The Face of God — Jason Neil

Well, praise the Lord this morning. I've been very blessed and encouraged in the Lord these last several weeks, as I've been meditating on this topic that I'm going to share this morning. The Lord has really just taught me a lot.

I guess I've said this to several of you, that God has a lot of schools, ways to teach us through things. Every avenue of life is one of those schools. Children, having children, being married, going to work, whatever.

God teaches you through every walk of life. This is one that the Lord first started to show me with my children. It was one day they were just kind of off. Huh, what's going on? And so, Andrea, as we often do, we'll talk in the evenings.

Well, what do you think? How do you think this went today? And what do you think about this? And what should we do about this? And we talk and mow things over. We came to the conclusion that some of the things that had gone wrong through the day, just little attitudes, little subtle things.

I mean, you know, the average person probably coming and visiting our home wouldn't have really seen a whole lot of things maybe. But little things that just, attitude maybe, or I don't know. There's nothing we could really put our finger on.

We're like, well, how do we deal with this? Do we just need to get out the rod and be extra, extra consistent maybe and really start off the day right tomorrow in a big way? And that just didn't seem really what we needed to do.

And we just, in evaluating things, it became very clear that maybe not the whole problem, but maybe the whole problem, and at least a huge part of it was maybe the atmosphere in the home that day. And meaning that, you know, we realize we have to be careful that when we, as mommy and daddy, are at spiritual warfare in various things, and sometimes that can come across on our faces.

It's just an intense day. We're battling. We're buckling down and maybe on edge a little bit. Whatever the case might be. And we realize, wow, I think that got transferred to the children so that things that they shouldn't have to deal with at their young age, I mean they're four and two, all of a sudden they're, hmm.

We're almost putting stuff on them. Not saying stuff to them, but just because of how we are. The atmosphere in the home was not just a complete, ah, carefree environment for the children. And I mean carefree in a good way, where they're not burdened with the adult problems.

The adults are taking care of those, and the kids have no idea that the adults are burdened about anything. And they're just smiling, they're living under the smiles of mom and dad, and everything's just great.

Well, I think we smiled a little less that day, and we were a little less jovial, a little less joyful probably, and just a little, just the atmosphere in the home wasn't quite what it should be that day.

And that was what we came to in the evening there, and we're like, wow. So what are we going to do? Tomorrow, we are going to abound in the joy of the Lord. And right from the beginning, we are just going to be smiling down upon their little hearts, and they're going to know it, and we'll see what happens.

And that fixed it. The next day was not full of spankings at all. It was not full of any problems, really. And it improved everything. So I learned something, and the Lord began to, I mean, it was an old truth brought in a new way, and I started to seek God about that.

And this is not another lesson to parents. This is a lesson to all of us in our personal walk with God. But, you know, sometimes the people of God, I've noticed, can be like the children were that day.

Well, you can't really put your finger on it. Is it worthy of a spanking, or is it not worthy of a spanking? But just a little off. The joy, the countenance of the children were just not quite as bright.

And so sometimes people get that way through observation. This is what happens. They get that way, and it's not they're totally maybe just deserving of a spanking from the Lord, or maybe sometimes they are, but their countenance just isn't quite.

They're not quite there. They're a little off spiritually. The prayer life just isn't that good. And their relationships, their earthly relationships, just, they're a little off. You know, not quite to part, not quite the fullness of what God wants.

And it's hard to put our finger on it sometimes, just like it was with us, trying to put our finger on it with our children. And so what I'm going to share today, I believe, is a root of many things like that, where you're just kind of off a little bit.

You're not, don't feel just like a clear, happy countenance in your heart, or on your face for that matter. And there's something just wrong. And I think a lot of times that it's like that. Now in the example I shared with you, it was like that because we did actually, the atmosphere in our home was actually changed.

But I think sometimes we change how we perceive God. We change how God's, how the atmosphere for us is. And so when we think of God, it's more like, you know, what do you see God as? I mean, how do you think of when you think of God?

You know, there are many extremes. You know, one extreme is just, oh, happy-go-lucky God that doesn't care about really what you do. And He'll just, you know, He wants to bless you with riches and mansions and cars and planes and trucks and boats.

