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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter  7

Section 6

The Apocalyptic Urim and Thummim


 
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The apocalyptic 144,000, 144 furlongs, and 144 cubits, are the Breastplate of Judgment; that is, the thing signified in that splendid decoration worn on the breast of Aaron in the holy place, is fulfilled in those who are the units of the Holy Square.

To understand this, the reader must first comprehend the Aaronic symbol itself. The first place mention is made of it is in Exod. xxviii. 15. It was not a plate of metal, but a texture wrought of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen. It was foursquare and of equal sides. It was filled in with settings of precious stones; four rows of them, and three in a row, and each stone set in gold. Upon these twelve stones were engraved, as upon a seal, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, thereby showing that these tribes were represented by them; so that symbolically speaking, the whole nation of Israel was contained in the square ornament, and borne upon the breast or heart of the High Priest in the holy place. This ornament, styled !hebrew! khoshen mishpat, and in our version, "the breastplate of judgment," was attached to the aiphod, a robe called ephod, or the overall, because it was put on over all other vestments.

Having prepared the foursquare texture, Moses was commanded to put into it the Urim and the Thummim; that is, the twelve precious stones: not that the stones abstractly were the Urim and the Thummim, but were indispensable to its manifestation. The Urim were the glistering of the stones -- the lights refracted and reflected from their cut and polished surfaces, and developing lights of divers colors. These were styled, urim, lights; and the twelve stones themselves, thummim, fulnesses, that is, of number and measure -- fulness of number, and fulness of measure; or 144,000 and 144 cubits and furlongs; because these are the perfections, or square of 12.

The next remarkable place where the Urim and Thummim are named is in Deut. xxxiii. 8. There Moses speaks of them prophetically. He addresses the tribe of Levi, whose chief pontiff wore the ornament, or as it is allusively termed by Paul, "the breastplate of righteousness," and saith, "Thy Thummim and thy Urim be of the Man thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah." In Exod. 17, the particulars of this strife are recorded. The question in debate was "Is Yahweh among us, or not?" This was affirmatively proved by his saying to Moses, "I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink:" and by his doing what he said. Now, in all this there was a mystery hidden, which they did not see into, nor Moses, nor the Elohim themselves; but which we may discern: for, in "the revelation of the mystery" taught by Paul, referring to this strife in 1 Cor. x. 4, he says: "They did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." The Holy man, ish khasid, with whom they strove, stood upon the rock, and thus, in a figure, made the rock a part of himself; and representative of something afterwards to be smitten by certain, who, like Moses, should speak unadvisedly with their lips. In that way, it became a "spiritual rock." Paul says, "the Rock was Christ;" that is, it was representative of him. The Holy Man upon the rock was the Elohistic representative of the Deity dwelling in light whom no man hath, or can see (1 Tim. vi. 16). He spoke the words of the Invisible One, by whose power, placed at his disposal, water was made to flow. Hence, Eternal and Almighty Power pervaded the rock in Horeb so long as the water gushed forth and followed them in their wanderings. The Holy Man himself was an embodiment of this power; and as the same power was afterwards to be manifested in the nature of Abraham, and thus become his Seed, the Rock became highly typical of Christ. Hence, the Power, of which the Holy Man on the rock was an expression, was YAHWEH, or "He who shall be," first in Christ Personal, or Jesus; and afterwards, in Christ Mystical, or the Square of Twelve.

In Moses’ prophecy of Levi, he says: "They have observed thy word, and will keep thy covenant." The second generation of Levi in the wilderness had observed the divine word, but the covenant referred to they have not yet kept. Levi after the flesh has been in apostasy for ages, and will continue to be so until "Yahweh, the Messenger of the Covenant," shall come. When the time appointed arrives, he will suddenly come in, and proceed to the work of purifying the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto Yahweh an offering in righteousness (Mal. iii. 1-4). From this future time, "they will keep the covenant," even the New Covenant, of which Jesus, not Moses, is the Mediator. Then, when Yahweh-Christ, the Branch of Righteousness, shall sit upon the throne of his father David, and execute judgment and righteousness in the land of Israel, "the priests the Levites shall not want a man before me," saith the Spirit by Jeremiah, "to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually" (xxxiii. 15-18).

