THE GLOW ON THEIR FACES

Have you ever heard someone preface their testimony by saying, "I wasn't going to get up here today, but I found that I couldn't just sit there.  I had to stand and bear my testimony?" Perhaps you have had that experience yourself.  I have.  The pull of the Spirit is irresistible. When someone is keeping their covenants and living within the Spirit, you can often see it on their faces.  I've seen it on the faces of others, including some who are not of my faith, but who love God and follow Christ.  You can see their faith in their faces.

Brigham Young University opened a Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem in 1989. Located on the Mount of Olives, it draws qualified undergraduate students for the study of the Old and New Testaments and Hebrew and Arabic.  One of the government stipulations for the right to build such a center was that no one was allowed to proselytize for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The story is told that as Church representatives were meeting to sign papers to that effect, one of the Israelis present whispered to one of the Apostles, "Yes, but what are you going to do about the glow in their faces."

I'd like to share three examples of men bearing testimony with such power of the Spirit that they glowed.  

Moses: After freeing the Children of Israel from physical bondage in Egypt, he took them to the foot of Mount Sinai to begin the task of freeing them from the bondage of sin. After years of captivity in an idolatrous land, they didn't really know God, nor did they know what He expected of them.  Moses spent weeks on the top of the mountain, conferring with God.  He brought to them the Word of the Lord in the form of the 10 Commandments.
Although Moses himself was not aware of it, the Children of Israel noticed that his face was radiant. Unfortunately, the people were unable, it seemed, to break away from the effects of Egypt and were unable to enter the Promised Land for forty years, until all of those who had been adults at the time of the Exodus had died off and their children and grandchildren who kept the Commandments entered the Holy Land.

When the early Christian martyr, Stephen, died, those witnessing his execution said that at the conclusion of his testimony, his face was radiant.  What was Stephen's testimony that so upset the Jewish leaders? The Apostles were preaching Christ at the Temple every day.  One day, Stephen was with them, bearing testimony.  The high priest challenged him. He and the other leaders of the Jews were teaching the Law of Moses, but were not living it.  Stephen began to recount the history of the people, beginning with Abraham up until the time of Moses, telling them that Moses, their great prophet, was a type for Jesus Christ. He reviewed for them the law and covenants they had made with God and now ignored. Then he challenged them:

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before the coming of the Just One; of who ye have been now betrayers and murders: who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. 

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth . . . then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord . . . and stoned him. (Acts 7: 51-54, 57-58) 

Some centuries earlier, another prophet declared the same thing to a very wicked people. Abinadi was sent by the Lord to testify against the wicked Nephite King, Noah, and his equally wicked priests.  He denounced their sins and offered a warning that if they did not repent, they would be taken into captivity.

When they challenged him with the scriptures, he asked: therefore, what teach ye this people?

And they said: We teach the law of Moses.

And again he said unto them: If ye teach the law of Moses why do ye not keep it? (Mosiah 12: 27-29)

He then went on to reteach that which had been taught a millennia earlier: the 10 Commandments. When they tried to lay hold on him, he stretched forth his hands and said with a strong voice: Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver . . . (Mosiah 13: 3)

Now it came to pass after Abinadi had spoken these words that the people of king Noah durst not lay their hands on him, for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him; and his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses' did while in the mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord. (Mosiah 13: 5) 

Jesus taught that we should let our light so shine that others, seeing us, may come to know God. Even if my light is a little candle at times, there are other times when it shone like a lighthouse for others to see Jesus Christ and His love through my love. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is a truly amazing gift and give thanks for it, because I know that when I do shine, however infrequently that may be, it is not because I am shining, it is because He is shining through me.  

I hope that I may always live worthy of the Spirit so that others may see the glow on my face and come to know that it comes from Him.

© Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson, May 2020