Lesson 24

HIS FACE

Table of Contents

– Seek His Face
– One Like Unto Moses
– Covering His Face

Scriptures Cited:

2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalms 27:8, Acts 3:22-24, Deuteronomy 18:18, 2 Corinthians 3:13-14, Exodus 34:30-34, Mark 14:60-65, Matthew 26:67-68, Isaiah 50:6, Isaiah 52:13-14, Isaiah 53:1-5, Romans 5:6-8, Mark 16:15-16, 2 Corinthians 4:6

SEEK HIS FACE

There is a well quoted scripture that says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). There is also in Psalms 27 a verse which reads:

Psalm 27:8
⁸ When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

This is one of the many scriptures that speak of seeking the Lord, and particularly here – seeking His face. If we are honest with ourselves, oftentimes our seeking is actually after the hand of God rather than His face; either desiring what is in His hands or even what He can do for us with His hands. But to seek His face is much more intimate and it is when we seek Him truly for who He is and not just for what we can gain from Him. As we continue in this lesson keep that theme of seeking His face and the importance of it, pinned in your mind.

We will now look in the book of Acts, where we see what Peter said after healing a lame man who was begging at the temple gate. In Acts chapter 3, starting at verse 22 Peter gives a testimony about Jesus and begins explaining this new salvation that had come. It reads:

Acts 3:22-24
²² For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

²³ And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. ²⁴ Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

ONE LIKE UNTO MOSES

Peter here is referring to something that God said when He delivered the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. In Deuteronomy 18:18 God foretold that he would raise up another prophet like Moses. And what Peter was saying here in Acts 3:22 is that the prophet which was to be raised up is Jesus. And that prophet, it says will be “one like unto Moses”.

I want to take a moment here and look briefly at some of the ways that Moses and Jesus are alike. First, when they were both born, there was a command given to kill all the male babies born in the land. It happened when Moses was born, and it also happened when Jesus was born. Another similarity is that through each of them the covenants came. Through Moses came the first (old) covenant, and through Jesus came the new covenant. They both were leaders of the people; Moses leading the children of Israel and Jesus being the ultimate leader who said “Follow Me.” Another similarity is that salvation came through both. Through Moses the Israelites were saved from their slavery in Egypt, and for us today, through Jesus we are saved from our sins.

There are lots of comparisons and similarities that can be drawn from the prophecy that there would be one raised up like Moses. And what I wanted to do is dig in a little deeper on one other way that Jesus and Moses are alike, which sometimes gets overlooked.

So, if we go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, we see something that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. In verse 14 it reads:

2 Corinthians 3:13-14
¹³ And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: ¹⁴But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

What Paul is referencing here is the account of Moses receiving the ten commandments from God on Mount Sinai. And after receiving the commandments Moses veiled or covered his face when he returned to speak to the people. To get more understanding of this, we will go to Exodus chapter 34 and read the account of Moses coming down from the mountain after receiving the law from God. Exodus 34 beginning in verse 30 reads:

Exodus 34:30-34
³⁰ And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

³¹ And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.³² And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai.

³³ And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.

³⁴ But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

We see here that when Moses came down off the mountain, his face shone (we might say today that his face shined or “glowed”) just from being in the presence of the Lord. And when the people saw it, they were afraid to even come near to Moses. So, in order to make things go a little bit easier, he veiled his face to keep them from being frightened by his appearance. But then it also says that when he went back up on the mountain to talk with the Lord, he took the veil off and spoke with the Lord face to face.

COVERING HIS FACE

So now you might be wondering “Okay, how is there a comparison with Jesus here? How is this one of the ways Moses and Jesus are alike?” Well, if we go to the book of Mark, we will see something similar… similar, and yet different with Jesus. In Mark chapter 14 beginning at verse 60 we read what happened leading up to the crucifixion after Jesus was arrested and was being questioned by the authorities.

Mark 14:60-65
⁶⁰ And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

⁶¹ But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

⁶² And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

⁶³ Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? ⁶⁴ Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

⁶⁵ And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.

Here we can see what was done to Jesus by those who were in charge, after they determined that He should not live. They spit in His face, and then it says, they covered His face and began to hit Him and strike Him. And if we go to Matthew 26, we can see what the servants meant when they said ‘Prophesy’.

