GOD GAVE US NEW CLOTHES
God sent Moses to the
Egyptian Pharaoh with a message: “Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh,
‘Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let my people go’”
(Exod.5:1). But the Pharaoh wouldn’t do it, so God sent plagues throughout the
land, but the Pharaoh still wouldn’t give in. Finally, God told Pharaoh that if
he didn’t let the Israelites go, all the firstborn would die. To protect the
Israelites, God told them to put lamb’s blood on the top of their front door
and on the sides.
“For the Lord will pass
through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon
the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door,
and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to
smite you”(Exod.12:23).
The blood was like a huge
body wrap over the whole house, so that the destroyer would know it couldn’t
touch that house.
“And it came to pass, that
at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive
that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And
Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians;
and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house
where there was not one dead” (Exod.12:29-30).
The Egyptians were so
scared, they rushed the Israelites out as fast as they could. “The Egyptians
were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in
haste; for they said, ‘We be all dead men’” (v. 33). The
Egyptians saw that our God is a God of action, and if he could kill all the
firstborn, he could kill them too!
Today, the blood over our
houses is not that of lambs, but, the blood of Jesus, and it protects us in the
same way the blood protected the Israelites in Egypt. Every day when Jane and I
pray, we symbolically spiritually pour the blood of Jesus over our house, our
property, our neighborhood, and our bodies.
The protection of Jesus is
always close. It’s kind of like the inner garment Jesus wore himself, like a
body wrap. It was a special undergarment that was worn next to the skin. It had
no seams, so there were no holes in its protection. It was such a unique piece
of clothing that even when he was crucified and the soldiers divided up his
clothes, they were afraid to cut the inner garment, so instead, they gambled
for the entire garment in one piece.
“Then the soldiers, when they had
crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a
part. . . . Now the coat[undergarment] was without seam, woven from the top
throughout. They said therefore among themselves, ‘Let us not rend it, but cast
lots for it, whose it shall be’” (John 19:23-24).
In Isaiah 61:1-3, we read this about some
clothing Jesus would give us: “The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me. . . to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
The “garment of praise” is to protect from the
spirit of heaviness. We put it on with righteous pride like the banner of
victory Moses held up for Joshua when he was fighting the Amalekites. We praise
God and continue to carry the banner of victory, claiming it high in our minds
and in our mouths.
“And Moses said unto Joshua, ‘Choose us out men,
and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill
with the rod of God in mine hand.’ So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and
fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
“And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand,
that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But
Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and
put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his
hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands
were steady until the going down of the sun.
“And Joshua discomfited [overthrew] Amalek and his
people with the edge of the sword.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Write
this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears
of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven.’ And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it
Jehovah-nissi:
The name Jehovah-nissi means “the Lord my banner,
the Lord my victory.” (Exod.17: 9-15).
As God promised, He would wipe out all the
Amalekites, and though they were not all destroyed in this battle with Joshua,
the very last ones were destroyed by Solomon’s sons later in history.
Another important part of our attire is the
shield of truth.
“His truth shall be
thy shield and buckler” (Ps.91:4).
The Hebrew word for shield indicates that it is a
large shield that covers the whole body. It has fierce, sharp protrusions that
are pointed like hooks. It guards by prickliness and is piercingly cold. It’s
the “cold truth’ and people don’t like it, but we’ve found out that God’s truth
isn’t always the cuddly kind, right? Look closely at the shield in the painting
by Steve Gould, that I’ve included here. I think it’s pretty awesome!
So what do we look like today in our God clothes?
We have the covering protection of the blood, the body wrap of Jesus, the
garment of praise in our mouths to keep us from getting depressed, the powerful
and prickly shield of truth, and we’re carrying the banner of God’s victory
into every battle we enter.
Go get ‘em!
Love, Carolyn
LIFE LESSONS TO EMPOWER US:
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