And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst, they say unto him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest thou of her? … He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. And they, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. And Jesus lifted up himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? did no man condemn thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more.
Jn 8:3-11
Where ever I read of a woman in the bible I think of the church, the bride of Jesus. Even and especially here. In our Passah understanding we have taken this to teach about the grace of God towards the individual that sinned. And rightly so. We showed that Jesus did not revoke the law, merely show that nobody was worthy to judge as we all fall short of the glory of God.
In Pentecost revelation we talked about what Jesus was writing. Words of understanding and discernment about the lives of the accusers?
But now, what is added with the view of Tabernacles?
I said before that the first two feasts are experienced on an individual level, while Tabernacles is corporate. Thus the woman represents the church as a whole. The scribes and the pharisees represent religious systems and teachings, philosophies and world-views.
Let us take a look at this scene under these premisses:
The church was caught in adultery. The church is the bride of Christ, or more likely his wife, as I believe that the wedding took place in Pentecost. She has had many affairs over the course of time: Platonism, Humanism, Cessationism, Seeker friendly Church, just to name a few.
And it might well be exactly those former lovers of her that accuse her of adultery.
How does the mechanism work? Whenever a new old truth is revealed and restored to the church, the last movement becomes the religious spirit to keep the church back. On the other hand, usually the church goes overboard and goes into the other ditch on that truth, falling in love with the truth, not the Truth, Jesus Christ.
An example? Christianity in its beginning was a team ministry. The fivefold ministry, the priesthood of all, a people of priests and kings. Ridiculed by the philosophers of the time, the church adopted Platonism. Plato, an aristocrat in Greece, wanted to restore the aristocratic caste back to rulership. He saw the state as perfect and ideal, the world as week and sinful, and the aristocrats as mediators between the two separate realms. Nobody was to breath or go to sleep without the aristocrats telling them. The church adopted this, with the correction that it was heaven and earth, not state and earth, and that Plato could not have known that as Christ came later. Thus installing a hierarchy, a priesthood as mediators between God and the people, over time called priest, set man, elders, pastor.
When the fivefold ministry and corporate priesthood was restored to the church in Latter Rain, it did not take long for it to be attacked. Spirits paired up to stop the restoration of this truth. One to negate the truth: cessationism said that there were no apostles after we received the canon of the scripture. And one to take it to the extreme: in the Shepherding Movement, the fivefold ministry became the new priesthood caste, and nobody was to breath without permission.
So the church had many affairs: Platonism, Cessationism, Stoism (no emotions), Watered down Gospel or Seeker friendly Church, Legalism, believing that being poor is spiritual, Dualism, Elitism, Tribalism, Traditionalism, Futurism, Mysticism, Gnosticism. And many more.
But Jesus dealt with them all. The oldest first, satan, the old serpent. Right there at the cross. But it again takes a while for the church to believe. What is set in heaven has to be established in the earth.
There has to be a point of revelation. When Jesus asked the woman: “where are your accusers?” – she realized: they were all gone. She was free to go on and not sin any more!
Let us realize: all our accusers are gone. All our sins are forgiven. Jesus comes back for a church without spot or wrinkles. It has all been done in Passah, there on the cross. Let us grow up and in Tabernacles finally realize the finished work.
Any comments?