MOSES … LESSON 2
Moses, the man of God (called this 6 times in the Old Testament), was also a man of prayer. He spent vast amounts of time in God’s Presence. Communing with the Lord.
Today’s Lesson focuses one aspect of Moses’ life of holiness, life of prayer. He was around God so much that … he began to internalize some of the very characteristics of the God he loved so deeply and served so faithfully!
He started being like God in ways!
Mind you, he did not become divine.
Just godly.
Here’s our Text. Note the capitalized clauses.
“And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that THE SKIN OF HIS FACE SHONE while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, THE SKIN OF HIS FACE SHONE; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel SAW THE FACE OF MOSES, that THE SKIN OF MOSES’ FACE SHONE: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.” Exodus 34:29-35
The man’s face was literally bright, radiant, shinning!
Visibly, noticeably so!
He had been so much in God’s Presence (a Hebrew word picture that actually means “in the Face” of God) … that God’s GLORY impacted Moses as well!
His countenance radiated the Aura of the God he adored!
I think personally that I too have been around a few people in my lifetime who were so prayerful, so close to God … that their faces seemed to “hint” of His Presence as well!
By the way, verse 29 told us that Moses did NOT know his face was shining! He was that humble, that God-centered and not Moses-centered!
Yes, this is yet another reason to be people of prayer, to spread the Beauty of our Lord everywhere we go.
Did anyone else in Scripture reflect this degree of God?
Yes, Stephen did!
As he was testifying (and being martyred for his faith) his enemies were amazed. “And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.” Acts 6:15
Jesus too, of course.
The Mount of Transfiguration we call it now. Three Gospel writers tell of the Event.
“And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Matthew 17:2
“And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.” Luke 9:29
Luke tells us this happened “as Jesus prayed!”
Oh, how we need a whole generation of Believers who have radiant, smiling, pure faces, reflecting godliness in their lives!
And, really, Second Corinthians 3:18 teaches us the possibility of such an occurrence in each of our lives. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Wow!
The greatest miracle of prayer may not be the delightful (and numerous) answers that daily come our way. The Best Thing of All might be the CHANGED LIVES PRAYER PRODUCES within our souls! AND ON OUR FACES, TOO!
Trading my “gloom” for His “GLOW!”
Pray, folks, pray!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell