Exodus 34:29-35 * February 14, 2010 * Transfiguration * Pastor Pagels

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, dear friends:

Moses. When you hear that name, which Moses do you see? Do you see a baby in a basket bobbing along the Nile River? Do you see a man with guilt on his face and Egyptian blood on his hands? Or perhaps you see Charlton Heston holding two stone tablets in the wilderness.

Since this is Transfiguration Sunday you might be visualizing a different Moses today, a glorified Moses conversing with Jesus and Elijah at the top of a mountain. We just heard about that in Luke’s account of the transfiguration, an account that has quite a bit in common with our sermon text for today. There is Moses. There is a mountain. And there is glory.

“The Radiant Face of Moses” (as the NIV heading describes these verses) may not be all that familiar to you. The story doesn’t make the cut in most children’s Bible history books. It doesn’t rank up there with the ten plagues or the parting of the Red Sea. But this story is inspired, and therefore important, and in it there are timeless truths for us to discover.

The theme of this day and the theme of this sermon revolve around the same thing. As we focus our attention on Moses’ face and Moses’ words, he will give us…

A GLIMPSE OF GOD’S GLORY

I. Initially it was a source or fear

II. Ultimately it is a source of hope

When Moses made his way down from the top of Mount Sinai he was not a young man. Gray was threatening to overtake the natural color of his hair. Forty years in the desert exposed to the elements deepened the lines that wrinkled his face. On top of that Moses had just gone without food or water for forty days and forty nights.

All of those factors might lead a person to conclude that Moses didn’t look so good. You would expect him to look tired. You would expect his face to be pale. But it wasn’t. It was glowing. Moses face was radiant, but not because of sunburn or wind burn. He couldn’t feel it. He wasn’t even aware of it, but his face was glowing because he had been in the presence of God. Like a full moon shines as it reflects the light of the sun Moses’ face reflected the glory of God.

When Moses approached the camp at the base of the mountain all the Israelites (including Moses’ brother Aaron) saw his face and the two stone tablets he was carrying. Moses had been away for more than a month, but his countrymen weren’t excited to see him. Instead they were afraid.

It wasn’t a fear of the unknown. It wasn’t a fear that Moses had somehow become radioactive during his time on the mountain. Aaron and the people were fearful because Moses had made that trip to the top of Mount Sinai before.

That sad story is a familiar one. The Lord had called Moses to the top of the mountain so that he could give Israel’s leader God’s law. The people knew where Moses was going and what he was doing, but after a while they became impatient. One week become two…and then three… and then four. After Moses had been away for more than five weeks the people’s patience ran out. They said to Aaron: “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him” (Exodus 32:1).

To make a long story short, Aaron gave in to the people’s demands. He took a collection, and from the gold he gathered he made an idol in the shape of a calf. The people looked at it and quickly declared: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4).

Aaron declared the following day to be a festival to the LORD (that’s the unique name for the God of Israel), which sounds pretty good until we read what happened next: “The next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry” (Exodus 32:6).

The translation of the last phrase leaves much to the imagination, but the Hebrew suggests that what the people were doing wasn’t good. The way Moses reacted gives us an indication of how bad it was. When he approached the camp and saw what was going on, Moses burned with anger. He burned the golden calf, and he smashed the stone tablets on the ground.

That explains why Moses had to go back up Mount Sinai. That explains why he needed to get a second set of tablets. That is why the Lord threatened to wipe the Israelites off the face of the earth and start over (Exodus 33:3). And that might help us understand why the people were so afraid when they saw God’s glory radiating from the face of Moses.

The situation was different on the mount of Transfiguration, but the reaction of the people involved was the same. When Jesus, Moses and Elijah appeared to Peter, James and John the disciples were afraid (Mark 9:6). When a cloud appeared and enveloped them, the disciples were afraid (Luke 9:34). When a voice came from the cloud, saying: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 17:5), the disciples fell facedown to the ground, terrified.

That kind of reaction really shouldn’t surprise us. We can find example after example in the Bible. Fear is the natural reaction when the human comes into contact with the divine. Fear will always be the result when sinfulness is confronted by holiness.

