Seeking the Face of God

To you, O my heart, he has said, "Seek my face!"

Your face, O Lord, I will seek (Ps. 27:8).

The very first time I came across this scripture, my heart lept.  I knew for sure that this was "my lifetime scripture," a term I had not heard before, but which I later recognized when I did hear it.

"Seek my face!"  How do we seek the face of God?  Pope Benedict XVI wrote a book called Jesus of Nazareth as his own journey toward seeking the face of Jesus.  Despite all of his theological training and familiarity with world-wide scripture scholars, Benedict confessed that none of that scholarship helped him find 'the face of Jesus Christ' that he sought. 

In the Book of Exodus, Moses, who had heard the Lord Yahweh speaking to him in the desert, now begs to see the Face of the One Who Spoke to him.  In one of his many exchanges with the Most High, Yahweh tells Moses: My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest (Ex. 33:14).  Moses replies, If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here...What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?

God promises to do what Moses has asked, and then Moses becomes even bolder:  Now show me your glory (which can also be translated as "Presence/ Weight/ Substance").  In other words, "Show me your face."  Yahweh's answer was that He would cause all of His goodness to pass before Moses and that He would proclaim His Name in Moses' presence, and that He would hide Moses in the cleft of the rock and cover him with His hand, but "My face must not be seen....for no one can see me and live."

Someone reading Exodus might recall as he reads Chapter 33 that a previous chapter (24) revealed that Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel had gone up on the mountain and "saw the God of Israel.....but God did not raise his hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank" (a way of saying that they continued to live in the flesh).

And even the opening sentences of Chapter 33, the chapter which says, "no one can see me and live," has this to report:  The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. (After Moses had been speaking face to face with Yahweh, he was obliged to cover his face with a veil because the glory of the Lord so reflected in his own face that the Israelites could not bear to gaze upon him until the glory subsided.)

Taking these verses as the basis for a discussion I think would be most fruitful:  which is it, can we see the face of God or not?  Can we speak to God face to face, as a man speaks to his friend, or must we stand far off, like the Israelites who were afraid, and beg that God speak to us through an intermediary like Moses?

I think it depends on whether we hear God speaking to us in our hearts:  To you, O my heart, He has said, "Seek my face!"  If we hear His voice, how could we not seek His face?  And how could He say to us, "Seek my face," if He did not want us to see Him face to face? 

If we do not hear His voice inside of us, all that is left for us is to hear Him speak to us through an intermediary---and time after time, He graciously acceded to the demand of the people to do so---that is, to speak to them through Moses, or through a king, or through a priest, because they were too afraid to approach the Almighty themselves.  They wanted to hear with their ears, but not with their hearts.

We are all "there," where the Israelites were.  Many years ago, the Lord showed me that people tend to sit in church wherever they feel comfortable with Him.  That is, some sit way, way, in the back; they do not want to hear the Voice of God speaking to them.  They are happy to hear God speaking through an intermediary; it is much safer that way, requiring no response -- and they can get out before the crowd that way, too.  Some will come a little closer; they feel a little safer in the Presence -- but not too close.  They don't want to be 'exposed' in the front pews.  And some will come boldly into the Presence of God, not caring about escaping and not afraid to be seen by the Most High, despite their sins and failings.  These are the ones who want to speak to Yahweh face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.  They don't want "all the others" standing between themselves and the face of God.  They don't want to be distracted by what everyone else is doing; they want to know only what God is doing.  They want to hear His voice directly, without interference or interpretation from another.  See how few people are sitting in the front!

[Some will come to the front because they are bringing their children, and they want the children to see for themselves; not worrying too much about themselves, their focus is on what they can give to their children.]

Fortunately, our God is loving and gracious.  He does not despise those who stand far off, afraid to come closer.  He was pleased to send to "those far off" His own Son, "the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, by whom all things were created, in whom dwells all the fullness of God, so that through Him God could reconcile to himself all things" (Col. 1: 15-19).  Like Moses, Jesus veiled within himself the glory of God in order that we could converse with Him face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.  No one was afraid to come to Him, no matter how "far off" they were standing -- unless, or course, they were afraid to reveal their own faces to Him.  

In C.S.Lewis' last novel, Til We Have Faces, the main character, Oreuel, wants to know why the gods do not speak to her when she asks them to.  At the end of the book, she discovers that she has not heard them speaking because she would not reveal her own face.  And God cannot speak to us "until we have faces."  That, I think, is a clue to the answer I asked:  which is it, can we see the face of God or not?  When we ourselves are willing to "go to the front of the church," despite our many sins; when we ourselves are willing to reveal ourselves to God without fear --- then, we will hear Him speak to our hearts, saying, "Seek My Face!"   Your Face, O Lord, I do seek!