Longing to See God’s Face

“Lord, this is the people that longs to see Your face.” Psalm 24:6

In the 17th chapter of Luke, Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance changed so that His face shone like the sun, and His clothing became dazzling white. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus. Why Moses, and why Elijah, was it only because Moses represented the law, and Elijah the prophets? 

In Exodus chapter 33, Moses asks to see God’s glorious presence, but the Lord said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you My name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” God continued, “you CANNOT see My face, for man shall not see Me and live.” Instead Moses saw God from behind. 

In 1 Kings 19, God gives Elijah a revelation of Himself when Elijah was downhearted because he was being hunted down for being zealous for the Lord. God told Elijah to stand before Him on Mount Sinai. Elijah experienced a mighty windstorm that hurled rocks loose, an earthquake and fire, but the Lord was in neither of those forces. God spoke to Elijah in a still, small, gentle whisper, but Elijah did not see His face. 

Moses and Elijah both experienced a theophany of God, but both of them were NOT permitted to see His face. In the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah lived to see God’s face.

These two theophanies of Moses and Elijah, along with other manifestations of God’s presence in the Old Testament, foreshadows the appearance of the Abrahamic God in Christ. Jesus is the final, climactic theophany. Through Jesus, the people who long to see God’s face can LIVE (John 14:9; Rev. 22:4)!