Omega Message – October 1990
Cecil duCille
God moves in His people through the families. He ordained the family structure for His own purpose. It is the will of God that we do not go to heaven alone, but that we should take our families with us, and He makes it a responsibility of each born-again family member. In Exodus 12:3, we read:
“Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:”
The word “a lamb for an house” tells us that God expected the head of each family to be responsible for the saving of the life of his own household, because the death angel would be passing through that night, and any household that did not have the blood on the door, their firstborn would be slain. It is important for us to understand that in a spiritual sense God holds every head of a household responsible for his family. Therefore, when we appear before the Lord we cannot say as the murderous Cain did, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” because God is saying to us, “Yes! You are your brother’s keeper!” and we had better know it and recognize it before it is too late.
In reading this chapter in Exodus, we see that the lamb is to be chosen on the tenth day and slain on the fifteenth. The type and shadow of the Word of God says that this lamb did not choose himself or volunteer for the position, but even as God chose Israel, He is now choosing a lamb for each household. We now stand in the breach for the family, then we will be called to stand in the breach for the Body of Christ (spiritual family), and then we will be called, chosen, and made worthy to stand in the breach for the world.
I will attempt to deliver this word just as it came, for it came to me on three different levels:
(1) The “natural,” which will include the symbolism of the Law.
(2) The “spiritual,” which will be the meaning of the Law “in Christ.”
(3) The final fulfillment of this word, which is “Christ in the Church.”
We realize that at this time, we are at the very end of the things that God has promised that He would do, and God’s timetable is very close to the conclusion of all things. From where we stand at this point in time, we do not see any church that is watching and ready for the things which must shortly come to pass, but we know He is now doing things to fulfill His promise that He would bring the true people of God into one: “…that they may be one as we (I and the Father) are one” (John 17:22).
This is the prayer of Jesus Christ, a prayer that on the surface looks impossible, but it shall be done. It is a most wonderful and awesome thought: That you and I will be one with each other just as Christ Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Ghost are but one person. This can be achieved in one and only one way, and that is when we meet “in Christ.” In order to achieve this marvelous and wonderful unity, God has begun to work in the families. He is bringing us in—family by family, and house by house.
Let us turn our bibles to Exodus 28, beginning with verse 6. In this chapter, we see Moses being instructed by God to make the garments of the High Priest. We will take just those particular parts of the garments in this passage that convey the message concerning THE FAMILY COVENANT:
Verses 6-7, “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulderpieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together.”
The two shoulder pieces were made of gold and were joined to the breastplate.
Verses 9-11, “And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold.”
The whole process seems to be a simple one, but this natural act of the making of the breastplate involved divine law and divine principles which have great meaning to us in Christ. Therefore, no mistake was permitted in this endeavor, and Moses and his workmen obeyed the instructions implicitly.
Verse 12, “And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD upon his two shoulders for a memorial.”
Here we see that Aaron the high priest should bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel upon his shoulders before the Lord. This gives Christ Jesus the right to bear the names of all the children of God before the Father, and to make supplications for them continuously. Even as then the children of Israel appeared before God by proxy in Aaron, so it is that we now appear before Him in Christ.
The high priest bearing the names of Israel upon his shoulder is a type of his bearing their burdens and carrying it before the Lord. At times the Israelites would come and lay their hands on the priest and confess their sins over him. The sin of the individual would then pass from him to the priest. At the end of this ritual, the lamb would be brought and killed, and the priest would lay his hand upon the lamb and pass the sins of the people onto the lamb and their sins would be remitted.
The names of the children of Israel were placed a second time on the twelve stones in the breastplate. They were placed in four rows of three. The order of birth was the order in which they were placed, and the onyx stone (which was used for the shoulder pieces) was in the last row along with the beryl and the jasper (which is the stone depicting the throne of God).
There is much symbolism here, but we will only deal with the parts that speak directly of the family covenant. Because the onyx stone was used three times, let us then look into its symbolism. It comes from a word that means “fingernail,” because it is somewhat translucent and has the look of the fingernail with stripes of various shades:
(1) The onyx stone was on the fourth row of stones, which speaks of tribulation, and the two onyx stones on the shoulders bore the names of all twelve tribes of Israel.
