Study 5 – Visions of the Kingdom Age – Bro Jim Dillingham

Study 5 – Visions of the Kingdom Age – Bro Jim Dillingham

This will be the 5th class in our series on Visions of the Kingdom Age presented for the Cranston RI adult Sunday School

In our previous class we were continuing our consideration of how the 2nd resurrection category, the resurrection to immortality following judgment, is scripturally defined -repeatedly- as a rebirth. Jesus explained to Nicodemus how one has to be born twice in order to inherit the Kingdom, that one has to be born of water and then also born of spirit.

This is another reference to the earth birth and the heavenly birth… the birth into mortal nature from an earthly mother and the birth into immortal nature from a heavenly father. In this context we are invited to not only better understand that spiritual birth into immortality but to validate our understandings with that second avenue of divine testimony… the things that have been made… the features of creation, that came into existence or into place by the verbal commands of the Creator.
Additionally, when something is true, it can be proven in endless ways from endless directions, due to the principle of God manifestation.

Since Jesus identifies being born again into spirit nature as becoming like the wind… blowing air … we are free to pursue that application within the framework of the things that have been made, the features of creation. Now we have presented this continuous connection before and I don’t want to be overly redundant, just bring observations to memory that confirm our understandings.

Just as air is offered by Jesus as a creational symbol for the spirit nature of immortality, so the atomic number of the very component in air that sustains life.. oxygen … is 8.

There are 8 protons in the nucleus of the oxygen atom, which is why oxygen is number 8 on the atomic chart, as we studied in High School chemistry.

Now, 8 is very obviously the divinely appointed number of salvation and immortality. We should remember that the number of the name of Jesus, meaning Yah saves – He Who Shall Save – is 888 when the six alphanumeric Greek letters constituting the name of Jesus are added up.

These six Greek letters converting into three eights is a projection of the 3 immortalization events from mortality to immortality in the divine plan…

1) Jesus Christ

2) saints at beginning of Kingdom

3) remaining saints at end of Kingdom.

Let’s provide some more depth to this understanding of how salvation and life is identified with oxygen, with its creational association with the number 8.

In perfect consistency between the scientific features of creation and Bible testimony we know that Oxygen is generated from trees, converting the poison we exhale (carbon dioxide) into life sustaining oxygen.

Of the 3 categories of nutrition we require for life – being the three forms of matter – gas, liquid, solids – basically being oxygen, water and solid foods, it is the loss of oxygen that would be the absence of the first of these three to first take our life.

The loss of oxygen would kill us long before the loss of water or the loss of solid food.

The creational fact that trees supply our oxygen under the curse of sin and death is an exact shadow projection of the application of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden.

Under the curse of sin and death it is the trees of life supplying the oxygen for the continuation of our mortal lives. No matter what level of examination we bring to bear on this initial consideration of being born again into a new spirit nature… the truth of the matter fits perfectly in both of the divine testimony formats of the written and spoken words of our Creator… in the Bible and in the terms of creation.
It should be understood that the number 8 in scripture is endlessly associated with our Messiah, but its ultimate application is an identification of immortality and salvation. It is no coincidence that the number 8, when rotated 90 degrees, is the scientific symbol of infinity. True science will always validate the true understandings of the Bible, but also always contradict the false understandings of the Bible. Noah, a shadow of our Messiah as Noah was the savior of the world, was the 8th person on the ark as Peter describes. That is a rather surprising identification since he was the first to be called in that capacity. His sons were not even born when Noah was called 120 years before the flood, however Noah is divinely identified as the 8th man… just like Jesus which means savior is the man of eights.

