Elementary Things

In God’s House, the intended purpose of every raw material is revealed in the resulting integrated glory.

God like to move stuff around and forward. He also likes to raise stuff up. The entire process of history is to bring earth to a “Bridal” maturity that reflects the heavenly Bridegroom.

God’s life expresses itself in architecture. The Creation narrative describes the world as a cosmic Temple, yet, aside from the Garden, all of the tangible shelter building is left up to Man. Construction is a form of resurrection. Man’s letter kills, then Man’s spirit gives new life.

Man is God’s raw material, but as His Covenant vassal, God has given Man raw materials to work with. He expects us to dig stuff up, move it around and build things. We cut down trees, “glorify” them with our tools, and put them up again as a house for God. We build houses because we need to (forming), but we build glorious houses because we want to (filling).

Trees die, lose their “fig leaves” glory and are resurrected, covered instead in silver and gold as a dwelling place for the Spirit of glory. Glorious nature becomes even more glorious culture.

God took Moses up the mountain and showed him the heavenly Dwelling. He gave Moses a blueprint, and then He sent the Spirit-filled artisans, Bezalel and Aholiab, to make it a reality—out of raw materials plundered from Egypt and mined from the wilderness. Once complete, the Lord’s glory moved in.

All of this is basic to us, but my reason for spelling it out like this is to demonstrate another facet of Law-and-Grace as a continuous, unified process.

Raw Materials

In elementary school, we learn the basics. In our formative years, we require structure and discipline. When we reach maturity, those good patterns should be ingrained in us as good habits. Just as Man carves glory out of (and into) raw materials from the Land, so God gave us His graven Words. The Ten Words prohibited graven images, the silent gods, of the Gentiles.

So, the Law forms a house out of the elementary things, the raw materials, and Grace fills it. Israel filled Solomon’s Temple with graven images, and eventually the true glory departed, leaving the house unprotected. Israel rebelled against the basics.

The Greek word for “elementary things” is stoicheia. No single English word captures every shade of its meaning. Moreover, the Bible writers do a lot more with it than you will find in any Greek word study. Paul used the word stoicheia to describe the “kindergarten” of the Mosaic Law. David Chilton writes:

“St. Paul used the term in his stinging rebuke to the Galatian Christians who were tempted to forsake the freedom of the New Covenant for an Old Covenant-style legalism. Describing Old Covenant rituals and ceremonies, he says ‘we were in bondage under the elements (stoicheia) of this world… How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements (stoicheia), to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years…’ (Gal. 4:3, 9-10). He warns the Colossians: ‘Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the basic principles (stoicheia) of the world, and not according to Christ… Therefore, if you died with Christ to the basic principles (stoicheia) of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations — “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle”’ (Col. 2:8, 20-21). The writer to the Hebrews chided them: ‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elements (stoicheia) of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food’ (Heb. 5:12). In context, the writer to the Hebrews is clearly speaking of Old Covenant truths particularly since he connects it with the term oracles of God, an expression used elsewhere in the New Testament for the provisional, Old Covenant revelation (see Acts 7:38; Rom. 3:2).”¹David Chilton, “Looking for New Heavens and a New Earth,” Biblical Worldview Magazine, October, 1996.

Now, take a look at the literary artistry of the apostle in Galatians.

• Notice that the Law (Ethics) is split into three, yet the first mention, the “raw law,” is stoicheia. The second and third are nomos, the Greek word which gives us
  “Deuteronomy,” or “Second Law.”
• In this stanza, Christ fulfills the law, leaving us with the finished or “perfect” Law of Liberty (James 1:25).

Holy Hybrids

Now, just as it required the miracle of Spirit-filled craftsmen to build the Tabernacle, God built into the Mosaic Law many pictures of His Spirit’s special brand of “technology.” The Covenant process is the key to understanding them.

For instance, there’s some weird stuff in Leviticus. It is deliberately so, forcing us to chew on it, which in turn forces us to see the world in terms of symbols, as God intended. Most of us moderns can’t be bothered with it. It’s beyond our capacity. We think such notions are childish when in fact they require an uncommon wisdom.

