NOTES for Exo 34:1-35
Closeness to God transforms everything. Moses spent forty days and nights in communion with God, and during all that time he neither ate nor drank. And he did not grow weak, but on the contrary was filled with some new strength, so much so that his face began to shine with rays because God had spoken with him. Listening to God, he was filled with life (see Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4). Carrying out His will, writing the commandments on the tablets, he received food and drink (see John 4:34). Contemplating the glory of God, he was being transformed into the same image (see 2 Cor. 3:18). "If the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came in such glory that the children of Israel could not look at Moses' face because of the glory of his face, a fading glory, will not the ministry of the Spirit be far more glorious?" (2 Cor. 3:7).