Seeing God is many believers heart desire. The Throne of God is one of the first places believers head toward because they know that’s where God is and they want to see Him. The scripture states no man can see God and live (Exodus 33:20). Are we hopelessly at a loss for all eternity? Can we never see the God we worship, love and adore when we get to glory? The Bible gives us a clue here and that’s the focus of this week’s blog post.
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Seeing God: Two Seemingly Opposite Scriptures
- Is it possible to see the Lord and live to tell about it?
- Here are two seemingly opposite verses from the record of the Old Testament.
Exodus 24:9–11 (ESV) — 9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
Exodus 33:20 (ESV) — 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
- So, one verse implies that the answer is yes to seeing God.
- The second verse seemingly says the complete opposite or does it?
- What gives?
- The answer, I believe, is in the small details of both accounts.
- One word we need to look at is the word ‘see.’
- The word ‘see’ in the Hebrew means to perceive by sight or have the power to perceive by sight.
- A second word we should know it’s definition is the word ‘beheld.’
- This group of seventy-four ‘beheld’ God and ate and drank.
- The word ‘beheld’ is the same word ‘to see’ in our first definition.
The Seventy Four Saw the Lord
- The seventy-four saw God.
- But, what did this group see per Exodus 24:9–11?
- The way the scripture reads they saw the God of Israel.
- This group certainly saw something.
- The scripture says they did.
- So, your first question after hearing this is “Well, what did He look like?”
- Notice the description: “There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.”
- Moses, the writer of Exodus, says this group, of which he was a part, described what they saw under God’s feet.
- They saw pavement.
- Now, think about this.
- Here you are, you have an opportunity to see God, and all you describe is what was beneath His feet?
- Wouldn’t you want to look a little higher?
- I’m sure they wanted to look a little higher but maybe this was all that they were able to see of God.
- Just maybe, this is all of the Lord that they could see.
- He showed them the street beneath His feet.
- Now compare this to the Moses account where he desired to see God’s glory.
- God told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
- So, you can see the feet of God but not the face of God.
- So, the seventy-four elders saw the Lord, but, at the same time, didn’t see the Lord.
Seeing God: The Account of the Seventy-Four Elders
Ezekiel 1:26–28 (ESV) — 26 And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. 27 And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. 28 Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
- Ezekiel describes the Lord as a fire from the loins up and a fire from the loins down.
- The word ‘likeness’ and the word ‘appearance’ are the two words we want to look at in this set of verses on Ezekiel’s vision of the Lord.
- The Lord had a ‘likeness’ of a human appearance.
- The word likeness means similarity in appearance, character, or nature between persons or things.
- The Lord’s appearance was similar to that of a human being.
- The scripture didn’t say He was one.
- It said He was like one.
- The word ‘appearance’ means the outward or visible aspect of a person or thing.
- The outward visible aspect of God, in the likeness of a human being, was fire.
- So, Ezekiel saw the Lord, but He didn’t see the Lord.
- He saw a likeness or an aspect or an appearance of the Lord as fire.
Seeing God: The Account of the Children of Israel
Deuteronomy 4:12–15 (ESV) — 12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess. 15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
- When the Lord came down on the mountain in Exodus nineteen, He did so in an explosive eye-catching way.
Exodus 19:16–19 (ESV) — 16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.
- This mountain encounter was quite a display: thunder, lightning, smoke, loud trumpets, fire, and a mountain trembling earthquake.
- With all of this display, God did not show His form.
Seeing God When You Get to Heaven
- The good news is these ‘earth encounters’ with the Lord are just exactly that, earth encounters.
- Heaven is a whole different story.
- When you get to heaven, you will be able to see Him on His Throne.
- How much of Him you will be able to see is another story.
- All we may be able to do is be on our faces before God at His Throne.
- All of which means, we will at least be able to see His feet like the seventy-four elders in the Old Testament.
For more information on this topic see the scripture list ‘seeing God’.
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