Exodus 34:27: Radiance Of Moses' Face

[MorphRC]

[color=red][b]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b][/color]
[b][font="Times"]Caelum defendet militem, Caelum exercet militem, Caelum docet militem. Amen. Amen.[/font][/b]
[color=red][b]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b][/color]

[font="Times"][color=gray][b]Exodus 34:27: Radiance of Moses' Face[/b][/color][/font]
[b]Commentary: Exo 34:27-35.[/b]

[b]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]

[b]Bible Translation:[/b]

[url="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible"]USCCB: New American Bible[/url]

[b]Note:[/b] All Sources are given, in proper [i]bibliographic setting[/i].

[b]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]

[b]The Book of Exodus: 34:27-35[/b]

[b]27[/b]
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."
[b]28[/b]
So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
[b]29[/b]
As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD.
[b]30[/b]
When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him.
[b]31[/b]
Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the rulers of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them.
[b]32[/b]
Later on, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined on them all that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.
[b]33[/b]
When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
[b]34[/b]
Whenever Moses entered the presence of the LORD to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that had been commanded.
[b]35[/b]
Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses' face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the LORD.

---

The part of Exodus, chapter 34 named "Radiance of Moses' Face (27-35)," is a particular beautiful part of [i]The Book of Exodus[/i], chapter 34. Not only does it give us a key glimpse into Moses and his respect, loyalty and love for God, but the amazingness of God and his connection to us.

The most beautiful verse in this section of chapter 34 is when Moses descends from Mount Sinai with the two tablets ([i]The Ten Commandments[/i]). The New American Bible renders this passage as:

[b]29[/b]
[i][color=gray]As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD.[/color][/i]

In the verse we can understand not only about God's magnificent works, but the joy and majesty He can bring to us.
"[i]become radiant while he conversed with the LORD[/i]." The [i]Little MacQuaire Dictionary[/i] describes 'radiant' as: emitting rays of light; shining; bright.

So with this description we can imagine what Moses must have looked like coming down from Mount Sinai.

Verse 30 testifies to the beauty and holiness of such an event with Aaron and the Israelites refusing to come near Moses. This would most probably be due to not just shock at such an awesome sight, but fear and confusion of what it could be and what could happen. Only after Moses called Aaron and the Israelites over did they decide to come close to Moses as stated in [i]v 31[/i].

Verse 33; "[i]When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.,[/i]" was later used by St. Paul over a thousand years later in his New Testament writing, 2 Corinthians. However this time the veil did not represent respect of the gifts God bestow on Moses with radiance, but as a symbolic meaning for Jews that denied the Messiah, the Jewish failure to recognize God's Son, Our Messiah and Saviour.
The verse in which this symbolic meaning is used is 2 Cor 3:7-18:

[b]7[/b]
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, was so glorious that the Israelites could not look intently at the face of Moses because of its glory that was going to fade,
[b]8[/b]
how much more will the ministry of the Spirit be glorious?
[b]9[/b]
For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the ministry of righteousness will abound much more in glory.
[b]10[/b]
Indeed, what was endowed with glory has come to have no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it.
[b]11[/b]
For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious.
[b]12[/b]
Therefore, since we have such hope, we act very boldly
[b]13[/b]
and not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not look intently at the cessation of what was fading.
[b]14[/b]
Rather, their thoughts were rendered dull, for to this present day the same veil remains unlifted when they read the old covenant, because through Christ it is taken away.
[b]15[/b]
To this day, in fact, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts,
[b]16[/b]
but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed.
[b]17[/b]
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
[b]18[/b]
All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.

[b]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]

[font="Times"][b]Bibliography:[/font][/b]

[i]New American Bible[/i], Catholic Bible Press. Published 1969, 1986, 1991. Page 85, [i]The Contribution: Radiance of Moses' Face[/i], Footnote 34;33. [b]Nihil Obstat & Imprimatur[/b].

[phatcatholic]

oh wow, that's freakin awesome. i never made that connection before.

btw, from the passage from corinthians, i particular like vs. 12:

--Therefore, since we have such hope, we act very boldly

heck yea we do!!

[MorphRC]

Thanks Bro!