"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" Job 19: 25-27I was reading some more of "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn yesterday and he was talking about the moment when we see God with our own eyes, in our resurrected bodies.
I guess there is a bit of debate in the Christian theologian world as to whether or not we will be seeing God with 'spiritual eyes' or our own physical eyes. And whether or not any human had ever seen God's face.
In Exodus 33:20 the Lord is speaking to Moses "But He said,"You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." but in Exodus 33:11 it says "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."
So it leaves some confusion there. but if you look at the verses previous to verse 20, you will see that Moses asked the Lord if he could see His GLORY. And that the Lord shielded Moses with His hand so that it would not harm him. Can you imagine how awesome & bright that would be? And in our resurrected bodies, we will be able to look upon it without shielding or fear!
Revelation 22:4 says "They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads."
How amazing that will be, the first times we see God with our own eyes - How amazing it will be to see God even with spiritual eyes! I don't know if it will be how we see when we die, for we will not be in our resurrected bodies at that time. Will we be seeing Him differently in Heaven than when we will when we are resurrected back on Earth? Either way it does not really matter, what matters is that we WILL see God.
I can't really comprehend how that will feel! My loved ones don't live too far away, we talk on the phone often enough but it doesn't quite fulfill the need like when we do get to see eachother face to face. There are many friends I only talk to on-line. How I would love to meet many of them face to face as we have shared so much of eachother through emails or blogs.
Imagine then, meeting God face to face. He has shared in our entire lives. He longs for us to talk to Him more, share more with us, but even that won't be enough to satisfy our longing, even when we don't know what it is we are longing for. All the restlessness, and everlasting longing deep within our souls, the only thing that will satisfy it is the moment when we see God. Like Job "our hearts yearn within" for the day we can look upon His face!
What a wonderful day that will be! You're so right when you say, "He longs for us to talk to Him more, share more with us, but even that won't satisfy our longing." God puts that longing in our hearts... this world is not our home... we're only passing through...
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite old hymns is, "I know that My Redemmer Lives", and the verse you posted in Job reminded me of it.
ReplyDeleteAnd then Job says "How my heart yearns within me!"
How my heart yearns for the day that we will meet God face to face....thanks for the reminder that one day, it will really happen!
This is one of my favorite topics--Seeing Him face to face. I love the last two chapters of the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI stopped by to thank you for visiting me at my "Scraps of Glory" blog today. I have visited here for awhile tonight and must say that you have a God-glorifying place here with WONDERFUL photography. It's a pleasure to visit. I also see that you, too, have a heart for Voice of the Martyrs and that you also sponsor a child in Africa. My husband and I have been sponsors with World Vision since 1977; all of our children have been in Kenya.
Our family roots are there somewhere, so the continent is important to us. To tell you the truth, it's refreshing for me to hear and read about someone with a concern for these things as you seem to have.
Bless you and hope to visit you again soon!
I think the closest we come to see him"face to face' here on Earth is as in Song of Songs .. I think the two people who met Jesus at transfiguration Moses and Elijah were also the two people who like Jesus fasted for 40days and 40nights even without water.. ofcourse, not everyone is called todo that..one person in India who on a whim fasted that long became sick ..but some leaders may be called to do that..and have done that and were hale and hearty throughout -before and after the fasting..The few people who saw God,like Isaiah, saw Him in an earthly form but with blinding light..now when I think of seeing God in a earthly form..it is scary..God is much more than that..He is Spirit and embodies more than the earthly factor..I think even here on Earth we have spiritual eyes and maybe there is only a thin difference between spiritual eyes here on Earth and with heavenly bodies.Anyway sorry or the long comment .
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blogsite ..you are an excellent photographer and it is a pleasure to visit your blogsite.
I just bought that book Heaven last night. I have barely made though chapter one as my eyes we were just to tired to read anymore last night. I really wanted to stay up and read and not put the book down. I will read more today. I am so excited about this book. I try to imagine what that moment will be like and how wonderful it will be. Thanks for your post.
ReplyDeleteJanice
Your entry makes me think of the song "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me... it brings shivers thru my spine no matter how often I hear this. And who of us can know that meeting is not one minute or an hour away! Thank you so much for your entry Becks!
ReplyDeleteI am responding to this piece rather late but i like to chew cud over thinking topics beofre i say anything.
ReplyDeleteHeaven is my favourite topic, because its the place I long for. When my Dad passed away apart from feeling the intense grief and loss, I couldn 't help envying him for experiencing everything we read, heard and talked about.
I don 't know what our heavenly eyesight will be like, but the word says we shall be changed in a twinkling of an eye and get spiritual bodies.The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of what God and Jesus will be like to behold.I 'm glad God had kept us in suspense, He has not revealed everything.Makes us long for it more.