What part of the Old Testament do you think I would take for this matter of covering? Out of many, many passages, there is one particular passage: Psalm 91, the ninety-first Psalm.
The whole psalm is really to do with this matter, basically.
He that dwelleth 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 Whom I trust.
For He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
And from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover thee with His pinions,
And under His wings shalt thou take refuge:
His truth is a shield and a buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night,
Nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
For the pestilence that walketh in darkness,
Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side,
And ten thousand at thy right hand;
But it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold,
And see the reward of the wicked.
For thou, O Lord, art my refuge!
Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee,
Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent.
For He will give His angels charge over thee,
To keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands,
Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder:
The young lion and the serpent shalt thou trample under foot.
Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him:
I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble:
I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.
And then, in the New Testament, what do you think would be the passage that we would take? I expect some would think of a passage in the first letter to the Corinthians, but the passage that I think is the most important passage in the New Testament on this matter of covering is Ephesians 6.
Ephesians 6, from verse 10—the sixth chapter of Ephesians.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Let us sing just once more, and ask the Lord to be with us.
Dear Lord, we thank Thee that Thou art with us. But now, Lord, Thou knowest us—of all different ages spiritually, different conditions, different backgrounds. O Father, we pray, by Thy Spirit, take this subject and bring it in life to every one of us. May something of its importance dawn upon us this night. We ask it in His name. Amen.
Well now, the subject we are talking about this evening is covering. It is perhaps one of the most vitally important subjects that we could study together.
I have no doubt that there are some here who might straightaway wonder, “I have never heard of covering. Where does it speak of covering in the Bible?”
The fact of the matter is that this matter of covering is one of the strong emphases of the Bible from its beginning to its end.
It is summed up in that wonderful psalm we read together, which many of you know is really a continuation of Psalm 90. It is the same psalm that was divided into two. You will notice that in Psalm 90:1 it begins:
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place
In all generations.
Then in Psalm 91:1 it says:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Perhaps you have never thought of that as covering, but that is exactly what it is. He that dwelleth in the secret place—the covert, the covered place—of the Most High shall abide, shall remain, under the shadow of the Almighty.
The Almighty will be his protection. The Almighty will be his security. The Almighty will be his safety. The Almighty will come between him and anything hostile.
He that has made the Lord his habitation—he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High.
Now you will see in this psalm that it speaks about all kinds of terror. It speaks of the terrors of the night, the horrors of the night.
It speaks of pestilence, which is not only physical pestilence but spiritual pestilence. Too many Christians suffer from spiritual pestilences—that is, disease, some infection that will not clear up, that somehow or other is just getting them down all the time. Sometimes they think it is just something to do with the way they are meant to walk, but it is not. It is because they have got uncovered.
The Word of God says here quite clearly that the pestilence, the plague, shall not come. He shall not be afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
So there is a kind of plague, a kind of disease, a kind of infection, which, of course, any of you who know anything about the East will know quite well can sweep through a community within hours and decimate it.
That is really what the psalmist is speaking of here: something, a pestilence, a destruction that wasteth at noonday, that lays everything low suddenly, almost without explanation.
He speaks of a plague coming nigh your tent: “It shall not come nigh thy tent.” He speaks of war: “A thousand falling at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.”
The whole psalm speaks of all kinds of hostile things—things that would come out against the child of God, things that would come out against the church of God, things that would destroy it.
But that is not the emphasis of this psalm. It is not that the Christian is surrounded by hostility, that the Christian ought to be frightened to death by all the things that are around him. The whole emphasis of this psalm is covering: that the child of God can walk with his head high in the air; that the child of God can have boldness to come into the most holy place of all by the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way, which is Christ Himself.
That is the emphasis of this psalm: covering. Get out from under covering, and immediately hostile forces can get their grip on you. Keep under covering, and you are safe.
There is no matter more important to both young and old believers than this matter.
If I were asked—and I have been a number of times—what I think is one of the most essential things for a young believer to know, I would say straightaway: how to be covered, how to remain covered as a child of God.
If an older believer said to me, “What do you think is the most important thing I, as an older believer, should know?” I would say straightaway: how to be covered.
I have seen quite a number of people go off the rails. It all begins with uncovering.
Only, of course, there is a stupidity about many of them—an arrogance, a presumption, an insensitiveness to the things of God, to the ways of God. Sometimes we see His acts and we do not understand His ways, and because of that we are undone in the end.
Pride always goes before the fall. But to be proud, you do not just have to be haughty in your dealings with other people. You can be haughty in your dealings with God, as if you have got to run somehow or other, as if God should open everything up to you and to me, as if somehow you have a right to tell God what to do in a kind of arrogant and presumptuous way.
That is the pride that goes before a fall, and that is the kind of thing we are talking about.
I know some great servants of the Lord who, in their last days, got uncovered.
So this simply means that if we were to take note of this matter, it would be well worthwhile.
I wish I could speak much more freely about some of these things and give you much more evidence, but I do not think it would be so very helpful.
The thing is, the enemy has a great objective with every single child of God and with the church of God, and it is to get us uncovered. He cannot do anything when the church of God is covered. He cannot do a single thing. I mean it. There is not a single thing Satan can do with the church unless it is permitted and allowed by God.
Therefore, the enemy’s whole plan, his design, his objective, his strategy in this war, is to push the church—or a church—out from covering, to get it exposed, to get it out into the open, as it were, away from its safety, when then the enemy can come and demolish it just like that.
His strategy is exactly the same with the child of God. His whole strategy is to push the child of God, unknown to the child of God, into a position where that one comes out from under covering, tries to meet the enemy himself or herself, and the enemy knows exactly what to do with the very best of us.
You remember, of course—and we shall be dealing with this later, not today, with some of those great examples in the Old Testament and the New—but I think immediately of David. He got uncovered when he did not go out to war with his men.
He was not at the head where he should have been, but stayed back. He was uncovered.
Whilst he was in that position, perhaps he thought to himself, “I will read the Scriptures. I will have a wonderful time. I will have a time of meditation and reflection.” He went up on his rooftop to have this meditation and reflection, but he was uncovered.
We can even talk about spiritual things and yet be uncovered, get out of the will of God. There he saw Bathsheba, and there the whole foul idea of murdering her husband and taking her took root in his heart.
Where did such a foul and vile idea originate if it did not originate in Satan—out to destroy David, and out to destroy the whole work of God and the people of God, just out to destroy the whole thing?
It is a wonderful thing that God understood Who was behind it all. It is a wonderful thing that David finally got back under covering and said:
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
Covering is vital.
That is why, of course, the Apostle Paul, in his great letter to the church of Ephesus—which I think all of us agree is the high-water mark of revelation in the New Testament—after this tremendous revelation, in his final words comes right back to this whole matter of covering.
Now, you may not think of it as covering, but that is exactly what it is.
Wherefore take up the whole armour of God.
Do not leave a single chink. From head to foot, be covered. There is something of Christ for every part of your being.
It is very interesting that he is not really even speaking of individuals there; he is speaking to the whole church. He is saying to you all, “Now, all of you together, put on the armour of God together.”
See that Christ is the helmet, that He is the breastplate, that He is the girdle—the belt—that He is the shoes on your feet, that He is the shield of faith, that He is the sword in your hand.
Covering.
The apostle knew very well that no company of believers who begin to see something of the eternal purpose of God—any child of God who begins to see something more than forgiveness of sins, who begins to see that behind it all lies a tremendous purpose from eternity to eternity—no child of God who begins to see that is safe unless he knows how to put on the whole armour of God.
Can I illustrate? You know, our trouble on this matter of covering is that we all go by these eyes and by our physical senses.
It is just like being exposed to invisible rays. If there were something radioactive in this room, none of us could see the rays, none of us could see the danger, but every single one of us would be exposed to death-giving rays.
We are exposed to something. Now this is what this whole matter of covering is about: that spiritually we can be exposed to rays, to things that we cannot see or sense with our physical senses, but which we can know if we have our spiritual senses exercised. We can know spiritually things that are coming at us.
Now the whole problem is covering. If you are covered, none of those dangerous or injurious things can harm you.
I remember, as a boy—I was a little boy—but I remember I was always mystified by all those old gentlemen going to work with umbrellas and helmets, because it was in the war. I could not understand what those helmets were when I was a little boy, but I was told that it was something to do with shrapnel.
You know as well as I do that just recently a young lad lost his life in Belfast. As he leaned out of a sentry tower to speak with his relief, he had not put on that vest, that protective vest. A bullet got him.
That is what covering is: never to be without your protective vest spiritually; never to be without the helmet of salvation spiritually; always to have on the armour of God.
Again, may I say, in introducing this whole subject—which is all we are doing really this evening—that the temptation of Christ was just along this line.
