Prepare Yourself for Meeting God

“I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you (Exodus 33:19 LSB).

I can only imagine what Moses saw and heard that day. “All” of God’s goodness passed in front of him. God’s goodness is boundless and infinite. How could Moses see and grasp the infinite goodness of God? And while that was happening, he also heard the voice of the Almighty proclaiming His own name.

Literally incomprehensible.

And even then, Moses was shielded from the stark reality confronting him, for God said,

You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live (Exodus 33:20).

The perfection of God’s goodness is lethal to sinners. Even when an old apostle looked on the resurrected Son of God (or possibly His angel), he lamented that

His face was like the sun shining in its strength (Revelation 1:16).

People seem to think the closer you get to God, the better you feel about yourself. I guess it’s like having your picture taken with a celebrity. The illusion of familiarity and equality. However, it seems to fly in the face of something the Apostle Paul said about Jesus:

Though he was in the form of God, [He] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Philippians 2:6).

Ignorance and arrogance drive many to think they can reach out and grasp God’s pure and infinite holiness despite the admonition of Hebrews 10:31 that “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” That wasn’t written for the unrepentant sinner. It’s the sentence that follows “The LORD will judge His people.”

As soon as sin came into the world, what’s the first thing Adam and Eve did? When they heard God walking in the garden, they:

hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God…(Genesis 3:8).

When Abram was 99 years old, God appeared to him to tell him that He was entering into a covenant with him. What was Abram’s response? Did he run to hug God or shout “Hallelujah!”? No, he “fell on his face” (Genesis 17:1-3).

Before God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone and handed them to Moses, He spoke them to the people (see Exodus 20:1). If you think hearing the voice of God brought encouragement or joy to the people, you’re wrong. After hearing the voice of God,

they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die” (Exodus 20:19).

When Joshua was confronted by the “captain of the host of the Lord” as he contemplated how to commence the battle of Jericho, did he salute him or shake his hand and usher him to a war table for consultation? No, “Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down…” (Joshua 5:13-14). When the prophet Ezekiel came face to face with God’s glory, he wrote a rather vivid and lengthy description of what he saw, which concluded with his response to it all:

And when I saw it, I fell on my face…(Ezekiel 1:28).

And then there was Isaiah. The prophet whom Jesus quoted more than any other. I cannot summarize it, so here is his encounter found in Isaiah 6:1-5:

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Odd, isn’t it? The prophet saw a vision of the throne room of God, and rather than shout and sing, he cries out that he was ruined.

When Peter hauled in the great draught of fish after telling Jesus it would be useless to go back out,

he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).

And when John saw Jesus (or His angel) on the prison island Patmos, he wrote:

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man (Revelation 1:17).

If you really want to draw close to God, you'd better prepare to fall on your face in humility and worship. What you will find out if you are truly interested in coming into His presence is how holy He is and how unclean you are (I know what Hebrews says about coming boldly to the throne, but if you read carefully, it is not due to your goodness but Christ’s ceaseless intercession).

There seems to be an absence of genuine awe, humility, or reverence for God or His holiness and goodness today.

Where is the posture of prostration in today’s Christianity? Do you remember the words of King David in Psalm 51:17?

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise...

I wonder if Jesus had that statement in mind when He said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:4)?

We have come to desire a good time at church more than an encounter with the Holy One.

Just like the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, we don’t really want to hear the voice of God. Because the voice and the face reveal absolute perfect infinite holiness. And who wants to stare at the sun?

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4:8-10).

Draw near to God and be miserable and mourn and weep?

The holiness of God is a burning fire (Hebrews 12:29) of purity. Every step towards that holiness hurts. But we have been invited to step forward, and if we do so in humility and on our knees and even on our faces in heartfelt repentance, we are welcomed by Jesus Christ Himself.

“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped” (Revelation 5:13-14).

In St. Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God, he defined God as a “being than which no greater can be conceived.” God’s goodness and holiness are inconceivable and, as such, terrifying.

Do you really think you are ready to see the face of God?

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