The Shape of Matthew 24-25: Analysis – Part 4

Joseph believed God and through patient diligence was exalted in every domain in which he humbled himself as a servant. This is the nature of true and lasting kingdom.

Read the Overview.  Read Part 1.  Read Part 2.  Read Part 3.

So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. (Genesis 39:4)

The literary shift into Day 4 also moves us from forming to filling. In terms of office, the subject matter is less concerned with priesthood and more concerned with kingdom. As a result, the final four sections all allude in some way to Solomon: the king’s house (Testing – Pentecost), the king’s virgins (Maturity – Trumpets), the king’s gold (Conquest – Atonement), and the king’s court (Glorification – Booths).

ETHICS: KINGDOM

Day 4 – Purification – PENTECOST – Testing

SOLOMON’S HOUSE (MATTHEW 24:36-51)

David wrote that the Law was a lamp to his feet and a light to his path, so this central Ethics passage (which corresponds to the Lampstand) is comprised of ten stanzas which are patterned after the Ten Commandments.

However, as in a number of other places, the structure does not work horizontally through each dyad (that is, 1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc.) but vertically, down each column or tablet: the five odd numbers (Adam: word, priest) and then the five even numbers (Eve: response, people).

PRIESTHOOD Jachin		KINGDOM Boaz
I No false gods The day and the hour	TRANSCENDENCE THE TIMELESS GOD	II No false oaths to God The unexpected hour
III Honor the Sabbath Those in the days of Noah (“rest”)	HIERARCHY THE LAND & THE WOMB	IV Honor parents, live long in the Land Shelter and food in due season
V No murder The murderers and adulterers swept away	ETHICS HERODIAN SINS	VI No adultery The faithful servant discovered
VII No theft Keep watch	OATH/SANCTIONS THE BLESSED & THE CURSED	VIII No false witness “My master delays”
IX No coveting house The house burgled	SUCCESSION THE FATE OF JUDAISM	X No coveting household A portion with the hypocrites

• Identifying Jesus’ use of the Ten Words “template” reveals not only the brilliance of the construct but also the depths of its meaning. It reminds us that literary structure is not merely ornamental but part of the message. For the exegete, it is not optional but crucial.
• Because Jesus works through the commandments in columns of “office” (priesthood, then kingdom), the correspondence between them is masked. To clarify, stanza 1 corresponds to stanza 6, and so on. This two-pillar use of the Ten Words pattern is also the basis for the structure of the book of Daniel. ¹
• In the Transcendence dyad, both commands refer to time—the first to the fact that only the Transcendent Father knows the time, and the second to the response of the saints who received this warning.
• In the Hierarchy dyad, the contrast is between those who were “eating, drinking” and “marrying, giving in marriage” through evasion of the curses upon the land (Adam) and the womb (Eve) via cities and polygamy, and those who, like Noah, relied upon God for the ultimate care of their households (Genesis 8:21-22). Whereas there was no “Noahic” rest for the wicked who died in the flood, the disciples of Jesus would enter into God’s rest.
• The Ethics dyad contrasts the fate of the leaders at the end of the Old Covenant with the leader at the end of the book of Genesis. The Pharisees and the Herods would lose absolutely everything. The saints who trusted in Christ, those who were martyred and those who were not, would receive a new kingdom on earth and a better inheritance in heaven.
• Oath/Sanctions chooses between the true and false Adam, and the true and false Eve. It then describes the steward who bears false witness to himself and thus suffers the curses of the covenant.
• Succession ends the process with the fate of the ruler of the house and his household. Both parts of this dyad are negative. Old Israel would fall “in the wilderness,” head and body.

Column 1: Jachin – Priesthood

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TRANSCENDENCE
I
No false gods
The day and the hour

• The first stanza begins with a void, a lack of knowledge presented as a world that is formless and empty, awaiting the initiating work of the Father. This supports the idea that the Son Himself was on a “need-to-know” basis throughout the Old Testament, trusting the Father as He obediently carried out His will on earth from heaven until the incarnation.²
• The unknown day and hour in line two alludes to the Temple Veil, something obscuring the throne of heaven. “No one knows” in line 3 corresponds to the opening of the scroll at the third step in the book of Revelation (and the opening of the books in the third step of the final sequence). In other words, Jesus would learn of the day and the hour at His ascension and enthronement as the Son who would finally succeed the Father and rule in His own right, much like Joseph bearing all the authority of Pharaoh. (Corresponding to Leviticus in the sevenfold pattern of dominion, Jesus would send the Spirit to reveal to the apostles and saints the meaning of the arcane stipulations of Levitical Law.)
• The angels are here pictured as the Lampstand, “messengers of light,” (Psalm 104:4; 2 Corinthians 11:14) and yet even they were peering into the scroll of history awaiting for the next “book” to be unrolled (1 Peter 1:10-12).³

HIERARCHY
III
Honor the Sabbath
Those in the days of Noah (“rest”)