Those of us who do bother often get it wrong anyway. One thing we get upside down is the laws concerning forbidden mixtures. Many commentators have stated that the “hybridization” of what we might call the “raw materials” from the Land despises the order of God’s Creation, the specific “kinds.”

Somehow, mixing certain foods, or crops, or clothing materials, defiles them. But nothing could be further from the truth. James Jordan writes:

“Deuteronomy 22:9… states that the produce of a mixed field is not ‘unclean’ or ‘abominable’ or ‘detestable’ or ‘naked,’ but holy. This verse indicates that the reason for forbidden mixtures lies in exactly the opposite direction. Such mixtures are forbidden because mixtures are holy, and men are not.

In the Law, some things were forbidden because they were unclean, while others were forbidden because they were holy. For instance, the Israelites were forbidden to make either incense or anointing oil of the same proportionate mixture as the holy incense and oil (Ex. 30:22-38). Holiness, not uncleanness, is the reason why these mixtures were prohibited.

When we consider the holy environments in the Bible, we find right away that they contain some of the exact mixtures that Israel was forbidden to make. First consider the cherubim, the archangelic guardians of God’s throne. They have four faces: ox, eagle, lion, and man (Ezk. 1:10). This is some kind of an animal mixture…

…consider the fabric of the Tabernacle and of the High Priest’s garments. These were a mixture of wool and linen. The reason we know this is that ancient dyes did not work well on linen, and so the ‘blue, purple, and scarlet’ material that was interwoven with the ‘fine twined linen’ was woolen. The High Priest wore a garment of mixed wool and linen (Ex. 28:5-6)…

Thus, mixtures were holy. If a man made a garment of mixed wool and linen, he was dressing like a priest. If he did this, God would count him under the special laws of holiness that applied to the priest. Not being ordained a priest, and not being able to keep such laws, the citizen would simply bring judgment down upon himself by wearing holy garments. ‘And clothing: two kinds woven together you shall not wear on yourself’ (Leviticus 19:19)…

…the garments of the High Priest were mixed (Ex. 28:6; 39:29). Dyed thread had to be wool, since linen did not take ancient dyes. Moreover, the holy garments were interwoven with gold thread. Thus they were a combination of animal (wool), vegetable (linen), and mineral (gold).”³James B. Jordan, The Law of Forbidden Mixtures, BIBLICAL HORIZONS Occasional Paper No. 6.

Thus, as Jordan observes elsewhere, only the High Priest could carry the whole, integrated Creation—as his robe—and represent it before the throne of God.

The Mediator, perfected by suffering, founded a house of freedom. It is a construct where, in its final resting place, the intended purpose of every raw material is revealed in the resulting integrated glory.

• Another of Paul’s literary “Creations.” Notice the divided (distinct) authorities at Hierarchy, and the High Priest’s holding all things together at Ascension.
• Because of His ministry, at Sanctions there is no condemnation, no curses, only blessings.
• Finally, Paul carries on the Covenant baton at Succession. He goes on to describe his own “filling up” of the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the Body.

The Word Weaves the World

External Law divides and disempowers. The Old Covenant was a place of Division, of walls and barriers and bars and gates. The Word of God divided between Jew and Gentile, between the joints and the marrow.

Man can gather the bits and pieces, the form of godliness, but it takes the Spirit to integrate them, to unify them. Internal Law unites and empowers. Mixed fabric took great skill to manufacture. Mixtures, like wine, still take much wisdom to produce. These are all symbols of mature glory.

Outside of Christ we are isolated, elemental—just like the stoicheia of the raw Mosaic Law itself. Jesus was divided under that Law, and, we might say, reintegrated in a more glorious way. That is always how God works. Jesus was glorified and is now knitting together, “integrating” a new world out of the raw, separate, elements of the old. The same warp and weft we see in the Word of God is evident in the world of flesh. This is the technology of the Spirit of God.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13⁴A word search for “knit” in the KJV provides some wonderful examples of miraculous weavings-together.

We have seen how the Covenant structure takes raw materials and produces glory, but so far it’s all been a bit abstract and anemic. It’s time for some cooking.

This is a chapter from Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key.

If you are new to this method of interpretation, please visit the Welcome page for some help to get you up to speed.