THE CROSS AND BAPTISM IN THE NEW JERUSALEM If this book started with the return to repentance mixed with hope in the coming of the Savior Messiah (the Rider of the red horse), and sets with us forth from a proclamation to another, and from a prophecy to another concerning the salvation work of the Messiah on the cross, and the opening of the fountains of His holy blood to purify us; the book ends by a talk about the enjoyment of the new Jerusalem (the church) of this salvation work through the water of baptism by the power of the cross 1‐ The captivation of Jerusalem 1 ‐ 2‐ On the Mount of Olives (The Lord bears our sufferings in Him) 3 ‐ 5 3‐ The cross as a day known to the Lord 6 – 7 4‐ The Holy Spirit and the church 8 ‐ 11 5‐ The destruction of the old man, and setting the new 12 – 21 1‐ THE CAPTIVATION OF JERUSALEM: “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and the spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken; the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city”(1, 2) In the end of the last chapter we saw that two‐thirds of the land will be cut off and die while one‐third will be refined by fire like silver and tested like gold. And we saw how, according to St. Dedymus the blind, the two‐thirds are the pagans and the Jews who reject the salvation; while the one‐third are the congregation of believers who are set free from the captivation of the devil by the cross, and receive the divine fire, the Grantor of sanctification, about which St. John the Baptist said: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3: 11); and the Lord Himself said: “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it is already kindled” (Luke 12: 49). According to St. Dedymus the blind, it is the fire of temptation that refines the soul, saying: [Those who were spared the fire, namely, the remaining one‐third of the captives, who were refined and God listened to their prayers, will say to God who granted them peace: “For you, O God, has tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but You brought us out to rich fulfillment” (Psalm 66: 10 – 12). And also in Isaiah, God, the Savior of man says: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned …”. When you cross through the waters, I will be with you; (Isaiah 43: 3, 4). How could we walk in the fire, and come out of it without harm, unless we have the voice of the Lord about which it is said that it quenches the fire. The way the Red Sea was divided by the stroke of the holy staff, and the people crossed over without harm, so will the fire divide and give way to the people to pass through without burning] The divine fire, whether that of the Holy Spirit, the Grantor of sanctification, or that of the refining temptations, will make the believer more splendid and glorious; whereas by it, the disobedient will be destroyed; hence he says: “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and the spoil will be divided in your midst” (1). For the day of the Lord is the day of the salvation of the obedient souls and setting them free of their captivity; but is a day, cruel and bitter for the haughty souls, that hold fast to their evil; as it is said by the prophet Isaiah: ”Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and He will destroy its sinners from it” (Isaiah 13: 9) The spoil used to be divided outside the captivated city, lest those who divide it would be so preoccupied, that the captives would regain their strength and resume their fight. But here he says: “The spoil is divided in your midst”, a sign of that the enemy despise the city so much, and perceive that it is utterly destroyed, to dismiss any probability of them to regain their strength. The horror of such despise is shown in dividing the women among themselves to ravish them before the eyes of their husbands; according to the words of the prophet Isaiah, saying: “Their children will also be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered; and their wives ravished” (Isaiah 13: 16). According to St. Dedymus the “the divine wrath has come upon them (Jerusalem) to the uttermost” (1 Thessalonian 2: 16) for killing the Lord and His disciples, to be horribly and fiercely desolated by the Roman leader ‘Jestus’, as reported by Josephus the Jewish historian. It is a painful portrait of the soul that falls under the captivity of the devil through her lack of faith, to force himself on its depths, humiliate her from within, and stir up all sins (the Gentiles) against her, to confiscate every good thing in her, to ravish the body (the women) with all his energy, and to dash her fruits (children) to pieces. It is amazing how half the city will be carried away into captivity; but the remnants will not be cut off from the city (2). The first half refers to the old Jerusalem, namely to the Jews who reject the Savior; whereas the remnants refer to those who received faith in Him, on whom the church (the new Jerusalem) is set. The first half, likewise refers to the old outer man, who should be driven out; whereas the remnants refer to the inner man who is renewed; [Let us put the old to death, and let the new live in us]. 