Jesus is the Veil

Therefore, brethren, since we have a confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh...let us draw near. Hebrews 10: 19-22

When I came across this passage in church yesterday, I did a double...no...a triple take. In Hebrews 6 it says He entered behind the veil...we have looked at that in past blogs...and there are all sorts of references to the veil in the temple in scriptures, some of which we have looked at. But then it says here that the veil is His flesh! What?!? So I had to stop, remember to let God's Word be truth and every man a liar, and see what God has for us here in these Words of His.

The curtain (veil) we have studied was more like a fabric wall...it was inches thick and blocked out all light and separated man from God. This just doesn't seem right in the context of Christ bringing us to God instead of separating us from Him. So how can Jesus pass through the veil as a priest did and be the veil of separation?

Well, the veil had to be gone through to get to God. There was only one way into the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God, and that was to pass through the veil. We are only able to get to God by going through Jesus...He is our only access to the Father.

The veil had to be torn for everyone to get access...before the tearing, only the priests could get in, and only with a blood offering after many cleansing rituals, etc. He had to cleanse himself first, and he and he alone could bring the sacrifice to the Lord for the people's sake. Once the veil was torn, everyone who would come to God could...and Jesus, the veil, was torn...shredded so badly He didn't even look human anymore (sorry crucifixes...you don't show the extent of His torture with a few nail holes, a crown of thorns, and a single sword wound...it was a far cry worse) according to Isaiah. Jesus was opened, rent useless on the cross like the torn curtain, so that people would know that the sacrifice to cleanse them to come into God's presence was fully made for all time and eternity.

This veil was made of linen, blue and purple and woven into it were angels, and these surrounded the holy place with cherubim. The royalty of those colors told of His kingship, and in heaven He is eternally surrounded by worshiping angels. He was eternally heavenly being sent to us in bodily form, but never ceased to be heavenly in His essence.

I am sure there are things I haven't any knowledge of that would further show how Christ is the veil...some day in heaven we will understand all of the symbols of Christ in scriptures, but until then I am made more aware of His presence in every book, every verse, of God's Word. It all points to Christ. And even if it takes a triple take, I hope to find Him there more and more with every reading.

Will you join me in that endeavor?

Shake if off...

But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them,”Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” Acts 18: 6

Shaking out the garments...dusting them, if you will. This passage is akin to Jesus telling the disciples to shake the dust off their sandals if a town would not listen to the gospel. (Luke 10:10-16) He told them that if unbelievers did not accept the disciples after they had shown His power by healing the sick and preaching to them, to shake even the dust off their shoes in protest to them. He said that those who would reject the love of God shown toward them and the gospel of peace, those would face a worse judgement than Sodom and Gomorrah!

So the apostle Paul has settled down in Corinth, making a living tentmaking (see the Youtube video on the Tentmakers of Cairo and you will never see tentmakers the same way again), living with refugees from Rome who had to flee for their faith (Aquila and Priscilla). When Timothy and Silas came to help him out, he devoted himself to the word. He began preaching and studying full-time in the synagogue. These guys would sit around and read and argue the interpretation of the scriptures. He devoted himself to teaching the Jews, and once they had heard enough, they not only rejected the Word and the word, they blasphemed. They cursed and reviled the name of Christ...they condemned Paul roundly and spoke not only their disbelief, but attacked the Son of God verbally. They fulfilled Christ's criteria for being “shook against” and Paul let them know it.

There are few times in life that we give up on people. We should hang in there and give people grace. We witness and get reviled, we love and are rejected. We tend to get mad at their rejecting us, or we sulk away hurt that they have rejected us when we should be more upset that they rejected God. It was obvious that it was God they were rejecting, and Paul shook even the dust of their presence from his clothes. When should we give up and shake against people? Wow...what a question. I guess I will say that there is anger and there is righteous anger. Those who have seen the love and beauty of Christ in us, who hear the Word spoken clearly, who instead of hearing it speak out loudly against it and take others away with them...those need the warning that condemnation stands at their doorstep.

There were people like Festus who were intrigued with the gospel and heard it...he did not necessarily accept it, but he didn't blaspheme against it or its messenger. There are the learned who will argue points with us in honest or prideful debate, but do not blaspheme against Christ. At least their minds are open to the possibilities.

Then there are those who are so filled with hatred that you just will be wasting your time and energy, and Jesus says to shake them off. Now mind you, Paul himself was one of these...he set out to destroy the church, and it took a direct revelation from God to turn his mind right. It took a long time for the disciples to trust him after his conversion. So for him to in essence not only give up on them, but verbally and physically pronounce judgement on them was quite a message.

