Exodus 34:32-35

“When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out…” vss. 33-34a

Sometimes the stories in scripture that we have from our faith ancestors are beautiful and life-changing, but at other times they’re just bizarre, and we have no idea what they’re about. This little excerpt from Exodus is like that. The neat thing about such texts is that occasionally they contain real gems! In this story about the shining face of Moses we’re told that he had to veil his face to keep from frightening the people. In other words they couldn’t handle the pure glory of God that they saw reflected there. They had to be careful and take precautions, kind of like the ones we take when we want to view an eclipse of the sun. It may be that Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:12 are getting at the same truth, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” There are so many things we can’t possibly know about God–our little puny minds can’t even imagine the glory of God’s presence. A glimpse of God’s essence would simply explode our brains! And so we wait. For now God is veiled to our view, but one day, we will see face to face!

Thought for the Day: What’s the purpose of a veil?