As the covenant God, Yahweh is
one who reveals himself to his people. This capacity of God to reveal himself
is fundamental to the possibility of covenant. As Moses says, “What other
nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way Yahweh our God is
near us...?” (Dt. 4:7).
God takes the initiative to
reveal himself early in the patriarchal narratives. He is not known because men
and women seek him; he is known because he graciously condescends to them. At
the same time, the pure essence of God is not immediately accessible to humans,
and the divine self-revelation is always to some degree veiled, for as God explains
to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see my face and live” (Ex.
33:20). Hence, the descriptions of God’s self-revelation are invariably
anthropomorphic, which is to say, God is described in human terms, even though
he is beyond humanness. Hence, God “walks in the garden” (Ge. 3:8) and “lifts
his hand” in oath (Ex. 6:8). Furthermore, he expresses a wide range of human
emotions. He “snorts” in anger (Ex. 15:8), for instance. The standard Hebrew
expression for anger, ‘aph (= snorting,
anger) is derived from the Hebrew word for nose, and the English translation,
“My anger will be aroused” (NIV), may quite literally be rendered, “My nose
will become hot” (cf. Ex. 22:24; 32:10-11, 22). Similarly, God “regrets”
actions (Ge. 6:6a), experiences “jealousy” (Ex. 20:5), feels “heart-pain” (Ge.
6:6b), appreciates “goodness” (Ge. 1:31) and “hates” (Dt. 16:22) and “abhors”
detestable things (Lv. 20:23). Such anthropomorphisms should
probably be understood as poetic metaphors, particularly in light of the fact
that God, in his pure essence, was considered to be invisible and transcendent.
They express the fact that God is personal as opposed to impersonal; he is a
divine Someone, not merely a divine Something. By speaking of God
anthropomorphically, the Torah describes God as coming to humans on their
level. At the same time, it must be remembered that such metaphors are limited
and carry with them the inherent danger that God might come to be understood as
made in the image of humans with their vices and failures—which was pretty much
the way the rest of the ancient Near East understood the deities.
Anthropomorphisms of God in the Torah are carefully balanced by the
affirmations of God’s invisibility, his hiddenness and mystery, and the
prohibition of carving any likeness to him.
The primary recurring anthropomorphism
in the Old Testament is the panim (=
face) of Yahweh. The English translation of panim with respect to the
face of Yahweh is usually “presence”, and the reader of the English Bible may
not be aware that this is most often the word for the “face of God”. The
entire personality of Yahweh, his love as well as his anger, is concentrated in
his face. The displeasure of God is expressed when his face is against someone
(Ge. 3:8; 4:14, 16; Lv. 10:2; 22:3). The approval of God is expressed when his
face is turned toward someone (Ge. 27:7; Nu. 6:25; Dt. 12:7, 18; 14:23, 26;
15:20, etc.).
In a special sense, the panim represents the presence of God
without reservation. At Sinai, Yahweh instructed Moses to depart with the
people for Canaan, but he said that he himself would not accompany them because
of their stubbornness (Ex. 33:1-6). Moses, however, pleaded with God so that
God promised to send his panim, that is, his “face”, with the
Israelites (Ex. 33:12-17). Later, Moses could say that God brought the entire
company out of Egypt by his panim
(Dt. 4:37; cf. Is. 63:9). Because God was so powerfully present in the Tent of
Meeting, the sacred bread, which was to be displayed at all times, was quite
literally the “bread of the face”, or more familiarly, the “bread of the
presence” (Ex. 25:30; 39:36). Similarly, the table upon which the sacred bread
was placed was called the “table of the face” (Nu.4:7).
In a Christian sense, this “face
of God” reaches its climax in the face of Jesus:
For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of
darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
(2 Co. 4:6)
While on the mountain of God
Moses was prevented from seeing God’s face, and indeed, the invisibility of God
is upheld by the writers in the New Testament as they speak of God living in “unapproachable
light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Ti. 6:16). Still, the promise for the
future is that in the end believers shall see him “face to face” (1 Co. 13:12).
“They shall look upon his face,” John says (Rv. 22:4). Roman Catholics and the
Orthodox call this theosis, though the broader term is the “beatific
vision”. However one describes it, this ancient anthropomorphism of God—the face
of God—takes on special meaning, for as Fanny Crosby’s old hymn puts it:
And
I shall see him, face to face,
And
tell the story saved by grace;
And
I shall see him, face to face,
And
tell the story saved by grace.
