The Meaning of the Sheep and the Goats – Part One of Three

1
Introduction
The task of theological husbandry

Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats is anything but a straightforward morality tale. In fact, it presents quite a conundrum.

“Truly, I say to you,
as you did it to one of the least of these
my brothers, you did it to me.”
(Matthew 25:40)

This story was part of Jesus’ response to a question from His disciples, but it gives rise to many more questions than it answers.

Was Jesus teaching salvation by works instead of by faith? Was He threatening to judge whole nations instead of individuals? Was its warning a general principle for all time, or did he have a specific event in mind? If a specific event, was it imminent or would it occur at the end of history? And if imminent, whom did the characters in the story represent in the first century?

The key question, of course, is how we are supposed to know what the parable is actually about. But its obliqueness is not an accident. It is an aspect of its deliberately provocative nature. This parable was not a new story, but a very, very old one. And now that story was drawing to a close. So the answers to all the questions it raises can be found in the text—not in the parable itself, but in the older books of the Bible. The enigma was a calculated call to search the Scriptures.

Origen famously shared an observation from his Hebrew teacher in which the Bible is described as a mansion with many rooms. There are many doors, but these doors are locked. A key is to be found at each door, but the key is not the key to that particular door; instead, it is a key to one of the other doors. But which one?

This characteristic of the Bible means that the task of successfully interpreting it requires that we treat it holistically. One must possess the key events and themes of the Scriptures in order to use them when confronted with doors that are their potential counterparts. This means that the only way to “open” the parable of the sheep and the goats is to use keys found in other parts of the Bible. And we can only identify the right “keys” by examining the “locks” in the passage.

This method of interpretation is practiced to some degree by all worthy commentators, but it has been championed in an exemplary way by James B. Jordan, a theological Merlin who carries so many keys that he jangles when he speaks. The observations presented here have been made while standing on his shoulders, so the additions and differences are responses to, and developments of, his profound insights.

Whether or not the following assertions and remarks are correct is for you to judge. As Jordan himself often says, no interpretation is the final word. However, since the Bible itself is always the final judge, neither can any interpretation be dismissed without countering it honestly from the text.

This is an opportunity for a brief word concerning the safeguards placed by God upon this process of theological discovery and development.

Our Father requires that we grow in wisdom together as we explore not only what He has made, but also what He has written. As with the endeavors of empirical science, our interpretive work rests upon, and is permanently tethered to, what has gone before. Yet, like science, it is not a static body of doctrine but a dynamic one—a living tree of knowledge that requires pruning for continued growth.

While this Edenic tree must be guarded from a return to old errors by the wisdom of the creeds, councils, and commentaries of the past, it must not be constrained by these ancient furrows and stakes from bearing fresh discoveries in the fertility and illumination of God’s Word.

Like the true Church, the branches of the authentic theological “succession” are identified not only by their willingness to cut off dead ends and throw them into the fire, but also by their ability to produce actual and lasting fruit. Even a cursory study of church history shows this to be the case. The Fathers were the true heirs of the Apostles, and the Reformers were the true heirs of the Fathers and the Apostles. The astounding theological fertility of each of these remarkable epochs was necessarily associated with severe cuttings as emancipations from error.

As with any sphere of study, a “priestly” training in the fundamentals of Scripture and theology is the means but not the end. This is why the informality of the Protestant “magisterium”—which is not a rigid consensus bound by a fixed human administration—is of great advantage to us. Unlike the traditions of Greece, the dogmas of Rome, and the decrees of certain Reformed gatekeepers that infantilize the mind and stifle “kingly” insight, our doctrine is not beyond question and set in amber for all time.

But neither is it in constant flux. With great freedom comes great responsibility. Theology is an ongoing group project where each is accountable to every other, and all are accountable to the inerrant Word of God as Man’s ultimate authority. The beauty is that, as with the actual Kingdom of God, Jesus is no respecter of persons: He will take the “kingdom” of theological endeavor from those who turn it into a cartel, a museum, or a brothel, and give it to those who are faithfully bearing its fruits, whatever their cultural or ecclesial pedigree. He blesses humble obedience with the gift of growth, and curses presumption with a withering wind. We must not boast lest we be cut off.

