We can question how we can seek God if we can’t see Him. We read perceived conflicting Bible verses about this. It begs the question, can we see God? This daily devotional will look at the conflicting statements about seeing God and people who have claimed to see Him.
Nuggets
- Some verses say people have seen God face to face, while others say we cannot.
- Scriptures say several people have seen God.
To read devotions in the How Do We See God? series, click the button below.
One thing we probably struggle with the most is not being able to see God. We have to believe in Him sight unseen.
God does reveal Himself to us. It is called theophany. This temporary occurrence can be either a physical form or personal event.
God can and will use several methods to reveal Himself to His creation. This is verified in Numbers 12: 6-8: “And he said, ‘Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”’” (ESV). God does also use other forms than these.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Contradicting Verses
"So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, 'For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered'" (Gen. 32: 30 ESV)
Some verses say people have seen God face to face, while others say we cannot..
Hold on a minute. This verse seems like it contradicts other verses in the Bible that say we cannot see God. God told Moses that he couldn’t “… see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Ex. 33: 20 ESV). God would be lying if He told that to Moses but had and was going to appear to people — even to Moses Himself!
We have to look at this realizing God cannot lie. Hebrews 6: 18 says, “God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged” (NIV). Titus 1: 2 says, “n hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began” (ESV). We can believe what God says in His Word.
So, how can God have His cake and eat it, too? How can He appear to people but not appear to them? First, let’s talk in this devotion about who has seen God.
Who Has Seen God?
Scriptures say several people have seen God.
Genesis 32: 20 is just one verse that says Moses saw God. Exodus 33: 11 says, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend …” (ESV). Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews noted Moses’ faith: “By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible” (Heb. 11: 27 ESV). But “as one who sees Him” is a little more wishy-washy than just saying Moses saw God, we have the verses in Exodus and Numbers that are more definitive.
God also appeared to a group of Israelites. Exodus 24: 9-10 says, “Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel …” (ESV). So, we can’t say it was just one person dreaming.
Abraham also was attributed to seeing God. “And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day” (Gen. 18: 1 ESV).
Several prophets also wrote that they saw God.
- “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Is. 6: 1 ESV).
- “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat …” (Dan. 7: 9 ESV).
- “I saw the Lord standing beside the altar …” (Amos 9: 1 ESV).
This happened over several years.
Scriptures even says ordinary people saw God. Look at Judges 13: 22. Samson’s dad recounted he and his wife seeing God. “And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shall surely die, for we have seen God’” (Jud. 13: 22 ESV). Wow, God shows Himself to regular humans!
So, if all these people said they saw God, He does appear to people. But can we take this literally?
Sometimes when we laugh really hard, we say we are dying laughing. Yes, we start dying the minute we are born, but we probably are not going to keel over that precise moment. We still say we are dying.
Maybe they actually saw God. Maybe they are talking figuratively. We’ll have to ask God when we get to Heaven.
What we need to recognize is that, whether or not these people actually saw God, they were in the Presence of God. God came to them.
Making the Connections
We know Moses saw God because his face shone. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord” (Ex. 34: 29 NIV). He had physical evidence that he was face-to-face with God.
The other verses don’t say anything about the people’s faces shining because they came into contact with God. So, maybe they were just in the presence of God.
However, those writing Scriptures tended to be word conservative. They kept their writings to a minimum.
The way I see it is that God can show Himself to anyone He wants to show Himself to. He is Sovereign God. What He does is up to Him.
How Do We Apply This?
- Believe in God.
- Seek Him.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
God will come to us. The next devotion will look at some of the different forms He has used.
Father. “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8: 4-5 NKJV). We stand in awe that the great Sovereign Lord would come to us. Lord, we feel so unworthy to be in Your Presence. We are by ourselves, but with Christ in us, we are made worthy. Thank You for coming to us to establish and mend our relationship with You. Help us to seek You and recognize when You do come to us. Amen.
What do you think?
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