Exodus 34:19-35 NKJV
19 “All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. 20 But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.
“And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.
23 “Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.
26 “The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. 35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.
In His renewal of the covenant, the Lord repeats the laws concerning the firstborn, the Sabbath, annual attendance at the three major feasts, and the prohibition of leaven from the altar of God. He even repeats the law against cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk. Although we are no longer subject to the laws of this covenant, we do well to meditate on all these commandments, to consider what permanent lessons God was teaching Israel and us through them.
Again, in this chapter a comparison is set up between Moses and the Lord Christ. Moses spends another forty days on the mountain with God, fasting and writing. This forty-day fast is mirrored in the life of Jesus, the Prophet like Moses (cf. Deut. 18:15), who would spend forty days in the wilderness, fasting and enduring temptation, not so that He could give us a new law, but so that He might fulfill the old law and set us free from its condemnations. As John writes, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
The apostle Paul also makes a comparison (cf. 2 Cor. 3:7-18) between the Old and New Testaments through the account of Moses’ shining face. His face literally glowed brightly after speaking with God on Mt. Sinai, and for a little while after he would speak with God in the tent of meeting. The Israelites saw the glory of his face and were amazed. But after relating God’s Word to the people with glowing face, Moses would put a veil over his face until the next time he spoke with the Lord. As Paul explains, this was to prevent the Israelites from watching the radiance slowly fade away in between Moses’ encounters with God. The glory didn’t last.
This “fading glory” represents the inferior, fading nature of the Old Testament. The Law-covenant of Sinai was always meant to fade away and be replaced by the Gospel-covenant of Christ. The glory of Moses faded away, but the glory of Christ will never fade away. The Law of Moses, sealed with the blood of animals, was in place for a limited time, but the New Testament, sealed with the blood of Christ, endures forever!
Let us pray: Father, as we behold Your glory in Christ, keep transforming us into His image, from glory into glory. Amen.