The flip side of our seeing God is God seeing us. We always bring up the issue that God is way far away in heaven. This daily devotional looks at, if He is so far away, how can God’s face shine on us?
God is all-seeing. Proverbs 15: 3 says, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (ESV). He knows what is happening with us — what we are doing, thinking, and saying.
It doesn’t mean that God has a mirror. He definitely doesn’t have a cauldron.
I like to think of it as there is no floor in heaven. Remember, God is spirit (Jn. 4: 24). He doesn’t need to have a floor on which to stand.
If heaven doesn’t have a floor, there is no barrier between God and us. God has immediate access to us. He can see and hear all of us. He sees us, so He can shine on us.
Unfortunately, for us, there is a huge chasm between heaven and earth (Lk. 16: 26). We are cut off from heaven. We can’t see God; we can’t go for a visit.
God's Face Shining on Us
"The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee" (Num. 6: 25 KJV)
But God turns His face to us. His face is His personality. We know Who God is as He reveals Himself to us. We know some through reading the Bible; but once we have asked Him to be Lord of our lives, He uses His Holy Spirit to tell us more about Himself.
We don’t want God to hide His face from us, especially in anger. Deuteronomy 31: 17 says, “My anger will burn against them on that day; I will abandon them and hide my face from them so that they will become easy prey. Many troubles and afflictions will come to them. On that day they will say, ‘Haven’t these troubles come to us because our God is no longer with us?’” (CSB). Bad things happen when God turns away from us.
When God does turn His face away, it is because of our doing. “The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth” (Ps. 34: 16 ESV). That is some serious consequence!
God doesn’t want that for us. He wants to show us love and mercy. “It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them” (Ps. 44:3 NIV). He wants to fight our battles.
Let’s put our verse in context. The whole passage reads: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num. 6: 24-26 ESV). The Lord’s face shining on us is part of His blessing.
God wants to bless us. He can do this when we do two things: obey Him and ask Him for it.
We said earlier that God will turn His face away from those who do evil. Habakkuk 1: 13 says, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong …” (ESV). Our sins that we have not repented of keep us from God’s Presence. Our sins keep Him from blessing us.
Also, we simply have to ask. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Mt. 7: 7-8 ESV). We have to ask in His will, but we will receive what is best for us, even if it isn’t what we asked for. It will be better!
Why does God make us ask? That kind of is the opposite of our definition of gracious. When we think of gracious, we think of kind, courteous, and pleasant. We sometimes think of the saying, “would give you the shirt off his back.”
When we think of Christian beliefs, we think of gracious as God showing divine grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Glossary
God isn’t trying to put obstacles in our paths. Instead, we have to realize our dependence is on Him. When we take the focus off of us and put it on Him (where it belongs), He can unlock all of the blessings He has for us.
Whether “God’s face” is literal or figurative since He is a spirit, God does shine on us. He honors us with His Presence because He loves us.
Loving Heavenly Father. You are all seeing. You know every intimate detail about every one of us, and still You want a relationship with us. Thank You for allowing us to seek You. We just have to ask, and You will supply our needs — even more abundantly than what we ask for at times. Help us to seek You and find You. Help us to obey and restrain from sin. We pray for Your continual Presence and blessing. Amen.
What do you think?
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