[Exodus 34] Living with an Unveiled Face. In this chapter, Moses returns for a sixth and final time to the top of the mountain to meet with God. He remains there without food or water for 40 days, and upon his return, his face shines with supernatural glory. What does this tell us about the glory revealed in the face of Jesus Christ that we witness, for instance, in Steven’s face at his stoning? We will delve into this subject in our study.
[Exo 34:1-35 KJV] 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon [these] tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. 2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. 3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. 4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. 5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth [generation]. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it [is] a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou [art] shall see the work of the LORD: for it [is] a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and [one] call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. 18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. 19 All that openeth the matrix [is] mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, [whether] ox or sheep, [that is male]. 20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem [him] not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. 21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. 22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. 23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year. 25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. 26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. 27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. 31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. 32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. 33 And [till] Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. 34 But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel [that] which he was commanded. 35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
In vs. 1-3, we witness Moses’ sixth and final time to ascend the mountain of God. After Moses came out of Egypt with the people, he ascended six times to Sinai. Some believe he ascended seven times and mark his death as his seventh ascension. What can we learn from Moses’ journeys up the mountain to meet with God? There is a geography to your spiritual life expressed in peaks and valleys. Where do we meet with God? He meets with us in the valleys, and we meet with Him on the mountains. The Father has told me many times, “I’m not coming down to you – you are going to have to come up here to me…” What could this mean?
[Rom 10:6-7 KJV] 6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down [from above]:) 7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
In other words, God calls us up to be participators in His purpose – not the other way around. When we come to Christ, we do not add a spiritual dimension to our lives in which we are the center. On the contrary, we bring the natural self-directed life to the death of the Cross and abandon ourselves to the initiatives of heaven. Paul spoke of this ascension life or mountain top experience in his letter to the Ephesians:
[Eph 2:6 KJV] 6 And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:
What can these passages in Romans and Ephesians teach us? God already condescended in Christ and did everything that could be done to make a difference in our lives. All of Christianity is our response to that great work. The writer of Hebrews testifies to the finality of the finished work of the Cross:
[Heb 10:12-13 KJV] 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
This tells us that we must adjust our thinking regarding what we presuppose God should do or not do where our needs are concerned. What more can He do other than what is done and was accomplished 2000 years ago on the Cross? Notice the language of Rom. 8:32:
[Rom 8:32 KJV] 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
This verse informs our prayer life. We are not asking God to do something that He has not already done or provided for. If we were to think this way, we deny the finished work of Calvary. When we pray, we are asking that what was finished in Christ be made manifest in our lives. We don’t need Jesus to come down or go up or do anything further than what was accomplished at Calvary.
In v. 3, Moses is warned that no-one was allowed to accompany him to the top of the mountain. There are experiences in God wherein no man shall come with you. We all love to share our experiences with God. Joseph loves to share his dreams, but God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want us to become more horizontally connected to one another than we are vertically connected to Him. When we seek the face of man more than the face of God, we become a social club, and God could die, and we just shake the tambourine a little louder.
Thomas a Kempis, wrote in Imitation of Christ, “I have not gone into the company of men that I have not returned less a man…”
In vs. 5-8, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood by Moses and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Again the language is in the third person implying that the Angel of the Lord was somehow involved, reflecting the presence and the glory of God to and let’sre Moses on the mountain. The Lord then passes before Moses and declares His graciousness and mercy and longsuffering. That may not be how the people perceived God in the light of the brutal punishments for their sins, but nonetheless, that is His character. Moses makes haste and bows to the ground (v. 9), petitioning directly for pardon for himself and the people.
How does God respond to Moses’ request for pardon? Does He say, “no problem, let’s just forget all about it?” What He does in fact, is rehearse to Moses again the conditions of the covenant required to be accepted in order for the nation to stand before Him and be blessed. In return for their faithfulness, He will do “terrible things” (v. 10) on their behalf to drive out the five nations of the heathen that were to be disposed of when the people crossed out of the wilderness into the land of Promise. The command to the people is to “take heed” to themselves to make no covenant with the people of the land when they entered it. Unfortunately, Joshua will disobey this command and make a covenant with the Gibeonites that became as God says in v. 12 a snare for many generations right down to King Saul’s day.
In v. 5, when the Lord declares the name of the Lord. What does this mean? When you look at the Hebrew, you see it instantly. The Lord “Jehovah” declares the Lord-God “El.” The name El or Elohim is the name of God revealed before the fall. It is the “Father and His Family.” Before the fall, we didn’t need covenant; therefore, the name Jehovah came later after the shedding of sacrificial blood necessitated by sin. Just as the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ – so the revelation of Jehovah – leads us progressively to Elohim – the Father and His Family.
The cloud where God meets with Moses has a profound physical effect on him. This cloud is the cloud of glory that made Moses’ face to shine. This is the same cloud of glory that dwells in us Col. 1:26,27; Phil. 4:19. The glory was on the mountain and on Moses, but it is IN us, which shows us the superiority of the New Covenant in Christ over the Old Covenant bound by the Law.
