“3 Covenant Reminders (Exodus 34)" | 7/30/23
Exodus 34 | 7/30/23 | Will DuVal
I told you the story last week about my son Elijah’s new bunk beds that got him in trouble - I told him “When I turn the lights out and leave, it’s bedtime”, instead he climbed up the ladder and jumped on his sister’s bed. And I told you about how I gave him a second chance, and went back in and WARNED him again. But when he disobeyed a second time, he had to get a spanking.
What I HAVEN’T told you yet is what happened next. Elijah was crying, so I hugged him tight, and I gently reassured him, “Son, I love you SO much. I HATE to spank you. But I love you enough to CORRECT you when you disobey.”
Then I reminded him: “Your bunk beds are a privilege. But to KEEP them, you’ve got to respect the RULES. No climbing the ladder…”
Then finally, I asked, “Do you want me to lay with you for a minute while you calm down?” And I put him back in his bed, and I lay there with him while he drifted off.
A few weeks ago in Exodus, we saw God give his people, Israel, a great GIFT - His LAW - to show them how to live in relationship with HIM. But the past TWO weeks now, that relationship has run into a problem: while God was in the middle of giving them His Law - assembling the bunk beds, if you will, with Moses up on Mt. Sinai - the Israelites were down at the FOOT of the mountain ALREADY “climbing the ladder” - breaking God’s covenant. So last week God “spanked” them; he sent a plague on Israel. God made it clear that what they DESERVED was total annihilation, yet in His MERCY, and because of the intercession of His appointed MEDIATOR, MOSES, God spared Israel.
Still though, Israel is crying, embarrassed, maybe even a little SCARED: “Does God still LOVE us? Will He still go WITH us, to the Promised Land, or will He DISOWN us?” And this morning God ANSWERS them, in ch34, by responding in 3 ways:
First, He REASSURES them, of the kind of God - the kind of FATHER - He is: “Israel, I LOVE you; I HATE to spank you. But I DO it cuz I LOVE you…”
Second, God REMINDS them of the RULES of this covenant RELATIONSHIP that they enjoy with Him, this privilege: “To KEEP the bunk beds, you gotta respect the RULES; no climbing the ladder!”
And Third - after REASSURING them… and REMINDING them… - God REMAINS with them. To PROVE that He hasn’t given up on them, that He loves and forgives and still desires RELATIONSHIP with them, God STAYS with them.
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That’s your outline for this morning, the 3 “Covenant Reminders” God is offering Israel here: 1) the REASSURANCE of “WHO HE IS”; 2) the REMINDER of “WHAT HE EXPECTS”; and finally, 3) His REMAINING PRESENCE, as the “BLESSING (that) He Gives” them.
We’ll look at each in turn, after reading the passage together; Would you STAND… Exodus 34:
34 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3 No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
10 And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
17 “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.
18 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 All that open the womb are mine, all your male[b] livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 22 You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. 23 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. 26 The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.”
27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34 Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. [Then] Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with [God].” This is the word of the Lord… [Seated…]
#1 - God’s FIRST response to Israel here, is to REASSURE them of WHO HE IS, their COVENANT MAKER (vv1-10).
Let’s remember the context: God is responding not ONLY to Israel - crying, scared at the foot of the mountain - but most immediately He’s responding to MOSES, specifically, Moses’ REQUEST from ch33, to SEE GOD’S GLORY; v18: “Moses said, “[God,] Please show me your glory.””. And God’s REPLY last week pointed us to our need for a better Mediator, one who can not only experience God’s glory - remember: God had to WARN Moses, “SORRY, But you cannot see my face [experience the FULLNESS of my glory] for man shall not see me and live.”” - we need a Mediator who not only experiences God’s glory for Himself, but who actually EMANATES God’s glory, and thus enables US to experience it as well. And we’ll return to that later in point #3.
But for NOW, God said, “NO, Moses; for your own SAFETY, you CANNOT see me; I’m too holy and you’re too sinful. HOWEVER, v21: “there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back”.
