September 11, 2015

 

The Glory of the Lord is a promise in the Word, first seen in Abraham, promised to Moses and the children of Israel, and prophesied by David, Isaiah and Jeremiah.  When Jesus came as the personification of that Glory, He both prayed and promised that His Glory would be revealed in a people who were intimate with Him.  In today's Coffee Break, and possibly the next one or two, I'd like to deal with the preparation in us for the revealing of His Glory as Jesus laid it out, Paul described it, and John was given the demonstration in Revelation.

 

The picture I'm about to draw for you begins in the Garden.  It flows throughout the Word, often concealed in "hidden manna" -- Hebrew metaphors with literally extravagant depths -- in the Song of Solomon, and Jeremiah's prophecy.  It is revealed in Jesus' parables, demonstrated in Paul's epistles, and wept over in the seventh of the seven letters to the Ekklesia in Revelation.

 

Watch!

 

Genesis 1:26-28:  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

 

The very beginning for all of us was that we were first created in the image and likeness of the Lord God!  Get it?  His image!  His likeness!  Understand, too, that when we read, "And God said," the Hebrew word used for God is Elohim.  This is the plural of Eloah.  The plural usage here designates Father, Son & Holy Spirit, all working together in harmony, in complete agreement with each other.  Hence, the DNA is the combined DNA of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  That may seem like a stretch to put it that way, but consider that Father has His overriding dominion, His authority, His character and nature.  Jesus, on the other hand, has the nature, the character, the very essence of the relationship between Father and Son.  Holy Spirit has the makeup, the personality, the very nature which imparts, which teaches, which broods and meditates and infuses the nature and character and essence of Father and Son combined.

 

It takes a revelation from Holy Spirit to get this picture, but it is a critical picture.  We were created in the image, the likeness, the character, the makeup, the authority, the very essence of all THREE IN ONE!!!  Therein lies the mystery of the Glory!

 

Notice the very first declaration God makes over man:  "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

 

There's a word for you -- dominion!  It comes from the Hebrew word, radah, which means: to rule over, to tread down, to subjugate; metaphorically: to take possession of, to possess oneself of; and in lesser usage: to teach, to bring correction to, to discipline and bring under subjection.

 

We know without hesitation that absolute authority and dominion resides in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The authority and dominion that resided in Adam and Eve was nothing shy of stupendous.  Think about it for a minute.  Adam was given the responsibility to imbue every single one of some 50,000 species of animals, birds, reptiles, etc., with their character, their nature and their personality.  And he did it simply by speaking and declaring over them.  "And it was so!"

 

But that's only a tiny part of the picture.  Adam was first created.  For some unspecified period of time, he was alone.  Here's where it gets really interesting.  Adam had no counterpart, no "other self" with whom he could share all that he was.  Yet completeness is in Father God, completeness is in Jesus -- OOPS, almost (but that's where we're going with this series) -- and completeness is in Holy Spirit.

 

You see, here's the catch.  Adam was complete, but in his completeness, he was incomplete.  This brings us to the whole purpose of Creation....mmmm....just hold steady, folks!  You'll see it as things unfold.  Watch what happens next!

 

Genesis 2:18:  And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

 

It is really important for us to make a distinction here.  God did not say, I will make him an helpmeet.  He said -- and I'm phrasing this for you from the Hebrew text -- I will make someone who will surround him, protect him, provide assistance and nurture him -- one who will be his counterpart, his other self, one who parallels him, who is appropriate to his character, his nature and makeup. (RAC Translation & Amplification)

 

Now, God puts Adam into a deep sleep.  The Greek Septuagint uses the word, ecstasis, meaning: a state of ecstasy!  Adam wasn't simply knocked out or put into some kind of coma, the Lord places him into an ecstatic dream state.  Then he opens Adam up, takes out a rib -- the rib closest to his heart -- closes him back up and creates Eve.

 

NOW, Adam is complete!  With Eve, Adam now has full expression.  Consider this:  They are a picture of unity.  Yes, Eve is different than Adam -- in the way she thinks, in the way she talks, in the way she arrives at conclusions -- and yet, no two people could be more alike.  They share the same existence.  They are a part of each other.  Without Eve, Adam is incomplete.  Without Adam, Eve is incomplete.  They share the same purpose. They are best friends.  Yet they are spiritual beings, created to have fellowship with the Lord, our Bridegroom, without whom they would be even more incomplete.

 

Consider Eve.  She is the perfection of Adam.  No woman could more compliment and finish a man.  Yes, she is beautiful -- stunningly so -- but, that is not our focus.  She has been given an independent mind with which to think.  She has been given the independence to choose.  Were a thousand other men arrayed before her, she would still choose Adam.

 

Why?  Because she was literally taken from him.  She was extracted from his side.  Before she was, he was.  Before she was, he saw her -- if only in his spirit.  Before she was, they were one -- but incomplete.  Adam had no separate feminine expression of his onoma.  He was forever bound to exist in only one dimension as a masculine expression.  There was no independent expression of love and commitment towards him from a like being who could share his thoughts, his desires, his hopes, his purposes.

 

Though Adam was ruler over the earth, though he had been given power over every living species, though he had been given the wisdom and revelation to identify the onoma of every living creature, he had no one with whom to identify his onoma.

 

Eve is like him.  Yet, she is different.  Full of grace and beauty, Eve is the expression of all that Adam could not be.  Her onoma is his onoma because she was taken from his side.  His onoma is her onoma because he is in her as she is in him.  Without Adam, Eve is terribly incomplete.  Without Eve, Adam is incomplete, lonely, unable to fully express that onoma which was bred into his genetic structure when the Lord breathed those first breaths into his being.  Together, they make one whole being.

