From:
Coverings
Chapter 9
Pages 175-182
Once one begins to know and
understand the ways of Yahweh, they see that He is very consistent in the way
He does things. In other words, He
takes a simple truth, or pattern, and repeats it over and over. As we have seen, the truth, or pattern,
of coverings is just one example of this.
Seeing such replication affords us even greater insight into why Yahweh
has done certain things.
Furthermore, these replicable patterns reassure us that we have come to
know Him, and afford us insight into what He has not only done, and even what
He is now doing, but also what He will do. Let us now examine another testimony that will afford us all
three of these benefits.
We noted that the question arises
as to whether Adam and Eve were actually clothed in Yahweh’s light, or if
this was simply true as a governmental matter. Either way, it is the same. The point is that, governmentally, Yahweh was taking full
responsibilityfor Adam and Eve. He
was their covering.
In like regard, Yahweh raised up
a man with whom He was going to set forth the same testimony. Abra-ham received the promise that he
would be given a son who would be his heir and that his descendants would be
countless (Genesis 15:1–6).
But upon receiving that promise, like Adam who “listened to the
voice of [his] wife” and not to Yahweh’s instruction (Genesis
3:17), Abraham equally “listened to the voice of Sarah” (Genesis
16:2) and thereby brought forth a son by the cursed Egyptian, Hagar—the
“wild donkey of a man” (Genesis 16:12), Ishmael.
Was this the son who would afford
the blessing to the whole world as promised? No, no more than what Eve offered was of like results. This son was the seed of the cursed
flesh. So what was Yahweh to
do? He had to governmentally take
responsibility for Abra-ham’s offspring, even as He once took
responsibility for Adam and Eve.
How would He attest to this?
By the covenant of circumcision.
After Ishmael was born, we read
in Genesis 17:9–14 where Yahweh then laid out the commandment of
circumcision for Abraham, his descendants, and for any servant in his
house. Thereby, we read:
“Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh
of his foreskin” (Genesis 17:24).
Then one year later, Isaac, the son of promise, was born (Genesis 21:5).
So, what made the
difference? The first son,
Ish-mael, who was not acceptable to Yahweh as the son of promise, was born
before Abraham’s circumcision.
But once he was circumcised, Sarah, though incapable of having a child
by then, brought forth Isaac. For
twenty-five years Abraham had waited for the fulfill-ment of the promise of
many offspring, first given to him as recorded in Genesis 12:1–4; and
that fulfillment finally came following one very significant solitary act—circumcision!
Why? What is so important about circumcision that twenty-five
years and four separate promises later, the fulfillment finally came? It all had to do with co-verings; in
fact, head-covering! And remember,
head-covering is just that—it is headship, authority, govern-mental
responsibility!
What we are going to discuss now
is sensitive in nature since it has to do with sexuality. To understand what was taking place
governmentally, we have to talk more specifically about circumcision of the
foreskin of Abraham.
What is circumcision? It is removing the covering of flesh
from the head of the male’s reproductive organ. The fact is, even as we have discussed thus far, the
foreskin of Abraham was, in reality, the head-covering. Government is replicable, even as we
see here once again. This is the
same pattern, just per a more specific area—the very member that effects
the birth of offspring.
When Abraham brought forth
Ishmael, Abraham’s head-covering was his flesh. With regard to his efforts to bring forth offspring, he was
under the headship covering of his own flesh, his own flesh efforts. And it was from that flesh covering
that he attempted to bring forth the son of promise and failed, bringing forth
in-stead the unacceptable cursed son.
So what was Yah-weh to do?
In prophetic and governmental testimony, He had to thereby take complete
responsibility for this offspring of immense promise. So, to testify of Him ta-king this responsibility, He had
Abraham remove the flesh covering from the part of his body that brought forth
the offspring, and thereupon Yahweh became his head-covering. When Yahweh thereby took that
re-sponsibility, the miracle birth of Isaac took place; and from thereafter He
continued to take that responsibility for his offspring.
We see this same testimony in the
man. Before Yahshua, the priest
had to wear a headcovering when he went before Yahweh. However, when Yahshua be-came the head
of every man, the man’s head was “circumcised” and, in like
manner, Yahshua became the man’s head-covering. Therefore, the man cannot pray with anything on his head.
Let us now take an important look
back to Adam and Eve. Why was it
that they could have been with-out clothing and yet not see their
nakedness? Because governmentally,
they were in fact covered, for their covering was Yahweh. Likewise, even though Abra-ham no
longer had the foreskin to cover his head, legally he was not naked, his head
was not uncovered, for Yahweh had become his covering. Before circum-cision, his head was
legally covered with foreskin, which averted Yahweh’s wrath. And even when he was aroused and his
head became uncovered, thus cal-ling for judgment, Sarah, his bride, became his
cover-ing until the foreskin head-covering could be replaced.
