Great Stones Hidden in the Brickkiln at Tahpanes

Matthew 24:2 - King James Version (KJV)

<2> And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

Jesus declared these words in context of the temple at Jerusalem, but they have a much broader significance; for the stones of a temple yet standing fit each other quite neatly, each in its place. One has arranged various correspondences over the last while so as to provide context for stones fitting each other neatly and a temple yet standing. Thus, references to brickkilns and bitumen which might otherwise have passed in a blur can be seen to hang together precisely; for God's intention involved these stones, these truths about love, being beautifully interrelated as the stones of a dome when understood and taught properly.

Jesus declared these words on the Mount of Olives, basically on Mount Love; which underlines the meaning of what He says. For the holy truths about love set up by God like memorial stones at the boundary of His field are thrown down by human intelligence divorced from divine enlightenment; and thus, and only thus, do wicked results like profanation of the holy and religious domination from the love of self and the world arise.

Isaiah 9:10 - King James Version (KJV)

<10> The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.

Some of our religious falsehoods have been demonstrated as such beyond any shadow of a doubt. Let us then make still more of them, because how can we support the evils that we commit without darkness, hewn stone, brick?

John 3:20 - King James Version (KJV)

<20> For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

There is a continual effort on the part of individuals and groups to justify themselves, to retreat from the light, to erect bulwarks of shadow and towers of brick. Do not the weeds return in the wake of our trimming them? The evil of the flesh never ceases to search for justifications to clothe it; as fig leaves were said to clothe Adam and Eve once they had fallen from innocence.

The stones that stand upon one another exist in order to teach holy truths about love; and in order that those whose lives are the opposites of true and loving may be reproved. That would be us. But the more people who yearn not to be reproved, yearn to use holy truths about love for purposes other than showing people how to understand and practice love, the more they bury the Word beneath a garbage pile of human fabrications. That is the context of one of my favorite images, Jeremiah's being commanded to bury "great stones": 

Jeremiah 43:8-11 - King James Version (KJV)

<8> Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, <9> Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; <10> And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. <11> And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.

Naturally Jeremiah has been commanded to do something which represents evil, not to do evil himself, a pattern we frequently see even to the command that Hosea 'marry a harlot'. The image here involves the dreadful profanation over time which results from burying the truths of God beneath layers of human garbage. The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to portray Jerusalem upon a brick similarly to indicate the succumbing of God's people to their own fabrications; such that the truths of God were hid. 

Ezekiel 4:1 - King James Version (KJV)

<1> Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

Note: The "tile" here generally gets translated as brick; and sometimes you will see clay also. The term has been so placed as to indicate the same thing as the bricks of clay cemented by bitumen/pitch: eg spiritual falsehoods cemented by evil lusts.

Now, one says this with some frequency but here says it again... What on Earth can you possibly use the story about Jeremiah burying stones in the brick kiln for if you do not know these things??

An enormous swathe of the Bible remains a mere enigmatic blur if you do not know these things; and what you do not know you cannot see clearly so as surely to practice. Of what use is a useless religious scripture? It is like great stones buried in a brickkiln, or it is like a the Word buried in a swamp. We will see this image of the Word buried in a swamp in our appendix.

The take home point here is that these stones stand clearly upon one another and, seen in their proper light, reinforce one another like the stones of a massive and beautiful dome. But if you refuse to accept divine truths, and their relation to one another, then your dome will burst all over the place, your wall will not stand; and if you make yourself another of brick, that too will not stand. It may make a fanfare for a while among easily hoodwinked people, but it will not stand; and those sorcerers who create falsifications of the Word so as to control other people and enrich themselves will not stand either.

It is my hope that you will see these interconnections clearly; and just as clearly understand their relation to real life. Because that is what it is all for, to guide you in real life; not to slide off of your head without giving that head any guidance in a dark and dangerous place. 

Appendix: ""Do you wish to see our shrine, in which there is an image representative of our faith?" I drew near, and saw; and behold, it was magnificent, and in the midst of it an image of a woman, clothed in a scarlet garment, and holding a golden coin in the right hand; and in the left a chain of pearls. But both the shrine and the image were induced by fantasies; for infernal spirits can by fantasies represent magnificent things, by closing up the interiors of the mind, and opening only its exteriors. But when I noticed that they were such sorceries, I prayed to the Lord, and suddenly the interiors of my mind were opened; and I then saw in place of the magnificent shrine a house full of chinks, from the roof to the bottom, in which nothing cohered; and instead of a woman I saw hanging in that house an image, the head of which was like a dragon's, the body like a leopard's, and the feet like a bear's, thus like the description of the beast out of the sea (Rev. 13); and instead of the ground was a swamp, in which was a multitude of frogs; and it was said to me that under that swamp was a great hewn stone, beneath which lay the Word well concealed" (Apocalypse Revealed 926). 

Note: It is said in Zechariah that the woman wickedness would be carried away by the two winged women to the land of Shinar in order to be put on her own base; now, the material out of which the base was to be constructed has not been mentioned. But I think you know out of what material it was constructed: brick, hewn stone, human falsehood. And if an artist were portraying this scene, understanding divine truth and correspondences would enable them to embellish the scene with just the right material, as here. One mentions this because the possibilities of evangelical art and thought are positively inexhaustible for one aware of correspondences and the glory or inner sense of the cloud or outer sense of the Word; and one would fain give some indication of how this would work out in practice.