The Real, the Shadow, and the Face of God

  King David was a “shadow” of Christ. Of course, his shadow had a negative image. With that said, God “developed” the image of David with His Light, and David was the embodiment of trust in God.
God used toughlove on David because he loved him so!
  David had a faithful trust in Jesus, and as the fulfillment of that trust, Jesus had due regard for David, even to the point of quoting David’s psalms.
  As he died on the cross, Jesus sang a song to David about himself: “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That was the first verse of Psalm 22 in both Hebrew and Greek (the latter transliterated to English.)
  David’s psalm was the Hebrew, “eli eli lamah azabtani” which was close to the Aramaic. Jesus wanted everyone to hear David’s song because it was his song! Then reading on, David’s psalm was about Jesus’s crucifixion. David surely saw God face to face on the Holy Cross!
The psalms are not preached on often, but they are prophetic. Moses didn’t see God’s face, but David did. Moses was summoned to the transfiguration of Jesus to see the “face” of God but David saw Jesus face to face from afar in time!
  David asked, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?     How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). In Psalm 22, we find; not for long! When believers look on Jesus, they see God face to face!

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:6-10)

  David had the same thought as Philip; David asked, “How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” Jesus told Philip, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?”
Jesus is the “Face” of God and Is God in the Flesh.
  Jacob wrestled with God before David’s time. He said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen 32:30). Jacob should have died since he had seen God’s face. (He was supposed to have died, but had not because he had not seen the man with whom he had wrestled with the glorified Face of God.)  At the transfiguration, God’s face was projected onto Jesus: “And (Jesus) was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” (Mat 17:2).
  The transfiguration is God shining His face upon Jesus. Think of it this way: Jesus’s face was the screen, and God projected His Light upon the “screen” of flesh. Moses, Elijah, and the apostles who were there saw the glory of God shining upon the face of Jesus. The Mount of Transfiguration is where the spiritual and physical world was revealed as one. Jesus was glorified by God, surely in preparation for his death; not that he became God but was revealed as God and obtained glorified, indestructible flesh.
  Now back to the words of David: He knew Jesus, knew what he looked like, and even spoke God’s Words (The Word is Jesus; John 1-2,14). Jesus’s words are found throughout the psalms, most notably in Psalm 22 but also throughout! Jesus was not called “Son of David” for nothing… they spoke the same Words!
  After Jesus was resurrected, Paul saw God face to face when Jesus blinded him that he could see. Think of blind Saul being in a dark theatre. Jesus, who had been transformed, and his face shining forth light, shined forth in Paul’s “theatre” and projected his face into Saul’s mind and soul. Saul received the face of God, and as a new person, was renamed Paul. He had seen the Light as prescribed in John 3.
  As the ultimate Jew, Saul had known God, but not seen Him face to face. He had failed to recognize Jesus as God because Jesus had not been transfigured. God blinded Saul such that he could see clearly the image of God projected on Jesus’s face.
  Not only was the transfiguration for Paul’s sake, but for especially Moses and ours. When anyone comes to the understanding that Jesus is the Face and Flesh of God, that makes God real to them as it did Paul. The Light seen by those who are born again, creates in them a true vision of Jesus’s identity: Jesus must be God, and Almighty God has the Power to Create and resurrect. Christians see the Face of God on the body of Jesus who is God in the Flesh! Jesus’s flesh is much like a theatre screen which reveals things hidden for view; it reveals God!
  Where did Paul go to speak new thoughts? He went back to the “shadow” of Jesus - David. He took David’s words as the inspired Word of God. He recognized that David’s words were the thoughts of Jesus, and that David had seen God’s “face” on Jesus just as he had!
  For an example, when Paul preached he said, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Heb 3:10). Where is it written? In Psalm 14:3: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Paul had not read the gospels because they had not been written. He recognized that the God of David had a face, and He was called Jesus.
  Jesus is the manifestation of God – God showing His Face. The Holy Spirit is the glow on God’s face – the source of hope. All the while, the Father is the Supreme Mind who planned and created all things.
  This commentary was written to provide understanding of the naturality and supernaturality of God. It identifies God as “one person” who is Jesus with three methods of revealing Himself to mankind. Jesus is the person of God with a personality. The Father is the Mind of God who is All-knowing and always Present. The Holy Spirit of God is the all-Powerful aspect of God.
  To fail to understand that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are not different “persons” is imperative. To separate those aspects of the One True God, is the Arian heresy. Christians have that heresy on a daily basis because they fail to understand that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God but the three different ways that he reveals Himself to mankind!