When Levi, then, is in this purified condition contemporary with the reign of the Lamb and the 144,000, Levi’s Urim and Thummim will be, as Moses testifies, "of the Holy Man," who will then be their High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. He will not need to wear on his breast such Urim and Thummim as Aaron wore. The Lights and Fulnesses will be of himself, He being Deity Incarnately Manifested; for "it pleased the Father that in him all fulness dwell" (Col. i. 19).

Ezra and Nehemiah, doubtless, understood that a priest was to stand up, in and from whom the reality signified by the Aaronic Urim and Thummim should proceed. This appears from Ezra ii. 63; Neh. vii. 65. In these places we learn that certain priests sought their genealogy in the register, but it could not be found; "therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood; and the Tirshatha said to them, that they should not eat of the most holy things until there stood the Priest kakkohain, for Urim and Thummim." Although they were thus excluded from the priesthood, yet, if they were Israelites of faith, when the Priest who shall himself be Urim and Thummim shall stand in the temple Ezekiel describes, they, having risen from the dead, will be permitted to eat of the most holy things in the Paradise or kingdom of the Deity.

It has been remarked that, where the precious stones are mentioned, there is no mention of Urim and Thummim, as in Exodus xxxix. 10; and that, where the Urim and Thummim are mentioned, there is no mention made of the stones, as in Lev. viii. 8, which seems to show they are one and the same thing. The reader, however, will have perceived that they are not exactly the same -- that the difference between the Urim and the stones is the difference between various colored lights and the stones reflecting them; and yet, without the glistering gems there would be no light; so that the lights imply the stones, and the stones the lights, and the presence of the one argues that of the other. As to the Thummim, the difference between them and the stones is not a matter of lights, but of number and measure. If, by some accident, the filling in were deficient of one or more of the twelve stones, the Four-square Ornament would not have been Thummim, however bright the Urim of the gems present might have been. The deficient stones must have been supplied, and then Thummim would have been restored to the Holy Square.

From this scriptural identification of the Urim and Thummim with the Expected Priest after the Order of Melchisedec, we have one of a multitude of instances in which, as Paul teaches, "the Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes" the gospel of the kingdom. But he is the beginning also, therefore he styles himself "the Beginning and the Ending" (Apoc. i. 8); hence, as it is written, "Out of him, and through him, and into him, are all things" (Rom. xi. 36). The Mosaic law, in all its "weak and beggarly elements," compared with the things they represented, was all of or from Christ, and through Christ, and into or for Christ. He invented these "elements of the world," which "made nothing perfect;" through the Christ-Spirit he showed them to Moses, and taught him, and the prophets and apostles that they were a foreshadowing of "heavenly things," which were to soma tou Christou, the Body of the Christ (Col. ii. 17), of which body Jesus is the head -- the Body, "the fulness of him who filleth all" the saints "with all things" (Eph. i. 23).

In Hebrews viii. 5, Paul tells us that the priests of the law served for an ocular representation and shadow of the heavenlies; that is, that Aaron and his priests, in their service, vestments, and relations to the Deity and Israel, submitted to the eyes of observers a shadowy representation of things pertaining to Jesus and his Brethren, the saints -- Christ personal and Christ mystical. These constitute "the heavenlies," "in the heavens" en tois ouranois, not in "the heaven," ton ouranon, where Jesus now is, but in the heavens in which they enjoy their great reward, when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory in Jerusalem, and they shall "reign with him upon the earth" over Israel and the nations, as the kings and priests of the Deity (Apoc. v. 10; xx. 4). The law, in all its details, was a pattern -- a system of figurative righteousness, which represented a system of real righteousness, termed "the righteousness of the Deity." The figurative was prophetic of the real; so that, until the real was developed, no one could fulfil the righteousness of the law. When Jesus was about to be immersed by John he said: "Thus it is becoming for us to fulfil all righteousness;" and what was becoming for him is deemed so by the Spirit for all who would become constituents of the Holy Square of Twelve. The Deity condemned sin in the flesh of his Son, says Paul, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," or the truth (Rom. viii. 4). This was a most remarkable development, that the prophets and priests under the law could not fulfil its righteousness. The High Priest might put on the ephod decorated with its sparkling jewels, and thus be invested with a holiness and brightness and perfection which, when put off and suspended in the wardrobe, left him in all the unholiness, dulness, and imperfection of a natural man. A man whose righteousness is in his dress fulfils not the righteousness of the Deity represented by the dress. This can only be fulfilled by those "who walk after the Spirit;" and they only so walk, who, whether Jews or Gentiles, it matters not, understand the gospel of the kingdom and the truth as it is in Jesus; who believe heartily what they understand, and obey the truth by immersion into the Christ, and a patient continuance in well doing. These, who were never under the Mosaic law, do what the priests and prophets could not do. By their intelligent obedience to the law of faith, they show the work of the Mosaic law written in their hearts, whereby they do the things contained in the law, and so fulfil its righteousness.

