Dry bones
The Kingdom of heaven is a scattered flock. It seems, as a body, to be dead, torn a part. Can life be breathed into the body? Can dead bones scattered about come together?
There are many statuses in the kingdom of God but only one level. Each man lives under the authority of God in the perfect law of liberty. Each day and moment men must choose to obey God rather than decide good and evil, right and wrong for themselves. No one exercises authority one over the other through the agency of governments for their own purpose, for all men a free under the authority of God with no other gods before Him.
In the Bible we have kings and priests. Adam was to be King and Priest. These were two offices rolled into one man, a sort of State and Church accordingly. In each family there is a king and priest. Originally the kingdom was Adam and Eve and eventually their sons.
When man fell it was not hard to find men who were willing to take dominion but few who would also be priest. Together,in each family, King and Priest meld the concepts of Justice and Mercy, Love and Faith, Hope and Charity. While the King exercises dominion, the priest offers sacrifice in communion with God.
What is Sacrifice?
God really has no interest in the smoke of burnt offerings of flesh and fruits. Since, Man was made in the image of God he may exercise authority and give life as God has given him. Man was not to exercise authority over other men but lead all men to the authority of God. If man fulfilled his role of dresser and keeper of the planet he will be giving life to God's Creation. If man is fruitful he will expand the abundance of earth in all that he touches and in this he would be honoring his Father.
Cain was the eldest son but his sacrifice was not righteous. God exercising authority was infinitely patient with Cain and told him "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Genesis 4:7
But Cain usurped the dominion of His brother and oppressed him, and took his life from him. He was neither a priest of good sacrifice nor a king of righteous dominion. He continued to disobey God and gathered people under his authority and through many generations he continued to exercise authority to the oppression of others and their hurt.
Man's dominion is limited with in the range granted by God the Father. Man is not to exercise authority one over the other and he must also coordinate his actions with other men by consent. There must be a Godly Way of doing that. If every man was true in the obedience of God this would not be a problem but since we are working our way back to God then we may need help externally to operate as a body.
Precept upon Precept
God repeats His Laws precept upon precept. Since, man is both Priest and King and the body of the family has priest and king with in it then it is only reasonable to assume that the body of the community has both priest and king. In the Kingdoms of men there is a division between Church and State, priest and king.
In England we could see a competition between the priestly class and the kings that some times resulted in death. In ancient Rome there was a keen separation between church or religion and the state.
Through out History in all religions when State is mixed with Religion there has been an ushering in of persecution and competition that has lead to the spilling of blood in the oppression of millions of souls.
When the Hasmonians, in the kingdom of God on earth [Judea 160 AD] began to mix the two offices granting dominion to the Priests and the enforcement of Faith to the King corruption followed. Where a man's heart is opposing God's Way this mix leads to the abuses of Cain. There was a city called Jerusalem but there was no Double Peace1. A man with a pure and obedient heart, living a life where God Prevails2 in his words and deeds will find this mixing is desired and a blessing. Yeshua, the Messiah, was that Man.
Stones of Faith
The Levites
In comparing these many systems and reaching back into the ancient record we see that in the earliest dominions of Israel there were no Kings. Each man was king and priest. Each man exercised authority over the land and his family. The State was Divided amongst the People. Each and every man carried the responsibility of Government and Law was in the hands of the People. In the family the Father was priest though this role often fell to the first born, the eldest son. But Moses delegated the office of priest to the community to the Levites as a people.
The Levites had come out of the walled camp and golden calf Mammon when Moses first called, "Who is on the LORD'S side?". This priestly class of called out Levites became the first born of the community. They opened the matrix, the womb of God's Kingdom of Faith and Obedience.
In each family there was still king and priest but in the community these called out men became the possession of God and the servants of His kingdom. They were not the State and to demonstrate this God did not allow them to own land as an estate. The People were to set aside land for the Levites, the priests for the community and the Levites were to form an altar of Charity and service for the people. They also formed a network that served as nervous system in the nation bringing them together as one body.
Burnt offerings
It is believed by most who read the Bible today that the ancient altars were places where men burnt up their sacrifices to God in ritual conflagration. Many of the Essenes at the time of Jesus did not agree with this interpretation of the language. They were very learned men who studied the ancient manuscripts and languages that we have no modern access to. They, for the most part, believed that animals did not need to be slaughtered in these sacrifices and therefore did not believe that these sacrifice needed to be consumed on blazing altars of dead stones.
