In numerous passages, the Lord's face is described as shining.
Numbers 6:25
The LORD make His face shine upon you...Psalm 31:16
Make Your face shine upon Your servant...Psalm 67:1
[ An Invocation and a Doxology ] To the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song. God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us...Psalm 80:3
Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
Psalm 119:135
Make Your face shine upon Your servant, And teach me Your statutes.
Daniel 9:17
Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary...
Those are just a few samples. There are more.
Now here's the best known passage from Luke 9...
"28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening."
My personal belief is that someday we too will shine with the reflected glory of the Lord.
Matthew 13: 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
When Moses saw God in Exodus 34, it says..."29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. "
Now here's another thought (one that's not original with me). While Adam and Eve were in the garden and fellowshipped with the Lord everyday, doesn't it seem logical (perhaps probable) that they too shone with the reflected glory of God? Carrying this thought even further, one could theorize that when they sinned they saw themselves as naked when their light was extinguished! No wonder they sought to cover up.
This is pure speculation, but perhaps even the plants in the garden emmitted some of the reflected light of God. Could that have been the reason Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves? If Jesus's clothes shined on the Mount of Transfiguration, then couldn't the leaves of the plants in the Garden of Eden have caught and reflected God's light too? All this might explain Adam and Eve's vain attempt at covering their "nakedness."
I believe that someday soon when we are caught up to heaven, we will surely glow with the light that Adam and Eve lost!
YBIC
Bruce Baber