With all of that in mind, along with humility and nerve in equal measure, let us try some key events from the Old Testament in the locks of the famous parable in Matthew 25:31-46. We will not be fumbling through the keychain like a drunkard arriving home who is desperate for his bed. Instead, we will approach the task like a master locksmith, tracing the relevant major themes of the Bible, perhaps in a way that you have never seen before.

To be of any use, the keys required to unlock Jesus’ oracle must not only be collected from their ancient locations, but also thoroughly understood. This will take some time to do properly, but the aim is to gain a comprehension that allows the parable to strike the heart with all its intended force, and to enlighten the mind robed in the entirety of its intertextual majesty.

If the locations we visit on the journey ever make you feel as though we have wandered off the track, we have not. Every step of our itinerary has been carefully considered in order to furnish you with a deep understanding of the parable, one that is founded upon its significance within the story of the whole Bible.

Along the way, we will consider: the nature of the story as a puzzle to be solved; the clues to Jesus’ meaning in the placement of the story; the identification of the players symbolized in the story; the Old Testament legal precedents of the story; the significance for the disciples of the scandalous revelation in the story; and the misuse of the story by those who are doing precisely what Jesus was promising to condemn.

2
The Puzzle Box
The nifty, shifty gift of the story

Jesus deliberately designed His parables to be provocative. Although He plucked raw materials from mundane life and spun them into golden threads of eternal significance, the humble sources of his object lessons did not guarantee their easy comprehension.

Since Jesus almost never explained His parables, their frequent ambiguities meant that His audiences were left to interpret them. Even after two millennia, we continue to wrangle with many of them today.

Why did the Lord so often speak in riddles? Like much of the Bible, and indeed the created order, the parables were beams of light wrapped in cloud. But they were also delivered in a very concentrated form, often requiring some serious work to digest. Some hearers would chew; others would choke. And there is our answer.

Along with the overt moral challenges in Jesus’ sayings and stories, the puzzling aspects were intended to sort the men from the boys in matters of faith. Like all words from God, they were a goad that simultaneously provoked the natural man to confusion and wrath, and the spiritual man to greater heights in his understanding of God.

For the earthy “Esaus” among the Jews, heavenly wisdom made no sense in the light of their worldling sensibilities. It was an offense to the way in which the business of life demonstrably works. Its irritating impracticality was plain for all to see; it warranted no further investigation and was eventually dismissed.

But the “Jacobs” received the Word as if it were an exotic puzzle box gifted to them from the very court of heaven. Those who were humble before God would store the Word, however perplexing, in their hearts, and meditate upon it in order to search out its secrets (Genesis 37:11; Luke 2:19). Only priestly hearts obtain true kingly wisdom.

It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out.
(Proverbs 25:2)

Like a traditional wooden puzzle box, this particular parable is a masterpiece of craftsmanship. It can only be opened using a combination of skill, logic, patience—and an intuition developed through meditation upon the Scriptures. The reason for this extreme level of encryption is that the process of solving the puzzle increases our level of wisdom. And not by chance, wisdom is a clue to the key to the puzzle.

That key is the person who made it. This box, with its intricate, engraved patterns, striking images, and spring-loaded Machiavellian mechanism, is a gift from the court of Jesus, one who is greater, richer, and, most importantly, wiser than King Solomon.

As with all of Jesus’ “hard sayings,” the parable throws down the gauntlet for those who consider themselves wiser than God. It is a riddle cunningly devised to serve a dual purpose. For the humble it is a gift to be received, but for the proud it is a trap to be sprung. And as we shall see, its divine authorship is apparent in just how effective it is at baiting and snaring the Esaus in our own day.

