Seven Challenges

The rulers of Jerusalem tested Yahweh and refused to enter into His rest. In Matthew 21-22, Jesus is challenged by the authorities five times. The sixth challenge comes from Jesus, who then pronounces their doom.

The seven conflicts appear to reflect the pattern of the “heptateuch,” that is, Genesis to Judges. The first five challenges – from the Pharisees and scribes – represent their authority as those who sat “in the seat of Moses” (the Pentateuch). Jesus then challenges their abuse of that authority as Joshua, Moses’ successor, the one who “circumcised” the first city of the Land and set it apart as an offering to God.

Creation

Transcendence – Light – Genesis – Initiation – Sabbath
Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Matthew 21:12-17)

• Although the first five challenges originate with the Jews, it is actually Jesus who initiates the entire sequence by overturning the tables of the money-changers, challenging the authority of the corrupted priesthood.
• The focus in this first challenge is Sanctuary access, and the reference to robbers is an allusion to Adam and every subsequent Man who attempted to usurp the Transcendent authority of God by seizing it.
• At Ascension, Jesus’ miraculous priesthood highlights the hypocrisy of those who used the ministry of the Temple for their own gain. Jesus reverses physical defects that disqualified Israelites from Tabernacle service, since under Levitical law, every Israelite was to be a living sacrifice, pictured in physical perfections. Here, those who had suffered from physical defects are represented by the most helpless of all, the blind and the lame. Of course, Jesus could heal them because He Himself was a sacrifice without blemish in the ultimate sense – He was sinless. Perhaps the author’s intention is to underscore the fact that the helpless were the true victims of those who ruled the Temple and were charged with ministry to sinners. The imperfect were disqualified from service, but not from Israel, which is how they were viewed by the Pharisees, who despised even the common people, let alone the blind and the lame.
• At Testing, a reference to David highlights the coming kingdom. At Maturity, the rulers are false prophets speaking out of their satanic sanctimony, and at Conquest, the “Covenant Oath” comes from the children, those reciting the Scriptures by rote, serving as a condemnation of their own unfaithful shepherds.¹For more discussion of this reference, see Psalm 8: How Noble is Your Name. Finally, Jesus finds rest in the house of His friends at Bethany.

Division

Hierarchy – Firmament – Exodus – Delegation – Passover
The Authority of Jesus Challenged (Matthew 21:23-27)

• The focus in the second challenge is the authority of John and Jesus, related to the theme of Hierarchy.
• The placement of “heaven” and “man” at the center of the pattern (Testing) relates to the submission required by God’s true representatives. In the festal pattern, this is Pentecost, the union of heaven and man by the Spirit.
• The disingenuous reasoning of the rulers at Maturity relates to their role as false prophets among the people, those who fear man rather than God. Their testimony at Oath/Sanctions is serpentine.
• Instead of enlightenment in the final line, the darkness is compounded for these blind leaders of the blind. They loved darkness rather than light.

Ascension

Ethics-Priesthood – Land & Primary Fruit Bearers – Leviticus – Presentation – Firstfruits
Paying Taxes to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22)

• Identifying this encounter as the “Firstfruits” challenge sheds some light on its meaning. The question concerns the fact that the Jews desired their own kingdom, like that of David and Solomon, rather than being subject to a Gentile power. But their ministry among the Gentiles for five centuries was divinely sanctioned. The rise of the Herods on the coattails of Rome was merely another attempt to grasp kingdom before God’s time. The Herodian dynasty, referred to by Paul as “the man of sin,” was the ultimate expression not only of the sin of Israel in 1 Samuel 8, but also of Adam’s theft from the tree of “kingdom” in Genesis 3. If the Jews had humbled themselves before God, they would have been exalted, just as Daniel was at the beginning of this oikoumene era. Instead, through the Herods, they attempted to exalt themselves, putting kingdom before priesthood. Jesus’ answer is thus related to the cost of having a king, as described by the prophet Samuel. Not only would the tribes be obligated to support the priesthood with their substance (the things belonging to God), but also the kingdom which they desired (the things belonging to the king).
• The careful ordering of the subject matter to fit the theme of each of the seven steps is brilliant. The Pharisees are the false authority who send their hellbent delegation – notably a contingent of priestly disciples and kingly patriots – and their “sermon” begins with serpentine flattery. The trap concerns the Ethics of the Covenant (Testing/Purification) and at Maturity, where plunder and plagues are common symbols, Jesus calls for a coin. At Vindication, Priesthood and Kingdom are united in the Prophetic pronouncement of Jesus, the Triune Man.

Testing

Ethics-Kingdom – Governing Lights – Numbers – Purification – Pentecost
Marriage and the Resurrection (Matthew 22:23-33)

• Just like the Ten Words, the central challenge concerns death and sex, issues of the flesh.
• The underlying theme here seems to be Israel’s festal calendar, with the Sadducees questioning God’s words concerning death and entering into God’s rest (Sabbath). The Passover line concerns offspring between rival brothers and at Firstfruits we find the barrenness of womb which plagued Israel on behalf of all nations (the “woman” often appears at Ascension as a promise of fruitfulness to be inherited at Glorification).
• After the central challenge, where the seven men are the “governing lights” in the sky, starry sons of Abraham who share in his curse, Jesus invokes the heavenly hosts at Trumpets, those who serve God in Spirit. The cycles of earthly succession – like those of the Aaronic Priesthood – will give way to eternal realities in the ascended Christ, a better High Priest.
• Identification of the Covenant-literary structure explains Jesus’ answer. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all faced challenges and rivals concerning the fruit of the land and the womb, that is, the inheritance promised by God to Israel of which they were only given a foretaste. The writer of Hebrews tells us that these believers understood that even the inheritance of Canaan was only a foretaste of a greater and ultimate glory, and Revelation describes the Old Testament saints and first century martyrs inheriting that blessed state.