So now as ch34 opens, God is preparing Moses for that encounter. And before we even get to the MOST important part of the passage in vv5-7, we are told something very profound here about what it takes to prepare for an encounter with the Lord. THREE things we’re told, actually; if you and I want to experience God’s glory, we should expect it will require…
First - EFFORT. God instructs Moses to chisel out not one but TWO tablets of stone, using primitive tools (we can only imagine how laborious that must have been, for 80-year old Moses), but then get some quick sleep, because first thing in the morning, I want you to wake up, and CARRY those two heavy tablets, while you climb the 7,500 ft all the way to the summit of Mt. Sinai AGAIN… for the FIFTH time now! And of course we only learn LATER in v28 the hardest part of ALL: that Moses would stay up there ANOTHER 40 days and nights, THIS time, without ANY food OR WATER! (which is of course impossible without God’s miraculous intervention and sustenance.)
But all of this suggests to us that typically, an experience of God’s glory will require EFFORT on our part. Not always. But most often, God works and reveals His glory through what we might call “ordinary means”, which include our EFFORT.
You might pray, “God, would you get GLORY from proving your POWER over cancer and heal my friend.” And God might answer, “Yes”, while STILL requiring that friend to undergo grueling surgeries and rounds of chemo and radiation; God might still require YOU to exert effort in CARING for them - cooking meals, trips to the hospital.
You might pray, “God, would you get GLORY from saving my failing MARRIAGE”. And God might answer, “YES… AND… you need to get yourselves into marriage counseling. Do the work. THEN I’ll show you my power to redeem your brokenness.”
You pray, “God, would you get glory from saving my lost children, my lost parents, my lost SPOUSE.” And God might be answering, “KEEP praying. KEEP witnessing. KEEP inviting them to church. KEEP showing them how glorious I am and how glorious it is to enjoy relationship with me… and I will work through your EFFORTS to reveal my glory to them.”
So we expect an experience of God’s glory to require some EFFORT of us.
Second, it requires LISTENING. Moses wouldn’t have known what kind of effort to put IN - what to chisel, where to meet God - if he hadn’t LISTENED to God’s instructions. Moreover, God’s glorious revelation to Moses here will come in the form of WORDS. Moses had ASKED to SEE God. But God says, “No, Moses; you can’t SEE me. But I want you to LISTEN to me.” And God SPEAKS to him.
Perhaps some of you have been praying, asking God to “show up”, IN your marriage, IN your parenting, IN your work situation, amidst the frustrations - “God, where ARE you? I want to SEE you!” And this morning He’s saying, “But first I want you to HEAR me. LISTEN! I have spoken - I HAVE revealed myself to you already, in my WORD; are you LISTENING? Are you READING it?” Do you make time in your prayers not just to VENT, and make your heart KNOWN to Him - that’s good; God invites it - but He ALSO invites us to then be still, be quiet, and LISTEN for Him. To HEAR his voice, in His WORD.
Isn’t it interesting that in v1, God declares “I will write on the tablets”, but later, in v27: “the Lord said to Moses, “[YOU] Write these words…”. So which WAS it? Did GOD record His commandments for Israel, or did MOSES? The answer is: BOTH. And in this way, the tablets serve as a pattern and a preview of God’s later CO-authorship of ALL of Scripture, His infallible word, alongside humanity. Just as Jesus was the Word of God made flesh - FULLY God and fully MAN - so too is the BIBLE the word of God made PAPER - 100% God-inspired and 100% man-recorded.
Lastly, experiencing God’s glory may require CONSECRATION. We’ve seen TIME and time again now, over the last 20 or so chapters, God calling his people to “set themselves apart, as HOLY unto the Lord”: “Moses, LEAVE the camp - separate yourself out; “No one shall come up with you” - come UP the mountain and “present yourself there to me”.
Perhaps you’re frustrated that God hasn’t come and revealed Himself to you, but HE’S waiting for YOU to come and present yourself to HIM. To leave your SIN, and come to HIM. THEN you’ll see His glory; THEN you’ll see His power - what He can do with your life, if you’ll truly SURRENDER it to Him.
