Chag sameach Sukkot kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon and welcome to the seventh and final day of the Festival of Tabernacles which corresponds in the spiritual recapitulation to Sukkot itself and to the Ruach haShibi'i or the seventh Ruach (Spirit) who is also associated with the Sabbath day of rest.

As I discover each year, the depth and riches of Yahweh's wisdom and emet (truth) is like an endless well. Simultaneously, I discover - much to my horror - just how deep the satanic rabbit hole goes too. How will we ever be able to discern it all? Paul wrestled with this problem and concluded:

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (1 Cor.13:12, NIV).

And yet it would be true to say, I think, that the Remnant must not only be more informed than your average believer but must unquestionably have sharper discernment. And sharp discernment comes only by close daily living with our Messiah

Long ago, Adam stood alone upon the earth as the sole representitive of humankind. And yet, as we know, he was not alone because his wife, Eve, was within as an integral part of himself. He had a dual nature, especially created at the will and touch of Yahweh-Elohim. The mind boggles trying to comprehend the pre-Eve Adam. He was not, moreover, a composite, nor was he a dual-sexed hermaphrodite as the pagan religions insist. He was who he was before Eve was made and he remained who he had been after Eve had been taken and made from him. Together they stood, two yet echad (one) in the most absolute sense possible, and for that period of time of unknown length, it was tov (good).

Now I do not know, and nor am I necessarily saying, that two spirits inhabited one body. I think that to be a little far fetched, not to mention a recipe for schizophrenia. As a spirit Eve must have been created separate from Adam just as all the rest of us were in the pre-existence. However, she must have been 'close by' in some spiritual sense. Whatever the process was by which the seven Ruachot (Spirits) were created or derived from Yahweh the Father, would have been how Eve was taken from Adam. About all we can be sure of is that in terms of physicality and psychic nature, albeit it in the polar gender, Eve was made of the same stuff as Adam. Indeed he laid down a part of himself so that his mate could be fashioned out of this pre-existening substance.

We are told that Yah'shua (Jesus) was made in the express image of His Heavenly Father, as both Abel and (subsequently) Seth were in the image of their father, Adam. Though His own separate Person, the Son of Elohim (God) is in every other respect of the same substance of, and nature as, the Father and Mother (Ruach).

Indeed, there is a parallel relationship between Adam and Yah'shua (Jesus):

"The first man Adam became a living being ('soul', nefesh [1] - AENT)"; the last Adam (Messiah), a life-giving ('resurrecting' - AENT) spirit" (1 Cor.15:45, NIV).

In the same way that the first Eve appeared out of the first Adam by special creation, so the second Eve - the Messianic Bride - must also appear 'out' of the second Adam who is Yah'shua (Jesus) our Messiah, who is a life-giving, resurrecting spirit, or as another version puts it, He is the "spirit of life" (OJB).

The Bride is different from the great mass of the rest of the saved because she is a unique creation, or should I say, re-creation. Since, as an obedient and trusting overcomer, she has fully died to the flesh and to the self, so she is to be fully brought into resurrection chayim or life. As Pesach (Passover) is apart from Sukkot (Tabernacles), so the general body or mass of the saved is apart from the those who are called up to the Marriage Supper of the Bridegroom.

In the same way that Eve is described as the "mother of all the living" (Gen.3:20, NIV), so the Remnant or Bride must likewise be the mother of something. But what is she producing? Or what will she be producing? And where?

We know - for this I have spoken to you of many times in the past - that there are two resurrections in which three kinds of people will be physically raised to immortality:

• 1. The Children of the First Resurrection (Rev.20:5-6) or the Bride/Remnant whose glory is like that of the sun;
• 2. The Children of the Second Resurrection of which there are two sorts receiving different glories, respectively:
  • a. The disobedient saved believers whose resurrection glory is like that of the moon in brilliance; and
  • b. The unsaved whose resurrection glory will be as dim as that of the distant stars, mere specks in the night sky (1 Cor.15:41-42a).

The resurrection, when it occurs, will be sudden and irreversible:

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory'" (1 Cor.15:51-54, NIV).

The first resurrection will take place at the beginning of the Millennium and the second at its end, though it's not clear the two categories or grades of second resurrection will be raised simultaneously since the last must await the conclusion of the Cosmic Jubilee and their long term in hell before they will receive any glory at all, for they assuredly will have none in that place of incarceration and punishment.

So I reiterate my earlier question: in what sense will the Remnant Bride become 'mothers of all the living' in the way that Eve was since clearly there is a divine tavnith (pattern) present?

Obviously, since this is an allegory, we are not speaking of any literal 'progeny' between Yah'shua (Jesus) and the Bride. What is produced must therefore be spiritual in nature, and since it is the function of parents to reproduce recombinant images of themselves (children) then in the same way it must be the function of the Bride, through her perfect spiritual echad (oneness) union with Messiah, to likewise produce 'spiritual images' or 'children'.

Remember, when we speak of the Bride as being 'female', this is not a description of literal gender but of positioning in female, submissive position. The Bride of Messiah consists of literal men and women but they are submitted to Yah'shua (Jesus) like a marriage, for it is allegorical:

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Master. For the husband is the head of the wife as Messiah is the head of the messianic community (church), His body, of which He is the Deliverer (Saviour). Now as the messianic community (church) submits to Messiah, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything" (Eph.5:22-24, NIV).

