Brightness
A couple days after ago, I heard a guest speaker that was relating how Moses would go to see God and come back and be so radiant that the Israelites would “freak out.” I must stop and say how much I love the description of “freaked out.” Anyway, as he related, they clamored for Moses to cover his face with a veil, so to hide the radiant light that he wore upon his face.
“It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.” - Exodus 34:29-30, 34-35 NASB
If this wasn’t enough, our Pastor had recently given a sermon on the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, to Paul the Apostle.
“As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.” - Acts 9:3-9 NASB
This was still fresh in my memory a day later as we were driving to church in the early morning. Our travel takes us mostly west to east and, at this time of the year, the sun is directly in sight. We go to early service so the sun had just risen by the time we left. As I was driving, I was noticing the transition from seeing light behind the hill as I was driving up it. Next, I saw the rays of light from the early sun rise as we got closer to the top of the hill. Finally, as I got to the top of the hill, bam! The sun hit me right in the face. I’m sure you all have had this experience. The bright sunshine hits you at just the right angle and for a moment, you can’t see hardly anything. I was momentarily worried that I’d weave into incoming traffic and there was no way I could have seen how fast I was going. I grabbed for my sunglasses and in another moment, I was able to better see the road and my dash.
This made me think about Paul. Experiencing all of God’s majesty and wonder in what must have been the maximum amount he could and survive must have been both scary and awe inspiring. I think my driving experience must be a vague similarity in my emotional and physical reaction.
Now to bring that back to Moses and what I had heard the day before. God fills us with the Holy Spirit and this must show through us in a fashion similar to Moses. We may not freak people out but I believe that others can see God working in us. This is certainly one way for us to share the good news with everyone we meet every day.