Now we’re finally ready for vv5-7, which I’m gonna re-read, because as Philip Ryken points out (1041): “This is one of the most important [passages] in the entire Bible… It is [later] quoted or referred to [more than 20] times… [It] became Israel’s confession of faith, the people’s working definition of God.” And here it is:
“The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. [We learned all the way back in ch3, when we first discovered God’s name as He revealed it to Moses from the burning bush, that “God’s name stands for his entire being, It is his nature. It is who he IS.” (Ryken, 1040) So who IS God? v6…] 6 The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, “YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…”
I count SEVEN “attributes” of God here, although I don’t really like that term because an “attribute” is defined as “something attributed as belonging to a person” - it’s a TRAIT one POSSESSES in some proportion - which makes sense for you and me; you might be “smart” because you “possess” a degree of intelligence; I am “bald” because I possess only a LITTLE a degree of hair. But God doesn’t POSSESS attributes in the same way. God just IS, intrinsically, “by [His very] nature; necessarily or inseparably”. He REMINDS us so right there in His NAME - Yahweh - remember, it means: “I AM that I am”.
You might be wise, to some extent; GOD is WISDOM, 1 Cor 1:30 says.
We can be more or less “good” people; but GOD is ALL-Good, all-WAYS Good; capital “G” - GOOD. God is the ORIGIN of all “goodness”, the source from which goodness even finds its definition; God is the pure, undiluted ESSENCE of goodness.
And similarly, God is the source, the definition, the essence, the fullness and PERFECTION of all 7 traits we find here:
1) God is MERCIFUL. He is FULL of mercy. Compassion. Care and concern for those in need. Ps 103 says “As a father shows compassion to his children, so YHWH shows compassion to those who fear him” (v13). 2 Corinthians 1 calls Him “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (v3).
2) God is GRACIOUS. Grace is un-deserved favor, un-earned blessing. That’s what God gives us. He doesn’t OWE us the sun on our faces, the rain on our ground, the food in our bellies, the breath in our lungs - ALL the “common graces” He bestows upon ALL people - much LESS the “special grace” of eternal life that God bestows upon His ELECT. And yet, God generously GIVES us all these good gifts and MORE, because as Jesus reminds us, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead… give him a serpent? [NO] If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will [your] heavenly Father give [YOU grace]” (Lk 11:11-13)
3) God is PATIENT. He is “slow to anger”; some translations say “long-suffering”. Aren’t you glad that God is so much slower to anger than WE are? That He gives us more than one warning before “spanking” us? How many “second chances”, THIRD chances… THOUSANDTH chances has God given YOU? How many times have you had to confess the SAME OLD SIN, time and time again, yet STILL God hasn’t given up on you? Why? Because #4…
4) God is LOVING. “Abounding in steadfast love”; not just “lov-ING”; God is LOVE, 1 John 4:8 says. He’s the Source OF, definition OF, pure ESSENCE of love. And John goes ON to say: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us [made VISIBLE to us; though God didn’t initially answer Moses’ prayer to see the fullness of His glory, God WOULD one day allow us to see the FULLNESS of his LOVE, in THIS:], “that God sent his only Son - JESUS - into the world… to be the propitiation for our sins… so that we might live through him” (vv9-11). Friends: Jesus was and IS God’s Love INCARNATE for us, WITH us.
5) God is FAITHFUL. V7 declares God “keep[s] steadfast love for thousands”, of GENERATIONS that is. His love lasts THAT long. “[God’s] love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on [us]” (“One Thing Remains”, Brian Johnson, et al). As the psalmist rejoices: “His love endures forever” (Ps 136:1, et al).
6) God is FORGIVING. He “forgiv[es] iniquity and transgression AND sin” - God uses three different words here for “moral failure” to emphasize the point that He forgives all TYPES of sin! I’m imagining a Dr. Seuss book:
“I will FORGIVE them, Sam-I-am.
