SEEING GOD WITH HINDSIGHT

 

  Adam and Eve found grace from the LORD GOD: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them” (Gen 3:21). They were not merely clothes of cloth of any sort, but skins of lambs.

  God made them white as snow. Solomon, speaking of his love, wrote, “Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them” (Song 4:2). Was he describing the face of God or was it a woman, or both?

  Solomon concluded the ode to his lover with this, “Let my beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits” (Song 4:16). Solomon was no homosexual because he said, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (Song 4:7). His love for his God was described much as he would describe his wife in whom the two are one. Solomon included God in his marriage to whichever wife this was. Indeed, Holy Matrimony is man, woman, and God.

  Adam and Eve saw the Face of God and lived, and Solomon visualized His Face. Had Solomon perceived the two coats of lamb’s skins in scripture as the Face of God, Jesus? Were Adam and Eve the twin pair and all the others those who would also wear coats of grace? That is ambiguous but scripture is about God not some wife from Lebanon!

  Abel found grace but he was murdered because he most certainly had a coat of skin, and Cain not. “(Abel) brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell” (Gen 4:5). Implied there is that although Abel brought the offering that God would have killed it? Why would God do that? To make for Abel a coat of skin.

  On the other hand, Cain brought only fig leaves perhaps or some other type of vegetation not suitable for a coat. Before Abel could be clothed with his skin, Cain killed him. Surely because the LORD had respect for Abel’s offering, even without the coat, Abel was preserved as his blood still cries out from the ground (Gen 4:10).

  Long after, Noah found grace (Gen 8:6). Sacred literature indicates that he found the Garment of Adam and put it on. He found the lamb that God killed to cover sin. However, after the deluge, Noah became the “husbandman,” made wine, and fell asleep naked, apparently without his coat of skin (Gen 9:20:21). God IS the Husbandman, Noah was not! Jesus said it Himself, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1).

  Noah should have not been asleep in the stupor of wine for while he was drunk, something severe happened to him. Peter understood: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Presumed therein is that Lucifer took on a new image; that Ham had Satan in him. Apparently, Lucifer had boarded the Ark in Ham just as He had entered the Garden via a snake.

  Sacred literature says that Ham stole the Garment of Adam while Noah was drunk. Then, Shem and Japheth made things right, “And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness” (Gen 9:23). It seems that perhaps they took the Garment of Adam from Ham and restored it to Noah. As such, they had respect for their father and to God. God would still be the Husbandman and Noah the sinner in need of the preservation by the Husbandman.

  As a side note, there is much speculation about the creation of Adam and Eve. One is that they were created with mere bones and flesh and that God provided for them an epidermal layer. That may be plausible for some, but to have significance, their Garments for protection would not be merely a thin layer of flesh but a coat that would ward off the fiery darts of the Wicked One, and ones that would represent the Lamb of God — Jesus. The theories of Jewish rabbis would miss that because Jesus is not yet real to them.

  Then Abraham found grace. Melchizedek blessed Abraham. (Gen 14:19). It turned out that Melchizedek was a manifestation of God who would later be called “Jesus” and with him the priesthood changed (Heb 12:7). A coat would not be required for Abraham because he was to cut off the flesh that offended God. The Abrahamic Covenant was one of circumcision, not of covering.

 Then came Jacob’s coat of many colors that Joseph would wear. Joseph made it quite well without that sacred cover because he “wore” the spirit of God that God had provided.

  Now comes Moses who asked God how he was to know that he had found grace; Moses wanted to see God’s Glory (Gen 33:18).

  Moses would see God but not the Face of God. He would stand under a rock, “And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back Parts: but my Face shall not be seen” (Gen 33:23).

  Moses saw real parts from the back. God manifested Himself to Jesus in visible form. He saw Jesus but not face to Face as he had Yahweh before that time while in the tabernacle (Gen 33:11).

  I raise the question: Why does it specifically say that Joshua remained in the tabernacle as Moses left it (Gen 33:11)? Then immediately God is encountered while Moses was protected by a rock, of all things (Gen 33:22)!

  Old Testament scripture in so many places refer to the Lord as the “Rock of Salvation.” In fact, Jesus is the “Stone” that the builders rejected, and the “Cornerstone” of the Church. Be certain that Moses was covered when he found grace by the Rock of Salvation and that he saw the hind parts of Jesus Himself!

  But do not forget that Joshua stayed behind with God and that he was the son of Nun, the “Fish” whose name means “offspring” (Abarim Publications). And why is it so significant that his father was Nun and mentioned so many times? Hence, Joshua was descended from Ephraim and his father, Joseph. Just as the blood of Abel cried out from the ground, was the blood of Joseph crying out from the bones that they carried with them?

  It is not to imply that Joshua is really Jesus, but that perhaps he had the Spirit of God in him. In fact, scripture says just that: “The Lord said unto Moses, ‘Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay thine hand upon him’” (Num 27:18).

  A good question but pure speculation is that perhaps the Spirit of God at Horeb was in Joshua, and that is the reason that Moses could not see his face. Why else was Joshua mentioned as a  preface to Moses encounter with the Person of God.

  Years later, Moses would see the Face of God: “And (Jesus) 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” (Mat 17:2-3).

  Why was Moses at the transfiguration of Jesus? He finally did see the Face of God and it was Jesus, “Yahweh saves,” born in the age of the fish, Pisces.

  What did Moses see from his perch beneath the rock? Did he not get to see “Yahweh saves” (Joshua) as the Face of God? Did Joshua look like His namesake, or did Jesus resemble him?

  Moses found grace when He saw Jesus.

  Long after the Greeks asked of Philip, “Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21). As Philip and friends were arranging for that Jesus said, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified” (John 12:23).

  Moses wanted to see the glory of God and Jesus spoke of that time as soon to come. First, He showed Moses, Elijah, and three apostles His Glory on a holy mountain where He was transfigured. His glorification surely began that day. His full glory was not seen, though until He was pierced as He gave up the Ghost:

³⁸ He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. ³⁹ But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39)

  Glorification was final (“It is finished,” Jesus said) when God revealed Himself as Jesus and the Holy Ghost as the blood and water flowed from His side.

  Moses wanted to see God’s glory. He could not because it was not yet time. His show of glory commenced at the transfiguration and ended at the crucifixion, and it was the blood and water of Jesus under the “rock” of Calvary that was so glorious! Nobody knows where the mount of transfiguration is; perhaps it is Mount Horeb!

  Moses saw the glory of God on Mount Horeb as he entered the “gateway” to Paradise. He saw Jesus as the Way to the Tree of Life where they were headed. They were at the “Mountain of Yahweh” (Horeb) and were headed to the Mountain of Jesus (Calvary).

  Horeb is the Mountain of God and Calvary the most Holy Mountain of Jesus. Had Jesus returned to the Mountain of God for God to transfigure Him as He had the Burning Bush and perhaps Joshua?

  God may have shown his glory to Moses as the Way to the Cross. He did not need a coat because he had the Spirit of God surrounding him on all sides… the Spirit to the front and the Rock to his back. Jesus as they would say now, had his back!

  Moses had seen the back of Jesus. The question remains Was it the Spirit of God in Joshua that he saw?

  This is speculation that is based on scripture, but Joshua is a positive antitype of Jesus throughout the early days of Israel. 

(picture credit: shutterstock.com; "Jesus's Back")