The symbolism of the veil is a profound testament to the enduring quest for divine communion. From ancient temple rituals to modern religious practices, the veil serves as both a protective boundary and an invitation to transcend the limitations of mortality. Its role in the Christian narrative of redemption and its reflection in cultural practices like marriage highlight the universality and depth of its symbolism. As we ponder the veil’s significance, we are reminded of the sacred journey each soul undertakes in the pursuit of spiritual exaltation and eternal union with the divine.
In the rich tapestry of religious symbolism, few elements are as evocative and multifaceted as the veil. This ancient symbol serves as a metaphorical and literal barrier between the sacred and the profane. Within the context of temple worship, the veil signifies the boundary that separates the divine presence from the mortal realm. Its purpose is not only to conceal but also to reveal, inviting those who are prepared to transcend the material world and enter into a sacred communion with the divine. The veil’s role in both ancient and modern religious practices underscores its enduring significance and the profound theological truths it embodies.
The Hebrew scriptures offer vivid depictions of the veil’s symbolic role in ancient temple practices. In Exodus, the veil is described as a richly embroidered tapestry that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, the latter being the dwelling place of God’s presence. This physical barrier, adorned with cherubim, served as both a protective shield and an invitation for spiritual ascent. The high priest, clothed in garments that mirrored the veil’s colors, could traverse this boundary only after rigorous preparation and ritual purification. This journey was emblematic of humanity’s quest to overcome mortality and reclaim the divine glory lost in the Fall, a theme central to the theology of the temple.
In the Christian tradition, the veil takes on new dimensions following the atonement of Jesus Christ. The tearing of the temple veil at Christ’s crucifixion is a powerful symbol of the new covenant, signifying the removal of the barrier between God and humankind. No longer is access to the divine restricted to a single high priest once a year; instead, through Christ’s sacrifice, all who are willing to prepare and enter into covenant can approach the divine presence. This transition from an earthly to a celestial veil illustrates the shift from the anticipation of Christ’s redemptive act to the realization of spiritual ascent, transforming the temple experience into a journey of personal and communal exaltation.
The veiling of brides in contemporary wedding ceremonies is a remnant of ancient symbolism, echoing the sacred journey of the soul towards divine union. In traditional ceremonies, the lifting of the bride’s veil by her father represents the transition from preparation to fulfillment, analogous to the soul’s journey through the veil into the presence of the divine bridegroom. This act of unveiling signifies the completion of covenants and the beginning of a new, sacred relationship. The practice underscores the interconnectedness of earthly and divine unions, each reflecting the covenantal nature of the other.
A veil indicates that there’s something sacred and precious on the other side. If you’ll do a little bit of preparation, you can go there.
Real quick. The colors of the temple represent the material world, right?
Air, fire. Air, fire. And Earth.
And Earth, right? Essentially, the veil is mortality. It is the material world that is keeping us from God.
Now it’s not an earthly mortal high priest who goes in with the blood to put on the altar. It is the great high priest who has offered his own blood as the sacrifice. He has put himself on the altar.
People make fun of us all the time for magic underwear or whatever. But literally, the ancients, they wore this veil as a symbol of Jesus Christ.
That’s exactly what we are doing today.
That veil was there to protect them from the presence of the Lord because they weren’t ready, because they had lost that glory and the ability to be in his presence. I think males very much do the same for us. They prevent the profane from accessing the sacred too soon when things are not prepared.
Look, I get it. You don’t want to see our faces yapping any more than you need to because Andrea is about to blow your mind for a second time, depending on how many videos you’ve watched of The first time she came on our channel, the views speak for themselves. But this one-I think this one’s better.
This one, you’re going to want to share it around to the same people that you shared the first video to because it is absolutely epic.
Yeah, but we got something important that we want to talk to you about.
So as we’ve alluded to on the channel, Jackson and I, we are in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, and we are being activated right now with our unit. We are going to be sent away for a long period of time away from our families and away from the channel. So obviously, we don’t want the stick of Joseph to die. We love the things that we have been doing, and we need your help to get enough resources to add people to our team so that the stick of Joseph can continue.
Yeah, because over the past month and a half, we thought we were going to have to scramble to put together some good stuff to be released while we’re gone. But we’ve been able to get connected with incredible people like Jared Halvorson. I’m not going to name all the people that we’ve filmed with just because I’ll miss them, but we’ve filmed some incredible stuff.
So that content that Jackson is talking about has already been shot, but we need help editing it, and so we need to add new members to the team. Plus, while we’re gone, Andrea Woodmancy, Dave and Mike Butler. Dave and Mike, they’re not married, but Mike Day and Dave Butler are going to continue to produce content for the channel, and so we need new team members to be able to make that happen while we’re gone fulfilling our military service.
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And I’ll just say on the link, just go check it out. Even if you don’t have the means to donate, just go check it out because I can pile the list of some of the best comments from you guys that are literally just so cool to see the type of stuff that people are learning from the channel. So it’s super eye-opening. But if you’re someone that has greater means that wants to make a larger donation, you can shoot an email at jackson@thestickofjoseph or haydon@thestickadjoseph. Com.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another wonderful episode of The Stick of Joseph. We are so privileged to have the Andrea Woodmancy in the studio. Why? Because we still haven’t slept from the live event we did last night. Andrea was talking before the livestream, women have the luxury of wearing makeup to cover their tiredness, and Hayden and I just wear it on our face. And so we talked to Andrea. We just told her a subject that we wanted to learn a little bit more about, but we’re going in completely blind. Andrea is going to be our teacher today.
Tell us about Tell us about the veil.
Tell us about the veil.
The veil, the temple, where the veil, the women were. First of all, there’s no makeup here. This is just the glow from after the livestream.
How dare I say that? There’s one hair we got to fix. Yeah, no worries.
Just pull it out. Sure? That’s what I do. I just pull it out. Coming out. Yep, do it. Oh, missed it. Or did I get it? Okay. Got it.
Just grabbed it a bit.
We might keep that in on it, but I love that. It gets better. So awesome, Andrea. Talk to us, what are we talking about today? And let’s just get right in.
Okay, so we’re going to… There are many unique things about our faith. Of course, the temple is a very unique thing about our faith. Something that’s very different in the temple is this whole idea of veils. Yes. Sometimes it can confuse people. It makes you wonder, what’s the deal with the veils? Certainly my first time through the temple, I had that question because it was something that we don’t see in our regular Sunday worship services. But if you stop and think about it, it’s actually mundane in a lot of respects. What happens at every wedding? In church or not? The bride is wearing a veil. Why do we do that?
Why do we do that?
Yeah, right? I mean, my husband’s a convert to the church, and so we got to do a separate little ceremony outside the temple, and that was fun because my dad got to walk me down the aisle and I got to-It was like the traditional wedding. Yeah, the traditional wedding, and I got to wear a veil, and I remember going to pick out that veil, and that was so fun for me as a veil, picking out my veil to wear on my wedding day because it was pretty, and that’s as far as I went with it. I just wanted something pretty, but I never stopped to consider, Why am I doing this? What is this all about? But I think what we’re seeing there that is That’s an instance where veils are very familiar to us because we see them all throughout our culture. It’s a normal part of our culture, so we don’t even question it. But then you get into the temple and it’s like, Oh, well, this is different. And so then you start to wonder about Because you do things with it during this, or before you used to do things, during the ceremony for the women.