I will forgive them, Graham and Pam.
I will forgive them here or there.
I will forgive them ANY-where.
I will forgive their pride and greed,
Lust, envy, wrath and gluttony.
Even adultery and murder, too;
There’s NO forgiving I can’t do.
Because of the death of my perfect SON,
I forgive them ALL, except for ONE.”
Do you remember what it is? The ONE sin God said He WON’T forgive?
Mark 3:29 - “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”. It is when God’s SPIRIT opens a person’s eyes to SEE God for who He really IS - perfect, HOLY - and to see themself for who THEY really are - a SINNER in NEED of mercy, in NEED of grace, in NEED of patience and love and FORGIVENESS - and YET, in their pride, that person hardens their HEART to God’s Spirit, and REJECTS God’s GIFT of His Son JESUS.
Friend: “if you hear His voice today - if God’s SPIRIT is SPEAKING to you this morning, through His WORD - do NOT harden your heart!” TURN from your sin, TRUST in JESUS, and YOU WILL BE SAVED!
Otherwise, you WILL find out one day, the HARD way, that not ONLY is God merciful, gracious, patient, and forgiving… but God is ALSO…
7) JUST. He “will by no means clear the guilty”. God does not leave sin unpunished. Your sin was either paid for, in full, by Christ, on the cross, or you will spend the rest of eternity paying for it yourself, without EVER being able to finally settle your bill. ONLY Jesus can satisfy God’s wrath - his RIGHTEOUS, JUST wrath against our sin.
By the way, when God says He will “visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation,” He’s NOT saying that He’s gonna punish your great-grandkids for YOUR sin; Jeremiah 31:30 assures us that “everyone shall die for his own iniquity” (your great-grandkids will have PLENTY of their OWN sins to answer for!). But while you can’t be PUNISHED for someone else’s sin, you can still PAY for it, can’t you? Just cuz God won’t send you to Hell for your father’s alcoholic RAGE, or your mother’s toxic NARCISSISM, that doesn’t mean you won’t suffer a hellish CHILDHOOD, growing up in that kind of home. And similarly, we can’t overemphasize the extent to which faith ITSELF has a STRONG generational component: my parents’ faith did not - COULD not - secure a personal relationship with Jesus for ME; but I would be SILLY not to acknowledge and APPRECIATE the fact that I enjoyed a distinct advantage growing up in a home with 2 Christian parents, who themselves grew up in homes with at least SOME Christian influence… over a kid born to animist pagans in rural India. The odds were stacked in my favor. And in His love, God DOES stack the odds for us TOWARDS His mercy and AWAY from His justice: notice, he “keep[s] steadfast love for thousands” of generations, and only “visit[s] iniquity… to the third or fourth generation”.
Now in light of ALL this - God’s MERCY and grace, His PATIENCE and love, His FAITHFULNESS and forgiveness, EVEN His JUSTICE - how ought we to RESPOND?
The same way MOSES did, in v8: “And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.” We WORSHIP God, for who He IS, and for who He is… FOR US. He is SO good, SO kind.
And watch what Moses does NEXT; v9: “he PRAYED, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please… go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity… and take us for your inheritance.”” Sound FAMILIAR? That’s because Moses has already prayed every PART of this petition - his appeal to God’s favor (33:12-13); his plea for God’s presence (33:15-16); his confession of Israel’s sin (32:31); his beseeching God’s forgiveness (32:32); his reminder of Israel’s adoption (32:13) - we heard ALL of it in the previous 2 CHAPTERS. Moreover, God’s already AGREED and PROMISED to DO it - to go with Israel, to forgive them, not to disown them. So what’s Moses doing here? I like how Ryken puts it: Moses was praying “not in spite of God’s promises, but because of them. [He] had learned to pray WITHIN the promises of God” (1050).