In this way, every Word from God is both blessing and curse. Mineral salts from the Dead Sea were used to sterilize the dung heap and kill disease, but they were also used to fertilize the soil for crops and bring more abundant life. The same sun towards which flowers bend also accelerates the process of decomposition. So when Jesus called His disciples, as prophets of the Word, to be salt and light, He was handing them a two-edged sword. When we are faithful in that same calling, we can quickly discern the crops and the flowers from the slugs and the cockroaches by their response to that salt and light.

The message contained within the parable’s complex layers by the Master Carpenter is a device of such import—in its compact combination of comfort, terror, glory, and biting irony—that it can only be of divine origin. But receiving this parable as a true word from God is only the beginning of wisdom. Figuring out why the righteous were represented by sheep, and the wicked by goats, whom Jesus was actually talking about, and when this event would take place, is a tougher challenge—the next step on the heavenly ziggurat of understanding.

To open a puzzle box, the user often has to deal with the various parts of the box in a specific sequence. But Jesus turns this principle inside out. If we are looking for a key to put into the box, we will not find it. This is because the box is cleverly contained inside the key. And this key has always been right there, hidden in plain sight where nobody would look for it. So the first layer of “encryption” on the parable of the sheep and the goats is a trick question.

Why this misdirection? When God answers our questions indirectly it is because He wants to train us in priestly faith and kingly discernment. As it was with Adam, so often we see things with our natural eyes before the eyes of our spirit are opened to perceive their significance. And as it was with Job, God sometimes confounds us temporarily as a test of loyalty that He might also instruct those around us. But eventually He reveals to our eyes the answers that were staring back at us the whole time, written indelibly into what He has made.

This process of expansion by inversion also gives us an inkling of the magnitude of the mind we are challenging when we question the wisdom of God. His ways seem counterintuitive to us only because He sees the bigger picture. Man’s natural wisdom is a God-given gift, but the wisdom that comes from the Spirit of God is always the bigger box—the mansion of many rooms. The key to the box is the One who made it. Only the Spirit of God could unlock the mysteries of the Law that confounded the rabbis; only the Son through whom the entire cosmos was created could unshackle the world in the keyhole of the grave; and only a brush with Christ can make sense of the apparent offense and folly of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).

As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth,
so the heart of kings is unsearchable.
(Proverbs 25:3)

God is not stingy with this big-box wisdom. But the expansion always comes via an inversion, like seed that falls into the ground and dies to bring a harvest, or an offering of blood that becomes a spring of living water.

From the beginning of history, submission to heaven was the key to dominion of the earth—the royal cup hidden in a humble sack of grain. The tests of faith are not God denying us a privilege, as the serpent would have us believe. They are His means of preparing us to receive it, broadening our shoulders to bear the responsibility of serving God as wise judges. Such people are gifted with the ability to look beyond outward appearances and discern what is good and what is evil, wielding the Word of God as a sword that separates the joints from the marrow in the hidden parts of men (Hebrews 4:12-13).

The Lord gives kingly discernment to anyone who humbly asks for it (James 1:5). That is what Adam should have done in response to the serpent’s twisting of the truth. The lesson of Eden was one of expansion by inversion—that riches, honor, glory, and power come only indirectly from God (Matthew 6:33; Revelation 4:11). They glorify the humble heart because such a heart is content with God Himself, and can thus be trusted with His gifts.

And God said to [Solomon], “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. (1 Kings 3:11-13)

So, discerning the meaning of the parable begins with the observation that this puzzle box is a component of a bigger box—a larger construct. That construct is, of course, the Olivet Discourse itself. And here is where we find the “mechanical” sequence that is the first key to the parable.

3
The Camp and the City
The palatial location of the story

Identifying where the smaller box fits inside the bigger box helps us to understand what it actually is. As with all Scripture, placement helps to communicate purpose.

The position of the parable within the sequence of the Olivet Discourse is the first part of the solution to the riddle of its meaning. So, what is that sequence?