In reiteration of the covenant of His mercy with the people in this chapter, God reinforces the theme of separation. No matter how impartial we try to be, how inclusive we can never forget that, God is Holy and Just and expects to see reflected in His people’s character. Under the Law He demanded it and confronted the people with their failure. In Christ, He provides it and transforms us into His image by the revelation of Himself and His glory.
In v. 18, the subject of the feast days of the Lord is revisited. The Lord repeats the dates for the Feast of Unleavened Bread to be held in the month of Abib. What is the significance of this month?
Abib means “Green Ears.” Jewish traditions say that in this month, Abram was called, Isaac was born, and Israel delivered from Egypt, and the Tabernacle was raised up. John’s preaching began, and the Lord’s death occurred in this month. Jewish sources claim that Abram, Isaac, and Jacob were all born, and all died in this month. It is also believed this is the month that creation took place (also known as the month of Nisan).
In vs. 19-20 Law of the First Born is reinforced. God is setting the people up to understand the redemption concept through Christ, who is the firstborn of God. He is claiming all their firstborn but later allows the tribe of Levi to stand in as substitutes in service to God for their firstborn sons.
Notice the command in v. 20, “none shall appear before Me empty.” Today’s Christian culture places a premium on “freely, freely,” which is a gross misinterpretation of Matt. 10:8 whereas King David, the man after God’s own heart, said in 2 Sam. 24:24 declared he would offer nothing of His God that cost him nothing.
In vs. 21-23 Laws of Sabbath and the Solemn feasts are again set out in the requirements of God. All must appear three times in the year:
Passover
Pentecost
Tabernacles
Pentecost
Tabernacles
These three feasts speak of three aspect or experiences in God;
Passover – Salvation
Pentecost – Baptism of the Holy Ghost
Tabernacles – Baptism of Fire. Matt. 17:1-5
Pentecost – Baptism of the Holy Ghost
Tabernacles – Baptism of Fire. Matt. 17:1-5
This points to the personal experience of the New Birth (Passover); the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost); and an experience yet to be revealed (Tabernacles, which could point to the putting on of immortality).
In vs. 24-29, we see a repetition of the promise to cast out the nations before the people when they cross over Jordan. What does “I will cast out the nations before thee” mean for us? The Hebrew word for nations is “goy” it means “locusts”. When Joel prophesied Pentecost he said:
[Joe 2:25 KJV] 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm…
This speaks of the gnawing, devouring problems that beset our lives. God is promising to redeem and restore and recover us from the rigors of the fall of man and the curse upon all things because of sin.
In the midst of these weighty matters, a seemingly trivial subject is addressed regarding preparing of meals in v. 26. What does it mean “don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk”? A kid is a baby goat. Peter said the word is like milk:
[1Pe 2:2 KJV] 2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
We are not to castigate people with the word of God – to “step on toes” and condemn and manipulate people into obedience. We are called to give the sincere milk of the word and to wash the feet of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is what Jesus said to his disciples:
[Jhn 15:3 KJV] 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
In vs. 26-28, we see reference to the length of time Moses was with the Lord without food and without water. It is possible to fast 40 days without food. This was supernatural because he didn’t take water either. The only people known to do 40-day fasts in the bible were Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Moses and Elijah’s fasts were supernatural because they didn’t drink water either. Jesus drank water in his fast because when the devil tempted him – it had nothing to do with water but turning stones into bread. Fasting will not kill you, and fasting is encouraged in the bible, but if you don’t understand its purpose, it can set up back in your walk with God.
In vs. 29-35, we see the phenomena of Moses’ face shining and the intimidating effect it had on the people. The passage doesn’t say that God told Moses to cover his face. Remember who Moses was dealing with. If the people feared him, they were more manageable. They figured out that if they spoke against Moses when his face shined with God’s glory, bad things happened to them. This was one of the greatest blunders and greatest heartbreaks recorded in the Old Testament. Paul said this one act created the “veil of unbelief” that rests upon the Jewish people to this day. They so venerate Moses that they reject Christ. Another example of this is that Islam so venerates Mohammed with an extreme and unwise veneration that has contributed to the emergence of religious intolerance and even terrorism.
Paul spoke extensively of this:
[2Co 3:6-7, 12-17 KJV] 6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 7 But if the ministration of death, written [and] engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which [glory] was to be done away: … 12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13 And not as Moses, [which] put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ. 15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.
God wants us to live with an unveiled face. He wants who He is to shine through our imperfect humanity and vulnerability. In the ministry today, we are taught to hold people at arm’s length. People look for leaders who are larger than life and will reject pastors and preachers who falter or show any human failure. This is idolatry. It is the cult of celebrity invading the church. This is a cheap substitute for the glory that God is prepared to bring to a transparent and humble people looking only to Him and not to man for their security. Just as Moses’ failed the people in hiding his face so this same practice has brought a plague of unbelief upon Christianity, which God will reverse if we return to His word and his way regarding a proper and balanced esteem for leadership and for one another.
