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The story of David is perhaps the most encouraging in the Old Testament, and its value to the neophyte lies precisely in those elements which at first seem to be flaws. David's serious sins seem to mar the beauty of the Temple; we wonder why so faulty a man was chosen to found the line from which the blessed and holy Messiah was eventually to come. Such questions arise quite naturally. The life of David reveals the truth that one can rise above wrong doing, through sincere repentance and unremitting efforts to make restitution. This is most beautifully illustrated in David's whole-hearted repentance for his sins, and his earnest efforts to serve his people, all of which resulted in the clearing of his spiritual vision so that he became aware of the glorious destiny awaiting his son Solomon as a Master Temple Builder.
David's beautiful spirit of humility is evidenced in the fact that although he had been permitted to see in the Akashic scrolls a picture of the great Temple that was to be, he was gratified to have even so small a part in its preparation as the building of a single altar.
The choice of a site for the Temple was a divinely inspired one. Previous reference has been made to the Jerusalem site, one of several particular areas of the Earth's surface which had been impregnated for centuries with the radiations of spiritual power by divine Hierarchs. Such was the threshing floor of Oman, or Araunah the Jebusite. The name Oman means joyful, and Aranuah, ark — a protected area. it is written that when David arrived on the scene, Oman was threshing wheat. By this the writer conveys a meaning far other than that which first meets the eye. The threshing of the wheat means that holy work preparatory to Temple construction was already in progress.
Here David made a sin offering and a peace offering upon the altar; he paid six hundred talents of gold for the Temple site. Six is the number ascribed to Solomon more particularly than any character in the Old Testament. It symbolizes the Wisdom of the Sun. It is the number of the Seal of Solomon, the six-pointed Star, and the sixth sign of the Zodiac, Virgo, the immaculate celestial Virgin.
At the time when David became King, uniting Israel and Judah into one Kingdom, there were six great shrine cities, Jerusalem being the central link in the chain. These six were Beersheba, Hebron and Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem; and Bethel, Shiloh and Shechem, north of Jerusalem. David's institution of a national altar at Jerusalem by no means abrogated these ancient Israelitish shrines, nor the multitude of lesser shrines at which sacrifices were offered throughout the length and breadth of the land. We shall find that even Solomon sacrificed on the high place of Gibeon and that Elijah repaired to an altar on Mt. Carmel. Mispeh and Bethel are mentioned in judges, and at Shiloh Samuel was dedicated to Jehovah, and Samuel ministered at Ramah. Thus it is far from correct to think of Jerusalem as the only altar in the Holy Land at this time. It was the central altar, uniting north and south, and Jerusalem was the capital city of the united nation, but innumerable altars were in use throughout the land, pagan as well as Israelitish. We may be sure that every one of the forty-eight Levitical cities were built around a shrine of one kind or another, and certainly the six cities of 'refuge contained shrines. Both Saul and David sacrificed at many shrines. Prophets such as Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah never once spoke against the many local shrines. It was not until the time of King Josiah that the subsidiary shrines were relegated to obscurity, and their presiding priests became the Levitical servants of the Temple as known to history, subordinate to the Jerusalem priesthood, but still held in honor.
We know that Jerusalem was the scene of Abraham's meeting With Melchizedek, and that it was also the site of a Temple of Astarte. The threshing floor of Oman the Jebusite was likewise the site of an altar, entirely in keeping with the worship of the goddess of harvests typified in Virgo, who holds a sheaf of wheat in one hand and a branch in the other.
The appearance of the Angel of the Lord at the threshing floor of Ornan signified the ending of a plague which had struck the nation. The plague progressed no further, being completely stopped at the point where the Angel with his sword had appeared.
It is significant to note that David was guided in his quest for the Temple site by Gad, a prophet whose name is that of the tribe ruled by Aries, the sign of the ram or lamb whose keywords are purity, sacrifice and transmutation. These are likewise the keywords of the apron made of lamb's skin and treasured as one of the chief gifts of the Masonic Craft, as also of the ephod.
The sword of the Angel held protectingly above Jerusalem's destined altar signifies a higher phase of truth than David was capable of assimilating. Solomon was able to pass the portals of the higher Mysteries and so could build the holy Temple; David, of lesser development, built only the Altar of Dedication upon the threshing floor where the harvests of wheat were prepared for use, wheat being a symbol of the seed of spirit growing in the fields of mortal thought.
In the glory light of his vision of "things yet to be" and in the fulfillment of his supreme dedication, David sings his Swan Song, his final dedication to the wholly spiritual life.
In these, the last words of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, we find the perfect consummation of his life. His expression is similar in its import to the summing up of his life which St. Paul gives when he says, "I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith. I have finished the course".
In each sentence of his final admonition David has set a standard of spiritual living for man to adhere to. He has stated an occult law and described its effect when demonstrated. "The spirit of the Lord spake to me and His word was in my tongue." One who lifts himself unto this divine communion knows the meaning of the words of Christ Jesus, "My words are spirit and they are life." The power of the conserved life force working through the larynx, the center of one of the Roses on the Cross, alone makes it possible for the Word to be in one's tongue, as David sang.
"He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." No one should be given the right to control the actions of others until he has mastered himself. "Greater is he that ruleth himself than he that taketh a city." This was the true meaning of a King-Initiate in the days of early humanity. Such a one could only rule through the power of Cod.
"He shall be as the light of the morning," meaning that the neophyte shall "walk in the Light as He is in the Light," for he shall "meet Him face to face and know Him as He is." In all the glory of his Golden Wedding Garment shall the neophyte be arrayed, and this Garment the poet David so beautifully likens to "clear shining after rain."
With every man upon the earth, "God hath made an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things." It only remains for man to find and understand this covenant and to live according to its laws. "Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you." As one of our greatest modern poets has said, "God is love, yet God is Law."
We only find the Way of Liberation when we make this supreme dedication of life to the things of the Spirit which was David's when he said, "This is all my salvation and all my desire." But we shall never find this eternal Way through a half-hearted dedication. Our personal life must be offered in its entirety. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The "sons of Belial" means wickedness, the propensities of the lower or mortal man. They must be overcome and their powers transmuted into the golden weaving of that immortal body of the soul, the Golden Wedding Garment.
"But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear." This can only be effected after a long and arduous labor. There is no such thing as a short-cut to Initiation. The staff is Aaron's Rod that budded and which is kept in the Ark as the supreme ideal of attainment for every man to make manifest within himself.
"They shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place." The fire is the symbol of God. This all-consuming Fire is the mighty power of Love that encompasses all things and which dispels all the darkness of ignorance and error.
— Corinne Heline
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