Moses once asked to see God. God allowed him to see His “back” part only. From that vision of the back part of God, Moses face shone out with God’s glory. When Moses returned from his mountaintop encounter with God and 
addressed the people with God’s new given laws for life (the 10 commandments), the people could not bear to look at him. Exodus 34:30 says, “When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.” This must have been a dim reminder of what Adam and Eve must have looked like while living in the Garden of Eden before the fall. They enjoyed the fellowship with God and even walked with him in the Garden. Now I understand what happened to Adam and Eve when they sinned. Just as Aaron and all Israel was afraid of God’s glory so too were they. Genesis 3:8 tells us, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”
But God had always intended to share His own “heaviness” (or Glory, see yesterday’s devotion at www.chucklarsen.com) with all mankind. This was such an important truth that David wrote a song about it. The Psalmist, in Psalm 8:5-9, is talking about man in general when he sings, “Yet you (God) have made him (man) a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” If Moses reflected the glory of God from simply being exposed to the back parts of God, can you imagine with Adam and Eve must have looked like before they sinned?
What Moses looked like when he came down from God’s mountain is simply a preview of what human beings were supposed to look like all along. Remember that Moses was carrying the 10 commandments when he came down. When Aaron and the people, (they had just built two golden calves) saw Moses and the Law they saw something that was only a reflection yet was so glorious that they could not even look upon it. They ran and hid! It was too magnificent, too glorious, and too heavy.” Truly, the Law as it reflects the perfect character and nature of God makes us all run and hide, but Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He was referring to the heaviness of the Law.