Beloved, the Veil is Lifted

 

In a marriage ceremony, the husband lifts the veil on his wife, kisses her, and they are pronounced husband and wife.

What a beautiful picture of a spiritual truth.

We know that the devil has placed a veil on the hearts of all people.  Isaiah tells us that one day God would destroy this covering:

On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations (Isaiah 25:7,8 NIV)

And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. (Isaiah 25:7,8 KJV)

And Paul tells us that the veil is lifted the moment we turn to Jesus:

But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.  Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.  But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  (2 Corinthians 3:14-16 NIV)

Once Jesus removes this veil, what then?

As I said, in a wedding, the next thing that happens is the kiss, a demonstration of intimacy.

The beloved wife of King Solomon longed for the unveiling – and the kiss that followed:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.  (SOS 1:2 NIV)

Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?  (SOS 1:2 NIV)

I looked up the word “kiss” in the Strong’s Concordance to see if I could get some more insight here, and it didn’t disappoint.

I found that our English word “kiss” comes from the Hebrew word “nashaq,” and it means “to kiss… touch… as a mode of attachment… to equip with weapons… rule.”

It comes from the root word “nasaq,” which means “to catch fire… burn, kindle.”

When we turn to Jesus, and He removes that veil, immediately we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that sweet, powerful fire of God.

And we enter into a new world, the unimaginable Kingdom of God: 

However, as it is written:  "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" — the things God has prepared for those who love him — these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:9-12 NIV)

References:

 

Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.

 

 

 

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission of Zondervan.  All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com.  The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.