David, shadowing the kingship of our Messiah, was the 8th son of Jesse. The ritual of circumcision… the cutting off of the flesh… had to be performed on the 8th day of a boy’s life… projecting how all that is associated with the flesh – sin & death will be cut off in the eighth divine day – just after the 7th divine day of 1,000 years… the Millennial Kingdom… also projected in that additional 8th day added to the Feast of Tabernacles, what God defines as the harvest Feast of the final ingathering. Our Messiah cut off the flesh in circumcision like fashion in his voluntary sacrificial death. The sacrificial role of our Messiah is shadowed in the fact that it was the 8th day of a sacrificial animal’s life when it qualified to be sacrificed at the altar (Ex. 22:30). The fact that Jesus was the covenant given to the people and the mediator between heaven and earth was demonstrated in the 8 sacrificial components in the heaven & earth covenant between God and Abram in Genesis 15 with those 6 severed land animals and those 2 whole birds. Also confirming that covenant identification with our Messiah were the 8 stone surfaces upon which the finger of God wrote the words of the covenant, the 10 commandments. There were two sets of 2 stones, written on the front and the back, making 8 total stone surfaces projecting the stone which the builders rejected that has become the head of the corner. Now these 8 examples of the same pattern do not exhaust the demonstrations of the pattern, but one would presume this would be sufficient to validate the understanding. There are certainly more examples of the pattern for each of us to discover for ourselves.
So, returning to our original class premise…. We have to be born twice… literally physically and then literally spiritually… born into mortal nature from a fleshly mother and then if approved of Jesus Christ at our judgment we are born a 2nd time into spiritual nature from a heavenly father… meaning Jesus Christ. If rejected we will not experience the 2nd birth but the 2nd death, as it is referred to throughout Revelation. The 2nd death is forever, just as the 2nd birth is forever. We should never distance our Messiah from this understanding of being our father, as this is the way he is described… as in his titles of Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father and The Prince of Peace. found in Isaiah 9:6. Additionally the prophecy of our Messiah’s death and resurrection in Is 53 tells us: When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days,
When our Messiah would make his life an offering for sin he would see his seed – his descendants… when his days would be prolonged… indicating his immortalization. One certainly can’t prolong the days of an immortal. These verses define Jesus as our Father.
if we are going to live forever and participate in the original plan for creation that mankind be in both the image and the likeness of our Creator, we need to be born again – a 2nd time – into a spiritual nature. This is an extension of the two very separate but progressive resurrection categories. We are resurrected to mortality before judgment… just as we are born physically from our mother’s womb. We hope to be resurrected to immortality following judgment … born a 2nd time into the divine spirit nature that is like the wind, according to our Messiah’s testimony.
Now let’s extend that creational parallel and the resurrection to immortality expression of being born again to other places in scripture not only for validating this understanding but to broaden our perception of the divine plan and divine righteousness, that divine right-ness of our Creator’s testimony. We should always, always remember… this is what everything is all about… understanding, appreciating and valuing above everything our Creator’s righteousness.. His right-ness, that He is always right…. every ritual, every law, every feature of creation ultimately testifies to this divine right-ness.
Ps 22:27,31 [ For context] All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness. Unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
When all the nations come before God to worship (obviously the Millennial Kingdom) they will testify to the people that will be born of the Creator’s righteousness. The mortals of this world, humbled through fear, will testify to their teachers and their new political leaders… those that will be born ….. of the Creator’s righteousness. Those teachers and political leaders are the people that shall be born.These will be the immortalized saints. One example of this experience is Jer. 16:19-21 O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? 21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The Lord.
This is when enlightenment is no longer optional, as it still is optional today. But soon Yahweh will make everyone to know Him. Ultimate divine vindication is an absolute necessity… both with those accountable to judgment and with the unenlightened following that judgment. At that time the previously unenlightened will come to the presence of Yahweh, being demonstrated in Jesus Christ and the immortalized saints and testify that they inherited lies from their fathers and ancestors…. what were we thinking… manufacturing gods to worship from our own imaginations. This is one example of how the nations will come to the people that shall be born to declare the righteousness of Yahweh… as we saw in Ps 22.
• 1 John 2:28-29 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that does righteousness is born of him.
