Q. What is the precise meaning of 2 Corinthians 3:12-13; with particular reference to the latter part of verse 13? “Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech and not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.”
A. The Apostle having now the key to all God’s ways then with Israel, in Christ, he can tell it all out with full freedom of speech, as one who had no vail on his face as Moses All was now open and unveiled; all ambiguity was gone — the vail was off, and the whole truth out; while the vail was on the heart of the Jew.
They “could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.” For, when Moses came down from the mountain the second time, the skin of his face shone, reflecting the glory of the Lord, who had just revealed himself in long-suffering, mercy, and grace. But this had not removed the law with its exaction, and matters were thus made worse. For it was bad enough to have broken the pure law of God; but when its claim still remained, and the Lord had thus revealed Himself — the law’s claims alongside the perfect goodness of the Lord made matters worse if it was broken; because it was now broken in the face of this revelation of goodness in Him who claimed it. Thus it was the law brought down the second time by Moses, whose face then shone with the goodness of the Lord, which is termed by Paul the “ministration of condemnation.”
This glory the children of Israel shrank from, and could not look at; for they did not apprehend the mind of the Spirit in what was coming by Christ, and thus could not see to the end of that which is abolished, that is, the whole Jewish system. “He taketh away the first that he may establish the second” (Heb. 10:9).