Veils

In the Old Testament, this time that Moses spoke to God face-to-face, when he came back, his face was glowing all radioactive-like for a while. It scared people, so he started wearing a veil over it.   I'm picturing this mysterious glow coming from behind the veil.  Very Doctor Who.  

   Moses had gotten to look at God Himself. Either God was a bit coy about this, or He was protecting Moses, but He acted like it would blind Moses worse than staring directly at the sun for the whole conversation if Moses got to look at Him casually the whole while.  I dunno. But it wasn't casual.

   And then later, once Moses started following the instructions given him, he supervised the construction of the Tabernacle, God's Own Place to Live among the Israelites.  A temple they could disassemble and bring along with them, to have God living among them, as they travelled through the desert.  And God was in there, as a blinding glow.  He could be seen as a pillar of fire above the Tabernacle by night, looking more like a column of smoke by day.  And there was a veil in there, blocking people's view of Him.  One supposes, for their own protection.

   Normal people could not go into the Tabernacle and meet God close up, like Moses had done. They'd drop dead if they tried.  So there were rooms within rooms, and the veil, blocking the way.  The high priest could go in once a year, and he needed to bring animal blood with him if he wanted to survive it.

   Then, God puts on a body, and comes to Earth as Jesus, to no longer only live disembodied in a religious building, but in a body like everyone else's.  Being born, eating, sleeping, singing, drinking, bathing and all the rest, shoulder to shoulder with human beings.  And eventually dying shoulder to shoulder with two criminals. And being buried.

   And when his spirit leaves that body, some odd things happen.  One of those is that the veil of the then-temple in Jerusalem (a few temples had been built after the Tabernacle was no longer needed) is violently ripped in half.  From top to bottom.  There was then no veil between people and God.  They'd seen God in a person, and now there was nothing to block their view of Him.

   And Jesus told his disciples that, once he was gone, God would once again live among human beings.  But not in a mobile temple or a temple.  Not behind a veil.  Not even in a single human body with a human life.  The Holy Spirit would indwell/live inside willing people.  The disciples were told that their bodies were Tabernacles/temples for the Holy Spirit.  And all through Acts, Luke (probably) writes that new believers received the Holy Spirit.

   And then Paul and Timothy wrote to the Christians at Corinth and said that when the holy scriptures were being read to the Jewish people who did not recognize Jesus as the messiah, that these people "wore a veil" on their hearts.  Not just their minds.  Their hearts.  To unnecessarily block a direct view of God, or to supposedly block His view of their hearts?

   I was raised Christian, and every time we would read in the bible anything that was critical of the religious Jews of that time (Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers and scribes), we gleefully tut tutted about that.  Just like we did over how stupid the disciples, particularly Peter, were.  (We complained of Paul being stubborn, perhaps, but got less laughs out of his adventures.)  Sometimes we even applied those verses to other Christian groups not fortunate enough to be as correct as ours.  But we didn't apply them to us.  We didn't make that connection between ourselves and these other religious people, assuming that they had the inside track as to God, but getting much of it wrong and needing to be told that they were less spiritual, and more interested in being known as religious folks.

   Well, let's try it.  Picture reading the bible, with a veil acting as buffer between you and God.  Making sure you don't let it shine on your heart too directly.  Not wanting certain corners of your heart to see that light.  Do we do that?   Obviously this is dumb.  The reason for a veil was never to keep God out.  A "heart-veil" when reading is not only obsolete, since the death of Christ, but backwards anyway.  It's dumb. It's pre-Christian.
   I think sometimes that "veil" is made of doctrine.  Then the bible isn't us experiencing God, but us seeing that the teaching in our Christian group is correct.  Putting it to work, supporting the notion that the decisions and positions made and taken by our group are correct, or at least the Best Thing Going.  Well, that's not the same thing as letting the book speak, so we can know and be known by God. I think that's dumb.  I think we are assuming that if we listen to, rather than use the bible to support our human religion, that we'll have to stop doing more and more enjoyable stuff.  (like the bible is some kind of Joy Extermination Manual).  Might have to give up comfort and go to Africa.  That's all incredibly stupid, clearly.  But I do it sometimes.
   So.  The answer?  Let God shine on your heart.  See if He, as scripture promises, give you its desires (and deeper and realer and darker and brighter than you yourself know them to be) or if He asks you to stick it in a vice/box.