Now, the Ephod, with its Foursquare of precious stones, represented to soma tou Christou, the Body of the Anointed. "By one Spirit we all into one body were immersed, whether we be Jews or Gentiles ... and all into one Spirit have been made to drink; for the body is not one member, but many" (1 Cor. xii. 13). For the development of this body, the Deity set forth Jesus as a Propitiatory or Mercy Seat in his blood. He was of the curiously wrought texture of the ephod, in common with all those who should become his brethren. "My body," said the Spirit in David, "was not hid from thee, when I was made in the hiding-place, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth" (Psa. cxxxix. 15). The Ephod was of the same material and workmanship as the Vail, with the addition of gold; and the vail, we know, from its being rent when the body of the Spirit was broken on the cross, and from the teaching of Paul (Heb. x. 20) -- represented the flesh, which, in Psa. xvi. 9, the Spirit styles "my flesh." The embroidering in of gold thread, in addition to the "blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen" of the Vail, indicated purity of the flesh after trial -- "when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

While Jesus, then, was living, and afterwards in death, he was typified by the Vail, whole and afterwards rent; but when he lived again, and ascended to the Divine Nature, and became Son of Deity with power by "Spirit of holiness," he was typified by the "curiously wrought" ephod, or Jewelled Overall and Robe put on by Aaron when standing before the Deity. As the living embroidered Ephod, he stands in the presence of the Father with the names of the twelve tribes of the "HOLY NATION" engraven on his heart. He is set forth "for all," as an ephod to be put "upon all" who would enter the Divine Presence, that they die not. This ephod may be put on after the manner in which Jesus became the ephod -- by being born of water and Spirit. When the ephod is thus assumed, the immersed and resurrected believer is not only regarded as in it, but a part of it, and, consequently, as one of the Urim and Thummim -- one of the lights -- and, therefore, one of the elements of the twelve precious stones, or Thummim; for, as each stone in the type represented a tribe, a multitude of individuals must have been signified by a separate stone.

It may be remarked here that the Apocalyptic Urim and Thummim, or 144,000, are presented before us in two states. In the present state, in which they are being sealed, and in the future state, with the Lamb on Mount Zion (Apoc. 7 and 14). The two states are divided by the resurrection. As the gold wire has been twined and interwoven with the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and fine twined linen of the Vail, as far as the Lord Jesus is concerned, the Ephod is perfected; but, in relation to his brethren, the gold is in their moral texture only as a principle -- a tried faith; but when by Spirit of holiness they are quickened, a golden thread of incorruption, as it were, will be interwoven throughout all their material substance, and they will be like Jesus, immortal. By being born of water, then, the true believer, and only such, is even now invested with the Ephod, and a light of the Urim and the Thummim of the Square of Twelve.

The following testimonies will identify the saints as the Urim and Thummim of the foursquare of the Body of the Christ. The Spirit by Isaiah addressing the widowed Jerusalem, which shall hereafter be married to the Elohim of the whole earth, saith, "I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of Yahweh; and great shall be the peace of thy children" (liv. 11). In this, the children of Jerusalem the exalted, "the Mother of us all," are compared to precious stones of fair colors, or lights, Urim, without defining the Thummim, or full number of them.

Peter styles the saints "living stones;" and all that are built upon the foundation that Jesus is the Christ, and stand firm by the truth, Paul calls "gold, and silver, and precious stones." And when he teaches, that they are citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, he says in effect, that they are Thummim, or individual elements of the precious stones, whose rootfulness of number is twelve, and its symbolical square 144,000.

