108_From glory to glory Ex 34:29-35 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him. 2 Cor. 3:12-14 “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away. 14But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.” A great sculptor was once asked how he managed to carve such lifelike statues out of blocks of stone. He said: "I just chip away everything that doesn’t look like the image I have seen in the marble." In some ways, this mirrors the way God continually works in us, removing what does not reflect His glory, shaping us into His image, from one degree of glory to another. Moses climbed Mount Sinai with two blank tablets of stone. There he was with God for forty days and forty nights. The Almighty God spoke with him, and inscribed His commandments on the stone tablets. When Moses descended from the mountain, his face was radiant, reflecting the glory of the Lord. Once earlier, Moses had come down the mountain at God’s bidding. He carried the stone tablets with the law inscribed on them. But when he saw Israel worshiping the golden calf, he threw down the tablets, shattering them. He saw the inward rejection of the law in the hearts of his people. Their idolatry and immoral partying, at the very foot of the mountain where God had appeared to them, and called them to be his own people, revealed their unfaithful hearts. Moses did not prize the visible representation of the law, even though it was made by God’s own hand. Externalities mean nothing without reality. If the heart is not holy, nothing is. Now, however,