic eras. That brings us to the culmination of biblical history in the New Testament, where the Christ and His Church recapitulated this threefold process: Jesus ascended as the Covenant Head (Priesthood), sent His Spirit to gather the Covenant Body (Kingdom), and as one, they testified to and then against Jerusalem (Prophecy), removing the constraints of the old order that the Gospel might go to the nations in earnest.

Sacred architecture always provides a pattern that is to be stamped into humanity itself. In the rite of sacrifice, the three offices were symbolized in the blood, fire, and smoke. In the Tabernacle, they were represented by the Golden Table, the Golden Lampstand, and the Golden Altar of Incense. Yet, in Exodus 17, Israel was given a human picture of the architectural wonder that would soon be revealed.

The Triune Office in Exodus 17:8-16

The account of the defeat of Amalek follows the standard covenant-literary, or in this case, covenant-historical, pattern.

TRANSCENDENCE

• The sacrificial pattern is stamped into this initial “imperative” sequence.
• Amalek, a descendant of Esau (Genesis 36:12), is positioned at the Division/Delegation step of the pattern, with Israel as the true prince at Testing/Purification.
• The word “fought” at Ascension/Presentation is an allusion to the division between the brothers Cain (Kingdom) and Abel (Priesthood) at the Altar of Eden.
• The battle would take place within this recreation of the three-tiered Edenic theoscape. Between Mount Sinai (as the Garden-Sanctuary) and the wilderness (as the World), Rephidim was the current stand-in for the Land and its Edenic spring, the water from the rock. Thus, like later armies intent on conquering Israel, the invading Amalekites came up like a “flood.”

HIERARCHY

• In the second stanza, it is now the top of the hill (Sinai) that is positioned at Maturity/Transformation, with Moses as the advocate exalted on behalf of Israel in the arena below.
• Pictorially, Joshua would be the staff in Moses hand.

ETHICS: Priesthood

• The Ascension section gives us a stanza each for the Altar and the Table, representing the Land and its Firstfruits.
• Moses is positioned at the center of this stanza as the Word from heaven, flanked by Aaron and Hur at Maturity as his two legal witnesses. The three men represent the three holy offices and thus the furnishings in the holy place: Aaron as Priesthood (Table), Hur (of the tribe of Judah) as Kingdom (Lampstand), and Moses as Prophet (Incense Altar).

• Whereas the rivalry in Egypt was the “national” antitype of the rivalry between the son of Hagar and the son of Sarah, this stanza represents the rivalry between corporate Jacob (Israel) and corporate Esau (Amalek) as the “firstborn” of Isaac: the heir according to the flesh and the heir according to faith. However, taking place at Sinai—the holy mountain that the Bronze Altar would soon represent—this battle was also a “Cainite” attempt to murder “Abel,” that is, a satanic attempt to thwart not only the Seed but also the sacrifices.

ETHICS: Kingdom

• Whereas the three offices had been represented separately, related but divided, now the Church (Aaron) and the State (Hur) were united in submission to the Word (Moses), forming a single office, picturing the glory of the ascended Christ.

ETHICS: PROPHECY

• This cruciform, triune light was veiled as night approached.
• Joshua (the same name as Jesus) is positioned in the stanza as the ascended head, while Amalek is the false king and his people the false body.
• The placement of “edge” describes the ministry of negative Sanctions. The sword alludes to the flaming sword borne by the cherubim in Eden, that which was intended to be passed on to a victorious Adam. Here, it is in the hand of Joshua.

OATH/SANCTIONS

• The Oath/Sanctions stanza pronounces a curse upon this son of Esau. He would eventually be cut out of history. Postioned at Atonement, this negation of memorial to Esau would fulfill the promise of the memorial written in the book of Jacob.
• The position of the scroll or book corresponds to the opening of the scroll in the Revelation, and also to the opening of the books in its final sequence (Revelation 20-22).
• The book and the “blotting out” correspond symmetrically with Joshua as the faithful ruler at the center.

SUCCESSION

• The final stanza tells us that this victory was only the beginning of the war against Amalek. Israel’s entire history would be a struggle not only against idolatrous strangers outside the camp but also against false brothers within it.
• The new altar represented the promise of Canaan and the banner—as a flag or ensign—represented the firmament, rainbow, or “flying scroll” that served as a rallying point on earth. It means that Israel’s sword, like that of Noah, was inherently priestly before it was kingly. This explains the reference to the hand of Amalek (and Adam and Cain) being “lifted up” to grasp kingdom in rebellion against God.

The Architecture of Victory

This prefiguring of the furnishings of the Tabernacle looks backwards to Eden but also forwards to the cross of Christ.

Beyond the cross, the three furnishings in the Holy Place explain the description of the ascended Christ in Revelation 5:

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. (Revelation 5:6-7)

In the Christ who submitted to God (Priesthood), obeyed the Word (Kingdom) and testified against Israel’s rulers (Prophecy), all three offices were finally united in earnest. Thus, the heavenly Lion is a lamb (Golden Table) with seven horns (Incense Altar)¹For more discussion, see “Horns of Moses” in God’s Kitchen: Theology You Can Eat & Drink. and seven eyes (Lampstand). Only once the office is united in the obedience of Adam can the serpent be crushed. That pattern in heaven is being measured out upon the earth.²For more discussion, see “The Spirit of Prophecy” and “Lightning from East to West” in Inquiétude: Essays for the Eyes of the Heart.

Moreover, the scroll that He is worthy to open contains the decree of His promised inheritance. While Amalek, like Cain from Adam, was “the first of the nations” from the loins of Abraham, Israel, like Abel, was the firstborn of God. What follows in Revelation 6-19 is the judgment of the usurpers of the kingdom of God, that is, the Herods, descendents of Esau.

This explains the enigmatic “battle of Armageddon” in Revelation 16. The seven bowls are an inversion of the seven sprinklings of blood on the Day of Atonement, a rejection of the ministry of the Herodian Temple, a system of worship that since the ascension of Jesus was now not only superseded but also entirely corrupted. The lambs that were being slain by the rulers of the Land were the saints, an army of Abels whose blood was crying out for vengeance. The sixth bowl gathers the Apostolic Church and the Judaizers together for holy war. “Har” means mountain and “Maged” means place of gathering troops, so this conflict between Jacob and Esau, Jesus and Herod, was not only a struggle in the womb, the “birth pangs” of the new order (Matthew 24:8) but also a holy war for Succession between the true son of Jacob and Amalek the son of Esau.³For more discussion, see Moses and the Revelation: Why the End of the World is not in Your Future, 153-159.

Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction.” (Numbers 24:20)

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