Vision of Transformation

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=35 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Vision of Transformation</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The New Covenant">The New Covenant</A>   |   <B>Vision of Transformation</B>   |   <A HREF="id95.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Graded Holiness">Graded Holiness</A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=445 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <B>Articles:</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#human_geography___a_spatial_theology_of" TITLE="Vision of Transformation"><B>Human Geography - A spatial theology of holiness</B></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#the_principle_of_relative_negation" TITLE="Vision of Transformation"><B>The Principle of Relative Negation</B></A></div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="human_geography___a_spatial_theology_of"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>Human Geography - A spatial theology of holiness</B></div> <bR> <div> Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, <I>The Book of Ezekiel</I>, NIB, pp.1532-34:</div> <bR> <div> "<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000033" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Ezekiel's vision of an all new, thoroughly improved Israel</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> "In this, his fourth and final vision report, Ezekiel describes a perfectly ordered Israelite society living in a perfectly ordered homeland under the leadership of a perfectly ordered priesthood serving in a perfectly ordered Temple complex.</div> <bR> <div> [The leadership of Israel will also involve a human 'Melchizedekic' priest/prince, of the line of David].</div> <bR> <div> "Ambitious readers who determine to work through these chapters find themselves confronted with a morass of details and much confusion. I would venture that many an ancient reader would also have experienced a bewilderment and frustration at points. This is technical language - the argot of architecture and especially of ritual practice - and it undoubtedly was best understood by priests conversant with the structures, inner working, and rituals of cultic life.</div> <bR> <div> "How can moderns lacking such information make sense of this vision and understand the theology undergirding it? [Kalinda Rose] Stevenson offers three keys to unlocking Ezekiel's "vision of transformation" that are apropos in the context of this Overview. First, she argues persuasively that the vision is best construed when approached from the perspective of human geography. "Human geography shows that every society is organized in space," she writes. "Changing the spatial organization of the society changes the society. Ezekiel 40-48 is a vision of a new society organized according to a new set of spatial rules. <I>It is a temple society with controlled access to sacred space, based on a spatial theology of holiness."</I></div> <bR> <div> "Second, Stevenson maintains that the genre of Ezekiel 40-48 is territorial rhetoric. Territoriality, she explains, is a technical term used within the discipline of human geography. Robert Sack defines territoriality as "the attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships, by delimiting and asserting control over a geographical area". According to Sack, space becomes territory when an attempt is made to control access to it by means of a boundary of some sort - a structure, or even a password. Territorially is "place specific " and "always involves issues of power."</div> <bR> <div> "One way to assert territoriality, Stevenson maintains, is to describe areas, boundaries, and rules of access in a written text such as Ezekiel 40-48. Within the world of the vision, Yahweh asserts territoriality as the victorious divine king who returns from battle (chaps. 38-39) and is enthroned within his palace [Temple]. But the priests also assert territoriality by controlling access to sacred space and performing the most crucial religious rituals.</div> <bR> <div> "Third, Stevenson emphasizes "the shape of the holy." In Ezekiel's vision, the square is of primary symbolic significance. "In the landscape of Temple and land in Ezekiel," she writes, "the square is not simply an accident of design. It is rhetorically meaningful and is intended to be the material representation of a theology of holiness... the command to measure the proportion in 43:10 is part of a rhetorical strategy to restructure a society according to a theology of holiness." In the course of the temple tour, Ezekiel learns through the measurements of his guide that the outer court, inner court, Temple, <I>binyan</I> ("building," "structure"), holy of holies, and altar are all square in shape. Careful readers will discover that many of the measurements provided for these and other features of the Temple complex are multiples of five - five, twenty-five, fifty, etc...</div> <bR> <div> "This theology of holiness is much illuminated by Jacob Milgrom's extensive analysis of Israel's priestly cultic system. Like other ancient near Eastern theologies, this cultic system conceives of people, places, and things as holy or common, pure or impure. Milgrom insists that holiness is not, as many moderns might think, an abstract ethical quality. It is a "thing" a dynamic and contagious substance emanating from deities. Its antagonist is impurity, also a dynamic and contagious physical substance which emanates, in Israelite thought, from human beings. Because holiness and impurity are dynamic and contagious, contact with them renders persons or objects either holy or impure. (By contrast, the common and pure are stative, i.e., stating a condition or state, and non-contagious substances.)