And that's one end. And the other end is God is a judge, and He is up there. And if you, you know, step over the line, He's got a big old baseball bat, and He's going to crack your skull with it. And somewhere in the middle is where God is.

God doesn't wink at sin. He does have a big stick that He uses. If people sin, but He also is a loving and compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and mercy. And the Bible says that He's smiling down upon His people.

You see, God wants us to be living the Christian life underneath His smile, with Him smiling down His approval on our lives. And we know it's there. We just know, we've got the confidence that the children should have in our homes.

That, oh, mommy and daddy, they've never dropped me. And it is just fun to be with mommy and daddy. And they are just clear and free, and they are smiling and happy and joyful. But, oh, if mom and dad kind of get, hey, they get out the drill sergeant, mom and dad, pretty soon, oh, they can get some outward compliance.

Thank you. They can get some outward compliance, but they're going to be off. You just know. You can look at them sometimes, like, those eyes are speaking volumes to me. What is with the countenance of the child?

And so the same thing with us. Oh, we can be in line, quote, unquote, outwardly compliant, and going through lots of things. But, do we have the freedom, the full freedom that Christ died to give us? Are we walking underneath a God that is just, wow, smiling down on us?

My children regularly come to me and say, daddy, are you pleased with me? Or, is God happy with us right now? Oh, it's so important. It's so important to them. Very, very rarely, if I don't do this, will I get a spanking?

No, I hardly ever hear that. I hear, if I do this, are you going to be pleased? And they want that security. They want us to be just smiling down approval on their little lives. They want that more than anything.

That's what they want. And if we're off, if we're frustrated with them, it ruins their day right away. Because, see, what was happening with our kids, you know, they were doing things, they were a little off, and then pretty soon that builds, that makes us kind of, why are they doing that?

And pretty soon, we don't have, we didn't get out the stick or anything, I don't think, but still, it was clear that there was just something different about mom and dad. And I'm sure they can't express it this way, but I know that was the problem, because when it cleared up the next day, it was it, it was done.

Well, God is God, and He is smiling down upon us. And He is pleased with us. The Bible says so. The Bible says that the Lord did not choose the children of Israel because of this, that, the other thing, because they were numerous, because they were great, they were powerful, nothing.

He chose them because it pleased Him to do it. He just set His love upon them, and it pleased Him to love them. And so that's why. God didn't choose any of us in this room today for any other reason, other than He was just pleased to do it.

It pleased the Father to bruise the Son for our iniquities. So, it's pleasing. It's a pleasing thing. And sometimes, you know it, when you get under self-condemnation, and maybe some of us have never been under self-condemnation, but I think somewhere along the line, you can start getting under the law, and, oh, wait a second here.

And self-condemnation ruins your day in the Lord. It just, you're just off. And you can't even, and you think, well, did I sin? And you can't even think of anything you did. But your day is just ruined.

And your week's ruined, unless you get to the bottom of it, and come to realize, like, oh, God's smiling down on me still. And that solves the problem. That's what it is that solves the problem. Every time.

And until you realize that, you're just going to be trudging through the trenches, and you're not even in a trench. Consider it, baby. This is the way God made us. What do you do, parents, when you smile at your baby?

What do they do to you? They smile at you. Their brain can't even process happiness, probably. I don't know. They don't even know what they're doing. But it's a reflex. You just smile at them, and they smile.

And they do that with almost everyone, usually. It's just built in. We're programmed that way. We are. If you surround yourself with a bunch of complainers, you're going to think the day's just worse than it is.

It just happens. It just comes on you. I know if I go to the teacher's lounge, and I have lunch every day in the teacher's lounge at school, I'm going to think the bosses are worse than they are. I think my bosses are great, but I only hear complaining every once in a while.

I'm like, huh, I think they're doing a good job. I mean, how else are you going to supervise 1 ,200 rowdy, rambunctious teenagers and 80 complaining teachers? I mean, what are you going to do? I've never had a complaint.

I mean, okay. Well, anyway, you do that. We are made to respond to the surroundings. And so when you look up to the Lord this morning with your heart, what do you see God to be like? Really, in truth, what is He like today?

