What does it mean that God spoke to Moses face to face?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT GOD SPOKE TO MOSES FACE TO FACE?

By Ezekiel Kimosop

The Bible declares in John 1:18 that no man has ever seen God at anytime. Exodus 33:20 also teaches that no one can see God and live.

So what does it mean that God spoke to Moses face to face?

When the Bible says in Exodus 33:11 that the "LORD spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend", Bible critics and skeptics quickly jump to the conclusion that there is a serious contradiction between this Scripture and the other two scriptures we have quoted above!

The truth is that when the Bible is read and interpreted in context, there is no iota of contradiction or disharmony.

This is the more reason why we should not just read the Bible in a literal sense without considering the hermeneutical context and overall harmony of the entire body of biblical Scriptures!

To arrive at the correct interpretation of these Scriptures and to do away with the apparent contradiction of sorts, we first need to ask ourselves how the apparent "contradiction" may have arisen.

Bible scholars agree that the writer of the Book of Exodus could not have deliberately contradicted himself in Exodus 33 by first stating that God spoke to Moses "face to face" and a few verse away in Exodus 33:20, the same writer records that God did not permit Moses to see His face!

One of these two Scriptures must be teaching something different and this is what we need to decipher through a methodical hermeneutical approach.

Let's now explore the Scriptures...

God declares to Moses in Exodus 33:20 "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live".

We need to bear in mind  that God himself is declaring this truth here! James 1:17 confirms that God cannot contradict His own word. He cannot therefore misrepresent His mind to us through contradictory statements.

To deal with this apparent confusion, we should apply the rules of interpretation with prudence, giving glory to God so that we do not misrepresent His voice.

First, in harmonizing the messages of John 1:18 and Exodus 33:20, we arrive at the inescapable conclusion that indeed no man has ever seen God and that Moses never saw God's face.

We have already affirmed that God cannot contradict His own voice. The two Scriptures appear in the Old Testament and New Testament, respectively.

There is a general principle of biblical interpretation that says if a teaching appears in both the Old Testament and New Testaments, then the teaching is absolute.

For example, God condemns divorce in Malachi 2:16 and Jesus upholds that truth in the Gospel books (Matthew 5:31,19:3, Mark 10:4). This settles the issue of Christian divorce.

This then implies that we need to revisit and interpret Exodus 33:11 in a manner consistent with the overall harmony of the word of God.

We can therefore safely conclude that the writer of Exodus, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, could not have contradicted the voice of God. There must be another meaning to his statement which is outside the literal facade!

We can therefore state without any fear of contradiction that Moses [who is believed to have written the first five Books of the Bible] was perhaps demonstrating a deeper truth using metaphorical language.

What was his message here?

Bible scholars generally agree that Moses was demonstrating that God was intimately close to him and his use of the phrase "face to face" was simply a figure of speech to underscore this spiritual proximity and intimacy.

This Scripture should therefore not to be understood in a literal sense.

We can therefore conclude that Exodus 33:11 does not imply that Moses literally saw God's face with his naked human eyes.

You may also recall that Elijah, another great prophet of God, shielded his face in the presence of God at Mt Horeb (1Kings 19:13).

Shall we ever see God?

This question is often asked in Christian circles....

It is my firm conviction, for one day, when Christ shall appear to take His Church to Himself, we who love the appearing of Christ, shall see the Lord face to face and dwell in His glorious presence forever (1Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Rev. 22:4 says that they [the redeemed in Christ] shall see His face and His name shall be on their foreheads." This is a literal promise in the Bible. I believe that there will be no divine barrier separating us from God in His divine presence.

I believe that we shall no doubt also see the face of God the Father at that time, for we shall walk around His great white throne and shall reign with Christ for ever.

Up till then, no person can literally see God with their naked human eyes while still under the sun.

This implies that those latter-day, self appointed prophets who claim to have directly seen the glorified Christ in person or heard His voice in visions should be flatly rejected.

God never speaks outside His word [Hebrews 1:1-2), neither does He anywhere contradict His word or misrepresent His divine nature (Hebrews 8:13; James 1:17).

Similarly, the Holy Spirit affirms the word of God and never contradicts His divine truths. He reveals to us the mind of Christ.

© Ezekiel Kimosop Teaching Series 2019