</div> <bR> <div> "Some moderns might view the concept of contagious holiness positively, but in the thought world of ancient Israel, illicit contact with the holy could have deadly consequences. One thinks, for example, of the hapless Uzzah, who reached out his hand to steady the ark as it was being carted to Jerusalem and died as a consequence (2 Sam 6:6-7). Or one thinks of Korah and his cohorts, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16), who believed that they should be able to offer incense to Yahweh and who confronted Moses and Aaron on the issue. Korah made a theological argument for his position: "All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the Lord?" (Num 16:3). But as they stood with their censers and incense at the entrance of the tent of meeting, Yahweh threatened to destroy the entire "congregation of Israel." Moses intervened, and the congregation was permitted to distance itself from Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. But Yahweh is said to have caused the earth to "open its mouth"; and the men together with their families and possessions, "went down to Sheol."</div> <bR> <div> "Impurity has the power to pollute a temple. This potential is exceeding dangerous because, as Ezekiel's second vision report (chaps 8-11) makes perfectly clear, Yahweh's glory will not reside in a grossly impure temple. Ezekiel 5:11 warned of the consequences of temple defilement: "Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations - therefore I will cut you down; my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity." When God abandons the Temple, the land, its people, indeed, the Temple itself, are doomed to destruction at the hands of Yahweh's punitive instruments. Such, from Ezekiel's perspective, was the hard lesson of 586 BCE, when the Babylonian army broke through Jerusalem's walls, burned every large structure, including the Solomonic Temple, and either killed or exiled the majority of the city inhabitants. The sins of the past must not be repeated. And, Stevenson writes, one corrects the sins of the past by controlling access to space in the future. The concern for measurements, which the modern reader may find bothersome and irrelevant, is consistent with a "worldview in which the cultic abuses of the past were perceived as boundary violations of sacred space."</div> <bR> <div> "Although impurity is dangerous and unacceptable to God, temple impurity is inevitable. In his commentary on Leviticus 1-16, Milgrom notes that, from the perspective of the priestly pentateuchal authors, impurity pollutes the priestly tabernacle in three stages: (1) an individual's inadvertent misdeed or severe physical impurity pollutes the courtyard altar, which must be purged by daubing its horn with blood from the purification sacrifice...  (Ezekiel diminishes this possibility by placing the altar in the inner court, an area accessible only to priests); (2) an inadvertent misdeed committed by priests or people pollutes the Temple, which must be then purged by the high priest, again by blood from the purification sacrifice; (3) "wanton unrepented sin not only pollutes the outer altar and penetrates into the shrine but it pierces the veil and enters the adytum [innermost sanctuary], housing the holy Ark and ... the very throne of God." Purifying the Temple by means of the ongoing sacrificial system is the task of the priests.</div> <bR> <div> "The issues here addressed - human geography, territoriality, the shape of the holy, and the theology of holiness - enables modern readers more fully to understand Eekiel's vision of a perfectly ordered and temple-centered Israelite society in the midst of which Yahweh's glory dwells. The devil is <I>not</I> in the details! The details make possible God's abiding presence."</div> <div>  <A NAME="the_principle_of_relative_negation"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>The Principle of Relative Negation</B></div> <bR> <div> * Christopher J. H. Wright, <I>The Message of Ezekiel</I>, BST, p.291: </div> <bR> <div> "<B>c. Defending God's holiness (36:22-23)</B></div> <bR> <div> "God, then, moves to clear his name. The exile had been a moral necessity. But paradoxically it had also produced an intolerable situation. Israel had been created in order to bring glory to Yahweh and to be the agent of the knowledge and blessing of God among the nations. Now they were scattered among the nations, but the effect was the precise opposite. Yet Yahweh's ultimate purpose remained - to be glorified among the nations. As the God and Lord of all the earth, all people must eventually come to recognize him for who he truly is. Accordingly, he must act to reverse the dishonour being caused to his name by the outworking of own just judgment. He would indeed restore his people.</div> <bR> <div> "But what would be the primary motivation of the restoration? Other prophets would make the point, movingly and often, that this restoration would indeed be for Israel's benefit, and out of God's loving care and compassion. But through Ezekiel, Yahweh corrects any expectation that his action would be based on mere sentiment. '<I>It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name'</I> (22).</div> <bR> <div> "(Footnote to verse 22):</div> <bR> <div> "Probably we should take the form of this sentence as <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>an example of what is sometimes called Hebrew 'relative negation'</B></FONT>.