Are you like a little child? I just love to put my hands on my children's heads. I just, I love you, I love you, I love you. And I just like to smile at them. And they just like it too. I tried to get it out of Esther today.

I said, you know, what does it do when I smile at you? How do you feel? She just kind of gets, you know, she couldn't explain it. I said, do you get sad? And she just laughed. She's like, what? So, it just does wonders.

It does wonders. Well, and so I've applied this to parents. Set the tone with the countenance in your house. But see, God sets the tone. We're not going to set God's tone. I'm not telling you today to make up strange ideas about what God is like.

That God's smiling on you when He's not. But I'm trying to say to you today, realize the atmosphere in God's house. God's household. Realize what His atmosphere is like. What does the Bible say? Joy. What is the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

Read all those things. And those are the same things that need to be in your house. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, self-control. Wow. All kinds of things. And probably some others.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is suffering. All these great things. Always trusts, always protects, always hopes. God is love. Those are all of His characteristics. And so I just want to kind of provide a course correction this morning because we know that the people in the churches, a lot of the churches, they have this lovey God that isn't really love.

This winking at sin kind of God. And this, I don't know how they do that. But they have a false picture of God. And so we, in an endeavor to have the right picture, we don't want to make God out to be this other kind of God.

The Bible says, Behold, therefore, the kindness and severity of God in Romans 11. Kindness to you. Severity to those who fell. So let's not wipe out His severity. Let's not do away with that. But at the same point, let's not have a thinking of, Behold, therefore, the kindness, the severity, the harshness, the really severity, and the judgment of God.

Let's not do that either. Let's give even balance to the character of God this morning. And so I'm going to talk about the face of God. The face of God upon God's people. The face of God is a powerful thing.

It is a powerful thing. The face of God. Now, we've got to put ourselves into the Bible mindset this morning of what that means. I was sharing with a few of you the other day, I was thinking about that in Bible times.

When you say, Hey, I'm getting to know somebody. I'm going to get to know Ryan. Well, today, what that means is email, phone, regular mail, and I get to see him. But if you say, I'm going to get to know somebody back in the Bible days.

The mail doesn't get there in two or three days. It probably takes you that long to scribe a letter. There is no email, there is no phone. It's a face to face interaction. That's what it is. It's face to face.

If you know somebody well, you know their face. You don't know their penmanship maybe, but you know their face. And it's different today. We're not a face to face people. It's just not the same. But the face of God, that's a phrase, that's an expression.

That just means knowing God. I mean, don't try to get to know God in an impersonal way like through email. In a figurative sense. Get to know his face. What he's like. Get to know his face. Isn't it different communicating?

I know there's levels of communicating. The best, face to face for sure. Next best, phone. Next best after that, probably email because it's quicker. And then you've got the letters. And then you've got a courier or a messenger or something like that.

But face to face is preferably. I mean, don't you feel like if you need to have a really serious conversation with somebody, I mean something that's deep. Maybe a conflict, something that needs to get worked out.

Don't you feel like, I feel like I need to see facial expressions here. I don't want to misunderstand this person. I want to see exactly what's happening. So it's face to face. That's the best way. And so the face of God is no little thing.

It's a thing that God says no man can see it and live. And yet everybody in the Bible is seeking it. It's a big thing. It's a somber thing. It's a serious thing. But everybody wants to see God's face.

Everybody wants God's face. Turn toward them. Don't turn away your face from me, O God. I'll perish. That's what the Bible says. It's a great thing. It's a high thing. I think when Jacob met Esau after being separated for a long time, and he wanted to have a phrase that would communicate to Esau how happy he was to see him.

Now Jacob was a little afraid for his life, a lot afraid for his life at this point. And so he wanted to make sure that he had to pick one phrase that would communicate that he's delighted with Esau. He's happy to see Esau.

Esau, I love you, and I respect you. And so what did he say? Seeing your face is like seeing the face of God. And don't think that that was just a, oh, he thought of that right at the spur of the moment.

No, no, he was pondering. He planned this out. He's sending droves of head, right? All right, we're going to be last. Hopefully this will appease him. And he planned this for days, I'm sure of it. At least a while.

As he's going, what am I going to say? What am I going to say? How do you, when you're going to meet somebody important, somebody powerful, somebody, you plan what you're going to say. And yes, there's that scripture.