• The second stanza ties together the “divided waters” imagery from Genesis and Exodus, that is, the vertical and the horizontal. It is thus a reference to the cross of Christ, the arks of Noah and Moses, the taking of Enoch and Israel as a kind of “firstfruits,” and a condemnation of the rulers of Israel with the Gentiles as the evasion of the barrier established by the circumcision to avoid another global flood. The glory enjoyed by the Herods was a counterfeit of the coming marriage feast of the Lamb, and Jerusalem would be besieged during Passover, to be eaten by the Roman eagles. The “land and womb” fertility promises to Abraham would be revoked, and the prophet would not chase the birds away.
• The stanza focusses on the Creation thread of the Bible Matrix, and in doing so it reveals that it was the sacrificial bread and wine of Jesus (at Firstfruits/Table) that led to Israel being the meat on the table at the final Feast of Booths. The lesson is that if we despise God’s table our own tables will be made bare.
• The placement of “eating and drinking” at Atonement (line 6) also hints at the image of the harlot city in Revelation, eating and drinking the flesh of her own sons in order to appease the nations instead of ministering to the nations in order to appease the demands of the Law of God.

ETHICS
V
No murder
The murderers and adulterers swept away

• The end of Israel came with a “flood” (Daniel 9:26)—the Gentile “Sea” overrunning the Jewish “Land” and cleansing it of violence. The irony, of course, is that this was achieved through violence, and it was those “safe” inside the walls of Jerusalem who were destroyed on behalf of those outside. This inversion was a trap—Jesus had turned the table of the Jews into a snare (Romans 11:9). The word “took” has the idea of picking something up to carry it away, used elsewhere of taking up a bed, or Jesus’ yoke, or the cross. In this case it is thus an ironic “wave offering,” perhaps a joke at the expense of the doomed priesthood and its prodigal masters. However, appearing in line 5 it speaks of plunder and plagues. Jesus would not honor their “firstfruits” offerings but instead come as a thief to spoil their vessels (Matthew 12:29). We know from Moses and David that God always builds a new house out of the plunder of holy war.
• Notice the correspondence of Noah entering the ark at Division/Passover and Jesus coming (like a flood) at Conquest/Atonement, the day of coverings. Jesus’ “second coming” would finish the work of atonement, fulfilling the two approaches—for the head and body—of the High Priest on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:14-16; Daniel 7:13, 27; Mark 14:62; Acts 1:11).
• The lack of knowledge again appears at step 3—the Jewish rulers were the blind leading the blind. The position of the flood here corresponds to the “voice like many waters” in the description of Jesus in Revelation 1, no longer a silent Mosaic Lamb but now a roaring Davidic Lion, the High Priest of a kingly Tabernacle (Acts 15:16). The Son of Man (read as Son of Adam) finally enters Noahic rest in line 7 as the successor of all nations.

OATH/SANCTIONS
VII
No theft
Keep watch

• The spiritual splitting of Olivet into two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, in the blessing and cursing of an Israel set at war with itself by the Gospel of Christ is here pictured as a taking of the faithful (as the first goat) and the leaving of the unfaithful (as the second goat). This is the first death (martyrdom during the tribulation of the saints, AD64-66) and the second death (slaughter by the Romans during the days of vengeance, AD67-70).
• The word “taken” is positive, alluding to the “nearbringing” of sacrifice, of taking a wife, or taking the infant Jesus from the threat of death under Herod. Revelation shows us two Adams, Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Herod and Jesus, and “the field” in all cases is a field of blood, the domain of Judas. Grinding at the mill is, like the threshing floor, a euphemism for sex. The choice here is between faithful Ruth and unfaithful Jezebel, the feast of the true bride in heaven and the throwing down of the false bride to be devoured by the dogs.

SUCCESSION
IX
No coveting house
The house burgled

• The allusion here is partly to Adam’s house being taken from him due to his theft in God’s house, and partly to the role of the Levite watchmen of the Temple, those who sang Psalm 134, the final “Song of Ascent” as they began their watch.⁴ This also explains Jesus’ ironic threat at the end of Matthew 23, that Jerusalem would not see Him again until she sang psalms in the completed Temple that condemned her own apostasy.
• Since the house here is, of course, the Temple, it is worth mentioning one of the signs of its impending doom, as recorded by Josephus: “Moreover, at the feast which is called Pentecost the priests [all 24 of them] on entering the inner court of the Temple by night as their custom was in the discharge of their ministrations, reported that they were conscious, first of a commotion and a din, and after that of a voice as of a host, ‘We are departing hence.”
• Notice once again the wonderful architectural placement of the words: knowledge as light/Ark; lack of knowledge as firmament/Veil; the master as Priesthood; the night as the lack of the Spirit/Lampstand; the thief coming with hosts as Incense clouds to plunder; the failure to watch vindicated in the apocalypse; and the Gentile scavengers at Booths. Remember also that the desolation of Solomon’s Temple was preceded by a number of pillaging raids by surrounding kings.

