Exodus 34:29-35 Sermon

the transfiguration of our lord

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

 

The Glorious Go-Between

Exodus 34:29-35

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord. (NIV)

I’ve don’t believe I’ve ever met him personally.  I am quite sure he also has a real name.  But from what I gather, just based on advertisements, I am not supposed to have very fond feelings for the middleman.  When I hear companies telling me I can get their product for cheaper than elsewhere because they cut out the middleman, it makes it sound as if the middleman is just involved in the process to get his hands on some of my money.  Of course that doesn’t endear him to us, does it?  We don’t want to pay any more than we should have to for something, so of course we are interested in cutting this guy out of the equation if it means saving us a few bucks.  Oh, that no-good middleman!

But if you’ve ever heard of two individuals or companies going through a nasty World War III level dispute over fault, infringement, or some other matter, you might be aware of another middleman responsible for overseeing their arbitration who is much more appreciated.  This middleman overhears the case between the two companies, who would otherwise be at each other’s throats and unable to express even the slightest semblance of civility toward each other, toward coming to some sort of an agreement as to how best they can go their separate ways.  Without that middleman, the companies would go around and around in circles, only doing more damage and getting nowhere fast.  That middleman serves a noble purpose.

Moses was not the former, but the latter.  His role as the go-between – another name for middleman – between God and the people of Israel was not a self-serving one.  He was not in it to get his cut, to make a name for himself, or to impress the Lord.  In fact, if you recall, Moses at first wanted nothing to do with God’s call to represent the Israelites. 

No, Moses was the go-between in a good sense, and even that, not because God needed him, but because the people of Israel needed him.  In fact, it is difficult to consider the verses from Exodus 34 this morning without recalling why Moses had to make a return trip to Mt. Sinai and back.  The first time Moses had gone up the mountain to receive the Lord’s Law for his people.  Oh, and it might be worth mentioning that one of the laws that God stressed repeatedly was that idolatry – the worship of false gods – was a sin that really rubbed him the wrong way.  Why is that worth mentioning?  Because it just happened to be the very sin in which the Israelites were engaged as Moses descended from the mountain top back to the people.  So furious was Moses as he witnessed the idolatrous golden calf worship and the revelry that went along with it, that he smashed the stone tablets, with their divinely inscribed laws, to pieces.  And if you think that was an indicator of how infuriating Israel’s idolatry was, then listen to the Lord’s fuming response to it: “‘I have seen these people,’ the LORD said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation’” (Ex. 32:9,10).  One gets the impression that God wasn’t very happy with Israel.  He threatened to wipe them out and start over again, and of course an historical event like the Flood provided plenty of evidence that it certainly wasn’t beyond God to follow through with such a threat.

But here is where middleman Moses, Israel’s illustrious intermediary and great go-between, stepped in to save their bacon.  Rather than allowing the Lord to stew in anger, to allow the match-size flicker of God’s fury to be fanned into the full blown flames of a raging wildfire of wrath, Moses boldly stepped in and pleaded for his people.  He showed his compassionate heart for his fellow Israelites and his complete confidence in God’s grace and mercy.  Moses interceded on behalf of the Israelites. 

And God relented, “and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened” (Ex. 32:14).  He withheld the destruction he seemed bent on bringing.  Why?  Because Moses had convinced him that the Israelites were generally good people who had done a bad thing just this once, sorta like one crummy episode in an otherwise fantastic television series?  Did Moses convince the Lord to spare the Israelites on the basis of their past performance or a promise of guaranteed future results?

No, the Lord changed his mind because Moses reminded him of his own gracious promises given to his chosen people.  It wasn’t Israel’s past history toward God, but rather God’s past history toward his people.  His promises, his plan, so lovingly communicated to his people for generations – those were what rescued Israel from the brink of extinction.  God had actually stooped down to Moses’ level, allowing Moses to demonstrate why God had designated him to serve as leader and middleman for Israel, and faithful Moses came through.  This was not the same Moses who lacked backbone by the burning bush, but a faith-filled man of God, so completely given to God that he had no hesitation when it came to throwing God’s gracious promises back under his own nose so that their pleasing aroma might fill his nostrils and appease his burning anger.