Don't think about what you're going to say and things like that. But you know you do. And that doesn't mean you get anxious about it. And we do trust the Lord. But Jacob, I think he was anxious. The one phrase he could say is, seeing you is like seeing the face of God.

It's a great thing. It's a wonderful thing. It's a sober thing. We look at Numbers chapter 6. You know, when God is giving His people the high priesthood and the priesthood here, He tells the priests how to bless them.

And we know what this blessing is. But what a blessing it is. If we just look at it in the context of what I'm sharing this morning, verse 22 of Number 6, it says, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his son, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.

Here's how you do it. Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.

That is what God wanted. I mean, can you picture this? You've got a high priest. What blessing, Lord, do you want your people to have upon them? What words do you want going through their mind as they leave the sacrifice today?

What words, what concept of you do you want them to have? And here it is. Raise up your hands and God bless you. Cause His face just to shine upon you. Be gracious to you. Oh, let His countenance look down on you.

He's pleased with you. I will bless you. And there you go. Have a great day. Wow. You will. If God's anointed high priest raises His hand over you and says that. You're going to have a wonderful day. Amen.

Can we see Psalm 67? This is something to pray for. Having God's face upon you, His countenance upon you. Verse 1. There's an important reason for this. It says, May God be gracious to us. And bless us.

And make His face shine upon us. There it is again. There it is. Is that your prayer? Oh, God, be gracious. Oh, shine down. Shine that face right on me. Nice and big smiles, Lord. That should be it. And as I said before, The face of the parents, The countenance of the parents, The attitude of the parents, Has a direct effect on the conduct, The countenance, The attitude of the children.

And so if God is doing that to us, What's going to happen? We're going to have an attitude. A countenance. Everything about us is going to be a certain way. And then what's going to happen? Other people are going to see it.

So it says here, Make His face shine upon us. Verse 2. That your ways may be known on earth. Your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise You, O God. There's no coincidence that that comes right after that.

May all the peoples praise You. I can picture the heart of the psalmist there. Can you picture that? You just wrote, May the peoples praise You, O God. May all the peoples praise You. You just get extra.

Yes, all of them. May the nations be glad and sing for joy. For You rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise You, O God. May the peoples praise You. Then the land...

I mean, it goes on. Then the land will yield its harvest and God our God will bless us. God will bless us. And all the ends of the earth will fear Him. It happens like this. How sad of a thing if God is smiling upon you and you think He's frowning.

Can you see? That's just a fire quencher. That's just an unproductive life. How about Psalm 31? There are so many Scriptures. I did not write them all down. But there are so many Scriptures about God's face, God's countenance being upon His people.

Psalm 31, verse 16. Make Your face shine upon Your servants. Save me for Your mercy's sake. Wow! Make Your face just shine upon me. Psalm 119. Make Your face shine upon Your servant. Teach me Your decrees.

It's just all over. It's all over. So it's a great ambition for God's people. It's an ambition. It's something high and lofty. I mentioned Jacob with Esau. Seeing you is like seeing the face of God. This is great!

It's a great thing. Let's look at Psalm 17. Seeing the face of God. Oh, that's what the psalmist is hoping for. That's what he wanted to do. The very last verse of the Scripture there, it says, As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness.

I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. That's what he wanted. That's what he wanted. How about Psalm 27? Psalm 27, you know, there's one thing that David wanted. Verse 4, One thing I desired of the Lord that that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

Oh, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. He just wanted to sit there and look at God's face. That was his goal. That was his aspiration. Let's look at a New Testament Scripture that says this.

1 John It's the heart of God that His people be wanting to see His face, to know Him intimately. That's what the phrase is communicating. All the facial expressions, to see the smile, to know His approval upon His people.

And it says here, in verse 2 of chapter 3, 1 John, it says, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him.

Yes, He is. That's what He wanted. We'll see Him. Oh, when we can see the Lord. It's a big ambition of God's people. It's a big ambition to see the Lord. How about 2 Chronicles 7? You know, many times we're told to seek God's face.

We're told to seek this kind of God, this kind of relationship with God so we can see His face. And there's a condition. We've got to have that. If we don't have that, we're not going to be very successful.

