I remember listening to sermon once about how people should know when we’ve been in the presence of God. One of the images used was taken from this passage (and the one that lies behind it, Ex.34), and the glory of God shining in the face of Moses. Moses, we were told came down from the presence of God with a shining face, and so the sermon went, when we come out of God’s presence, the glory of God should ‘shine’ from our faces (in a metaphorical sense, I assumed).
It’s such a powerful image that it took me many years to see that this isn’t what either Ex.34, or II Cor.3 is teaching us about! In fact, the whole point is almost the exact opposite – It is Jesus (pre-figured in Moses) who comes forth from the presence of God, and the glory of God shines from Him, not us. We feature in the process by contemplating that glory, and through that being transformed by the Spirit from one degree of glory to another.
In some ways, that is the point of preaching and teaching, and of reading and studying the Bible individually and in groups. And that is true of Old and New Testaments. When Moses is read today without a veil blinding us, then we are able to see Christ in His glory and in the Gospel shining forth from the pages (though technically we have to wait until next week’s reading to see Paul make that point explicitly for us, 4:4).
Questions:
How do you judge whether you’ve heard a ‘good’ sermon or not? What makes a ‘good’ sermon? ...or maybe more helpfully, what makes a ‘good’ (qualified/competent) minister of the new covenant (3:6)?
The same question can be asked of ‘pastoral care’, if you prefer to have that conversation rather than focussing on preaching. helpfully, it’s the same answer!
The language of something being written on our hearts is of course taken from passages such as Jer.31:31-34. And this whole chapter (II Cor.3) explores the question of how the Old and New Covenants relate to each other. It’s easy to read this ‘Old is bad / New is good’. But Paul in fact is teaching that ‘Old is glorious / New is even more glorious’ (3:7-9).
What is glorious about the ministry of Moses? What is even more glorious about the ‘new’ ministry of the Spirit?
If the ministry of Moses brought ‘death’ (3:7) and ‘condemnation (3:9) how could it be described as glorious?
In what sense is the ministry of Moses ‘fading’?
According to Paul in II Cor.3, why does Moses veil his face? What are the consequences of that veiling?
Are people’s hearts still covered by a veil today? What does the image of ‘veil’ convey for Paul?
When people read the Old Testament today, how are they to see the true and permanent glory that was only ever reflected in the face of Moses? How does that affect how you read the Old Testament?
How does ‘contemplating the Lord’s glory’ lead to us being transformed into His image? What is the role of the Spirit in this process?
In light of your consideration of this passage, has your answer to the first question in this study changed at all?
