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Post by mystic on Dec 31, 2020 5:22:41 GMT -8
Didn't Moses see God?
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Post by alon on Dec 31, 2020 15:07:55 GMT -8
Exodus 33:18-23 (ESV) Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
God usually speaks to us metaphorically concerning His form. This is so we can understand. Here His face would be His full glory, His hand His protection, and His back a portion of His glory. Moshe was in a cleft of the rock, and God’s “hand” was not removed until after He had passed by, so it is likely he would not have seen God directly. But even indirectly, to be in the presence of God’s glory changed Moshe. His own face shown so that he had to wear a veil to be in the presence of other men after this encounter.
Because of the metaphors, we usually see God in our mind here as a man. But He is not man, and we are told elsewhere He is Spirit. So I see this as His glory, which has no form but is akin to the flash of a nuclear explosion. I say akin, because even that would place limits on a limitless God. It’s an idea, a concept, not a "physical reality.” Yet it is more a reality than your own hand seen and felt right in front of your own face.
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Post by mystic on Feb 11, 2021 5:03:22 GMT -8
No matter what context I can think of and in reading the entire chapter, it tells me that God was seen by Moses and the others?
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
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Post by alon on Feb 11, 2021 9:51:12 GMT -8
No matter what context I can think of and in reading the entire chapter, it tells me that God was seen by Moses and the others? Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
Moses did see more of God's glory, but still not His full glory. And he was protected both in the cleft of the rock and by God's "hand."
When men saw Yeshua, they saw God; or a manifestation of God. But only that part of God that God wanted them to see. Likewise the men who went up that mountain only saw the part of God He wanted them to see; no more than hey could handle.
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- there are 70 faces to 