If we limit the born again application in this reference to our probational life during mortality we may be deluded into thinking that anyone baptized -anyone merely experiencing that mere shadow of being born again- will certainly be saved. That is an impossible understanding – dramatically contradicting God and Christ. Those who will actually be born of God and born of Christ will only do righteousness. Immortal nature is not capable of any other behavior pattern than righteousness. However that is definitely not true of the first physical birth or the mere shadow promise of the 2nd birth, that shadow being baptism. We are all very capable of sin after baptism. In fact John declares clearly that if we claim to have no sin then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. It is only those who will experience that real 2nd birth, being born again into the spirit nature, the wind nature… that will have no capacity to sin and will only perform righteousness. John confirms this understanding in 1 Jn 3:9
1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
The only ‘living’ saints who cannot sin are the future immortalized saints. The enlightened community, baptized or not, certainly has the capacity to sin. This expression of being born of God… is the same understanding Jesus presents to Nicodemus of being born again, being born like the wind… into the spirit nature. This expression of being born again is repeatedly associated with a sin-free state. There is absolutely no guarantee of some delusion of automatic forgiveness and a sin free divine perspective about us – currently, just because we’ve been baptized.
1 John 5:4, 18 For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 18 We know that whosoever is born of God sins not; but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one touches him not.
When the faithful are immortalized (reborn into the divine spirit nature), they -hopefully we – will only have the capacity to do righteousness. Immortals, those of us born into the spirit nature – do not even have the capacity to sin. The wicked one – indicated sin in the flesh, that serpent generated diablos within us that prompts challenges to our Creator’s righteousness … will not be able to touch us after we are reborn into the divine nature… which is saying the same thing as the resurrection to immortality following judgment.
The significant problem here is that if we do not understand this creational testimony of two births and that the 2nd birth of being born of God is when we cannot sin… if we presume that baptism is the rebirth spoken of here… we will start to believe that we really can’t sin… or that all our sins are somehow automatically forgiven… that we really don’t have to recognize when we have contradicted Yahweh’s righteousness and actually repent… that forgiveness is automatic and the fear of God is only reverential because unlike everyone else in the history of the world – we alone don’t have to be afraid of encouraging the Creator’s displeasure. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking there aren’t members of our enlightened community presenting these same thoughts in their Bible School presentations, ecclesial exhortations and SS classes. We need to understand that the very separate resurrection to immortality should be understood as being born again…a 2nd time… not of water from our mother’s womb but being born of the spirit from the womb of our Creator’s truth and grace.
Let’s really nail down this application of being born again to the resurrection to immortality with a couple more references:
• Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Jesus was the first ‘born’ from the dead but he certainly was not the first to awaken from the grave. He personally awakened a very appropriate three people (the daughter of Jairus, the Nain widow’s son and Lazarus). The only reason Jesus can be described as the first is because being born from the grave indicates immortalization… not simply rising from the dead, not that first resurrection category of rising only to mortality. Just as a side note… isn’t it interesting that there appear to be two sets of 3 mortality resurrections. The 3 in the OT were performed by 2 prophets projecting the work of our Messiah: Elijah and Elisha. Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath. Elisha raised the Shunamite’s woman’s son. The bones of Elisha raised a man from the dead who was tossed hastily into the prophets tomb. 3 from these 2 prophets and 3 from Jesus of Nazareth… two sets of 3 raisings from 3 prophets… why? We will explain in classes to come how that would make Jesus both the 7th and the 8th to experience a resurrection and interestingly he was the 7th to experience a resurrection to mortality on the 7th day… before the end of the Sabbath, as the angle testifies in Matt. 28 … but also the 8th to experience a resurrection on the 8th day – that day after the Sabbath… but that was the 2nd resurrection category of a resurrection to immortality… appropriately on the day after the 7th day, the day after the Sabbath. But we’ll have a lot more to say about these issues in a future presentation.