I don't know the full consequences here. But we need that. We need to be pressing hard after this and seeking His face just to see clearly how He feels about us. Verse 14, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Big ifs there. There's lots of them there. We talk about those a lot. Turning from sin and humbling ourselves. But seeking His face. Let's put that in the list too. Seek His face. Seek His face. Can we look at Psalm 24?

Psalm 24. All these things. I'm focusing on the Old Testament. A lot of Old Testament Scriptures here. But all these things. The blessing. That blessing is under the law. The God's face shining upon you.

This is under the law that this blessing is given. And this is a time when a lot of people in the church who have a distorted view of God, they don't believe that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That He used to be a wrathful God and now He's a good, gracious God. But He's been the same. Look at this. In the midst of how they view this wrathful, mean God. God is just saying, I want to smile on you.

And I just love you. And I want you to see My face and seek My face and know Me. And now we've got more. We've got greater promises. I'm getting ahead, but that's what we have here. So Psalm 24 .6 here.

It says, This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Verse 5. He'll receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God His Savior. That's what it's like when you seek God.

The next verse. Lift up your heads, all you gates. Be lifted up. Be lifted up. Be happy. Know that God, He's the lifter of your head. Lift up your heads. Seek His face. Psalm 27. Verse 8. You see if your heart says this.

My heart says of you, seek His face. Your face, Lord, I will seek. Are you doing that? Are you just... Are you basking in just a smile of God today? Just like a child who has parents who are smiling down approval upon them.

Are you doing that? Are you walking in the reality of that? Psalm 105 .4 says, Look to the Lord in His strength. Seek His face always. Seek His face. Seek to be connected with His face. Always. Always seek to have a clear view of His face towards you.

Is He smiling at you? Is He frowning at you? You'll know it. You'll be walking with Him. Seek to have that clear of a discernment. Seek to know that. There's many prayers that are pleading with the Lord, Lord, don't hide Your face from me.

Don't do it, Lord. Please. Look upon me. Hear me, Lord. Don't hide Your face from me. And not one person who prayed those prayers actually ever saw the physical face of God. Never did. But they had. They did though.

They saw it. They knew His approval. They knew what it was like. And I've got a bunch written down here, but to emphasize this would not be in line with what the Lord is doing right now. But we could look at Psalm 104, verse 29 just to get an example of what happens when you don't have a view of God's face, or worse yet, when God turns His face from you because of sin.

But Psalm 104, verse 29, it says,. When you hide your face, they are terrified. When you take away their breath, they die and return to the ground. And there's many Scriptures like that. Psalm 143, verse 7,.

Answer me quickly, O Lord. My spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I'll be like those who go down to the pit. Do you really realize that your Christian life, the fullness, the walk, the practical everyday walk you have depends very much on you realizing that God is smiling upon you?

Or do you need to realize that God's turned His face away from you and repent? It's so important. And if you don't have a clear vision of God's smile, and He's smiling on you and you can't really see a big old smile, usually kind of a little smirk, or maybe a little half smile, or you don't really know what you see, you're going to live this life that's just a little off.

And you'll probably end up needing a big spanking. If my children go like that for too long, they'd end up blowing it big. If they don't do that right away, it will happen. Because God is the source of our hope, our joy, and everything.

And if we lose touch of that, we can only manufacture and live in the remembrance of the good days when the Lord was looking down on us with favor. We can only do that for so long. And you're going to blow it big.

So seek His face. Let's look at Psalm 80. Salvation. Our salvation. The salvation. We are saved by grace. Grace. Now, we grew up in churches that taught some things about grace. That grace is just this abstract thing that makes God forget about your continual sinning against Him and makes Him think that you're pleasing Him when you're not.

And it's these special goggles He puts on. And He doesn't even see you sin, but He sees something else instead. But we know that's false. We know that all of our ways are open before God. And He sees us very clearly.

And we're all going to receive for the things done while in the flesh. But in knowing that, in knowing that, let's not forget that grace is indeed favor. It is unmerited also. It is unmerited favor. That's what it is.

