The Lord has made a covenant with Moses and with Israel. I will be pointing out the unique quality of the relationship Moses had with God. However, I will suggest that this story provides a way for us to view our relationship with God as well.
29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. Although today often identified with Jebel Musa in the southern Sinai Peninsula, we do not know the exact location of Mount Sinai, and scholars have proposed other peaks in the region (e.g., Jebel Serbal, Jebel Katharina) in the past. In some strands of Jewish tradition, God deliberately concealed Mount Sinai’s location, for God intended the region of the pre-eminent revelatory meeting of the human and divine to remain terra incognita. Mountains have functioned as loci of divine-human encounters in many of the world’s religions, and they likewise figured prominently in the history of Israel’s religion as well. With their bases perceived to be reaching far into the earth and their peaks disappearing into the clouds/heavens/realm of the divine, such mountains as Mount Gerizim, Mount Ebal, Mount Hermon, Mount Nebo and Mount Tabor served as the topological links between heaven and earth. Even such artificial mountains as the ziggurats of Mesopotamia people understood to play an important intermediary role between the world of the gods and mundane reality. Mount Sinai played a particularly important part in the history of Israel’s religion, with only Mount Zion attaining comparable status. Whereas Jews came to identify Mount Zion with the end-time events of Israel’s eschatological future (especially in the book of Isaiah and later prophets), Mount Sinai represented the terminus a quo — the point from which Israel’s religious revelation flowed. They understood both, however, to be the focus of divine blessing, not only for Israel but also, through Israel, to all the nations of the earth. In that capacity, they served analogous functions, linking the beginning of time with the end of time or, in the formulation derived from Hermann Gunkel, “Endzeit gleich Urzeit” (end-time resembles primeval time). The mountain that Moses ascends and descends is Mount Sinai in the literary traditions preserved by the Yahwist and Priestly writers, and it is sometimes Mount Horeb in the Elohist and Deuteronomist traditions. Scholars have debated whether the earliest biblical traditions about a sacred mountain centered on Mount Horeb and later transferred to (Mount) Sinai because of the tradition of wandering in the wilderness of Sinai. Alternatively, scholars wonder the Sinai traditions themselves were original; there is also some debate as to whether the names refer to the same location or to different mountains. One cannot decide such questions definitively with the data presently available.
As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant (eduth rather than berit) in his hand, we note that the Hebrew word eduth is not the common word for covenant (which is berit, which can refer to common agreements between people or nations). Eduth is a technical term of the Priestly writers, occurring about 46 times in the Hebrew Bible, and it always refers to the contents of the divine charge to the Israelites, as summarized in the Ten Commandments (or Words). Not surprisingly, the term occurs most frequently in the books of Exodus, Numbers and Psalms, which places emphasis on the nature of the divine-human relationship as being one of divine deliverance (through gracious acts of mercy) and human response (through obedience to the covenant which assures that continued safety).
Moses did not know that, because of his conversing with God, the skin of his face shone (qaran[1] or emitted rays of light) because he had been talking with God.[2] We learn, first, that we must take time to build a relationship with God. The point is not where Moses went, whether to Sinai or into the Tent of Meeting. People will travel and marvel at the height of mountains, the huge waves of the sea, the long course of rivers, the vast expanse of the ocean, and the motion of the stars. Yet, too many of us pass by ourselves without any wonderment at all.[3] We need to build a relationship with God. We learn, second, that building a relationship with God will change us. The shining face of Moses means he reflected the shining that derives from God. Shepherds had to tell others after they saw the glory of the Lord. The disciples saw the glory of God shining while on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36). John 1:14 says the disciples saw in Jesus, “the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.” At risk of their lives, they told others of the good news. Transformation happens when we enter deeply into God's own life. We become more compassionate, loving, forgiving and truthful. Our actions serve others instead of ourselves. At work, at home, at school and in the community, the people around us begin to see evidence that we are trying to follow the guidance of Jesus, and to live in the light of his glory. An unknown author penned these words:
Watch your thoughts,
They become your words.
Watch your words,
They become your actions.
Watch your actions,
They become your habits.
Watch your habits,
They become your character.
Watch your character,
It becomes your destiny.
