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The Beginning of the End
Moses’ face radiated with a dazzling light when he came down
from the mountain. Aaron as well as the people “were afraid to come
near him.” Seeing their terror, he offered them the pledge of God’s
reconciliation. They heard nothing in his voice but love and appeal,
and at last one man dared to approach him. Too awed to speak, he
silently pointed to the face of Moses and then toward heaven. The
great leader understood his meaning. In their conscious guilt, they
could not endure the heavenly light which would have filled them
with joy if they had been obedient to God.
Moses put a veil on his face and continued to do this whenever
he returned to the camp from communion with God.
By this brightness, God intended to impress on Israel the exalted
character of His law and the glory of the gospel revealed through
Christ. While Moses was on the mountain, God presented to him not
only the tablets of the law, but also the plan of salvation. He saw that
all the types and symbols of the Jewish age pointed forward to the
sacrifice of Christ. It was the heavenly light streaming from Calvary,
just as much as from the glory of the law of God, that caused such
radiance on the face of Moses.
The glory reflected in the face and expression of Moses testifies
that the closer our communion is with God and the clearer our knowl-
edge of His requirements, the more fully we will be conformed to
the divine image.
As Israel’s intercessor (Moses) veiled his face, so Christ, the
divine Mediator, veiled His divinity with humanity when He came to
earth. If He had come clothed with the brightness of heaven, sinful
human beings could not have endured the glory of His presence. So
He humbled Himself, and was made “in the likeness of sinful flesh”
(
Romans 8:3
), that He might reach the fallen race and lift them up.
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