I have seen several people even in the last year turn away from the gospel, from the church universal, and head off into sin. When given the choice to follow Jesus or the world, they found it too hard to stay the course. Something out there was irresistible, or the options seemed overwhelming, and when we are overwhelmed, we almost always see sin as the easier option (that sneaky devil makes it look like the only option). Have I given up hope and shook against them? No. Do I despair for them? Yes. I can go into a 3 month funk of prayer and despair for them. The mere thought of them consciously living in sin almost drives me to resent and turn from God, too. And then I remember that God is not to blame, that He searches for the lost sheep and brings them home eventually. It is amazing how Satan sets us up to look at God as unfair, unkind, unloving, and unworthy of our trust and devotion when he is the one who pulls people into these pits.

But those who would lead them there...those who know the choice they are making to reject and blaspheme, those we hand over to God for His judgement or mercy. To bring a sinner back home who is caught in sin is one thing, to argue with a blasphemer is quite another. Jesus didn't waste time hunting people down. He tried to persuade some with deeds and acts of kindness, He scolded the hard-hearted and self-righteous, and He poured His life into those who would listen (it took them a long time to “get it”, but they later understood all He had said). We should never want to shake anyone off, but sometimes people need to be warned that they have crossed a line. It was not out of ignorance that these men acted against Paul, but willful unbelief in light of all the evidence. Then and only then can we call a spade and spade and move on to hearing ears...the Gentiles...that would be the heritage of most of us...so thank God that he inspired Paul to move on and preach to us! It is God's job to pronounce the ultimate judgement, not ours, and we need to be careful lest we fall into sin when correcting others. If you are constantly shaking people off, check your own heart for hardness instead of love, but if the circumstances warrant and blasphemy is being served, do what you have to do. Flee when they drive you away, and then go back out to the mission field because God has someone waiting who will receive the gospel willingly.

Handing over the coat

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him, either.

Luke 6:28-29

This is not the generation or culture of meekness. We know our rights...we DEMAND our rights. We think we have the right to keep everything we have and earn, and to complain LOUDLY, yelling at rallies and campaigns about how we aren't going to take it anymore. Life has become a giant political rally instead of an individual interpersonal interaction. If we even sense that someone is going to take something from us, we bristle.

Life is full of being cheated. We expect a certain level of response from those around us...rewards of smiles at the least, or admiration, or appreciation. And when we don't get it, we get upset. We stop trying to keep the house clean if the kids go behind us messing it up. We get angry that they don't see the mess and do something about it. We expect a bonus from work for going the extra mile instead of seeing it as our duty as faithful servants. And we protest. And these are just the things we THINK we are being cheated of.

Then there is the actual taking of our things...in this case, the coat, or cloak. Revisiting this, it was the essential piece of clothing. It kept out the heat of the day, while being the blanket at night. To take a man's coat was unthinkable. If it was held as surety during the day, it was to be given back at night. Deuteronomy 24:13. This showed that you had compassion and God said that even if they owed you something, having clothing mercy would make them bless you. To leave him without it was considered cruel and heartless.

So if someone demanded the coat, violated the law of mercy, we are instructed not only to not fight with the unmerciful one, but to offer them the clothes off our back as a sign of humility and the desire to repay the debt. Jesus warned us over and over to not fight with unrighteous people. He knew that the only thing that it would do is harm us more than the injustice we already suffered. Offering the second garment was a sign to the world that you were righteous and trustworthy. Taking such a thing would show the anger and hardness of the demander. We were to show every sign of good faith and virtue to the world around us. God reminded the Israelites that they were mistreated in Egypt and therefore they should not mistreat one another. But if we are to be mistreated, show yourself not worthy of the mistreatment, and therefore be like Christ Himself. He was not worthy to be mistreated, but He was and He didn't fight it. They stripped Him of coat and tunic, and sold them off.

In 21^st century America, how do we apply this?

Don't be attached to stuff...let it go if it is demanded of us.

Show a humble, submissive heart to those who wrong us.

Go the extra mile expecting nothing in return, ministering to show Christ to others.

Stop grumbling about our rights and expectations not being met.

Really think...what would Jesus do? He didn't fight the system...He transformed it and spoke of its proper use. He spoke with authority that righteous people appreciated and self-righteous people resented. Do not expect to be loved for speaking the truth in love.

Be more worried about standing up for others than standing up for yourself.

Love your enemies...bless those who curse you...bless and curse not. Romans 12

And if it takes giving them your coat to do it, hand it over. God's hand will cover you and keep you safe and warm.

Weaving Webs

They hatch adder's eggs and weave the spider's web; He who eats of their eggs dies...their webs will not become clothing, nor will they cover themselves with their works. Isaiah 59:5-6

I have been quite amazed at how many references to clothing are negative in the scriptures. And this is one of them. Weaving...something that was done by hand, purposefully and out of necessity. I have begun to study weaving a little, wishing to do it, but having nowhere to put a loom of the size and quality I would want in my house, and having too many quilting and knitting projects to do that probably outnumber my days left on earth!

