Yahuweh
is bringing many sons to Glory. As part of this process,
those
that will bear His Glory are to understand Yahuweh's requirements for
bearing this Glory.
In this writing, we will look at
several
aspects of Yahuweh's Glory. We will narrow our focus to the
Scriptures that reveal a very important Truth: that wherever
Yahuweh's Glory resides, He requires an appropriate covering of that
Glory.
We will look first at two basic principles
laid out in
Scripture, and then we will observe the inspired commentary in the New
Testament, as revealed by the Holy Spirit to the Apostle Paul.
First
PrincipleNotice the following passages in Exodus
and Numbers:
Here is the Covering required
for the Tabernacle while stationary:
14
And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of
rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers' skins.
(Exodus 26:14)
19 And he made a
covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a
covering of badgers' skins above that.
(Exodus 36:19) Here is the
Covering required for the Ark of Testimony and all its Furniture when
in transit:
5
And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and
they shall take down the covering vail, and cover
the ark of testimony with it:6
And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins,
and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of
blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.7
And upon the table of shewbread they shall spread a cloth
of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and
covers to cover withal: and the continual bread
shall be thereon:8 And they
shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover
the same with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put in
the staves thereof.9 And they
shall take a cloth of blue, and cover
the candlestick of the light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his
snuffdishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister
unto it:10 And they shall put
it and all the vessels thereof within a covering of badgers'
skins, and shall put it upon a bar.11
And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue,
and cover it with a covering of badgers' skins, and
shall put to the staves thereof:12
And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they
minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue,
and cover them with a covering of badgers' skins,
and shall put them on a bar:13
And they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread
a purple cloth thereon:14
And they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they
minister about it, even the censers, the fleshhooks, and the shovels,
and the basons, all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread
upon it a covering of badgers' skins, and put to the staves
of it.15 And when Aaron and
his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all
the vessels 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 any holy thing, lest they
die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the
tabernacle of the congregation. (Numbers
4:5-15) Here is the Covering
required for the Tabernacle when in transit:
25
And they shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle, and the
tabernacle of the congregation, his covering,
and the covering of the badgers' skins that is above upon it,
and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation... (Numbers 4:25) The
first basic principle is seen in the passages above. Notice
the
highlighted words, each indicating some type of cloth for
covering. Notice that in many cases, this cloth covering is a
"double" covering, consisting of two separate coverings, one on top of
the other.
We can see from the Exodus passages
above, that
Yahuweh required the Tabernacle to have this double-covering, while
stationary. Likewise, while in transit, the Numbers passages
reveal that the Tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant (Ark of
Testimony), and each item of its furniture, were to be
covered.
These will serve as examples for us, when we discover the reason behind
these coverings.
Second
Principle:Now notice the following passage in
Isaiah Chapter 4:
5 And the
LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion,
and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day,
and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the
glory shall be a defence <02646>.
(Isaiah 4:5) The
Second basic principle can be seen in the above passage in
Isaiah. First, notice that the Hebrew word translated
"defense"
is the word chuppah, Strong's number <02646>, meaning
"chamber or
canopy", and is from the word chapha, Strong's <02645>,
meaning
"to cover or be covered."
We know from Psalms
132:13-14, that
"Mount Zion" is figurative of the dwelling place of Yahuweh.
So
the Isaiah 4:5 passage above is telling us that "upon every dwelling
place of Yahuweh" will be His Glory, and that "upon all His Glory is to
be a covering."
With the understanding of the Isaiah
4 passage,
we are able to understand a little more about the Numbers 4 passages,
and why the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and the Ark of the Covenant
(Ark of Testimony) and all its furniture, had to be covered.
It
is because the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and in particular the
Ark of the Covenant (Ark of Testimony), was a 'dwelling place' of
Yahuweh Himself. Here is where His Glory resided.
Here is
where the "coverings" were required.
The Ark of
Testimony, and
over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat - all speak of
that one New Covenant Truth: Messiah in you, the Hope of
Glory
(Col 1:27). This Truth of man's body being the "Tabernacle of
Yahuweh" and the "Temple of the Holy Spirit" was seen in Numbers 19:13,
and confirmed to us by Yahushua Himself in John 2:21, and by the
Apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 6:19 and in 2Corinthians 5:1-4.
So
we realize now that the Glory of the Ark, and the Furniture, and the
entire Tabernacle of the Congregation, speaks of Yahuweh Himself abiding
within Man. As a believer in Yahushua, your body is now the
dwelling place of His Glory. Your body is His
dwelling place, and it must be covered.
The
Glory of the indwelling Yahuweh, as seen in the Ark and its furniture,
and all its coverings - is for Mankind. The Tabernacle, and
the
Ark and all its furniture, were the 'dwelling place' of Yahuweh, and all
foretell of "His People" as His dwelling place today.
Yahuweh
Himself, dwelling within His people individually, and within the
Congregation or assemblies corporately, are both places where His
"Glory" dwells. Therefore they must be appropriately
covered.
