When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments for the Hebrews, he did not realize that his face had become radiant from conversing with and dealing with Yahweh. The people were afraid to come near him, which reveals two facts or truths.
First, if one was in communion with a good deity, the inner radiance of the brilliant and loving communion, mutuality and communicating would be so pervasive and powerful, that the radiance of God’s love and presence would show in the human communicant’s countenance.
Therefore, those without such radiance displaying openly God’s presence and love in the human’s countenance, it automatically reveals that those without such radiance are without much actual presence of God in their lives, or that that they are more intertwined with evil or even demons than they would dare admit.
Second, the people fled from Moses, afraid of his radiant countenance, which also indicates people are afraid of Yahweh’s presence, and likely do not much like Yahweh, and have not rewarded his presence in their lives.
Below, I will run my quote from The New American Bible, but the editors have this footnote on Page 94 of this Bible: “*34,33: He put a veil over his face. St. Paul sees in this symbol the failure of the Jews to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah: the true spiritual meaning of the writings of Moses and the prophets is still veiled from the unbelieving Jews.”
My interpretation of this is that the editors are correct in identifying the veil that Moses must wear so that the people will entreat with him as a recognition of their failure to believe in God and to invite God into their lives, and this is the story of most humans anywhere in every generation.
I wish to add an unrelated aside: It seems to me that the Ten Commandments being the Holy of Holies in the Arik of the Covenant is an almost Jungian archetype, symbol, and message from God to humans, a most critical message misunderstood and not heeded by everyone even unto this latter day. That divine message is: loving others and oneself is an ethical duty of the first rank, that a code of ethics, a Gift and Covenant from on high to the masses is the Holy of Holies. Piety and faith are noble and necessary to be saved, but being a virtuous soldier of God is a calling of the highest order to be saved, and to help save the sin from evil and Satan.
There is something absolutely unique and profound about the Old Testament message to the world that Yahweh insists that Moses install the Ten Commandments (God’s touchstone code of morality shared with humanity) inside the Ark of the Covenant as the Holy of Holies. Ethical behavior is a divine mandate demanded of each human by God, the price of being saved, and each human’s freely willed acceptance of and execution of these ethical commandments is in part how each human will be saved and received divine grace from Jesus and all good divinities, brothers, and sisters in faith to Christ Himself.
That almost all of us walk around with countenances without radiance, and we of the same universal human nature as fielded by the ancient Jews too would run for cover in shame, fear and aversion to godliness visibly expressed on the face of a modern Moses or Caitlin should one of them walk on the earth today.
Our dull, pallid countenances reflect the absence of God in our lives, and that God does not rule the earth today or in ancient Israel 3,000 years ago.
Here is my quote: “Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the rulers of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them. Later on, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined them all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.* Whenever Moses entered the presence of the Lord to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that had been commanded. Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the Lord.”
My response: The veil is a symbol that deep, divine truth must remain hidden from humans behind a worldly curtain of mere appearance and illusion because that is all the truth that humans can handle, or are willing to endure, and God honors their reject of De, by staying gone, silent and mostly absent, to God’s sorrow, and to huge human loss.
Here are the same verses from the Holy Bible (KJV): “And Moses called unto them: and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord has spoken with him in mount Sinai.
And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.”
My response: Note that Moses was invited to go in before the Lord, a rare honor and privilege indeed, almost unheard of.
Note also that God refers to his chosen people, the Hebrews, as the children of Israel, and that Yahweh their Lord and Creator, was their spiritual father, and they were His spiritual children.
Holy Bible: “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 to him.”
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