It's not THAT they weave...it's WHAT they weave, that upsets the Lord in these verses. Weaving a spider's web is bad for several reasons.

1. It is designed to trap others. Spiders consume those whom they trap. The web may be woven beautifully, but it is deadly to those who don't see it coming.
2. It is selfish. It serves no one but the spider that built it.
3. It cannot cover or comfort the weaver.
4. The weaver knows that they won't get caught in their own trap, thinking that their situation is good and not evil. How spiders don't get stuck on their own webs is beyond my knowing, but they see the web as good though it is ultimately endangering anything else about its size. The web won't hurt something far bigger, like a dog or snake, but to a fly or another comparable bug, it catches them unaware.

The spider knows that the web is not good for the rest of the world. He doesn't care...he just wants to wrap others up in the material of the web...the very thing that caught them in the first place, and let them die so they can bleed from them every ounce of life. He would never wrap himself in his own web...so he thinks he is pretty sly and invincible. But the Lord is like the dog, or the human, who can squish him dead in an instance, or at least tear up the web and force him into having to build a new one.

What they were supposed to weave was clothing...warming, functional, giving life and not draining it. They were to cover their shame, not disguise it as virtually invisible strands of nothing harmful. They were to weave something fairly permanent, beautiful and patterned to please the eye.

Our lifes are a weaving of Gods warp...reaching up and down to us, and our weft, weaving across the earth through His strings, making a pattern that will be read in full when our strings are cut and we are presented to Him at the last. If we go where He designed, the pattern will be lovely and pleasing, and if we go our own way, the weaving may be rejected as useless.

What are you weaving today, webs or cloth? Death or life? Selfishness or generosity?

Swaddling the earth

Or who enclosed the sea with doors when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb, when I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band. Job 38: 8-9

We think of the creation as God taking the void blob of earth and all that water covering it...darkness over the face of the deep...but it all had to be created, too. Can you even imagine the Creator God pouring from His infinite mind the waters onto the earth? What a rush (literally). He birthed it onto the earth like birthing a baby...all there inside, and then out it comes. He covered the water-born earth with a thick cloud cover and darkness...no sun could have shown through

knees wrapped it up tightly like a newborn being swaddled. The baby is used to tight quarters, being squeezed from all sides. And they calm much easier when they are wrapped tightly, held snuggly, and rocked gently back and forth.

(Hint to the clueless...if you want to get a baby to stop crying, hold it tighter, don't lay it down sprawling. People say I can put babies to sleep or calm them, and that is all I do...hold them firmly and securely in a way most people are afraid to for some reason).

So God gave birth and securely wrapped His new baby in clouds and darkness. There He was, admiring this new thing He had brought forth, and lovingly cuddled with it for a while! How powerful He is, and yet tender and calming.

And He set limits...the following verses say that He set up boundaries and doors with bolts for those seas He had made. He rebuked them and set limits because He knew they were powerful and mighty and would tend toward pride, showing off and causing damage in the world. We see how powerful the seas can be, with hurricanes and floods, and had not God limited their boundaries, we would not feel the least safe on the earth.

This is us as parents, knowing our children are created with great potential for good, and also great potential for evil and harm. Out of love for them, for knowledge of their nature to rise in pride and harm, we set limits, we shut doors, we draw boundaries of space and behavior just as God did. We wrapped them in garments to keep them safe and secure, and took on the very characteristics of God in caring for them. We try to keep them in the dark about evil, though they don't understand why sometimes, and they see more in life than we would like them to...just like God.

Wrapped tightly by a loving Father, we are secure, safe, and loved. Though we don't stay newborn forever, we can still experience His care with each baby we hold, wrapping them tight in our loving arms, wrapping them in blankets of warmth and softness.

Project Linus and other ministries understand the power of a warm hug of swaddling cloth in the life of a child. Think of how you can provide that security for a child and wrap your arms around a needy one somehow today.

Garment of the Earth

The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment... Job 38:12

The only garment I expected to find in Job is sackcloth...for sadness and infection and all things awful. But in this chapter there are 2 references to garments, and they are quite different from one another.

Richly decorated clothing, pleated and folded, jeweled and woven with colors, that is what God says the earth is like. What we see is a beautiful green and watery covering over dirt and rock and ore and magnum. We see a garment over a rocky ball, decorated with colorful flowers, majestic mountains, ribbons of waterways and rivlets, and skies of blue, rainbows, and sunrises and sunsets. Just as the body is just skin stretched over bone and muscle, covered with beautiful garments of color and texture, so is the earth we live on.

God could have made it the primordial soup that the fool believes sprung forth life, but He chose to create land, vegetation, flora, and geography that can boggle the mind in places in this world. Pictures and descriptions of New Zealand, for example, show the creativity of God, from mountain formations and open beaches to deserts and lowlands of grazing sheep. The earth shows forth the weaving of God's hand across the planet we call home.