In Zech. xiv. 7, the saints who come in with Yahweh Elohim are styled yekaroth, the splendid shining or glorious ones. The word is used of stones, gems, and stars. Their splendor constitutes them Urim. They are the gems and stars through which the brightness of the Spirit enlightens the nations of the earth, when Jesus and his Brethren inherit all things. This reference to the Urim is very remarkable, and in the English Version very imperfectly translated. As it stands in verses 6 and 7, no sense can be made of it. It may be seen by the margin, which deepens the obscurity of the text, that "the authorities" do not know what to do with it. There is no obscurity, however, in the original to one whose mind is not darkened with clerical traditions, and who understands the glory to which the saints are called in the gospel of their salvation. The passage should read thus: "Yahweh my Elohim (He who shall be my Mighty Ones, or righteous governors) shall come in, all the saints with thee. And it shall be in that day there shall be no brightness, the splendid drawing in. And it shall be one day that shall be made known by Yahweh; not day nor night, but it shall be in time of evening there shall be brightness," or Ur. From this we learn, that when the Lamb and 144,000 enter upon their work of judgment at eventide, they will not "shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars" (Dan. xii. 3) they will not be manifested as Urim; but, though capable of so doing, they will draw in their brightness, and appear as men: but, when the judgment is over, and the kingdom established, and the time is come for them to rest from their labors, then they will no longer draw in their splendor, but "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. xiii. 43); not in the "day" of Jerusalem under the law; nor in the "night" of her widowhood, "not day nor night;" but at eventide, which begins the seventh, or great sabbatic day.

In the present state, the believers, who are constitutionally in the Christ-Ephod, and therefore citizens of the Foursquare Polity which decorates it, are Urim, and addressed as such by Paul in Phil. ii. 15, in the words, "in a crooked and perverse generation, ye, the sons of the Deity, shine as lights," or Urim, "in the world:" and in Eph. v. 8, "ye were formerly darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as children of light." Being in the Lord, they are the lights and precious stones of his breastplate -- the Urim and Thummim of his Ephod. They became such by the law and the testimony dwelling in them richly. This gives them their polish, and enables them to "shine as lights." Where the law and the testimony are not in the understanding, there is no light there. In such only darkness reigns; and while this continues, they can be neither Urim nor Thummim, nor in Christ.

It was because of the darkness, or "strong delusion Deity had sent" the apocalyptic twelve Tribes of Israel, "that they should believe a lie; and all be damned who believed not the truth" -- sent by him as a punishment upon them for not continuing in the love of the truth he had given: because of this, he commissioned the sealers to make proclamation among them, that, if there were any disposed to return to first principles, they might be "sealed" with these principles "in their foreheads;" and thus polished and filled in, might shine as the Apocalyptic Urim and Thummim -- as the Lights and Fulness of the Body of Christ.

All exterior to the sealed community, the Holy Square of Twelve, are mere denizens of the unmeasured Court without the Temple (Apoc. xi. 2). These are mere Gentiles, who hold a like relation to the Foursquare Community, that mere Jews do to "the Israel of the Deity," constituted of Israelites under the law who were sons of Abraham by faith. Blindness has happened to these mere Gentiles of the Court, as it has to mere Jews. The mission of the Angel-Sealers in sealing the 144,000, was to preserve the faith from extinction. Had they not been stirred up by the Lamb through an intelligent belief of the truth, to "spue," or throw up a flood of words of evil against the apocalyptic tribes of Israel’s sons, the catholics would have had everything their own way; and there would have been no Holy City for them to tread under foot for forty-two symbolic months; there would have been no Witnesses to prophesy in sackcloth a thousand two hundred and sixty symbolic days; there would have been no woman in the wilderness for a like period; there would have been no Remnant keeping the commandments, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ; there would have been no war between the Beast and the Saints resulting in their being conquered; and there would be none now to watch and keep their garments in expectation of the Lamb. In all the past fifteen hundred years and upwards, Deity would have had no Urim and Thummim to stand as embodied lights before him. The Body of the Christ would have perished the while; and nothing but "a wretched, and pitiable, and poor, and blind, and naked," world of apostate "tribes," calling themselves "the people of God," would have remained. But, the labors of the Angel-Sealers altered all this. By them, the Lamb "spued out of his mouth" those in place and power with all their adherents, "who said they were Jews, but," in so saying, "lied;" and organized anew the Holy Nation of Israel’s sons.

 

 


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