A more reasonable interpretation based on ancient language and their pictographic character and metaphorical nature is that the altars of earth and stone were actually men gathered for the purpose of daily ministration to the needy and poor of the community. It was the Charity and service of these men that tied the community together in Love and Hope and Faith in God's ways.
All things being equal the family and extended family takes care of the sick, poor and needy. They do this in their kingly and priestly role both within the family and to their neighbors. This is what makes the family strong and the neighborhood healthy. This same precept of binding love and charity is transferred to the workings of the community and the nation. What was called widows and orphans simply had insufficient family to fall back on. It is clear than in many cases to do a good job or help the needy it may become necessary to delegate a single individual or group of individuals to serve in the capacity of minister to the sacrifice of the People to God by charity to the community's needy. This is where the community came in to the picture with help and aid. The distributor of this charity was someone designated to do so, the Levites as priests and ministers.
The Church
The Stones of Faith
Jesus was the King of Israel and its remnant Judea. He was the rightful heir of the throne of David. David held the dominion of all of Israel as anointed King. As King he held the promise of Abraham. Jesus was also High Priest having been designated by His cousin John the Baptist who was the son of Zachariah.
As King Jesus was the protector of the Kingdom when he entered the Temple. He fired the Porters and trustees and money changers in David's Kingdom and set his own people over that business. His disciples who he had been training for years began working daily in the Temple after Pentecost tending to the distribution of the sacrifice of the People. They appointed new Porters or gatekeepers of the treasury who tended to the daily ministration of the widows and orphans.
They did all this under the threat of persecution of the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. Vast sums of money came through the temple and the old guard were being replaced by the Kingdom of Heaven appointed by Jesus the King. More people were baptized into the Kingdom and the 12 Apostles and the 120 families they ministered to who were in the upper room continued to train people in the Ways of the Lord.
The Apostles spent most of their time teaching others how the system worked and overseeing the kingdom. The People chose ministers to tend to the business of the temple with the ministers of the Church acting as protectors of their congregational trust. Together they formed a living altar of sacrifice and charity that according to Historians became an ever increasing state in the heart of the Roman Empire. It was seen as a republic where the people were free from things public. Even those who could not escape the jurisdictional control of the Roman corvee system of statutory labor because they were bound by oath and debt they could began to live and learn to live by that law of Liberty in faith, hope, charity an love.
The loss of revenue in the kingdom God established by Herod and his Roman support began to diminish and decline. Men motivated by greed and envy plotted against the Apostles and their appointees like Stephen. Jesus did not remove those corrupt people by force as the gentiles do but he bore witness against them in truth. People could make their own choice under the perfect law of liberty as to who they would contribute to. Would it be the ministers of the kingdom of Heaven on earth or the "synagogue of Satan" [the adversary of His Kingdom]. That same choice is before people today.
Jerusalem the ancient city of stone was coming to an end. Eventually the Temple was destroyed but the Christian government dispersed as they were warned. They had a window of opportunity provided as promised by Jesus to Caiaphas and under the protection of the Roman troops by order of Titus. Those troops had pulled back after surrounding Jerusalem because, "troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds".3
Rome had made their decision. Jesus Christ was king. Thousands of Jews made their decision that Jesus was the King of Judea. Those that didn't lost the promise and were no more citizens of the Kingdom of Judea and therefore no longer Jews of promise. In the years to come millions of dispersed Israelites, Romans, Greeks, Celts, Jutes, Saxons etc. made their decision to live according to the perfect law of liberty in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Yes it is a kingdom not like the Kingdoms of the Gentiles. It is a kingdom that does not exercise authority one over the other. It is a kingdom where the first born of faith give up their freedom to become bond servants of the King. Those ministers serve the houses of the people who seek the wisdom of the LORD God in Heaven.
They feed His sheep who have for the most part gone into captivity but wish to repent from the ways of the world into the order of God's grace. They also must maintain an entrance to the kingdom of Heaven as Peter said they should. It is an entrance opened by the blood of Jesus Christ.
We have lived so long in the dark that the light can be blinding. The Apostles lived with Jesus for three years and they still had trouble understanding the Kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
How does the Kingdom work?
MAKE CONTACT
In God's plan there is also Man and Woman. Each has a character and aspects unique to their status as make and female.
Revelation 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be] glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
THE CHURCH POLITY
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The Moment is where Past and Future meet.
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Ezekiel 37:5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
Ezekiel 37:6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
2 The meaning of the word Israel is God Prevails.
3 Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. ... to the feast of unleavened bread,... so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which light lasted for half an hour. ... Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night.... a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sunsetting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover .. in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence." Josephus: The War of the Jews (AD 66-73)