Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded. The children of Israel saw Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; so Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.”
(Exodus 34:27-35)

“But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away. But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But whenever someone 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 liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.“
(2 Corinthians 3:14-18)

From the beginning, God pursued humanity to have a relationship with us. It is always Him making Himself available and pointing out in simple and easy to understand ways exactly how it is that we are able to have a relationship with Him. He is always picking us up and bringing us up to His level. He’s able to do that when we obey and seek His face. Moses sought God and was rewarded with God’s goodness on His face. Shining out so hard that those of lesser trust, who didn’t seek the same kind of relationship, had trouble looking at. A veil was required to keep the intensity of God’s goodness from their eyes. We ALL have a veil before our eyes. One that only Jesus can remove.

The Law was a veil. It pointed out to us all the ways in which our words, our thinking, and our behaviour were leading us to death. It pointed out to us that only a qualified sacrifice could pay for those words, thoughts, and behaviour – our very nature needing to be expunged. Only Messiah was the appropriate sacrifice, but unless He took the veil away, we wouldn’t see it. We COULDN’T see it. But God WANTS a relationship with us and He uses His Word and His Spirit to part that veil, to remove it so that we can truly see Messiah for who He is – and by accepting Him receive salvation and the ability to see God’s goodness shine from our insides out.

Summary

The Body of Christ, the Church, is made up of ANYONE who has had the veil moved aside and accepted Jesus as Messiah. Jews or Gentiles, it makes NO difference. Our acknowledgement and acceptance of Jesus’ rulership in and over our lives brings us to the humble submission needed to accept Him as Saviour and Lord, God and King. By THIS we are made whole and healed. By THIS we are made children of God. Jew first, and then the Gentile, it is the way it has always been. One Family in Jesus. Period and forever.