Wednesday, February 19, 2020

THE FACE OF THE LORD

  Throughout my many commentaries from the Old Testament (OT), I make a comparison; that “the Face of the Lord” is Jesus Christ. Likewise, “the finger of the Lord,” and the “hand of God.” In the OT, “the Face of the Lord” serves two purposes; to heal (1 Kings 13:6; restoration), and to punish evil ones (Psalm 34:16). Peter actually quoted that psalm when he wrote the following in his letter: “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (1 Pet 3:12). Peter provided the two purposes of Jesus: (1) To protect the righteous (restore their safety), and (2) to punish the evil. “Positive Christianity” likes to think of Jesus as the Restorer, but never the Punisher.
More will be punished (by perishing) than restored by salvation! “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Mat 7:14). Atheists don’t believe that. They are part of the many who will not be restored, and hence perish.
Most think of restoration (aka regeneration) as returning to a babe-like state. David, in Psalm 51, says that he was “shapen in iniquity.” Paul said, that none are without sin (Rom 3:23), hence everyone was born in iniquity since iniquity is “sinful behavior.” That condition is attitudinal; that people are the gods to whom all others, including God, must serve. The pre-condition for restoration is humility – that we must serve God (Luke 1:74), and not ourselves. The original sin was Adam serving himself rather than serving God. Before that time, God served Adam all his needs. 
Restoration is not returning to the innocence of infancy, but to the original generated condition; that being “wholly good” (Gen 1:31). Restoration is not re-consecrating oneself from spiritual contamination, but God doing that for us. Ironically, by serving God, God returns to serving His creatures!
Restoration is a process commencing with repentant people changing their dependence from themselves to God. They quit serving themselves and begin to serve God. That is humility and what meek people do. The process lasts throughout life, and those who endure the wiles of the Devil until the end, are restored, or finally regenerated. The wholly restored person is glorified. They are perfected by God and are worthy to be in His Presence; just as in the Garden Paradise.
Throughout the OT, the faithful loved and feared the Lord. Fear of the Lord is knowing that only He decides our future. Loving the Lord is appreciating Him by obedience to God’s Will. It is submitting our own will to God for His Will be done. The first time that the phrase “face of the Lord” is used in scripture was Lot in Sodom. “For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it” (Gen 19:13). Sodom was the epitome of evil, and represents Hell. God restored Lot and his family to life again outside that evil Hell-hole. Lot’s wife looked back in remembrance of sin, and perished. “The Face of God” restored Lot and caused his wife to perish. The Face of God has always been both Restorer and Punisher. The Face of God is Jesus!
Moses desired to see God’s Face. If he did, he would have died because of the Glory of it (Exod 10:28). Finally, Moses saw the Face of God and to demonstrate to him that Jesus is the Face of God, Jesus’s countenance was transfigured by putting his face on God. The evidence that “the Face of the Lord” is Jesus was at the transfiguration. It was a completion of the Lord after revealing his backside to Moses:

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. (Exod 33:20-22)

Compare that to the transfiguration of Jesus:

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Mat 17:1-3,5)

Then Jeremiah encouraged the Jews to do as Moses did:

Go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. (Jer 2:21)

Moses saw the Face of the Lord as Restorer/Savior. Jeremiah saw the Face of the Lord as Punisher. Christians must see Christ as both! With one Gate, and two choices, it is either reward or punishment. Positive Christianity has half a gospel. The truth is that Jesus – the Face of God – shall restore a few, but allow most to perish at the hand of Satan. That is a hard-teaching but is truth. That realization is to be set free from deception. 
Zachariah was the first person in the New Testament to realize that the Face of the Lord who he worshiped as priest was the person Jesus! “And thou, child (John the Baptist), shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his (Jesus’s) ways. (Luke 1:76). 
Understanding that “the Face of the Lord” in the OT is pre-incarnate Jesus is imperative to understanding the OT! John said that Jesus was there in the beginning (John 1). If so, where was he? His Face was on God throughout the entire OT; the patriarchs just were not allowed to see Jesus. In a few cases, Jesus appeared to mankind (e.g. Nebuchadnezzar, Jacob, and a few others.) Jacob wrestled with God and said this: “And Jacob called the of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen 32:32). For Jacob (Israel) the Face of the Lord was as Savior!
Note that, that event was before God appeared to Moses. The Law changed things. It made the Hebrews of unworthy of seeing the Face of the Lord. When God showed his Face with the birth of Jesus, the Law was no longer there to shame. The Face of the Lord fulfilled the Law!  No longer was the Law a curse, but a blessing because Jesus would remiss the sins of the faithful (Luke 1:71).
The Law was for punishing, but the Face of the Lord allowed for restoration, starting with the remission of sins, and ending in salvation and ultimate full restoration in the end!

Image result for picture of the transfiguration
The Transfiguration of Jesus (credit: Franciscan Media)

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