Examining the covering in the Covenant of Marriage

Last time we were looking at the misuse of covering because of man's interpretation. Let us look for a moment at God's perfect covering. Jesus walked under the covering of His Father. Was it protection? Yes, it was the protection to perfectly do the will of God which was the reason Jesus came to this realm. But I see that it was more than protection to do God's will. It was also enablement which is Grace. In the ministry of God to us in this realm there is a flow of enabling grace. There is the grace of the Father Who calls us and places us to do His Will. There is the grace of Jesus Christ Who provides not only saving grace but to be in His Church His ministry to the church. His is an administrative grace as He is to the church all the ministries of the church and so His grace enables us to fill the role ascribed to us according to our faith in His Name. (I Timothy 1:12 (King James Version) And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;...) There is the grace of the Holy Spirit who enables us to do God's will and this grace we often interpret as "gifts". The enabling grace of God is also protective so we can minister in the face of Satan's hatred and walk unscathed in the evil day of man's rule on this earth. By His grace we are not of the world while we are in the world.

How does this translate to the covering of the marriage covenant? By the positioning of God, the Father, and the identification by the grace of God, the Son, and the enabling grace of God, the Holy Spirit, God participates with us in our marriage. All of this energy for our marriage covenant? Yes, because the marriage covenant is not only the first covenant we have with God but it is, as much as our sight can now encompass, the last covenant, the marriage with the Lamb. So the marriage covenant is more than an earthly provision but is in itself a preparation for a greater, eternal covenant yet to be revealed.

This is why Paul warns us not to be unequally yoked together. (II Corinthians 6:14-18) I know that portion of Scripture is for more than marriage but it does apply to marriage. You spend a great portion of your life in marriage and it is the most intimate and invasive relationship you will know on earth. To be out of God's will in the choice of a mate is a lifelong sentence. It is not without remedy but it does take a great amount of travail in prayer and faith that will not let go to see the change that will be the blessing God intends marriage to be to us. Faith in God to be the source of that remedy means you accept without complaint His action to bring the answer. I know this is a digression from the subject of covering, but it is one of the causes of most marriages failing to exercise all the blessings of the covenant of marriage and I believe "covering" is one of those blessings.

Now let us look at some of the aspects of that blessing. It is the release for a man and a woman to live under the covering of Jehovah. To accept the position in Christ as a husband, puts that man under a special covering of Jesus Christ. His ministry to his wife and to his children will have that special anointing and allows each husband to know the flow of the Holy Spirit ministering in a personal way, the provision of God for mankind to become one with Him. For the wife, the covering of her husband is a release to the freedom from deception as long as she remains under that covering. She can move freely in prayer and any ministry God appoints her, for her covering is her protection as long as she gives that covenant response of recognizing the position God has given to each her husband and herself. As a mother, she will have full authority to minister to her children. As a wife, she will have full authority to minister to her husband. She moves in the authority of the church under the covering Jesus gives to the church when she lives in respectful submission to the "expectation of the covenant of marriage." Ephesians 5:31-33 New Living Translation (NLT) 31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Because the family is an important cell of the church, the covenant response to marriage becomes a blessing to the life of the church.