February 14, 2010 Exodus 34:29-35

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

In hymn 712 we pray the following prayer,

Jesus, take us to the mountain

Where, with Peter, James, and John,

We are dazzled by your glory,

Light as blinding as the sun.

There prepare us for the night

By the vision of that sight.

The mountain we sing of in this new hymn is the Mount of Transfiguration; where Jesus’ glory shown through his clothes and face during that one radiant moment. This celebration of Transfiguration Day whets our appetite for that glorious Day when Jesus comes in His glory with all His holy angels.

Is this your goal in life, to stand face to face before God in all of His glorious majesty and with all of His holy angels before His mighty throne? We want to reflect the faith of David who wrote in Psalm 27,

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

It is something to hope for; yet it is also something that scares us a bit. God’s Word also says that God is “the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. (1 Ti 6:15) When we read passages like this it makes us wonder, “Could I ever actually stand before His majesty without dying?” That is the hope of the Transfiguration. That we will be transferred to that heavenly glory in an eternal way and not just a temporary way as Moses was; that our sins will be removed from us so that we will be enabled to stand before God in the flesh.

Seek His Face

I. Moses’ face scares us

This story of Moses going up Mt. Sinai is a truly marvelous picture. It would do all of us well to dig into the book of Exodus and really examine the sight. The description of it is awesome. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. First of all, isn’t it amazing that Moses was not even aware of the radiance of his own face? This shows us how glorious the vision of the LORD was; so glorious that it made his own face seem dull; so glorious that it made Moses completely unaware of himself; only focused on the LORD. As Adam and Eve were unaware of their own nakedness in the Garden, so Moses was unaware of his own glory on the Mountain. This is how life will be in heaven when we are allowed to stand face to face before the LORD; to gaze upon His beauty in His temple. Some people worry about whom else will be in heaven; but I can’t help but think we will be so enamored with the beauty of the LORD that we really won’t be focused on who is next to us in the least.

Consider also the reaction of Aaron and all the Israelites. When they saw the beaming glory that was emanating from Moses’ face they were AFRAID to come near him. Doesn’t this remind you also of the response of Mary and Joseph and Zechariah in the presence of an angel? The first words the angel needs to say are, “Don’t be afraid.” It is the natural response of sinful humans who are accustomed to living in such a sinfully dulled world; we don’t realize how sin has stained us and corrupted our world. But when the heavenly realm is even reflected herein we naturally respond in fear. The holy and radiant beams of glory seem out of place here; they scare us. They scared Aaron and the Israelites.

You might think that this is a bad reaction, but this is the initial kind of reaction that the LORD wants. The danger of living in such a mundane world where God hides Himself in such an inauspicious way is that people forget how glorious and majestic He really is. They would rather speak of God as just a carpenter or the man upstairs instead of the Holy God. As a result they even treat His holy things such as baptism and the Lord's Supper as if they were common every day items. Nothing could be more dangerous. Sometimes it does a soul good to have the LORD confront you with His glory. Consider back to when the LORD originally gave the Ten Commandments back in chapter 20. He had fire and lightning come crashing down on the Mountain. He Himself spoke the Ten Commandments and scared the daylights out of the Israelites at first. This is what the LORD wanted; to first of all impress on the Israelites minds that He was not to be trifled with or taken lightly.

How can this happen when we don’t see the reflection of Moses’ face? Remember that Moses’ face was only a reflection of the words of the LORD; meant to send a message to the Israelites that they were to live in relationship with a HOLY God. Those words still speak to us today. The Holy Spirit still works through them. It really is amazing to peruse through some of the things that the LORD said to the Israelites as Moses reiterated God’s law to them. Just summarizing chapter 34 He says to Moses,

1. I’m driving out all of the foreign nations from the Promised Land. Have NOTHING to do with them. Don’t marry with them. Smash their altars. Destroy their gods. I’m the only one! In today’s day and age the LORD would say to us, “Don’t look at those horoscopes. Don’t buy into this Mother Earth movement and perform their rituals. Don’t buy into the New Age movement or the theology of Oprah. Don’t intertwine yourself with the unbelieving world. Stick with me!”