Likewise:

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Messiah loved the messianic community (church) and gave Himself up for her to make her qadosh (holy, set-apart), cleansing her by the washing with mayim (water) through the davar (word), and to present her to Himself as a radiant body (church), without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but qadosh (holy, set-apart) and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Messiah does the messianic community (church) - for we are members of His body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Messiah and the body (church). However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband" (Eph.5:25-33, NIV).

I introduce to you today a wholly new concept that I have never before shared and that is the idea of a 'recombinant spiritual image'. What do I mean by that verbage? I mean that as Messiah reshapes and reimages us spiritually, we as human beings nevertheless also re-shape and re-image one another psychically. We absorb one anothers characteristics and aspects of our personhood.

It has always been understood by the church or messianic community that it is the community of Yah'shua (Jesus) that brings to pass the manifest presence. Since the 1970's this idea has become progressively eroded and a new and false belief has arisen, namely that the individual believer alone becomes solely the habitation of Elohim (God), and not the messianic community or church as a whole, or section thereof. This position was widely popularised due to the growing independent spirit and self-centredness within the Body inspired by the hippie rebellion. Scriptures came to be twisted, such as Acts 7:48, which says that Elohim (God) no longer lives in buildings made with hands. There is, however, a fundamental difference between the indwelling presence of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) - which is female and individual - and the manifest presence of Elohim (God), which is male and collective.

The Bride cannot be perfected, let alone become echad or one, by mere personal indwelling by the Ruach (Spirit). The personal indwelling is represented by the spring festivals and the manifest presence of Yahweh by the autumn (fall) festivals. The summer festival of Shavu'ot points to that. The Bride or Remnant does not, moreover, come into concrete existence until Sukkot (Tabernacles) because it is at Sukkot that the manifest presence of Elohim (God) is found...in the Holy of Holies.

Unfortunately, all human beings image one another not only individually but collectively. The latter happens when society as a whole leavens us when we submit to it. All imaging that is outside of divine Torah tavnith (pattern) is defective imaging which means that:

• 1. The fullness of the Ruach (Spirit) cannot indwell impure believers, which cannot then unite as echad, which means that
• 2. The manifest presence of Elohim cannot come to the Body either.

Those who are not the Bride, who are not the Remnant, are therefore willfully flawed images of Elohim (God) and cannot therefore bring about the manifest presence.

The calling of the Bride is to beget other believers through the Besorah (Gospel) as Paul did:

"For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Messiah, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus) I have begottenn (birthed) you through the Besorah (Gospel)" (1 Cor.4:15, NKJV).

The men and women of the Remnant have as their call, collectively-speaking (as the Bride) a 'mothering' rôle, with Yah'shua (Jesus) performing the 'fatherly' one. Of course, individually we are fathers and mothers, but I think you understand what I mean. The Second Eve is positionally a 'mother' and, together with Messiah, is responsible for 'imaging' new and immature converts.

This is not as absurd or repugnant as it may sound to the ultra-individualists for whom any involvement in the spiritual rearing of the Bride might come across as blasphemous. Yet let us be honest. Have we not all acquired characteristics from our biological parents? Did they not image us? And has not the good imaging remained with us? Making talmidim (disciples) is a cooperative effort between Yahweh and His agents, us. Like it or not, we all leave our mark on one another to different degrees. Many have been my fathers and mothers (collectively 'mothers' in the allegorical sense) and that is the way Yahweh has designed it to be.

We understand also that there are twelve overall types, as I have mentioned to you before, that correspond to the 'character types' of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. We do not all become carbon copies of one single perfect-type of human - we do not all become the human Yah'shua (Jesus) as Yah'shua (Jesus) progressively dwells more and more in our hearts. We have His divine traits but we also have the colouring of those who discipled or spiritually parented us. And there is no way you can avoid that.

Each of us is called to receive the implanted Davar (Word) and Chayim (Life) of Yah'shua (Jesus), and as we bring that into the world - incarnating it in ourselves, we beget His image in ourselves and then cross-fertilise one another as we move out of the one-to-one relationship with Yah'shua (Jesus) that characterises the spring festivals and move into the collective relationship with Messiah - a uniplural relationship of One-to-many. As that happens, so the manifest presence of the Father comes, and that is the glory of the Bride.

What, then, is the qualitative or existential difference between Yahweh's presence in a solo believer to His manifest presence in a group like a congregation? What is the essence of a corporate anointing? For Yah'shua (Jesus), reiterating and expanding on the Torah, said:

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in My name, there am I with (in the midst of) them" (Matt.18:19-20, NIV).

There is an increase and multiplication in the anointing when two or more come together. Just imagine what it will be like on the final Sukkot (Tabernacles), when the whole Bride - completely echad (one) - assembles! There is a synergy in such multiple relationships when there is unity in emet (truth) and ahavah (love). How does this come about? By there being a genuine desire to wholly submit to Yah'shua (Jesus), obey His mitzvot (commandments) and invite the fullness of His presence.

The adventure and the tiqveh (hope) continue. There is still so much purification of the Bride to be done and yet she has already come far as the separation from the world continues apace. Tomorrow we shall be assembling for Shemini Atseret, the Last Great Day, the High Sabbath that marks the end of this season. I look forward to seeing you then and may the grace of our, Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), be with us all! Amen.

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