“As Moses descended from Mount Sinai — with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain — he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him. But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Do you remember the first time you fell in love? I’m talking about high school – or maybe even junior high – puppy love. With a bit of life experience under your belt, you quickly recognize that’s not the real thing, but don’t bother trying to convince the starry-eyed youth of that. You’ll be wasting your breath. Thinking back to that time, when you got to spend some time around your crush…excuse me…the love of your life…you weren’t the same as you were before. You were a little spacey. You probably had a sappy grin on your face. Maybe you even whistled a tune. Anybody who was around could tell that you had been around your heartthrob. You weren’t the same as you were before. When Moses had spent some time with the Lord, he wasn’t the same, and everybody could see it. Let’s see what kind of sense we can make out of this interesting end to the chapter.
Kind of like our passage yesterday, this is one of those passages that makes skeptics skeptical and believers who aren’t really committed to a supernatural worldview cringe a bit and begin to reach for some sort of a natural explanation. Moses’ face glowed? Seriously? Come on…this must just be intended to be a metaphor for how Moses was impacted by having spent time with the Lord. I mean, that’s an easy enough point to preach. Being around Jesus makes you different. And that’s true. We’ll come back to it in just a bit.
But we don’t have to take that path. We believe in a supernatural God, and because of that, we can accept that sometimes supernatural things happen. We don’t have to have any trouble believing that when Moses went back down the mountain, he wasn’t simply changed by it, he was positively radiant. His exposure to the glory of God had been so profound that his face was literally shining with it.
Hearing that, we are tempted to ask all sorts of questions about the mechanics of the thing. How brightly did his face shine? Could you measure it in wattage? How long did it last? Was this something that happened every time he got around God until they arrived at the border of the Promised Land the first time? Did it persist through the wilderness? What was the impact on his family? Were they as uncomfortable about the whole thing as the rest of the nation was? How thick was the veil? Did he wear the veil around his family, or just the rest of the people?
All of that, though, little more than speculation. We are limited to what the text actually says. Moses’ face shone. The people didn’t like it. We’re not exactly sure what about it they didn’t like. Was it the uncomfortableness of seeing something they hadn’t seen before? Was it the reminder of their own lack of holiness that made them uneasy? Were they still a bit uncertain of their standing before God after having so thoroughly ravaged the covenant they had made with Him? Again, we don’t know. All we know is that his face shone, and the people made him cover it when he was around them. He wasn’t the same because he had been near to God. And this wasn’t a one-time thing either. It happened every single time he got close to His presence.
Yet while there’s no reason (at least when we’re operating from the standpoint of a biblical worldview) to doubt this happened just as the text describes, there’s not much for us today in that fact. Coming back to that more spiritual point that being close to God makes us different, however, there is plenty for us to talk about. This difference caused by exposure to God is something the New Testament authors mention in several different places.
The apostle Paul told the Corinthian believers that when we are in Christ, we are new creations. Our old self is gone, dead to sin, and a new self has come, alive in Christ. Jesus told the disciples shortly before His arrest and crucifixion that when they were found in Him, they would be capable of far more than they could otherwise achieve on their own. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” In Romans, Paul describes the difference between being apart from Christ and being in Christ as the difference between being alive and being dead. The two are not the same. Peter talks about how the unbelieving friends or even merely acquaintances of someone who has turned to Christ don’t even understand who their friend has now become.
In Acts 4, Luke describes how Peter and John ably defended themselves before the Sanhedrin when they were arrested for preaching the Gospel in the temple. The group of elite scholars and religious leaders were absolutely befuddled as to how these uneducated fishermen could defend themselves with such elegance and poise. The only explanation they could come up with was that they had been with Jesus.
When you are in Christ, you are not the same as you are when you aren’t. There’s a difference. It’s a positive difference too. Oh, the world won’t see it that way. They’ll think you’re nuts unless and until you agree with them again. They’ll tell you about it too. A lot. And in no uncertain terms. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been called unreasonable and indoctrinated and willfully ignorant and even a potential child abuser for my own willingness to stand firmly on the truth of the Gospel. But Jesus Himself guaranteed us this kind of a reception would likely be coming our way if we followed Him.
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.”
And in another place, “You are blessed [I.e., supremely happy] when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Being around Jesus makes you different. Noticeably different. If it doesn’t, you may not have really been around Jesus. Embrace the different. Don’t be obnoxious about it. Don’t be a jerk about it. Don’t be unloving about it. But don’t shy away from it either. Jesus makes you the best version of yourself. There’s no reason not to own it, to celebrate it, to let everybody see it clearly. After all, “everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven.” Don’t be shy about following Jesus. Do it loudly and proudly and in ways that are fully reflective of His character. The world may not be glad you did, but you will. And sometimes, that’s enough.
