THE VEIL LIFTED

 

  Veils are used to conceal appearances. The curtain in the Tabernacle and Temple were to conceal the Existence of God as his Glory was magnificent. So remarkable that Moses wore a veil when he reappeared from the Presence of God. Moses was later instructed as follows:

  And you shall hang the veil from the clasps and bring the Ark of the Testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. (Exod 26:33)

  That was God’s instructions to Moses on how to design the veil to the Holy of Holies wherein God “sat” on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Although God sat on the Mercy Seat, the Testimony to Him was inside. There were three things: (1) The Ten Commandments written by the Finger of God (Jesus; Deut 9:10) and were the “Words” of Jesus (Exod 20:1), (2) Aaron’s rod, and (3) manna from Heaven which would never spoil unlike manna that preserved them in the wilderness.

  Aaron’s rod represents “love in the Spirit of gentleness” (1 Cor 4:21), it would seem, and since Aaron’s staff overcame all the perils given to Pharaoh, that staff surely represents overcoming the world with love!

  The veil concealed Jesus, the Power of the Holy Spirit, and Preservation, or salvation. By whom were they saved? By the Father above through Jesus below. The Mercy Seat was God’s “throne” and inside the Ark of God was Jesus on the the “footstool.” (And the Cross is a symbol of that.)

  The Ark was the “House” that they built for God and it would later be replaced by a throne for God with a footstool for Him (2 Chron 9:18). That is written in scripture:

Thus, says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the Earth is my footstool; what is the House that you would build for Me, and what is the place of My rest? (Isa 66:1)

  Isaiah was writing of the tomb of Jesus as God’s Place of Rest. The tomb replaced the Ark of the Covenant, the place God rested. The tomb was God’s footstool and Heaven was His throne. As God, He directed all that happened on the Earth from Paradise in heaven. With that said, the Ark of the Covenant represented Jesus in the tomb, signifying by the prescriptions  for eternal health (“The Ten Prescriptions”), His victory over death and evil (Aaron’s Rod), and salvation (manna from heaven — the Bread of Life.) The veil concealed all that!

  When was the curtain, or veil, torn away?

⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his Spirit. ⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. (Mat 27:50-52)

  When Jesus gave up the Ghost, it was finished, and the curtain of the Temple was torn (Mark 15:37-38). Those dead in Christ would arise at the Resurrection. The Covenant (represented by the Ark as the Testimony) did not actually change; it was revealed with Jesus coming to fulfill the Law (Luke 22:44).

  The curtain was the “veil” that had concealed God’s Plan all along; salvation was always by the grace from God on His Mercy Seat, it was always through Jesus for everyone, and that victory is His, not our own works, and lastly that Jesus saves and there is no other. Paul called that revelation, “The Mystery of God” (aka “The Mystery of Christ”): 

²⁴ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. ²⁵ Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began. (Rom 16:24-25)

  Where am I heading with this? Like most people, I thought there were two Testimonies of God and two Covenants. Rather, the old Covenant was misunderstood; it was never about obedience to the Law, but a willingness to please God! That was validated by Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only remaining and second son, just as Yahweh would do a millennium and a half years later! That willingness was accounted to Abraham as righteousness; not that he fulfilled the Command but was willing to do so!

  The veil was lifted from my spiritually blind eyes as I traveled from Indianapolis to Detroit one day. Suddenly, I understood that the Abrahamic Covenant was not one of obedience to the Law, but a willingness to please God. That willingness is a show of love, but obedience only of fear. With the veil lifted, I see Jesus in all the Books of the “Old Testament” which is better called, a “Trailer for the Gospel Story.”

  The key verses actually follow, and what was written as background validates what was written thousands of years ago:

³ Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart… 7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away… ¹² Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: ¹³ And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: ¹⁴ But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. (2 Cor 3:3,7,12-16)

  The sacrificial death of Jesus tore down all veils from “Old Testament” scripture. It tore down the fig tree from over Adam’s and Eve’s faces, the veil from Moses face, the veil concealing the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and the Temple’s “veil.” It even removed the blindness from Bartimaeus and Saul! The former, blind since birth, as his eyes were opened, saw Jesus as the Tree of Life and the others, “men as trees, walking (Mark 8:24).

  Finally, I saw the Garden of Eden as a Paradise of Living Souls that Adam was assigned to serve and preserve, but he didn’t do that; the Second Son did! Salvation was by the grace of Jesus all along, and Abraham saw that when He encountered Melchizedek — pre-incarnate Jesus unveiled (Heb 7).

  Finally, the Groom lifted the veil of His Bride the Church. He was the Betrothed all the time. Only after he revealed Himself to the world did some understand.

(picture credit: Unsplash)