2. Celebrate the Festivals! The festivals were interwoven with physical acts that had spiritual meaning behind them. They had a message from the LORD saying, “Remember how I delivered you from slavery through these Festivals and continue to set yourselves aside for my purposes through them. Remember that I am the LORD of deliverance and redemption.” Today this would include coming to worship on a regular basis and revolving the highlights of your year around the spiritual festivals like Christmas, Lent, and Easter; where God reminds us of how He delivered us from our slavery to sin. I find it sad how so many non-denominational church have completely abandoned any sense of a church year and chosen to only talk about spiritual topics that inevitably point to Christians instead of the Christ.

3. Dedicate the firstborn and the firstfruits to Me! For every animal that was born of the livestock they were supposed to sacrifice it to the Lord. I don’t believe the donkey was considered a sacrificially clean animal, so instead they were to either substitute a lamb or break the donkey’s neck. Now imagine that; purposely killing a donkey by breaking its neck! This sounds absurdly harsh to our Gentile ears. Yet the act of sacrificing this animal was showing trust that the LORD could produce more. It was reflecting the price of redemption; the cost of belonging to the LORD. It was also more importantly establishing a pattern of how the LORD would eventually set aside His best; His one and only Son; to die for the sins of the world; to make us His own. So the LORD today doesn’t demand we kill our donkeys, but He does want us to give our firstfruits; set aside our best time for Him. Don’t just look at what you have left at the paycheck; plan what you will give him at the beginning of the paycheck. Revolve your life around how you give God the best of your time and effort; don’t schedule your life only around your pleasures and entertainment work; give your best to the people God has put in your life.

In order that the people would remember all of these laws the LORD had Moses write them all down. With special care he wrote the words of the Ten Commandments on the two tablets of stone. He wanted to make sure that the Israelites had no chance of forgetting these words; that they would have every opportunity to study the words again and again.

Don’t just regard this as an Old Testament text that we can briefly peruse and then set aside like today’s paper; yesterday’s news. There is still much we can learn from it; the practices may have changed; but the principles in many ways remain. Listen to God’s Word speak to you and realize that expects nothing less of you. He still expects to be first place in your life; above your work; your spouse; your children; your very life. He wants you to continually remember the Sabbath by coming to church; to contemplate the history of the LORD; how He has done powerful things to redeem His people. When He blesses you with different gifts He expects you to respond in faith and give Him the first and the best of what you receive. He is a holy God who was serious about making His people holy. Moses purposely kept his veil off to reflect this glory of the LORD so that his face would reflect God’s holiness and hopefully the combination of the two would produce a holy awe in the ears and minds and hearts of the Israelites.

If you listen to these words and reflect on them; if you realize that there are portions of your life where you are miserably failing at something; don’t just walk away from this Mountain and say to yourself, “Oh well, I guess we all sin.” Stand in awe at the face of Moses. Fear the words of God and repent. Don’t just say, “I guess I’ll have to try harder from now.” Say, “LORD, I beg your mercy! Do not destroy me for my laziness and my greed and my selfish way of living.” These principles are not just suggestions, “Could you come to church if you have the time? Would you mind giving the LORD a little bit of your money if you would?” They are words of the glorious God as reflected in the glorious face of Moses. He really does expect us to put Him first. He really does demand us to be holy. This isn’t just what God is asking of the Israelites; this is what God demands of all; complete and total faithfulness; no weak spots.

II. Jesus’ face comforts us

When we take Moses’ words seriously it then makes the Mount of Transfiguration all the more glorious and comforting to us. Instead of coming down from the Mountain with more laws in His hands and making demands of His disciples, Jesus brought His disciples up the mountain; into the very presence of God’s glory; standing with God’s living saints Moses and Elijah. When the disciples went up there they were not enamored by the glory of the resurrected Moses but by the glory of the divine Jesus; as light came beaming from His face and His clothes. Jesus didn’t just reflect light, He had light coming from within. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah didn’t speak about establishing a new law over Israel; they spoke about how Jesus was about to bring to fulfillment all He had come to do. What was He about to fulfill? The promise of the Gospel; the threats of the Law; by dying on the cross for the sins of the world. All of those broken donkey necks and sacrificial lambs were meant to point to the One main sacrifice of God’s Only Son; this is what Jesus was talking about on top of the Mountain.