If you look in Matthew 4, you find that the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted in three main ways, or tried in three main ways, by Satan. Each time Satan used Scripture.
Now, what, may I ask, was Satan trying to do? You know as well as I do that the Lord Jesus could easily have turned stones into bread. After all, a little later on in His life He did feed over five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, and on another occasion He fed four thousand people with seven loaves and a few fishes. He could easily have done this.
Why did He not do it? Would it not have silenced the devil if the Lord Jesus had just commanded that these stones be made bread?
But the whole point was this: the Lord Jesus was being tried not as God; He was being tried as man. He knew in His heart that He had no direction from God to turn those stones into bread. The devil’s whole objective was to get Him to act independently of God, to get Him to do something which seemed to be right and legitimate, and expressed faith, and was a miracle of the first order, but was done apart from God.
If the Lord Jesus had done that, He would have been immediately exposed to enemy interference.
Then again, the devil took Him up on a high pinnacle of the temple and said, “Cast Thyself down.” Why? He quoted the very Scripture from Psalm 91:
He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee:
On their hands they shall bear Thee up,
Lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.
This very psalm about covering. Would it have been an easy thing for the Lord Jesus just to have done it? Many times when they were going to lynch Him, He walked straight through them, and no man could touch Him.
It would have been an easy thing, a wonderful thing. But the devil knew very well that Christ could turn stones into bread, and he knew very well that the Lord Jesus could come down from the highest pinnacle of the temple and come down safely. He knew it.
What he wanted to do was to force Him, or tempt Him, to act apart from His Father. If he could only do that, he would expose Him to these deadly rays from another world.
So you can go through these temptations and you see it is all to do with this matter.
Now, I cannot profess to understand fully this subject. Therefore, straightaway, I want to say to you this evening that I am as much a student in this as anyone else. If anyone has light on this matter, I will be only too glad to hear from you if you would share it with us.
What I know is that we are touching something like an iceberg. Very little is above the surface. The vast amount of this whole matter lies hidden underneath.
Therefore, all we can do is whet your appetite, point out a number of things, put a question mark over some of them, and explain a few as far as I am able to others.
But if, as a result of this evening, or another evening we may have on this matter, the fear of the Lord comes upon us, it has been well worthwhile.
Where is the fear of the Lord today amongst the people of God?
I have seen people die under the hand of God. I have seen that the Lord is still the living God. You cannot play about with Him. He is like a consuming fire. He must be treated with awe and reverence.
Now, I am not asking for that cringing kind of fear that some people associate with the fear of the Lord. That is not what we are talking about at all.
Nor are we asking that people should suddenly all become frightened to do anything, frightened to say anything, frightened to contribute because of the Lord. That is not the fear of the Lord.
At the very point at Pentecost, when the church was at its strongest, when the authority of the Lord was most manifest, the fear of the Lord came upon those people again and again and again. It says so: “Great fear fell upon the whole church.”
What on earth did it mean? It did not stop them contributing. It did not stop them witnessing. It did not stop them working. It did not stop the Lord manifesting Himself in and through them.
But there was great fear upon them all. It had nothing to do with this nonsensical stuff that sometimes goes for the work of the Spirit. It is nothing but the soul in the realm of the spirit.
But when really the Spirit of God starts to work, a reverence comes upon us. An awe comes upon us. We begin to watch the way we dress. We begin to watch the way we conduct ourselves. We begin to watch the way that we behave, because we know with Whom we have to do.
We love Him. It is not a cringing fear with torment and punishment; as the Scriptures say, from that we must be delivered. But it is that kind of fear which comes out of a sensitive love for God.
The fear of the Lord is something we do not find in the twentieth century. We associate it with the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, or so on. But God has not changed. The twentieth century does not mean that God’s power is less, or that He is less a consuming fire than He ever was.
God does not change. God is the same—always the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.
Therefore, I hope that in touching this whole matter, if nothing else, the profundity of it, the mystery of it, will so come upon us that an enquiring and sensitive spirit may be produced in us all in our walk with God.
Now, what I am going to do is go for a ramble through the Old Testament. So, if you would like to take your Bible, we shall start now and look at various references to covering. We cannot look at every single one of them, but we shall look at a lot of them.
First of all, we will go on a sort of few circuits. The first is a personal one. Let us go on the personal circuit, as it were.
First, Exodus 33:21-22.
