The veil of Moses

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2).

In recent years, much has been made over whether or not the Ten Commandments can or should be displayed in public buildings like schools or courthouses. Those who argue against it say that putting up the Commandments in effect endorses the religion that produced them; others counter this argument by saying that they are significant relics of history, and that by putting them up we show honor to our cultural heritage.

After giving this quite a bit of thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that, as long as Bibles cannot be placed in public buildings, it really doesn’t matter if the Ten Commandments are posted in them or not. Without the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments are only a statement of God’s condemning Law, providing no offer of God’s gracious mercy when we fail to live up to their exacting standards. In the end, Law without Gospel only condemns.

I wouldn’t be surprised if what I’ve just said has made you uncomfortable. One of the first things that we were taught as Christian children were the Ten Commandments. We have been brought up in the belief that God expects us to live holy, decent lives, and the Ten Commandments are the most important guidelines for such living that God gives to us. And this is certainly true. But the problem is that none of us can live holy, decent lives—not to God’s standard of perfection. After all, God said: "Be holy, because I am holy" (Leviticus 11:45). To be holy is to be completely free of every sinful impulse from conception to death—the Ten Commandments merely give us a glimpse at what it means to be holy. If we are honest with ourselves, the Ten Commandments don’t tell us how we can please God, they point out all the ways in which we anger God every day. The Ten Commandments reveal only one aspect of God to us—His holy, perfect, judging aspect. The Ten Commandments do reveal God’s glory, but it is a terrible glory to we who sin.

Of course, many people don’t look at the Ten Commandments this way. One group, the Jews, can serve as an example. In today’s Epistle reading, Paul compares the Jewish view of God’s holy Law with the Christian view. Paul starts by taking us back to Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. In point of fact, God gave Moses many more commands to relay to the Israelites than just the Commandments; half of the book of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and the first part of Numbers were dictated to Moses and repeated to the Israelites while they camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. And while this was going on, something remarkable happened to Moses: chapter 34 of Exodus records: When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the LORD's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

God caused a miracle to happen. Whenever Moses came to the people with God’s commands, Moses’ face shown with some of the glory of God. In part, this is because of what is said of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy: Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face (Deuteronomy 34:10). Moses’ face reflected God’s glory because he had been in the presence of God. But it also seems likely that God allowed Moses’ face to shine for a reason—to show the Israelites that Moses spoke with God’s own authority and should therefore be listened to. This calls to mind the purpose of Jesus’ transfiguration before the inner circle of His disciples, where Jesus shone with heavenly splendor, and His Father was heard to say, "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" (Mark 9:2-8).

The glory of Moses was not his own, it was only a reflection of the glory of God. Yet even this reflected glory was so pure, so intense, that it frightened everyone who looked at Moses. Moses represented God’s perfect expectations for humanity, and the people could not help but be scared, seeing their imperfect lives in contrast with God’s demand for perfection. So Moses took to wearing a veil over his face when he was not repeating God’s instructions to the people; this kept them from being too frightened to talk to him.

What is interesting, though, is that over time, the glow slowly faded from Moses’ face. When we are first confronted with God through His Law, we are terrified, just as the Israelites were, and we resolve to try and live holy, decent lives. But as time goes on, we inevitably begin to take God’s laws less seriously; we try to look for loopholes, we try to cut corners, we look for exceptions to the rules. The glow of commitment begins to fade. We start down the same path as the Israelites, of whom Paul said: their minds were made dull.

Moses tried to maintain the illusion that his face still glowed behind the veil, in order to keep the Israelites in line through continuing fear of God’s Law. But God let the glow fade away because our heavenly Father knows that fear and intimidation do not change people over the long haul—people become inured to living under constant threat. In any event, fear of punishment is not how God wants to lead His people; God instituted the Tabernacle and the sacrifices for sin so that His chosen people would follow Him out of thankfulness for His mercy, not because of fear of His wrath.

But the Israelites were not cooperative. Paul said, their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. Paul meant that the Jews of his day lived as if Moses’ veil was still in place. When they read the books of Moses, with all their Commandments and laws, the Jews imagined that although they couldn’t see Moses’ face because he was long dead, yet still God’s impressive glory would be found hidden behind the reading and obeying of His holy Law. For Moses, the veil was the delusion that the Israelites could be compelled to be holy out of continuing fear of God; for the Jews of Paul’s day, the veil was the delusion that keeping God’s laws was how one earned entry into heaven.

But a delusion it certainly was—and is. There are still many people who think that God will take them to heaven if they just try their best; surely God doesn’t expect more of us than we are capable of? Such people have only seen the frightening glory of God’s Law; to reassure themselves that they can successfully keep that Law, they water it down. I know a man who claims he has never sinned; he has never broken one of the Ten Commandments. But like so many, he ignores the clear teaching of Scripture: in Romans 3:20 Paul warns us, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

Paul tells us that there is only one way to be free of the veil of delusion; whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Jesus is the Good News—the good news being that He has fulfilled the requirements of God’s Law for us. Paul writes, we...know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:15-16). We do not find salvation in what we do, but in what we believe. Isaiah said that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6); such acts, no matter how ‘righteous’ they appear to others, cannot save us.

Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, Jesus was born under God’s Law; that means that He was obligated, like any man, to keep the Law perfectly. This Jesus did, because unlike us He was born without sin (since His Father was God). But as the Son of God Jesus’ life had infinite worth, far more worth than all our human lives added together. Jesus could offer His sinless life to His Father in place of our sin-filled lives, and in this way God’s holy Commandments were considered to be fully and satisfactorily met. We don’t have to be perfect—Jesus has been perfect for us. Jesus was so perfect that He even was willing to suffer and die as our substitute for all the times we have not kept God’s holy Law perfectly.

When Christ lifts the veil from our eyes, we see the truth: it is only by faith in Jesus that we see the true glory of God. The glory of God’s Law is a terrible, frightening glory, but the glory of His Gospel, shown to us in the face of Jesus, is by far a greater glory—the glory of forgiveness and unlimited love. Paul says, now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! (2 corinthians 3:7-11).

I said earlier that God does not want to rule our hearts with fear, because fear makes us callous and destroys trust. Lasting relationships do not result from threats. Permanent inner change does not arise from fear. Only love builds permanent relationships. Only love can bring about true inner rebirth. And love is the means by which our God wants to lead us. We need to hear His Law so that we can understand our need to change our ways, but it is only His holy love that can work that change within us. God’s Law grabs us by the shoulders and shakes us out of the sleep of our sin, but it is the loving words of our Savior’s Gospel message that draw us into His gentle embrace. It is only through the Good News about Jesus that we will come to reflect our Lord’s glory from our unveiled faces to those around us, and be transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory.