SEEING GOD -- Devotional for August 31, from "Good Seeds"

(NOTE TO MY FAITHFUL READERS: Karen and I are leaving Sunday, August 30, after church, to go visit my parents. Mom is really suffering now, at 90 years old -- just a lot of old age symptoms. Dad's doing fine, at 92. We'll be celebrating his 93rd while there. But we're also going to celebrate Karen's birthday (the 30th, as you read about on the blog is her birthday). I'm taking her to Disneyland on Monday for her present. We'll be gone from our home internet until Thursday, so I'm trying to do a few devotionals ahead of time. The rest I'll make up later, after getting back. Blessings to you).

Moses said to the Lord, “Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee.” And God said, “My presence shall go with you, for you have found favor in My sight.” Then Moses said, “I pray Thee, show me Thy glory.” God answered, “I Myself will make all my goodness pass before you, but you cannot see my face, for no man can see Me and live.” (Exodus 33:13-14,17-20)

The Bible specifically teaches that we cannot see God with our eyes. There are at least two reasons for this: #1 – The nature of God: Jesus said, “God is spirit” (John 4:24). Theologians describe the nature of man as being bi-partite: a spirit indwelling a body. But God is pure spirit. A body would negate his attribute of omnipresence: existing everywhere at once. #2 – The Word of God: John wrote, “No man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18). Samson’s parents surely knew Exodus 33:20: “No man can see Me and live,” for after a visit from God (they assumed) they panicked, “We have just seen God – we shall surely die!” (Judges 13:22). Jacob had a similar experience when he wrestled with God, though his response was more hopeful: “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared” (Genesis 32:30). These and other Old Testament “God-sightings” have a very clear explanation: it is rather the angel of the Lord that they saw. And in these cases it was not an actual angel, but rather the pre-incarnate Christ, who is sometimes referred to in the Bible as “The Angel of the Lord.” As the Son of Man, Jesus “emptied Himself:” though still God, He took on the limitations of frail humanity (Philippians 2:7-8). Since a physical body can be seen with physical eyes, it is then possible for men to “see God,” but it is the Son of God they see – whether commonly during the 33 years of His earthly journey, or on the rare occasions when He appeared as God in a body, hundreds of years BC (“Before Christmas!”). But now we come to a conundrum that seems to shoot holes in my very tidy theology. Reading on from today’s passage we are made privy to a very intimate conversation between God and Moses: “Look, Moses, at that rock. Go stand on it and wait for My glory to pass by. At that time I will put you in the cleft of the rock – protecting you from death – and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand…and you shall see My back – but still, never my face.” Wait a minute! God is a Spirit. If a spirit has no body, it has no face, no back – no hand, for that matter. I can’t explain this. But still, I think I know what it means: Though Moses came the closest of anyone to ever seeing God, rather than emulate him, I will seek entrance into God’s presence by the Jesus way: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8).