The Nexus 
And exactly why/how would the bible character Jesus of Nazareth make me a better version?
Now this answer I am really interested to hear!
😊
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Simple. We become like what we worship. If you give your first and highest devotion to Jesus, you will gradually come to look more and more like Him. I only know a little bit about you, but from what I can tell, you’re not much like Jesus. Neither am I. That’s why I follow Him; to be more like Him. Jesus is better than you and me. Following HIm will make you a better version of yourself.
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Funny but not in a humorous way at all that all the things the character Jesus of Nazareth warned was going to happen to newly baptised believers so many of their descendants have been doing exactly those things to others for over 2000 years. And in numerous instances are still doing it.
I often wonder if Christianity is a synonym for hypocrisy?
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Nope, but we’ve sure given critics over the centuries a lot of ammunition for making that charge. When the church doesn’t get Jesus’ words right, the results are pretty uniformly disastrous. I couldn’t agree more.
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Based on historical evidence right to now you Christians have pretty much uniformly not ever got right the words of the Bible character Jesus of Nazareth.
It would seem there is more than a grain of truth to the phrase: Making it up as you go along?
Not a nice religion at all.
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To say we have often gotten it wrong strikes me as pretty on the nose and there’s plenty of evidence for that. To say we “have pretty much uniformly not ever got right the words of the Bible character Jesus of Nazareth” is to rather wildly overstate the case. You look at religion in general and Christianity in particular through a lens that is jaded at best. You have since we first started conversing back and forth. The lens we use to see affects what we find. Your founding assumption is that it is all borderline (or maybe just plain) evil nonsense. Lo and behold, you find evidence to justify your assumption everywhere you look. It’s classic confirmation bias. But to suggest that Christians have basically never gotten it write takes a pretty determined effort to ignore vast amounts of evidence to the contrary, or else a dogged insistence on examining all the available contrary evidence through your adopted worldview lens which affects (i.e., skews) how you see things. That says far more about your own biases than what reality actually is. But, given your biases, you rather naturally won’t agree, but that’s pretty well been the case since we got started.
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Christians were stealing and killing from the moment Christianity was invented and laws /edicts were issued. Just look at what Theodosius did, bless his frock.
They have persecuted other Christian sects and other religions almost from the word go.
Embarked on Crusades and murdered untold numbers.
They spread across the globe like a virus slaughtering and enslaving indigenous people from the time of the age of discovery.
Apartheid, segregation, blatent racism all championed by Christians in the name of Chrustianity and your precious Jesus of Nazareth.
Abused and ridiculed science, promoting idiotic and socially damaging crap in the name of your god man.
These days any number of Christian sects – and, oh boy aren’t there SO many to choose from – persecute gay people, exercise misogyny, are vile towards those seeking abortion.
This is Christianity to a T.
And I am merely scratching the surface. So, tell me again why I would want to come anywhere near such a disgusting ideology?
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From the moment? To borrow your line, where’s your evidence?
As for the rest, I didn’t dispute that people claiming the name of Christ have done a lot of awful things that don’t ring consistently with any of His teachings. They’ve not been any or especially worse than people who haven’t claimed His name, but they’ve created plenty of their own chaos. Your run through history there isn’t especially historical, but it does rely on a lot of common tropes.
But again, that’s what you’re looking for and so it comes as exactly no surprise that you see it. Your worldview bias, though, causes you to either miss or reject or otherwise handwave away all of the evidence to the contrary because it’s inconvenient to your preferred narrative. That’s on you, not history.
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Seriously, you are asking for evidence?
😂
I thought you knew the history of your religion or do they gloss over the awkward nasty bits? Hmm. That just about covers pretty much all of the history of Christianity then, I suppose.
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I’m not glossing over the awkward bits at all. You’re simply ignoring the good parts because they don’t fit your narrative. I’m well aware of a great many of the bad parts and suspect I am as critical of them as you are.
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The good parts were /are minor and we’re largely because the
playing field was levelled, removing all obstacles.
As the Borg once said Resistance is futile.
Perhaps it could he argued the works once need religion but it sure as Gehenna does not now.
So, how far are you really willing to go back and truly examine your religion?
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A lot of tropes? Oh, pray do tell, then, where I have erred.
Go back as far as you Ike and work forward.
Look at your own sect/ denomination of Baptist. You lot can’t even agree on that.
But please list some of these tropes.
I really am fascinated.
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Nope. It’s not worth my time because you’re not honestly interested. If I thought there was a chance you were, I’d consider it. But you have thus far given me zero evidence to the contrary, so, no, thank you. I’ll leave you to conclude whatever you need to about that.
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Of course I am interested. If this were not the case I would kit post here or ask such questions.
