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.
Notas de rodapé:
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."
Ezekiel 7
1
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
2
You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end is come on the four corners of the land.
3
Now is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.
4
My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
5
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: An evil, an only evil; behold, it comes.
6
An end has come, the end has come; it awakes against you; behold, it comes.
7
Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time has come, the day is near, [a day of] tumult, and not [of] joyful shouting, on the mountains.
8
Now will I shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.
9
My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, do strike.
10
Behold, the day, behold, it comes: your doom is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
11
Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them [shall remain], nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth: neither shall there be eminency among them.
12
The time is come, the day draws near: don't let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.
13
For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
14
They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its multitude.
15
The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within: he who is in the field shall die with the sword: and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16
But those of those who escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.
17
All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
18
They shall also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.
19
They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Yahweh: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.
20
As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations [and] their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it to them as an unclean thing.
21
I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.
22
My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my secret [place]; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it.
23
Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
24
Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned.
25
Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26
Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumor shall be on rumor; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
27
The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