The speech follows a pattern that is well-established in the Old Testament, a rhythmic formula of steps that structures everything God says and does.

The primary instance of this pattern is the Creation Week in Genesis 1, but the Jewish people had the same sequence drummed into them every year as they observed the harvest festivals in Israel’s God-given calendar. This liturgical iteration of seed time and harvest was a magnification of the “new creation” promise made to Noah.

“While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Genesis 8:22-9:1)

Leviticus 23 describes the first time these feasts were given to Israel. Their order there deliberately recapitulates the step-by-step construction of the world as a cycle of blessed rests.

But in this annual sequence, the Lord strangely puts the Sabbath first, not last. This is because the nationwide weekly rest was an ongoing corrective for the failure of Adam at the end of the world’s beginning.

Blessing upon the Land is always contingent upon faithful worship in the Garden. The work of the Sabbath in the hearts of the Israelites was the permanent “seed” of the greater abundance. The honorings of this small sevenfold cycle served as furrows for the delivery of the larger annual one by promising it in miniature.

The Law was given to Moses to ensure the delivery of the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15:4-7. The Adamic rest that resulted from this “Garden” obedience not only brought a blessing of fertility upon Israel in the Land, but also ultimately a blessing upon all the nations of the World (Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; Acts 3:25; Galatians 3:7-9).

The rubric behind the annual calendar is also found in the general themes of the first seven books of the Bible. In Genesis to Judges, the blueprint of cosmos building is expressed as a different kind of harvest—God’s work of husbandry in the creation of a nation. Just as Adam failed to enter into God’s rest on the first Sabbath, Israel’s record in the Book of Judges was a checkerboard of success and failure concerning the maintenance of the conquest of the Promised Land.

The internal logic of the Olivet Discourse is revealed in its employment of the threads of this threefold cord—creation, feasts, and conquest—as allusions to the consistent way in which God works in the world. The use of this sequence in Jesus’ speech means that Old Covenant history would end in a way that reflected how it began.

The seven-day structure of Matthew 24-25

This pattern in the Olivet Discourse means that Jesus Himself, enthroned in glory in its seventh step, would not only be the better Adam (creation) who ascended as the king of a more blessed Israel (feasts); it also implies that He would soon after become the exalted judge and deliverer of all nations (conquest).

However, this was an inversion of the pattern. Jesus was not blessing Jerusalem with a cycle of rests, but precisely the opposite. The prophecy describes a step-by-step repossession of the promises to Abraham under the curses of the Law of Moses (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). If they rebelled, Yahweh promised to discipline and strike the people of Israel sevenfold for their sins. So the judgments described in the discourse are the execution of the seven woes pronounced by Jesus upon Jerusalem in Matthew 23.

Matthew 24-25 is not a sevenfold process of creation but a sevenfold process of demolition. Every step of the ancient, cosmic pattern is used by Jesus to turn a covenant blessing into a covenant curse. He begins with the removal of Sabbath peace from Jerusalem, and ends not with a celebration that incorporates faithful Jewish and Gentile worshipers, but with a judgment that extends to the Jewish rulers and their Gentile co-conspirators.

The correspondence of the sevenfold discourse with the days of creation also explains the marked shifts within the flow, from prophecy in its Days 1 to 3 (Matthew 24:1-35), to parables in its Days 4 to 6 (Matthew 24:36-25:30), to a parabolic prophecy as its Day 7 (Matthew 25:31-46). Like the first week of history, the speech consists of three “days” of forming, three “days” of filling, and a final “day” of judgment in which the Lord determines the heirs of the future age.

This pattern of forming, filling, and future was not only the sequence of the construction of the cosmos, but also of the creation of Adam and the building of the Tabernacle. And it is the way in which any dwelling is built. But these three aspects correspond in turn to the offices of priest, king, and prophet. The priest is like a child who simply obeys (forming); the king is to be a wise and mighty steward of his household under God (filling); and the prophet rewards rulers and their nations with a lasting legacy (future). This threefold “official” progression explains Jesus’ careful choice of the contents of Matthew 24-25 and their meticulous arrangement.