And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock:
And it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand until I have passed by:
And I will take away My hand, and thou shalt see My back; but My face shall not be seen.
Now, may I ask why it was necessary for God to cover Moses, one of the most righteous men that we know in the Bible? Why should he be hidden, covered, when God showed Himself to him? Ask yourself this question.
One day every one of us is going to see the glory of the Lord. But you know the glory of the Lord could destroy us unless we were covered—like a million volts. It could destroy.
The glory of the Lord. He covered him.
Now look at Isaiah 51:16.
And I have put My words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art My people.
Now that is a most extraordinary statement: to say that before God fulfils His purpose, He takes this one, puts His words in his mouth, and covers him with the shadow of His hand. His hand is over him, so that His hand is a shadow over him. He is covered.
Look again at Isaiah 49:2.
And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand hath He hid me.
Covering again.
Psalm 91:1, we have read:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
And, of course, verse 4:
He will cover thee with His pinions,
And under His wings shalt thou take refuge.
Psalm 61:4:
I will dwell in Thy tabernacle for ever:
I will take refuge in the covert of Thy wings.
This word “covert” is a covered place—in the covert of Thy wings, that which Thy wings cover.
Deuteronomy 33:12:
Of Benjamin he said,
The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him;
He covereth him all the day long,
And he dwelleth between His shoulders.
The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him. He covereth him all the day long.
Isaiah 61:10:
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland,
And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Covered.
Lastly, in this personal circuit, Psalm 140:7:
O Lord, the Lord, the strength of my salvation,
Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.
Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.
So there we have a number of verses, representative of very many more, that deal with this matter of covering personally.
Now take a look at one of the greatest symbolical things in the Old Testament: the tabernacle.
Look at Exodus 26. I think all of you know that every single thing in the tabernacle was symbolic. It was a pattern of heavenly things.
Exodus 26:7:
Thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle.
Or, a covering over the tabernacle.
Then the same chapter, verses 13-14:
And the cubit on the one side, and the cubit on the other side, of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and on that side, to cover it.
And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of seals’ skins above.
So first of all, you had the white, blue, scarlet, and purple—the interwoven curtain of those colours. Then above that you had the rams’ skins dyed red, and then above that you had the seal skins. I am not quite sure whether it is badger skin, seal skin, or exactly what skin it is, but there were three coverings to the tabernacle, and each one of them has meaning.
Now, if you turn to Numbers 4, from verse 5:
When the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall go in, and his sons, and they shall take down the veil of the screen, and cover the ark of the testimony with it,
And shall put thereon a covering of seals’ skin, and shall spread over it a cloth all of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.
And upon the table of showbread they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and the cups wherewith to pour out; and the continual bread shall be thereon:
And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of seals’ skin, and shall put in the staves thereof.
If you read right the way through down to verse 14, you will find it is all to do with covering. Every single bit of the tabernacle had to be covered.
And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the furniture of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die.
It all had to be covered.
Now turn to 2 Chronicles 5:7-8.
And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.
For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof above.
I wonder what on earth that was all about. Why did the wings of the cherubim have to cover the ark? They were so amazing that they covered literally the whole thing from end to end and far beyond. You could just see the staves on either side coming out behind the curtain, but the wings covered the whole.
You have got this in three different places in Scripture about the wings of the cherubim covering the ark of the Lord.
Now another circuit. That was the tabernacle. We are not explaining it, but it will come in later studies.
Now another one, which is much more interesting, I think, than all these: the glory of the Lord. Here we come to what I find a great mystery, but perhaps it is the key to this whole matter.
Exodus 24:15-18:
And Moses went up into the mount, and the cloud covered the mount.
And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
It is interesting that this connection between the glory of the Lord and something covering comes again and again and again.
For instance, look at Exodus 40:34. This is when the tabernacle was erected:
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
The cloud covered the tabernacle, but the glory of the Lord filled the actual place.
Again, Numbers 9:15-16:
And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of the testimony; and at even it was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.
So it was always: the cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.
Now will you please look at Isaiah 4:5-6, because this throws light back, in one sense, upon those other references.
And the Lord will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for over all the glory shall be spread a covering.
And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge, and for a covert, from storm and from rain.
Now what on earth does that mean? “For over all the glory shall be spread a covering.”
Well, I do not know if you are mystified enough yet, but there is a bit more to come.
Ezekiel 1:23. If anyone can mystify anybody, it should be Ezekiel.
Now, just a word of explanation about this. This is to do with the cherubim.
