There Shall No Man See Me, and Live

2013-09-02

Exodus 33:20: “And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”

Numbers 12:8: “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

John 1:18: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

John 6:46: “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.”

Yet how can we reconcile the appearances of the Lord to humankind?

Genesis 3:8 shows the LORD God walking in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. One of the men in Genesis 18 is referred to as the LORD (e.g. Genesis 18:17). Jacob saw “the face of God” and remained alive at Peniel (Genesis 32:30). In Judges 13:20, Manoah and his wife made a sacrifice to the Angel of the LORD, and the sacrifice was accepted. How can God say that no one can see him and live, yet people have seen him and indeed lived?

We see this distinction in the Old Testament in the person of the Angel of the LORD. People have seen him and lived. He is the LORD, yet he is also a distinct person who speaks to the LORD (Zechariah 1:12-13). We find in the New Testament that this distinct person, who is God, to be Jesus Christ. This is clearly the distinction we see between God the Father and God the Son. These are distinct persons, yet one God, eternally preexisting. It is Jesus Christ who always has and always will reveal the Father.