The Vail on Moses’ Face

 •  7 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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The people of Israel had thoughtlessly entered into a covenant with God when they said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:88And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. (Exodus 19:8)). “All the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Ex. 20:18-1918And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. (Exodus 20:18‑19)). There was terror here, but no dimness; Moses had no covering over his face when he descended from the mountain after his first stay of forty days (Ex. 32). The sins of the people caused him to come down. “Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides  ...  and the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Ex. 32:15-1615And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. 16And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. (Exodus 32:15‑16)). Here was the covenant in the hands of the mediator; all was plain and concise. “It came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount” (Ex. 32:1919And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. (Exodus 32:19)). This action was full of meaning. The people had broken the covenant; the mediator of the covenant bore testimony to it, and judgment follows. No veil was necessary on that occasion; the mediator had testified that the covenant was broken.
Intercession
Afterwards he intercedes for the people, and Jehovah proposes to send an angel to bring them into the land of Canaan which He had promised them (Ex. 32:30,3430And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. (Exodus 32:30)
34Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. (Exodus 32:34); also 33:1-3). But this could not satisfy the heart of Moses; he is troubled and asks Jehovah to show him His way and Himself to go with them. “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found favor in My sight, and I know thee by name” (Ex. 33:15-1715And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 16For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. 17And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. (Exodus 33:15‑17)). Moses is encouraged, and he continues his intercession and says, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory” (Ex. 33:1818And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. (Exodus 33:18)). Moses had seen the glory of God in a wonderful way when the law was given, but in the tent of the congregation erected outside the camp, Jehovah had spoken with Moses face to face, “as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Ex. 33:1111And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. (Exodus 33:11)), and he now seeks a more excellent glory than that of the law, for behind the law, a way of God and a glory of God remained, and the glory of the law served only to prepare and introduce these. It was that glory which Moses had to hide, because the time of its manifestation according to the counsels of God had not yet come.
This glory revealed to Moses is in reality the glory of God in the face (in the person) of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). It was thus proclaimed: “I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Ex. 33:1919And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Exodus 33:19)). The sovereignty of God in grace is an essential part of His glory. Israel had ruined the basis of their blessing, and their only resource remained in Jehovah Himself — see Hosea 13:99O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. (Hosea 13:9). When all is lost, then is the time for grace to show itself, but the glory of this grace must be seen from a suitable standpoint.
Moses was to be put in the cleft of the rock that he might see the glory. For this purpose Moses, after he had hewn two tables of stone like the first two which were broken, ascends Mount Sinai a second time. “The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord” (Ex. 34:55And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. (Exodus 34:5)). After having passed forty days and forty nights upon the mount (Deut. 10:1010And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also, and the Lord would not destroy thee. (Deuteronomy 10:10)), Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in his hand, and he knew not “that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him [God]” (Ex. 34:2929And 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. (Exodus 34:29)).
Grace
There is a transforming power inherent in grace. Forty days of intimate fellowship with God had exerted a wonderful influence upon Moses. On the one hand, he had learned, through the experience of his own heart, the blessing of the grace with which he had communed; on the other, he remained perfectly unconscious of the visible result which was the outcome of this fellowship. Blessed are we if we know the secret of communion with divine grace! The heart is refreshed, while the believer is kept in a humble path, wondering that anyone should look at him. In fact, we may be sure that we shall never be used in the service of God until we have come to count ourselves as nothing. When God makes our face shine before others, we ought to be the very last to know it.
The people fear the glory in the face of Moses more than the two tables in his hands. Such is man! He is quite ready to promise obedience to the law for his whole life, but the nearer God seeks to approach man in grace, the further he draws back.
Distance From God
Distance from God is the natural element of man, and gladly does he remain at this distance, even when it is proclaimed that the cross has removed all hindrances, so that a sinner may approach God. Jehovah bore with a people who were under the curse of a broken law, and Moses had thus learned the way of Jehovah. But it was just this glory which he was obliged to veil, because “the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished” (2 Cor. 3:13). For Moses, the question of human righteousness on the principle of law was settled. He could look on the end, “for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:44For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4)). But the majority in Israel could not look beyond the law, but rather sought for righteousness through it, while all the time being under the curse. God, for His own sake, not on account of their righteousness, did bring Israel temporarily into the land, but as regards individual dealings He acted as He said to Moses, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” Everyone therefore who was quickened by His grace could, according to this principle, look beyond the law and see the glory in the face of Moses.
As long as the veil remained on the face of Moses, grace was necessarily hidden. But now, says the Apostle, no darkness exists. The ministry is the ministry of the glad tidings of the grace of God (Eph. 3:22If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: (Ephesians 3:2); Acts 20:2424But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)), the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, “who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4), the glad tidings of the blessed God (1 Tim. 1:11). It reveals fully the glory of this grace whose rays illuminated the face of Moses, and the tables of the law in his hand could not dim it. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:1717For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)).
J. N. Darby, adapted