Mike Bull from Australia sends along some comments on my earlier posts about “blood and soil.” The rest of this post is from Mike:

“Jesus doesn’t just overcome and send the powers packing. But also, he doesn’t just pacify and reconcile them. He tears them in two, like two goats. Anything made new is something old torn in two as it passed through the veil.

Using soil as an example, not just territory/nationalism, I would use the Land/Holy Place to illustrate.

Animals were divided to make Canaan new. Canaan was divided both symbolically (two mountains) and legally (by the sword) to make a new Creation.

Israel was torn in two, as we know, and the old Land of Solomon died to make a new, bigger empire-Land. Eventually even this ‘Land’ was torn in two (by Jesus’ feet). The empire-guardian-Land died to make a bigger world-Land. The feast and the water are the elements that divide and reunite. The old worship dies on the altar of the new.

Here’s the point. The new Holy Place is heavenly. The new race is heavenly. The new government is heavenly. That is the only place where the new blood and soil are perfectly reconciled and pacified, and we enter into that weekly. We examine ourselves and are torn in two (self-judgment) as we enter and are resurrected at the feast. As the pattern is measured out, the world is torn in two. It becomes new soil.

Race and territory divisions can be overcome in two ways. By the iron and clay intermarriage of Nimrod/Herod (fascism), or the miraculous ‘Jew/Gentile’ (church/state) intermarriage of the Spirit that flows from the Most Holy (worship). The difference being that the Spirit brings death (self-judgment) before unity. Once the link with the Most Holy is broken, true marriage is impossible. Adam/Land must be covered in blood before the heavenly city can be built on earth.

Perhaps there is also the idea that false worship is hard clay, instead of soft clay that can be transformed into the soft, more precious metals of worship. These can be mixed with iron. The true Nazirites have breastplates of Tabernacle metal. If the water and the feast come first (in truth), the blood and soil will be reconciled anyway, changed from the inside out.