Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 34:29-30

29 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.

30 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.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, it seems that Moses must have been somewhat transfigured to survive 40 days and nights in the top of the mountain without even water. And so, it is understandable that when he descended back down to the people his face was shining, such that people were too afraid to even approach him. Moses may have been back among the common man, but the glory of God still burned within him.

While I certainly have never been transfigured like this, I am well aware of the glow within the soul that follows a period of deep spiritual connection. It is unquestionably the best that I have ever felt, and it can continue for days after the original experience. I’ve never had that flush last forever, but there have been personal changes made in that time which have continued with me to this day (including the writing of this blog). While we are not told whether Moses’s face ever returned to normal, my assumption would be that after some time it did.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 34:27-28

27 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

We heard a few of the commandments that the Lord reinstated to Moses, but now we are told that the two remained in communion for another forty days and nights. Given that duration, it seems entirely plausible that every single commandment that the Lord had given thus far, from when the Israelites first left Egypt to the time Most first ascended Mount Sinai to the time he ascended it the second time, were all included in this restoration of God’s law. All of the commandments around the feast days, and surrounding betrothal and marriage, and the management of servants, and the ten commandments, and the structure of the tabernacle, and the process for each sacrifice, all of it. In fact, verse 28 specifically calls out the ten commandments as being one of those things that was communicated, even though we do not have the full transcription of that here, so it stands to reason that all these others might have been as well.

How Moses was sustained for forty days and nights without even water is a wonder, and I must assume that there was some sort of divine intervention there. I wonder if he was being nourished by the spirit, and whether partaking of the food and drink of our fallen world would have made him unfit to remain in the presence of the Lord. Indeed, we will see in the following verses that he really was somewhat transfigured during his time in the mountain, and that it altered his very appearance.