Back with the Lord on Mount Sinai, and reassured that the Lord is still with him, Moses once more intercedes on behalf of the people. The result is that God restores the covenant he has made with Israel, the Ten Commandments are written afresh on two new tablets of stone, and God promises that he will do even greater wonders among his people.

When Moses came down from the mountain, his face radiated the glory of God. An encounter with the Lord will transform us in some way – it will be visible in us. Not everybody was comfortable with seeing this radiance in Moses’ face. It made the people feel uncomfortable and even afraid. So it is with the change that God makes in us.

As we submit to the Lord and changes happen in our lives, others may not be very happy about it. Perhaps we give up old habits and old ways of behaving, and those who previously joined us in those behaviours don’t understand what has happened. They might ridicule or even reject us. Perhaps they feel bad about their own behaviour, or just struggle to cope with the change in us.

We should expect a transformation if we press into the Lord, but we can, like Moses, be patient with those who find our transformation difficult to cope with. Moses made sure that the people were in no doubt that he had been transformed by the glory of God, but he also sometimes wore a veil so that the people could still relate to him. In that way, he was able to effectively serve both God, and the people who relied on his leadership.

The Lord calls us to be in the world, but not of the world. He calls us to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, but his hands and feet in our own communities, taking the Gospel of hope to all. May the Lord give us wisdom so that we, like Moses, can live a transformed life while serving the Lord among people that do not yet know his glory.

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NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH