Bible Question: in ex 33;23 when god showed moses his bank was it a human body or a spirtil body |
Bible Answer: Hi, My view on this is that we need to see what it was that God was going to reveal. Moses had asked to 'see His ways that he might know Him'. He wanted to know what God was going to do. Then he grew bolder and asked, 'Show me your glory.' God's reply was, 'I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you.' There is no promise of a bodily presence. He is to see His glory and goodness. Up to this point Moses had always 'seen' God in the cloud. Now the promise was that he would be able to see the glory of God unveiled, but only as it were the tail end. For no man could see Him in the fullness of His glory and live. The language is anthropomorphic. We can compare how Isaiah saw the glory of the LORD 'high and lifted up', although in His case the Temple was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6). Note that with all the descriptiveness there is no attempt to describe God. And compare how Ezekiel saw the glory of the LORD, 'on the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man on it above, and I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of His loins and upwards, and from the appearance of His loins and downwards I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about Him. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.' It will be noted that while powerful the description is vague. He was describing the indescribable.'The likeness of' indicates how difficult he is finding it to discover the exact words with which to describe Him, and note also the repetition of 'the appearance of'. He gained the impression of a man and yet not a man. Rather the appearance of fire, and glory, spoken of in terms of a heavenly storm (note the rainbow). We need not speculate on exactly what of God was revealed in either case, only to recognise His utter glory. To speak of a pre-incarnate spiritual body of Christ appears to me almost to suggest that God is not One being. I think that it is to tread on dangerous ground. Can we so separate God? (It was a different matter once Christ had become man, then He did have a separate body in His manhood). Because God sometimes chose to take the appearance of a man e.g. with Abraham before His dealings with Lot (Genesis 18-19) and with Jacob at Peniel (Genesis 32), and in the appearance of 'the Angel of the LORD' this does not justify us in thinking that God is normally so limited. (Remember they are not considered to have 'seen His face'even though Jacob thought of it in that way, otherwise they would not have been alive). As Jesus declared so clearly, 'God is Spirit' (John 4.24). But He manifests Himself in different ways. |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Exodus | Author | ||
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chaplin | ||
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bianca0517 | ||
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300 | ||
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have lots of qutions | ||
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InGodITrust | ||
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rabban | ||
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skscott | ||
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beppy | ||
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NATE BECKETT | ||
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CEI CEI | ||
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nandi12 | ||
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TheLastHero |