THE COVERING BRIDE
CONT., page 2
THE UNCLEANNESS OF AN EARTHLY BIRTH
Having set forth the body/bride distinction, let us return to that first couple and see a most important pattern which Yahweh established with them in the garden. It is equally important to realize that what took place with Adam and Eve, what occurred in the garden of Eden, is a seed or a foreshadowing picture as to how Yahweh will work with all of mankind.
Of all the truths seen regarding this first couple, let us note here that when Adam and Eve sinned, they became naked. This couple attempted to cover their nakedness with that which was from the earth - "they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings" (Genesis 3:7).
At this point, we need to introduce something in order to understand the whole of what is being presented here. Let me introduce this by relating a poignant story.
Our family has a herd of goats that we milk. Each spring, the does give birth to kids, providing both kid and, thus, milk. In our first year of kidding, a yearling doe was giving birth to her first kid, and she was having troubles with the birth. This situation necessitated that my oldest daughter assist the delivery by inserting her hand into the goat's womb, finding the kid's front legs, and bringing them forward. This was not only the first time my daughter had ever done this, but it was even the first birth she had ever seen. Due to lack of experience, she was too far into the womb and could not find the kids front legs. The difficulty of this situation was compounded with the fact that there was not one but three kids in there, making a total of twelve legs to choose from.
Goats often seem to want to kid at night, and this was no exception. This night was especially black, both from the standpoint that the moon had already set and because of our uncertain struggles with the birth of these kids. We finally delivered the three kids, but afterwards my daughter related a very poignant experience that would benefit being related here.
In the dark of that night while my daughter had her hand, as well as part of her arm, in the goat's womb, she looked up into that dark, dark universe, unsuccessfully searching for those elusive legs. As she searched, staring into dark space, it seemed to her that the two were one - the darkness and the vastness of the universe, and the darkness and the vastness of the womb. It seemed that her search in that womb was like searching an entire dark universe. Then she related the following. Our lives on this earth are very much the same. We are being formed in darkness while on this earth, and await being born into the light when we escape this earthly and are born into that which is from above, the heavenly. Christ declared - "You must be born from above" (John 3:7). Presently, we are in a vast dark womb - this earth - being formed into that which will be. Some day, we will depart from this darkness and enter into His marvelous light to receive our heavenly spiritual bodies. How accurate she was in this comparison!
This is the purpose of our life upon this earth - it is a time in which we are being formed into that which we will be in the life we will have when we put on our resurrected glorified bodies. This earth is nothing more than a womb, a temporary place of darkness preparing us for our future everlasting existence in His marvelous light.
Having our present place in this earthly existence, this womb, there is something most important to realize. While this is a vital and wholly necessary time of formation, because it is a time of devotion specifically to this earth, it is an unclean period. The earth has been cursed from Adam, and it remains cursed to this day. Anyone who might disagree with this point has only to look at the traffic in the local cemetery, or walk barefooted through our blackberry-covered pasture, or lie down on a grassburr-covered beach, or take a child strolling across a patch of goat-heads, to know that this earth and all that it produces remains under the curse. When the womb of earthly mankind brings forth fruit, its product is of this earth and is equally cursed, being of this earth.
The uncleanness of the earthly womb is testified to by the laws of Yahweh. When a man and woman had marital relations, both of them were resultantly unclean and had to bathe in water, and were unclean until evening (Leviticus 15:18). When a woman was in her menstrual period, issuing forth blood from her womb, she and anything she touched, and anyone who touched her, or even touched anything she touched, were unclean and had to be washed and were unclean until evening (Leviticus 15:19-24). When a woman had a child, she was unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation, and could not touch any consecrated thing or enter the sanctuary for another thirty-three days if she had a boy, and sixty-six days if she had a girl. At the completion of those days, she was to present offerings to make atonement for herself (Leviticus 12).
At this point we must say something most important. Many people would read these laws and view them as useless, senseless, or irrelevant; but, one should realize that these laws reveal the very ways of Yahweh, representing in type works and ways that are being and will be accomplished by Him. Man may not need to keep these laws now, but Yahweh does and will, only on a much higher and broader level than that which men generally focus. Thus, these laws are most important if one wishes to understand the ways and works of Yahweh.
The main point we need to see here in these laws is that the womb and the entire process of bearing fruit from the womb is unclean. This is confirmed in Psalm 51:5 where we find that from conception to birth, men are formed in sin and iniquity.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
When we realize that the earth is the womb that prepares the sons of God for birth into incorruptible bodies, and understand that equally this earth is unclean, we can see the remarkable parallel and even oneness of these birthing chambers - the earthly woman and the earth.