The first three steps of the discourse are priestly, focused on the removal of prosperity from the Land. After accepting the perfect offering of Christ, the Father would reject the offerings that continued to be made in the Temple to mitigate the curses of the Law. Due to this rejection, the Abrahamic blessings of fertility upon the land and the womb would revert to the Edenic curses upon the same, and the Mosaic curses upon the transgressions of the people would reclaim all peace and prosperity. The Jewish rulers rejected the blood of Christ, and without blood there is no remission of sins. Revelation describes the inversion of the “seven sprinklings” of blood on the Day of Atonement; all of the blood collected after the crucifixion would be poured out upon the Land in seven bowls of judgment.

But although the Law of Moses was mostly comprised of laws for the priests and the people, it also contained special laws for the kings of Israel (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). So step four moves the focus of the discourse from the workers upon the land to the servants in the royal household. It does so in the same way that the world turned from the fruitful land of Day 3 to the rule of the sun, moon, and stars of Day 4 in the twin dreams of Joseph, Israel’s first international ruler. The shift is an ascension from the earthy things of priestly firstfruits to the heavenly courses of kings and their wise men.

However, the royal court that Jesus had in mind was not that of just any old king. When taken as a unit it can be seen that the “filling” imagery of Days 4, 5, and 6 of the speech deliberately draws upon characteristics of the kingdom of Solomon, the wise builder of the first temple. Jesus’ point in the use of these references was that the true Solomon would come suddenly to inspect the Temple that the Herods were continuing to build—not to complete it for them but to tear it down. Why? Because they were not wise, and their house was not built upon the Rock.

So, the pattern of the discourse relates to the fact that Jesus would soon die as the true High Priest (forming), be enthroned in heaven as the true King David (filling), and then, as the ultimate Prophet promised by Moses (future) (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18; John 1:21) He would summon Gentile hosts against the city that murdered the prophets and apostles.

And that prophetic judgment, as the finale of Jesus’ ministry extended among the Jews by the Apostolic Church, is the subject of the parable of the sheep and the goats. It dealt with the past and established the foundation of the future.

Firstly, the priesthood given to Israel in the wilderness would be repossessed from the Jews and given to the Christians. Secondly, the kingdom given to Israel in the Promised Land would be repossessed from earthly Jerusalem and given to the heavenly Jerusalem. Thirdly, this double office qualified the Firstfruits Church as the source of prophecy, and it served as the body of courageous Jewish prophets that Moses desired (Numbers 11:29) until Judaism was decommissioned in AD70. This is why the Christian Church is described in Revelation 20:9 as a combination of the camp of the saints assembled under Moses and the holy city built up by David: the Bride of Christ is a royal priesthood, a priest-kingdom of wise judges.

In summary, the sequence reveals that Jesus placed the parable of the sheep and the goats upon a throne. This throne was priestly because the discourse “ascended” through the Temple, from the outer court of earthly offerings (steps 1 to 3) into the royal court of tables, lamps, and incense (steps 4 to 6), and finally to the throne of God Himself in the Most Holy Place (step 7). This throne was also kingly because the throne of Solomon had six steps, each flanked by a pair of golden lions.

The throne in the parable is not merely Davidic; it is also Noahic, ruling over all nations in a way that was only hinted at in the rule of Solomon. Since the discourse culminates in the international enthronement of Christ, the speech describes not His ascension to heaven but the beginning of His crushing of His enemies on earth—step by step—a generation later.

Jesus’ forty-year rule over Israel as the Greater David culminated in His eternal rule as the Greater Solomon. And that rule as an emperor—a king of kings—began with the inauguration of the age of the Christian Church as a spiritual temple that would last for “a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4), a symbol derived from the historical length of Israel’s era of temples.

