10579. Because a man doth not see Me and live. That this signifies that the Divine Itself cannot be seen such as it is in itself, but such as it is through the Lord in heaven, can be seen from the fact that no one has ever seen Jehovah the Father, but that when He has been seen, it was the Lord who was seen, for the Lord is the very “face” of Jehovah. That no one has ever seen Jehovah the Father, is evident from the words of the Lord Himself in John:

No man hath ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth (John 1:18).

Ye have never heard the voice of the Father, nor seen His shape (John 5:37).

No man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son willeth to reveal Him (Matthew 11:27).

[2] That when Jehovah the Father has been seen, it is the Lord who has been seen, the Lord also teaches in John:

Jesus said, If ye have known Me, ye have known My Father also; and from henceforth ye have known Him, and have seen Him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father. Jesus said unto him, Am I so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how then sayest thou, Show us the Father? (John 14:7-8).

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:56, 58).

From this it can be seen that the Lord as to the Divine Human is Jehovah who is seen, and thus that He is the “face of Jehovah.”

[3] That the Lord is the “face of Jehovah” is also evident from the Word, as in Isaiah:

He became their Savior; the angel of the faces of Jehovah delivered them, in His love and in His gentleness; He redeemed them, and He took them, and carried them all the days of eternity (Isaiah 63:8-9).

Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared. Take heed of his face, provoke him not; for he will not bear your transgression; because My name is in the midst of him (Exodus 23:20-21).

[4] For when Jehovah appeared before the coming of the Lord into the world, He appeared in the form of an angel, because when He passed through heaven He clothed Himself with this form, which is the human form. For from the Divine there, the universal heaven is like one man, as has been abundantly shown in treating of the Grand Man, which is heaven; and from this at that time was the Divine Human; and as Jehovah appeared in the human form as an angel, it is evident that nevertheless it was Jehovah Himself, and that that very form also was His, because it was His Divine in heaven. This was the Lord from eternity. But as that human form was assumed by passing through heaven, and yet in order to save the human race it was necessary to be really and essentially a man, it therefore pleased Him to be born, and thereby actually to assume the human form, in which was Jehovah Himself. That this is so, the Lord teaches in John:

Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:11).

I and the Father are one (x. 30).(John 10:30).

[5] That the Lord was from eternity, He also teaches in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All thing were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:1, 3, 14).

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go unto the Father (John 16:28).

Jesus said, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:5).

Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58).

[6] From these passages it can be clearly known that the Lord is Jehovah even as to His Human, thus that His Human is Divine. For this reason it is said in John, “God was the Word, and the Word was made flesh;” and also, “Before Abraham was, I am”—not, “I was”—for the “I am” is Jehovah (Exodus 3:14). From all this it can now be seen that by “a man doth not see Me and live,” is signified that the Divine Itself cannot be seen such as it is in itself, but such as it is through the Lord in heaven. It is said “through the Lord in heaven,” because the Lord is above the heavens, for He is the sun of heaven; but still He is present in the heavens, being the Divine truth there, and the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord as a sun, is the Lord in heaven; wherefore the Divine truth there is His “face.”

[7] It was said above that by “the faces of Jehovah” are signified the interior Divine things of the Word, of the church, and of worship (n. 10567, 10568). The reason is that the interior Divine things of the Word, of the church, and of worship are the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, thus are the Lord in heaven. This is signified by the “face of Jehovah,” where it is mentioned in the Word, as in Matthew:

See that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that their angels in the heavens do always see the face of My Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 18:10).

The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in the holy Jerusalem; and His servants shall minister to Him. And they shall see His faces (Revelation 22:3-4).

Jehovah shall make His faces to shine upon thee, and shall have pity on thee; Jehovah shall lift up His faces upon thee, and shall give thee peace (Numbers 6:25-26).

Many there be that say, Who will show us good? O Jehovah lift Thou up the light of Thy faces upon us (Psalms 4:6).

O Jehovah, how long wilt Thou hide Thy faces from me? (Psalms 13:1).

To thee said my heart, Seek ye My faces, Thy faces O Jehovah I seek (Psalms 27:8).

God will be merciful unto us, and bless us, and will cause His faces to shine upon us (Psalms 67:1).

Bring us back, O God, and cause Thy faces to shine, that we may be saved (Psalms 80:3, 7, 19).

Blessed is Thy people who walk in the light of Thy faces (Psalms 89:15).

O Jehovah hide not Thy faces from me (Psalms 102:1-2).

Thou hidest Thy faces, they are troubled (Psalms 104:29).

[8] Everyone can comprehend what is here meant by “the faces of Jehovah,” namely, the Divine, and whatever belongs to the Divine, thus mercy, peace, and all good; but in the universal sense the Divine truth, because all good is in the Divine truth. Both with man and with angel the Divine good is in the Divine truth, and without the latter there is not the former; for truth is the recipient of good, thus also of mercy and peace. From this then it follows that where Divine good is not in Divine truth, there the face of Jehovah is not; and it also follows that where there is evil in falsity, the Divine does not appear. This is meant by Jehovah “hiding and turning away His faces” in the following passages, in Isaiah:

Your sins have hidden the faces of Jehovah from you (Isaiah 59:2).

For their wickedness I have hid My faces from this city (Jeremiah 33:5).

I do turn away My faces from them, and they profane My secret (Ezekiel 7:22).

Jehovah will hide His faces from them, according as they have rendered in their works evil (Micah 3:4).

[9] But be it known that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, never turns away His faces from man; but that the man who is in evil turns away his face from the Lord. And as the Divine is then behind him, it appears as if this hides or turns itself away. Moreover, it is an actual fact that all infernal spirits turn their backs to the Lord as a sun, whereas the angels always turn their faces to Him. It is the same with a man, in respect to his spirit, during his life in the world.