The Shining Face Of Moses (Part 3)

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. Exodus 34:29–35 (NKJV)

Verse 31 - “and Moses …talked with them…” - Language and grammar are highly flexible and eloquent things.  particularly the "idiomatic" ones.  An "idiom" is "a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, as in 'keep tabs on'."  It draws on pictures and graphic ideas that are particular and unique to the culture that the language is taken from.  Such is the case here.  The grammar of this phrase draws a picture for us.  Moses calls the rulers of the congregation to him, and he "talks with them.  The tense and force of the verbs is such that we are meant to see this as an ongoing conversation, one that is active, ongoing, in the midst of happening, incomplete if you will.  The picture drawn for us is meant to create in our minds the picture of Moses actually speaking with the Elders of Israel.  It is not simply a matter of his telling them what happened on the mountain.  He "talked" with them - he explained, communicated, announced, preached, told, whatever was needed to be sure was necessary to see that they understood what God desired for Israel.

That is the task of the leader of God!  It is the task of anyone who has been given by God to see that God's message is communicated to another.  He is:

1. Call them to himself
2. Talk to them and tell, in whatever way is needful, what God desires for them to know in order that they might act as God desires them to act.

Now, we understand that, as those not under Law but under Grace, we communicate a different set of facts.  But, at the root, we are still talking about salvation by grace through faith alone for that has always been the way that God has brought men to Himself.

“Afterward" - There is an translated conjunction here, "and" or "then", that joins the prior verse to verse 32.  The English translators thought it unnecessary to include it.  It is another indicator of temporal sequence.

There is also a little adverbial "appendage" attached to the end of the word "afterward" proper that is not rendered in most English translations.  It is the Hebrew word "ken" and is yet another indicator of sequence, but implies a similarity of fashion or comparison, likewise,  in this case.  The context makes it obvious that the people approached Moses just like the Elders did, and so the English translators did not include it.

"Afterward" itself is an adverb (it modifies the act of the people coming to Moses - when did they come?) It is another direct time reference, with regard to the event directly before what it is attached to and means "then, afterward, later, some time later, i.e., pertaining to a time subsequent to another time, depending on the context of the verse.  It is fairly common, for instance Genesis 18:5 uses it:

5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” 

Note that in some contexts it can have a spacial reference as well, "behind" (Genesis 19:6); or even directional "to the west" (opposite the rising sun - Judges 18:12); and, as a metaphor, it can speak of following someone in a linear motion (1 Sam 12:14).

Verse 32 - "...he gave them as commandments..." is all one word in the Hebrew.  As we have said the original languages in which the Bible is wirtten are very expressive and can give a lot of information that require more than one word in English to express.  The first portion of the verb is what is called a "wav consecutive" that acts as a conjunction at the beginning of the verb.  Tagged on the end of the verb is the particle "em" that functions as an English pronoun, "them" in a sort of a Dative case - "to them".  Further, as a third aspect to the verb, we see once again the form that suggests that we see the verb as "imperfect" or in progress and Moses actually speaking with the people themselves.  The verb itself means "to command, to order, or to instruct, that is to state with force/authority what others must do.  Moses is here functioning in the role of a Prophet once again and performing that role by communicating authoritatively to the people what God had communicated to him on the mountain.

Note that he tells them "all that the Lord had spoken with him".  He left nothing out and he soft-pedaled nothing that God had said to him.  There was no holding back, no qualification of the matter, he gave it to them straight, just as God had communicated it to him.

Once again we must note that this is the task of the man of God.  We are to communicate to the congregation that which God has said.  It is our responsibility to repeat to them what the Word of God has said to us.

 

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