Exodus
24:9 ¶ Then went up Moses, and Aaron,
Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: 10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was
under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the
body of heaven in his clearness. 11 And
upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw
God, and did eat and drink.
There
are certain facts that need to be expressed here to keep confusion from
creeping in. First, no one actually sees God the Father, the part of God that
is the soul and self-identity of the Godhead.
John
1:18 No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him.
1John
4:12 No man hath seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Why?
John
4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
And there was a
fear that seeing God face to face would kill you.
Genesis
32:30 And Jacob called the name of the
place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Judges
6:22 And when Gideon perceived that he
was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have
seen an angel of the LORD face to face. 23
And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not
die.
Judges
13:22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We
shall surely die, because we have seen God.
The
Lord Jesus Christ is the physical, visible appearance of God, what theologians
call the Godhead. He is not a separate God or a created God but He is the body
of God, the image of God. He revealed God to mankind. First, to understand what
an image is you will need to see some verses from early on in the Bible;
Genesis
1:26a And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness…
Deuteronomy
4:16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and
make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or
female,
So,
now that you know what an image is, as an example, we being made in the image
of God, you can understand the following verses better.
John
1:18 No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him.
John
10:30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, Many good works
have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a
good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a
man, makest thyself God.
John
14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
2Corinthians
4:4 In whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Colossians
1:15 Who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature:
Hebrews
1:3 Who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high;
What
the Hebrews are seeing here is Christ before His incarnation into human flesh.
At this point He appears to them. This is an incredible privilege that these
Hebrews were given. That the God of all creation of all the universe would
appear to them, they would see Him, and they would eat and drink in His
presence.
A
study of precious stones in the Bible would be very beneficial but would hold
up our narrative. But, just imagine the majesty and glory of the scene. A
sapphire is blue. Notice the comparison with what Ezekiel will see.
Ezekiel
1:26 And above the firmament that was
over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire
stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance
of a man above upon it…10:1 Then I
looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims
there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the
likeness of a throne.
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