The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 32:30,
“So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’”
This place, Peniel, is where Jacob “and a man”, 32:24, wrestled till daybreak. Following “the man” renaming Jacob to Israel and Israel receiving a blessing from him that he demanded, Jacob says he saw God face to face and yet his life was spared.
Although I don’t understand all that is in this account, one thing is clear, God revealed himself to Jacob and Jacob recognized his life being spared in the seeing of it. I am reminded that a little over four hundred years after this event, Moses will ask God to show his glory to him. The Lord responds to him by saying “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live”, Exodus 33:20.
There is something about the presence of God and the manifestation of his glory that is life-threatening. I suspect it has something to do with our sinful state and the weakness and vulnerability mankind stands in, in the face of his Creator. To see God in all of his glory would be fatal, yet it is the very thing we seek and need so desperately in our lives. To behold God is to behold him in the pristine perfections that make him who he is. These perfections of his majestic splendor must be such that to behold such piercing moral illumination and energy is beyond our ability to survive in our present fallen state.
And yet it is the very thing we are told to attempt: to fix our gaze on Jesus Christ, where he stands at the right hand of the Father. James tells us to come near to God, James 4:8. Paul tells us we do so in overcoming the sinful struggle we face by setting our hearts and minds on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, Colossians 3:1-2. The writer of Hebrews tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus, Hebrews 12:2. In response God says he revealed himself to those who did not ask for him, the Gentiles, Isaiah 65:1 and Romans 10:20. Paul tells us God revealed his Son in him, Galatians 1:16, that he might reveal him among the peoples. Peter explains that Jesus Christ was revealed to us in this age, 1 Peter 1:20. In this, Jesus explains to Philip that having seen him, Philip has seen the Father, John 14:8-9. The last book in our Bible is named for an action that the Lord took: he revealed himself in the book we call “The Revelation”. In fact, a term we use for the Bible is “revelation”, that is, God revealing himself to us in his inspired word, all sixty six books.
To see the face of God in our current state would be fatal, but Jacob saw the face of God and survived. And although to behold the face of God directly would be fatal for us, we desperately need a glimpse of God’s glory to energize us in him. As such God reveals himself to us in the pages of his Scriptures.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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