30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 However, Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. This categorization of the people reflects the concentric circles of Moses’ intimates: his brother playing the most prominent (but highly ambiguous) role (compare his leadership role in the golden calf incident, chapter 32), the leaders of the congregation acting as lieutenants and finally the people themselves. It is probable that the last group meant adult Israelite men, not women and children, whose presence the text usually specifies (e.g., Exodus 12:37). 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. Moses instructed the male heads of households who, in turn, carried the instructions back to their homes and relatives. A third lesson we learn from Moses is to reach out to everyone, even those who annoy you. I realize that this is difficult. I invite you to think of the context of this story. Aaron has led the Israelites in idolatry by building the golden calf. Immediately upon receiving the commandments, Aaron and the Israelites break the first two commandments. Yet, Moses meets with these rebellious people. Most of us are glad to keep our distance from people we dislike or disrespect. Moses gets close to them.
33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face, although it is not clear why he did this. It is possible that the people continued to react uneasily to the radiance of his countenance, and the veil was to remove that distraction from his interaction with the Israelites. There is no mention of harm coming to the people because of the radiance, so it is more likely their reaction than the radiance itself that is the reason for the veiling. 34 However,whenever[4] Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out. It was not necessary for Moses to ascend Mount Sinai to encounter the divine presence. Indeed, the “tent of meeting” was so named precisely for this reason (Exodus 29:42). It was into this oracular source that Moses entered to receive divine communication (33:7-11), as represented by the pillar of cloud which would descend and rest at the entrance to the tent. The entrance to the tent of meeting was also the site of the sacrificial altar on which daily offerings were made by Aaron (the high priest) and his sons (the priests). In addition, this complex nexus of offering and revelation constituted the evidence of God’s presence among his people and the reminder of his deliverance of them from Egypt (Exodus 29:38-46). In addition, when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him. The story has a decidedly different emphasis from the main body of Exodus tradition. Whereas in Ex 19ff the focus of the Sinai tradition fell on the once-and-for-all proclamation of the divine laws of the covenant, which were then inscribed upon stone tablets, the main point of this story has to do with Moses' ongoing practice of speaking with God and communicating his words to the people. The fourth lesson this story gives us is that we must keep moving up and down the mountain, in and out of the Tent of Meeting, maintaining a balance between building a relationship with God and with human beings, balance between worship and work, balance between prayer and participation in life. We do not get close to God by leaving the world. In fact, getting close to God will bring us closer to the world, even with all its rebellion. We are rebellious as well. The sin of the world calls us to serve and minister to it in love rather than retreat from it. Getting close to God will involve us in the mission God for us in the world. Getting close to the glory or beauty of God will help us bring the glory and beauty of God to the world. The distinctive content of the story concerns Moses' use of a veil or mask. The story presupposes that Moses continues to speak with God, no longer on the top of the mountain, but in the tent of meeting. Moreover, the same immediacy between God and Moses is present which results in the same afterglow of the divine majesty. By placing the story in this form in its present position the author has given an interpretation of how he wants his readers to understand the entire Sinai tradition. God and the revelation of the divine will stand at the center. However, Sinai is also the story of Moses, the mediator between God and Israel, who continued to function as a mortal man and yet who in his office bridged the enormous gap between the awesome, holy, and zealous God of Sinai and the fearful, sinful, and repentant people of the covenant. In the New Testament, note II Corinthians 3, a combination of midrashic concerns over Moses' motivation of timidity in the use of the veil and the assumption that the shining glory faded since it is not mentioned again with specifically Christian emphases on Christ. Unique among the prophets to which both Israel and the first Christians looked for inspiration and guidance, Moses bore not only in his arms but in his very person the evidence of the mediating and revelatory role to which all prophets were called. Moses’ face-to-face encounters with the Divine were unique, as Israel’s religious tradition itself noted: “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). This unique access to the Divine, involving teaching, radiance and a mountainous encounter, formed the backdrop for the New Testament’s depiction of Jesus’ transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8; cf Matthew 17:1-13).
[1] The rare Hebrew verb is derived from the common noun qeren, “horn,” and means, obviously, to display horns or shafts of light (as opposed to radiate a diffused glow). The verb form occurs only here and in Psalm 69:32 (v. 31 in English, where it means literally to grow or have horns — “or a bull with horns”). The similarity in the Hebrew words (as well as the Vulgate’s translation) resulted in Michelangelo’s famous depiction of Moses with horns growing out of his head, one of the more grotesque examples of biblical literalism.
[2] (simpliciter, v. 29; more commonly, “the Lord” or “the Lord your God” is used in this section; cf. vv. 26-27, 32, 34)
[3] People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering. –Augustine, Confessions, X
[4] Verses v. 34-35 employ a frequentative tense to describe an ongoing practice of Moses in his office as divine mediator.
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