Then obviously the veil plays a big role in the end of the ceremony.
Exactly. But if you think about it, veals are actually a common part of our life every day, every wedding, where we’re used to seeing them. When we see veils in the regular traditional wedding ceremonies, it’s just unquestioned. But those veils draw, I believe, from the ancient wedding ceremonies, the ancient temple ceremonies, and that’s why we use them. And so what we see in the modern traditional wedding is a remnant of that ancient temple ceremony.
So what was its original meaning then? It’s lost its meaning. It’s just pretty, I guess.
Right. Yeah. So let’s get into that. So we live in a world that’s really steeped in feminism and From that grows the sense that if you’re veiling something, that’s because you don’t want to see it. If you’re veiling a woman, it seems like you’re subjecting her or you’re trying to hide her, you’re making her subservient somehow. That’s not how the ancient thought. Okay, certainly that happens in some cases, but I don’t believe that was the original meaning or symbolism of it. We also live in a world today where we equate authenticity with revealing everything. Our day and age, everything’s out in the open, right? The sense becomes that if you’re concealing something, that there’s something nefarious, or you have something to hide, or it’s lesser, or it’s not good. Really, coming from an ancient mindset, it’s the opposite. That something that is sacred impure and good should be covered, should be concealed, because it’s not there just for anyone to participate in or consume. Valing was considered to be a mark of sanctity.
Yes. I want to point something out that we learned when we were talking to Mike Day and Dave Butler. A good way of describing what you just said, everything is out in the open. We don’t have sacred spaces anymore. And the word profane comes from the Latin profanos, which means outside the temple, not sacred. And so we live in a profane society where everything is out in the open. So Whenever we keep anything sacred, it is looked upon suspiciously as if, what do they have to hide? And it’s like this used to be having sacred spaces that were not out in the profane world used to be commonplace, and they just aren’t anymore. That’s right.
That’s such an example of calling good evil and evil good.
It absolutely is. But I think your point is exactly right. That’s the purpose of a veil, is to create a division between the sacred and the profane. That What’s outside the veil is common place, and it’s accessible to everyone, but what’s behind the veil is special. It’s different from your everyday experience. It should be. It’s special. But the interesting thing is, it’s not a wall, it’s a veil. A veil is meant to be traversed. Just to get a little bit political, we’re not talking about putting a veil at the Southern border, because a veil is not a permanent structure. A veil indicates that there’s something sacred and precious on the other side. If you’ll do a little bit of preparation, you can go there.
Okay, that That is really cool, this idea that it isn’t a barrier to keep everyone away. It’s almost like a reminder that there are certain commitments that need to be made before you enter into the presence of that. That’s beautiful in the temple Then also when it comes to the wedding ceremony, the veil.
Yeah. The woman.
It’s amazing.
This is jumping ahead a little bit, but in that traditional wedding ceremony, when the bride comes out wearing the veil and she has her face vealed, who lifts the veil? Think about it.
Is it the bridegroom?
I don’t know.
No.
Is it herself?
No. Traditionally, it’s the father of the bride. Oh, really? That lifts the veil. There’s some reasons for that. Okay. Yeah, I’m excited that you. That’s interesting. Yeah, a veil is there to both conceal and reveal. Because it’s this division between the sacred and the profane, it It’s there to conceal what’s on the side, but also for those who are prepared to traverse that veil so that things can be revealed. Interestingly, when it comes to the temple, what’s on the other side of the veil is really eternity, right? It’s celestial. The Hebrew word for… Well, two Hebrew words. The Hebrew words for eternity and conceal actually share It’s the same root. So they both derived from the same word. So eternity, in a sense, is something that is concealed. It’s meant to be concealed because there’s a preparation that goes into accessing it.
And this word, if I… Because there’s a lot of different Hebrew words. We’re talking about the one that uses the same words as Alma and Alma and virgin. So virgin, conceal, and eternity.
Eternity.
Have this thing altogether.
That means those ideas in the Hebrew mind and in that ancient covenant mind are all part of the same thing. To be pure, to be virgin, to be concealed or to be veiled and to access eternity all go hand in hand. They all belong to the same thing. With that in mind, it helps to think of the ancient temples or the tabernacle in the wilderness that Moses constructed. We get a description of… There are two veils in that temple. The veil between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies, we get a description in Exodus 26:33, and I’ll just read it real quick. It says, And thou shalt hang up the veil under the tashes that thou mayest bring in thither within the veil, the ark of the testimony, and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. ‘ So we see there, there’s this big veil hanging there, and it’s meant to divide these spaces, but it’s also meant at certain times and under certain conditions to be traversed. In Isaiah 40:22, we get a picture of God who is beyond the veil. It says, It is he that siteth upon the circle of the earth, which is something we can talk about later, why the earth is a circle, that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
It says, God is in a tent or a veil. That’s where he dwells, is behind this veil.
I don’t know if there’s more answers or parallels or what you think of this, but when you just said, Dwell intent, Lehi, when it says, My father dwelt in a tent.
Yeah, there’s a lot there.
There’s something there. Also, okay, so what was that verse again? It was Isaiah.
Isaiah 40:22. 40:22.
Also, the Earth is…
That what you just said was-Yeah.
That was huge.
I don’t want to skip by this, too. The Earth is only a circle. It’s not a globe.
I’m just kidding. It is flat as well. It is not a sphere. It’s a circle, flat circle. Okay, so sorry. Is Isaiah 40?
Verse 22.
Verse 22. I just want to look at this again. It is he that siteth upon the circle of the Earth, and the inhabitants thereof are grasshoppers. He stretches out through the heavens as curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Okay. So the circle thing, I’m thinking compass. The the symbol of a compass. And the symbol of the compass has always been tied to the feminine. Right. Right? Yeah. Sorry, if I’m ruin it. Am I ruin it?
No, you’re not ruining it. Go, go, go.
And the other thing that’s really interesting is he says he’s sitting upon the circle of the Earth, and in the ancient Egyptian, the mother, the feminine, was the throne of God. Yeah. Am I interpreting that correctly?
There’s certainly There’s some ties there for sure.
Cool.
That’s awesome. This idea of a God who, it says, he stretches out the heavens as a curtain. That’s probably more than just metaphor. There’s a curtain, and he says, he spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. He’s spreading this curtain of the heavens out to create a dwelling place that’s separate from the profane. But like a tent, it’s hard to lock a tent, right?
Yes. You’re welcome in there. There’s just certain things you have to do to get.
Right. That sets up this question of what does it mean to approach God? How do you pass through this veil? How do you reenter his presence? This was the question for Adam and Eve. They were expelled from Eden. They lost the presence of the Lord. How easy was it for them to return? What was set up in their way?
Yeah, a lot of things.
A lot of things, right? Including cherubim and a flaming sword. This is dangerous, right? So even though it’s a veil or a tent or it’s seemingly easy, there’s definitely preparation that has to go into regaining his presence because it’s a little bit dangerous. There’s a treacherous journey to be taken.
And the cherubim and the flaming sword are actually on the veil of the temple. Yeah. Okay, cool.
So at the veil of the temple, there’s a description of it in Second Chronicles. It’s Chapter 3, verse 14. Okay.
Whoa, chill, bro. There you go, Jackson.
