Wait a minute! How can something be impossible, difficult, and easy?!

Good question! Glad that you asked. I was meditating this morning on the statement in the Scriptures that we are to “seek God’s face.” I thought that this sounded like a worthwhile goal, and that I ought to do that. In fact, I made it my daily affirmation: “Today, by God’s grace, I am seeking the face of God, no matter how difficult that may be.”

My sponsor responded to my twelve-step affirmation by reminding me that I could see God’s face in the face of my wife or of a child. Good reminder. Sometimes I make things more difficult than they are. It is certainly possible that I am doing that in this case.

However, this whole idea of seeing God’s face—or seeing God—is very problematic in the Bible. Some verses say that mortal man cannot see God. For example, God says to Moses that even Moses would not be permitted to behold God’s face (Exodus 33:20).

Other Scriptures say something very different. For example, Exodus 24:9-11 says that Moses, along with seventy elders of Israel, did see God.

And then, there are verses that encourage, yea indeed command, us to seek God’s face.

“You have said, “Seek my face.”

             My heart says to you,

                        “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” (Psalm 27:8, English Standard Version)

Of course, those who think that the Bible is a hopelessly contradictory book have no problem at all with this. They simply say, “See! We told you so!”

However, those of us who hold the Bible in high esteem (as I do) want to look a bit more deeply. The average person (if such a person exists) may say different things at different times. We may recognize that this does not automatically mean that the person is contradicting him/herself. Perhaps we should extend the same courtesy to the Bible that we give to one another on a routine basis.

Context is everything, as I often remind my students. There are times when it is appropriate to speak of God’s face being inaccessible, and there are times for seeking God’s face.

On the other hand, our default position should be to seek God’s face. Thus, Psalm 105:4 says that we are to “seek God’s face continually.”

Perhaps the most helpful thing is to realize two things.

First, the word “face” in Hebrew, when it is not a literal face, often refers to a person’s presence. Especially, there is the nuance of a person’s gracious presence. In the famous priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24-26, the Israelite priest is to say to the people of Israel,

24        “The LORD bless you and keep you;

25        the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

26        the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

A second observation about the idea of “face” is that it suggests how we get to know people. Most of us prefer “face-to-face” meetings, even though in this day of global pandemic, we may not be able to meet face-to-face.

A person’s face is the best way to get to know that person. The eyes, the facial expressions, and above all, the words a person speaks, helps us to know the person.

So it is with us and God. God is already well-acquainted with our faces. We just need to seek God’s face more diligently.

And yes, one way to do that is as easy as seeing God’s face in our daily relationships. Yes, God’s face is mysterious. But then so is my wife’s face, even though I’ve had the privilege of studying it for a very long time.