transformed by glory (2.14.10)

Exodus 34:27-35
27The LORD said to Moses: Write these words; in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. 28He 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.
29Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

2 Corinthians 3:4-4:2
4Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, 8how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? 9For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! 10Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; 11for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!
12Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 13not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. 14But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. 15Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; 16but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
1Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
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Moses brought the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel carved into stone tablets. These commandments form the basis for the covenant God made with Israel, a powerful agreement to be their God as they would be God’s people. Really, the basis for the covenant is God’s love reaching out to people, but the commandments provided a structure to respond to God’s love faithfully.

Moses spent 40 days and nights on the mountain with God carving the commandments into the stone and listening to God explaining how people should live. Moses was close to God and being close to God leaves a mark. He came back to the people with stone tablets in his hands and his face glowing with the presence of God.

We often think of commandments in a negative way, and we sometimes think of the Old Testament as a whole as full of law and full of condemnation. But at their root the commandments spell out a covenant that is an amazing word of love. God chose Israel to be his special people. To carry them out of slavery on eagles’ wings and to establish them in a land safe from harm. God gave Israel commandments to help them create a society governed by faithfulness to God and justice for all the people. God was present in the commandments and that is an amazing blessing.

Paul spent most of his life as a strict Jew. He was a Pharisee, which means he took the Law’s commandments very seriously. For the Pharisees the commandments were not only important to keeping covenant with God, they protected Jews from being assimilated by the wider pagan culture that surrounded them. The Law protected the people from harmful influences and gave them a way to seek righteousness. Law was a matter of faith and identity and the Pharisees clung to it for dear life.

That’s why Jesus was so challenging to the Pharisees. He seemed full of God’s presence, but he also seemed to disregard the commandments completely. They put their faith in the idea that God gave them a law to be followed to the letter and here was this guy just doing whatever he felt like doing.