“And he 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,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”” (Exodus 33:19–23, ESV)
Spirituality & Invisibility
In reality, I could have dealt with these two attributes together. The invisibility of God flows directly from his spirituality. I dealt with these separately because I ran out of room in my last post AND because the application of these attributes is slightly different.
No Picture or Form
Since God is spirit (like we mentioned last week) we cannot perceive him with our five senses. This makes him invisible.
This is also why there are repeated restrictions on using images to worship God. In Exodus we read, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4, ESV). Since God is invisible, we should not attempt making him visible in order to worship him.
Deuteronomy builds upon this prohibition by saying, “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female…” (Deuteronomy 4:15–16, ESV). God was formless when he appeared to them. This is why they should not try to worship God by “forming” anything.
The Ark of the Covenant
The ark of the covenant was designed in a particular way. It was designed with two cherubim on top with an empty space in the middle. And God said, “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.” (Exodus 25:22, ESV). God didn’t meet his people in the ark itself or in the mercy seat or through the cherubim. He met them in the formless, invisible space in between these things.
Seeing God
One important passage in understanding God’s invisibility comes from and encounter between Moses and God. Moses asks God, “Please show me your glory.” (Exodus 33:18), to which God responds, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20). God speaks very clearly to Moses. No one can see Him and live.
However, God still appears to Moses. He even tells Moses that he can see “his backside.” So, if God is invisible, and no one can see him and live, what is happening here?
In answering that question, it’s important to pay attention to what is going to pass before Moses. God says, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’” (Exodus 33:19). His ATTRIBUTES would pass before Moses—his goodness, mercy, loving-kindness, etc.—and the proclamation of His name.
But What About?
But what about all the other places in the Bible where people say they’ve seen God? How do we say that God is invisible when these people say they’ve seen Him?
Here is how Herman Bavinck answers this question: “Every vision of God, then, always requires an act of divine condescension, a revelation by which God on his part comes down to us and makes himself knowable.” (Reformed Dogmatics, 190). This is why there are various ways people “see God” throughout the Old Testament. God appears in clouds, fire, a pot, an angel, etc.. Why? Because God is making himself knowable in a way humans can understand. He isn’t appearing in the fullness of his essence. He’s still invisible to them. Yet, he’s revealing himself like he did with Moses—through his attributes and the proclamation of his name.
Helping People See God
Growing up, I always love the band DC Talk. In one of their songs, they have a clip from a Billy Graham sermon where he says, “Can you see God, have you ever seen Him? I’ve never seen the wind. I’ve seen the effects of the wind, but I’ve never seen the wind.” This is a powerful way to understand how we can “see God” and help other’s “see God.”
We can see God through the way he works in the world, through his attributes, and through the proclamation of His name. In our own life, we can see God by the way he has changed our life and carried us through difficult times. We see God through our own experience of his grace, mercy, and loving-kindness. We can also see God by reading his Word—seeing the way he has revealed himself throughout history through his attributes and work and the proclamation of his name.
If we want to help people see God, we need to show them these same things. We can help them see God through His Word. We can help them see God through his attributes—grace, mercy, loving-kindness, steadfast love. We can help them see God by his work in the world.
Seeing God in Jesus
Most important on this topic, is what Jesus told us: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9, ESV). Yes, Jesus is fully God. That also means He is the fullness of God’s attributes, work, and the proclamation of God’s name. If we want to see God, we need to look to Jesus. If we want others to see God, we need to point them to Jesus through the Gospel.