During my quiet time these past several weeks God keeps bringing me back to something I read early one morning, it was Psalm 11:7, “For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.” What a glorious thing I thought to see God’s face. In Psalm 105:4 I read, “Look to the LORD and his strength, seek his face always.” And, in Psalm 13:1, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How tragic I thought that God would hide his face or forget someone forever, seeing God’s face brings light into our lives, hiding his face from us must surely bring darkness.
And then I was reminded of the passage in Exodus 33:20, “But“he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” How is this possible I thought, how can the righteous see God’s face when in Exodus God is clear that to see his face means certain death? I struggled with these verses until the Lord showed me that both are referring to two distinctly different things – the fact that a physical being actually seeing God’s face would die immediately on the one hand, but on the other, seeing God’s face as the Psalmist describes it is to be in God’s presence, to sense and know that He is real and is at that moment present with the righteous.
Exodus 33:13 gives us help in understanding how we can seek God’s face, his presence, it declares “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” David writes in Psalm 18:2-3, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”
Job wrote “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
Later, after God had called Job to account for his actions and his words concerning the trials God had brought on him Job responded, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees you; Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
Job’s reaction to being in God’s presence was to immediately repent and acknowledge that God is the God of the universe and the only source of salvation. As I look to the coming year and the hope and promise of Christ’s return I sense that God is calling me to “see His face” – to, as Job did, repent in dust and ashes and acknowledge that I have no righteousness apart from that I find with my life buried in Christ Jesus.
Paul tells us our lives are buried in Christ’s and that we are therefore to do all to His glory. As we begin a new year let this be our goal – to see God’s face, to repent of our unrighteousness and to choose to live as Christ followers so that Jesus may be glorified in our lives. If we do I am without doubt that He will use us to help Him find and recover the Lost who are struggling for their spiritual survival all around us.
Let us strive this coming year to “see God’s face” and to do His will as we work to bring the lost and dying world around us to Christ.
Have a blessed New Year everyone.
In Christ
Wes