Now, it's not idle in our lives. It does. Titus 2 .11, our favorite Scriptures there. It teaches us. It does teach us how to live. And it is an active part of our life. But it is favor. It is by favor that you are saved.

Through faith. Faith in what? The favor of God. Do you have faith to realize that God has favor upon you? Don't just take this grace. Oh, it's an abstract religious word that we have. It's His favor. It's God's smile that saves you.

And then the question is, do you believe it? You're saved by grace through faith. And that's it. And here's some Psalms to prove that. Verse 3 of Psalm 80, Restore us, O God. Make Your face shine upon us that we may be saved.

He knew I've got to have a shining face to be saved. I've got to have that upon me, Lord, or I'm not saved. So here, it's by grace. You're saved. The same Scriptures repeated in verse 7 and verse 19 of this psalm.

The big theme in this psalm practically says the same thing. But it's interesting as the psalm goes along. Let's look at the little differences. Verse 7, Restore us, O God Almighty. Not just Restore us, O God.

It's a little more descriptive. And then look at verse 19. It's really neat. It says, Restore us, O Lord God Almighty. It just gets longer. I think the psalmist is just growing in this psalm and just loving the Lord.

Because he knows His face is smiling on him. He just can't help but well up, I think. That's what I'm doing. How about Psalm 44? The same thing. It's this grace. It's this favor of God that saves us. And it's very clear.

Psalm 44, verse 3, It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them. It's the light of God's face that brought them victory.

Oh, Psalm 5. Such a blessing. It's amazing how many times I could hear that song sung and listen to it and just miss it. The very... Wow. Verse 12. The very last verse of Psalm 5. For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous.

You surround them with Your favor as with a shield. I mean, God's favor surrounding you like this big old shield that brings you victory. It defends you. Wow, I saw that. I was like, look at that. A shield.

God surrounds us with favor. How else could it be worded? It's just surrounding us all over the place. Favor, favor, favor, favor. All around. Like a big old shield. That's something else. Realizing that then, what are we going to be like?

Oh, what kind of people shall we be? What kind of people shall we be? If you're having any problems with children at home, raising them, try this. This is the best child training technique I know of. A smiling, pleasant, approving countenance on the child that doesn't excuse rebellion.

Oh, people try to do this in the world and excuse all the rebellion. Oh, here's a sucker for your crying. No, no, no, not that. But the approval and all the rods in the world won't get your children's heart if you don't have this in your home.

So, just like children respond to this. They got clear consciences. They're happy. That's how we do too. Let's look at Exodus 34. I love these scriptures. This is the application phase here. And we're going to apply it.

This is all in the law now. Almost every scripture so far has been in the law. I'm just excited. I'll stay up here. I am so excited to get to the New Covenant here. But Exodus 34, verse 29, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

Isn't that the greatest thing? I mean, we can just have a radiant face. Getting up off your knees in the morning, you spoke with the Lord. Wow! He didn't even know it. It wasn't something he had to put on.

He had to, alright, I've got to have a prayer time now and really work it up. And there. I better be happy. No. He was not under the law when he did this. He was not under some law. He was just radiant in the presence of God.

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses' face... This is great. Boy, when people see your face, what are they going to do? They saw his face was radiant and they were afraid to come near him. Moses called to them.

So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him and he spoke to them. Afterward, all the Israelites came near him and he gave them all the commands that the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. Oh! He wanted a clear view of the presence of God.

He didn't want no veil over his face. He didn't want to see it a little bit. He was like, let me glow, Lord. I want to see this. So he lifts that up. And when he came out, he just told the Israelites and they saw his face.

There it is again. It's just radiant. What is this? Wow! Moses put the veil. And then he goes in and speaks to the Lord. Oh, wow! That's just great. There's a great picture of this. And we'll read about it in the New Testament.

This is an analogy for us. Isn't that some high and lofty thing for Moses? In fact, he was fading. And then if we could look at just what God is supposed to do to our very countenance and our very being.

Turn to the book of Ecclesiastes. It's just such a blessing that we can know God and He works in us this radiance. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 1 Who is like the wise man? Who knows the explanation of things?

Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard appearance. Oh, the wisdom of God will just brighten a man's face. Make it all nice and soft in appearance. Look at Psalm 34. This is not just Moses.