Column 2: Boaz – Kingdom

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TRANSCENDENCE
II
No false oaths to God
The unexpected hour

• The kingdom column moves us from preparation to the actual event. The unknown hour has now come, and all those who took the Lord’s name in vain (that is, made an oath to serve Him which turned out to be mere lip service) having been exposed by their response to the apostolic testimony as liars and frauds, would be handed over to the Romans for execution, just as they had handed over Jesus. Daniel’s 70th Week (AD64-70) would re-enact Holy Week but in vengeance rather than mercy.
• Notice that where there was darkness at the center of the prevoius stanza there is now the blinding light of exposure, the day of “uncoverings” for those who had trampled under foot the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:29).

HIERARCHY
IV
Honor parents, live long in the Land
Shelter and food in due season

• The placement of this stanza allows it to throw the corresponding Hierarchy stanza into relief. The promises of abundant fruitfulness made to Noah (concerning all dry land) and to Abraham (concerning the microcosmic Promised Land), along with all subsequent covenants, were being folded together into the New Covenant under the rule of Jesus.
• Notice that wisdom is now found in line 3: the mystery has been opened, the scroll unsealed, the dreams interpreted. Jesus would fulfill in the court of God the role that Joseph and Daniel filled as wise men in the courts of Gentile emperors.

ETHICS
VI
No adultery
The faithful servant discovered

• Like Joseph’s star, this stanza is a gem that shines above its fellows, recapitulating the Heptateuch as an image of the life of the favored son of Jacob as a better steward than Adam.
• The blessed servant is the man who, as a prefigurement of Jesus, ends the book of Genesis by outsmarting every serpent and being exalted through faithful perseverance and diligent labor in every domain, despite continued betrayals. Unlike Reuben, he even resisted a claim on his master’s house through sleeping with his “father’s” (Potiphar’s) wife.
• Line 2 is the journey to the House of God; line 3 is the true Priest-King, as opposed to the Pharisees and Herods; in line 4, the true Israel is faithful and will not be cut off; line 5 is the Law of the Spirit, a New Covenant with new promises for a new Israel, the Church; line 6 is the heavenly country to which Abraham looked forward; and the final line alludes to the enthronement of the saints as righteous judges, human elohim, in Revelation 20.

OATH/SANCTIONS
VIII
No false witness
“My master delays”

• The prohibition against false witness referred to perjury, that is, lying to condemn the innocent. Instances in Genesis, Exodus, and Joshua show that God has no problem with those who lie to protect the innocent. We are called to be harmless as doves and wise as serpents. The irony here is that the wicked servant is lying to himself about the return of his master. This stanza foreshadows the Oath/Sanctions section of the entire prophecy, where the Lord comes to Adam to receive interest on his investment, and to delegate greater authority and glory to those who can present the fruits of their faithful labor to Him.
• The “fellow servants” here are obviously the disciples of Jesus, those betrayed, beaten, and even murdered by their Jewish brothers. This subject comes up again in the final section of the prophecy. Prodigal eating and drinking is once again a counterfeit feast, something that, without repentance, would bring the penalty of death under the Law of Moses.⁵

SUCCESSION
X
No coveting household
A portion with the hypocrites

• The final stanza describes the state of Judaism since AD70. Absolutely everything was repossessed by Jesus, just as Moses repossessed all of the abundance and riches from Egypt which were the result of the faithfulness of Joseph. The word “place” is actually “portion,” an irony that explains the apparent contradiction of cutting somebody into pieces and then exiling them. The word highlights this stanza’s correspondence to the final prohibition on coveting the contents of the house. For their failure to be united in the confession of the name of Jesus (at the true “Babel” of Pentecost), the tribes would be scattered and their portions (inheritance) taken from them and given to those who submitted to the Son of God (Matthew 21:43). As Jesus had reminded them, the meek inherit the Land. That was both a warning and a promise.
• Cutting the wicked servant in pieces is sacrificial, Levitical, and in the Prophecy step it reminds us of the prophet Samuel dismembering King Agag (1 Samuel 15:33). In this case it is perhaps an inversion of the brutal dismembering of the concubine in Judges 20. Here, it is the tribes who are cut up rather than gathered, and it is the mistreated corporate “Woman,” the bridal household, that is calling for vengeance.
• The gnashing of teeth is an apt inversion of the previous feasting—the mouths of the false shepherds were now empty of the flesh of their brothers, and they instead were being offered whole as an ascension.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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1. See The Gospel According to Nebuchadnezzar – Part 1.
2. For more discussion on what Jesus did and did not know, see Educating Jesus.
3. See The End of Israel: Jesus, Paul & AD70, 192-209 for a discussion of the typology of scrolls.
4. See The Final Ascent: Psalm 134.
5. See Parsing the Prodigal – Part 1