Veiling the Glory (Exodus 35:1-3)

“Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death” (Ex. 35:2).

When Adam and Eve walked in the garden with the Lord, they rested in Him and enjoyed sweet communion with Him. But when sin shattered that relationship, man’s soul became restless. He now roams the earth, looking to pleasure, to work, and to false religion for the peace and rest that can only come from God Himself. It is this rest that is restored when a person is renewed by the power of the Spirit. Peace is brought to a disquieted soul, and rest is given to the weary. The burden that once weighed heavily upon his back is taken away by Christ, and is replaced by a robe of righteousness that allows him to dwell in the presence of the Almighty, to walk with Him, and to rest in Him. The hope of every redeemed heart as it passes through the waters of this world, through its struggle and its strife, is the hope of eternal rest in the glorious presence of our Creator.

It is significant that here, at the renewal of the covenant before the building of the tabernacle, Moses reiterates the command to keep the seventh day holy. This is the fourth time this law has been mentioned in Exodus, and it is the most quoted law of all the Ten Commandments. This is because it, probably more than any other law, points to the end of our religion: rest in the Lord Almighty. The building of the tabernacle looked forward to the redemption the church would have in Jesus Christ, and the Sabbath day pointed forward to the rest the church would have in Him. This rest begins at the moment of conversion, and will be consummated in heaven when all who are called according to His name enter that eternal rest.

Those who refused to keep the Sabbath day holy were liable unto death. This was the first time a penal sanction was attached to the Sabbath law. It stressed the importance of Israel’s making every seventh day a celebration of the rest God has for His people. To refuse to keep the Sabbath day would have been to dishonor the Lord. Those who had no interest in resting in the Lord could face death. The same could be said for us today, but in a different manner. Many people disagree on the manner in which the Sabbath law should be kept in modern times. But all agree that those who do not know what it means to rest in the Lord, and who have no interest in resting in the Lord, reveal the deadness of their hearts and their unabated hostility toward God.

Do you desire to rest in the Lord? Or do you look to your job, your family, or your recreation for rest? If you find that your heart is anxious, set aside time to rest in the Lord, and enjoy the Christian Sabbath weekly by using that time to worship, to pray, to meditate on His Word, to fellowship with Christians, or to minister to the sick.

Veiling the Glory (Exodus 34:29-35)

"And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face." (Ex. 34:33).

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai after spending forty days and nights in the presence of the Lord, his face shined with the reflected glory of his heavenly Father. He was not aware of how his face shined until he came into the midst of the people and they reacted in fear. Realizing what was happening, Moses comforted the people and called them to him so that he could give them the commandments of the Lord. After he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

Some think that Moses put the veil on so the people would not be afraid of the glory of God. But this was not the case, for he kept the veil off while he talked to them. It was only when he was finished that he put the veil on. We learn from the apostle Paul why Moses covered his face. He writes in 2 Corinthians 3 that Moses put a veil over his face “so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.” The Mosaic covenant had a temporary character because it was only a shadow of what was to come. The ceremonial laws, the theocracy of Israel, the externalities of their religion would one day pass away, and a mediator, greater and better than Moses, would establish a new covenant. This new covenant would never fade and would never pass away; it would be the fulfillment of everything that the old covenant foreshadowed.

Paul taught the Corinthians that Moses put a veil over his face so the Israelites would not see the glory passing away. But those who will one day look on the face of Christ, who put their faith in the Gospel, will behold an unfading glory. Now, if that light is veiled to those who hear the Gospel today, it is because they do not believe, and some still put their hope in the old covenant, in its externals and ceremonies. Those whose minds doggedly rebel against the truth of God’s existence and glory revealed through general revelation do not see the “light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The Israelites saw the reflected glory of God in the face of Moses, a glory that did not last. But those who have faith in Jesus Christ, who live under the new covenant, no longer live in darkness, but a light has dawned in our hearts—“the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

The glory of the new covenant is that Jesus Christ is its mediator. In Him, we have a better and greater Mediator because His sacrifice is sufficient once and for all. It does not need to be repeated daily as in the old covenant. Because of this finality, the new covenant is a better covenant. Praise God today for revealing the Gospel to you.

Not By Bread Alone (Exodus 34:27-28)

"So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water" (Ex. 34:28a).

Like Elijah and Christ after him, Moses spent forty days and nights in intimate communion with God. During that time, he did not eat or drink, being sustained only by the power of Jehovah. Matthew Henry observes, “When we are weary of an hour or two spent in attendance upon God and adoration of Him, we should think how many days and nights Moses spent with Him, and of the eternal day we hope to spend in praising Him.” Moses knew for a fact that man does not live by bread alone.

This truth is often lost on us today because we are so dependent on worldly comforts. We forget that we live and move and have our being through the Lord God, and that our lives are sustained by His power. If He chose, our lives (and the whole universe!) could end in a moment. We should regularly thank the Lord for sustaining us, for giving us life, and for keeping us alive for His purposes in this world.

