Wednesday, May 26, 2021

TENTING

  What is on a person’s mind is the direction they pitch their tent. My friend and I camp together. Each, before he pitches the tent, decides toward which direction the flap shall open.

  In the home, the expression is used, Which side of the bed did you get up on? That really does not matter, but it is a question of attitude, Where does your heart lie — why are you the way you are?

  The tents of the nomadic Hebrews were their homes. It was of great importance the direction their tents were pitched. When they awoke in the morning what they would see would be important to them. Abram, in contention with his nephew, Lot said, “Let there be no strife” (Gen 13:8). Abram cared more about accord than he did which way he would face, and which land he would get. They both settled on the Promise Land, but the difference is what they would see.

  Abram would look toward the high hills for peace, ostensibly toward Calvary. Lot would look toward the plain in the direction of Sodom. Mankind was always preserved on Holy Mountains and perished on the plains. Righteous Seth came down the Holy Mountain to wicked Cain’s abode on the plain. There, they became of one accord, but it was in accord with sin. Abram and Lot faced the same choice! Alas, the seeds of righteous Seth “pitched their tents” toward the plain where sin was rampant! [i]

  That was not the first time for that to happen! To wit:

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:9)

  Imagine this: There were two trees in the center of the Garden of Eden. Imagine them as tents. Indeed, the protection of trees are called “canopies.” The trees of the Garden of Eden were as tents. There were two “tents” in the middle of the Garden, and therearound many “pleasant trees.” All those trees were “as men walking” [ii] as blind Bartimaeus would see men.

  That blind man saw Jesus approaching him, and perhaps he saw Jesus as a Tree walking. He may have thought of Jesus as the Tree of Life, because immediately thereafter Jesus gave him vision!

  All the trees were as tents pitched. They all faced the middle of the Garden toward two choices: (1) The Tree of Life, or (2) The Tree of Death. In the New Testament, that would be the “Jesus Tree” and the “Judas Tree,” respectively.

  In the middle of Israel, there would remain two choices. Almost every “tent” was open away from Jesus. Sure, they looked on, but their hearts were with the other “tree” down the plain. In other words, there eyes were on Jesus, but they were in alliance (in accord) with Judas.

  The trees of the Garden represented three different natures of man: (1) The Tree of Life the Son of Man, “Jesus,” (2) the Wisdom Tree, the man, not of Galilee, but Kerioth, [1] and (3) the multitude of men that would be replicated as ‘adami. They represented the souls that would forthwith have life breathed unto them. Now look at the trees as “canopies,” or “tents.”

  Picture that Garden: It is a picture of tabernacle worship during the Exodus from Egypt. For you who cannot image well, here is the picture of tabernacle worship (figure #1):

 


 Figure #1: Tabernacle Worship

  In the middle of the tents stands one large Tent. That would be where God as a Cloud by day and a Fire by Night would rest. All the tents would face the Holy Tabernacle and see God as a Cloud or Fire. Now, reimagine that as trees around the Tree of Life back in the Garden. God would need no building, just as He said, because He was satisfied with trees, tabernacles, and tents. [iii] God would never need a house. The house would be for people, but simple things for God.

  Thus, the arrangement in Paradise was for tent worship, and the “tents” would be pitched by God toward him. An effort would be required to see the Tree of Knowledge. Adam and Eve would turn away from the Tree of Life under their “tent” and walk the way to the Wisdom Tree. Later, scripture provides great insight, to wit: “So He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the Way of the Tree of Life” (Gen 3:24).

  Now for Sodom and Gomorrah: “And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground” (Gen 19:1).

  Two Cherubim came to Sodom. They were there to test Lot.  Their purpose was to keep the Way to the Tree of Life. The test was to whom would Lot’s kind turn; to God who would save them from perishing or to pleasure of the flesh? Those two angels were providing a Way to the Tree of Life where Abram looked, and away from perishing where Lot’s eyes were fixed each morning. Lot had looked out at the two choices offered by God and chose unwisely:

10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. (Gen 13:10-12)

  That choice was “Adam” and “Eve” all over again. It turned out that “Adam” (Lot) went with God, and “Eve” (Lot’s wife) stayed behind and returned to the dust of the ground as a pillar of salt. [iv] She looked back toward Sodom just as Lot had before that “pitched his tent toward Sodom.” Abram saw the Way to the Tree of Life and Lot looked at Sodom and Gomorrah “as the Garden of the Lord.” It turned out that Sodom and Gomorrah were types of Hell, and Israel the true “Paradise.’

  Lot pitched his tent toward sin and Abram toward redemption from sin and kept the Way to the Tree of Life. And thanks to the visit from Cherubim, God provided a way from sins of the flesh.

