January 31, 2024

Deuteronomy 4.15 (NIV)
You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire.

Our earthbound minds can’t completely fathom all he is and all he does.*

In Exodus 33.11, God says he spoke to Moses “face to face.” In Numbers 12.8, we are told that Moses also “sees the form of the Lord.” In Exodus 33.19, God tells Moses, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you,” but, he says in verse 20, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” 

God spent a lot of time in Moses’ personal space but what Moses saw was not a countenance or a shape that could be reproduced in stone or on canvas.

There are reasons for God’s not allowing us to see his face. First, he is spirit so perhaps there is nothing to see. This is not an easy concept for us who are limited by the physical world. As someone else said, we are, like the Israelites, “insensitive to the reality of a God who could not be touched or seen.”* We hear his voice, feel the touch of his hand, rest beneath the shadow of his wings, and we’re the apple of his eye – but these, like the burning bush, aren’t God.

Second, even if God has a physical face, what do you think would happen if we saw it (besides dying)?  Someone would paint a picture, make a statue, build an idol. People would start to flock to these images to pray, to get healed, and to see the image shed tears. They - we! - would start to forget that we worship a God who cannot be contained in any earthly vessel – or even the highest heavens (I Kings 8.27). Making “fancied representation[s] of the true God”* is idolatry as much as fashioning idols to false gods.

Third, faith comes by hearing . . . not by seeing (Romans 10.17).  For reasons of his own, “God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified.” (I Corinthians 1.21–23.) We, like the Israelites at Horeb, know God’s presence through his spoken word.*

. . . But then, God’s word became flesh (John 1.14), and suddenly, God has a face. And hands and feet and a heart.   

Jesus speaks the word and is the Word.*

*Quote sources available upon request.