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 a Bible passage 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 the above 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 33:11 by first stating that God spoke to Moses "face to face" and a few verse down 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 proclaiming this truth here! Besides, God is the ultimate author of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

James 1:17 affirms that God cannot contradict His own word. There's no variableness or shadow of turning with God. He cannot therefore misrepresent His mind to us through contradictory statements (cf. Numbers 23:19).

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 to imply what Scripture never intended for us.

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. God emphatically proclaimed this truth in His word.

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 or command appears in both the Old Testament and New Testament Scripture, 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. It is forbidden by God in all human civilizations and no mortal has the authority to alter the voice of God in His word.

This then implies that we need to revisit and interpret Exodus 33:11 in a manner that is consistent with the overall harmony of the Scripture as regards the authority, inerancy and infallibility 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 and that the phrase "face to face" could not be assigned a literal rendering without violating God's word.

What was the writer's message here?

Bible scholars generally agree that by employing the phrase "face to face" the writer of Exodus was demonstrating that God was intimately close to Moses and his use of this phrase was simply a figure of speech that underscored this spiritual proximity. Moses was privileged to access the mind of God directly.

This Scripture should therefore not to be understood in its 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. This is because he would have dropped dead!

You may also recall that Elijah, another great prophet of God, shielded his face in the presence of God at Mt Horeb because he understood the implications of coming face to face with his glorious God (1Kings 19:13).

This hermeneutical exercise has now resolved our question on the alleged contradiction between Exodus 33:11 and Exodus 33:20.

Perhaps a question related to this issue would be handy at this stage: Shall we (believers) ever see God face to face in heaven?

It is my firm conviction that one day, when Christ shall appear to take His Church to Himself, we who love the appearing of Christ, shall see God 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 because the question of sin and disobedience shall have been resolved.

I further believe that we shall not only see the face of God the Father at that time, but that we shall also walk around His great white throne and shall reign with Christ for ever in the presence of God.

Up till then, no person can literally see God with their naked human eyes while under the sun. That's a settled case.

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.



Shalom



© Ezekiel Kimosop 2019