Covering the
GloryIt is very
probable that the Apostle Paul understood the Numbers passages of the
covered Glory of Yahuweh, and also Yahuweh's requirement in Isaiah that
"all the glory" must be covered. These two sets of passages
form
the probable reasoning behind the Corinthians passages on
coverings. Having this understanding of the coverings
passages in
Numbers and Isaiah, we will now examine the Corinthians passages.
3
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is
Christ; and the head of the woman is the man;
and the head of Christ is God.
(1Corinthians 11:3)
7 For a
man indeed ought not to cover his head,
forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the
woman is the glory of the man.
(1Corinthians 11:7)
10 For this
cause ought the woman to have power <1849> on
her head because of the angels. (1
Corinthians 11:10)
15 But if a
woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her
hair is given her for a covering. (1
Corinthians 11:15) In the Corinthians
passages above we see four things:
1. the
man is the glory of God;
2. the woman is the glory of the man;
3.
her hair has been given to her for a covering;
4. her hair
itself, is a "glory."
These
passages, along with the Isaiah passage, tell the story for us clearly,
even illustrating the pattern set out for us in Numbers:
1.
the man is the glory of God, thus he needs a covering per Isaiah
4:5;
2. Christ is the Head of Man, and becomes man's
"covering," meeting the requirement of Isa 4:5;
3. the woman
is the glory of the man, thus she needs a covering per Isaiah 4:5;
4.
her hair has been given to her for a covering, meeting the requirement
of #3;
5. her hair itself, is a "glory," and thus
her long hair needs a covering per Isaiah 4:5;
The
Glory of the ManNow
we can see this more clearly. The man is the Glory of God,
and as
such requires the double-covering to cover the Glory. It is
obvious that Yahuweh has given men and women hair to meet this first
covering requirement. We now look to see how the second
covering
requirement is to be met for the man.
From the
1Corinthians
passages, we see that the second covering requirement of the man can be
met by man's spiritual Head. That spiritual head is Christ
Himself. It appears from these Biblical passages that the
man's
hair, together with the Headship-Covering of Christ, meet Yahuweh's
requirement for the double-covering of the Glory of God within the
man. The covering of the Glory for the woman, however,
appears a
little more complicated.
The Glory of the
WomanWe are
told in 1Corinthians 11:7 that the woman is the Glory of the
man.
As such, she needs the same double-covering as the man, to cover the
Glory that she is. Her first covering is the obvious presence
of
her hair, which is given to the woman as a covering, as stated in
1Corinthians 11:15. This is the Greek word "peribolaion,"
Strong's number <4018>, and is the first covering for
the woman,
who is herself the Glory of the Man.
The woman's
hair, however,
is itself a Glory, necessitating its own additional covering.
She
can not take credit for her hair being her second covering, because her
hair is already designated as a first covering. She must now
provide an additional covering, to cover the Glory which is her hair.
We
can see from 1Corinthians 11:10 that the woman is to provide a "token"
covering to meet this second covering requirement. The word
translated "power" in verse 10 is the Greek word exousia, Strong's
<1849>, meaning "token or sign of authority."
This token
covering is a "sign" that the woman is under Yahuweh's headship order,
as the Strong's definition of the Greek word indicates - under the
headship of the man - and that she is indeed covering her Glory as
Yahuweh requires.
This second covering is the
covering, or veil,
spoken of in 1Corinthians 11:6. This is the Greek word
"katakalupto," Strong's number <2619>, which is a
different word
from <4018> seen above. This cloth covering
now becomes the
outermost covering, and designates to all the Heavenly Host that the
woman is under the headship of a father or husband. This
token
cloth covering becomes a sign that the Glory reflected by the woman, of
the father or husband, is indeed a "Glory," and not a "shame," since
the Glory is appropriately and adequately covered.
This
cloth
covering most appropriately reflects the glorious and set-apart nature
of the Bride of Messiah. Just as the various articles of the
Tabernacle were to be covered because of their glorious and set-apart
nature, so the Bride will correspondingly cover herself.
ConclusionWe
have seen that where the Glory of Yahuweh dwells, a double-covering is
required. We have also seen the expression of this Glory in
the
man, and in the woman. We have seen how hair is both a
covering,
and a Glory. We have seen that a cloth can be used to cover
the
Glory. This is just as we see in the examples of the
Tabernacle,
and of the Ark and its furniture, in the Book of Numbers.
From
the examples in Numbers, and from the testimony of Isaiah, and the Holy
Spirit-inspired commentary by the Apostle Paul, we have now come to
realize that the hair covering issue is not a "cultural" issue at all,
but an issue of fulfilling all righteousness, just as the water-baptism
issue was for Yahushua in Matthew 3:15. It is one of bringing
Glory to our Creator, and our head, when we follow His instructions and
the examples in His Word.
The Bride-Candidates have
this one
characteristic: Messiah-in-them is their Glory. Wherever the
Glory of Yahuweh resides, there is the appropriate covering
found.
The physical cloth covering of the females' hair is
surely an
issue of "fulfilling all righteousness." It is the
Bride-Candidates who have this desire and focus - to fulfill all
Righteousness, just as did their Bridegroom. It is the
Bride-Candidates who, having the Glory of Yahuweh, have the desire to be
fully covered.
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