34:28-35 Near and spiritual communion with God improves the graces of a renewed and holy character. Serious godliness puts a lustre upon a man's countenance, such as commands esteem and affection. The vail which Moses put on, marked the obscurity of that dispensation, compared with the gospel dispensation of the New Testament. It was also an emblem of the natural vail on the hearts of men respecting spiritual things. Also the vail that was and is upon the nation of Israel, which can only be taken away by the Spirit of the Lord showing to them Christ, as the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Fear and unbelief would put the vail before us, they would hinder our free approach to the mercy-seat above. We should spread our wants, temporal and spiritual, fully before our heavenly Father; we should tell him our hinderances, struggles, trails, and temptations; we should acknowledge our offences.And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses's face shone,.... That is, not only when he came down from the mount, but whenever he came out of the tabernacle, where he had been inquiring of God, and conversing with him:

and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him; this he did from time to time, when he came out from the Lord he put on his vail, and when he went in again, he put it off. How long this brightness on his countenance remained, cannot be said with any certainty; Saadiah Gaon says, it did not remove from him to the day of his death: hence it is said, "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated", Deuteronomy 34:7 and Aben Ezra seems to approve of it; and it is the opinion of many great and learned men, that it continued as long as he lived.