And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies.
Now the interesting thing is, from Ezekiel 10 and a few other places in Scripture, that these cherubim had three pairs of wings: two pairs were used for covering themselves, and one pair for flying. What on earth does all that mean?
We know that the cherubim are composite symbols. We know that. We know they represent something. We find them, for instance, in Revelation round the throne of God.
If they are angels, they are the most hideous creatures you have ever seen. Whichever way you look, they have a different face. If you look from within, they have one face; look from without, they have another face. You look from that side, they have another face; if you look from the other side, they have another.
They have wheels within wheels. They can go up, they can go that way, they can go that way, they can go down. They can go at any angle, from the wheels—wheels within wheels. Ezekiel speaks of the whirring of the wheels.
They have wings, but they only use one pair to fly. They have eyes all over—not all over their hair, face, and body, but all over their wings and the wheels are covered with eyes. The whole thing is symbolic of the glory of God which was in them, and the kind of creation that God wants.
If you look at Isaiah 6:1-3, we read:
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.
Above Him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:
The whole earth is full of His glory.
Now that is a very strange thing. I do not know how any creature covers its face and can see when it flies. But with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
A pair of wings for covering the eyes and the face, one pair of wings for covering the feet, and one pair of wings for flying.
I do hope that you begin to see that there is something very mysterious in this whole subject about covering. But there is something there. These visions were not given without meaning. Every detail of these visions, as you know as well as I do, has real meaning.
When the Scripture explicitly tells us about, for instance, wings—how they are used and how they are not used—there is always a reason for it.
Well now, let us just have another look, to mystify you a little further: Ezekiel 28.
I suppose most Christians who know their Bibles would find this particular reference one of the most mystifying in the whole Bible. Ezekiel 28 is about Satan. It is one of the only two references we have in the whole Bible as to how sin began.
Ezekiel 28:14, speaking of Satan:
Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth:
And I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God;
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
Till unrighteousness was found in thee.
By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned:
Therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God;
And I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the stones of fire.
I think that is one of the most mysterious references in the Bible. We know, of course, the devil is the most intelligent being in the universe.
We know that the devil was originally, evidently, in a position—Lucifer, of course—that he had some position in God’s original economy to do with worship and to do with covering, something to do with the glory of God, something to do with this glory over which was spread a covering.
Well now, what does it all mean? That is a ramble through the Old Testament. What does it mean?
There is enough there, I think, for you to recognise that there is something far beyond us and something very important.
There are three Hebrew words that are used in the Old Testament for this matter of covering.
One means to conceal or to hide, and that is the most commonly used one. The second means to enclose or to hedge in. This is how it speaks of, “Thou wast the anointed cherub that enclosed,” or “hedged in.”
It speaks of, “I will cover thee with My hand,” in Exodus 33. That word is, “I will hedge thee and I will enclose thee with My hand.” But the other reference in Isaiah, “I will cover thee with the shadow of My hand,” is, “I will conceal thee.”
There is a third word, not used so much, which means to protect or to overlay—rather like a bird of prey, a larger bird, overlays its young. It protects them by bringing them into the soft, downy part of its underbelly: an overlaying.
This is the word used about, “He shall cover him all the day long.” He will overlay him like an eagle protects her young, concealed in that way.
Now obviously this word “covering,” therefore, means or speaks of protection, of safety, of security.
Now let us come to perhaps where we all feel we are on more acquainted ground, ground that we know a little better.
What it means to be covered is simply this: putting it in simple New Testament language, it means you are in Christ.
This little phrase is used over two hundred times in the New Testament alone. To be covered means that you are in Christ. It is as simple as that.
If you look at Philippians 1:1, the letter of Paul to the church of Philippi:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus.
All the saints in Christ Jesus. This little phrase, “in Christ Jesus,” occurs again and again and again in the Word.
Now we know that when we believe, we believe into Christ. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him”—that is the old version. Unfortunately, the very new modern colloquial versions have put in “in,” but it does not really mean merely “in.” It means that our faith has carried us into Him.
There is activity in it. We do not stand here and believe in Christ over there, but our faith carries us into Christ. Through our faith, God puts us in His own Son, so that we are in His Son.
There are all kinds of phrases in the New Testament which sum up this matter of covering. Every time you read that you are in Christ, made to sit with Him—or in Him—in heavenly places, raised in Him, and all these other things, it is a question of being covered.
