We have seen that Exodus 34 is both a brief sketch and a conclusion of the preceding thirty-three chapters. Whatever is repeated here is very important. If it were not important, it would not have been repeated. Verse 27 says, “And Jehovah said to Moses, Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” The Hebrew word rendered “tenor” literally means mouth. Therefore, in verse 27 the Lord is telling Moses that according to the “mouth of these words” He made a covenant with him and with Israel. All these words were terms, conditions, of the covenant that the people were required to keep. Why does verse 27 say “according to the mouth of these words”? The Lord may have been saying to Moses, “These words were spoken already. Now I wish to speak them again. I shall mouth them again.” What we have in this chapter is the speaking, the mouthing, of a word already spoken once. This repetition gives the terms for the keeping of God’s covenant by the children of Israel.
I would emphasize the fact that here there is no mention of the commandments or the ordinances. After the warning concerning idolatry, we have the Lord’s speaking concerning the feasts, the Sabbath, and the five conditions for enjoying the Lord. Here we have three feasts for our enjoyment, the Sabbath for our rest, and the five conditions for our daily life. If we fulfill these conditions, we shall feast with God and rest with Him in full enjoyment for the fulfillment of His purpose. Further, according to the following chapters, a tabernacle, a dwelling place, will be built up for God.
Exodus 34:28 and 29 say, “And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. And he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words. And it came about, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai—and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hands when he came down from the mountain—that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone in His speaking with him.” Here we see that after God wrote the words of the covenant upon the tablets, He sent Moses down to the foot of the mountain. God’s intention was that His people would enjoy Him. However, Moses’ intention was to bring the commandments to the people. I believe that as Moses was coming down the mountain, he was very happy. He knew that this time there was not the problem of a golden calf. Verse 29 says that Moses did not know that the skin of his face was shining. God had infused Moses with Himself. But Moses did not realize that his face was shining. Perhaps his heart was filled with thoughts concerning the Ten Commandments on the two stone tablets. He may not have had any concern for God’s infusion.
We need God’s infusion. However, when we come to the Bible, we may regard it as “tablets” and take every word as a commandment for us to fulfill. Our intention may be to receive commandments, not to experience God’s infusion. For example, in morning watch we may receive a living word from the Bible, but that word may become a commandment to us. We may not realize that it is not God’s desire to give us a word of commandment; God’s desire is to infuse Himself into our being. Sometimes we may come from morning watch with a shining face because of God’s infusion. But because we care more for commandments than for infusion, we may not know that our face is shining.
Verse 30 says, “And Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.” Moses did not know that his face was shining, but Aaron and the children of Israel knew it, and they were frightened by his shining face. After Moses met with them, he also realized that the skin of his face was shining. Therefore, “when Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil upon his face” (v. 33). But when Moses returned to God, he took off the veil: “When Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with Him, he took the veil off until he came out; and when he came out, he spoke to the sons of Israel what he was commanded. And the sons of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. And Moses put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with Him” (vv. 34-35). This indicates that Moses had an open face to converse with God. This also reminds us of Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 3:18 about beholding the Lord with an unveiled face and reflecting Him as we are transformed into His image. This too is a matter of shining, for the shining is the appearing of God’s image. Today we need to take off the veil to behold and reflect the Lord with an unveiled face. Then we shall be transformed into His image, and that will be our shining.
We have pointed out that when Moses went to God, he took off the veil, but when he spoke to the people, he put the veil on. The situation with many Christians today is the opposite. When they go to God, they put the veil on, but when they speak to others, they take the veil off.
In 2 Corinthians 3:13 Paul explains why Moses put a veil on his face when he spoke to the children of Israel. Paul says that Moses “put a veil on his face, that the sons of Israel should not gaze unto the end of that which was being done away.” While Moses spoke the word of God to the children of Israel, he kept his face unveiled. After speaking, he veiled his face lest they should see the end of his ministry, which was passing away. He did not want them to behold the termination of the fading glory of his ministry of the law. For the people to see the fading away of the shining would have been for them to see the termination of the law.
The shining we experience today is not in the law; it is in the enjoyment of Christ. In the New Testament, we do not have the keeping of the law—we have the enjoyment of the feast. The teaching of the New Testament is focused on enjoying Christ. The law has been replaced by feasting on Christ. Therefore, we do not need to have a veil, and we do not need to fear a termination of the glory. We can keep our face unveiled before both God and man.