The Father spoke from the top of the Mountain again, as He did at Mt. Sinai. Yet here instead of shouting the Ten Commandments He simply said, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” It is such a simple statement yet it is packed with meaning. Jesus was and is the Son of God. The Father didn’t reject Him as the Son; his upcoming death was not some sort of rejection of His Son; but it was the result of the Father’s choice (and the Son’s acceptance) to make Jesus the sacrificial Lamb who would take away the sins of the world.

We can’t see Jesus’ face beaming from the Mountain. But we can still hear Jesus’ words; His gracious words. The Father tells us to listen to Him. It was Jesus who said that He came to seek and to save the lost. It was Jesus who prayed for the forgiveness of the very people who were crucifying Him. It was Jesus who gave us our most prized words of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It was Jesus who chose to come back down from that glorious mountain and go to that dirty hill. It was Jesus who cried out those most wonderful words from the cross, “It is finished.” The words of Jesus reveal to us a completely different message from Moses. Instead of demanding holiness from us, He would give holiness to us. Instead of demanding first fruits from us, He would give His first fruits of forgiveness and righteousness to us. The words and face of Moses were glorious as they were and are the words of God, but the words and face of Jesus and the words of the Father shine even brighter; for they point us to Golgotha and reveal to us a different way to salvation; a free way; a way outside of us; in the cross of Christ. In comparison of the two Paul says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3:7-11,

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

When God allowed Moses to go up Mount Sinai and speak with the LORD without dying, He used Moses as a go-between; one whom He would use to speak with the Israelites and reveal His glory to them. Moses was still a sinner; yet God allowed him to come up and serve as a mediator in order to bring the law. This foreshadowed a different way that God would bring a more glorious ministry. Instead of bringing a sinner up a mountain, God sent His holy Son; God in the flesh; down into the valley of the shadow of death. Instead of keeping Jesus from dying He made His Son go through hell. He made Jesus endure the blackest darkness. Instead of coming down with the law and only demanding what the holy God said; Jesus came down as the Holy Son to fulfill what the Holy God demanded. Jesus came down to bring us up. He didn’t come down to tear us down.

When Moses initially entered the fiery mountain of Sinai the Israelites thought he would never come back. They started worshiping other gods. He came back down with fury and wrath and threw the Ten Commandments down. When Jesus entered into the grave the disciples thought that Jesus would never return. They thought their Messiah was dead. Jesus returned three days later; not with fury and wrath over their doubt; but with love and forgiveness in His hands and His mouth. So Jesus has now hidden Himself in the heavens. Some people think He is never returning. They live as if Christ were dead. He will come in wrath for them on Judgment Day if they do not repent. But we live in faith; knowing that Jesus will come down from the clouds, just as He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration. As He came down to die and save us from our sins and hell the first time, so He will come to physically rescue us from this sinful world when he comes in the clouds.

Sometimes it is difficult to look somebody in the eye, especially when you need to tell them something difficult or when that person scares you. Moses was scary to look in the eye because his face was beaming with God’s holy glory. Moses’ words still scare us he reflects how our holy God demands holy things from us; he makes us feel that we could never enter into the Presence of God. Yet his words also carry a theme and promise of redemption hidden under the sacrifices and Festivals. Moses also gives us hope, for if the LORD gave sinful Moses forgiveness and holiness and a resurrection from the dead in order to speak with Jesus face to face from the Mt. of Transfiguration, then maybe we sinners have hope as well. Our hope to speak with Jesus and see Him face to face comes from not only seeing Jesus’ face but more importantly listening to His words. Since Jesus beamed with holiness on this Mountain we know that He was not being punished for His sins on Golgotha, but ours. His words and the words of the Father comfort us; for they tell us what Jesus came to do; they point us to the glory of Christ crucified; which is our glory and our salvation. Jesus tells us that sinners bitten with death and sin can look up to Him at the cross and find forgiveness, holiness, and salvation. Look at both the face of Moses and the face of Christ and in that order. Listen to their words. They will terrify you and comfort you with holiness demanded and holiness given. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek. (Psalm 27:8) Amen.