In truth, Sarah was
Abraham’s substitutionary covering until the otherwise present covering
could be restored. But now that
Yahweh had become his co-vering, even though it appeared that he was un-covered,
he was not uncovered. This is
again the repli-cable government whereby a man can pray with his head uncovered
and yet still be covered—Yahshua being his head, his covering. Conversely, the woman does not have
that governmental order covering her when she directly goes to Yahweh, and must
cover her head with authority.
Now, let us take this one vital
step further. Remem-ber,
government is replicable. Here we
will discover a truth that affects us today in the most profound way since the
original Garden.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they
lost the covering they once had—being clothed in Yahweh’s
glory. That covering was replaced
with the substitutionary cover-ing of clothing, and they were sent out of the
Garden so that they would not eat from the tree of life. But as you will see in Chapter Ten,
through the Nazirite vow Yahshua performed a work that made it possible for man
to return to the original Garden experience. What does that mean for man? It means that man will return to the place where Yahweh,
once again, takes full responsibility for him—no longer being covered by his own
failed flesh efforts, his flesh head-covering! Relative to Abraham, it means circum-cision of our flesh!
Everything points to the fact
that this is where we are today, with the hopeful anticipation that things can
now take place that have not been possible for 6,000 years. And once again relative to Abraham, it
means the Son of promise can be born—Yahshua’s return!
For 2,000 years, kingdom man has
listened to the voice of the weaker element, even within himself, that is
easily deceived; and under the covering of his own flesh has thereby brought
forth a cursed wild-donkey-of-a-man offspring that is not acceptable to
Yahweh. So, what must Yahweh now
do? He must take full
re-sponsibility for man and for His kingdom. According to the timing and the promise of Jubilee whereby
“each of you shall return to his own property” (Le-viticus 25:10),
to the original Garden experience, that time is now. (Read The Curse of 1920, Appendix 10.)
What we have discussed here is
the identical testi-mony we see evidenced when the sons of Israel crossed the
Jordan and entered into the Promised Land west of the Jordan. First, we read that the first thing
they did upon crossing was to attest that Yahweh would now be their
head-covering and take full responsibility. In Joshua 5:2–7, we read that for the first time since
they left Egypt, they were circumcised.
Quite significantly, their absence of circumcision during the wilderness
wandering thereby means that, clearly, the wilderness period is a time in which
Yahweh does not take full responsibility to bring forth the promised and much
needed results. This, of course,
was evidenced by the fact that they failed to enter into the Promised Land at the
wilderness of Paran (Numbers 12:16 through chap-ter 14), bringing suffering and
death upon them for forty years.
As testified by this circumcision
wherein they were circumcised “the second time” (Joshua 5:2),
Yahweh restored the covenant of Abraham and took full re-sponsibility for them
and for their success in the Pro-mised Land. This is the identical testimony when, im-mediately
thereafter, Joshua met the “captain of Yah-weh’s host” and
was told, “remove the sandals from your feet” (Joshua
5:13–15).
Prophetically, sandals speak of
the like respon-sibility to bring forth the fulfilling offspring. In Deu-teronomy 25:5–10, we read
that when the brother of a deceased man refused to take his deceased
brother’s wife to bring forth offspring in his name, she was to remove
his sandal, spit in his face, and declare to him, “Thus it is done to the
man who does not build up his brother’s house.” This man was to then be called,
“The house of him whose sandal is removed.” This is the same law being carried out
in the book of Ruth re-garding Ruth and Boaz, her kinsman redeemer.
So, when Joshua was told to
remove his sandals, even as Moses was told to do likewise at the burning bush
before he was sent into Egypt to deliver the sons of Israel, in both instances
it spoke the same message—circumcision; or Yahweh, as our kinsman
redeemer, now taking full responsibility.
Thus, taking off one’s sandals and circumcision are one and the
same in their message. It is Yahweh
saying, “I will now take full responsibility; I will be your
covering.”
This is where it appears we are
today. For 2,000 years, the church
has been “the church in the wil-derness” (lit. of Acts 7:38). For 2,000 years it has wan-dered in “the
great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and
thirsty ground where there was no water …,” where “He fed you
manna which your fathers did not know [“manna” means “what is
it?”], that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good
for you in the end” (Deuteronomy 8:16–17). At the completion of these 2,000 years,
He is now going to do good for us, taking full responsibility for us and for
His kingdom.
After 2,000 years of wandering in
“the great and terrible wilderness” where kingdom men have all been
taken to death and circumcision did not take place—men labored according
to their own flesh efforts—He is now going to take full responsibility
and be our covering, even so as to bring forth the promised Son. In truth, He is circumcising man. Joshua is taking off his sandals. It is Jubilee, when “each of you
shall return to his own property.”
Today, it is time for Yahweh to
begin to restore this world to its original state, as it was before the fall. Even as we saw in the original Garden,
Yahweh’s glory that once clothed man means that He will take full
responsibility for man. And that
responsibility will ever increase, even as we read that His glory will ever
increase until it covers the earth.
Yahweh will ever more extensively take responsibility for man and do
good for him and no longer do evil.