(2) The onyx
stone was the stone of the tribe of Joseph, who not only bore the burden of all of Israel when he delivered them from famine, but he was the “fruitful vine” who was responsible for saving the lives of the Egyptians as well as the lives of all the country around during the great famine. In Christ, it depicts the firstfruits Company, who will, by their faithfulness to God, save the church from its transgression and the world from total destruction. Jesus said, in Matthew 24:22, that but for the elect (overcomers) no flesh would be saved.
(3) In its variableness of color, the onyx stone contained a little of all the colors of the other stones, and thus accurately represents all of Israel. In Christ, this means that the Overcomer Company will come from all tribes. Wherever you are placed by God, you are able to make it. None is excluded.
Let us read Verse 29:
“And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually.”
Here again we see Aaron commanded to bear the names of the children of Israel, not just upon his shoulders, but upon his heart. The symbolism is rich here, in that it speaks of one bearing the family of God on his heart and not just on his shoulders. What then is this breastplate, and why is it so important to the priest’s garment?
It was called the “breastplate of judgment” because within it there were two objects: one called the Urim, and the other the Thummim. When any matter came to the priest for judgment, he did not make judgment from his own mind, but the Urim and the Thummim would move in the breastplate and give him his answer from God Himself. It was a fearful thing to be wearing this thing upon one’s breast:
Verse 30: “And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.”
The symbolism in Christ gives us to understand that there is no place for bearing the burden on the shoulder without bearing it on the heart. He promised to make us “kings and priests,” but only when we give Him our hearts. One who labors from the heart does not work for money but is a laborer of Christ with Christ.
The next symbolism we see here (in Verses 22-26) is that there were two golden loops, one in each of the shoulder pieces that held the onyx stone with the names of Israel. In those loops were two golden chains which went down to the breastplate and fastened in a golden loop, and which went down to the ephod skirt and was again fastened there. This means that the twelve names of the tribes of Israel on the shoulders were joined to the twelve on the breastplate of judgment, and to the linen dress which covered the priest’s nakedness (Verse 42). Gold is the nature of the divine God. When we are joined by God, there is no breaking. The bearing of the burden of Israel is intrinsically joined to the judgment of Israel, which is joined to the spiritual covering.
THE SPIRITUAL APPLICATION OF THE WORD
The story contained in Acts 16:23-34 tells us of Paul and Silas being beaten, and arrested, and cast into prison. Their response to this treatment was not human, but divine. They began to sing praises to God and they sang until midnight. (In biblical typology, midnight is both the darkest time and the hour before deliverance comes.) At midnight, there was a great earthquake (a divine shaking) and the prison doors flew open; the prisoners were all unshackled, and their feet were also loosed from the stocks. In those days, it was the law to execute the jailer who allowed his prisoners to escape. The jailer therefore, arising from his sleep and thinking that his prisoners had fled, pulled his sword to kill himself. Paul, who was in the innermost prison and in the dark, could not possibly have seen the jailer, neither could he have known that the other prisoners had not escaped. But, by divine knowledge, he shouted with a loud voice, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here”. The jailer came running to them and fell down before them asking, “What must I do to be saved?” His life had just been spared by the God of Paul and Silas, whom he did not know. They answered him:
“…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” Acts 16:31.
“AND THY HOUSE.” The jailer had only asked for salvation for himself, but Paul offered him also for his whole household. Upon what authority was this offer made, and was it biblical? It was upon the authority of Exodus 28. Of all the apostles of the Lamb, Paul was more versed in the typology of the Law and its meaning in Christ than any other. In verse 33, he baptized the whole family. This was no exception—this was the rule.
The jailer was the priest of his family, just as it was in the whole Jewish society that the head of the family was considered the priest of that family and he was spiritually accountable before God for his family. Upon the authority of this word therefore, Paul and Silas baptized the jailer and his whole family.
When the jailer, therefore, knelt before God, the Lord saw his whole family represented, and the curse of sin was removed from the family at that moment. The spiritual principle underlying this is that we are a covenant people. God has established His covenant with us through His Son as our High Priest, so that all those with whom we have covenant, He recognizes them as covenanting with Him by proxy. When the devil takes a family, he has power over the third and fourth generation of those who are disobedient . The blood covenant of Jesus Christ with us makes our families blood covenanted to Christ by proxy. As it was in the old Levitical covenant, the priest would go into the Holy of Holies once every year with the blood of the lamb, and when his sins were forgiven all of Israel’s were also forgiven.