It says, And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson and fine linen and wrought cherubims thereon. So there you get the idea of the cherubim on the veil. That, I think, is representative of these cherubim and the flaming sword that really… I mean, we talk about it as a barrier to Adam and Eve returning to an idyllic state or into the presence of God. In a lot of God says this was a protection for them. That veil was there to protect them from the presence of the Lord because they weren’t ready, because they had lost that glory and the ability to be in his presence. I think veils very much do the same for us. They prevent the profane from accessing the sacred too soon when things are not prepared. It’s interesting, the colors that were on this ancient the blue, purple, crimson. Those are believed to have represented earthly elements, air, water, fire. And I’ve been asked before, why isn’t the veil of the temple today like that ancient temple? Because for whatever reason, we think that the temple today can’t be valid unless it’s identical to the ancient temple. And I say it shouldn’t be because Christ has come.
We’re in a different realm.
And there’s some interesting symbolism that happens there. So you think of this very really colorful veil hanging in the ancient temple. Some of that it’s got the cherubim. And it was actually said, I think it was Philo of Alexandria, who wrote that this ancient temple had a panoramic history of the earth, embroidered on it. Wow.
It’s been beautiful.
It must have been beautiful. Actually, there were multiple veils, and they were huge. I think it was something like 300 yards of fabric to make one of these things. You imagine it’s this wool and linen blend. It’s very heavy, very ornate. Sometimes they had to clean it. This is why they actually had multiples. They could take one down, put another one up while that one was being washed. Apparently, it took- A long time.tens of people to wash this thing, and they had to lay it out. And of course, it has to be done in a proper way because it’s sacred. Interesting, though, that… Okay, so imagine this veil in your mind, right? It’s got all these colors. It’s got this embroidery. It’s this very this beautiful piece of artwork, really. A panoramic history of the Earth sewn onto it. It has many colors, right? Now, what did the high priest of the temple wear?
He wore- He wore the same fabric, right?
The same fabric and the same colors. Okay. It was actually a coat of many colors.
Many colors, okay.
When you think of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt because his brothers didn’t like his coat, this wasn’t just his brother’s being jealous that he got the fancy coat, right? It’s a priesthood thing. It’s a priesthood thing. Yeah, because he’s the birthright son, and he’s inherited this coat of the high priest so that he can traverse the veil. There’s an interesting… You think the high priest is wearing the same color. In essence, he’s wearing the veil, right?
Which sounds really familiar to what Latterday saints wear. Then you see in… You just barely realized that?
Like I said, I am not slept.
I was thinking like, Oh, like- The clothes that you wear in the temple?
Yeah, the priesthood robes and stuff like that. And I was like, Oh.
What we wear is a temple.
Yeah. That’s epic. It’s what you’re wearing. Oh. Light bulbs are going off over here. It’s awesome. A lot of ancient apocryphal writers talk about this. Maybe I shouldn’t say a lot, but there are some that talk about that when Christ condescends ascended to Earth, which direction was he going through the veil? He wasn’t a high priest coming from the earthly realm to the heavenly. He was coming from the heavenly realm to the earthly. So he was passing through a veil that represented the elements of the Earth. He was taking on him mortal flesh. So because he passed that way, he passed through a veil that indicated the earthly realm.
Okay. Real quick, the colors of the temple represent the material world, right? Right. Water. What was it again? Air, fire.
Air, fire. And Earth. And Earth, right?
Essentially, the veil is It is mortality. It is the material world that is keeping us from God. You wear that on your body. Okay. Right.
The high priest is wearing that, and then you get Christ who condescends and passes through that veil into the mortal realm. He’s taking on himself the elements of this material world. Yes. That gets reversed. And this is why modern temples should not be exact copies of ancient temples. Vails, because Christ has come, and we know he did away with sacrifice, and he said, The law of Moses is fulfilled. You don’t need to offer animal sacrifices anymore. But think about this for a second. The veil gets reversed, right? Because now it’s mortals going to the heavenly realm. And so you’re not going to pass through a veil of material colors, because now what you’re doing is taking on the characteristic characteristics of the heavenly realm. So like Christ, who condescended and took on the characteristics of the mortal realm, now the idea is mortals go back and take on the characteristics of the heavenly realm. So we pass through a veil that looks different, that looks like that pure realm. We get a glimpse of this with the high priest back in that ancient temple. Yeah, he wore the coat of many colors, except for one day of the year.
Do you know what day that was?
No, I don’t.
Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur.
Which is?
The Day of Atonement. It’s coming up. It’s coming up. We’re getting close. This is something that might sound heredical, and I hope it doesn’t, but- Heretic. I know. We talk about the Atonement, like it’s just this thing that happened. Or we talk about it like it is the sacrifice that Christ made in Gethsemanian on the cross. I I think that’s true, and it’s fair to call that the atonement, but I think the atonement is bigger than that. I think that was the redemption. That was Christ paying the bride price for us and purchasing us, purchasing our, redeeming our immortal souls. And the cost of that was the blood of an eternal being, the life of an eternal being. So he paid that bride price, right? Yeah. Think about the word atonement, though. It’s at one meant, right? So to me, that indicates being in his presence, that the atonement is not necessarily the sacrifice that was offered. It’s the fact that the redemption was paid so that at some point we can reenter his presence. We can be at one with him.
Just like he said in the intercessory prayer in John 17, right? Yeah. They may be one in me as I am in you, that they may be one together, that oneness because of his atonement.
Right. The of atonement isn’t the day that the sacrifice is offered. It’s the day that the bride and groom see each other because now they are at one. They are together. Okay. Yeah, that’s coming up. That would be cool if he- That’d be awesome.
Yeah, come on, Jesus. Would you please come back on that day. Eight days.
But to do that, to enter his presence on this day of Atonement, which is Yom Kippur, the high priest of the ancient temple would, instead of wearing his coat of many colors, he would take that off and put on a white linen robe, because now he wasn’t in this material world anymore. Where he was traversing the veil into that celestial world, into that heavenly realm, because he was going to be at one with God, at one with the Lord.
That is the one day of the year the high priest would go in to the Holy of Holies that we learned about.
That he would go in and he would offer the blood sacrifice on the altar. Okay. Yeah.
That’s really, really cool. Yeah. The rending of the veil after Christ’s resurrection doesn’t, as a Protestant world says, Oh, this means we don’t need temples anymore. It’s like, No, you need a new veil. Yeah, exactly. It’s time to get a new veil. We’re done with this one. Right. On to the new veil, because now the doors of heaven have been opened because of the atonement.
Right. Because that redemption has been paid. Now it’s not an earthly mortal high priest who goes in with the blood to put on the altar. It is the great high priest who has offered his own blood as the sacrifice. He has put himself on the altar, so he has traversed that veil. He has traversed that boundary between the material world and the celestial world. And so because he’s done that, we don’t need that material world veil. Now we need a celestial veil. Wow, that’s really cool. That also doesn’t just admit that one high priest on one day of the year, but now everyone who has been redeemed, who Christ purchased through his blood on the cross, and who now wants to seek that at onement with him can do that. It’s open and available to everyone who will go through that preparation. That’s amazing. To cross back through that veil.
Well, this is really cool because a A lot of times people in the church will be like, Well, our temple doesn’t really sound like Solomon’s temple. There are very, obviously, similarities. There’s the three part ascent.