Like when you and I pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done” or “Forgive us our trespasses” - Jesus TAUGHT us to pray repetitively. Why? We already know God’s Kingdom WILL come, His will WILL be done, we can be sure God HAS forgiven us our sins. And yet, we pray WITHIN the promises of God. BECAUSE of them.
Consider God’s RESPONSE in v10 to Moses’ prayer: “he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant.” God doesn’t REPEAT Himself and say, “Sure, I’ll go with you…”, “Yes, I’ll forgive your sins…”; He doesn’t HAVE to. God covers ALL that by simply saying, “I am keeping my covenant, my unbreakable PROMISE to you.”
As a matter of fact, God says, “Israel, you ain’t seen NOTHING yet!” “I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth… an awesome thing I will do with you” (v10). Why? That “all the people AMONG whom you are shall see the work of the Lord”, and give God GLORY. For who He IS: our ALL-mighty, Covenant MAKING, Covenant KEEPING, merciful, gracious, patient, loving, faithful, forgiving, JUST Father God.
Now, you’re thinking: “Pastor, you just finished point #1. And it’s [**TIME**]. You’re not gonna keep us here another HOUR are you… or split this sermon into another two-parter…?!”
No, I’m not. Because I am a pastor who is “merciful and gracious… abounding in steadfast love”, toward you AND toward Pastor Thad, who has already started prepping for chs35-39 for NEXT Sunday.
And IN my mercy and grace, I’m actually going to SPARE you the full RECAP of covenant reminder #2 here. Point #2, I told you, is God’s REMINDER of “What He EXPECTS”: the Covenant MARKS. (vv11-28)
But here’s the thing: we’ve already examined almost every ONE of these covenant marks previously, going all the way back to ch12, where God instituted the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” which He reminds them of again here in v18, and covering commandments as important as His TOP TEN - God reiterates numbers 1, 2, and 4 again here; Monotheism, Idolatry, and Sabbath, in vv14, 17, and 21, respectively - but He ALSO repeats commandments as seemingly random and insignificant as “what to do with your DONKEYS” (v20) and “how NOT to cook your young GOATS” (v26), both of which we have ALSO exposited previously, in chs13 and 23, respectively. So I’ll SPARE you the full recap, and simply refer you back to those sermons.
But this abridged section of laws DOES bear the question: why this list? I mean, God COULD have just repeated His TOP TEN; the BIGGIES. Why remind them about tearing down pagan ALTARS, why recap all the annual FEASTS… and why does God care SO much about how they cooked goats to even mention ONCE, much less TWICE?!
Philip Ryken explains (1060): “[God] wanted to help his people keep the covenant in precisely the ways that they had just broken it [with their idolatrous golden calf worship]. To that end God [reminded] them of these regulations… that would keep them from worshiping like the Canaanites,” the people in the LAND to which He was SENDING them.
And if we had more time, I might REMIND us of why “maintain[ing] a regular pattern of worship [i.e., the FEAST reminders here; why], 2) enter[ing] God’s holy rest [i.e., the SABBATH reminders here; and why], 3) offer[ing] God our very best [i.e., the CONSECRATION and SACRIFICE reminders here]” (Ryken, 1061) - why ALL those are so SIGNIFICANT, in proactively helping prevent God’s people from descending back into IDOLATRY.
But I will simply REMIND you once AGAIN, that while you and I may not construct Golden Calves or erect Asherah poles, our hearts are no less prone to WANDER from wholehearted WORSHIP of the One True GOD. We are no less idolatrous than the Israelites; we’ve just found new IDOLS - our parents’ approval, our kids’ performance, our friends’ affection, our financial security, our physical health, our physical appearance, our sexual gratification, our gastronomic gratification… the list goes on and on.
And that means that we TOO need to hear God’s REMINDERS once again this morning: that the best way to proactively prevent our gradual decline back into idolatry, is by “maintain[ing] a regular pattern of corporate worship [go to CHURCH], 2) enter[ing] God’s holy rest [carve out time DAILY to spend with God in His word and in prayer], and by 3) offer[ing] God our very best [GIVING and SERVING generously]. Practice those spiritual disciplines - the “marks of the covenant”; what God EXPECTS of us - and we will make it MUCH harder for idolatry to find a FOOTHOLD in our hearts.