Take away the dross from the silver,
and the smith has material for a vessel;
take away the wicked from the presence of the king,
and his throne will be established in righteousness.
(Proverbs 25:4-5)

If there is any doubt concerning the Bible’s practice of pastiche and recapitulation described above, the Books of Genesis and Revelation employ the same sevenfold sequence as their deep structure. Genesis ends with the wise ministry of the enthroned Joseph, and his reunion with his father. Revelation’s final step begins with John’s vision of the martyred saints enthroned as Sons of God in heaven, enjoying rest and rule, and exercising wise judgment over angels and men as God had promised.

———————————

Before we move on, it would be wise to consider the contents of each of the seven steps in the discourse. This counters even more strongly the claim that Jesus was answering two separate questions from the disciples rather than a single twofold question. He was not speaking about two judgments—one in the first century and one at the end of the world. If we get that impression from His words, it is because we misunderstand His Old Testament allusions. In these arcane references, He was giving to the disciples a ring of keys that not only “opened” their eyes to what was soon to occur, but also explained the reasons why.

Their service as His prophets to the kings of Israel required such biblical insight. During the forty-year overlap of the old age and the age to come, these men served as the bridge for the people of God. In their testimony and suffering, the King’s wise men would “shine like the brightness of the sky above” (Daniel 12:3).

In what follows, I have included in the subtitles the elements of the Tabernacle as they correspond to the days of Creation. These were omitted earlier in case some readers were overwhelmed by the barrage of related imagery. But they are an important thread in this tale of demolition of the old “cosmos,” which is what the Temple represented. Israel’s mediation between heaven and earth, having now been fulfilled by Christ, was coming to an end (2 Peter 3:10-13).

Step 1
(Matthew 24:1-9)
Genesis – Sabbath – Moral Light & Darkness – Ark of the Testimony

Jesus announces the “decreation” of the Temple by departing from it for the Mount of Olives as the Spirit did in Ezekiel 8-11, leaving the world in darkness.

As James B. Jordan observes, the statement that not one stone would be left upon another was a reference to the demolition of a house in the city that was infected with “leprosy” and unable to be cleansed (Leviticus 14:33-53). This perhaps explains why the rite for the anointing of the Aaronic priests (in the Garden) was so similar to that for the purification of lepers (in the Land). Biblical leprosy was dusty, scaly skin, a symbol of the punishment upon the serpent. The Temple was now a corrupt Garden of Eden, a sanctuary ruled by serpent-kings, and the Land was consequently plagued with deceivers that poisoned the people like fiery serpents—a spiritual contagion.

The Edenic curses would be multiplied upon the ground as “land quakes” and famines (famines such as that recorded in Acts 11:27-30 and the earthquakes that devastated many cities in the AD50s and 60s), and the fragile pax Romana among the nations would be shaken by brotherly “Cain-and-Abel” conflict.

Continuing the Genesis theme, the “birth pains” are the rivalry between the sons of Isaac in the womb, and the disciples would be delivered up by their jealous brothers in the way that faithful Joseph was.

Step 2
(Matthew 24:10-20)
Exodus – Passover – Division of the People – The Veil of Moses

Many would stumble in the spiritual darkness, and the Gospel of Christ would divide the nation in two, ready for the sword of God to slay the spiritual Egyptians as in Ezekiel 9.

Since the Prophet like Moses had been rejected, there would be false prophets. Instead of the Law of Moses bringing unity, there would be increasing lawlessness as God cursed the people with confusion and delusion. Only the ones who survived to the end of the siege would be delivered.

The Sanctuary of God would be defiled by its own priesthood, and the “Egyptian” leaven of the Pharisees that was fermenting in the Temple would eventually spread to every house and garment as a culture of spiritual leprosy (Leviticus 13).

A focus on earthy concerns brings a threefold reference to barrenness: Pregnant and nursing mothers would struggle (Priesthood); Winter (the times and seasons) would be a hindrance to those fleeing from the cursed land (Kingdom); and traveling on the Sabbath would attract condemnation from hypocritical Jews (Prophecy).