Well, I think the theology underpinning both is the same. It’s the same, right?
But the actual ritual practice changes, and why wouldn’t it change after the main thing that we focus on is Christ in the temple, after he actually comes and does that great and final sacrifice, why wouldn’t the ordinance change in the way that it is done after that.
And it’s because it’s a reversal. What we’re seeing here is this huge reversal with Christ on the cross as the central hinge point of that reversal. So for the thousands of years leading up to Christ, It’s man trying to get through the veil and having to sacrifice the blood of animals, trying to get through this veil, trying to get through this this material veil. The only one who We can do it is this high priest on one day of the year who brings in the blood of an animal, but it still doesn’t really get the job done, right? Then Christ comes, he does it, and suddenly we get this reversal, okay? Instead of God descending, taking on the mortal realm for us, now it’s us ascending and going into the celestial room to be with him, to be at one with him. That’s the atonement.
Okay, cool. If I were to summarize this really quickly, temple before Christ was always pointing towards his condescension, him coming down to redeem us. After Christ, it is now focused on every single person’s ascension because of Christ.
Because of Christ, and going to be at one with him. That’s epic.
Also, my mind is waking up more and more, and I am like-The coffee is kicking in now, Jack. I looked up- All the coffee is kicking.
I looked up representations, and I’m going to send these pictures to Chris, so we can throw these up on the screen, but pictures of the ancient temple and then comparisons with the Priestley robes.
Even just this fact alone, people make fun of us all the time for magic underwear or whatever, but literally the ancients, they wore this veil as a symbol of Jesus Christ coming to atone for them. And just Just think about that.
Yeah, right.
That’s exactly what we are doing today. That’s exactly what we’re doing today.
Right. Just as Christ condescended through that veil, to come here to redeem us, to shed his blood to redeem us. Now, because he’s done that, and one of my favorite verses of the scripture is Revelation 118, because it’s where Christ says that through his sacrifice, he obtained the keys of death and hell. I like to think of that in a pretty literal sense, because if you think of death, I mean, any atheist will tell you, when you die, that’s it. You’re not coming back. Without Christ, that would be true. Hell, we are all fallen. We are all imperfect. We’ve all screwed it up royally. What do you do if you break the law? You go to jail, right? So you are locked out either way. You’re either stuck in this prison because of the consequences of having broken the law, or you’re stuck in death, and you can never be saved from that. We have this… I love how the Book of Hebrews puts it. We have a great high priest who condescended, and because he did that, he was able to rightfully obtain the keys of death and hell. He can literally unlock those for us.
And because he did, we can literally go back through that veil with him. And so in Hebrews, I love how it puts it. This is Hebrews 10:19–20. If you guys want to pull those up and read those.
Let’s do it. Hebrews 10:19–20? Yeah. Okay, sweet. I got it right now. I’ll read it. It says, Having therefore, Breothren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Into the holiest, ‘Okay. ‘ ‘by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Yeah. So there you see, who is the veil?
Yeah, it’s Christ.
It’s Christ. He has become the veil. It’s not a mortal, it’s not a material boundary anymore. It’s not a boundary of the fallen world anymore. The only thing that separates us from God is Christ. And guess how much of a separation he is? None. He has the keys, right? He has those keys. He has the authority. He has the power to return us from this mortal state into the presence of God, to be at one with him. That’s awesome. If we will just do the preparation that talks about in there.
One thing that’s really interesting as well, and this is going back to the Dive deeper episode, the first Dive Deeper episode that you did about the living waters and all of that, like it says, and our bodies washed with pure water. As we go through the veil, we are being washed by pure water, which is Christ as well. That’s beautiful symbol.
Yeah, it really is.
If the temple didn’t matter, why do they use so much temple symbolism in all of this?
If we didn’t need the temple anymore, why is it saying in those verses that we should prepare ourselves to go back through the veil? To the veil. Yeah. Now, instead of this heavy, wooly, linen blend veil, separating us from God, now it’s just Christ, and he’s not a separation. He’s the way, right?
Yeah.
If we just come to him with full purpose of heart, he He already purchased us with his blood. We belong to him, and all we need to do is say, okay, accept it. I do belong to you. Because of that, I’m going to be completely loyal to you, like a bride, going back to our last discussion, a true bride is going to be completely loyal to her husband, right? If we will be completely loyal to Christ, and he says, If you love me, keep my commandments. If we love him, like a bridegroom, we keep his commandments. We follow him, and he becomes that way, and so he can return us to the presence of the Lord.
One thing you pointed out in that discussion about the Hebrew wedding tradition is that the purchase of the bride, the bride always had the right to veto it. Just because Christ has offered the ultimate dowry for us, we can still reject it. And that’s why it comes onto us to accept that and to make that, but with accepting that comes making the covenant of loyalty to Christ.
Exactly.
I think that’s really beautiful and important for us to remember that the price has been paid. Are we going to accept it or not? Exactly.
So part of that, though, is in order to go through that veil, to have him take us through that veil, we have to be identified with him. If you think about this in terms of a bride and a groom, the bride takes the name of the bridegroom. They become identified as a couple. Together. My husband and I, people refer to us as the Woodmancies because we’re one thing now. We’re married. I think part of traversing the veil, we talked about in the beginning, when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden, they couldn’t get back in to the presence of the Lord. There were fiery angels there with flaming swords. It was dangerous. It was treacherous. Well, now it’s not anymore. If we identify ourselves with Christ, we take upon ourselves his name, we take upon ourselves his identifying marks, then we can pass through that veil. And you actually get a glimpse of this in Genesis. I can’t quote the chapter off. Top of my head, I think it’s roughly… No, it’s not 24. It’s later than that. But it’s when you see this, it’s this It’s a weird little story of Jacob and Esa.
Esa sells his birthright for a mess of potage. Then Jacob goes before Isaac to get his blessing, his birthright blessing, because he now owns the birthright. You have Rebecca there putting goat hair on his hands so that when he goes to his father, who’s now blind, which blindness is what? It’s a veil over the eyes. Okay. Isaac can’t see which son this is, so he feels the marks on Jacob’s hands, and that’s how he identifies him.
Esau was really hairy, right? Yeah.
You never read this story?
Dude, it’s- If I have, I haven’t recalled it. Jacob and Esau story is one of the strangest stories.
It is strange until you realize that what this is is a son who, because of who he had he had come, and the character he had developed, now has the right to the birthright, but he has to be identified as the actual birthright son, in order for his father to bless him. So he’s coming to a father who’s behind a veil, and he’s saying, I’m the birthright son, and you can identify me by feeling my hands. And so what’s actually happening here is a temple ceremony.
What? Wow. Well, I’m just thinking about, first off, I always looked at the Jacob… Because the thing that’s interesting about the Jacob Esau story, because there’s tons of stories in the Old Testament where the guy who’s supposed to have the birthright ends up giving up his birthright because of wickedness. But this isn’t a situation. That’s the one thing that’s weird about the story is Esau doesn’t seem like he’s a super bad dude.
He’s just a regular guy.
