August 15 – Face-book Irony

Psalm 105:14 – "Look to Yahweh and his strength; seek his face always."

Psalm 27:8, 9 – "My heart says of you, 'Seek his face'. Your face, Yahweh, I will seek.   Do not hide your face from me....." © NIV, 1973

       I try to not take anything for granted in God's word, which is sometimes easy to do after more than three decades of following Jesus. There is certainly much that I do not understand in the Old Testament prophets; there is much learning/living to do as life lines up with the New Testament teaching and experiences. To that point, I am always finding new things to ponder in God's word. There is a phrase that pops up now and then in the Old Testament that is ironic – "Seek his face".

       God, who remained mostly invisible in the Old Testament to Earth's inhabitants, told us not to worship images or idols, because he was so much bigger and so much more than a small material object – even so much bigger than his creation. Yet he remained unseen – invisible – to the physical eye. Then some Old Testament writers, such as Moses and the psalmists, come along and use some mystical phrasing in contrast to this invisible God. This passage from Numbers 6:22f is very interesting. Yahweh himself instructs Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites: Speak to them: " ' "May Yahweh bless you and keep you [safe]; may Yahweh make his face shine on you and be grace-giving to you; may Yahweh turn his face toward you and give you peace." ' "

       While Moses did speak with Yahweh "face-to-face", the rest of the Israelite community only saw God's glory in awesome, terrible, displays of fire, smoke, and loud rumblings/voices. Yet God uses the word "face" metaphorically in a positive, gentle way to convey his desire to love and bless us. Seeing someone's face is a very important aspect in knowing that person. Yet God says that we can know him, without seeing his face. There are other parts of creation that point to him, and to us knowing him. So, I see this interesting use of phrasing as a means of testing us. The resurrected Jesus told a "doubting" Thomas in John 20:29, "Because you have finally seen me, you now believe. Blessed are those who have not seen me and still believe." That promise holds true even two millenia after Jesus physically left this earth.