Mon.’s Devo - Face to Face

Read Ex. 33:20-23 Verse 11 says that the Lord spoke to Moses “face to face” then in verse 20 God tells Moses that he couldn’t see his face and live. Which one is right? I looked up the Hebrew word for “face” and in both verses “face” is the same: “paniym” which means “countenance; favor; forefront part; heaviness”. In Duet. 5:4 Moses told the people that God spoke to them face to face when they were on the mountain receiving the law. They didn’t actually see his face but they did see wonders he did on the mountain (fire and smoke), hear trumpets and God’s voice, and feel the earth shake. These were equated with seeing God “face to face”. Duet. 17:10 says that God knew Moses face to face. I Co. 13:12 talks about a day when we will see face to face because we now just see through a glass darkly. So I think this “face to face” could read “heart to heart” or “understanding to understanding”. Then God give us a little prophetic snip-it when he says, “There is a place by me, and you shall stand upon a rock.” We know that there is a place God has prepared for Jesus that is on his right hand. The only way Moses could see God was to be hidden in Christ. That rock was Jesus. God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and covered his eyes till he passed by. When he had passed he took his hand away so he could see his back side. I wonder how God could cover his eyes with his hand and walk in front of him all at the same time till I think of my dreams at night and see how God could be at 2 places at one time. God is omnipresent! Moses’s human body could not have taken God’s full glory. As it was, Moses absorbed some of this glory and shone from that day on. I think we will literally shine in the last days. After all, we are the light of the world because the glory of God dwell in our earthly tents. Let’s go out and leak today! Lord, we long for an encounter with you “face to face”. I pray that you grant us this so we will shine your glory to a very dark world.