He’s just a regular guy. It makes way more sense that this is a story about Christ essentially giving us his birthright. The mess of potage represents our weak Our weak attempts. Our weak attempts to do it. He’s like, No, I’ll take the mess of potage. You take the birthright. You take the birthright. The filling of the hands- I will give you all the identifying marks because you’ve come to me, because you this. He has the marks. It’s crazy that he’s touching his hands and the marks of the hands. How does Thomas recognize that it is Christ when he dies? It is the marks in his hands. Exactly. That’s very symbolic when it comes to our temple ceremony as well. That’s just amazing.
That’s how the Father on the other side of the veil identifies you and blesses you.
Holy cow. I can finally make sense of that weird story. Thank you, Andrew, because that is the one where I’ve always had this because it doesn’t seem to match the same motif of The guy who’s supposed to have it is actually wicked, so then the younger one gets the birthright. That one didn’t fall into that same category as an outlier. Now it makes sense.
Which even some of those stories do, because what we actually have for us is a first-born son who, obviously not wicked, but who, in a sense, forfeits that birthright so that we can have it. There is a pattern there, whether the birthright is forfeited legitimately or not. There’s a pattern there of there’s this son who acts as the sacrifice to save the one that comes next.
It’s interesting, the feeling of the hands, right?
Those are the identifying marks.
That Jesus Christ is the birthright son because of the marks of his hands.
That’s really cool. Okay. Thank you. That was amazing. This whole conversation is worth it just right there. That was amazing.
Okay. Now, today, we have this heavenly veil there instead of the material veil, indicating that it’s now mankind who’s accessing the celestial realm. We do that through Christ, through his flesh, through his sacrifice. Because of him, because he has those keys, we can traverse this veil. Everybody can. Yes. You don’t have I’m supposed to be the one high priest on the one day. You can’t say that this is no longer necessary when you look at Revelation, Chapter 7, if you want to pull that one up. Okay.
You look what happened in my Bible, and you get a rebound.
That’s a sign of some good use. Hey, if anyone on the channel, because I saw a lady the other day, it’s like Alpine something, leatherbinder. If anyone knows a leatherbinder, I also need help with mine as well.
Yes, this is a call out. We needed someone to rebind our scripture.
There’s a lot of other binders out there. Comment.
Yeah. Look at verse 9. Okay. You want me to read it? Yeah. No, I want to read it. Think about this. This is John, the revelator. This is John, the beloved, most likely. Envision seeing what happens when the bridegroom returns and what that heavenly feast looks like, which takes place in the temple. Cool. Okay, go for it.
Chapter 7, verse 9? Yeah. Okay. It says, After this I be held in low a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.
Which is an ancient symbol of kinghood, right? This is how they would hail a king. So you have here in a heavenly temple, in a temple realm, multitudes clothed in white in. It’s not just one high priest, right? It’s not one high priest who went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. It’s everybody. And they’re not wearing a coat of many colors. They’re wearing white robes because they’ve traversed that veil, the heavenly veil, to reenter the heavenly realm. So that’s the goal. That’s what Adam and Eve lost and what we regain through Christ. So That paints a picture of it. But you see it also in some apocryphal texts, which we need Jona Barnes here for that, right? Yeah. But 2 Enoch says, Go and take Einaq from out of his earthly garments, shining like the sun’s ray. It’s saying, Strip Einaq of his earthly garments. Pull off your street clothes, probably believe in your mortal body. Let’s go into this heavenly realm and get an immoral body. It says, He was shining like the sun’s ray. Now, how bright is the sun? You can’t even look at it, right?
I mean, you can, but then you’re not going to be able to look at anything.
Yeah, it’s not recommended. Same thing in Zechariah 3:7. You want to read that one?
Real quick. That’s actually beautiful. I made it as a joke, but at the At the same time, the whole idea of you saying that the veil is there to protect us as well, it’s similar to looking at the sun. If you look at the sun, even though the sun’s beautiful, and even though we need the sun, and the sun gives us light, if you look at the sun, your mortal frame will be damaged. Right.
This is why that veil, in a sense, is protection. Their sunglasses. Mortals. They’re sunglasses.
They’re like spiritual sunglasses to make sure that we don’t get burned up. For sure.
You said Zechariah what?
Let’s actually go Zechariah 3:1–8.
One through eight? Okay, cool. I’ll read that.
Okay, so this is Zechariah 3:1–8. Okay.
And he showed me, Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan, standing at his right-hand to resist him. This is one of the few times Satan is even mentioned in the Old Testament.
Right. To set the stage here, we have the high priest in a temple setting. Satan’s there resisting him. Okay? If you think it’s weird if Satan shows in a temple setting, he did in the Garden of Eden. He’s always there to try to stop your progress towards the Lord. Here we have the high priest on his way to the veil, and Satan’s there trying to prevent him. Okay, keep going.
Oh, my gosh. We need to show this to Dave. Why didn’t Dave put this in the language of Adam when he was making his argument? This is amazing. And the Lord said unto Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke thee, ‘Oh Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. ‘ It is not this a brand, plucked out of the fire? Now Jocelyn was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel.
Okay. And remember, an angel is generally a messenger You could even think of the temple workers as angels. They’re messengers. They’re working in the temple. Sometimes when I’ve gone through, especially in the beginning, they actually were angels.
Yeah. Margaret Barker, she unembedded He ambiguously says that the angels many times are just talking about the people who were in the temple that we’re officiating. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him. ‘ And unto him he said, ‘Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
‘ Okay, so why are we changing clothes here?
Because he’s going to be entering into a new realm.
Yeah, you can’t go into that realm wearing your filthy he rags from mortality, right? You’re going to become a more refined, celestial person through Christ.
This is one of the most explicit temple things that I’ve read in the- Keep breathing, bro.
Can we keep breathing?
Yeah. I said, Let them set a fair miter above his head. What is that?
That’s the hat that the high priest wore in the temple. It looks like a turban. He’s getting dressed here.
So they set a fair miter upon his head and clothed him with garments And the angel of the Lord stood by, and the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, if thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
Okay, so pause there for one second.
I just had another crazy-think about this.
It says, The angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua. I don’t think the word there is protested. I don’t think he was holding up signs and going crazy. I think it’s more of a warning to Joshua, and an explanation saying, Okay, you’re approaching the veil. Don’t take this lightly. Do all the things you’re supposed to do. Make sure you’re doing this worthily, which we can have a separate discussion about what worthy means. But sometimes I think maybe we set the bar too high for ourselves.
What that actually means, yeah. Yeah.
I think if you consider yourself worthy, you consider yourself being of worth to do this. It’s something that has worth and value. Certainly, there are worthiness standards. I don’t want to undermine that. But we talk about being worthy to take the sacrament. I think it’s, are you coming to the sacrament as a thing of worth? This has worth and value to you such that you will do what it takes to prepare yourself to take that because it has that worth to you. You don’t take it casually, right? You don’t take it saying, Well, yeah, I’ve done all these things. I don’t really care. I’m just going to take it. I’m just going to do it. It’s saying, I care about this. This has worth and value to me. Because Because of that, I will prepare myself.
That is so interesting because a lot of times… Yes, because they’re so interconnected, because if I value and hold this sacred, the temple, then I’m not going to live a life that is contrary to the Commandments of God and then think, Oh, it’s okay. I can live however I want to live and then go to the temple. Because then you’re not valuing the temple as a sacred place, and it’s not worth anything to you.
You’re not taking it seriously. It doesn’t have that value to you. You’re just doing it to do it.