In our experience, we see God moving among our families. When one gets saved, then there is a domino effect and God begins to move in the whole family, especially and first among those who are obedient and willing, but even the unwilling are moved by the mercies of God. In the case of my own family, God saved me first, then my brother, then my sister and their families, then another brother’s family, then another brother, then my father and my mother. In my wife’s family the same thing is occurring and also in our children and their families, and the process still continues. There are some basic reasons for this, which we will discuss in the next section, but it must be made clear here that before God a covenant is a very serious matter.
God has given us many promises as to our children:
“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” (Isaiah 49:24-25)
The promises of God are eternal, therefore if He will save the children of the Israelites of old, He will also save our children, for we are the “Israel of God” (Ref: Galatians 6:15-16).
Let us look at God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3:
“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Some of the blessings of God are on the family level. Abraham was elected to be the head of a nation from which the Messiah should be born, and so not only his natural seed was blessed but the spiritual children of Abraham also inherited the family blessing.
SUPPLICATION OF THE SAINTS
Every time one of us appears before God, we do bear on our shoulders and on our hearts the names of our families. The power of prayer cannot be overemphasized. Every time you take someone before the Lord, you are in effect putting yourself in for that person, and in the spiritual realms it becomes an offering, a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour. In the old Levitical priesthood, the priest would smell the incense and lift it up to God, and so God calls it a “sweet savour.”
The covenant must be exercised; it cannot be assumed that it will work without exercising it. Just after I got saved, I was burdened with the condition of my brother and so I fasted for seven days. The covenant I made with God was that He should save him that weekend. Right or wrong, that is what I did. I traveled to the city on Saturday to take him to a convention where I fully well decided he should be saved. When I got there, he was nowhere to be found. I went alone, knowing that God would save him anyhow. If I remember it correctly, that night he went as an observer for some social organization to investigate the Pentecostal church. He ended up at the altar and was saved.
I am sure most of us have stories like this of how God moves in our families. This is no coincidence. For those who do not have these stories of their families, then be assured they are in the making, for God will honor his word.
THE FULNESS OF THE COVENANT
This is the third level (or the level of the fulness) of this word, which brings us into a deeper spiritual understanding than before. We, as Christians, are working on a level far above and beyond our human perception. We live on a spiritual level much higher than our conscious being perceives, and we also minister on this higher level. For instance, when we pray, God answers by sending angels of varying power to work for us and to accomplish our requests. The following scripture will bear this thought out clearly:
“Are they not all ministering spirits [serving spirits], sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14).
Note that the word says they minister FOR us, not just to us. When there is a big job to be done, God sends big angels, and the word declares that at the end of time He will even send Michael the archangel to work for us to dislodge Satan from the Kingdom of God (Daniel 12:1, Revelation 12:7).
On this higher plane then, our family is no longer just those of our natural blood, but those of our spiritual blood (The blood of Jesus Christ). God is bringing us together on the spiritual level so that our oneness and place of meeting is in Christ and nowhere else.
THE UNREDEEMED
God’s covenant with mankind is to save everyone who can be saved, and that not one soul (of all the countless billions) will go to hell, if by any means he/she could make heaven. It follows then that God has a covenant of love and promise to save some, who are at this moment still in sin and still among the unredeemed. Some of these are among the many sheep which are “not of this fold,” and He says, “…them also must I bring” (John 10:16). When we appear before God daily we also carry the names of this family of lost ones before him upon our shoulders and upon our hearts, even as I carried a wayward brother of mine on my heart and on my shoulders until God gave me a promise of mercy for him, and finally saved him.