When Moses refrained from food and drink on the mountain, God supported him by His power. The one who made the body can nourish it without ordinary means. And while we might think this was difficult for Moses, and maybe it was, he was sustained by communion with God. Like Jesus, he had meat to eat that the world knew nothing about, for it was his meat and drink to hear the Word of God, to pray, and to dwell in His glorious presence. The abundant satisfaction he had in the Word of God and in the presence of the Almighty made him forget his body, and its needs and desires. God fed Moses with things that are greater than food and drink: He fed him with His light, law, and love, with the knowledge of Himself and His will.

Though we are not called to fast for forty days, we are reminded by this extraordinary account that the kingdom of God is not composed of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The less dependent we become on the delights of this world, the better prepared we will be for the pleasures of heaven. This does not mean that we become ascetics and forsake the bounties of God’s creation, but it does mean that we keep them in the right perspective. Feasting on the righteousness, grace, and love of the Lord is of greater worth than feasting on the delicacies of this world. We should, therefore, never allow the latter to stand in the way of the former.

Are you more concerned about meeting your physical needs than your spiritual needs? If you have children, are you feeding them spiritually by teaching them the Word, praying with them, and worshiping with them, or are you mainly focusing on meeting their physical and developmental needs? Meditate on Matthew 4:1–11.

Making Time for God (Exodus 34:21-26)

“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest” (Ex. 34:21).

God commanded the Israelites to rest once a week, even in the days of harvest, the most busy time of the year. All worldly business had to give way to holy rest, even when it seemed as if there wasn’t time for it. We need to make time to come away from our worldly concerns and to spend extended, intimate time with the Lord. The more we are consumed by our affairs, the more our hearts are drawn away from Him. This happens especially during those times when everything seems to demand our time, when work is piled high, when our families demand our attention, when the church is calling for us to help in one more ministry. During these times we are tempted to coast along, barely keeping our heads above water, finding little or no rest in the Lord because we don’t take the time to be with Him. In passages such as the one before us, we are reminded of how much we need to take time, even a little every day, to rest in the Lord, to meditate on His Word, to commune with Him in the quiet solitude of the closet. It is too easy to forget the importance of resting in Him. Before we know it our hearts have grown cold, our patience toward others has dwindled, and our ability to cope with the demands of life has been lost. By resting in the Lord we may avoid these pitfalls and find the strength to do our work well, to love our families, and to serve His church.

God also told His people that they had to appear before the Lord, the God of Israel, a command He had given previously. In all our religious approaches to God, we must look upon Him as the Lord God, infinitely blessed, great, and glorious. Only when we approach Him as the God of Scripture can we worship Him with reverence and godly fear. He is the God who made a covenant with us, and we can be encouraged to trust in Him and to serve Him joyfully.

When you step away from your busy schedule to spend time with the Lord, focus on who He is. You can only do this by reading and meditating on His Word. When you open the Scriptures, think about the various attributes of God, meditate on what He has done for you. Focus on Him, not only on what you need to do to serve Him. Only when you truly know Him can you trust Him, rest in Him, and serve Him with joy and delight.

Do you have a set time when you can step away from your duties and spend time with the Lord? Do you often feel overwhelmed by all your activities and responsibilities? Take some time out, even if it means cancelling something, and spend time in prayer and in meditation on the Word. Make this a holy habit.

Feasting Before the Lord (Exodus 34:18-20)

“The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt” (Ex. 34:18).

Here is a repetition of several commands given previously, particularly those relating to Israel’s solemn feasts. When they had made the golden calf, they proclaimed a feast in honor of it. Now, so that they might never sin in that way again, God charged them with the observance of the feasts that He had instituted.

When we sin against the Lord, we are setting up something above Him to celebrate, be it ourselves, another god, another person, a habit, or an activity. Whatever it might be, we are saying to ourselves that this one thing, in that moment, is more important than our relationship with the Lord. And though we do not make a pagan feast as the Israelites did, we make a sinful feast in our heart wherein we celebrate the joy we think we derive from that which we have set above God.

The folly of this is that true joy, true feasting, can only come through a relationship with Jesus Christ. But we deceive ourselves as we think—at the moment when we choose to sin—that this thing will bring us greater happiness than anything else. We think that indulging the flesh will bring us greater joy than obeying the will of God. This is where sin is so deceptive. It promises happiness, joy, and feasting in the heart, but in the long run it only brings bitterness, pain, and emptiness. We think we are feasting on good things, but it is all an illusion, and we wake up one day to find ourselves starving.

True joy only comes in Christ. It is at His table that we are filled, and it is in His house that we find true, joyful, and abundant feasting. Instead of wasting our gifts, our time, our resources on things that have no lasting value or are a direct affront to the Lord, we should bring our resources to Christ, put them into His service, and use them for His glory. Only then will we know what it means truly to feast in the delights of heaven and to be filled with the fruit of righteousness.

Christ has promised that all we need is at His table. He has prepared an abundance of spiritual nourishment at His feast. Isaiah 25 tells us that on Mount Zion the needs of all the people will be satisfied, and there will be a feast “of rich food … a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.” Do not go to the world for fulfillment, and do not seek feasting in sin. Seek Christ, for He alone gives what is best and satisfies the hunger of your heart.

Where can you find fulfillment and spiritual nourishment? Are you trying to fill yourself with empty things, with things that don’t satisfy? Are you turning to sin, thinking it will meet the needs of your heart? Turn to Christ today, read His Word, pray for His Spirit to satisfy your soul with good things.