After sufficient cerebral time was spent on these thoughts, we were able to accept that our search must be expanded, and the question had to be asked, “What is the truth value of a concept like that represented in the word -Stao- throughout the bible? Can the meaning of the cross be discerned apart from the event on Golgotha?” And we stepped from the Greek to the Hebrew, and from the language of the New Testament into the much detoured strictures of the Old Testament, not without reiterating, for the sake of avoidance, the usual lack of discernment in the use of metaphor as a tool, as well as the necessary comprehension concerning the idea of spiritual facts as revealed in the Bible.
We then looked at scriptural examples of some relative usages of similar concepts from the Hebrew to the Greek to show that biblically, in terms of language as well as imagery, the doctrinal gulf set up between the dispensations of the OT and the NT are certainly not found in the language by itself– regardless of what certain theological interpretations would like us to accept. And this minimal exposition of the facts was meant to further allow us to maintain a requisite objectivity as we recovered some passages more susceptible to indoctrinated prejudice.
Which is when we entered into the esoteric watershed of Numbers30. Here we had to gradually unfold the familiar, but sometimes forgotten, relevance of identifying the relationship between the Lord and His people as one of ‘man’ and ‘woman,’ whether it be as a wife or as a daughter. While this was surfacing we also looked at the emphasis of that which ‘shall,’ or ‘shall not’ stand in accordance with the divine statute concerning the ‘woman’s’ vows. Added to this was a short reflection of biblical adultery, helping us consider the circumstance of serving “those who are, by nature, not gods,” which showed that a ‘woman’ may be spiritually married to a husband besides The Lord– to which we must suppose that the law pertaining to the woman and her vows must still apply, understanding that the soul itself is what is in question.That is to logically say, that if a woman vows herself to another being that doesn’t have her best eternal interests in mind, that he may allow her vows to stand, for better or for worse, so to speak. One can imagine the consequences.
We then looked at the context of what broken vows looked like from the Lord’s perspective, and his response to them. Of course, seeing that the connection between Numbers 30:15, “…he shall bear her guilt,” and the imagery of Christ bearing the sins of the world, is unmistakingly in line with this aspect of the law, giving us clear insight into the heights to which this law applies. Taking us finally into the divine art of affliction acknowledged throughout the bible as an act of implementation by God himself, for the purpose of what is related in scripture as a Refinement.
This particular period of extra-attentiveness on behalf of the divine, is observable in the journey of Israel from the first revelation of the “I Am” to Moses in the burning bush, essentially on into even the distant future elaborated to mankind in the Revelations of St. John. To which we may reasonably extend the observable pattern of refinement through affliction to pre-Mosaic time periods as a matter of induction, although in a different form. In other words, the process of divine refinement is an intrinsic characteristic throughout the entire bible, expressly entwined with the continuous development of the mystical Bride of the Lord.
Luke 14:27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple.(28)For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.”
You’ll remember I added –To bear one’s cross is compared to counting the cost of building a tower. The cross is the cost. What, then, is being counted? What is the cross?
From the findings of this study, the building of a tower is a process, a specific building process. In our case, The process of soul development enveloped in the refinement of the ‘I am’ as it exists in the individual person. The cost, is the divine tool of refinement, understood as affliction. Affliction, as we know, is the ordained result of offenses of spiritual oath breaking that have been counted from above. One way or the other. In other words, the Cross, as it is revealed along the trail of this essay, the Cross: is the affliction that one is ordained to bear, based on past deeds, for the sake of refinement towards a specified goal.
“Whoever does not bear that which has been Placed upon him, according to that which Stands in him, and come after Me cannot be my disciple. For that is the cost of building a vessel of Glory. A Son of God.”
What does this mean? Destiny.
The process of refinement through affliction is the Law of Destiny. Through the bible a person may comprehend, not only the idea of a final destination of their soul, so to speak, but the actual process of getting from point Alpha to point Omega. I chose the words specifically: the refinement of the “I Am.”
“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it
For how should My Name be profaned?
And I will not give My glory to another.
Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, my called:
I am He, I am the First,
I am also the Last.
Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
and My right hand has stretched out the heavens
When I call to them, They stand up together.”
Isaiah 48:9-13
to be continued…
Bobby Irelan
DOC #F-59719
