When Moses went up on the mountain of Sinai for forty days to receive from God the Ten Commandments and instructions regarding the tabernacle, “the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him’” (Exodus 32:1).
Moses’ brother Aaron succumbed to the will of the people, fashioning the gold from their earrings into a molten calf, which the people worshiped, proclaiming, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4), ignoring God’s first two commandments forbidding the worship of other gods or the making of idols.
Moses intervened with God on behalf of the Israelites, which I wrote about here, and, even though they had just quickly broken their covenant with Him, He was willing to enter into yet another covenant with them.
It’s worth a pause to consider how few righteous men had walked the earth by this time. Adam was not righteous. Men were so corrupt by the time of Noah, God elected to destroy all flesh but Noah, his family, and the animals he saved on the ark. Noah was the first man described as “righteous.” Noah also “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). Enoch before him, among the descendants of Adam, also “walked with God,” and was rewarded by being taken directly into God’s presence (Genesis 5:22-24) . Job was “blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1). Abraham was righteous (Genesis 15:6). It’s important that we understand that every promise kept to his descendants, the Israelites, has been “for the sake of [God’s] servant Abraham” (Genesis 26:24).
God appointed Moses to lead His people to fulfill His promise to Abraham’s descendants, saying of him, “He is faithful in all my household” (Numbers 12:7). He gave Moses the power the demonstrate signs and wonders to Pharaoh, saying, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet” (Exodus 7:1). Every sign that Moses had demonstrated had been at the direction of the Lord, but Moses had been the intermediary. It seems, then, that the people looked to Moses and not to God. So when Moses had been absent for forty days, their solution was to make another god to look to. After Moses intervened on their behalf, God called Moses again onto the mountain with Him to communicate again the covenant He would make with the people of Israel.
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 ski of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 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.
Genesis 34:29-35
It occurs to me this was a great mercy of God. The people got confused. They looked to Moses, God’s servant, instead of looking to God. So God provided a way for them to know when Moses was speaking for Him. When Moses wasn’t speaking for God, he would veil his face, taking away any temptation for the people to look to him.
We are tempted to look to men and not God. We can get confused by the words of men, thinking they are speaking for God. His servants are humble, walking with Him, glorifying Him and not themselves. We no longer need their faces to shine. We have God’s word by which we can test men’s words. May the Lord send workers into His harvest who speak His word and reflect His glory.
"We have God’s word by which we can test men’s words. May the Lord send workers into His harvest who speak His word and reflect His glory." Amen. Thank you Dr. Milhoan. Peace.