2‐ ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES (THE LORD BEARS OUR SUFFERINGS IN HIM): As the old Jerusalem – the literal to the law – is destroyed to set in us instead the spiritual Jerusalem, for the Lord to dwell in, to fight for, support, and to proclaim His cross in her, he says: “Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. Then you shall flee through the mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach Azal. Yes, you shall flee, as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with (Him)” (3 – 5). As man has fallen into the captivity of the devil, and collapsed before the sins (the Gentiles), His Creator came forth to set him free, being said: “Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle” (3). He goes forth by Himself to fight against the devil with all his evil works, to set man free of his dominion. On the words “go forth”, St. Dedymus comments by saying: [Yes, about Himself, our Lord and Savior says in the gospel: “I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me” (John 8: 42). With the same meaning, Habakkuk says to God: “You went forth for the salvation of Your people; for salvation with Your anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked by laying bare from foundation to neck” (Habakkuk 3: 13). And as He goes forth to save them, He also goes forth in a more clear way when He fights against the devil. In the book of Micah it came: “For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place, He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth” (Micah 1: 3). And in the book of Isaiah: “The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out; Yes, He shall shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies” (Isaiah 42: 13). In that day, namely in the day of redemption, the Lord goes forth to fight on our behalf, on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. What does this mean? (1) The Savior stood on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem, being the Sower of the holy Olive trees, about which it is written: “I am like a green Olive tree in the house of God” (Psalm 52: 8); and, “Your children shall be like Olive plants all around your table” (Psalm 128: 3). These trees, according to St. Dedymus the blind, are not planted in the valley, on the west, but high on the mountain on the east, and on them the Sun of Righteousness will shine with His divine light; as though the Olive trees planted by the Lord in paradise in the garden of Eden to the east (Genesis 2: 8); each of which hears the voice of the crucified Lord, saying: “Today, you shall be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23: 43). By that these holy trees would say together with the apostle: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3: 20). (2) If, by the crucified Christ Jesus, we are planted like Olive trees in the house of God east of Jerusalem, we shall be standing there together with the disciples, watching the ascension of the Lord from the Mount of Olives, anticipating His coming as told by the angel (Acts 1: 12). (3) By faith we are planted east of Jerusalem on the holy mountain. Whereas the Jews by denying the Savior Messiah, have rolled down to the bottom of the great valley toward the west (4), together with all those who denied the divine grace; and the valley will be like a great pit separating between those who are planted in the east from those in the west. (4) Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, where the cold wind blow, and the other half toward the south where the warm wind blow. The first half refers to those with the cold spirit, namely the followers of the devil; while the other half refer to those with the warm spirit. St. Dedymus the blind sees in the saying of the bride of the song: “wake, O north wind, and come, O south! Blow upon my garden that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its pleasant fruits” (Song 4: 16); that the north wind refers to the devil, where the fierce cold weather will kill the plants, and stand in the way of the gentle divine fragrant breeze. The wind of the south, on the other hand, with its warmth will kindle the soul, likening the Lord who says: “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled” (Luke 12: 49) Let us, not by tongue but by work, say to the north wind to keep away from us, by realizing the words of the apostle: “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5: 22); and let us call the wind of the south, by practically receiving the Lord Christ in our life. (5) St. Dedymus the blind sees in saying: “For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal” (5), that the valley between the mountains reaches to the young man ‘Asahel’, about whom it is said: “Asahel was as fleet of foot as a wild gazelle” (2 Samuel 2: 18). The soul of the believer in Christ sets forth in the holy mountains by fast feet, hastens to her Groom, concentrating her spiritual eyes on Him. (6) He says: “You shall flee through the mountain valley, ……… as you fled from the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with (Him)” (5). That famous earthquake happened in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, and was mentioned by the prophet Amos (1: 1). Uzziah was known for his trespass against the holy sanctuary by burning incense on the altar of incense (2 Chronicles 26: 16), for which he was inflicted with leprosy on his forehead before the priests, who drove him out of the house of the Lord, and from his throne, and set his son a king in his place. Fleeing from the earthquake means fleeing from what came upon Uzziah, of the leprosy of sin, to enjoy the dwelling of the Lord in our hearts. Let us flee from the earthquake of Uzziah to receive the earthquake of the cross through which many of the dead saints set forth to Jerusalem and appeared to many (Matthew 27: 51, 52); to shake our earthly mind of dust, and to set forth in us the living spiritual minds. 