Moses’s Gloriously Shining Face: The Full Impact of Hesed
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Christian hope, Exodus, Grace, Hebrew Bible, Salvation
[Exegetical note: Exodus 32-34 in its present form is an exquisite unified narrative. Narratives are to be read whole and not piecemeal. Follow the story].
The narrative of Exodus 32-34 is paradigmatic in the Hebrew Bible. Here we find the lowest of the low and the highest of the high at the same time. Israel, the paradigmatic humanity, falls at the very time of redemption and covenant making. The Golden Calf becomes “the” sin and echoes throughout the rest of the biblical narrative. It is also at this very moment that the God of Hesed is revealed in blazing glory. Here the God of Israel announces, as Hosea would put it, “I am God and not humanity.”
The God of Israel is the God of Hesed. Hesed is this God’s very name tag. This God pronounced the God Creed which thunders throughout the Hebrew Bible and is the only text John knows is appropriate to describe the Incarnation of the Word in King Jesus, “grace and truth” and we “beheld his glory.” (John 1). It was an event that, according to the narrative, changed even Moses himself. We reflect on that.
Radiation will alter our appearance. If we go outside for long periods of time we come back in with skin that has been tanned. If we go by the ocean or even snowcapped mountains for long periods of time without proper protection our skin we will be burned. We can even “glow.”
In the Book of Exodus something similar happens that the narrator tells with consummate skill. But in Exodus the “radiation” is the steadfast love/Hesed of Yahweh. Something happens when “exposed” to Hesed, which is Yahweh’s all-consuming glory.
Moses, in the Book of Exodus, has several encounters with what we could call the “glory” of the Lord. He is out in the field and finds a bush on fire, even the very dirt was sacred because of the Presence of God. Yahweh speaks to Moses throughout the period of defeating the Gods of Egypt, especially Pharaoh the supposed incarnation of the Gods.
Moses, with all the redeemed of Israel, arrives at Mt. Sinai and encounters an awesome display of the numinous. So afraid were the people that they begged Moses to risk his life to stand between them. So, Moses, at the gracious invitation of Yahweh, ascends the Mountain. He returned with God’s word.
Then Moses, along with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the 70 elders ascend the mountain to feast in fellowship with God. They eat, drink, and even “see the God of Israel” (24.9-11). Moses then ascends the mountain and spends forty days with the Lord. The forty days concludes with the horror of the Golden Calf. Moses descends and confronts the people.
Only after Yahweh’s shocking grace toward Israel, we hear Moses say, “please show me your glory” (33.18).
Has not Moses already seen it?? The Bush? The plagues in defeating the Gods of Egypt? The Red Sea? The Mountain? Feasting with God? Surely he had. But Moses prays, “show me your glory.”
Amazingly, this God known as Yahweh says yes to Moses. Yahweh promises to shield Moses, to reveal God’s “goodness” (33.19) and to proclaim the Name, “Yahweh.” Proclaiming the “name” is revealing God’s “glory.” God’s glory turns out not to be just some sort of power but LOVE, HESED (i.e. grace, mercy). Yahweh proclaims the God Creed (Exodus 34.6).
“The LORD, the LORD,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love [Hesed] and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love [Hesed] for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
Moses fell on his face and worshiped (34.8).
It is only at this point in the story does the narrator tell us something. Only after the blast of gloriously “radioactive” Hesed (even shielded) does the narrator of Exodus tell us Moses was physically affected. But he seemingly was not aware.
Moses has repeatedly been exposed to “glory” but at no point does the story ever say Moses’s face changed. That Moses was radiating glory too. Only after Yahweh pronounces HESED does the text say,
“Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face was shining because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and the Israelites saw him they were afraid” (34.29).
It is the ancient rabbis who first noted what has happened. Moses is never the same this event. Moses’s face does not “shine” after the burning bush, the Exodus, receiving the words of the covenant, nor even after forty days. The rabbis noted that it is only after the revelation of God’s name of Hesed that he “shines” with glory. One cannot “see” Hesed and not be shine.
It is only after “seeing” and “hearing” the glory of God, the glory of HESED, that Moses permanently altered. Now Moses knows the “ways” of Yahweh (“If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”). The Moon by merely existing in the presence of the Sun will always – always – shine/reflect the glory of the Sun.
In fact it is even deeper than that. When exposed to the Hesed of Yahweh, God’s very character has mysteriously become part of Moses identity. The Hesed of Yahweh has in some sense consumed Moses, without Moses even knowing. But others were fully aware!
I think the text invites us to ask, have we encountered the genuine glory of Yahweh? Have we been to the mountain but never sunburned in the glorious radioactive life altering steadfast love, Hesed, of God. It is the genuine glory of the Lord.
Related Articles
Exodus 34: Pulse of the Bible (Wineskins, Bobby Valentine)
Grace and Truth: Moses Heard, We Saw it (Wineskins, Bobby Valentine) On John 1.14-18.
Preach the Old Testament #2: The Gracious & Compassionate God
June 17th, 2024 at 6:53 am
Went to your first link of previous, related posts, “Exodus 34”. Thanks for the explanation which followed, “We have to clean the wax out of our ears!!”.