God's Greatness Blows Your Mind

In early Hebrew writings numerous references suggest that no one can look upon the face of God and live. The exact origin of this belief is unclear, but it is quite old. As some of the patriarchs met angelic representatives of God they marveled that they survived the face to face encounter.

One of the most astounding characters of ancient civilization was Moses. His own relationship with God provided the foundation for many of the theological constructs prevalent today. His writings pointed to God as the Author, Creator, Designer of the universe. The scientific details were absent, of course. God was revealed to Moses within the limits of Moses' capacity to understand. Even then, Moses' mind was stretched.

One day, as Moses was talking with God, he asked God to show him God's glory. Now, consider what he was asking. The known physical universe is greater than the capacity of most of us to comprehend. God is the Maker of all that. How was a finite man like Moses supposed to be able to actually view the glory of God? It was not possible. God told Moses that He would only show Moses a portion of His backside lest Moses die.

Of course all of this is anthropomorphic. We may be made in the image of God, but in our thinking we tend to remake God in our own. In relating to us, God uses images and concepts we can grasp. But these images and concepts are mere representations of the greater Truth.

The outcome of this encounter Moses had with the glory of God was that Moses was physically changed. His face would shine with a divine luminance. However, the ancient records show that over time this radiance diminished. Some have suggested this was because Moses was not walking as closely with God as before, but I disagree. Here is my speculation regarding this. Moses had a special encounter that actually altered his skin cells. We know that over time nearly every cell in the body is replaced. As old skin cells were sloughed off and newer ones took their place, there was a gradual restoration of Moses' face to its original nature. The encounter Moses had may have been nearly fatal and so was not repeated in that way.

Consider for a moment the intricacies of the human body. It functions as a unit made up of many different systems. Each of these systems has component parts. Each of these parts is made up of individual cells. Each of these cells contains the genetic coding for the entire body but have their own specialized function. These cells each have their component parts which also have specialized functions. And there are even greater details microbiologists could mention. Consider that God is the Designer of all that!

Consider that there are thousands upon thousands of different types of living organisms on this planet. Imagine having a database with all the details of every member of every one of those species both past and present. Consider that that same database has all the information of all the weather patterns and geography of this planet right down to the shape of every snowflake and the position of every grain of sand. Consider that this is true of not only this planet, but of every planet in our solar system. Ponder that not only our solar system but all the information for all the other star systems in the Milky Way are contained in that database at the same level of detail. Now, expand that database to include not only our galaxy but all the other galaxies in the known universe. Consider that there is much beyond the known universe but all that information is in this same Database.

If we could truly grasp all this we would have a comprehension of one aspect of the nature of God, God's omniscience. But if we could really pack that concept into our minds, I believe our brains would explode. We would have seen the face of God.