Verse 12 C. Visions of God – Part 2

(Visions of God – Part 2)

Urim ve Thummim:

            The other visible manifestation of God’s presence was the oracle of Urim ve Thummim.  It was given to the High Priest for the purpose of discerning the instruction of God in matters of utmost importance to the nation.  This most holy oracle was received by means of a very specific and carefully worked out use of the ephod which was only to be handled by those specifically anointed as Priests of God and instructed in His purposes.

            As this use was so limited it seems probable that the details were not common knowledge but were passed from one generation to the other of the Priests.  Although this information may have been considered secret at times, it was not necessarily forbidden, but rather merely specialized knowledge.  It was simply irrelevant to the general community as it was neither their right nor duty to handle the ephod.  This technical and specialized knowledge would have been incorporated into the Pattern of the Heavens which was given to Moses, the Pattern for orientation in time and space.  The benefits of this special guidance were very important to the community.

            The ephod was a part of the prescribed garments of the High Priest.  It was the outermost garment worn somewhat as a vest.  It consisted of a breastplate which contained twelve precious stones set according to specific directions.  These twelve jewels were each engraved with the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.  The breastplate was held in place by shoulder pieces.  These two shoulder pieces contained each an onyx stone engraved with the names of six of the twelve tribes of Israel.

            The priest was also to wear a headpiece called the “fair mitre,” to which was attached a plate of pure gold with the engraving: “Holiness To The Lord.”  Below the ephod, on the hem, was to be hung “pomegranates of blue” and golden bells.  In considering the total effect of these garments, one might imagine the lights reflected by such an arrangement.  Aaron’s garments were made as a copy of the image of the garments of God which is the starry heavens.

            The jewels of the breastplate are named, but as these names are not equivalent to the names presently used to describe precious stones, it is not certain exactly which jewels are meant.  From the description and names of these stones, however, it is certain that they were all either transparent or at least translucent.  Without doubt they all reflected light in a very special way.

            When used according to God’s instructions, there were “answers” received by means of this ephod.  These “answers” were called Urim ve Thummim.  It has long been a matter of controversy as to the manner in which the Priest received these oracles.  Philo suggested that there was a little image in between the folds of the ephod, which is probably why Philo has earned the reputation of being “Greek” in his thinking, for certainly no one in harmony with the spirit of the Old Testament could ever think that God could be manifest in some little image tucked into the folds of the priest’s garment!

            Some have suggested that the ephod was used as the base for a lottery upon which was cast something like a “sacred dice,” the answer being revealed by the way in which the lot fell.  This cannot be completely ruled out on Biblical grounds; however, it is not totally in keeping with the way God reveals Himself in other instances throughout the Bible.

            On the basis of the other accounts of the manifestations of God in the Old Testament, we must believe that God’s will by Urim ve Thummim was revealed when the precious stones of the breastplate were placed upon the mercy seat, or perhaps even upon the Priest’s body in relation to the fair mitre upon his head, in such a way that the reflected light created a visible image, even as light from a prism creates a rainbow of colour.  This could only happen when everything was in perfect alignment both literally and spiritually according to the Pattern shown to Moses on the Mount.  The moral condition of the Priest as well as the people must be such as God could approve.  Then and only then did that “glory” appear which was the answer of Urim ve Thummim, Lights and Revelations.

 Manifestation:

            The book of Revelation is not so much a message as a manifestation, and that manifestation is the Light of God, the Urim ve Thummim for the direction of His people: “…a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people, Israel.”

            Taken separately, the literal meaning of Urim is ‘Lights” and the literal meaning of Thummim is ‘Perfections.’  Taken together they have the meaning of ‘Revelation,’  ‘Perfection of Light,’ and ‘Revelation and Truth.  In the beginning God said: “Let there be Light” and in the last book of God’s revealed Word we find that Light brought to perfection, Perfection of God’s Will, and the inevitable outcome of His Word of power.  The most fitting title possible for the final book of Scripture is Tammim, (a variant form of Thummim), perfection, completion and fullness.  The book itself declares that the Revelation is complete when it pronounces a curse upon anyone adding or taking from the words of the book.

 Symbols of Light as Literary Conventions:

            There are several ways in which symbols of light are used in the book to reveal Christ.  These symbols are used according to the literary conventions already established in the canonical literature including both Old and New Testaments.  The book of Beginnings, Genesis, starts with the revelation of the Secret of Light:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; And darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be Light: and there was Light -Genesis 1:1-3.

The Gospel of John starts from this same beginning point:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was Life: and the Life was the Light of men.  And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.  There was a man sent from God whose name was John.  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.  That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew Him not.  He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.  But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us, (And we beheld His glory, [beautiful Light], the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.  John 1:1-14.

 Then Jesus said unto them.  Yet a little while is the Light with you.  Walk while ye have the Light, lest darkness come upon you:  for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.  While ye have Light, believe in the Light, that ye may be the children of Light.  These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them.”  John 12:35-6.

 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life; (For the Life was manifested, [revealed, brought to light], and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us:)…This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.  1 John 1:1, 2, 5.

 “…until the appearing [revelation] of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in His times He shall shew [reveal], Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to Whom be honour and power everlasting.  Amen.  (1 Tim. 6:14b-16.)

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  James 1:17.

