seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 34:29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 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, 35 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.
Here's a link to the commentary I read.
Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him: They had all gone away from Moses because the radiance of his face so greatly intimidated them. He had to persuade them to come back — first the leaders, then all the children of Israel came near.
He put a veil on his face: It is easy to think that Moses wore the veil so the people would not be afraid to come near him (Exodus 34:30), or that the purpose of the veil was to protect others from the glorious radiance of Moses’ face. Yet the Apostle Paul explained the real purpose of the veil: not to hide the shining face of Moses, but so that the diminishing glory of his face would not be observed because the glory was fading.
The skin of Moses’ face shone: The Hebrew verb for shone literally means, “shot forth beams” (Cole). It is also related to a Hebrew noun for “horn.” This is why the Latin Vulgate mistranslated this verb as “having horns,” and so in most medieval works of art Moses wears a pair of horns on his head.
Was the veil a "coverup"?Moses had been on the side of an active volcano for 80 days and 80 nights. He was there with Aaron, while the elders waited down below, forty days and forty nights, to receive the first set of Commandments. He was there alone with Joshua, Aaron, and the elders waiting below for a second forty days and forty nights, to receive the replacement set of engraved stones, after smashing the first stones at the orgy.
Volcanic activity can blow off some mighty powerful gases, full of who knows what chemicals. Moses could have been burned by radiation or any number of chemicals from deep inside the earth. The mountain had a cloud... was it nuclear? It could have been a chemical side effect of his time in the cloud.
Moses earned that glow from being near God for almost three months.
I heard one preacher say Moses was glowing with love. That's a good way of putting it. I don't think Moses was afraid of being up there on that mountain with God. We read that Moses felt comfortable enough to "demand" that God go with the Israelites to the Promised Land rather than delegate them to a mighty angel. Although there were tense moments on the side of the mountain, God didn't just destroy Moses when he started making his little human demands. God showed love and compassion towards Moses by letting him see his back rather than being plucked off the side of the mountain and tossed into the molten rock. So, Moses could have been glowing with love.
And then.... and then decades [or centuries] later... Along comes Paul saying the reason Moses had to put on a veil was not to hide the glow, NOT so the people would feel safe... but to cover up the fact the glow was fading. Paul said Moses was trying to "fool" the people by wearing a veil.
If Paul is right... Someone is spewing fake news!
Either Moses was glowing with the love of God or Moses was glowing because he spent almost three months on the side of a gaseous eruption.
Either Moses was wearing the veil to cover the glow, so the people would feel comfortable.... OR Moses was wearing the veil to cover up the slow loss of God's Glory, so the people would continue to revere Moses and his "stick".
Which is right? Was Moses "covering" his face to hide radiation poisoning or was he "covering up" the slow loss of the love of God?
Was the veil a "coverup"?