The clay under the seal of God's thumbprint leaves the mark of His touch. He is not flat and boring and easily understood...He is complex and awesome, unknowable in human terms, but beautiful and awesome to behold. The earth has no choice but to exhibit His glory, with every flash of lightening to the structure of a leaf. Like a garment, He chose the colors and fibers to create every garment covering the earth.

Whenever I consider the existence of God, when Satan tries to put the bug in my ear that God lied in scripture of how He created this world, I think of a leaf. The very thought that it would grow up in the air on a branch, hanging on by pectin and a slender stem. The veins taper out, providing nourishment and water to every cell in the thing. Chlorophyll making green food, and the leaves nourish the rest of the tree, and helping the whole system make fruit. These little factories multiplied by the thousands on just one tree, multiplied by the billions over the face of the planet boggle the mind. Think of every cell in every leaf functioning properly on its own...under the direction of God's plan for leaves. Cells die and reproduce, and man can alter, but not create that which God has designed. The awe of one piece of a tree's garment is enough to make my mind see, like Job, that God's power and might is beyond knowing.

The earth does not question God's ways, it just dresses itself with Him and is content just to be what He called it to be. Like Job, if we are wise, we stand in silent awe of the garment of the earth, ever changing with the seal of God's will pressing down on it, making His mark on it that no one else can make.

He is worth of our worship, trust and honor.

Fleeced

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before His shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

I don't know why I started thinking about this text...it was during the sermon, so I expect something was said about things being taken from us for our good and God's glory.

Wool is a new thing for me to work with. It was always in my mind just something that made you scratchy. Wool clothes were uncomfortable to the point of unbearable to me. Even in a coat that was lined, that little piece that would touch the skin would drive me crazy. In my mind, it was good only for tapestry, which I didn't do.

But now it is all the rage in applique and ornaments for Christmas trees, etc. It is costly and worthy of my time and attention. I may even venture to wear if if the lining is thick enough. I seek out jackets and pants at thrift shops for making table mats and quilts.

So here is Jesus, a sheep, coming to be shorn...stripped of his coat of wool for the benefit of others. His outer self, His protection from cold and rain and weather and nights, is being taken from Him. He would be refreshed and cooled, the weight lifted, and the cuttings used, washed and carded and spun to cover another of another breed. He would cover us...in a supernatural way, with a part of Him that He could share with us. He was not diminished by this stripping, for He was still the Holy Son of God, the Lamb to be worshiped on the throne by angels in heaven forevermore afterwards. Sheep don't need the wool that they bear annually...those around them, people, do. They used it to warm their woolless, hairless bodies. Is it not interesting that every other animal on earth does not need clothing? But man can hardly survive without it! In some places in the world the temperatures might be conducive to nakedness, but not many. Survivalists know that clothing and shelter are necessary for long-term life. Babies are immediately wrapped and snuggled to maintain their body heat. Blankets or robes are used to cover at night when our bodies slow and heat inside and outside wanes. And Spiritual covering is needed for us to enter God's presence with favor...clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

So Jesus offered His body to cover us, to give us life. I wondered if the sheep were really quiet when shorn. I only have seen one sheering in my life and that was not a noiseless experience. But Spurgeon says this about the passage:

The wonderful serenity and submissiveness of our Lord are still better set forth by our text, if it be indeed true that sheep in the East are even more docile than with us. Those who have seen the noise and roughness of many of our washings and shearings will hardly believe the testimony of that ancient writer Philo-Jud‘us when he affirms that the sheep came voluntarily to be shorn. He says; "Woolly rams laden with thick fleeces put themselves into the shepherd's hands to have their wool shorn, being thus accustomed to pay their yearly tribute to man, their king by nature. The sheep stands in a silent inclining posture, unconstrained under the hand of the shearer. These things may appear strange to those who do not know the docility of the sheep, but they are true." Marvellous indeed was this submissiveness in our Lord's case; let us admire and imitate.

You see, when in a hot climate, the sheep would know that what the man would do to him by stripping him of that excess wool would bring relief. The sheep did not know that the wool would benefit the shearer, but that the stripping of the excesses would make the sheep feel better!

Many times we feel like we are being shorn...like the things that protect us, make us happy, define who and what we are, are stripped from us. We feel the blades cutting through the thick coating we have covered ourselves with, and we are more prone to panic. We fear having things taken from us...our possessions, our health, our friends and family...but what we fear is detrimental, God knows is good for us and for others. If we trusted like the sheep of old that the shearer had our best interests in mind, we would come willingly and let him strip us of the matted, encumbering, suffocating load we bear and let the cool breeze of refreshing wash over us.

Let's trust God as He shears us for our good and His glory, and see how He can serve others with the clippings.