The Face of God
Before We Gather by Zach Hicks
| Scripture
Read Psalm 114:1-8
| Devotion
I get a little squeamish when we sing hymns and worship songs that cry, “I want to see your face, Lord.” The Old Testament repeatedly shows this to be a dangerous request. Whenever we see “face” and “presence” in Hebrew Scriptures, we can know that we’re looking at the same Hebrew root word.
Nothing signals one’s presence like one’s face. We see this so clearly today in our bodily communication with one another and in our cries to be more present. My friends, my kids, my room- mate, my spouse, or my family could be stationed in the same room as I am and not really be present to me. Why? Because their faces aren’t before me. They are before their phones. Their faces are turned toward a device and away from my face. So we rightly understand: face unlocks presence.
Early on in God’s dealings with humanity, he set the terms of engagement with regard to his face. Do you remember that famous encounter when Moses got a little hold? “Please show me your glory,” Moses said, probably in desperation (Ex. 33:18). God’s response shows the gravity of the request. “I’ll do it,” God said, “but… you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (v. 20). But unlike seeing the backs of people whose faces are buried in their screens, seeing God’s glory is so powerful that even beholding his back gives us enough secondhand glow that we don’t need to request any face time. To see God’s back is presence enough for us at least until he gives us new bodies that can with- stand the full power of his face.
Psalm 114, gives us the right response to the face of God: “tremble” (v. 7). So if even Moses couldn’t see God’s face, why in the world would we ask for it? Well, it’s because something has happened that has changed the terms of engagement forever. We’ve had an epiphany. A revealing.
John 1 tells us that in Jesus, we are able to see what Moses never could: the face of God. When the eternal Word became flesh, thenceforth humanity could cry with the beloved apostle, “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…. No one has ever seen God… [but Jesus] has made him known” (John 1:14, 18).
There’s a name for Jesus that perfectly captures the paradox of face and presence in Scripture. We tend to sentimentalize it around Advent and Christmas, but this name can’t be quickly domesticated, easily etched on an ornament, or casually scripted on a greeting card. Before Immanuel-“God with us”-was a name of comfort, it was a name of dread. If you read Isaiah 7 carefully, you see that Immanuel would come to judge God’s people, to lay them to waste for their rebellion. “God with us” was not some- thing to be desired without also preparing for judgment. And yet when Jesus came, the surprise to us all was that Immanuel came not to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17). He came not to enslave but to be a ransom for many (Mark 10:45; Matt. 20:28). He came not to judge sinners but to he judged in the place of sinners (2 Cor. 5:21).
To desire “God with us”-to desire his presence and his face- apart from Jesus is a dreadful request and an impossible ask. But to seek God’s face in Jesus-well, there’s nothing better, nothing more desirable, nothing more satisfying. It’s why Paul can say that all real transformation, in worship and in life, comes through beholding the glory (the presence) of Jesus “with unveiled face” (2 Cor. 3:18). And it’s why we can write and sing hymns and worship songs that mirror the audacious language of other psalms: “You have said, “Seek my face. My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek. Hide not your face from me” (Ps. 27:8-9). “Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Ps. 105:4).
So by all means, when you gather for worship, seek, ask for, beg for the face of God. And then watch for Jesus to show up in the power of the Holy Spirit.
| Prayer
Aim your prayers in this direction:
- Ask the Holy Spirit to magnify the glory of Jesus Christ- who he is and what he has done.
- Pray that the Holy Spirit would prepare people’s hearts to be open to encountering the face of the Lord-from being confronted by God’s fearsome glory into the comfort of being known and loved through Jesus Christ.
- Pray for a spirit of anticipation in the hearts of all who gather for worship, that all would yearn for and seek the face of God in Jesus.