Living As Ones Covered

The world we live in is not what it should be.  We live in a broken and fallen world, which was not God's desire for us when He created the Garden.  His intent for this world was a place in which He could be intimately involved with His creation, walking with them in the cool of the day, having face-to-face conversations and living life on life.  Yet, when the Fall happened, this changed the course of our world forever.  In our shame, due to our sinfulness, we hid and attempted to cover ourselves up with fig leaves to hide our nakedness.   God asked one very pointed question: "Where are you?"  It was a showing of His seeking after us and His desire to be with us.  We answered that we heard Him in the Garden, so we hid and covered our nakedness.  Then, he didn't bring a harsh rebuke, but rather an other question- "Who told you you were naked?  Did you eat of the tree?"  He was getting to the heart of the matter, drawing our confession out of us and we then confessed our sin of disobedience.  He then gave decrees that would change humanity forever but also offered covering.  He wouldn't leave us naked and ashamed.  He loved us so deeply that he covered our nakedness, he sacrificed the first animals, who weren't supposed to die, so we could be covered.

We have all been in this scenario.  Some of us are still hiding, others of us have seen His pursuit of us and His covering of us as well.  Why then are we surprised by sin?  Why are we appalled at the people trapped in it?  Why do we not seek to see those stuck in sin covered by the skin of His Son and His grace?  Many of us covered by His Skin have not offered the same grace he offered us.  We are not pursuing those running away and hiding in the Garden.  We are acting as if we are glad they are far from intimacy with Him and we are purposefully trying to keep them from coming out in their nakedness, even though we were seen in our nakedness and offered grace.  We were covered and therefore changed, yet many times we act as if we covered ourselves.  Maybe many of us haven't experienced His covering, but have simply sought to make our fig leaves as if they were His Skin.  Yet, His Skin came at an awful price, which would change not only the way we think, but would change the way we live.

Maybe, if we were living as a Covered People, we could gracefully display the better way.  We may not even have to say much, but allow the Covered Life to speak for itself and when we are asked questions, we could discuss the beauty of His Covering and how He gave up His skin for us. We were ashamed of our disobedience and we were naked, but He sacrificed, He covered.  We see this in the story of Daniel, in the book of Daniel, chapter 1:8-16.

⁸ But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. ⁹ And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, ¹⁰ and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” ¹¹ Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹² “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” ¹⁴ So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵ At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. ¹⁶ So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. (Daniel 1:8-16 ESV)

 

Daniel didn't want to defile himself with the food offered to idols.  However, he didn't raise a ruckus in the courtyard.  He didn't take his plate and chuck it at his fellow servants.  He asked gracefully if he could do something different and God showed favor.  He then challenged the chief Eunuch to test this new way of living verses the old way of living to see who's healthier.  After only ten days, it was shown that Daniel had the better way.  Daniel was a living example of the better way.  He didn't berate his fellow servants for eating the food that wasn't better for them.  He knew they knew no better way.  He had to show them the better way.  If Daniel would've jumped on the tables and began a campaign against the meat and wine and in the midst of his speech began to verbally assault those eating the defiled food, he probably wouldn't have had any movement in the situation and may have been forced to defile himself.

 

My friends, we should live as Daniel lived- as one covered.  He knew His covering was from the Lord.  He knew he had to live as an example rather than shout at how wrong the eating situation was.  We are in a similar situation.  We need to be people who live as those covered and allow our lives to display the better way of living.  When we surrender to the Spirit, allow Him to live through us and wait on Him before we SPEAK culture will shift around us, as it did around Daniel.

 

Will you live as one covered?  Will you be a Living Example of that covering?