Apocalypse Revealed #939
939. The fact that seeing the Lord's face does not mean seeing His face, but knowing and acknowledging Him as He is in respect to His Divine attributes, of which there are many, and that people conjoined with Him by love know Him and in that way see His face, can be seen from the following passages:
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me... ...When you come to see the face of Jehovah... (Isaiah 1:11-12)
My heart said..., "Seek my face. Your face, Jehovah, I am seeking." (Psalms 27:8)
We will shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His face with confession. (Psalms 95:1-2)
My soul thirsts... for the living God. When shall I come to see the face of God? ...yet shall I confess to Him the salvation of His countenance. (Psalms 42:2, 5)
They shall not see My face empty-handed. (Exodus 23:15)
...to come... to placate the face of Jehovah. (Zechariah 8:21-22, cf. Malachi 1:9)
Make Your face shine upon Your servant. (Psalms 31:16)
Who will show us any good? Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, Jehovah. (Psalms 4:6)
They shall walk, O Jehovah, in the light of Your countenance. (Psalms 89:15)
...O God, cause Your face to shine, that we may be saved! (Psalms 80:3, 7, 19)
God be merciful to us and bless us. May He cause His face to shine upon us. (Psalms 67:1)
Jehovah bless you and keep you; Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be merciful to you; Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)
You hide them in the secret place of Your countenance... (Psalms 31:20)
You have set... our hidden secret in the light of Your countenance. (Psalms 90:8)
(Jehovah) said (to Moses), "My countenance will go... (Moses) said..., "If Your countenance does not go..., do not bring us down from here." (Exodus 33:14-15)
The bread on the table in the Tabernacle was called [literally] "the bread of faces" (Exodus 25:30, Numbers 4:7).
[2] We are often told, too, that Jehovah hid His face or turned His face away, as in the following:
...for (their) wickedness I have hidden My face from (them). (Jeremiah 33:5, cf. Ezekiel 7:22)
Your sins have hidden (God's) face from you... (Isaiah 59:2)
The face of Jehovah... will no longer regard them. (Lamentations 4:16)
(Jehovah) will hide His face from them..., according as they have made their works evil. (Micah 3:4)
You hid Your face... (Psalms 30:7, cf. 44:24; 104:29)
I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them... I will surely hide My face... because of all the evil which they have done... (Deuteronomy 31:17-18)
And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 8:17; Ezekiel 39:23, 28-29; Deuteronomy 32:20.
[3] In an opposite sense, the face of Jehovah symbolizes anger and aversion, because an evil person turns away from the Lord, and when he turns away, it seems to him as though the Lord had turned away and was angry, as is clear from the following passages:
...I have set My face against this city for its evil... (Jeremiah 21:10, cf. 44:11)
I will set My face against that man and... devastate him... (Ezekiel 14:7-8)
I will set My face against them... and... fire shall devour them..., when I set My face against them. (Ezekiel 15:7)
...(he) who eats any blood, I will set My face against that soul... (Leviticus 17:10)
At the rebuke of Your countenance they perished. (Psalms 80:16)
The face of Jehovah is against those who do evil... (Psalms 34:16)
...I send an angel before you... Beware of his face..., for he will not endure your transgression. (Exodus 23:20-21)
Let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee from Your countenance. (Numbers 10:35)
(I saw one sitting on the throne) from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. (Revelation 20:11)
That no one can see the Lord as He is in Himself, as we said above, is apparent from the following:
(Jehovah said to Moses,) "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." (Exodus 33:18-23)
That people nevertheless saw the Lord and lived, because He appeared by means of an angel, is apparent from Genesis 32:30, 1 Judges 13:22-23, 2 and elsewhere.
Footnotes:
1. Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
2. Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!" But his wife said to him, "If Jehovah had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time."
Numbers 10
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2
"Make two trumpets of silver. You shall make them of beaten work. You shall use them for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps.
3
When they blow them, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
4
If they blow just one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.
5
When you blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the east side shall go forward.
6
When you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall go forward. They shall blow an alarm for their journeys.
7
But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.
8
"The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. This shall be to you for a statute forever throughout your generations.
9
When you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets. Then you will be remembered before Yahweh your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.
10
"Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God. I am Yahweh your God."
11
It happened in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony.
12
The children of Israel went forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran.
13
They first went forward according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
14
First, the standard of the camp of the children of Judah went forward according to their armies. Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over his army.
15
Nethanel the son of Zuar was over the army of the tribe of the children of Issachar.
16
Eliab the son of Helon was over the army of the tribe of the children of Zebulun.
17
The tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tabernacle, went forward.
18
The standard of the camp of Reuben went forward according to their armies. Elizur the son of Shedeur was over his army.
19
Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai was over the army of the tribe of the children of Simeon.
20
Eliasaph the son of Deuel was over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad.
21
The Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary. The others set up the tabernacle before they arrived.
22
The standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies. Elishama the son of Ammihud was over his army.
23
Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was over the army of the tribe of the children of Manasseh.
24
Abidan the son of Gideoni was over the army of the tribe of the children of Benjamin.
25
The standard of the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rear guard of all the camps, set forward according to their armies. Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was over his army.
26
Pagiel the son of Ochran was over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher.
27
Ahira the son of Enan was over the army of the tribe of the children of Naphtali.
28
Thus were the travels of the children of Israel according to their armies; and they went forward.
29
Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are journeying to the place of which Yahweh said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will treat you well; for Yahweh has spoken good concerning Israel."
30
He said to him, "I will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my relatives."
31
He said, "Don't leave us, please; because you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes.
32
It shall be, if you go with us, yes, it shall be, that whatever good Yahweh does to us, we will do the same to you."
33
They set forward from the Mount of Yahweh three days' journey. The ark of the covenant of Yahweh went before them three days' journey, to seek out a resting place for them.
34
The cloud of Yahweh was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp.
35
It happened, when the ark went forward, that Moses said, "Rise up, Yahweh, and let your enemies be scattered! Let those who hate you flee before you!"
36
When it rested, he said, "Return, Yahweh, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel."
