Tuesday – Pentateuch

Reading – Exodus 33-34

Highlight Verse:

“So when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses’ face, they were afraid to come near him.”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭34‬:‭30‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Have you ever had a mountaintop experience?

You know. You go to a retreat or a camp or even on a gloriously beautiful hike and you come back on cloud nine.

I bet you never had one like Moses.

Encouraged and excited is one thing, but literally glowing…

Still, there are times when we are on a spiritual or emotional high.

Sometimes we can come back and seem obnoxious to others when we are like that.

The big question then is, how do we keep from driving others away?

I think Moses could lead us by example. He did two things.

First, he called the leaders back to him. To those over whom he had great influence, he told what had happened and what God wanted of them.

We can be more bold with the people we normally influence. When we have built up trust, we have more freedom to speak freely.

Second, he veiled his face so he wouldn’t scare people away before he had a chance to talk with them.

If we haven’t built up that trust, we need to use wisdom in what we say and do so we don’t drive people away before we have the chance to earn their trust. That, of course, will vary from situation to situation.

We may need to veil our enthusiasm to continue to build trust.

Have you had cases where you’ve driven people away because of your enthusiasm?
How do you determine when to speak out and when to hold your tongue?