God’s favor was with Moses, and he had a special way of making it known: Moses’ face was radiant whenever he had been in conversation with God.  “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablet of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD” (v.29).  This wasn’t just an instance of a person’s face lighting up after visiting with an old friend or seeing a significant other; this was light literally emanating from his face.  It became the norm whenever Moses entered the Lord’s presence that his face afterward would be radiant and eventually need to be covered with a veil.     

Moses wasn’t the only one we’ve heard about this morning with a shiny face.  According to the account recorded by Luke in his Gospel, what Peter, James, and John saw on top of the mountain with Jesus was described this way: “the appearance of [Jesus’] face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning” (v.29).  Not only his face, but his clothes burst with brightness and majesty.  Just like Moses, Jesus’ face was radiant.

And, just like Moses, Jesus intercedes as well.  Jesus, too, serves as middleman, or go-between.  But he does so not for a select group of people, as Moses did, but, for all people.  As Paul wrote to Timothy, “there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).  You know why we need a mediator to step in on our behalf before God.  You know that sin builds an unbreachable barrier between God and men, and that without someone to step in on his behalf, man is doomed.  Let’s face it – golden calves?  Ha!  Many of our sins would make Israel’s sin look innocent by comparison.  We lament Israel’s constant waywardness and wandering away from God, but what is our excuse when we have, 1) their example to avoid, and 2) the enlightenment that Scripture provides, and still we slight God on a daily basis?  We, who should know better, fall further and more frequently!  We need the kind of middleman Jesus is to bring us near to God.

Just as Jesus’ role of middleman between God and all men was different from Moses’, so was his glory.  Moses’ glory was not his own, but came upon him only after being in the presence of God.  Soon after his time with God, the glory would fade.  That, in fact was the purpose of the veil – it wasn’t to cover up the light from his face, but rather to hide the light from being visible as it gradually faded away.  Why would it gradually fade away?  Because Moses represented a covenant which also faded away, one based on the law.  Oh it was glorious – perfect in every way; except that we couldn’t keep our end of that agreement with God, so the glory of that covenant faded away, just like the brilliant light from Moses’ face.

But its fading away was also a giving way to a better covenant, a promise based not on man’s ability to keep God’s law, but a promise based on God’s free and faithful love shown fully in Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ glory was his own.  Glory belongs to him because he is the giver of a better promise, one based not on the law, but on grace; based not on a pipe dream, but a guaranteed promise; based not on Moses, but on Christ.  Moses was loyal leader for the Lord.  His shepherd’s heart for his people was plain to see.  He was a great go-between.

But only Jesus can be described as a glorious go-between in every possible way.  He was willing not only to play the role of go-between, offering to make the necessary arrangements to pay the price needed for our ransom; he was also willing to pay the ransom price itself.  He paid with the price of his own life, living and breathing nothing but perfection, and suffering and dying in nothing but undeserved innocence.  And it means we’ve been set free.  Completely free.  Forever free.  Forgiven and free.

Now we are free to radiate his glory, to let his light shine through us as we reflect him to everyone.  Just like Danny did.

Danny was a 12-year-old paper boy.  He was delivering papers one day when the man at the door said, "I don't want a paper. I don't need a paper. My wife is dying of cancer." The man slammed the door in Danny's face as Danny said, "Would you like my pastor to call?" Danny told the pastor about what happened, and the pastor agreed to go visit the man.

When the pastor visited, he explained to the man, "Your paper boy, Danny, told me that your wife has cancer. I'm here to offer my help. I'm a Lutheran pastor." The man at the door looked angry. "I don't know what a Lutheran is and I don't know what a pastor is," he said. He started to slam the door, but before he could, the pastor put his calling card in the man's hand, saying "Call me if you need me."

Some weeks later the phone rang. "We'd like you to come to the home," the man said. "If you are a friend of Danny's, maybe you can help." The woman was dying of cancer. She was hooked up to an oxygen machine. The atmosphere in the house was bleak. "I've never seen the inside of a church," she said, "but I've got nowhere else to turn.  Can you help us?”

The pastor had the chance to share God’s Word with the couple, and eventually the woman was brought to faith.  It was said that the whole room was lit up by the smile on her face once she knew her Savior.  How did this all happen?  Because a little boy named Danny made the most of a simple opportunity to let his light shine.  Now, dear friends, what will God do through you, as you let the splendid light of our glorious go-between, Jesus, emanate for others to see?  Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)