Near To God

Do His words billow o'er my soul?
How would I last the day?
But that His Spirit falls on me -
This is what I pray.

And what if He should tell me
What I do not long to hear?
But if His Spirit falls on me
Then I know that He's drawn near.

With my head upon His bosom
There I lie in pure delight;
And words are never needed
Where my soul has taken flight.

Desire the High and the Holy thing -
What's done on heavenly sod.
Lie upon His bosom -
Rest upon your God.

- J. Pecoraro

The Removal of the Veil

 

 

All the world loves a ceremony. And surely there is an assortment of them that we’ve become acquainted with. From one culture to another they will vary. Nevertheless all reach the intended purpose at the close: A newborn has been dedicated to God. A hero is honored. One chosen by his compatriots has been sworn into office. A man and a woman become one through marriage. Of all ceremonies, no matter what type they are or what they signify, I believe there is one that is more sacred in the eyes of our Creator than all of the others. Also it seems to be the one that people are most moved by. It’s the wedding ceremony. But why would the Lord find the coming together of a bride and her groom of such high importance? Why would He honor it above the rest? The answer is simple. It’s because the marriage union is - and has always been - a type of the Son of God becoming one with His church. Christ is made the Head, while His bride comprises the many members of His body. Blessed by the hand of the Father, it is a union that will remain strong, sacred, and altogether complete throughout eternity.

Even the average wedding ceremony is likely to be rich in significance. The father of the bride, walking his daughter down the aisle to give her away, speaks of the fact that she will no longer be his, but will instead belong to another. Then there is the exchanging of rings. I myself am partial to the bride and the groom coming together to light a single candle. But there is an occurrence near the close that seems to draw little attention, though the symbolism is of some magnitude. I speak of the removal of the veil. What is the meaning behind it? The meaning is this. As long as the veil remains upon the face of the bride, the groom has no right to her. But once the veil is removed, for the bride to be kissed, she becomes his. No longer does anything separate the two; the veil has been lifted. She now belongs to her husband, and her husband to her. Soon the union will be consummated.

About thirty-five hundred years ago there was a great man of God who at times needed to wear a veil upon his face. His name was Moses. But why was it that Moses had to cover his face? It was because he had drawn more near to the living God than any other man of his day. He had in fact come so near that afterwards his face shone. Moreover it shone in such a mysterious way that his brother Aaron and all of the children of Israel were afraid to come near to him. Still, when it came time for Moses to speak with them they would have to behold him with an unveiled face, a thing difficult for them to do. When he finished speaking he again covered his face. Yet whenever Moses returned to the tabernacle of meeting, outside the camp, to be with and speak with the Lord, he would remove the veil until he departed from there.

We believers in the New Testament age, who have become known as the church of Jesus Christ, are also referred to as His bride. It is for this reason that Paul the apostle writes these words: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Yet this is what Paul writes of the Israelites in the wilderness: “But their minds were hardened. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

According to the third chapter of the second letter to the Corinthians, the Israelites couldn’t keep their vision fixed on the unveiled face of Moses. Why? My guess is that they were not yet ready for the concept of mortal man becoming intimate with the Great I AM - even as a bride with her husband. Somehow I believe they saw the glory of that in the face of His chosen one. And when it became too difficult for them to go on beholding it, Moses would once again put the veil upon his face. But whenever he returned to the sacred tabernacle of meeting, where he would enter into intimacy with his God, he would remove the veil, since it was fitting for him to do so. Of all the children of Israel it was Moses alone who the Lord had prepared to come into so close a union with. Though fear and trembling may have had its place, how he must have relished those moments spent with the Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Despite the scriptures teaching that this glory was but a passing one, I yet believe that Moses stood as the prototype of the New Testament church - the unveiled bride of Christ. And so the removal of his veil was a foreshadow of the true removal; that is to say forever removed. It is this happening that grants us today not only the liberty of the Spirit but access to God in the innermost sanctuary, where the barrier has been torn away; and this access is for ages unending. Moses’ experience with Him was only in part and for a time, since the precious blood hadn’t yet been shed. But when this occurred many centuries afterward, the union between Christ and His church had in truth become consummated, and that in blood - running down from His body and onto the earth. It would serve as the seed of the church. Once again we are taken from the womb of the earth - though now a bloodstained earth - and born a second time. Yet this time we are granted the life of the Spirit forever, as we now emerge from higher ground than did Adam - from out of a hill called Calvary. Here our heavenly Father bestows upon us the honor of dying with His Son, being crucified with the Head of the body, we ourselves the remaining members. But because He has risen and lives forevermore, then in His footsteps we will follow. And we will not lose our way, remaining near to Him who is the firstfruits of the dead.

Today for the bride of Christ, all things have been made possible. For we have become of one body with He who is God divine. We have tasted of the Man and have drunk of his Spirit, and every obstacle has been removed that once stood between us. Unveiled before the Son, we have come to inherit all things with Him - an inheritance exceedingly rich and unending. With Him we have entered a union that even the angels weren’t created for. Therefore the writer of Hebrews wrote this: “For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him?’” This “one” was David, who has left us with these words: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”



I think that we will never comprehend the glory and the magnitude, the richness and the splendor, of the calling that we who believe have in the Son of God. If forever we honored and praised our heavenly Father - if we worshiped and thanked Him for ages unending, it would never suffice; always it will remain that we could do no more than accept from Him everlasting waves of love and blessings flowing over our souls. Still we heap upon Him the fruit of our lips without end. Great glory and honor to the Living God; to the High and the Holy; to Him who is seated upon the throne.

J. Pecoraro