Day 131: God, Face-to-Face Part 1

May 11

Today's Connected Passages: 

• Genesis 32:22-32 [Judges 13:15-25, Isaiah 9:6] 
• Genesis 35:1-15 [Hosea 12:1-6] 
• Exodus 24:9-14 
• Job 38:1-3, 40:1-7, 42:1-6 
• Isaiah 6:1-5 
• Ezekiel 1 [8:1-4, 10:1, Psalm 50:2; Hebrews 1:3]] 
• Daniel 10:4-21

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Canon Connected, where we read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections of the Bible. I am very happy to have you here on day number 131 of the Canon Connected, and we have just finished three days on strong women in the Bible. And technically one of them was strong women in Christian history, which I thought was a was a good way to supplement the two days from the Bible on strong women that the scriptures actually tell us about in varying detail. Some of them have just entire stories written about them. And it's very encouraging. And as I said both days, I think it is it is important to remember and honor women, not just on special days, but you know, year-round and truly show honor, you know, impartially in one sense to all people of the kingdom, you know, to show honor to whom it is due, as Paul said in Romans. Um but in, you know, these special days, I think it definitely makes sense to want to highlight, you know, how God has used women throughout history, especially considering the odds have been stacked against them so often and about every culture and every every time period. Um and we'd finished up the Ten Commandments before that. So we have we have done a lot of very fascinating topics, I think, you know, and going through this reading plan and a lot of it strategic. And um and today, though, it's just a uh a two-off, so to speak, so one-off subject, two days that don't really connect to the previous days or the ones after it. Um, and it is on seeing God face to face. This could have been placed with a number of of different you know themes that that have many days um with them, but um I chose it to put it here because I I think it's just an excellent way to bridge uh the gap between studying about strong women and going into a a several-day study on forgiveness. Um and I I truly think that um talking about seeing God face to face in the Bible and seeing all these connected readings, I mean, it could highlight any topic. I could have put this anywhere. This could have been day one, it could have been day three sixty-five. But nevertheless, um there's a lot of connections uh between the passages today, but also today and tomorrow. This is one of those that originally was one reading. You're gonna see a lot of connections over the two days, but even within the individual days, you can see things that that absolutely sound exactly the same. It's very uncanny, even sometimes to me, how how similar the Bible sounds across different books and different genres and different authors and completely different experiences and even in different languages as we see today and tomorrow. Because we do focus on the Old Testament passages today and the new tomorrow, but they can't even be strictly divided that way in the sense of there's not overlap between the two. The way that we see Jesus tomorrow, you know, especially as in heaven, and the connection, you know, to the transfiguration, um, there's still a lot that compares to seeing, you know, seeing God in the passages today, the the God the Father, presumably, and probably in some of these, even Jesus in the pre-incarnate appearances. But let's dive right in. The first one is one of the most famous, a truly fascinating and profound and poignant passage of Jacob wrestling with God. And for all that comes out of that, and I do think when you wrestle with God, so to speak, even though I don't know if we wrestle with them quite like this, you know, whether it's through pain or suffering or whatever, we very easily, as Christians, should have experiences where it feels like we're wrestling with God and that we do, you know, walk away with a limp, so to speak, because we've been humbled by that experience. But one of the things he says that we're focusing on for these readings today is that Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, he called it that for this reason, for I have seen God to face to face, for I've seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. And so that is what you know Jacob believed, and I believe he's correct. I don't think he's, you know, exaggerating here. I think whatever this appearance is, it's not just a mere angel. I think he is, he has wrestled with God, and I think he has in some manner seen God. And of course, for theological integrity, I have to confess that this is one of those things that it's just impossible to explain. Because as you read in the New Testament and the old, you know, God being invisible and Jesus, you know, saying, you know, we worship in spirit and truth because God the Father is spirit. He doesn't have a body, you know, he's not physical, so to speak, and yet sometimes it seems like he is. I even had a Bible study one time at a prison where the guy in the back, you know, asks, he's like, Do can people actually see God the Father? Not just the Son, but will we see God in heaven? And I'm like, that's like putting the hamster on the wheel