"I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, destroy not
Thy people and Thine inheritance."--_Deut. 9:26._
LAST Sunday you heard how sadly the people of Israel sinned by making
the golden calf, while Moses was up in the mountain, and how he
punished them.
Then he said he would go and pray to God to forgive them, and try them
again. So up he went over the rough rocks of Mount Sinai, and into the
cloud again, where he had spoken with God before. And he prayed with
all his might that God would not cast off His people, though they had
been so wicked, but would give them again the Commandments on their
tables of stone. And God listened to Moses, and promised to give them
the Commandments again.
Then Moses made a great request: he said to God, "I pray Thee, show me
Thy glory." But God said, "Thou canst not see My Face, for there shall
no man see Me and live." But Moses was to come up the mountain the next
day, and bring with him two blocks of stone, and then God would let him
see as much of His glory as he could bear.
On the next day Moses went up the mountain again, and took with him the
two tables of stone. And the Lord came down in the cloud; and Moses was
in the cleft of the rock, where he could see a small part of the glory,
and hear the Lord's Voice proclaim before him, "The Lord, The Lord
God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness
and truth." Then indeed Moses bowed his head and worshipped. No man
ever came so close to God as Moses, with whom God spoke face to face,
as a man speaketh to his friend.
[Illustration: MOSES BRINGING THE NEW TABLES OF THE LAW.--Ex. 34:29-32.]
Moses stayed forty days and forty nights up in the mountain. And God
again wrote the Commandments upon the two tables of stone, and granted
the Israelites to try again to keep them. When Moses came down from
being in converse with God, the glory was still about his face. It was
all shining like the sun, and was so bright that the Israelites could
not fix their eyes on it; and he was obliged to put a veil over his
face, because they could not bear to look at it. Was ever living man so
favored, and brought into such glory?