Now these two resurrection categories of a resurrection to mortality before judgment and a resurrection to immortality after judgment fit within a much bigger pattern of dual applications to single principles. We have to recognize and balance these dual applications of single divine principles… or we will be corrupting those divine principles. These eternal truths and principles are what is represented scripturally as the righteousness of our Creator… His right-ness. There are always dual applications to a single principle… it isn’t just resurrection that has two applications. It is everything… like death: the temporary death of anyone accountable to the judgment and the permanent death of both the unenlightened and those among the enlightened who will be rejected by Jesus Christ at the judgment… all those wedding virgins with no oil in their lamps, all the lazy, wicked servants who hid their talent in the dust, all those goats in the Ecclesial flock who ignored the misfortunes of the least of Christ’s brethren. We have the two categories of the fear of God, being reverence and being afraid of encouraging our God’s displeasure, such as where Paul writes in Hebrews at the end of chapter 12: whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God is a consuming fire. There are two categories of righteousness… the imputed righteousness that comes from faith and the personal righteousness that comes from the personal works and deeds that demonstrate the righteousness of God. There are two categories of sin… transgressional sin for which we bear guilt and the nature of sin that generates those transgressions but which is assigned no guilt whatsoever. The Principles and truths of our Creator all have two applications that have to be balanced. Ignoring any one of those applications corrupts those truths into self-worshipping distortions.
This understanding of recognizing the dual nature of eternal truths is demonstrated in the law of the required 2 witnesses for any life and death judgment.
Deut 17:6-7 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
We should be aware that Yahweh uses this law of 2 witnesses repeatedly. In fact a large confirmation of that is our premise in this particular consideration for the validation of the understanding of two separate resurrections being referenced separately and on different terms… would be those two witnesses God references. 1) Yahweh testifies to us through His written word: The Bible
2) Yahweh also testifies to us through His spoken word creation
We’ve already noted how the witness of the terms of creation will be referenced in the judgement of Jesus Christ when the wrath of God will be revealed from heaven against all those who held the truth but not in righteousness… the testimony of the things that have been made will leave the rejected from among the many called to judgment without any excuse.
…. 2 witnesses are required for a life and death consideration… because the gospel is all about 2 alternatives: life forever or death forever… so there have to be 2 witnesses, on the basis of our Creator’s righteousness.
God also appointed heaven and earth to witness against his people if they abandon him for Pagan gods and images and idols. As with the law of the 2 witnesses the hands of the witnesses would be first against the accused. God declared in Deut 13 that the heavens would be shut up and the earth would not yield its fruit… if the enlightened community fell into apostasy. The hands of the 2 appointed witnesses of heaven and earth would be 1st against the accused. This is the same as the 2 witnesses of God’s written and spoken word. We are told we will be judged by that word
John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
We will be judged by the word of God in that last day, but by both the written and spoken words of the Creator… words our Messiah flawlessly repeated to the enlightened community to which he was exclusively commissioned. He was sent to the Christadelphians of his generation to preach.
Jesus was the first born from the dead, but only in his immortalization, what apostate Christianity rejects vehemently and historically has done in murderous fashion, hunting down and violently destroying anyone who respected the Creator’s truths and principles. The apostate delusion of an immortal soul, a direct extension of the serpent lie in the garden, is a denial of this 2nd birth. The concept of salvation understood by paganism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism and all the other ‘isms’ is not a rebirth but merely the shedding of an outer skin, like the shedding of a snake’s skin… at death the immortal consciousness is supposedly released from the prison of a mortal body…. not a birth – 1st or 2nd – in any way shape or form. But scripture is abundantly clear that salvation should be understood in the terms of a birth, particularly a 2nd birth.
Jesus was the first to be ‘born again’ from the curse of death.
• Rom. 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
This is our hope… to be born again, not simply to awaken from the grave… but to be born into a new nature. Our ‘hope’ is the resurrection to immortality, not simply the resurrection to mortality which is only an awakening… on the basis of creation’s testimony.
Our premise in this line of reasoning was to demonstrate that when something is true there will be endless ways to validate those truths through those two testimony avenues of the written and spoken word of God. We should never rest any significant Bible understanding on the Egyptian reed of a single verse or some lexicon word manipulations. If it is a divine truth… it will be evident everywhere, in every direction and in every connection. The premise we were pursuing is how the terms of Creation validate our understanding that there are two separate resurrection categories that each have very separate terms and qualifications for participation and that we have to be extremely careful not to superimpose the terms of one resurrection category onto the terms of the other. Our point was that even creation testifies to the validity of these two separate resurrection categories by projecting the resurrection to mortality before judgment as an awakening but never a rebirth or a covering and by projecting the resurrection to immortality following judgment as a rebirth and also as a covering… but never an awakening.