and not getting anywhere sometimes for me, because when you read the passages today, it does feel like people do see God, and sometimes it even seems like God the Father, not even outside the preincarnate appearances of Jesus, if that's what these are. Um, it does seem like people see him. There's got to be some sort of physical, you know, you know, aspect to that. So I don't know. It's hard to understand, it's hard to reason out. But I think these passages still, you know, seeing them connected is very good for us to see what happens when people do encounter God, seeing him or not. But I do think all of these passages connect over the idea of people think they saw God. The passage and judges, you know, with Manoah, you know, and and his wife and Samson's Samson's parents, it's very similar because they ask the same question, you know, about about his name. What is your name? And the the angel, or if this is Jesus, whoever it is says, you know, why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful. And I put the little connection as a late edition to Isaiah 9.6 for his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. I don't know if that's supposed to be a connection, but it's there in case it is. You can easily, you know, you know, cast it to the side if you think that's just a coincidence, and it may be. But we do see the same kind of thing, though. They they think they have seen God, you know, and it's it's a messenger of God, not necessarily an angel. It might be an angel, probably an angel, I don't know. But we do know that the the the experience that Manoah and his wife have here is very similar to Jacob's. Not wrestling, but just how they think they have they have seen God and they want to know his name just the way Jacob did. Genesis 25 follows up on the wrestling with God scene by saying that that um that Jacob saw him again, all right, and then Jake, you know, God said to him, Um, he's changing his name, Jacob, you know, because he has striven with God. And uh and so it it recalls that, you know, scene from Genesis 32 that we also read. So there's a connection there, but also it does say, you know, you know, it says plainly that he saw he saw God again. Um Jacob, um Jacob uh God appeared, God appeared to him again in Genesis 35. Um in verse 9 is what it says that God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Padaram and blessed him. And then Hosea 12, super interesting in this book about you know Hosea and Gomer and forgiveness and adultery and all that, in in chapter 12, it gives a commentary, you know, about these passages that we read in regards to Jacob from Genesis 32 and 35. It's like a six-verse commentary on these things, and it and it uh it it absolutely does affirm because the Bible cannot contradict itself, so it affirms everything we read, you know, perfectly. And so this commentary on Jacob seeing God face to face is something that God inspired Hosea to write about. And what about Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu? It says in verse 10 of Exodus 24, they and the seven, they those four and the seventy elders went up, and they saw the God of Israel. Isn't that interesting? And also notice this is a connection, even though in the in the passage in Ezekiel it talks about it being the throne, it does say there was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone. The sapphire connection in relation to what people see often when they see God the Father, and whatever sense that's true, um is is part of the is part of the spectacle, the sapphire throne, the sapphire stone. Um and I think they're all seeing more or less the same thing. So strong connection there. But before we get to Ezekiel, which I think does connect to Exodus 24, Job is a little bit different. He definitely sees God, and he says that. That's one of the comments he makes um at the end. He says, uh Um Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be through with ordered. Who is who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Quoting God's words back to him. Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful to me which I did not know. Hear and I will speak, and I will question, and I will make it known to me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. And so we know God speaks to him. We know God comes and again in a physical whirlwind, okay? So he had to see God in that sense, but he definitely believes he has seen God and not just a mere whirlwind. All right. So it's the same thing. You see, all of these people think they are seeing God, face to face, even sometimes it says. You know, Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel, they all overlap to me. All of these prophets had a chance to see God, and that's exactly what it says, you know, that they they they saw, I saw the Lord, okay, in Isaiah 6. And there's some overlap again with with things like, you know, the lightning, you know, and then with for Daniel and and and Ezekiel as well, even the throne, you know, um, and and the materials. But a lot of times the the the commonality you have with people who see God is lightning and fire, and it's obvious when people see God that the appearance is just such awe-inspiring. It's like a natural disaster. It just absolutely caused people to shake