<B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>In order to indicate the relative priority of one thing over another, you would affirm one and deny the other</B></FONT>: e.g., 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice' (Hos. 6:6; the second line indicates the comparison).</div> <bR> <div> [Hos 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings]. </div> <bR> <div> "Thus Ezekiel here does not literally deny that the restoration was for Israel sake, but affirms that it was much more important to realize that it was primarily for the sake of Yahweh's name."</div> <bR> <div> <B>Application:</B></div> <bR> <div> This principle of "relative negation" should be employed in explaining these two verses in blue below:</div> <bR> <div> Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.</div> <bR> <div> There has not been a literal change in the priesthood. The author of Hebrews was establishing the "relative priority" of the Melchisedec priesthood over the Levitical priesthood - one is in heaven and one is on the earth.</div> <bR> <div> One scripture that illustrates that there has been no change in the priesthood, is from what is often called Jeremiah's 'Book of Consolation' - Jeremiah 30-33.</div> <bR> <div> Two chapters away from the promise of a future new/renewed covenant between God and the houses of Israel is another millennial prophecy:</div> <bR> <div> Jer 33:14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. </div> <div> Jer 33:17 For thus saith the LORD;...</div> <div> Jer 33:18 Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. </div> <div> Jer 33:20 Thus saith the LORD; if ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; </div> <div> Jer 33:21 Then may also my covenant be broken ... with the Levites the priests, my ministers. </div> <div> Jer 33:22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply ... the Levites that minister unto me.</div> <bR> <div> There was no end to the institutions of sacrifices and an officiating Levitical priesthood at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans anymore than there was an end to them at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.</div> <bR> <div> Heb 10:18 Now where remission of these <I>is, there is </I>no more offering for sin.</div> <bR> <div> The author of Hebrews once again employing 'relative negation' was establishing the "relative priority" of Christ's once and for all sacrifice over animal sacrifices.</div> <bR> <div> Or using Hobart Freeman's terms, the author of Hebrews, was establishing the "relative priority" of "objective efficacy" over "subjective efficacy".</div> <bR> <div> The "subjective  efficacy" in the Renewed Covenant, as it was in the Old, is revealed by God through Ezekiel:</div> <bR> <div> <B>Eze 45:15</B> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >Also one sheep is to be taken from every flock of two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These will be used for </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>the grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>to make atonement for the people</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >, declares the Sovereign LORD. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> "The majority of dispensationalists have argued that the sacrifices are memorials to the sacrifice of Christ, with no atoning character. However,<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008000" FACE="Verdana" ><B> the idea that these are memorial sacrifices is no where apparent in Ezekiel, and it is specifically claimed by Ezekiel that these offerings </B><I><B>will</B></I><B> make atonement </B></FONT>(45:15, 17, 20)" (Ian M. Duguid, <I>Ezekiel</I>, NIVAC, Muck, Terry, Gen. Editor, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), p.521).</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000080" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Eze 43:20 </B></FONT><B>You are to take some of its blood </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the upper ledge and all around the rim, </FONT><B>and so purify the altar and make atonement for it</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000080" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Eze 45:19</B></FONT> The priest is to <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on </B></FONT>the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000080" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Eze 45:20</B></FONT> You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance</B></FONT>; <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>so you are to make atonement for the temple</B></FONT>. </div> <bR> <div> "In vv 15 and 17 <B>the expiatory significance of the sacrifice is emphatically expressed</B>. In 43:20 and 45:19f it can be seen that <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>the expiatory power is especially attributed to the blood</B></FONT>" (Walter Zimmerli, <I>Ezekiel 2 - A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel Chapters 25-48</I>, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983). p.479).</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="16b168f0.png" border=0 width="534" height="399" ALT="Bitmap Image" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="16cd8b70.png" border=0 width="216" height="439" ALT="Bitmap Image" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id93_m.htm" TITLE="Vision of Transformation">Top of Page</A>                       <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Future Watch">Home Page</A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>