What Does God Look Like? (Part 2 of 3)

What Does God Look Like? - Read the Bible and See
When God Appeared to Moses

The relationship between God and Moses is remarkable in every aspect, but here we focus on how God physically appeared to Moses and what insights can be gleaned from it. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series of posts, it is understandable that people are curious about God's physical appearance, and often do not realize there is a significant amount of insight about this question in the Bible. In Part 1 I cite how God appeared in human form to Adam and Eve, and to Abraham. Here, let us look at how God appeared to Moses.

Exodus 3:2-6 There an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned." When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

In Part 1 I pointed out that when God appears as a human to Abraham, they already had a history of conversations through visions. So when God appeared in human form to Abraham, Abraham was not struck with awe and fear as was Moses. And there is significance to this difference. When God appeared to Abraham, it was to give him information and to allow for an interaction, a conversational give-and-take. That is difficult to do if one is interacting with God in his natural form of unlimited power. So God is fully capable of having a human form and enjoying interaction with the people he loves. However, with the burning bush, God is "introducing" himself to Moses, who he will raise up to lead Israel out of slavery, and who will codify the law and the Commandments. God knew that they will have many decades of relationship during Moses' life, and this was chosen way to appear. Remember that Moses himself is the author of this book of the Bible, so even though he is writing in third person, he is describing what actually happened to him. Moses starts by writing "an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush." Even though Moses uses the word angel, he does not mean a physical manifestation of an angel personage, because if he meant that, he would have no curiosity of this "remarkable sight" and "why the bush is not burned" because he'd know why, if he was gazing upon an angel. Rather, what Moses means in writing this is that "light" emanating from God was in the bush, though at first he does not realize what it is that is happening. So when Moses wrote he described in hindsight as best as he could what he was seeing, which was the divine light of God. Of course modern day authors wish he wrote, "I saw a bush magically illuminated by full spectrum light that God sent in order to get my attention." But thank God, the Bible authors were very precise as to what they saw and to what they were thinking or perceiving, so that later readers could share with them with confidence in its authenticity. Because it was important that Moses know who and how God truly "is", God therefore chose to appear to Moses as a portion of his infinite light. That is why although it appeared as a "fire flaming" it "was not consumed." Much has been written about the significance of fire, especially as in the form of the Holy Spirit, so I won't go into detail here except to point out that fire is a process that is transformational. Suppose God just used a big spot light like on a billboard instead of a flame. That would simply indicate the emphasis, illumination, and underscoring of a message. When God uses the image of a flame, though, God is indicating that a process is underway. Here he is initiating the process of communication with Moses and the establishment of a freed Israel. That is why the "fire" is "flaming" but the bush is not "burned." It is transformed but not destroyed. How do we know that? Because God tells Moses the ground he now stands upon is holy. Before God appeared to Moses, that was just some ordinary ground for grazing the sheep. Once God appears, by virtue of his presence "the place where you stand is holy ground." This marks the transformation of Moses and his followers to "holy ground", that is, Israel. Pagans would have assumed that the ground remains holy, because of God's appearance there. But the holiness is transferred and "travels along with" God in his presence among the people.

Notice that God identifies himself by voice, even though he is not in a human form as he was with Adam and Eve, and with Abraham. This again is a foreknowledge of God's teaching role with Moses, where the precision of voice is needed, even if God is not at that time in a more sociable human body form. After all, from this point on Moses heard God's voice, instructing him in each step of the exodus. So the burning bush was an authentic view of some of God's form of glorious light, and his voice was the introduction to the means by which they would communicate during the exodus. So subsequent passages state, "On the day the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt," and "The Lord answered him" and "The Lord then told Moses" and "Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron" and "Now this is what the Lord commanded." These are all expositions of speech of the Lord, not his physical appearance.

Exodus 19:9: The Lord also told him, "I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also."
The Lord God decides to take upon himself a physical form "in the third month after their departure from the land of Egypt, on its first day, the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai." (Exodus 19:1.) God explains that it will be necessary for people to have total faith in Moses (and God anticipates how weak the people's faith will be) because this is the time of the Covenant at Mount Sinai. So God, who knows human nature better than anyone, realizes that it will strengthen the people's faith in Moses and what he commands on behalf of God if the people can actually see a manifestation of God in their midst. God then appears in the form of fire and cloud, with the sound of thunder, over Mount Sinai and "Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God" (Exodus 19: 17.) God chose the form of the cloud, fire, thunder, and lightening upon the mountain for several reasons. One is to show the people his authentic form and power, so that they recognize him as the creator and ruler of heaven and earth, but also so that they have the proper respect. Exodus 20: 18-20: When the people witnessed the thunder and lightening, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking, they all feared and trembled. So they took up a position much farther away and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we shall die." Moses answered to the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fear upon you, lest you should sin."

