cxv.
Exod. xxxiv. 35. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses face shone. And Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
IT is an established and invariable truth, that " those who honour God shall surely be honoured by him." We have the clearest evidence of this, both in the antediluvian and patriarchal ages. Did Abel honour God by his offering, Enoch by his walk, and Noah by his faithful warning of an ungodly world ? they also were blessed with signal manifes- tations of the divine favour. Did Abraham, Lot, or Job display singular piety ? they were as singularly protected, delivered, and exalted by their God. The same we observe of Moses. He was faithful to his God, when all Israel, not excepting Aaron himself, revolted from him ; and to him did God vouchsafe so bright a glory, that none of his countrymen were able to fix their eyes upon him ; insomuch that he was constrained to put a veil upon his face, in order to facilitate their access to him, and restore his wonted opportunities of conversing with them. This veiling of his face is to be the subject of our present consi- deration : and we shall notice it in a two-fold view :
I. As a kind expedient —
The face of Moses shone with a dazzling and over- powering splendour —
[He had for forty days and nights been communing with God upon Mount Sinai: and it pleased God, for the confirma- tion and increase of his authority among the people, to send him down to them with a lustre upon his countenance, that should at once convince them whose servant he was, and whose authority he bare.
At the first sight of him, both Aaron and all the people were affrighted. This was the natural effect of that guilt which they had so recently contracted. They feared that he was sent as an avenger to punish their iniquity. When they found that their organs of sight were too weak to behold the bright effulgence of his glory, they felt how unable they must be to withstand the terror of his arm.