NOTES for Exo 34:1-35

Closeness to God transforms everything. Moses spent forty days and nights in communion with God, and throughout that time he neither ate nor drank. Yet he did not grow weak; on the contrary, he was filled with a new strength, so much so that his face shone with rays because God had spoken with him. By listening to God, he was filled with life (see Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4). By doing His will and writing the commandments on the tablets, he received food and drink (see John 4:34). By contemplating the glory of God, he was transformed into the same image (see 2 Cor 3:18). “Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the children of Israel could not gaze at Moses' face because of its fading glory, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?” (2 Cor 3:7).