You turn the sacred space into profane. Exactly.
Then if the sacrament is just bread and water on Sunday, then Yeah. If you’re living in a way very contrary to the commands of God and then just taking the sacrament anyway, then it’s not worth anything to you, therefore taking the name of God in vain.
Right.
Which is actually what it means.
Which is literally what it means. You’re taking Christ’s name.
Taking his name for vanity’s sake, not because it’s worth something.
Yeah, I never thought about that. For vanity’s sake, it’s to be seen outwardly. Exactly. That’s what that means. That’s actually really awesome.
Which is also why the temple garment is kept covered because this isn’t a vanity thing to show off to the world like, Oh, I went through the temple. I did these things. For sure. No, this isn’t a status symbol. This is for you. This is because that veil is staying with you.
So worthiness has taken on a whole… Sorry. It’s awesome. It has taken on a whole new meaning in my head because it’s not like… Because if we truly understand what’s in the scriptures, then we’re going to understand that we need to raise our bar in terms of how we live our lives to be able to come closer to being like God.
It’s raising the bar from the heart. It’s not a checklist just got longer thing. It’s the heart. It’s the love. It’s the loyalty to Christ. To. That’s the motivation for coming to the sacrament table, for coming to the temple. I think the reverse of that is sometimes people beat themselves up and think, I keep screwing this thing up, and I shouldn’t go to the temple. But it’s like, no. If you’re keeping your temple covenants, and the temple has that value for you, it is worth it to you, don’t keep yourself out.
Yeah, that’s amazing. I love this idea that we’ve been talking about, that the veil… The veil… So the Commandments also act as a veil. Right. Or they are- That’s a really great point. Where it’s like, that’s what keeps us. Once we keep those, we can part the veil. Once we do that, and it’s for our safety in the end. That way, we don’t look up at the sun without sunglasses and go blind.
Right. Which is, I think, going back to this passage in Zechariah, this This is not the angel protesting. This is the angel or the helper there, warning him, not in a mean, like warning sense. It’s like, Hey, look, if you don’t do this worthily, If you aren’t taking this seriously, and this doesn’t have value to you, intrinsic value in your heart, don’t do this. Yes. Because this is serious. Yeah, God will not be mocked, not because he’s offended, but because of what it means to enter his presence. This is not something to be taken lightly.
It will destroy you if you mock God, and that’s why he won’t be mocked. Right here, I’m looking up the Hebrew word for protest there, and it means to return to go about, to repeat, to do again. I think repeat might be the best where it says- That’s a great word. The Lord repeated unto Josiah saying… Joshua. Now, real quick with Joshua, that I recognize. Joshua is actually in the name of Jesus.
That is his name.
Yeah, it’s his name. It’s Jesua. Because a lot of people might like, Jesus’s name isn’t Joshua. The reason why we call Jesus, Jesus is because we read from a Greek New Testament, and the Greeks did not have a ‘sh’ sound, and so they had to change Jesua’s name to something that worked in their language.
Their names also ended with an ‘s’, not an ‘uh’. Yes.
Jesus isn’t his actual name. Jesua is. Right in here, you’re having this person who is taken on… So Jesua, and when we are going through the temple, we are taking on the name of Jesua as we’re going through. So that’s another amazing symbolism here.
So you get to this point that you just God in verse seven, I’m repeating this to you. I’m reminding you that if you continue on this walk, walk in his ways. Keep those Commandments. Keep all the charges you’ve been given. Then you’ll be made a judge in my house. What does that mean? What’s the house? It’s the house of Israel, right? If you’re a judge in the house of Israel, you’ve attained that, right? Those are some of the temple promises.
Can we read the rest of this chapter? Because I’m reading it now and my mind is exploding. Okay. Right now, what we just barely read is that the angel of the Lord pretty much says, Hey, this is what you need to keep if you’re going to enter into the next part, essentially, right?
By the way, sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt you. It’s all good. If Joseph Smith made this up- The whole temple. It’s amazing. There’s no way. There is no way. We get hints of it here that we understand because we’ve been through the temple. Yes.
But he’s not reading Zechariah 3 and then be like, okay, how do we put it together?
He’s not reading this and putting it together. This is not a farm boy in the 1820s going, Hey, I’m going to create this ritual. How should I do it? Maybe I’ll piece it together from a scrap here in the Old Testament and a piece there. No, no. The temple is a restoration of the ancient covenant given to us post-Christ because it reverses that first temple and sends us back into the presence of God. Joseph Smith didn’t come up with this. For sure.
And this next verse has That’s something very familiar. Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men wandered at, or wandered at. For behold, I will bring forth my servant, the branch. So once again, Lehi’s vision of the tree of life, which is the word of God, who is the word of God? It is Christ, who is the Lord’s servant, Christ, who is also the branch. Right before he’s entering into the Holy of Holies, there is a branch that is reaching out to.
Yeah. Who are these fellows to be wondered at?
No. What is your understanding with that?
I think it’s the heavenly host. Oh, yeah. That’s the divine council. You have these celestial beings that you’re now entering the presence of, and they should be met with wonder and awe and probably a little bit of fear and troubling, right? Yeah.
No, that’s really awesome. I got to finish. I’m so excited for this. Keep going. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua. Upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, sayeth the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, sayeth the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man, his neighbor, under the vine and under the fig tree? And so you end in the presence of the tree. Right. And every man is called under there.
Sometimes we think the fig tree is a bad thing because it’s what Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves up with.
Yeah, the fig leaves.
It’s not a bad thing because look where they end up. They’re at the fig tree, and there’s a lot of symbolism we could dive into about figs. But have you ever bitten into a fig? So good. Yeah, they’re really good. What’s inside?
No.
No.
No. No. No. No. No. It’s just a bunch of tiny seeds.
Hundreds of tiny seeds.
Oh, no. Figs are different. I’m so sorry. I was thinking of a date. Yeah, no. Yeah, figs. Yeah. No. Yeah. Figs.
Yeah.
It’s actually really weird fruit when you buy it into it. You’re like, tons of seeds.
Yeah, tons of seeds. Just ponder that.
Okay, now I get the connection there. Partaking the figs, we’re talking about seed. That’s definitely a temple thing that that happens right before the Holy of Holies. That’s amazing.
Think about eternal families. We think our eternal family is like our nuclear family, and we’re going to live in a nice celestial castle altogether, and we won’t fight anymore. Yeah, it’s much bigger than that. Which would be great. But it’s bigger than that. Joseph Smith talked about the continuation of the seeds. An eternal family is a family that extends eternally in all directions. It is seeds that extend and expand in all directions. A fig tree is very emblematic of that.
I can’t believe we haven’t read Zechariah 3 yet. We’ve been on this whole temple and the scriptures journey for almost a year now.
We got to read this with Dave and just see what his thoughts are.
Maybe he knows about it. That is amazing.
I’m sure he knows about it. He’s a walking encyclopedia.
It’s true. Oh, my gosh.
That’s why he’s so tall. He’s just been hoarding it for months. The whole encyclopedia on legs.
Sweet. We got… Yeah. Okay.
Okay.
So-24 minutes left.
Until the car shows up.
Yeah, but she’ll be running out. We got to do this for the camera. People want her. Yeah. Just kidding.