and and with terror, you know, and in Isaiah's case to fall on his face, woe is me, for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips, I'm sinful. The Ezekiel one again is like the some something you see is a is a connection between some of these passages. It says uh in in chapter one of Ezekiel, and above the expanse over their heads there was a light the likeness of a throne in appearance like sapphire, and seated above the likeness of a throne was the likeness of a human appearance. We presume this to be God, but again, is this Jesus? I don't know. All I know is that is what um Ezekiel is seeing is an encounter with God, face to face, so to speak. Um and then the same things or similar things happen in Ezekiel eight, I'm in Ezekiel ten, and in both cases it was there's uh well in Ezekiel ten it just mentions the throne, but in Ezekiel two it also again mentions the appearance of a man um again in this in this throne room. And then Daniel, Daniel is absolutely just blown away by this. Uh uh and he he falls, you know, you know, weak, um like with almost without life, it says. Um, and then the hand had to touch him, set me trembling on my hands and knees. But the the the experience though, what he sees though is very similar. Again, we'll see overlap to this tomorrow. I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen with a fine belt of gold from Uphaz around his waist, his body was like Barrow's face, like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches. This is gonna be important for tomorrow. Um, and seeing Revelation and the and the uh and the transfiguration. His arms and legs like the gleam of burned, burnished bronze, and the sound of his words was like the sound of a multitude. And again, as our references, I know this is the exact quote though from the ESV. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. So I was left alone, and I saw the great vision, and no strength was left in me. Again, this is what happens when people encounter, you know, God face to face. This is what happened when they see him, and whatever manner that a person can, you know, and I I really can't truly say I understand to any significant level. And I know we're gonna see Jesus, and I feel like we will get to touch his, you know, his his hands and his sides where he was wounded for us. But as far as God the Father, and even the fact that we believe in one God, but there's three persons again, it leads us to that too that just again will absolutely just it'll destroy your mind and destroy your ego too if you try to think about it too long. I mean, you just you can't understand God completely. We're not supposed to. But I don't want to get back, you know, get lost in the woods on that. The idea that people in the Old Testament saw God and they were blown away by him, and it was very awe-inspiring, and they're, you know, often thrones, and they're often fire, lightning, and just this is who God is. We did we discussed this, you know, months ago, you know, I'm all the way back when we thought learned that our God is a consuming fire, but this is a similar, very similar thing, and it absolutely is repeated over and over and over and over and over again. Nobody came into the presence of God and was not absolutely just humbled and even in some sense humiliated, you know, by who they were compared to who he is. And so we don't see God face to face like this. We see him through his word. The Bible is not God, but that at least gives us, you know, a sense of what God is like. And so we should have similar responses, though. We absolutely should bow before, if at all possible physically, just bow before him and just and stand in awe of him. But um to seek him, you know, whatever way we can, not like this, okay? We'll get this one day. I believe it, all right? But to whatever sense we can, you know, try to to experience God, you know, without this sort of empirical evidence, without being able to see him the way that they did, knowing that with our eyes of faith we can see him, we can interact, we can talk to him, we can we can experience God truly. And this isn't I'm not talking about something mystical, or I'm just talking about again, you know, stuff the believing that God is real and that he does speak through this, and that when we speak, he hears us, and we do have relationship with them, and he dwells in us in the person of the of the Holy Spirit. But um, this is the personal God we know, and he he did many, many times, not just a couple of times, many times allow people to to see him, so to speak. Um and in some cases literally see him. Don't understand how that all that is, but it's that's that's good and healthy for us as well. So that's day one. That's the Old Testament passages, and again, there's not a strict, you know, separation between old and new testament on this one. Tomorrow, we're gonna see again the transfiguration and you know Jesus in heaven, and they're gonna be it's gonna be overlap to things we saw today. It's just the nature of our God. So, day number two of seeing God face to face. So hope you come back and be with us tomorrow. As on this topic, a very important, interesting topic, we will continue to read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections. Thank you.