This is very important to understand. God had then and has now every ability to "showboat" if that would ever be his intention, which it is not. Notice that the first two physical appearances in the Bible are in gentle human form, walking in the cool of the garden, and enjoying the hospitality of Abraham, while imparting important information. It is only when humankind becomes so intertwined in their chosen sins that God has to take on a more formidable appearance - not to impress, but to save. How do we know that? Because God shows the people how Moses can walk right up that mountain and into God's presence without fear, and to emerge with the Covenant. If God was only trying to scare people, a view of hell would do the trick. But God, in anticipation of Jesus Christ His Son breaking the bounds of death and resurrecting with total confidence in God, allows Moses to be the ultimate example of faith, obedience, and goodness. The people could see how God allowed Moses into his presence, although they would be struck down if they tried to do so (not that anyone was inclined to do so, as they were in great fear.) The passage Exodus 19:20 describes this very simply: When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up to him.

When the Israelites had received the Ten Commandments and the laws of God, God came down from the form on the mountain into a gentler form of cloud that could be among the people in what was called "The Meeting Tent." The cloud was actually a column that stood outside the tent to indicate that God was inside speaking with Moses: As Moses entered the Tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses (Exodus 33: 10.) Moses wrote: The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another (11.) So from this the reader can tell that Moses spoke with God within the confines of a tent "as one man speaks to another" while the column of cloud indicated the presence of God within the tent to those who observed outside. We can tell that God is not appearing to Moses in a human or burning bush form though because one day, when Moses asks God to accompany them in a physical tangible way as they resume their travels, he also asks to see God as he truly is: "Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!"" (Exodus 33:18.)

God understands that Moses wants to see God as he truly exists in his authentic form. This is what we call the "glorified form" because it is how God appears beyond the bounds of earthly physics. Again, this is in anticipation of how Jesus Christ will appear transfigured in glorified form, and then later, resurrected in his glorified body. Here is how Moses describes seeing God (Exodus 33: 18-23): Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!" He answered, "I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, 'Lord'; I who show favors to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives. Here, "continued the Lord, "is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock. When my glory passes I will set you in the hollow of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face is not to be seen."

Moses does not record his reaction because immediately thereupon God and Moses went to work on the renewal of the tablets (which had been broken by Moses when the people sinned.) But when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, after forty days with the Lord, "he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him." (Exodus 34: 29-30.) Because of his radiant skin from conversation with God, Moses started wearing a veil, which he removed only in the presence of God. St Paul, years later, would ponder this veiling and conclude that this was symbolic of the failure of the Jews to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah (2 Cor. 3: 7-18.) However, while the parallel and analogy is totally valid, there's a more fundamental message. Moses did not want the people to start to view him as God, by being distracted by Moses' increasingly radiant skin. Moses knew (think gold calf) all too well how easy it was for people to place God falsely within people and idols. So Moses decided to veil himself so that people would not focus on his radiance and confuse him with the literal presence of God within him.

Let's look closer now at how God's "walk by" of Moses took place. Notice that this does not take place in the tent, but up on the mountain among rocks. God wishes to grant his friend Moses' request, but has to protect him from seeing the full energy and glory of God. So God does the most that he can do to provide a portion of his authentic presence yet still protect Moses. He places him between rocks "in the hollow" and "cover(s)" Moses with his "hand" so that Moses cannot see God's approach or passing by, but only God's "back." Why is this? In the next section I will cite other examples where God's face must be concealed from even the holy because they would die. Do not confuse this with literally a human's "face" and a human's "back" because we have already shown how God can appear in a human form with a front and a back, no problem. In his glorified form, however, God is the totality of the Word of God, which is intention. The face of God is representative of all of God's focus and all of God's energy, and no living thing can endure the total focus of God in his authentic glorified form. How do we know this? Because to make the experience complete, God speaks his name as he passes by Moses. God is the summation of the light and word of life, because all exists because he intends it to exist, and by saying his name, that is like Moses seeing "God at work." So the immense amount of energy and the intentionality of the Word of God in God's full physical form is too much for anyone to bear directly, thus God shields Moses from his direct intentionality. In part 3 of this I'll show another example of this by discussing the angels who do stand directly in front of God and how that, like the radiance of God to Moses' face, reflects in how the angels appear.