Okay, so going back, we talked about Enoch and how he was stripped of the earthly garments, and then he’s shining, right? Now we see this same thing here happening in Zechariah with Joshua. He’s stripped of his earthly garments. He enters the presence of these beings to be wondered at. He’s in this heavenly realm. Probably the most famous instance we have of something like this in the scriptures is Moses when he goes up to Sinai. What does he look like when he comes back down?
Glowing.
Glowing so brightly that he has to do what? Has to veil his face. He has to veil his face because he’s been through the veil, and he’s coming back, so he’s bringing part of the veil with him, and he’s vealing his face because he has that radiance, that glory, that would otherwise be dangerous to those who aren’t prepared for it.
He’s putting sunglasses on himself for everybody else, essentially, so they don’t burn their eyes.
Yeah. Wow. Then this is also where that sneaky little Joseph Smith managed to just pull these strands in and weave them into the Book of Mormen so nefariously, right? Okay, go to Alma 5:50. Okay.
I’m so gassed up, bro.
I didn’t think you were going to be able to do this again. I was like, the first one was a fluke. You shared some cool stuff.
All right, Alma 5, what?
Chapter 5, verse 50. Okay.
All right. It says, Yey, thus say the spirit, repent all ye ends of the earth, for the King of Heaven is soon at hand. Yey, the Son of God cometh in his glory, in his might, Majesty, power, and dominion. Yey, my beloved brother, and I say unto you that the spirit sayeth, ‘Behold the glory of the King of all the Earth, and also the King of Heaven, shall very soon shine forth among all the children of men.
‘ What does the King of Heaven do?
Shine forth.
Shines, like literally He’s shining like Moses, right? And this goes back to numbers. I think it’s chapter 6, verse 25, roughly. There’s this high Priestley blessing where it says, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The only way the Lord’s face can shine upon you is if that veil is parted, if that veil is lifted, right? Yeah.
Wait, and write a couple of verses after. It says, so it says, cry forth and repent. But then in 52, right after that, it says, And again, I say unto you that the spirit sayeth, behold, the ax is laid at the root of the tree. Therefore, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. Yey, a fire which cannot be consumed, even an unquenchable fire. Behold and remember the Holy One hath spoken it.
So Sorry, this might be a little bit of a tangent, but I want to get your thoughts on this. Because I’ve often thought about the Adam and Eve story. I’ve said this multiple times on the channel. I think it is the story of stories. You can look at it from a thousand different lenses, and it is true in all those lenses. That’s why it has stood the test of time. One of the ways I’ve looked at the Garden of Eden story is it is the story of the pre-existence and even the war in heaven. So When you’re talking about how the Christ comes out, and now we’re going in reverse back into it, I’ve always thought about the garments of skin. So essentially this decision is made. I think Eve knowingly makes a decision to some degree or another. She obviously knows what she’s doing. She knows the consequences of it. She makes that willingly. And then what happens is they give them a coat of skins. Now, obviously, that represents the atonement and all of this, but it also represent mortality.
Mortality, exactly. Because in many respects, the fall, I think, represents our birth into mortality. Yes. This is why Christ says we need a second birth, one that reverses the first and goes back into his presence through that veil.
Which is a huge deal. Because when Nicodemus is like, Are you saying that I should enter into my mother’s womb a second time? Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The way that we understand that, and even the chosen, one of my criticisms, it’s an amazing thing, but one of my criticisms is when they’re having that conversation, Nicodemus says that, and Jesus is like, No, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is baptism or whatever. But verily, verily actually means Amen, Amen. What Jesus is saying when Nicodemus asks, Are you saying I need to be born or enter into my mother’s womb again? He’s saying, Yeah. He’s saying, Yes, unless a man be born of water, so mortal, that’s a mortal birth, and of the spirit that’s you entering back into your mother’s womb. He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
Right. Now, going back to the fig full of seeds, what is that?
It’s fruit?
It’s fruit full of seeds.
Full of seeds.
What is that emblematic of?
A woman.
Oh, there we go. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Wow. Yes. Wow. Holy cow.
Fig tree, bro.
Fig tree. Bro.
Okay, so. I guess in the interest of time, I have one more verse for you. We saw in Alma that the King of the Earth, it says, The glory of the King of all the Earth, the glory of the King of Heaven, shall shine forth among the children of men. The veil will be removed. His face will shine upon you. Go to Alma verse 40, or Chapter 40, verse 25.
Alma, chapter 40, verse-Verse 25.
I call reading it.
Dude, I know whenever she asks us to read, I want to read it because I want to be the one that-Okay, actually, we’ll back up a little bit.
Let’s go to-23? Let’s start 23 and go through to 25.
Welcome, Jay. We got to watch her. We’re about to finish up here. We’re about to finish. You just missed something amazing. All in the door. So 23, The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul, ye, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body, ye, even a hair of the head shall not be lost, but all things shall be restored to their proper and That’s a good frame.
I’ll pause you there for a second. That sounds really nice. That sounds like resurrection. I want you to think of that in temple terms. Okay. Perfect. Think of words spoken in the temple, and if these words sound anything like that. Okay. Okay.
And now, my son, this is the restoration of which has been spoken by the mouths of the prophets. And then shall the righteous shine forth into the Kingdom of God. Okay, I totally get what you’re saying now about 23. Okay. Holy It’s like a cow. It’s things that we can’t really talk about.
I’m not going to go into. I just want to throw that bone out there for you to ponder and study in your own time. Yes. But it ends with, so there’s a blessing and a promise given there in 23. And it ends with the righteous, not the King shining forth now. Now it’s the righteous shining forth because they’ve entered into his presence. They’ve passed that veil. They’re in his presence. This is where they’re glorified. And we have that shining that we saw with Moses, that we saw in Zechariah, that we saw with Enoch. Yeah.
And this next verse is awesome right here. I’ll just read it. But behold, an awful death cometh upon the wicked, for they die as the things pertaining to things of righteousness, for they are unclean. So going back to the dirty garments that were thrown off from Joshua, ‘They are unclean, and no unclean thing can inherit the Kingdom of God, but they are cast out and consigned to partake of the fruits of their labors or their works which have been evil, and they drink the dregs of a bitter cup. ‘ Once again, all of these things end with fruit. It ends with a tree. It’s crazy because right here, it’s talking about how the wicked will partake of their fruit based on what they have sown. But that also means that the righteous are partaking of their fruit based on what they have. So once again, the tree of life motif at the end of all this.
Absolutely. Yeah. Holy cow. Okay. I lied. I said that was the last verse.
Okay, let’s go another one.
Okay. Doctrine and Covenants 101. We’re just going to hit all of the standard works because this stuff is just woven throughout because Joseph Smith was such an evil genius that he managed to weave this stuff in there.
I know. The consistent complexity of all of the standard works is the greatest testament to Joseph Smith being a prophet because it is so consistently complex, and it’s amazing.
I mean, for us who’ve been through the temple multiple times, I’ve been gone for 20 plus years. It’s like, I’m still stumbling on this stuff that just blows my mind. It’s like, oh, it was right there the whole time, but I didn’t see it until now.
He never told anyone about it, too. That’s the thing that’s wild is he puts all this stuff in there and then says nothing.
He seems to not really know anything about it.
If he does know something about it, he’s just like, I’ll let them figure out. We’ll wait for the stick of Joseph to come out.
