Got You Covered

Now that it’s summertime, my kids are covered in bug spray, dirt from the garden, ashes from the campfire, and marshmallows from s’mores. 

Bathtime and bedtimes are more lenient since we are making the most of our long summer days, and I overlook some of the mess. 

They are thankful then to be covered by my mercy.

Coverings are important.

Sunscreen and cover-ups prevent sunburns. Sleeping bags and blankets provide warmth. Shade circumvents dehydration.

Perhaps there was no covering so important- nor so messy!- as the pitch Noah had to use to cover the ark. God was explicit in His directions: “Cover it inside and out with pitch.”

Did Noah’s boys look like my kids after the campfire? Sooty and sticky from head to toe?

In any case, the covering of pitch was important to make the ark buoyant. If it wouldn’t float, what was the point?

Perhaps Moses’s mother had that in mind when she made his floating basket. “She daubed it with bitumen and pitch.” She covered him to keep him afloat, following God’s design given in the ark instructions.

And the coverings worked.

They made a protective barrier between the water that would kill and the air that would give life. 

After the people of Israel sinned by worshiping the golden calf, a false idol, Moses told them, “You have sinned a great sin.” They were covered in the inky black pitch of their sinfulness, and Moses wasn’t sure he could clean it off. “And now, I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

When Moses said, “make atonement,” he used the same words from God’s instructions to Noah: “Cover it inside and out with pitch.” Moses yearned for the people to be covered by God’s mercy instead of their undissolvable sin. 

Moses found that he could not make atonement for the people. The people had sinned against God, and they deserved to be pulled under by the weight of their offense.

Moses realized the hopelessness, and he pleaded instead for something else: “Please show me now Your ways, that I may know you.”

God answers this prayer, and He reveals to Moses that His way is mercy. It is the first attribute of His character that He lists when revealing His name to Moses: “A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

God then gave instructions to Moses for how the people should worship Him, and He detailed the tabernacle system for how He would cover their sins.

When God described the mercy seat, He used the same term Moses had for atonement. He used the word for covering. God Himself would cover them instead of allowing them to be covered by their sin.

He made a protective barrier between the sin that would kill and His grace which would give life, and the covering was called Mercy.