 Light Was Conceived in Creation

             Let us paraphrase Genesis 1:1-3:

When God began to create [the duality][1] heaven, and earth, the earth was [materially] formlessness, [spatially wandering, rationally mad, intellectually without order, emotionally passionate, spiritually and visually totally dark] and [virgin] emptiness.  Darkness [was the veil that] covered the surface of the [boundless] chaos.

 And the Spirit [Breath, Wind], proceeded to heal her, [trembling with loving affection, vivifying, refreshing, bringing tranquility and peace.]  [In lifting the veil of darkness from her], God said [of this union]: ‘Let Light begin to be.’  And Light [was conceived in her and thus] began to be.”

             Of this portion of Genesis Milton writes in Paradise Lost as he addressed Christ:

Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born,

Or of the Eternal Coeternal beam,

May I express thee unblam’d? Since God is Light,

And never but in unapproached Light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee

Bright effluence of bright essence increate

Or hear’st thou rather pure ethereal stream,

Whose fountain, who shall tell? before the sun….”[2]

Duality:

            There has been considerable discussion over the supposed duality in Christian religion.  Many have declared that the duality did not exist in the Old Testament and that it was totally foreign to the true religion of the Jews.  It did not need, however, to be imported as some would have it, from Babylon, or Greece, or Zoroastrianism.  Although the duality is not apparent in our English translations, it is apparent in the dual forms of the Biblical Hebrew, even of the first verse of the Bible.

            The duality, then, is the source of the possibility of the chaotic conditions of the earth and therefore of evil.  It is the reconciliation of earth and heaven and their reunion that brings about the blessings of order and peace.  This perfect unity is the source of, as well as the result of, Light.  Earth and Heaven are reunited in earth’s conception of Light.  In the fullness of time that Light that was conceived in the beginning comes to full maturity in the Perfection of Light, Jesus.

            The prophet Isaiah saw this beautiful truth:

The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name….And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, ….he says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ (Isaiah 49:1b, 5-6.  See also Isaiah 44:24.)

             God created duality for the sake of the joy of desire-fulfillment.  In Unity all is at rest, therefore, the prime move itself was necessarily an act in contrast, apposition, conflict with the Unity of rest.  The act constituted duality itself, and was initiated with the intention of creating duality.

            The Bible begins with the rest of divine Unity: God.  It can only proceed by and because of an act: Creating.  The act first produces desire, tôhûw vebôhûw.  Desire creates reunion, marechepheth.  Reunion, or resolution of the duality produces an offspring, Light.  This circular continuum of Unity-Creation-Duality-Desire-Fulfillment-Creation-Reunion is repeated infinitely and infinitesimally and each cycle produces its own peculiar radiance which is an appearance of God, a Revelation.  The Revelation of Jesus Christ is the perfect fulfillment of the great cycle of cycles resolving all things to the Great Unity of Divine Rest.

            As Light, Christ is the “Everlasting Father” of Isaiah 9:6.  The Hebrew is ’âbiy-‘âd, translated by Gesinius as “perpetual father”.  Since the word ‘âd means ‘time’, a possible translation would be “Father of Time”.  Christ was both Abraham’s progenitor and Seed, as also He was of David.  [The Seed is only activated by Light.]  As Abraham’s seed produced the fleshly Israel, and also Christ according to the flesh, so Christ is the progenitor of the spiritual Israel for it is His bloodline that survived the destruction of the Jews in the first century.  No other Jewish or Israeli bloodline or genealogy survived.  As Christ raised and ascended and is alive forevermore, He perpetuates the bloodline of Abraham forever and is the source of the Holy Seed that produces the new birth, bringing sons and daughters into the kingdom and producing, perpetuating and increasing the spiritual Israel, the Light of the world.

            Revelation means ‘Perfection of Light.’  While God is unapproachable Light, Christ is revealed light.  The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, then, is the written manifestation (that which makes manifest is light), of Jesus Christ and shows Him as the “Perfection of Light.”

            The purpose of Light, or Revelation, is to show, (cause to see), and this purpose is the one given for the book in its title sentence: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.”  This is parallel to the passage from 1 Timothy 6:14b-16, “The appearing [revelation] of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in His [referring to God in verse 13] times He [God] shall shew [reveal].”

            The Light that God commanded to be conceived or began in the beginning waxed brighter and brighter throughout the revealed Scriptures until at last, it reached its perfection in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  The whole Bible could rightly be named “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”  But while this Light was conceived in the Old Testament, it was at that time hidden, but in the incarnation it was revealed, and in the Spirit it is perfected.  Taking this title sentence as the key to the interpretation of the book, we are required to interpret its symbols as symbols of Light.

            For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”  LIGHT!


[1] The duality is indicated by the dual form for ‘waters,’ mayim and the double-dual form of ‘heavens,’ shâmayim.  We see in verse 6 that there were waters both above and below the firmament.  The waters above the firmament were in the heavens.

   The alphabetic letter mêm in its oldest form indicates ‘waters’ and appears as a representation of the waves of the sea.  The form of the word mayim may be the reduplication of the mêm in order to represent the double-waters of both heaven and earth.

   The early forms of the alphabetic letter shin is thought to represent two teeth, and the meaning perhaps represents the two sets of teeth, the upper and the lower, as the idea of essential apposition.  The shin could therefore have been added to represent the upper realm of waters, shâmayim, as opposed to the lower waters, mayim.

[2] Marjorie Nicholson, Milton, John, A Reader’s Guide to His Poetry, (New York, Octagon Books, 1971).

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