 

Even though the Adam walking here in the Garden is a picture of masculine greatness, authority and power, he is only that way because Eve is here to complete him.  Remove Eve from the equation and you have a man unable to be whom the Lord created him to be.  Remove Eve, and his destiny will never be fulfilled.  Remove Eve, and you will have a partial man.

 

Eve, for all her stunning beauty, is incomplete without Adam.  Remove Adam from this picture and you have grace, form, stature, loveliness, compassion, love, emotional expression and tenderness that will never be fully expressed.  There will be no counterpart with whom to express those facets; there will be no recipient of her love; there will be no complete demonstration of the power, authority and greatness incorporated into her onoma.

 

With Adam, Eve is the personification of greatness.  With Adam, Eve is the complete expression of love.  With Adam, Eve is the visible manifestation of grace and power.  With Adam, Eve is complete.  With Adam, Eve is Eve!

 

With Eve, Adam has greatness.  With Eve, Adam's authority can come forth.  With Eve, Adam can rule the dominion he has been given.  With Eve, love will go forth in the land.  With Eve, Adam is Adam!

 

Together, there will be a full expression and demonstration of the onoma that is Adam.  Adam is not Adam without Eve.  Eve is not Eve without Adam.  Adam pours out his being to Eve.  She reciprocates of her own free will and choice.  They are Adam.

 

And now we are beginning to understand the mystery of our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.  OK.  Wait a minute.  I'm getting ahead of myself.  Can't go there yet.

 

We all know what happened when Eve first ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and then Adam ate of it.  There's a story here that I don't have time to go into today.  We see Adam displaying the very redemptive nature and character of the Lord Jesus Christ as he knowingly partakes of the fruit.  Eve got tricked by Satan, deceived and seduced into eating the fruit.  Adam wasn't seduced.  He wasn't tricked.  He knew exactly what he was doing -- and that's a fabulous story we'll look at some other time.  The point of this is that because Adam and Eve ate of the fruit in disobedience to God's command and warning, it set the stage for Satan to bring division between man and woman, husband and wife, and to pervert the very plan of God in the union between husband and wife.

 

There is a stupendous Hebrew metaphor revealed in the Song of Solomon, and repeated in Jeremiah's prophecy.  The metaphor occurs in the Song of Solomon, Chapter 1, verse 5, and it is revealed in the statement, "I am black."  This statement is actually rooted in the understanding of how God extracted Eve from Adam, how she was specifically designed for him, how the two of them were incomplete without each other, and how the two of them completed each other.  Following is an amplification of the Hebrew text of this verse, along with an amplification of the metaphor.  As a point of context, it is important to understand that this is the Shulamite speaking.

 

(Without hesitation, she responds.) "Although I am beautiful and desirable for him to look upon, the real answer goes much deeper.  There is a "search" that goes on in the heart of every person -- a seeking after one's counterpart -- for their "other self."  I have spent my life searching for the man who would be my "other self," knowing deep inside that when I found him, an inner joining would occur, a linking up to form a whole person rather than two partial beings.  That inner joining occurred when we met and came to know one another."  (Song of Solomon 1:5, RAC Translation & Amplification)

 

What most folks don't realize is that the Shulamite (the Hebrew is Shulammiyth, which is the feminine form of Solomon) was referring to the fact that Solomon had chosen her above every other woman.  (Everyone knows of the very extreme search that went on in Solomon for his counterpart, his other self.   I Kings 11:3 tells us that he wound up with 700 wives and 300 concubines.)  In this passage, the Shulamite was expressing her completeness in Solomon.  As you read through the Song of Solomon, it becomes clear that Solomon was likewise expressing his completeness in the Shulamite.  Her name comes from the Hebrew, shalam, and literally translates to the following: to be at peace, to be safe, to be completed, to reciprocate (and, by extension, to be the reciprocal of).  See the picture of Eve?  See the picture of the joining between Adam and Eve and how they completed each other?

 

Then consider Jeremiah's prophecy where the Lord is crying out.

Jeremiah 8:21-22:  For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.  Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

 

Get it?  We have the same exact metaphor occurring here.  The Lord had chosen Israel as His people in all the earth.  He extracted them from Egypt in the midst of a great deliverance from the most powerful army on the planet at that time, gave them incredible wealth and provision, provided for them supernaturally during the 40 years they were in the wilderness and gave them spectacular victories as they entered the land He had promised to give them as their perpetual inheritance in the earth.

 

He chose them, not because they were the greatest and mightiest nation on earth -- and in fact they were the least of all nations when chosen -- but because it provided the opportunity for God to demonstrate once again in the earth what other nations could have, with a people who were His people, joined in a marriage covenant to Him, designed and destined to be His counterpart, His other self in the earth!

 

When Jeremiah delivered his prophetic Word to Israel, the Lord was literally crying out because of the search that was going on for His people, desiring to be joined once again to that special people He had chosen for Himself.  They were the reciprocal of the Lord in the earth -- and they had gone astray, seeking after other gods.

 

We still have a considerable ways to go with this picture, so let's stop here and pick it up next week.

 

More next week.

 

I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Again, the number to call for healing is (805) 399-1000.  Then enter the access code: 124763#.  We also want to alert you to the fact that come September 14th, our prayer call number is going to change.  Our current conference line has experienced drop-outs and periodic audio quality issues, so this is needed!  We will keep you apprised of the new number in the days ahead.

 

At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM Pacific.  That conference number is (559) 726-1300, and the access code is 308640#.  We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion before long.  If you miss the live call, you can dial (559) 726-1399, enter the same access code and listen in later.

 

Blessings on you!