You are in Him. That is where God has put you. If you have been saved by the grace of God, if you have been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ, if you have been born of the Spirit of God, you are in Christ. That is your position. God has put you there.
Now that is your security. He is your stronghold. He is your fortress. He is the secret place of the Most High. That is the covert. My God has put you in Christ.
So then, every born-again person in this room—I hope that every single one of us is so—every single born-again child of God within the confines of these walls has been placed in Christ by God. That is our position. Whether we are there in practice is another thing, but that is our position. God has put us there.
Through faith in His Son, God has brought us into Him.
There are three phrases, or three matters, that we associate with this. We speak of the name of the Lord.
For instance, we read in John 14:13:
Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.
Now, what did the Lord Jesus mean? He did not mean that we tack on the end of our prayers, like a little charm, “In the name of Jesus Christ,” and that works a miracle.
Many Christians think that the name of Jesus is a charm, that all we have got to say is, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” and something happens. Not unless the facts behind your use of that name are right.
If the facts behind it are true and real, then you can take the name of Jesus on your lips and hell will quiver—but not otherwise.
“In the name of Jesus”—what does it mean? It means that you are in Him.
Look, I have there four fingers and a thumb. I have there four fingers and a thumb. I have eight fingers and two thumbs, and they are all in Lance Lambert. They are no one else’s fingers or thumbs; they are in me.
Now, these fingers can say, “We can speak to you in the name of Lance Lambert.” But one has fingers and thumbs, but they cannot speak in my name. They speak in him.
When the Lord Jesus said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, that will I do,” He meant, when you are in Me, you come to the Father in Me. You simply say, “Father, we are not approaching Thee in our merit, as if we are anything, as if we can get anything out of Thee. We are approaching Thee in Thy Son.”
Within Him, we have a right to His name.
So, whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of Jesus. Do everything as being in Christ. That is where you are.
Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
Here we are. We have gathered into the name because we are in Christ. All of us who are in Christ—Christ is in our midst. In the name.
Take another phrase: the blood of Jesus Christ.
Some people have said to me, after having terrible experiences and being carved up by the enemy, “I cannot understand it. You know, I repeat again, ‘In the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.’”
But you cannot repeat “the blood of Jesus” and live in disobedience, as if by referring to the blood of Jesus you can take Satan in.
If Satan knows he has got a foothold in your life and there is disobedience in your life, you cannot just say, “The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.” Satan laughs. “Ha!” he says.
What you must do is get that matter put right under the blood of the Lamb. Then you can say, “The blood of Jesus.” When Satan comes and says, “What about that? What about that?” you can say, “The blood of the Lamb, Father, the blood of the Lamb,” and there is peace in your conscience immediately.
Whereas, if the thing is still not settled, you go out and you have still got a bad conscience, and you think, “I do not know, it does not work for me. They talk about being justified fully through Calvary’s love, but it does not seem to work for me.” Well, of course not.
You cannot be unreal. This invisible world around us sees the reality of things.
Now, what does it mean when we speak of the blood? Look at 1 John 1:7:
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Will you please, all of you, note that there is an “if.” There is an “if.” If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ goes on cleansing us from all sin.
In other words, dear child of God, get this absolutely clear: if we do not walk in the light with God and we do not walk in the light with one another, then the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, does not go on cleansing.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But there must be confession. That word simply means to say the same thing—that is all: to recognise what God calls it.
If God says it is sin, I say it is sin. If God says, “That was disobedient,” I say, “Lord, it was disobedient.” If we confess.
The blood of Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Christ.
It speaks in Philippians 3. The Apostle Paul says:
That I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.
Now, to be covered means that we are in Christ. We can speak in the name. We can act in the name. We are in Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us continually from all sin. We are in Christ. We are robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. As simple as that.
Now there are other phrases too that come up immediately in this matter of covering, which I hope you will understand. It follows on from this.
The Lord Jesus, in the last hours of His life, was at great pains to use one phrase over and over and over again, and this was the phrase: “Abide in Me.”
“Abide in Me.” Again and again and again and again He uses it, right the way through those chapters—John 14, 15, and 16—the last words to His own dear disciples.
“Abide in Me.” What did He mean? Remain in Me—remaining. That is your place of covering. That is where you are safe. That is where you are secure. That is where you are protected.
Abide in Me, and I in you.
We speak of being hidden. The Apostle Paul says in Colossians 3:3:
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
That is covering. That is covered.
