Radiant Worship

When Moses came down from the mountain, he was not aware of the fact that his face was "radiant because he had spoken with the Lord" (34:29). When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, they were afraid to approach him or even be close to him. Moses had an "effect" from the event of worship and being in God's presence.

I've known people afraid to approach Christians, but generally speaking it wasn't because those Christians were "radiant" as a result of being close to God. Typically, I've observed people who are "afraid" of Christains are fearful because Christians likely haven't been close enough to God! People are afraid Christians will act too human and not enough like God. People fear they will be approached with judgement and condemnation. People are afraid of all the conditional baggage other humans bring to relationships and, frankly, that can be pretty scary when you think about it.

It is worthy of note, when God describes Himself to Moses, He describes Himself as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin (Ex. 34:6). God also speaks of punishing the guilty, and He must do so because He is Just. But as a mere mortal, I will rightfully receive punishment from the God who's nature is like that. Wouldn't most people? Even folks who haven't yet come into a relationship with God appreciate the value of justice being served. In fact, doesn't that open the door wide to the grace and mercy afforded us in Jesus Christ? I'm accepted, because He was forsaken!

This brings me back to the whole worship idea. What "effect" does my worship (my God- encounters) have on my influence with other people? Realizing worship is something more than what happens on a Sunday morning... I believe I must consider if being in the presence of God on any occasion has a net effect on how others encounter me. Aaron and the Israelites were "afraid" to be in the presence of Moses after having been with God, but Moses "called to them" (34:31) and they came. Moses veiled his face to reduce the amount of stress it put on his visitors, but he had much to offer them because of his encounters with God.

I'm concerned we might not have much to veil. I'm concerned we simply don't encounter God with enough significance that there is much to astonish anyone about the lives of Christians who claim to know God. Do Christians really appear much different from those who aren't Christian? It may have something to do with our God-encounters (our worship).

If our worship is merely a "man encounter" we really don't have much to offer people. Apart from God, I can't offer people anything more than something temporal and human. Perhaps we should take a lesson from Moses and better prepare ourselves for "encounters with God." The result may be that we bow to the ground in worship, because there is nothing more appropriate to do when in the presence of God and the net effect might become radiance in our own lives and in the lives of others.