What on earth are you afraid of?
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Wasting my time trying to convince you of something you’re not interested in being convinced of. And afraid isn’t the right word. Unwilling is more accurate.
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I suspect you are unwilling because you will have to face the facts about how vile the history of your invented religion truly is.
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That is something you can suspect, yes. I gave you permission for it. But again, as I have continued telling you and you don’t seem to be listening, I’m well aware of the bad parts, and probably mostly agree with you that they are all bad. As I said before, though, it is your very well documented and demonstrated unwillingness (or perhaps inability?) to consider any perspective other than your own that is the primary focus of my unwillingness. Why waste a bunch of time on a long, drawn out conversation with someone who doesn’t have any interest in being convinced of anything?
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But there is no alternative that does NOT include how vile your religion is. It is inescapable and it is not getting any better.
What alternative could you possibly convince anyone of unless you were to lie through gritted teeth?
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Amazing. If you Google Christian atrocities through the ages there are episodes I was not aware of. A real eye opener.
How you can actually stomach being a paid member of this faith, which is effectively a death cult, even if we allow for the fact you are pretty much a decent bloke, is beyond reason.
It can only be that memory is so short and biased that kids raised in a Christian environment are purposely shielded from the true history of Christianity.
One could quite literally wade through the blood.
It is enough to make your skin crawl.
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You’re literally making my point, you realize that, right? You’re looking for all of the bad (and I haven’t yet denied there’s a lot of people claiming Christ and then behaving in ways wildly out of sync with His teachings), and finding it. You all but refuse to acknowledge anything good. That speaks to your worldview bias, not history. As long as you insist on using that lens, you’ll keep finding what you seek.
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Oh, There are good people who happen to be Christian. But Christianity is nothing but vile supernaturalism built around a death cult.
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To belabor the point yet again, that’s the worldview perspective you bring to the table when thinking through these issues. So, that’s what you see. It’s classic confirmation bias.
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No, it is the evidential perspective.
As I mentioned, one could almost wade through the blood of those slaughtered on the altar of your vile religion.
Even WWII was fought largely between Christians, with pastors and priests on both sides blessing soldiers before they went into battle. Truly sickening.
Consider the Cathars, for example.
I read about them when I first developed an interest in the history of Christianity.
I wonder how many of your pew warmers are even aware of who these poor folk were? Slaughtered, by Proper Christians( sic) virtually to extinction.
But yes, Jonathan there is bias, and it all lies with people like you.
Do a sermon the sieges of Beziers and Carcassonne.
That should go down well before Sunday Lunch!
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Well, as he was born a jew, raised a Jew, followed the Tanakh, kept the Law and eventually died as a Jew then you don’t even come close by miles
I have no desire to be religious and follow supernatural nonsense so why would I want to be become a devout Jew?
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I didn’t say the first thing about becoming a Jew. I talked about becoming a follower of Jesus. Those are two entirely different things. Just spend some time with the teachings of Jesus. If you just committed your life to getting those right and disregarded all the supernatural or religious elements, they would make you a better version of yourself. Even a skeptic like Adam Savage agrees with that observation and he thinks religion is all nonsense.
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So, give away all my possessions, don’t save for the ‘morrow?
What other suggestion?
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Keep studying the teachings of Jesus. That’s all.
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Well, give me a couple of pointers/examples that you would recommend?
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Start in Matthew and read carefully through John. When you’re done, go back and do it again. Get yourself a translation that is modern and accurate (NIV, CSB, ESV are all good options). Find a red letter version if you want to be able to easily give special attention to the teachings of Jesus. Pay close attention to how He interacts with people. Notice carefully who He is the most critical of and why. Notice who He is the most gentle with and how. If you want to be really precise, just spend a few weeks studying through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Ghandi really liked that one.
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I asked you for specific pointers/examples . I have read the bible and I can Google his teachings.
And remember, he said not one jot or tittle of the Law etc..
Or did you forget that part?
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And I gave you some. If you don’t want to take them, don’t blame me.
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You asked me to read gMatthew through John.
I know the gospels. Or at least am fairly familiar with them. I want you to offer specifics that will make me a better version of myself if I follow the teachings of the bible character Jesus of Nazareth.
You must do this all the time to your pew warmers so this should be a doddle for you.
If there is further research needed then I will be able manage the heavy lifting.
Perhaps you were going to suggest the Golden Rule?
There we go, I’ve kicked it off for you. Now, your turn.
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I’ve given you a path. If you don’t want to take it, that’s on you not me.
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The problem is half of the supposed teachings actually involve your god, Yahweh, do they not?
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Sure, a great many of them do. So, just focus on the ethical teachings.
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But why would I need the character Jesus of Nazareth for that?
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