The Great Cover-Up

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.

2 Corinthians 3:13

Here we learn something about Moses that the Old Testament does not reveal. In the Old Testament account, Moses was not aware of the shining of his face when he came down from Mt. Sinai. Naturally it didn't take him long to learn that something unusual was happening when people shielded their faces in his presence. It became necessary for Moses to cover his face with a veil when he talked to people, a proper action in view of the circumstances. But Moses soon knew something that the people of Israel didn't know: the glory was fading. At first Moses put the veil on every morning because of the brightness of his face. But as time passed and the brightness faded to nothing more than a dim glow, he still wore the veil each day.

Paul raises the question: Why did Moses keep the veil on his face after the glory had faded? His answer: Moses was afraid the Israelites would see that the glory had faded! The mark of his status before God was disappearing, and he didn't want anyone to know it. So he did what millions have done ever since, he hid the fact of his faded glory behind a facade, a veil. He didn't let anyone see what was really going on inside.

Paul means this veil over the face of Moses to be a symbol of an activity of the flesh, for he finds the same veil still around in his own day. The Jews of his time were a continuing example. He writes: …to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read (2 Corinthians 3:14). When Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountain, he read them to the people. Their response was: All that God says, we will do. The confidence of the flesh rose up to say, We've got what it takes to do everything you say, God. But before the day was over they had broken all ten of the commandments. They knew it, but they didn't want anyone else to know. So they put up a facade. They covered over their failure with religious ritual and convinced themselves that was all God wanted. That pride which would not admit failure was the veil that hid the end of the fading glory.

Fifteen hundred years after Moses, Paul found the same veil at work in Israel. The Jews of his day made the same response to the demands of the law as their forefathers had made: All that you say, we will do! Today, the same phenomenon is occurring. When some demand is made upon the natural life, its response is, All right, I'll do it, or at least, I'll try. The confidence that we can do something for God blinds our eyes to the end of the fading glory. We believe that something good can be accomplished if we just give it the old college try. So today that same veil remains — unremoved.

Veils come in many forms today, but they are always the same: an image we project to others, and behind which we hide our real selves. They are a form of pride and hypocrisy. We don't want people to see our fading glory. And by wearing our veils long enough, there is great danger that we will actually begin to believe we are the kind of people we want everyone to believe we are. Then our hypocrisy becomes unnoticed by us and its perpetuation is assured.

Lord, show me the veils I wear to cover up the fading glory of the flesh.