C.C.Sinned
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Another Essay Part 1
Open your Bibles to the Book of Numbers Chapter 1. Numbers Chapter 1 and we will read some verses there and then in Chapter 2 as well. Numbers Chapter 1:52 – “And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents every man by his own camp and every man by his own standard throughout their hosts.” Note that phrase, “Every man by his own standard throughout their hosts.” Now look in Chapter 2:2. “Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch his own standard or banner or flag with the ensign, banner or flag, of their fathers house far off about the Tabernacle of the Congregation shall they pitch. And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies; and Nahshon, the son of Amminadab shall be Captain of the Children of Judah.” Notice if you would please, in verse 10, “On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies: and the captain of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.” Note on the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben. Look in verse 17, “Then the tabernacle of the congregation shall set forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camp: as they encamp, so shall they set forward, every man in his place by their standards. On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their armies: and the captain of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud.” Then verse 25, “The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies. And the captain of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.” And then verse 31, “And they that were numbered in the camp of Dan were an hundred thousand and fifty and seven thousand and six hundred. They shall go to hindmost with their standards.” Then verse 34, “And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses so they pitched by their standards and so they set forward every one after their families according to the house of their fathers.
Let me begin by asking a simple question. Why in the world is there so much fuss over a flag? Is a standard, a banner, and ensign, or a flag worth fighting about? Everyone knows that a flag is a symbol. It represents something. But what is it a symbol of and what does it represent? If you will study your Bible you will find that our English word “flag” does not occur in our Bibles, except to refer to “the reeds” or more specifically the “paper I plant that dwells by the riverside.” But if you will take the time to go through a concordance you will find that the word “banner, ” the word “standard, ” the word “ensign” occurs frequently over and over. I want you to see by way of introduction tonight the importance of a flag or the importance of a standard. You see, when the children of Israel were encamped in the wilderness they camped everyone under their own standard. Do you realize that they were centered around that Tabernacle according to their standards as well? If you will look back in your Bibles to the Book of Numbers 2:2. Note this statement: “Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard. So evidently a tribe had its own standard, with the ensign of their father's house. So there were not only tribal standards, there were also family standards, so usually then, each family carried two banners - one for their tribe and one for their father's house. And of course, all of these families in Israel, all of the tribes then were centered around that tabernacle. When they marched, they marched according to the order that God gave. Now there were four leading tribes: the Tribe of Judah, Rueben, Ephraim and Dan. Now according to tradition, the standard of the Tribe of Judah had a Lion on it. Hence we know Christ as the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” That of the Tribe of Rueben had the likeness of a man's head. That of the Tribe of Ephraim had the figure of an ox and that of the Tribe of Dan had the symbol of an eagle. If you will study the book of Ezekiel, you will find the four living creatures there that Ezekiel saw had the faces of these four standards that are mentioned here in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 2.
Now I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 20:5. The Word of God says this: “We will rejoice in thy salvation and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions.” So banners or flags then have a religious significance. Here is the importance of a banner: we set it up in the name of our God. It represents our theology. It represents our Christianity. Look in your Bibles to Psalm 60:4. Note how plain the Bible is here. Psalm 60:4: The Word of God says, “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee that it may be displayed because of thy truth.” So God then gives us a banner that we might display that banner. Why? Because of the truth. Not because of error, not because of anything else, but because of the truth. Now go back in your Bibles to the Book of Exodus 17:15. You are going to be surprised when you find one of the names of God mentioned here in the Bible. Exodus 17:15, “The Children of Israel had fought against the Amalikites and had won.” God had given them the victory. Exodus 17:14: Note what God tells Moses. “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 if it Jehovah-nissi. Jehovah-nissi. For he said because the Lord had sworn that the Lord would have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” Now note Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi. Jehovah-nissi means “the Lord our banner.” In other words God is the banner of His people. The name of God is associated with the warfare of His people. So a flag then is not just given to us for the truth, but God Himself is said to be our flag, our banner. Look in your Bibles at the Book of Isaiah 59:19. Here is a very powerful verse. Look in Isaiah 59:19. Note, if you would this verse: “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West and His glory from the rising of the Sun when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard or banner against him.” Did you hear what I just read? When the enemy shall come in like a flood then the spirit, that is the third person of the Trinity, then the Holy Spirit shall lift up a standard against him. Now let me ask you a question. If the Holy Spirit is lifting up a banner, if he is lifting up a standard against the enemies of God's people, what standard or what banner is he lifting up? Look in your Bibles to Isaiah 11:10 and you will find out. Note if you would please, what the Word of God says concerning Christ, “And in that day there shall be root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign or a flag of the people and to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious.” So when the enemies of the Lord come in like a flood, the Spirit of God lifts up a standard against them and that standard is Jesus Christ! So God the Father is said in the scripture to be our banner. God the Son is said in the scripture to be our banner. I don't know about you, but I believe God places a great deal of importance upon banners and flags and ensign in the Word of God.
No one can deny the importance of a standard based upon the Word of God. But what about the Confederate Flag? Is the Confederate Flag a Christian symbol? Interestingly, when one mentions the Confederate Flag, usually what comes up in someone's mind is the battle flag as we see right here. I want you to know tonight that there were numerous Confederate Flags. This is the battle flag. Let me just point out the fact that there were five major flags. There were many, many more, but the first flag that I want to point out is the Bonnie Blue flag which was a solid blue flag with a single star right in the middle. Now the Bonnie Blue flag was the unofficial flag of the Confederate States of America. It was never officially adopted, but it was an extremely popular flag and there is a song written about it from that period. Then secondly, there is what is known as the first “National Flag”, which is sometimes called the Stars and Bars. Now there is a problem, and I am going to deal with it a little bit later. But the Stars and Bars looked a lot like the Stars and Stripes, and there was a conflict because of that. Then thirdly, there was the second “National Flag”, which is referred to as the stainless banner. It just had this symbol in the upper left-hand corner and then it was pure white; it was silk. The only problem with the stainless banner was when the wind was not blowing and it was folded, it sometimes looked like a flag of truce, or a flag of surrender. And then fourthly, we have the third “National Flag” and that was the same stainless banner but with a solid red bar all the way down it and that is the one that is usually flying today. It was officially adopted, but very few of them were issued. And then of course, we have the Confederate Battle Flag as we know it. Interestingly enough, the first four flags are very rarely spoken against because most people don't even know about their existence, and they are totally absolutely ignorant of them and so consequently it is the battle flag that catches most of the flak.