Covering

For me, this week's Sabbath reading portion deals with an issue that may still challenge each of us, which is "spiritual covering". Our spiritual covering is an even more powerful protective force than a natural covering such as the roof of a house. Imagine what damage can be done to the inside of a house if its roof is removed. Jesus described the Kingdom of God as a great tree that grew from a small seed, and the covering of that tree serves as a shelter and haven for the smallest and most defenseless of God's creatures (Mt. 13:31-32). If He covers the birds, how much more will He cover us? As God, in His grace, establishes His covering of salvation, peace, favor, protection, and provision over each of us, why would anyone attempt to remove it? Yet we do, as we will see, and we have done so since the divinely created (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) Adam (Gen. 2:8) threw off the glorious covering of the royal dominion given to him by God in the Garden of Eden (meaning "delight, pleasure, dainty, finery, sumptuous, softly, to luxuriate"). This Sabbath, we are still in the fourth book of the Bible, which we call "Numbers", but is properly known in Hebrew as B'Midbar, meaning "In the wilderness" as mentioned in Numbers 1:1. Up to this point in our studies in Numbers, God has described His people as armies being set in order for war (see Num. 1:2-3). In the midst of this great army encampment, sat the Tabernacle of God. Encircling the Tabernacle, the Levites were encamped. They had been set apart in specific divisions within their tribe, depending upon their work of service in the Tabernacle before God. Outwardly from the Tabernacle and Levites in the center, the tribal divisions of the armies of God encamped to the north, south, east, and west in the form of a cross. This week's reading, which includes Num. 16-17, is titled Korach, which means "Bald, or to make oneself bald"! There is also a meaning associated with Korach having to do with ice and hail. From this we can get a picture of ice and hail, both being destructive forces, beating upon a surface until the covering, or hair, has been worn away. Korach also happened to be a man's name, Korah, who was one of the Levites (Num. 16:1). Korah and a handful of others led a rebellion against the leaders whom God had appointed to cover His people, Moses and Aaron. These same rebels convinced 250 of the most renowned elders of Israel to join them. It is a strategy of the spirit of rebellion to try to cover its intentions behind a facade of honor and respectability in men's eyes. Shakespeare wrote about this kind of strategy in his play based upon historical fact, "Julius Caesar". In this play, the group of assassins recruited Rome's most highly honored and respected citizen, Brutus, to join their plot by cloaking it in terms that would appeal to such an honorable man. Jesus prophesied our own vulnerability to liars and imposters in the time before His return (Mt. 24:23-25). More than ever, we will need the protection of the spiritual covering in our lives that God has provided, won't we?. In the situation involving the rebels in the Israelite camp in the wilderness, there was a bitterness, envy and resentment behind their voices as the rebels said to Moses and Aaron: "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" (Num. 16"1-3). Bitterness, resentment, and envy sound like hot emotions, but they are really very cold, like the "ice and hail" that can "make bald" and destroy a covering. Moses' reaction was to fall on his face before the LORD (v. 4). The rebels against Moses and Aaron then stirred the whole congregation of Israel against them, and the glory of the LORD appeared and told Moses that He was about to consume in a moment all of the people. Moses immediately began to re-establish a covering over the people before the LORD (Num. 16:19-24). The LORD then only dealt with the rebels and the 250 renowned elders who initiated the rebellion in a terrifying manner. The earth opened under Korah and his conspirators, and they went down alive into the pit, and the 250 elders were consumed by fire that came out from the LORD (v. 31-35). The people around them were horrified by the sight. Strong action had been necessary for God to re-affirm His appointed leaders, and to re-establish His covering over the Israelites. Amazingly, this may not have been the end of Korah's story. There is a deep mystery here involving God's covering. We can view this important mystery that will have wider implications in Psalm 88. It is a Psalm of the sons of Korah, as it is revealed in the introduction to the Psalm. The sons of Korah were Levites who sang in anointed worship in the Temple. However, Korah and his whole household went alive down into the pit (see Num. 16:23-27, 31-33). So how are there sons of Korah to sing to the LORD generations later? There are various guesses as to how this could have happened, but none of those guesses consider a miracle of the LORD. The Psalm is a desperate cry from someone alive in the lowest pit (v. 6-7). Part of that cry to the LORD is: "Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? (Selah). Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?" (v. 10-11). Did you know that God can hear your cries and cover you even in your lowest pit? David knew that (Ps. 139:5-12). David called this knowledge of God's covering "too wonderful" for him. Jonah knew it, as he cried out from the Sheol pit (place of the dead) in the belly of the fish (Jonah 2:1-6). It is even based upon this mystery of Jonah that Christ declared the sign of His own resurrection from death (Mt. 12:38-41). A man named Heman wrote Psalm 88. The name Heman/aman means "faithful/believe, assurance, bring up, nurse, to be carried by a nurse, support, foster mother/father". Heman, grandson of Samuel, who was also a miracle son of Korah, stood in and wrote for this person who was in the hopelessness of the pit. I will leave this mystery of the covering of God in Psalm 88 here. Back to the Israelites in the wilderness. The spiritual forces of ice and hail that make one bald, and had tried to destroy the covering of God over His people for their survival, were not done yet. The very next day, after the earth had swallowed up the rebels, all the congregation of Israel accused Moses and Aaron saying: "You have killed the people of God." (Num. 16:41). It seems that lies always rise up in an instant, but are slow to die. Again, because the people were rejecting His appointed covering for the people, God told Moses that He would consume this congregation in a moment, and a deadly plague broke out among the people (v. 44-45). Again, Moses fell on his face, not for his own sake, but to cover a people who kept trying to throw off their divine covering. Following Moses' instructions, Aaron then took his priestly censor, and ran into the midst of the people making atonement for them: "And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped." Over fourteen thousand people had been killed by the plague (v. 46-50). God did not stop here, however. In order to further make clear the importance of the prophetic and priestly covering that God, not man, had appointed in order to preserve His people, God caused Moses to collect all of the rods that represented the leaders of the twelve tribes, or armies, of Israel, including Aaron's rod representing the tribe of Levi, the priests. The rods represented the names of the fathers and identities of each tribe, and the authority of the leader of each tribe. The rods were collected and placed within the Tabernacle before the Ark of Testimony. The next day, as the rods were collected, Aaron's (aleph-tav[Alpha and Omega]) rod had not only budded in flowers (sis/sus - blossom, flower, shining gold plate on high priest's turban, a wing gleaming in the air/blossom, shine, sparkle, gleam, show forth), but had also produced ripe almonds (saqed/saqad - almond tree, earliest bloom, first to awake from winter/watch, wake, remain, hasten) (Num. 17:1-9, see also Mt. 24:42-44, Mt. 25:13, Lk. 21:29-36, 2 Peter 3:10-12, 1 Thess. 5:1-6). This miraculous event fulfilled the prophecy that the LORD made in v. 5. We can see in the Hebrew meanings that the appointment of Aaron, and God's re-affirming of Aaron as Israel's priestly covering, also pertains to the Messiah's or Christ's covering over God's people. The LORD said that the budded and fruited (aleph-tav) rod of Aaron the high priest was to be kept in the Tabernacle, before the Ark of the Testimony" as an (aleph-vaw-tav = "God nailed to the Cross") sign (ot - sign, mark, evidence, miracle) against the rebels (meri/mara - bitter, bitterness/to stroke or lash with a whip, to resist, oppose), that you may put their complaints away from Me." (v. 10). We see again in the meaning of the Hebrew word for "rebels" the cold ice and hail of bitterness. In another portion from Korach/Bald, this week's Sabbath reading in 1 Samuel 11, an enemy, Nahash (meaning "serpent, dragon, snake, serpent idol, divination, enchanter, whisper"), king of the the Ammonites ("tribe, kindred, people together, to grow dark, held dark, overshadow, eclipse"), laid siege to Jabesh (yabes - dry, dried up, utterly withered, ashamed, confounded, wither away) in Gilead (meaning "hard, stony region") in Israel. From the Hebrew meanings here, this is about the worst enemy, the serpent, the dragon himself, Satan, that anyone can have. This enemy, named here as Nahash, brought spiritual darkness upon the land, and in that vein, he threatened to put out the right eyes of all the men of Jabesh so that all Israel would suffer reproach (1 Sam. 11:2). The forced removal of an eye was considered cruel and degrading punishment when a people were conquered. The town that this enemy came against, Jabesh, had become a (spiritual) withering, dry place that had drawn this powerful enemy's attack. How had this city fallen into this withered condition which caused them to become vulnerable to this enemy? The people of Israel, had just rejected God's appointed prophet/priest Samuel, who judged them righteously (see 1 Sam. 7:2-6), as a covering over them. They instead demanded a king like the other nations around them (see 1 Sam. 8:4-7, 21-22). God chose Saul to be anointed king over Israel (1 Sam. 9:15-16, 1 Sam. 10:1), even as He warned the people that they would regret rejecting Him as