Unless you are the exception. Maybe you think you would react differently. Maybe you think it would be interesting, even exciting to catch a glimpse of God’s glory. You might think to yourself: “What’s so scary about glory? How frightening could it possibly be?”

We can’t answer those questions on the basis of personal experience, so we have to imagine. Imagine for a moment that you are standing in the presence of God. The light is blinding. The ground is shaking. And with a thunderous voice God speaks. He begins by listing every sin you have ever committed, sins from your past that you had forgotten, secret sins you thought were well-hidden.

After this the questions start coming one after another, and they all begin with the same word, “Why?” “Why did you do that? Why did you say that? Why didn’t you help this person? Why did you lie to that person? Why don’t you trust me? Why did you disobey me? Why should I give you another chance? Why should I give you eternal life? Why shouldn’t I end your life right now?”

At this moment the last place you want to be is in the presence of God’s glory, but there is nothing you can do. You can’t run because God will catch you. You can’t hide because God will find you. You can’t make excuses because God will expose you. You are guilty and you know it. You know that you deserve to die.

Whenever God’s holiness shines on people it exposes how unholy we are. And that should make us more than a little uncomfortable. The thought of knowing that the all-knowing God knows what we are really like, the thought of getting what we rightfully deserve, the thought of spending one night, much less an eternity in hell, that should make a person shudder with fear.

God’s glory had that kind of effect on the disciples, but Jesus didn’t take them up on the mountain just to scare them. And Moses didn’t come down from the mountain with a glowing face because the Lord wanted to terrorize his people. God had another reason, a better reason to give them (and us) a glimpse of his glory. Ultimately the Lord wants us to see his glory as a source of hope.

Can you picture the scene when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with Moses trying to get closer to the people and the people back peddling trying to keep a safe distance from him? Eventually Moses called out to them, and Aaron and the Israelites cautiously approached their glowing leader.

Moses tells us (since he is the author of Exodus) that when the people came to him he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai (verse 32). It isn’t mentioned anywhere in the text, but before he gave them all of God’s laws he probably had to give them some assurance.

Moses wanted them to know that as strange as it looked, as frightening as it was, the fact that his face was glowing was a good thing. It was a visual reminder that God had not forsaken his people. It was a reminder that God had forgiven his people. It was a sign that God (through Moses) was still dwelling among his people. And God’s presence gave God’s people hope.

Peter, James and John felt the same way. After Moses and Elijah and the cloud disappeared, after they picked themselves up off the ground, they were alone again. Before they came down from the mountain Jesus told his disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen until after his resurrection, and so they didn’t. They didn’t share their amazing experience with anyone, but they never forgot it either.

When John saw his Lord and friend dying on the cross on Good Friday, he was comforted by his glimpse of his glory. When Peter was thrown into prison for the terrible crime of talking about Jesus, his faith was strengthened by his glimpse of glory. Just before James was put to death for sharing his faith (Acts 12:2), he found encouragement and courage in his glimpse of glory. These men lost their freedom and (in some cases) even their lives for the sake of their Savior, but they never lost hope. They never lost their hope for the future. They held on to the sure hope of future glory.

And that is where we enter this picture. On Transfiguration Sunday we are reminded that the Lord is holy. On this day we remember that our God is a God of glory. Most of the time that glory remains hidden, but on those rare and precious occasions he gives us a glimpse, a sneak peak, a foretaste of glory that will never fade away.

The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned in glory now. And when the Lord of glory returns, we will have nothing to fear. Christians have nothing to fear because we have hope. Our hope is in a Savior who lived a perfect life in our place, who died on the cross for our sins, who rose from the grave in triumph and ascended in glory.

That is what is waiting for us. That is what you have to look forward to. If you are suffering, take heart because your present sufferings aren’t worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in you (Romans 8:18). If you are struggling physically, don’t give up. You have Jesus’ word that he will transform your lowly body to be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:21).

You have God’s guarantee that there is glory in your future. Not just a glimpse. Not a flash that suddenly appears and then just as quickly disappears. Real glory. Lasting glory. Eternal glory. An inheritance that will never perish or spoil or fade. All thanks to Jesus, because he came down from the mountain, because he willingly set aside his divine glory, for you, for me, so that we might live with him…in glory…forever.

Alleluia! Praise the Lord! Amen.