Garments of Light - Part 1/2

Photo Credit: Nerize Raath

I remember how beautiful my wife looked on our wedding day in her white radiant, white wedding dress. It was so white it almost sparkled like something a Cinderella-type story. I was stunned by the sheer beauty of her presence. And this is not just true for me; I think it is true for every single bridegroom. The bride has an unfathomable and brilliant beauty and sometimes even brings tears to the eyes of those that behold her -Tears of wonder. The appearance of the bride is almost timeless and echoes something of Yeshua’s pure bride. My prayer is that we will walk a walk that is pure and blameless that tears of wonder to the eyes of the Messiah.

During Pesach we struck up some conversations regarding the bride and the resurrected bodies. As a believer we have all imagined what our resurrection bodies will be like. In Enoch it talks about the garments of life and it is a synonym for the resurrected bodies or the garments of light that Yeshua was embodied with during the transfiguration.

Enoch 62:13-16

And the just and chosen will be saved on that day, and will henceforth not see the face of the sinners and of the unjust. And the Lord of the spirits will dwell over them, and they will dwell with this Son of man, and will eat and lie down and rise again with him to all eternity. And the just and the chosen will have risen from the earth, and will have ceased to cast down their faces, and will be clothed with the garments of life. And these will be the garments of life before the Lord of the spirits; and your garments will not become old, and your glory will not decrease before the Lord of the spirits.

There is something glorious and wonderful about the garments of life. It reminds me of the clothes that the Israelites wore during the exodus journey that never wore down, except these garments are more glorious and enables us to stand before the King of kings. It will also give us entry into the wedding feast of Messiah, but we will get to that later. What a great expectation we can have as believers in Messiah Yeshua.

In this blog I would like to address 4 questions:

- What did Adam and Eve look like?

- What will we look like at the resurrection?

- What is the connection between wedding garments and the resurrected bodies?

- And most importantly how are we clothed in wedding garments?

Okay, so as usual it is best to start at the beginning. Let’s have a look at how Adam and Eve were created. Consider this is before sin entered into the world through man. This might give us an indication of what the resurrected bodies will look like, since Yah declares the end from the beginning. This leads us to our first question:

- What did Adam and Eve look like?

Now, in our 66 book canon it does not really give us much detail on the physical appearance of Adam and Eve. All we know is that Adam came from the dust and Eve came from Adam’s rib. Some theologians consider this to be an indication of race and that it signified that Adam was a black dude and Eve was a white lady. Could be, but to me that is just awful theology and I don’t think Abba is as obsessed with the level of melanin in our blood (skin?) as we are. Let’s maybe consider another alternative mentioned in the First Book of Adam and Eve;

First Book of Adam and Eve 2:4

And because at that time they were filled with the grace of a bright nature, and they had not hearts turned towards earthly things.

First Book of Adam and Eve 8:1-2

Then Adam and said, “O God, when we dwelt in the garden, and our hearts were lifted up, we saw the angels that sang praises in heaven, but now we do not see as we were used to do; nay, when we entered the cave, all creation became hidden from us” Then God the Lord said unto Adam, “When thou wast under subjection to Me, thou hadst a bright nature within thee, and for that reason couldst thou see things afar off. But after thy transgression thy bright nature was withdrawn from thee; and it was not left to thee to see things afar off, but only near at hand; after the ability of the flesh; for it is brutish.”

First Book of Adam and Eve 11:7

He then said to her, “Remember the bright nature in which we lived, while we abode in the garden!”

This is only 3 quotes but there is plenty more where that came from in the First Book of Adam and Eve. To me this was quite an eye-opener. We see a couple of this that happened when they lost their bright nature they lost their ability to;

o See into the spirit realm

o See and hear the angels and how they praised Yah

o To see all of creation (many things have become hidden to us)

o Focus on the heavenly matters but instead were now inclined to earthly/worldly matters.

What most of us have never considered is when Yah says let us make man/mankind in our image/likeness, what if he actual did make us in His image? And what is the image of Yah?

1 John 1:5

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

And John also says:

John 4:24

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

An easy way to understand spirit is to see it as the breath in our lungs – the Life Force. So John, the Revelator, had some kind of revelation of who Yah is. If Yah is Light and Yah is Breath, would it not make sense for Him to make us Light and Breath?

Yeah, yeah I know people might object; 'but how can God remove a rib if they are made of light? And that is a fair question. If we consider some other scripture we will conclude that our heavenly bodies are not substance-free. Consider when Yeshua was transfigured and resurrected. The disciples could tell He was still present. He did not vanish into thin air;

Matthew 17:2

And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

And also after He was resurrected he was still visible and tangible if we consider the account of Thomas;

John 20:27-29

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

It is as if we still have substance to these light/resurrected bodies. But could we really be certain that this is the template for others at the resurrection of the dead or was it only for Yeshua?

1 Corinthians 15:20-22

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him

This makes it quite clear that the blueprint of Yeshua’s resurrection is the blueprint for our resurrection. If we are all part of the harvest He would be the first of the harvest and we the latter part of the harvest, but we are all part of the harvest and follow the example of the Messiah.

Psalm 97:11

Light is sown like seed for the righteous And gladness for the upright in heart.

Now for some reason the total bright nature that Yeshua had at the transfiguration was not made manifest during the discourse He had with His disciples or the other people. Post-resurrection He had something different about Him but still appeared in a fleshly substance. It could be that Yah discloses our bright nature whenever He pleases (think of the transfigurations of Moses and Yeshua). Otherwise potential followers/disciples would not have been able to interact with Him as liberally. This leads us into our next question;

- What will our bodies look like at the resurrection?

Artwork: Carmen Tehillah Art

Moses gives us the earthly template for many spiritual things and if we miss Moses chances are we will miss the heart of Messiah. Messiah raised this rhetorical question; if we are unable to grasp earthly matters (Moses), how will we be able to grasp heavenly matters (Messiah)? To gain a better understanding of the garments of light a good place to start would be to look at the veil of Moses.

Exodus 34:33-35

And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Like with the temple we have 2 veils:

1. The veil of our flesh

2. The veil of our understanding.

Both these veils will eventually be removed for us to grasp the heavenly matters in all its fullness. The veil of our flesh will need to change for us to enter into the resurrected live and Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:52-54

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Just remember the phase; ‘death is swallowed up in victory’, we will get to it in a sec. The second veil is the veil of our understanding which Paul also addresses in 2 Corinthians 3.

2 Corinthians 3:13-16

And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

The culmination of the removal of the veil of our flesh and the veil of our understanding will take place during feast described in Isaiah 25:

Isaiah 25:7-9

And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation (Yeshua).

And now for the kicker. This is a gem of a verse I found that could be a massive key to what heavenly/resurrected bodies will be like and look like. And I know Paul also mentions that the heavenly bodies differ in the glory and the light they reflect. The below verse also ties in with Jesus/Yeshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3; where Abba commands the servants to change His garments. Let's take a look.

Book of the secrets of Enoch 22:8-9

And the Lord said to Michael: 'Go and take Enoch from out his earthly garments, and anoint him with my sweet ointment, and put him into the garments of My glory' And Michael did thus, as the Lord told him. He anointed me, and dressed me, and the appearance of that ointment is more than the great light, and his ointment is like sweet dew, and its smell mild, shining like the sun's ray, and I looked at myself, and was like one of his glorious ones.

In this we can conclude that our heavenly/resurrected bodies will;

· Have a bright nature; similar to the appearance of angels

· Enable us to use all our sense in the spirit; we will be able to hear the angels sing praises to the most high and see the glorious eternal kingdom, smell the fruits in paradise and so forth.

· Be incorruptible; it will not subject to death or decay

· Be everlasting

Next week, Yah willing, we will have a look at the Garments of Light and how they link to the wedding feast of Messiah and how we as believers become clothed in the wedding garments.

Shalom fam.

Edgar<>Judah.