Now let’s have an exercise in developing seeing eyes and hearing ears. As we have noted in previous classes, the only people who could possibly qualify for or develop what Jesus and Yahweh defines as seeing eyes and hearing ears are those within the enlightened community and additionally those within that community that have a circumcised heart. Without any familiarity with the basic truths and principles of the gospel truth there is no possible way to develop seeing that divine perspective called seeing eyes and hearing ears. Similarly, just because we do have an understanding of first principles does not insure this capacity. Simply being a part of the enlightened community does not somehow qualify us automatically for the status of seeing eyes and hearing ears. Jesus differentiated within the enlightened community to whom he preached concerning this issue, explaining to his disciples why he taught with that same intentional complexity pattern as his Father, using parables without explaining them to anyone except his closest disciples, quite privately. He explained that the crowds within the enlightened community of the sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob that he taught did not have seeing eyes or hearing ears… but his disciples did. That intentionally complex teaching pattern resulted in giving more to those who had while simultaneously taking away from those who had not… always from within the enlightened community.
The feature of gospel truths we will use to open up a range of vision that only seeing eyes can witness is this same understanding of the two separate resurrection categories we’ve been researching… the resurrection to mortality prior to judgment and the separate resurrection to immortality following judgment. If we make the common mistake of presuming any reference to resurrection has to indicate a representation of immortalization, our eyes become blinded to the great beauty hidden in divine communications only for the benefit of those who ‘have’… the ones among us who can be given more.
We’ve observed a distinct pattern of a two stage experience to realize the blessing of life and particularly immortal life… such as the two resurrection experiences on either side of Christ’s judgment and the two birth categories of water and spirit… which is also also defined as a flesh birth and a spirit birth … which we understand as being born physically from our mother and then born spiritually through our father: Jesus Christ. If we want to live forever we have to be born twice…once in the flesh from a mother and once into the spirit from a Father. Let’s not make the mistake of distancing our understanding of our Messiah from the concept of being our father. Paul explains this issue of how Jesus will serve as the father of those who will be born a second time, like the wind, into spirit nature
1 Cor 15: 20-22 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
Those that belong to Christ will be made alive at his coming, at his return.
We are born physically from a mother to experience temporary mortal life, sin cursed life. We have to be born again, a 2nd time, spiritually from a father in order to experience permanent life without any capacity for sin whatsoever.
In accordance with this pattern or two separate components in order to create life we see this pattern shouted from the terms of creation, but only to those with hearing ears. We need both a man and a woman to create new life, to have children. The vile, God despising sin of same sex marriages cannot produce life… only death. New life… birth.. is dependent on the combining of two categories… a man and a woman… a husband and a wife…. just like the two separate resurrection categories of a resurrection to mortality and a resurrection to immortality… just like the two births of flesh and spirit… just like a physical birth from a physical mother and the spiritual birth from a spiritual father.
• just like the divine creational formula for the first human life of Adam… the dust of the ground into which the breath of God was deposited to create a living soul, a life – two components to create life- dust and breath
• just like each of the four divinely designed sanctuaries starting with the Tabernacle with its two chambers of holy and most holy… representing the divine sanctuary and projecting the immortalized multitudinous Christ
• just like the two separate categories of the promised descendants of Abraham… Jew and Gentile – 1. direct genealogical lineage and and 2. indirect lineage on the basis of faith – in other words that same pattern of physical and then spiritual … of earth and heaven … just like the two births needed for salvation
• just like the two resurrection stages of the national first born son of God as presented by Ezekiel with those two separate prophecies each presented with four components… the first stage is a physical or political resurrection with the 4 stages being 1. skeletal reconstruction 2. sinew 3. flesh 4. skin… perfectly paralleling those four wars of Israel between 1947 and 1967 we considered in our first class. The second prophecy called to the four winds to fill these bodies with breath… indicated how the immortalized Christ and the saints will save political Israel from annihilation, initiating a spiritual resurrection of the nation based on a powerful repentance.
