(By Dave, 5-10 min)
Scripture
Exodus 34:29-35
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Marty and my demise
I was a rotten kid in middle school. Gave my parents no end of headaches. I got in fights. I started hanging out with the crowd who would cut class to smoke in the nearby woods. My parents got a call from my social studies teacher warning them that the decisions I was making were bad, and the people I was befriending were trouble.
My parents got after me, but it produced no effect. One of my nefarious acquaintances showed me how to steal stuff during lunch. If you brown-bagged your lunch, the school sold supplements. Ice cream sandwiches were part of that. My buddy showed me you could grab a carton of milk, stick the ice cream in your brown paper bag, pay only for the milk, and get away easy-peasy. I did it for weeks until one day I failed to stuff the ice cream deep enough into my bag. The cashier caught me.
Off to the vice principal’s office I went along with my mentor who was none too pleased with me. Having been caught doing this before, he got in big trouble. For me, this was my first offense. The VP told me he would let me off and not call my parents if I promised to go straight. Because I was terrified of my father who had zero tolerance for dishonesty, I genuinely agreed and breathed a sigh of relief that I dodged a bullet.
Back then telephones were wired to the wall, and ours lived in the kitchen right next to the table where we all ate dinner. Right in the middle of dinner one of my non-thug friends, Marty, called:
“Oh man, what happened to you in the office?”
I had to keep my answers nebulous because Mom and Dad were sitting right there. “You know, not much.”
“Did Mr. Banks punish you?”
“No.”
“Come on, Dave, what happened in there?”
“We talked,” I said, inching my way around the corner into the dining room stretching the cord as far as it could go.
“Did he give you detention or call your parents?”
“No.”
Marty finally figured it out. “Your parents are right there aren’t they?”
“Yes,” I said emphatically. “Listen I got ago we’re eating dinner.”
“Okay man. Just wanted to check in on you.”
“Thanks.”
We hung up.
The damage was done, but I still tried to lie my way out of it. To no avail. The punishments came fast and furious once the story was out, complete with severe threats about not seeing certain people and the horrible choices I was making. My father dished out his own kind of non-corporal punishment which was commensurate with the terror I had before the school VP let me off the hook.
During the entire attempted deceit of my parents my face glowed red, a beacon of dishonesty my mother always spotted. If only a veil covered my face when I was lying, maybe I could’ve avoided their scrutiny for this and the many lies that came before and after. Yes, I didn’t immediately learn my lesson, but those are stories for another time.
Veils of the Spirit
It’s hard to imagine that my dishonest, younger self and Moses share anything in common. Moses wore a veil over his face to hide the fading radiance of God’s glory so that he could effectively lead Israel. I wanted a veil over my face to hide the embarrassment of my sin so I wouldn’t get caught. As dissimilar as we are, the two of us represent two sides of the same coin; God’s presence.
The radiance on the face of Moses symbolizes that if God’s laws imparted on Mount Sinai are embraced, His light will shine from us. Because humanity routinely disregards these laws, the glow associated with being in the presence of, and obedience to, God fades as surely as it did from the face of Moses.
Jeremiah predicted God’s solution to this conundrum for the Israeli people. A solution Jesus then offered to the world:
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33).
In 2 Corinthians, Paul describes how the law was written into our hearts as a gift from Jesus:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
Jeremiah tells us that the law will be moved from stone tablets into the human heart. Paul tells us that this Spirit of God in our hearts will transform us as surely as God’s presence transformed the face of Moses. Moses reached for a veil because his radiance faded until he next returned to God. This is not so for the faithful Christian. The law of God is written on his heart and the Spirit of God is with her always. For us there is no leaving Mount Sinai or the tabernacle. The Spirit of God is with us everywhere and has the potential to perpetually shine with its light.
Rather than hide from the world the fading glow of once being in God’s presence, our veils hide the undiminished radiance of God’s presence within us. My middle school self wanted a veil to hide God’s Spirit within me from my parents. It was that Spirit that caused such embarrassment within me and turned my face red. Hiding that embarrassment may have permitted me to live on as a thieving liar, but it would’ve hidden the Spirit of God at work in me.
I wonder what other veils we wear to obscure or resist the burning light of the Spirit within us? When the Spirit calls us to be merciful and kind, do we remember past hurts and don a veil of pride, bitterness or anger, ignoring the unfading presence of God within? Masks of self-righteousness and justification in place, do we turn headlong away from the indwelling urge to fulfill the law so beautifully described by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount?
Pride, bitterness, anger and resentment appear to be justifiable responses to the world. Veils that feel like soothing mineral pools for our troubled souls. Yet, for the Christian these veils are toxic. The longer we live behind them, the worse our lives become as the conflict between them and the unfading Spirit gifted to us by Christ grows.
We can choose to ignore the Spirit’s gentle urging, but there is no hiding from its presence. A Christian will either comport with God’s law written on their hearts or be profoundly discontent. With each new veil donned preventing the Spirit from shining God’s glory into the world, will come a new higher level of discontent until our lives are inexplicably miserable and we look to God asking why.
This is no way for the forgiven to live. Moses used a veil to deceive his people and convince them that he represented God’s wishes even when His radiance passed. But the radiance of God within us never fades and the veils we wear only perturb God’s purpose for our lives. Many wonder what it will be like to stand before God at the end of times and know nothing is hidden from our Creator. Nothing is hidden from Him now which is why, for believers, living a life ignoring the urging from the Spirit is a misery to the soul.
Let’s rise above this and reach the potential God gave us. Instead of hiding from the Holy Spirit, let us embrace Him leaving our ridiculous veils in the dust where they belong.
May you feel, adore and embrace God’s Spirit in you. Let God’s undiminished radiance within shine out and have its way. If we do this, we can have what Moses tried to create with his veil; an ability to affect the world positively for the glory of God. Oh yeah, and we’ll be much happier as well. Many blessings to you all and thanks for reading,
Dave
Leave a Reply