I was always awed by the story of Moses and how he spent so much time in the presence of God that his face ‘shone’ with the radiance of God when he came down from Mt. Sinai…so much so that he had to put on a veil to allow others to be in his presence. When I was a young Christian, I would imagine coming out of my prayer closet and people gasping because I was shining with God’s presence. Shockingly, that never happened. What happened more often was me struggling to spend 10 minutes in prayer and feeling so guilty and ‘unspiritual’ for being such a prayer weakling…anyway, that’s for another post.
But, as I was reading II Corinthians the other day, I realized that I COMPLETELY missed the point of the veil of Moses. I was always under the impression that Moses put the veil on because his face was so shiny and everyone was like “Hey Moses, you’re too shiny…cover that thing up!!” But, in actuality, he put the veil on for an entirely different reason and I think this should speak to us today.
II Corinthians 3:13 says “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.” Did you catch that? All I have to say is WOW! When I read this passage of scripture recently, God immediatly spoke to my heart and put a longing in my heart that has been missing for a long, long time. It isn’t a longing for more relevance, more Bible knowledge or church growth. He placed a burning desire in my soul for HIS GLORY!
There was a day when ALL I wanted was to be in His presence…to hear His voice…to “reflect God’s glory and to be transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory!” I would go into church services with such an intense hunger for God that it didn’t matter what songs were sung, what the pastor preached or if there was anyone there except for me and God. I was hungry for more of Jesus in my life and no one could stop me from pressing into His presence. I was literally radiating with His glory!
But somewhere along the way, that glory began to fade. I don’t know why Moses’ glory faded…maybe he stopped seeking God like he did before or the cares of life crept in or he just got sick and tired of the whiny Isrealites. But, something caused that glory to fade and it happened to me. I can’t pin point why. Maybe I got too busy or I wanted to be more “respectable” or maybe all the stuff that I was doing ‘for’ God replaced my passion to just be ‘with’ Him. Whatever the case, that glory faded and just like Moses, I tried to cover it up with a veil. A veil of busyness, ministry, relevance or anything else that took my mind off the fact that my shine was gone.
I think we’re there as a church in this nation. We were birthed in the upper room with tongues of fire and the manifest power of God but our glory has faded and the veil has appeared. A veil of church growth…church marketing…high impact worship…postmodern preaching…seeker sensitive/simple church/G12/emerging church/all the other church growth stuff. Dont’ get me wrong…I don’t think any of these things are wrong in and of themselves. But, when we substitute these things for God’s glory we become like Moses, walking around with a decorative veil that covers up the fading power of God in our midst!
NOTHING is more effective than God’s power! NOTHING is more relevant than God’s Spirit! NOTHING will cause the church to grow more than a community of people changing this world with unveiled faces that reflects HIS glory!! I don’t know what it is but I have become ravenously hungry for His glory and I want the same for the church. When we seek His glory once again, marketing, church growth, methods and ministry will take their proper place and be more effective than we could ever imagine!