Lastly, #3 - we’ve seen God’s covenant REASSURANCE (who He is), God’s covenant REMINDERS (what He expects)... but we END in vv29-35 with God’s covenant MERCY - with God GIVING Israel HIMSELF - His very PRESENCE, and covenanting to REMAIN with them, and BLESS them.
That’s what a “glowing face” represents: God’s BLESSING. It reminds us of Aaron’s famous blessing, from Numbers ch6 (vv24-25):
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you”
And we’ve already read the account here - of Moses coming back DOWN the mountain, unknowingly GLOWING from having been in God’s presence, and he FREAKS the whole camp out, but eventually then they get OVER it and Moses relays God’s covenant reassurances and reminders to them, before VEILING his face. And according to vv34 & 35, this cycle gets REPEATED for YEARS to come, as they journey throughout the wilderness.
And if we had more time, we could discuss why Michelangelo sculpted Moses with HORNS, because the Latin Vulgate translated the Hebrew idiomatic expression here (which refers to “rays of light”) literally instead, to read: “‘the skin of [Moses’] face sent out horns’”.
We could spend more time considering WHY Moses even needed to “veil his face”. The apostle Paul TELLS us why, in 2 Corinthians 3:13; he explains: “Moses… put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.” In other words, Moses’ face was a SYMBOL, intended to REFLECT (pun intended) the fate of the entire Mosaic COVENANT, the LAW, which was indeed a BLESSING (God’s GIFT of the Law), but it was a blessing that was “passing away”, just like the GLOW of Moses’ face. So Paul reasons, “if the [LAW] came with such glory that the Israelites could not [even] gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?” (vv7-8).
Paul states elsewhere that the Law only remained in effect until CHRIST came (Gal 3:19-25), that “Christ is the end of the law” (Rom 10:4), thus, the Law was TEMPORARY, just like Moses’ GLOW. So the reason he had to veil it was to preserve Israel’s confidence in God’s presence and blessing.
Put yourself in their shoes: God had already threatened to leave them ONCE, after they built the calf. But they’re a “stiff-necked people”; they’ve got PLENTY of sinning still to come. And if the only way Israel knows that God is still in their midst, still leading and guiding them, still in fellowship with MOSES, their mediator, is by the glow of his face, then every time that glow started to wear off even just a LITTLE, Israel would start to worry: “Have you seen Moses yet today? He’s lookin’ a little PALE to me; I hope everything’s alright…”
Paul says, “if what was being brought to an end [the LAW] came with such glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.” (v11)
Friends: do you realize that we can now experience God’s glory PERMANENTLY? That we don’t have to climb a mountain, or enter a special tent, or kill a bull, or experience God vicariously through a mediator; that every time you and I want to meet with God all we have to do is look to JESUS! The “glory glow” on MOSES’ face was just reflective, like the MOON, that’s why he was constantly having to go back to God and “recharge”. But now listen to how Hebrews 1 describes JESUS: “He is the radiance of the glory of God” - in other words, God’s glory EMANATES OUT from Jesus, like the SUN. Remember what happened when Jesus was “Transfigured” on the mount, in Matthew 17? He shined like the sun, because He IS God’s Son! Jesus’ glory isn’t just “reflective”; He is the SOURCE of all glory. That’s why Paul continues on to say “only through Christ is [the veil] taken away… And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (vv16-18)
Don’t you wanna be GLORIOUS? Don’t you want your life to COUNT? To live out the purpose for which God CREATED you - “to bring HIM glory” (Isa 43:7)? Do you want to SEE, to BEHOLD God’s Glory, in ALL its splendor, with UNVEILED face?
Then LOOK TO JESUS. The RADIANCE of the GLORY of GOD.
If you want
“The Lord to bless you and keep you;
If you want the Lord to make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
to lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace”, then look to Jesus today.