Moses had been up on Mt Sinai, where God gave him the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets. When he came down to the people, his face shone with such brilliance that they were frightened to come into his presence. So, until this reflected glory of God faded, Moses veiled his face when he spoke to the people.
The Israelites recognised the glory of God in Moses’ face, and they were terrified, because of their sin. They knew God as the covenant God who’d passed over them on that terrible night of destruction in Egypt, and had freed them from slavery. But they’d turned against him. The glory of God always drives sinners into hiding – just as it drove Adam and Eve into the bushes of Eden.

None of us, by nature, wants to see God, because he’s got a claim on us. He requires of us what we naturally don’t want to give. He wants to change us when we’d rather not be changed. That’s why Paul wrote to these same Christians in Corinth in his first letter, No one can confess ‘Jesus is Lord’, unless he is guided by the Holy Spirit.

We can thank God that the Holy Spirit, with his gospel power, has smashed through the hardness that naturally closes our hearts to God. He’s lifted the curtain for us to see him with the eye of faith as our personal Saviour and Lord – the one who’s made it possible for us to know God’s love and live in the freedom of his forgiveness.