The armour of God. Have you found the Lord Jesus like that? Do you know Him as the helmet of salvation? Do you wear it? Or are there times when your mind can be attacked because you have not got the helmet on?
The head is the most vulnerable part in many ways. That is why we all need to find Christ as the helmet of salvation: covered.
Do you know Christ as truth? Not just the truth, but as truth—reality?
Your loins—some of the modern versions say “strapped,” or “belted.” The belt pulled in here, the strength, with reality. If there is any unreality in our lives, we feel loose.
Do you know Christ as reality?
Breastplate of righteousness. Some of the modern versions say “integrity.” That is over the heart. Righteousness.
Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That is a hard word, but what it simply means is this: you have got your feet properly shod with good shoes.
What are these shoes? Peace. Do you know the peace of God? Do you know Christ as the peace of God? You cannot keep in the way of God without that peace.
How do you know the will of God? Let the peace of God arbitrate in your heart. Let the peace of God rule in your heart. You will know that you should go that way or that way by the peace of God. That is the way.
Your feet are shod with the gospel of peace—the gospel through which peace has come to you.
Shield of faith. Do you know Christ as the shield of faith, the thing you can move about when the fiery darts come? Covering.
Well now, I think our time has gone, and this is only really an introduction, in a somewhat poor way, because the matter is so complex and so vast.
But I would just like to say this in closing. I think perhaps we can understand this whole matter much more when we look at it from the negative side: what it means when we get uncovered.
Now, many modern-day believers refuse to believe that you can be weak, or sick, or even die. But 1 Corinthians 11:30 tells us that if we do not discern the body—that is, the reality of the presence of Christ, of what it is to be in Christ and Christ to be in us—all this can happen:
Weakness. Sickness. Death.
Now, of course, people will say, “What kind of gospel is that?” But that is this whole matter of covering.
Every one of us should take heed in this matter.
You see, people say, “Well, how do you get uncovered? I am getting frightened. How do you get uncovered?”
Well, the best thing is to make sure that you are abiding. You do not have to fight to get under covering; you are there. All you have got to do is stay where God has put you.
But when something has gone wrong, for goodness’ sake, see that you put it right.
Perhaps in our next study, we will look at some of the illustrations in the Old Testament of people who got uncovered. These were written for our example, and perhaps it is the easiest way for us to understand this vast matter: by seeing concrete illustrations.
But, you know, a thing struck me the other day so forcibly.
When we pray, as we were taught to pray by the Lord Jesus:
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
I wonder whether many of us understand what we are praying. We are asking God not to forgive us if we have not forgiven someone else.
Listen again:
Forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
Have you ever realised that, dear child of God? That is uncovering.
If I come before God and talk to God, and there is unforgiveness in my heart, I am uncovered. There are forces that watch and say, “Aha! Oh, so he thinks he can get away with that. She thinks. What are You going to do about it?”
Remember the words of the Lord Jesus when He said to Peter:
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat:
But I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not.
What on earth did He mean: “Satan asked to have you”?
Go back a little earlier, and you find that Peter said, “I will lay down my life for Thee, Lord.” He did not know himself. In that moment, he was uncovered.
Satan went to God and said, “Did You hear that? Well now, You know—is it true? Is it true? Let me have him. Let me have him.”
And God said, “You can have him, because there is something there that will come loose, and what he will lose in the trial will be only what is not worth keeping.”
Jesus said, “I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” It did not. Even though he denied the Lord, his faith, deeper down than his denials, never failed. He came through.
That is uncovering.
Well, we will talk a little more about that another week. We will talk about it in its different ways—how we can get uncovered—illustrated from the Old Testament by some of these examples, and the New Testament.
Let us just ask God now to help us in this difficult matter.
Now, Lord, Thou knowest every one of our hearts, and Thou knowest, Lord, the condition of each of our hearts. Ah, Lord, there is not one of us that wants to be uncovered.
Therefore, we praise Thee and worship Thee for the safety and security which Thou hast provided for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help every one of us, Lord, to walk in the light. Help every one of us, Lord, to be in Thee, truly in Thee.
O may that truth be found in our inward parts. So, Father, we commit this time to Thee. Deep beyond that, mysterious, but, O Father, Thy Holy Spirit can give illumination to every one in our hearts.
Grant, dear Lord, that that reverence for Thyself, that awe of Thyself, that loving, sensitive fear of the Lord—which is the beginning of wisdom and the fountain of life to all who know it—may be produced in us all.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.