Exodus 34:29-35--The Shining Face of Moses

The Shining Face of Moses​
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. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

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Have you ever been in situation where someone says, "You're practically glowing!"?  Well, with Moses there was nothing "practically" about it.  Moses came in such close contact with God for such a prolonged period of time that Moses started to change and become more like God, and God's glory started to "reflect" off of Moses (like how the light of the sun reflects off of the moon).

But even this was too much for those that lived in darkness and were not used to seeing the glory of the LORD at all.  To them, even this faint reflection was blinding and they could not look at Moses' face and they were afraid of him in the same way that they were afraid of God.  They asked Moses to hide His face (don't we ask God to do much the same thing?) so that they would not have to be afraid of him and so that they could more easily tolerate his presence and they would not have to live in discomfort and fear--the natural instinct when God's glory and holiness come in contact and conflict with man's sinfulness.  How many times can you think of where an angel visits someone with a message from God and their first words have to be "Do not be afraid."?  The person naturally fears because the angel is reflecting just a little bit of God's glory, much in the same way that Moses is doing here, and much in the same way that the Church does in our world today where Jesus tells His disciples that He is the Light of the World, and also tells them "You are the light of the world."(See John 8:12 and Matthew 5:14 respectively  Additional teaching on Jesus being the Light of the World are in John 8-11 if interested.  Also, see 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Philippians 2:15--there are many more as well as light/darkness is a major theme in the entire Bible).

This gives me some idea why possibly Jesus goes away in solitude to pray--even away from His disciples.  I think He, like Moses, pulls back the veil a bit when it's just Him and His Father.  We get to see this one time in Scripture on the Mount of Transfiguration, but it's just my hunch that this is part of why Jesus got up early in the morning to go to a solitary place to pray.  Much like Moses going up on the mountain away from the people, it was their time (Moses and Jesus) to commune with God and experience some of that glory and to "recharge."  But when they came back to the people, it was necessary for them to hide that glory from the other people--Moses with a veil and Jesus with the veil of flesh that He wore during His time here on Earth.

We often see pictures of Jesus or the disciples/saints with an aura of glory around their face, but we don't read about that in many cases in the Bible--we've talked about two already with Moses and Jesus and the only other that I can think of might possibly be Stephen as he is seized and before he gives his speech in Acts 7, "15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel." (Acts 6:15)  That's not to say that others in the Bible didn't also experience this, but for most of us the glory of the LORD usually does not manifest itself in visible light, but instead is something just as obvious as we live in a way that reflects God's glory and exposes and lights up the darkness all around us and points people in the way that they should go.  God's job to is to have the intense light that purifies conquers all darkness--like the sun during the daytime, but our job is to be like the moon and to be a reminder of God's presence even when the Light of the World is not visible to the men living in darkness because men choose to live in darkness right there than light.  We as the Church are sent back into that brokenness and darkness to tell others about Jesus, the Light of the World and that things are different over where people can live in the light.  Read the book of Revelation and we see that one of the the things strange to us about the new creation is not just that there is no sun, moon, or starts, but that Jesus will be the Light of the World (literally) and the world will never be in darkness at all--it will always be day and never be night when heaven on earth comes to pass.