In order to add further testimony to the corruptness or uncleanness of this earth, as well as the corruptness and uncleanness of our earthly bodies, let us consider another remarkable testimony edited for us here from the writing - Two Trees In The Garden (also published on this web site). The establishment of one's understanding of this earth's corruption is most important in understanding the remaining points of this writing.
All men from Adam to this moment are born of this earth. All men are born, as written in Genesis 19:31, "after the manner of the earth." All men to this moment are Adam. The only one who has ever come into this world who was not born "after the manner of the earth" was Yahshua, the Christ (the anointed). He was not born of the seed of man, but of the Holy Spirit. Of Him we read - "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth (which belongs to Satan). He who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31). Additionally, Christ declared - "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world; I am not of this world" (John 8:23). Christ is singularly the only one who has yet come from above. The seed that produced His body was not carnal, but distinctly and uniquely the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).
The impact, the drama, the immense importance of this distinction between the earth-born and the heavenly-born is seen in earthly fertilization. Anyone who has looked at a scientific journal, book, or video production and seen the minute process of fertilization, has beheld within that drama the pictured problem of earthly existence. Revelation 12:9 declares - "And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him."
Within the human fertilization process, this same drama is enacted time and time again. The sperm, which in all appearance and shape looks like a serpent, is "thrown down" to the egg, which in all appearance and shape is a very small world or earth (though infinitesimally smaller). The serpent-appearing sperm enters the earth-appearing egg (both bearing obvious prophetic significance), to produce carnal bodies that clearly are in opposition to God. Only Yahweh knows the full extent of Yahshua's words - "You are of your father the devil" (John 8:44). But certainly we know that this earthly flesh, this earthly body we now reside in, this product of the serpent sperm and the earth egg, is:
Is it not thus wholly fitting that this corrupt and Spirit-contrary vessel we receive from the earth where Satan has been thrown down and is master, is given to us via a symbolic "serpent" being cast to an "earth"?
Our only hope in this imposing dilemma is to enter into the distinctly contrasting experience in which Christ came to this earth. He too had a body, but His body was not of the seed of man; He had no association via origin with the little sperm serpent Satan. Clearly, Christ told us that He was conceived from above by the Spirit. Instead of the serpent sperm descending upon the earth egg, John the Baptist beheld the contrasting testimony - the dove of the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on the Son of God.
This Spirit-conceived birth is exactly what we as mortal men most desperately need. This is exactly what Christ was saying when He told Nicodemus - you must be "born from above." This clear distinction, contrast, and dilemma is seen in Christ's words - "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit" (John 3:6). As long as we remain in earthly bodies, in the flesh, of the serpent sperm and the earth egg, we will be at enmity with God. We must have new bodies that are born of the Spirit from above. Christ alone could say He always did the will of the Father who sent Him, because He was not in a body, the seed of which was from Satan's earth. Likewise, we cannot walk as Christ walked in full and complete obedience, until we come forth from this earth and enter into a body that has its origin from the Spirit, from above. Could anything be clearer? Man is in desperate need to get out of this body, and be born from above by the Spirit!
The point of both of these analyses - the earth in its role as a womb, as well as this body we receive by the serpent sperm descending on the earth egg - is to see the uncleanness of this earth, as well as the uncleanness of the products that come forth from it. Why do I make this point? Let us return to the garden of Eden and see what happened there when Adam and Eve sinned.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they became naked. The glory of Yahweh which had covered them was gone and they sought to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. What are fig leaves? They are the direct fruit or product from this earth. Was that covering sufficient? No it was not. Thus Yahweh personally provided them another covering to replace the original earth-produced covering — "garments of skin." Herein lies the important pattern and testimony of Yahweh which will be worked out for all of mankind.
Man is naked from sin and he needs to have his nakedness covered. What does he do? He seeks to cover it with the covering that is of this earth - fig leaves. But, and this is a most emphatic "but" - but, the problem with this covering is that it is a covering that is of this earth, and is thus unacceptable to Yahweh (since anything conceived of this earth is unclean). Yahweh's response is then to replace the first covering, which is of this earth, with a covering which He provides. This is Yahweh's overall goal, if you would, concerning all of mankind - to replace man's earthly covering with a covering which He provides.
Continue to page 3 of The Covering Bride for THE LAW AND PATTERN OF COVERINGS