Matthew 26:67-68
⁶⁷ Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, ⁶⁸ Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?

Basically, since His face was covered, they taunted Jesus by saying ‘If you are a prophet tell us which one of us hit you. Who struck you?’

And so, the similarity between Moses and Jesus here is that they both had their faces covered. But the difference is that when they covered Jesus’ face, it was because they were beating Him and spitting on Him and mocking Him. And according to those first verses that we started with, this is the face that we are to be seeking. When the Lord said, ‘Seek my face’ in the book of Psalms, this was the face that they were to be seeking. And what did they do when that face came to them? They spit in it, they hit Him. They mocked Him.

Even though it is easy for us to point fingers and say “I would never do that” – in reality, that is us. That’s us whenever we take the grace of God and the goodness of God but decide to live our lives contrary to His will. We’re basically saying “Jesus, I am going to cover your face. I don’t want you looking at me while I do this over here. I got somebody I need to tell off.” Or “Jesus I’m going to cover your face or hide my face from you, so that I can go do these sins…” We should remember that the abuse which Jesus suffered, He suffered it for us – just as He suffered for the very ones who were beating and abusing Him before His crucifixion.

In just these few verses we get a brief look at what Jesus went through. But we can see this from another perspective through the prophecy given in the book of Isaiah, which foretold of what Jesus would suffer on our behalf. In Isaiah chapter 50 verse 6, it reads:

Isaiah 50:6
⁶ I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

Although the Gospels do not mention the plucking of hair from His face, we see here that it was prophesied along with the shame and spitting. And as it says here, He gave His cheeks to those who would smite Him. And we are told more in chapter 52, where God is speaking of Jesus, His servant. Beginning in verse 13, it reads:

Isaiah 52:13-14
¹³ Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

¹⁴ As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

This was speaking about how Jesus was going to be beaten to the point that His visage (face or appearance) was marred worse than “any man”.

The last scripture we will look at here in Isaiah is in chapter 53, where we see a well-known prophecy about Jesus. Starting in verse 1:

Isaiah 53:1-5
¹ Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
² For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

³ He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

We could probably read the entire chapter, but this very much sums it up. Oftentimes, when we think about Christianity, religion, or even our relationship with God, many of us do not fully grasp what happened. There was a man, a human being who actually endured this suffering. He did not deserve it – He had no sin. But He did it because He loves each and every one of us.

It is easy to lightly esteem or gloss over the things that happened to Jesus – but there was a man who endured spitting and beatings and mocking, and scourging. And afterwards He went to a cross, to die. This should give us some perspective of the human condition, that an innocent man being brutally beaten, mocked and killed, was actually the best thing that could have ever happened for us. That is how bad our situation is… He had to do that for us.

So, we really need to take into account what Jesus endured. And because of this, we should be seeking His face. Don’t hide from His face, don’t cover His face. When we have the opportunity to share Jesus with others, let’s not hide Him. Let’s not cover His face. We need to be able to share Him openly because again, what He went through for us is the best thing that has ever happened. Someone decided to take our place – He chose to pay the price that we all deserve to pay – we all.

So, lastly let’s go to Romans chapter 5 where the apostle Paul sums it up much better than I could ever say it. In Romans chapter 5, starting in verse 6 it says:

Romans 5:6-8
⁶ For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That says it much better than I could ever say it. After Jesus accomplished this for us – after He went through that punishment that we deserved… being beaten and mocked, He was placed on the cross, and before He died, He said “It is finished.” The price was paid. That is the good news.

After paying the ultimate price, God raised Jesus from the dead. He then gave His apostles the commission to go out and preach this gospel – this good news that the price has been paid for our sins. In Mark 16 verse 15 Jesus gives that commission. Then in verse 16 He says that He who believes this good news and is baptized – shall be saved. And later in the book of Acts we see examples of people who did just that. They believed the message and they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ according to the scripture.

This brief lesson on the sufferings of Christ is a heavy subject, but as mentioned above we are in a heavy situation. And that is the truth of it. Consider what a sinless, innocent man endured for you. And with that in mind… don’t hide from Jesus, don’t hide from His face. If your relationship with Christ isn’t what it needs to be, feel free to contact us and we will help you in taking the first step for getting things right. Seek His face.

2 Corinthians 4:6
⁶ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.