Step 3
(Matthew 24:21-28; 24:29-35)
Leviticus – Firstfruits – Defilement of the Land
and Harvesting of the Fruit Bearers

3a – The Bronze Altar: Trouble would come upon the saints at the hands of the corrupt rulers of Jerusalem. They are presented as lying court magicians like those of Pharaoh who manufactured false signs, and doomed priests of Baal like those of Jezebel who called down fire from heaven.

They claimed to be wise men who perceived the signs of the times, but they were seers like those of Herod the Great who overlooked the star of Bethlehem. The Day of the Lord would be as undeniable as the “brightness” (the sun) traveling from the east to the west.

Instead of Gentile worshipers gathering to a feast, Gentile invaders would gather like unclean, scavenging eagles (the military standards of Rome): Jesus implies that Abraham would no longer chase the birds away. The Land would be defiled with human remains like an altar, and the remaining Jews would be the meat of the “child sacrifice” of the rebellious sons.

3b – The Golden Table: The tribulation of the saints (the crime of Jerusalem) would bring the days of vengeance (the punishment of Jerusalem). Jesus cites Isaiah 13 to portray Jerusalem as a new Babylon, a city whose rulers will similarly fall overnight.

The tribes of the Land would finally mourn, but not for sin (Revelation 1:7); and the martyrs would be harvested from the Land as the firstfruits of the Gospel (Revelation 14:1-5; 14-20)—taken by God suddenly, just like Enoch—as living sacrifices (Genesis 4:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). In liturgical terms, this contrast in the destiny of the cursed and the blessed is likened to that between the four horns of a bloodied altar-land and the four winds of a fragrant ascension to God. The disciples were to be the wise men who perceived the signs of this coming harvest.

This forming section ends with a reminder of the “heaven and earth” witness against Israel when the people received the words of Moses—the Law that was now being fulfilled.

Step 4
(Matthew 24:36-51)
Numbers – Pentecost – Judgment upon Lawless Rulers – The Lampstand

The focus now shifts from Priesthood to Kingdom. Joseph believed God and through patient diligence was exalted in every domain in which he humbled himself as a servant. Regardless of his location and his circumstances, he remained faithful and God blessed him with authority. In contrast, the rulers of Israel were tyrants who had behaved like the Pharaoh who did not know Joseph (Romans 9:13-17).

“The day and the hour” alludes to the sun, moon, and stars as a heavenly clock. The seven bright lights in the sky were represented by the Lampstand of the Tabernacle.

“Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” alludes to the tactics that the godless lineage of Cain employed to evade the Edenic curses upon the fertility of the ground and the womb. Instead of offering sacrifices and trusting God to mitigate the curses, it is implied that they ate meat before God permitted it and practiced polygamy in order to establish their dynasties quickly (Genesis 4:19-20; 6:1-2). Jesus’ target here is the Herods who, like kings of Israel and Judah before the exile, sought the prosperity promised to Abraham through statecraft—the covenants with Gentiles that Abram eschewed. Their compromise is the “intermarriage” mentioned in Daniel 2:43. Like those who rebelled before the Great Flood, these murderers and adulterers would be suddenly swept away.

The men working in the field correspond to the curse upon the ground; the women grinding at the mill is an oblique reference to the symbolism of the threshing floor as a euphemism for sex (as in the Book of Ruth). Taking one and leaving the other is an allusion to the invasions of Judah by Babylon, where only the poor were left to maintain the fields, but it is also a hint at what is to come in the final step—a stark cutting in two as an Abrahamic offering (Genesis 15).

As the fourth step in the festal pattern, this section is linked to the first Pentecost, where, after receiving the Law, 3,000 Israelites were executed for worshiping the golden calf. That would be the fate of those who now disbelieved the One who was greater than Moses. They refused to join the 3,000 who would believe at the last Pentecost, receive the Spirit of God, and become human lampstands.