3‐ THE CROSS, AS A DAY KNOWN TO THE LORD: “It shall come to pass in that day, that there will be no light; the lights will diminish. It shall be one day which is known to the Lord – neither day nor night, but at evening time it shall happen, that it will be light” (6, 7) Talking about the cross in our life, he separates the trees planted in the east from those planted in the west; ……….those which receive the wind of the south from those which receive the wind of the north; ………..those which bear the cross, hastening with fast feet and concentrated eyes toward her Groom, crucified for the sake of denying souls; …………those which reject the earthquake of Uzziah from those bowing down before it …… all this will be realized in the day of the cross, described as follows: (1) There will be no light”. As it so happened when darkness dwelt in the day of the cross, that revealed the authority given to the darkness for sometime. (2) According to St. Dedymus the blind: “It shall be one day which is known to the Lord”: The day of the Lord is continuous, and not cut off by night; an everlasting day (Isaiah 60).. (3) “neither day nor night, but at evening time it shall happen, that it will be light” (7). It is not day because darkness covered the earth, nor night for it is day time; but at the evening it shall happen that it will be light, for the outer darkness was scattered after the ninth hour; as the inner darkness did through the work of the cross in the life of humanity. 4‐ POURING THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH: “And in that day it shall be ,that living water shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea. In both summer and winter it shall occur” (8) What is this water but the water of the Holy Spirit bound to the cross?! In our study of the book of Ezekiel (Chapter 47), we read that water was bound to the alter, namely to the sacrifice of the cross. Now he talks of the cross as a day known to, and preoccupies the mind of God, through that day, the fountains of the Holy Spirit flowed out from Jerusalem – where the apostles are ‐‐ to the eastern and the western seas, namely to the Gentiles east and west (In the Septuagint version it came as the previous and the following seas), namely to work in the life of the Jews who have enjoyed the law, then in that of the Gentiles. So will the door be opened before all humanity, according to the words of the Lord: “It shall come to pass that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2: 28); by which the name of God will be glorified on all. According to St. Dedymus the blind, , that living water flowing from Jerusalem to pour into the eastern and the western seas, is the spiritual law, , the divine knowledge, or the divine love, things that flow into the church – the higher Jerusalem – to sanctify the world, saying: [This view is crystalized from our interpretation of: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”; will be full of the divine love that flows on the select, and “; will covers a multitude of sins” (James 5: 20), will cover the evil deeds, that nothing of them will remain; The knowledge of the Lord is water that covers the sea and turns it into pure sweet water. We can say that our souls have come to be an eastern sea struck with self‐righteousness (the right‐hand strike), or a western sea struck by the left‐hand strike. That we need the work of the Holy Spirit in us to take the self‐salinity away from our water, the salinity of evil water to turn it into the sweetness of the holy river that brings gladness to God. Through this new sweet water, namely, the flow of the Holy Spirit, God reigns on the church all over the world, saying: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day, ‘The Lord is one, and His name one” (9). He will reign not only on the Jews, but on the Gentiles who come to Him. According to St. Dedymus the blind: [There used to be a difference between the eastern and the western seas, namely between the Jews and the Greeks; of whom not all confess the oneness of God; for the pagans believed in many gods, while the Jews believe in one God; but once the gospel came, the knowledge of the One and only Creator spread on all. The apostle Paul says: “Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?. Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since there is one God who will who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Romans 3: 29); In that day the Lord has made (Psalm 117: 24), when the Sun of Righteousness shines; there will be Only His name, for once all men unite in blameless mind and godliness, they will have one name pertaining to God; by which the words of the psalm will be fulfilled: “O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your Holy Name in the whole earth?!” (Psalm 8: 1); and, “For You have magnified Your name above all” (Psalm 138: 2); ………. By which the supplication raised to God is fulfilled, saying: “Your name be hallowed”]. The prophet goes on to say: “All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rammon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the First Gate, and the Corner Gate; and from the tower of Hananel to the king’s winepress. The people shall dwell in it, and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited” !0, 