Even as we come closer together with the family of God in the earth, we also come closer to the family in the heavenlies. The closer we get to Christ, then the closer we get to all those who are in Christ. The greatest barrier between the Lord and us is our worldliness. We are now approaching the final hours of time when God will have to remove worldliness from us forcibly. This is the judgment of the Church, which I think has begun already. We should remember that the breastplate which the priest wore covering his chest was called the “breastplate of judgment” (Exodus 28:15,28,29). God’s judgment will come upon the Church before it comes to the world, and we can see God’s hand upon the Church at this time. Within the breastplate of judgment, there was the “Urim and the Thummim,” which represents the divine hand of God bringing judgment in Israel. The apostle Paul, in his interpretation of scripture, defines it as the “breastplate of righteousness”:
“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness” (Ephesians 6:14)
Within this breastplate, there are the twelve stones with the names of the children of Israel, which, with this scripture from Ephesians 6, throws a new light upon the subject. OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST IS A BREASTPLATE COVERING ALL THE VITAL ORGANS OF OUR BODY FROM THE SWORD OF THE ENEMY. THE SECOND THOUGHT IS THAT IT COMPRISES ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL, WHICH MEANS THAT THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST IS A COVERING FOR US.
As we therefore approach the throne of grace with the names of the tribes of Israel (the people of God) on our hearts, we are exercising a righteous act before God, which in turn becomes a part of our armor. When the Body of Christ in the earth functions, it brings perfection to us. Although none of us is perfect in himself, yet we have perfection through the function of the Holy Spirit, and we can enjoy a perfect function.
THE SPIRITUAL REASON FOR FAMILY DELIVERANCE
Many of us might wonder why it is that when God begins to work in a family, many of its members get saved one after the other. The answer is very simple. Satan’s kingdom is set up under different principalities, which consists of princes each with their own areas of rule. There are two basic realms of rule here: One is geographical, and the other psychological (for want of a better word). The world is divided up into geographical areas of rulership, mainly because certain types of people live in certain areas, and because we are gregarious we will tend to have the same habits among the different groupings. Psychologically we tend to exert peer pressure on one another and we find certain sins are more rampant among certain people.
The princes of Satan further divide people into many categories, but the most important one is the family category. Every family is adopted by devils, or agents of Satan. These are called “family spirits,” or “familiar spirits.” They live and feed upon families so long that their traits are regarded by most families as just family traits. So they are not even recognized by most of us as being demonic qualities, and we will even boast of them as being our qualities. I remember in my family how we used to boast of our prowess in fighting, and how we would proudly look back upon our ancestry as being mighty warriors, when in truth and in fact they were demon-possessed. Even the pride, which I find in families and nations, is nothing but demonic pride. Most of it has no real grounds; most of it (that we glory in) is what we should be ashamed of.
The first thing that happens when Jesus Christ comes into one’s life, is that this satanic family possession is hit by the blood of Jesus Christ. Some of God’s children are born strong and some are born weak, but the stronger the birth of the individual, the greater the hurt to the spirits that held him/her. Many of these spirits, which may have oppressed one’s family for ages, have not only been blasted by the blood of Jesus, but been put out of action forever and cast into the abyss, from whence they will not return until Jesus comes to judge the quick and the dead. From this understanding, we can see then why it is that when one person in a family is saved, the whole family begins to be released. The battle does not stop here, but it goes on, and on. With every victory that one wins over his basic Adamic nature, he is firing a dart or throwing bombs at Satan on behalf of his family.
The latter children of Christians tend to be better, because some of the demons which oppressed the first, have been “killed” and sent into Tartarus (Ref: 2 Peter 2:4) even before they were born. It is absolutely necessary that Christians watch their own lives and make sure that they are overcoming the family sins which “doth so easily beset us”. Let us look at what Paul said in this scripture:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
Every Christian should realize that we are part of a whole, and that every action of every individual will affect the whole—both on the natural family level and on the spiritual family level.
THE MAN CHILD—THE FINAL FULFILLMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL PRIESTHOOD
“And she (The Body of Christ) brought forth a man child, who was to rule (shepherd) all nations with a rod (staff) of iron:” (Revelation 12:5)
In order to reproduce, the woman must receive seed from the man, so the woman Church must always receive from her husband (Christ) in order to bring forth. Every Church in scripture is described as a “woman,” with the exception of this one. The man child Church, therefore, will be a life-giver, because at last Christ himself will be the Head, while the Church will be the Body; but they will be working and moving as one entity. This will be the New Creation, and the fulfillment of God’s creation of man.
During the tribulation, this Man Child Church will feed and succor the Woman Church:“And to the woman were given the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:14).
The strength of the covenant that God has with the overcomer Church will be lavished upon the woman church that birthed him, and she shall be protected in wilderness conditions until Satan is finally defeated and cast into the abyss.
