The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. (Deut. 5:4)
Expanded Passage: Deuteronomy 5:4-21
Few today know much about face-to-face communication. Technology is always in between us as we seek to connect with each other. AI, bad reception, and filters can make what we see and hear quite different from reality. In a time when we are so distanced from each other, we find it hard to believe direct contact with God could be possible.
As scary it was, Moses stood between God and Israel and conveyed the words that were spoken to him. The idea of a face-to-face encounter with God never really goes beyond metaphor in the Hebrew Bible. Moses comes the closest, as he converses with the Lord through the fire, and gets to see God’s backside as he hides his face in the cleft of a rock. Even then he had to veil his face because God’s glory made his appearance too dazzling (Exodus 33). He follows in the footsteps of the founder of Israel. After Jacob wrestled with a night visitor, and limped away from the experience, he says, ”For I saw God face to face, and yet I was spared” (Gen. 32:30).
Paul tells us that through Jesus we are seeing this same glory of the Lord, with unveiled faces (2 Corinthians 3:18). It will change us into his image as from one degree of glory to the next. Being with God face-to-face will always leave an effect.
Spend “unveiled” time with God to be molded into his image.
Rich Eckley is professor emeritus of theology at Houghton University (NY). He is an ordained Wesleyan minister, and enjoys—with his wife Lynn—entertaining their active grandchildren.
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