11) By these phrases he reveals the dimensions of the church in which the Holy Spirit works, as living waters that flow through the cross, for only God’s name to be glorified on earth, which may be summarized as follows: (1) “He says: All the land will be turned into a plain from Geba to Rammon south of Jerusalem”. As ‘Geba’, which, according to St. Dedymus the blind means (testimony), and ‘Rammon’ which means (a high place), he believes that the dimensions of the knowledge of God that flow on the church is the testimony to the Lord by the high spirit (the heavenly). We can say that the church in which the waters of the Holy Spirit flow extends in the life of mankind from Geba, namely from the testimony to God in Christ Jesus, being the righteousness of God working in us, to bring us forth to Rammon, namely to the exalted high life. Rammon, being south of Jerusalem, as we have seen before, that is where the wind of the south is warm to kindle our Jerusalem by the Spirit who never cool down. (2) “Shall be raised up and inhabited in her place” (10). Raised up to Rammon, it is befitting of the soul not to cease being raised up; as according to St. Dedymus the blind: [She bears a high strength to be raised up and not to go down; for it is befitting of those who have reached the goal and achieved perfection through strife to hold fast to holiness]. (3) “from Benjamin’s Gate to the First Gate, and the Corner Gate” (10). The living church sets forth from ‘Benjamin’s Gate’, namely (the son of the right hand), to be like her Groom who sits on the right hand of the Majesty, having no member on the left hand, but all are the children of the right hand, namely heirs of glory. The church sets forth to the ‘Corner Gate’, to be, like her Lord a Cornerstone that is rejected by the builders (Psalm 117: 22; Isaiah 28: 16; Ephesians 2: 20; 1 Peter 2: 6). He, who bonded the Jews with the Gentiles in an integral building. Like her Groom, the church binds all together by the Holy Spirit, to have one Sanctuary for the Lord. Let us, therefore enter through ‘Benjamin’s Gate’, called the ‘First Gate’, through which no one could enter except him who is hidden in the Lord Christ, who can dare to say: “Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord” (Psalm 118: 19); and “This is the Gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter” (Psalm 118: 20). Let us enter through that Gate, to bind with the Cornerstone, rejected by men, but glorified by God; and let us not be like the hypocrites who do not enter through the heavenly Gate, but stand at the corners, extend their prayers seeking the commendation of men. (4) “from the tower of Hananel to the king’s winepress” (10). If the word ‘Hananel’, in Hebrew, means (God has compassion, or gives grace), a tower near the ‘Gate of xxxxxxx’, and the ‘tower of the hundred’, renewed by Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3: 1; 12: 39). If the ‘king’s winepress’ refers to the house of the spiritual wine, a symbol of the inner joy; the church of the new covenant is featured by the tower of the ‘free grace of God’, about which the Lord spoke to His disciples, saying: ‘Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it; lest after he had laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him” (Luke 14: 28, 29).. So man begins his church life by counting the cost, whether he has the faith in God’s free grace? whether he can enjoy the exalted divine tower, to take refuge in its stronghold, and say: “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings” (Psalm 61: 3, 4). Through this tower, the believer would set forth to the ‘king’s winepress’, namely to ‘the house of wine’, to be together with the Lord who passed through the winepress, in order to enjoy the joy of the Holy Spirit. (5) “The people shall dwell in it, and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited” (11).. Instead of the desolation that dwelt upon the soul because of the sin, she will be filled with glory and life; shall be inhabited, not only by men, but by God Himself as well, who sanctifies her to become wide open to all humanity; and so she can come out from the state of desolation to a state of fulfillment by the grace of God, the love for the neighbor, the feeling of the exalted peace, and the inner security. 5‐ DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD MAN AND SETTING THE NEW: The prophet ends his talk about the salvation work of God in His holy church, whose dimensions we saw through revealing the necessity of the destruction of the old man with all his evil works, and setting the new man, holy in the Lord, proclaiming the following: (1) Proclaiming the plague that will come upon the pagan nations, surrounding Jerusalem, being a symbol of the works of the old man, or of the war against sin, he says: “This shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: ‘Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet; their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets; and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths’” (12) If the body, before being sanctified, represents by its evil desires, the old man, this body that bears animosity against God has to dissolve (Romans 8: 7). And lest someone may assume that the body, in itself, is evil, he says: “Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet”; What dwells upon the body, is not a deterioration of its material being, but of