Step 5
(Matthew 25:1-13)
Deuteronomy – Trumpets – Testimony to All Nations – The Incense Altar

On Day 5, God created flocks of birds and schools of fish—hosts of many that move as one. The theme at this step is multiplication, and it corresponds to the mustering of Israel’s fighting men for counting before the Day of Atonement.

Usually, this host is pictured by the clouds of incense in the Holy Place—a fragrant testimony of Springtime resurrection life. Esther was treated with perfumes for her approach to the king.

Jesus chooses instead to multiply the Lampstand as the bridal host, and once His reasoning is made apparent, it is fascinating. He alludes to the traditional Jewish wedding where the guests would travel from the ceremony at the bride’s home to the bridegroom’s home for the banquet. There, the virgin bridesmaids would await the arrival of the wedding party. But here the bridegroom is King Solomon, whose bride was “awesome as an army with banners” (Song of Solomon 6:4, 10).

Ten is a military number in the Bible, so the number of virgins is also linked to the glory of Israel’s might—the result of bearing many sons under God’s blessing.

The virgins are the “priestly” women who served at the Tabernacle and Temple, voluntarily bearing the Edenic curse upon the womb in anticipation of the Promised Seed. (The Levites bore the curse upon the Land in a similar way, inheriting only the “heavenly country” of a future age.)

The multiplication is not clouds of incense but the seventy lights on the ten lampstands of Solomon’s Temple, one flame for each of the seventy nations listed in Genesis 10. The lamps are the hosts of the sky representing and testifying to the people of the deep. And once again, the contrast between the wise (obedient) and the foolish (disobedient) brings a division.

Step 6
(Matthew 25:14-30)
Joshua – Atonement – The City Under the Ban – The Bronze Laver

The sixth step entwines the themes of Day 6 (Adam’s theft from God) and the Day of Atonement (the cleansing of the Land via a token offering) with their corresponding events in the Book of Joshua—Achan’s theft and Jericho’s destruction as a “firstfruits” conquest whose plunder was devoted to God.

The man who returns from his journey to calculate the interest garnered from the wise investment of his servants is like Yahweh who returns to the Garden to inspect the spiritual fruits of the world’s first steward and invest him with a robe of glory. When God plants a seed He rightfully expects it to be multiplied—in this case, a harvest of righteousness.

The unfaithful servant in this parable is just like Adam, a man who slandered the character of God, considering Him to be unjust, and thus feared His judgment. The gold refers to Solomon, who in disobedience to Moses’ laws for Israel’s kings, amassed 666 talents in his first year. This began Solomon’s “Adamic” downfall, but Christ is a greater and wiser king.

The judgment this time is not a division into two halves but a division of the spoil between three servants. Based on the following judgment of the nations, the most likely referent is the different portions given to Japheth, Shem, and Ham. In other words, the reunion of Jew (Shem) and Gentile (Japheth) through the removal of the wall of partition would also bring a devastating loss of inheritance to the spiritual “Canaanites” who ruled Jerusalem.

Step 7
(Matthew 25:31-46)
Judges – Ingathering – The Future of the Nations – The Shekinah

As the final step in the sequence, the “sheep and goats” judgment corresponds to the exile of the first man and woman under the threat of the flaming sword of the cherubim; to the Feast of Booths (also known as Ingathering) when Israel worshiped and celebrated with believing Gentiles at the final harvest of the year; and to the Book of Judges where God raised up twelve champions whose courage and cunning delivered His people from tyrannies that fell upon them as a result of their own sins.

This gives us three more keys to the parable: the disinheritance of Adam; the gathering of the nations; and deliverance by a judge who is wiser than Solomon.

However, within this general theme of enthronement and discernment as the culmination of the sequence there are other potent symbols to interpret. These also have a long history in the Bible, and they are the keys to figuring out who these sheep and goats actually are.

READ PART TWO