their covering and King, in exchange for a man like themselves to rule them. However, even as the LORD commanded that Saul be made king: "...some rebels said, 'How can this man save us?' So they despised him (Saul), and brought him no presents. But he (Saul) held his peace." (1 Sam. 10:27). The "rebels" spoken of in this verse are also called "the sons/children of Belial" meaning "worthless, wicked, vile, ruin, destruction, destroyer, ungodly". Again there were those who rejected first God, and then Samuel as the covering that the LORD had appointed over His people, and then they rejected the king who had been ordained by God to cover His people. A king like Nahash, who is named to represent Satan himself, would understand the significance of God's people rejecting their supernatural covering. Satan was described in scripture as "the anointed cherub who covers...perfect...", who had been established on the holy mountain of God. This covering angel became filled with violence and pride, and had to be cast out from the mountain of God (Ezek. 28:13-17). King Saul would eventually prove out the warning that God gave the people about the oppression of having a king, but he also, being moved by the Spirit of God, mustered an army of 330,000 from all of Israel on this occasion, crossed to Jabesh on the eastern side of the Jordan River, and defeated the serpent king, Nahash of the Ammonites, rescuing the people of Jabesh Gilead (1 Sam. 11:8, 11). At a later date, David would walk in the understanding of God's covering when King Saul relentlessly chased him in order to kill him. David refused to do harm to Saul when given the opportunity, understanding the danger of removing the covering which God had put into place over His people (see 1 Sam. 24:4-7). As Saul became more and more corrupt, God eventually dealt with him, ending his life. In another example of the glory of God's covering of His people, Psalm 91 praises Him: "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." (Ps. 91:1-2). The Psalm continues, with great power, describing the covering and protection of the LORD. So important is the concept of the covering of God, that God makes sure to tell us that He even covers Himself (see Ps. 97:2, Ps. 18:11, Ex. 19:9, Deut. 4:11-12). The Messiah, Jesus, as the ultimate Anointed covering (for sin), was sent to God's people. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, prophetically seeing the consequences of their rejection of His covering: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate (eremos - lonely, deprived of aid and protection, bereft like a flock deserted by the shepherd, or a woman rejected by her husband); for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Mt. 23:37-39, see also Lk. 19:41-44). Imagine also the moment when Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor within Caesar's empire, offered Jesus to the people as their king, but the people of God again rejected this anointed and appointed covering, shouting, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!...We have no king but Caesar!" How dangerous it was for Pilate personally to call Jesus a king of the people, when he knew that the only kings approved to rule Israel by the Roman Emperor, were the Herods! Yet Pilate called Jesus "Your King". (Jn. 19:13-16). This was not the way for a Roman governor to live long and prosper in the Roman Empire. However, even Pilate knew the importance of the One whom the people of God refused to receive. Perhaps we think that we, the Church of believers, would never reject the covering that God has set into place over us. However, everyday we make the choice to receive or reject His covering. All of these lessons recorded in scripture above, were recorded for our benefit and learning, not only for the benefit of the generation that had to learn it the hard way (2 Tim. 3:16-17). In one example of falling into the temptation of rejecting God's covering, Paul wrote to a church of "foolish" Galatians, because they had rejected faith in the covering of grace achieved by the death of their Savior, and chose instead legalistic doctrines of seeking righteousness by man's own efforts (Gal. 3:1-9). The covering of God is something that cannot be bought, nor established by men's own efforts. This covering is sovereignly anointed and appointed in and by the LORD. The Lord is looking for us to receive His covering joyfully and thankfully in faith, and the trusting obedience that accompanies faith. To enter into the covering of God, or to learn more about it, you can join with my prayer: "Father of all creation, from the beginning, You provided Your covering to man, so that he wouldn't be destroyed. You covered Your people in the wilderness, as You established their purposes in You. You provided the ultimate covering of Your Kingdom in the atoning blood of your Son, Jesus, that alone delivers us from death. I receive Your covering over my life with thanks. Help me by Your Holy Spirit to remain under the shadow of Your covering, so that I do not wander from it. Cleanse me of the pride and self-will that might rise up in my heart against Your covering. I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."