The Face of God

Series on Exodus

IX. The Compromise of God’s People

C. The Communion with Moses, Text: 33:7-23, 34:29-35

Title: The Face of God

Introduction

We are looking here at Moses and God. As we gaze in wonder at these accounts of Moses’ communion with the Lord we should recognize that Moses was only a sinful human being like ourselves who had experienced the grace of God. Our interest should not be in duplicating his experiences, for that is impossible. We should be concerned about seeing his pivotal role in Scripture. Moses is the mediator between God and the people. What happened to him has more to do with God’s revelation to us and the development of Scripture than it does with the development of Moses. The primary truth is we need a mediator between God and man. This is the first promise of Scripture, “the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Moses is not that seed of the woman, but his significance is all bound up with that promise. He is first of all the mediator who typifies the one who is to come. The great work of the mediator is to bring us into uninterrupted fellowship with God. In the Bible this is metaphorically referred to as seeing God’s face. We know that God is invisible and spiritual, has neither body or parts, and ultimately has no face. Still his face is a symbol of communion with him, and God can manifest a face just as God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. Israel is commanded to seek God’s face in ii Chronicles 7:14, If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. His face is His favor because his face is set against the wicked. The psalmist prays for the light of God’s face to shine upon his people in Psalms 4:6 and 80:3, Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD, and, Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. When God is displeased the Bible says he hides his face from his people, Isaiah 54:8, In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the LORD your Redeemer. The face of God plays an important role in understanding Moses’ role as mediator and the way in which he prefigures Jesus. We are going to look at three limitations in Moses’ mediatorial work which are eliminated in Jesus. The glory of God was limited in three ways. It was private, it was partial and it was passing away.

I Private

In verses 7-11 we read that God spoke with Moses face to face as He would with a friend, Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ìtent of meeting. Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. The significance of this must be set against the background that God did not speak with all the people in this way. This distinction is clearly referred to in Psalm 103:7, He made known his ways to Moses his deeds to the children of Israel. There is a sense in which he spoke to them all face to face as indicated in Moses’ speech in Deuteronomy 5:4. He says to the people, The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain, but then he adds, I stood between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. There is a distinction made here. Deuteronomy 34:10 says, Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face. Numbers 12:4-8 is especially clear in this respect, At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them came out. Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, he said, “Listen to my words: When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” Thus it may be said that God is face to face with his people but only through the mediator. Now when Jesus came as the one and only true mediator between God and man, He said to his disciples you are my friends. This leads us back to Abraham and Moses who were the friends of God. What Christ is saying is that God is speaking to them face to face as he spoke to Moses. This is brought out by Paul in II Corinthians 4:6 where he tells us that, We all see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We do this today through the Bible, because we cannot see the physical face of Jesus. it is no longer private because the true mediator brings the face of God to us in His incarnation.

II Partial

Moses has interceded for the people twice before, first when pleading that God not destroy them and secondly when he offered himself in their place, and in these instances he pictures to us our Savior Jesus. Now God has said he will not go with the people because his anger might break out against their awful rebellion, so Moses here pleads that God will go. God agrees and notice the reason given in verses 15-17, Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Here Moses again resembles Jesus because God spares us on account of Jesus’ obedience. Not that Moses could make them righteous, but surely, as the mediator, his righteous commitment is significant in God’s showing mercy. Still there is a powerful difference. When Moses asks to see the glory of God he is told that he cannot see the face of the Lord. No sinful human being can see the face of God and live, that is, because for God to manifest himself to that degree would be fatal. So Moses, hidden in the rock, is allowed to see the back of the Lord. It is a mere manifestation. What he saw is not as important as what he heard, verses 18-20, Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” God reveals himself through the Word, His name. Jesus says in John 17:6 I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world, and in verse 22 he says, I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one. I repeat what I said earlier, God has no face. He has a manifestation which viewed in its fullness, as if face to face, would destroy us. When God speaks of seeking His face he means seeking Him as he truly is, according to his revelation. When men seek God’s face they seek to know him as he truly is. This revelation is accomplished not by Moses seeing God’s back, but by the word God speaks as he passes by. It is this word which reveals who God truly is. That word has been fulfilled and completed in Jesus Christ. This is why John can say, And we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. It is seeing the holy love of God as he is that brings us face to face with Him in the only possible way we can be. We have that perfectly in Christ and the atonement.

III Passing Away

The third limitation of Moses’ mediatorial work is that the glory faded. Dear friends, Moses did not cover his face because it was shining. Chapter 34, verses 29-35 tells the story, When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD. The account is clear. The people were afraid, but they overcame their fear. It was after Moses finished speaking to them with glowing countenance that he put on the veil to hide the glory while it was fading. Isn’t this peculiar? Thank the Lord we have an explanation of it in the New Testament in II Corinthians 3:13-18, We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. The children of Israel could not look steadily at the glory with Moses face unveiled, nevertheless they drew near. Once the Word of God had been delivered there was no further need to see the glory so Moses put a veil over his face. They could not view adequately even the reflected glory, but there is no question they saw it and then it faded. Paul’s point in II Corinthians is that the veil is unnecessary now because the glory of the gospel doesn’t fade. And the reason it doesn’t fade is that Christ is the full revelation of God in the Word, and when we behold him we behold the glory Moses desired to see. That glory is ministered to us by the Holy Spirit so that we can reflect the glory, but our faces don’t shine. The glory is reflected in our being changed into the likeness of Christ, morally and spiritually becoming like him. The more we become like him the more that glory is seen. That is the character of God which Moses wanted to see in God’s face.

Conclusion

Thus our true mediator brings us to God an enables us to see His face in a way that Moses could not, either for himself or for the people. This is our privilege in Christ.