“The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!”
2 Corinthians 3:7-9 NLT
Moses spent forty days and nights with the Lord on Mount Sinai. There, he received the Ten Commandments cut into stone tablets, as we read in Exodus 34:28, “Moses remained there on the mountain with the Lord forty days and forty nights. In all that time, he ate no bread and drank no water. And the Lord wrote the terms of the covenant—the Ten Commandments—on the stone tablets”. Paul said this was the “old way, with laws etched in stone”, the Old Covenant made between God and the Israelite nation through Moses. This was a wonderful opportunity for the Israelites, because through it God would bring many blessings as long as they kept their end of the bargain. It was a covenant sealed with the blood of animals, and at its core were the Ten Commandments, written down for posterity. In the process of receiving the terms of the covenant, Moses noticed that something remarkable happened to his face. Exodus 34:29, “When Moses came down Mount Sinai carrying the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn’t aware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken to the Lord”. The next verse records what it was and how the Israelites were afraid of getting near him; we read, “So when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses’ face, they were afraid to come near him”. Moses ended up wearing a veil; “When Moses finished speaking with them, he covered his face with a veil” (Exodus 34:33). Every time Moses spoke with the Lord, his face became radiant, but when he left the Lord’s presence, the radiance started to fade. So he put on a veil to hide the fading glow from the people. The phenomenon was not recorded as happening to anyone else at that time, perhaps highlighting the nature of the Old Covenant and its limitations. It was a rule-based system, much abused by the Israelites, to their cost, and by the time Jesus came, the Pharisees had developed it to a point where it replaced their relationship with God.
Paul argued that with the coming of the New Covenant, a far greater glory should be present “now that the Holy Spirit is giving life”. The old way showed people about sin, bringing condemnation, but it brought God’s glory to the face of one man, Moses, although it faded. In 2 Corinthians 3:6 we read, “He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life”. As we pilgrims are ministers of the New Covenant, we too should have radiant faces, glowing with the glory of God. Some years ago, I can remember walking through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, a pedestrian tunnel under the River Thames between the Isle of Dogs and the Cutty Sark exhibition at Greenwich in London. It was in the morning rush hour, and most of the commuters were heading towards me. Most were smartly dressed, some with briefcases, obviously heading for office or shop work in Greenwich. But I was struck by the miserable, fixed and vacant expressions of the people walking towards me. They seemed to portray a life being spent in a place where they didn’t want to be. Some God-thoughts came into my mind, and I can remember smiling to myself, but getting some strange glances in the process. How do we go about our lives today? As the Greenwich commuters, miserable and perhaps unknowingly heading for a lost eternity, showing faces of unhappiness, or are we children of God showing the joy of the Lord because of the relationship we have with Him? Are the people we meet somehow encouraged and gladdened by the meeting, or are they untouched by God who lives within us? What marks us out as children of the new Covenant?
Paul suggested that there should be an external distinction between believers and unbelievers, and that this is a challenge we all face. For too many years, Christianity has this Victorian sternness about it, where so many pastimes have been forbidden because of some man-made rule that didn’t come from God. We read in Romans 8:15, “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”” That has to be Good News, and Paul ended Romans 8 with, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Because God loves us, we must smile. Because we are God’s children, we have something to smile about.
Our faces may not glow with a supernatural light, but they should reflect God’s glory in some way. So perhaps today we should look in a mirror and ask ourselves what a random person would see. Child of God or child of someone else? There should be a difference.
Dear Heavenly Father. We know that our faces should reflect Your glory to all those around us. But at times, we confess that the worries of life weigh us down and rob us of our smiles. Please help us in our humanity and lift us into Heavenly places once more. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 