Israel expired in a physical sense be it the law the tabernacle the feasts the sacrifices and so on, but as Peter said after he explained how he saw the Transfiguration of Christ that “you have the prophetic word more sure than what we had when we were with Him on the mount”. Meaning that even if the pictures are no longer visible for the physical eye, the written account is active for those who have eyes to see, in the spirit.

Just as all who were in Israel with Moses were called out of Egypt, Israel being Gods first born son, the people being collectively called out, pictured those who are called out to be “In Christ”. So being “IN Israel” pictured being “IN Christ”. Israel collectively prophesied the body of Christ comprised of many members.

Now when Jesus said to Peter “on this rock I will build my church” From the Greek it says “I will build my ekklesia”. Church is the word the translators use for ekklesia but it means “the called out ones”. Those in Christ are the “called out ones”. They are called out of the world to be in. Every where in scripture you see the word church, it means “the called out ones”, and has the same Hebrew meaning as General assembly or festive gathering.

So if we misunderstand these truths we miss out on these parallels and the old testament has less relevance and meaning.  So being in Israel is to be in Christ. Not in a land but a people collected around spiritual truths and practices. Those in Christ are His body as those in Israel pictured His body. All His members.

The writer of the book of Hebrews 3 uses members of house as an analogy of being in Christ instead of a body. That the house of Moses was expired with the house of Christ ” of whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence of our hope and rejoicing firm to the end”.

Daniel draws from a picture of “a great mountain” instead of a body or a house. Dan 3.45 inasmuch as you saw that stone cut out of a mountain without hands”, being a kingdom that stands forever that will not be destroyed or left to another people. And that prophecy expired when Christ said “on this rock I will build my Church”. Church meaning “called out ones”. That on this rock I will assemble my called out ones.

There are other ways used to define the Lords people like the man whose name is called “the Branch” The “good Shepherd” we being the fold, and many more, but these all expire “IN Christ” The law and the prophets were until Christ. This is what it means in in 2 Corinthians 3 when Paul says of the Jews that “their minds were hardened. For until this day (even our day)  a veil remains unlifted in the reading of the old testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ” . All the pictures are fulfilled in Christ, meaning it is of Him. It is finished.

In Ezekiel 37 he uses an analogy of a valley dry bones and the Lord said “Son of man, can these bones live? Then the Lord said of the bones I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. And that happened. The body that was so dry, dead and lifeless in a spiritual sense so much so that Christ came and condemned it, He put out of business. He took the Kingdom from those stewards and gave it to another and closed the old covenant to establish a new. He took the teachings of the Mosaic and the Davidic and fulfilled, expired and raised them. Christ said “destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in 3 days”  and He did. He took the truths the meanings the structure being the very bones that held the body together and resurrected them into the spirit where they belong. Of the bones, God breathed in new life. Like with the first image of God, Adam who received breath became a living body, so too with the valley of dry bones which just pictured the body of Christ being an assembly of called out ones. At Pentecost they received breath.

From Isaiah 26.19 Your dead shall live; together with My dead body they shall arise”

The whole body of Christ is resurrected. When He rose, the Ekklesia rose with Him. “With my dead body they shall arise”. This is being “In Christ” being members of His body, the body the others pictured. All things are fulfilled In Christ. We are reckoned dead and “thus judge that if one died for all then are are dead”. We are alive in view of the Father. As those who crossed the Red Sea did so after the angel of death passed over them. This is the Passover, from death to life, to new life “in Christ” To be called out of Egypt and death, into life of the Spirit “In Christ”. The New creation is the New spirit, this is new life.

This is breath in the old bones and the flesh and sinews is not of a carnal nature for the carnal does not inherit the Kingdom. We having put off Adamic, now put on Christ. He is our new body and as we see Him as He is so we too become, for “as He is so are we in the world” and He is not of the flesh. “we knew Him once in the flesh but now we know Him that way no more”.

A prophesy and a promise of Christ on the cross was that “not one of His bones would be broken. That all the insults hurled at Him throughout time, all the stones thrown swords and staves, however disfigured and marred His visage becomes, even from lies of cults and the confusion of the unlearned and even the obscurities of various translations, Not one bone was broken. The truth remains. The very structure endures. Lo I am with you through the ages.

Of Him it was said “righteousness and truth are the foundations of your throne. That these are invisible pillars. Invisible structures, bones, truths  if you would. We also see more invisible and transparent stones and terrible crystals in the structure of the Heavenly Jerusalem. The twelve gates are named the twelve tribes of Israel and the foundations are named of the twelve disciples. This city where every brick has a name, unhewn and untouched by human hand  mind you, is not made from granite or marble or gold or matter from the earth of this creation, but is the new creation “measured according to the number of a man who that is of an angel”. That is right. A resurrected saint of His kind and likeness is a brick in the Kingdom of God.  Isn’t this what Daniel saw “this great mountain”? And this is the election. Your name was already written on a brick/stone from the beginning.

The church being the called out ones, called to be saints, to be “in Christ” in the body, being assembled to these eternal truths, a new body from the resurrected dry bones,  being the stone and new life, cut out with out human hands from the book Daniel, is the body of Christ having received the Holy Spirit . Not one bone or truth broken but assembled, come together, resurrected and seated in the heavens . (Eph2.6) We gather not to a physical place on earth for that is not His house, but the truths in Christ. We are gathered and assembled to Him in Spirit and Truth for the Father seeks such to worship Him.

So not only was Christ raised incorruptible having been sown a seed, so too the Jerusalem of earthen dirt had been expired in purpose and raised in the spirit of our mind. For that Jerusalem stood in contrast to the heavenly. It was at set times in a set place to a certain people in a prescribed fashion called the law to the Jews in the Hebrew language but now has come to the gentiles. To all nations, tribes and languages. As Pentecost showed not in the Hebrew tongue but all languages and all peoples in every place where two or more are gathered together. For the time now is when you will no longer worship in Jerusalem but in spirit and truth. Mt 24.1 Jesus said of Jerusalem  “not one stone shall stand upon another”. Unlike the earthen Jerusalem with stone upon stone never to be seen again, remains a city eternally in the heavens made of heavenly stones, which is the place of our calling and our inheritance and our citizenship, the Kingdom finished from the foundation of the world where sits our King.

Psalms 48.^12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.^13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.^14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

If you think the idea of an invisible city is strange, look at this from Revelation 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: (not earthen) and I will write upon him my new name.

13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Blessings