Maturity

Ethics-Prophecy – Swarms/Hosts/Clouds – Deuteronomy – Transformation – Trumpets
The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40)

• “Deuteronomy” means “second law,” referring to Moses repeating the Law to a new generation of Israel: a second chance to take possession of the Land. This was a wider “fractal” iteration of the giving of a second set of tablets at Sinai. In the largest iteration, it is the contrast between the “external” law of the Old Covenant and the “internal” law of the Spirit of the New, illustrated most obviously in the contrast between the first and last Pentecosts. That is the background of the question from the lawyer and the response of Jesus: the purpose of the Law of God is always to circumcise and soften the heart towards God and our fellow men. Thus, the mention of love for God is at the center of the pattern (corresponding to Pentecost), and love for our neighbours appears at Atonement. Interestingly, the sixth letter in Revelation was address to the saints in Philadelphia, which means “brotherly love.”²See Living Menora.
• The symmetry of the question from the lawyer (Division) and Jesus’ mention of brotherly love (Conquest) highlights this response as a rebuke of the hateful intent of the challenge.
• The placement of the Law and the Prophets in the final line (Representation) speaks of Jesus superseding Moses and Elijah as the legal representative of God.

Conquest

Oath/Sanctions – Animals and Man – Joshua – Vindication – Atonement
Whose Son is the Christ? (Matthew 22:41-45)

• Once again, the first line mentions a gathering together but in the sense of “ganging up” on Jesus, just as Joseph’s brothers united against him. The word is sunagó, the root of synagogue. Of course, this pictures the Jews as a synagogue of Satan, a nest of vipers, the seed of the serpent confronting the Seed of the Woman.
• Placing the “sacrificial” matrix sequence (Initiation, etc.) alongside the text highlights some wonderful ironies in this “Atonement” challenge. At Initiation, Jesus is the “silent” lamb, a son from the herd whose question concerning His qualification as Messiah silences His enemies. At Delegation, Jesus leads them into a logical trap concerning His lineage (and “son” in the Passover line is also sacrificial). At Presentation, David, under inspiration, “opens the scroll” concerning the mystery, and describes the authority of the true King under God at Purification. Mentioning David again (symmetrically), Jesus highlights not only the role of the prophets as spiritual “fathers,” those who represented the Father in heaven, to kings and other prophets – notably Joseph (Genesis 45:8), Samuel (1 Samuel 10:11-12; 1 Samuel 17:55-58) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:12), but also David in a more literal sense, both Word and flesh. The incarnation and ascension of Christ brought an end to the need for earthly “fathers” (Matthew 23:9) since the Spirit now empowers all the Lord’s people to be prophets (Numbers 11:29). At Vindication, those under the Mosaic Oath are silenced while Jesus in vindicated. At Representation, Jesus is clearly the true legal representative of God, and successor to Moses and Elijah, just as the Father announced at His transfiguration (Matthew 17:5).

Glorification

Succession – Rest and Rule – Judges – Representation – Booths
Condemnation of Unjust Judges (Matthew 23:1-36)

• Although some manuscripts omit the second woe listed here, not only is it found in Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 but it is necessary for the complete “festal” sequence in this condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees. Indeed, Luke also mentions their desire for the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts. The idea is that these men were not “open doors” to the kingdom but a veil of darkness to the people whom they were commissioned to serve.
• Since there are actually eight woes, we would expect there to be two placed at Ascension, since that is a common occurrence. The first would represent the Altar (Land) and the Table (its fruits), but here those are combined in a single woe at the land and see and the children of hell, a terrifying condemnation of Jewish proselytes as sons of Pharaoh, or “child sacrifices” in a spiritual sense. The extra woe appears instead in the Trumpets slot (which is not uncommon), speaking of two legal witnesses. Here they seem to allude once more to the ministries of Moses (justice and mercy and faithfulness) and Elijah (witness to Israel’s kings). You might also notice that the herbs allude to the Altar-Land and the cup and plate allude to the Table. The message is that the Jews considered themselves to be dining in heaven (at the Altar of Incense) without prior submission to God on earth (the Bronze Altar).
• In the final woe, Jesus condemns them as “sons” of those who murdered the prophets, and His words would be vindicated in the slaughter of the Firstfruits (Apostolic) Church. He states that that generation would be held accountable for all the righteous blood shed upon the land, beginning with Abel, since shedding innocent human blood was always a rejection of substitutionary atonement. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, and this gives us the context of the events He prophesies in Matthew 24 and 25. To claim otherwise, even partially, is not only illogical but also demonstrates an ignorance of the Old Testament and the role of the prophet as one sent to “repossess” the gifts of God through “plunder and plagues.”

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