What verse?
Okay, Doctrine Covenants 101. Let’s do 22 and 23. All right.
22 and 23. Behold, it is my will that all they who call on my name and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together and stand in holy places and prepare for the revelation which to come.
Can you pause for a second? So stand in a holy place. Where is that? The temple. It’s the temple, right? You’re gathering together according to the everlasting gospel. It’s not just the restored gospel, it’s the everlasting gospel. And prepare for the revelation that’s to come. How are things revealed? What happens when something is revealed?Unvealed.It’s unveiled.It.
Says, When the veil of the covering of my temple in my tabernacle, which hideth the earth, It shall be taken off, and all flesh shall see me together.
Okay. So this veil between heaven and earth will eventually be removed, and we will… That atonement will be complete when we are all in his presence and we can withstand the shining because we’ve taken that glory, too. Right?
I just got to point out in these verses that follow, So without getting into all of them, everyone should get out D&C 101, read this. But there are some very key words. So it talks about a tree. It talks about trees after this. It talks about the things, most precious things that are above and things that are beneath the Earth. It’s talking about things that are precious. It’s talking about joy. It is talking about wisdom. Seek the face of God. There’s so much there. It’s That’s amazing.
Yeah. Okay, so to go back to where we started now, why veil a woman? Why veil a bride? What is that? I love the story of Rebecca. This is the Genesis 24 story. Abraham’s servant Eleazar is sent off to go find a bride for Isaac, and he goes and he finds Rebecca. There’s so much symbolism in the story that we don’t have time to get into, but he brings Rebecca back, and she’s riding on a camel. If you go to Genesis 24:65. See, I keep throwing more scriptures in here. I’m never done with the scriptures.
We’re so tired of the scriptures.
There’s so much more to be discovered, always. Yeah.
It’s 24.
Verse 65. I think that’s the right verse. Let’s see.
For she had said unto the servant, what man is it, is this, that walketh in the field to meet us?
Oh, wait, wait. Back up to 63.
63. Okay, yeah. Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even tide, and he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. Okay.
What does that mean? This sounds like she lit the camel on fire, but that’s not what happened.
It says she dismounted. Okay. She got off.
Okay, but it’s more than dismounted. So picture this scene in your mind, right? Isaac probably has some idea, roughly, when Eleazar will return with his bride. You think he might be a little anxious? So he’s out in the field meditating. He’s probably praying, Please let her be pretty. So What does he do when he realizes the camels are coming? He lifted up his eyes, right? And then what does Rebecca do?
She lifted up her eyes.
They both lift up their eyes, which is beautiful in thinking about a marriage. If you want your marriage to work, what should you both do?
Be looking each other. Yeah, look up. Look up.
Okay. Then she lighted off her camel Which if you dig into the Hebrew there, she didn’t like, gingerly get off the camel. She didn’t just dismount.
She jumped.
She jumped. That Hebrew word it’s translated as lighted in other places, it means somebody who fell or jumped out. She got off this camel like she meant it. She was excited. Then go to 65.
For she had said unto the servant, ‘What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? ‘ And the servant had said, ‘It is my master. ‘ Therefore, she took a veil and covered herself.
It’s interesting, right? She hadn’t apparently been vealed on the camel She’s traveling with Eleazar this whole time. She only veils herself when she encounters the bridegroom.
The thing that’s really cool right here, I looked up that word, nafal. It means in the fall.
She fell off her camel, essentially. How excited, how much anticipation should we have to meet our heavenly bridegroom? We should do everything it takes to prepare ourselves for that. It should fill us with so much excitement and desire to finally be in the presence of our bridegroom.
But then in ’67, it said, And Isaac brought her into his mother’s- His mother’s- Sarah’s tent. And took Rebecca, and she became his wife.
Yeah. Yeah. There’s a ton of symbolism in that verse. We don’t have time to unpack that one.
That’s a wild verse. Yeah.
But it’s interesting, she takes this veil. She hadn’t been vealed the whole time traveling on this camel. It’s when she encounters the bridegroom that she puts a veil over her face. Why? Why? I’m not saying I have the one and only answer, but I think if you think of this in temple terms or even in terms of modern weddings, traditional weddings. My dad walked me down the aisle and I had that veil over my face, and my father unveiled me and presented me to my husband. A bride should be vealed up until the point she meets her husband and is presented to the husband, and then the veil is removed when she is finally in his presence. When that marriage is about to happen, that’s when the veil is removed.
When the covenant has been made. Everything up to that point, everything before the marriage is just… It’s all words. But once that marriage, once that covenant made, then the veil can be removed.
Sometimes it is done that way where it’s like, Okay, now you can kiss your bride, and you do it that way. That’s a That’s a normal way to do it, too. There have been some recent changes to the temple.
Yeah, that’s why I was just thinking, why?
Yeah. I don’t know why. I I can’t say that I was in that meeting where that decision was made, and I know the reasons for it. All I can do is guess. But certainly, there’s the, I would say, the easy answer is, well, in our modern era, feminist era, women don’t like wearing veils. It seems like they’re being subservient.
Yeah, it’s the cynical answer. It’s like, Oh, the church just bowed because the angry feminists were like, Why do we have to wear veils? Or Because maybe we’re not teaching this stuff. Yeah, maybe. Well, maybe there’s that reason. Well, maybe. Yeah, but or.
Actually, I don’t know.
Maybe there’s some symbolism to it.
Because I think there’s some symbol. I’m probably. I will say this is a tantalizing possibility.
Nothing more than a possibility, a supposition, is a bride is unveiled right before the wedding, right before you enter the presence of Yeah.
Because in our last conversation we had, we talked about the symbol that the church came up with, tuba, and all that stuff. We’re talking about how the angel Moronis aren’t on temples anymore because we’re past the point where his friends run it up and say, he’s coming. We’re getting there. Could it be? And so the veil could be. Is it all just a coincidence? Because did the veil… Did that all happen? That all happened around the same time. Yeah, it did. It all just happened. They’re like, all right, on the next phase. I understand why some people would be cynical about it and be like, Oh, they’re just bowing. But maybe that’s not the case. I think this is a really good case for it. Here’s the thing.
Sometimes I’ve seen people before that have this sense that the temple ceremony should just be this one salvific ritual that you go through, and so therefore it should never change. It actually should change because it’s teaching us something about the time and place that we’re in. No, So now, and where we are, we talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ. There’s something to be said about our relationship to Jesus Christ. Where are we relative to Christ? And the temple teaches us something about that, too. Wow.
Well, let’s figure it out, people. Thank you so much for watching this. You’re going to miss your plane if we don’t end this now.
Also, her Uber driver is Saul. And so go-Saul’s waiting.
He’s waiting.
Go into this and change him into Paul.
Well, Well, thank you guys so much for watching. Andrea, you are amazing. She is working on a book right now. She actually signed a kutuba last night.
I said it over there.
But she signed a kutuba last night where she is officially writing a book for Plane and Precious Publishing. If you want that book when it comes out, then link is in the description. You can sign up, and you will be among the first who gets an email when it is live. Andrea, thank you so much for coming.
Thanks for having me.
It’s been fun. Until next time. Stay curious and hungry. Holy did you do it again? Wait, explain to me the thing.
I wasn’t able to process.
dyejo
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