There is nothing quite like standing outside on a sunny summer day, eyes closed, and letting the sun's warmth reach out and envelop your face. Summer is almost gone in my neck of the woods and I am already missing this warm and joyful experience. It takes my mind to a line from the book of Numbers, "The Lord make his face shine upon you." The line was made internet famous back in May of 2020, very early in the pandemic shutdowns, when churches from several countries produced videos of people singing The Blessing, a song whose lyrics were largely taken from God’s blessing found in Numbers 6, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. (Num 6:24-26).
You can find the UK version, one of the first, and best, here:
I remember going down to the beach one morning during those days, putting this song on repeat and listening, over and over, to the Lord’s blessing, trying to receive it, hoping it would sink deep into me. The line that would consistently bring tears to my eyes was, “He is for you, he is for you, he is for you.”
How many of us believe this? If we could only experience the Lord’s face turning toward us and shining on us!
The Power of a Face
Neuroscientists are learning more and more about the power of a face to exude love and belonging. Our brains are wired to see faces and receive the messages they hold.
Babies seek out a face to know they are seen, loved, and secure. We too, in all our sophistication, seek out faces to let us know we are welcomed and delighted in. I have always been intrigued by the line, stated rather matter-of-factly in Exodus, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Ex 33:11). What would that have been like? Face to face with God? It speaks to a level of intimacy I long for but also evokes a kind of terror (let’s be honest) that keeps me more cautious than I want to be. Is God really that interested in me? Would God actually want to sit with me face to face?
A favorite psalm of mine is psalm 27, especially v.4, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple,” and v.8 “My heart says of you, 'Seek his face!' Your face, Lord, I will seek.” To seek God’s face is to seek God’s presence (They are the same word in Hebrew). When I find myself far too engrossed in my own stuff I am often reminded (not often enough, unfortunately) of these verses. Look up. Seek God’s face! And when I do, I see that God is already looking at me.
It only dawned on me recently that when I put Psalm 27 (my longing) alongside Numbers 6 (God’s blessing), I find that not only does my heart seek the Lord’s face, but he seeks mine as well – “may the Lord’s face shine upon you.” This is one of the powerful things about imaginative prayer – God’s face shines upon me in the face of Jesus.
God’s Face Turns Away?
It is for this reason that I especially do not like the lyrics in a popular worship song, “God turns his face away.” For years I believed this was the case at the cross - that Jesus, becoming sin for us, caused the Father to turn away. It was difficult not to draw the subtle conclusion that God also turned away from my sin as well.
Scripture does not make this claim. My guess is that the idea developed as a way to protect God’s holiness and purity but I think it is exactly false. God is not one to turn away from sin but rather to face it directly, rebuke it, and redeem it. God is not squeamish around sin. If he was, we would all be hooped. The lyric seems to want to protect God’s holiness from sin’s taint – but that is never a concern of Jesus, the one revealing God’s character, as he walked among sinful people, touching diseased men and women, bringing his holiness to bear upon the unholiness around him – Jesus looked sin right in the face, and forgave it.
The Father At the Cross
When talking about this some years ago with my spiritual director I discovered that this idea was not new and, in fact, had been addressed in art and sculpture over the centuries.
The picture here is of the classic painting by Il Pordenone, Holy Trinity, painted around 1530, depicting the Father, far from turning away at the cross, actually bearing the cross that the Son hangs upon. This seems much more like the posture of the Father who was “reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19). As a way to help me remember this, I went out and purchased my own “Trinity Cross” depicting this same posture of the Father, holding the cross while the Spirit as a dove hovers over them. This seems much closer to the One whose “face shines upon us and brings us peace.”
You might want to take a couple minutes for the next few mornings to simply gaze upon God’s face and allowing God’s face to shine upon you.
Thanks for reading. Until next Thursday . . .
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