its old evil desires, to bear sanctification instead; The same is said concerning the eyes in their sockets, namely they will be dissolved of their old looks, to receive a new spiritual insight, befitting to the new man.; and concerning the tongue that will dissolve in their mouths; namely, the tongue itself would not perish, but will come to death as far as its evil is concerned, to produce a holy voice befitting of the new life. The destruction, therefore does not come upon the body and its member in themselves, but upon the evil dwelling in them, to have the blessing and righteousness instead. (2) “It shall come to pass in that day, that a great panic from the Lord will be among them; everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, and raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand”(13). That ‘panic’ here, according to St. Dedymus the blind, does not mean a loss of peace, but rather a feeling of great wonder before the work of God that confuses the soul to make it unable to perceive His secrets, like the saying: “They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3: 5), or: “O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid”(Habakkuk 3: 2). Every soul marveled before the work of God, man would seize the hand of his neighbor, to become all by one spirit in their spiritual strife. (3) “Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together, gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance” (14). Who is Judah who fights at Jerusalem, and not against Jerusalem, to gather to her account the wealth of the nations of silver, gold, and apparel in great abundance, but the Person of the Lord Christ who comes from the tribe of Judah, namely, the true Judah who dwell in our inner Jerusalem, to fight on our behalf our spiritual battles?. For, as long as He dwells in us, He would take by force the possibilities and energies that were used before for evil, as His spoil, and uses them for our spiritual edification. As a true King, He would fight in the soul to grant her victory and riches, to make her adorned as His heavenly bride. If gold refers to the spirit or to heaven; and silver to utterance or the divine word; and the apparel to talents; our Groom dwelling in us fights against the devil to sanctify our spirit, mind, and all our talents. (4) “Such also shall be the plague on the horse and the mule, on the camel and the donkey, and on all the cattle that will be in those camps; so shall this plague be” (15) According to St. Dedymus, these animals refer to the sins struck by the Spirit, sins of the old man, which should be forsaken. According to him, the horses refer man’s evil desire for his neighbor’s wife, as said by the Holy Book: “They were like well‐fed lusty stallions; everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife” (Jeremiah 5: 8). The mules refer to the barrenness of the spirit, in particular of those who practice virginity of the body without the enjoyment of the virginity and purity of the spirit; to come to be like an eunoch , not for the sake of the kingdom, but to be commended by men (Matthew 19: 12). The camels refer to those who care for God’s law, yet without discernment; not having the “cloven hooves” (Leviticus 11: 3) they would be considered unclean (Leviticus 11: 14); and the donkeys refer to lack of understanding, bowing their heads to the ground under the burdens, they are not able to look up toward the higher Jerusalem. By the Holy Spirit, therefore, the plague will strike these evil works under the yoke of which man has fallen, to set him free from them. (5) He talks to us about the enjoyment of the Gentiles of the feast of the tabernacles, going up every year to worship the great King (16‐ 19). It is not only the Jews who celebrate this feast, but the Gentiles as well, when the church of the new covenant unceasingly sets forth toward the heavenly Jerusalem to sanctify the world. Men celebrate the feast of the tabernacles, perceiving that their bodies (the tabernacles) have been sanctified for the Lord; and worship the king, the Lord of hosts, until they put them off (2 Peter 1: 14), to put them on a new spiritual bodies in the great day. They will be the same bodies, but they bear a nature befitting to the eternity. About this the apostle Paul talks to us proclaiming how the believer longs, not to put his body off, but to bear it new on which death cannot prevail, saying: “For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5: 4). (6) He gets back to confirm the sanctification of the body by saying that he writes on the sound of the bells of the horses (20) If the horses refer to the body, even their bells would be “HOLY TO THE LORD OF HOSTS” (21); meaning that, in the body, there is no unclean members nor senses, but everything inside and outside are holy to the Lord. Again he confirms the holiness of everything to the account of the Lord, by saying that the pots in Jerusalem and Judah shall be “holy to the Lord of hosts” (21). In the holy church there will be nothing unclean or defiled, but everything will be like a pot or vessel that contains the heavenly treasure inside it. For the last time he confirms the same meaning by saying: “In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts” (21); namely there will be no opponent against God, nor an idol‐worshipper inside the true church, nor anything foreign inside the true believer.
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