Those two stages with the four inner components in each of the two separate prophecies by Ezekiel is a very rich scriptural pattern demonstrating the hidden glory of our Creator constituting the ‘more’ Jesus promised for those who already had… to those who have seeing eyes and hearing ears… in his answer to his disciples when they asked why he insisted on teaching only in parables. This hidden glory gives to those within the enlightened community who have while taking away from those within the enlightened community who have not.
• We saw this in the two layered divine construction of the encampment of the enlightened community when the first Kingdom of God was initiated at Sinai. The political exterior layer of the encampment with the 12 tribes laid out in those four outer quadrants and the inner spiritual layer of the Levites and priests also separated into four quadrants
• This is also evident in the two generations of the enlightened community that experienced the transition between leaving Egypt and entering the promised land. The exit from Egypt to the edge of the promised land was under Moses. The entrance into the promised land was under Joshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus.
• and just like the Noah’s ark of salvation with its two generations with the two life sustaining categories of four fathers and four mothers … for preserving life on earth.
• This pattern is shouted silently in the heaven and earth covenant between the two parties of Abram & Yahweh in Genesis 15. God instructs Abram to take two categories of animals.. three 3 year old beasts of the earth and two fowl of heaven. Abram is instructed to sever the female heifer, the female goat and the male ram, creating 6 separate components that will be added to the two whole fowl of heavens to be divided into exactly two rows of four each…. just like the 2 resurrection stages of Israel with the four reconstruction stages and the four winds… and just like the two generations saved to preserve life on Noah’s ark with the four men and four women. The two in the first generation on that ark: A father and mother and the 6 in the second generation… 2 and six but with 4 men and 4 women… similar to the 2 sets of heaven and earth animals with the 2 whole birds and six halves set into two rows… an exact match on several levels. We can still pursue even more of that hidden glory here… that silent shouting… we can pursue it through layers of observation. Let’s look within that first layer of the six severed animal halves. Once again God presents a framework of two components… the two severed halves of each of these 3 three year old animals. I recommend we think of these three animals in the context of the 3 salvation events in the divine plan. The animal genders perfectly match this 3 stage plan perfectly. Those 3 salvation events of that 2nd birth into spiritual life are 1. Jesus Christ.. paralleling the male ram and then the two components of the bride of Christ… 2. the saints at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom and 3. the saints as the end of the Millennial Kingdom… perfectly paralleling those two female beasts that are also severed into two components. Once we recognize the two components to each of these three animal categories paralleling the 3 salvation events in the divine plan we are free to witness yet another validation of that understanding. These were clean animals as opposed to being unclean animals, from a divine perspective… which is supposed to be our perspective. These animal categories were divinely acceptable on God’s altar. These animals could create that sweet smelling savor that pleases our Creator. Two of the – very appropriately ‘three’ issues that qualify these animals as clean, and holiness validating as opposed to holiness contradictions… is their feet… their earthy foundations… the fact that they had both a separated hoof and particularly a cloven hoof, as identified in Leviticus 11 in the laws of the Kingdom of God that you have been studying for the last 10 years.
Lev 11:3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
While every word here is significant we should pay particular attention to the word ‘and’. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. That means that all three conditions have to be met simultaneously, or the beast has to be rejected from their diet. A divine point of emphasis would be the feet, as the status of clovenfooted certainly satisfies a parting the hoof… that hoof parting and cloven distinction seems a little redundant. However, never-ever make the mistake of discounting divine redundancy as nothing but meaningless repetition. Divine repetition is an invitation, a key to great knowledge. While parting the foot, the hoof, is highly significant… as it represents cleaving and separating… just we are supposed to do with the breaking of the memorial bread… as that breaking of the memorial bread is an incredibly significant issue.. just like the parted hoof, just like severing of the earthen animals in Abram’s covenant sacrifice, just like the parting of the Red Sea and the parting of the Jordan River on 3 separate occasions, by the way. Our point is that the feet of these clean animals had to be cloven… two parts to each hoof… with a highly appropriate design of four legs. Four feet separated into two separate components… exactly the pattern we have seen saturating scriptural representations of salvation.
We’ll have to continue this consideration in the next class where we will extend this pattern of the cloven hoof to the shadow images of the immortalized saints throughout scripture.