  Think on that! Lot’s kin wanted sex with angels. Is that not what happened before the flood where the Sons of God married (coupled) with the daughters of men? [v] As Solomon proclaimed, “There is nothing new under the sun!”

  Lot’s line like Cain and Canaan before him, chose to place his tent toward the Wicked One. Thanks goes to angels who again guarded the Way to the Tree of Life which Way Abram chose!

  By pitching his tent toward Sodom, Lot saw pleasure as the way to contentment. He saw sin as Paradise. On the other hand, Abram looked toward Canaan and saw Victory over sin. He saw God beaconing him to come to the “middle of the Garden” where the Tree of Life would be rejected by much of Abraham’s kind two-thousand years later. Lot saw the past, and pitched his tent toward the Wicked One, but Abraham, just as Moses much later, would turn away from Pharaoh and pitch his tent toward God! Now, all of us must decide which way to pitch our tents.

  Shem, through Abram and Moses, would pitch his tent toward Calvary. Shem would even bring the body of Adam through the flood to pitch Adam’s tent on Calvary (so says The Cave of Treasures). Moses tent in the Cave of Machpelah. I would bet that the entrance to that Cave wherever it truly is, is faced toward the Tree of Life! God directed that: “God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant” (Gen 9:27).

  Now, the question arises, Which Way shall your ‘tent’ be pitched? I have pitched my tent away from Sodom and toward Calvary. I have done as Abram did after he sinned.

  The direction we chose when we wake up is the direction that we shall go! Like Lot, at one time I pitched my tent toward the “City of Flesh,” but THE Angel of God intervened. Jesus stepped in and made me choose which way that I should go. Each morning I get up on the right side of my bed and am faced with two choices: (1) Shall I read the Word, or (2) shall I turn the television on or do my thing? For thirteen years now, I have pitched my “tent” toward God on Calvary. I saw there that He died so that I need not perish in “Sodom” so to speak — the city of the flesh.

  It is so much easier to avoid sins of the flesh when each day “tents” are pitched facing God. We rightly accuse homosexuals of sins of the flesh, but face the truth — all men and women, just as Lot’s wife, look toward Sodom with memories of pleasure. Reading scripture daily, and facing God each morning, is how guardian angels guard us from the Wicked One! Paul wrote, “The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephes 6:17). The Word is the “flaming Sword” still wielded by Cherubim!

  In the end, there shall again be two choices? Shall we proceed the way of the Antichrist or the Way of Christ. That day, when it comes, for all the living, will be which way our “tents” are pitched. What happened in Sodom did not remain in Sodom! If anyone chooses sin, he or she shall perish.

  Lot was following the way of Abram who was directed by God. His prize would have been a Rock in Jerusalem where the Tree of Life could be found.

  Lot went another way. He went toward immediate prosperity and his choice as a place, “even as the Garden of the Lord.” Sodom and Gomorrah were not Paradise, but they were a Utopian view of Paradise. Lot saw cities that were, “imaginary and indefinitely remote” from where Abram was going. Sodom and Gomorrah were real cities, but they were remote from God and Paradise. Lot imagined them as Paradise, and Utopias are “imaginary and indefinitely remote places” of “ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

  Facing his tent toward Sodom was when Lot was reset. Theretofore, he had went the Way of God but because of false perceptions the Wicked One reset the direction that he would take.

  And there you have it: “The Great Reset” of Lot’s time.

  Right now, the world is again facing a “Great Reset” (Klaus Schwab) and it is being implemented by “Lot” and his “wife,” Kamala. It too will fail because God will burn down the New reimagined Sodom just as he did with the imagined one in Lot’s mind!

  Sodom and Gomorrah perished and there was a thousand-year reign of prosperity. Soon the world again became as Sodom.

  Then, Jesus came and corrected the new harlot – Jerusalem. After another thousand years of Jesus, there has been a thousand years of decay. Now is the end of the “sixth day,” each day of a thousand years, and the Great Reset will be foiled again! I can hear the trumps sounding. I can see the Face of God. I see the rainbow, and I see Calvary. I see what Abram saw, and turned my tent away from the world!



[1] Kerioth means “cities” (Wikipedia). Whereas Galilee is in what was formerly Israel, Kerioth were cities along the Dead Sea. Judas was on the plain in the direction that Lot’s tent faced. Lot was looking toward the land of Judas. Abram, on the other hand, was looking toward Galilee and the Galilean. Lot was facing a “Kerioth” coupling in Sodom, and Abram a Galilean wedding in the mountains! That wedding would be as the wedding between the “Bridegroom,” Jesus, and the “Bride,” the Church.



[i] 1 Enoch

[ii] Mark 8:24

[iii] 2 Sam 2:4-7

[iv] Gen 19:26

[v] Gen 6:4

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