Seek God For The City: 2020
“Seek God for the City: 2020” begins today, February 26. If you haven’t read the meditation and prayed the prayers it’s not too late.
Psalm 27:8 You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require My presence as your vital need]. My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require [of necessity and on the authority of Your Word].
When confronted with Scriptures like this many are quick to remind you that no one can see God’s Face and live. Exodus 33:20 But, He said, You can not see My face, for no man shall see Me and live. Yet, we are commanded to seek God’s Face. Though, in contrast, there are those who claimed to have seen God’s Face and lived. Was God lying, or is the Scripture contradicting itself? Neither. One of the things I love pointing out to people is that Jesus was God when He walked the earth. In other words, They saw God. To which they will typically counter that argument by stating that He was simply living as a man during His earthly ministry – He wasn’t really God. To which I agree. Yet this statement is only half the truth. For following Jesus’ resurrection Jesus appeared too over 500 people (1 Cor. 15:6) as God. Was Jesus glorified as God following His resurrection? Absolutely. So how do we reconcile the differences? The differences are reconciled when you understand that in the Old and New Testaments man could not look upon the Face of the Father and live, but they could look upon Jesus’ Face. Jesus was making appearances throughout the Old Testament long before He arrived as a baby in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. Consider the following:
In Ex. 3:2 it states: The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush…
Angel of the Lord is used exclusively in the O.T. This term is never used again in the New Testament. What escapes our notice is that this “Angel” refers to Himself as the Lord: Ex. 3:4-6 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I. 5 God said, Do not come near; put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. 6 Also He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
This Angel of the Lord spoke as God. Regarding the use of this term the Amplified Classic contains the following footnote for Gen. 16:7: “The Angel of the Lord” or “of God” or “of His presence” is readily identified with the Lord God (and other passages). But it is obvious that the “Angel of the Lord” is a distinct person in Himself from God the Father. Nor does the “Angel of the Lord” appear again after Christ came in human form. He must of necessity be One of the “three-in-one” Godhead. The “Angel of the Lord” is the visible Lord God of the Old Testament, as Jesus Christ is of the New Testament. Thus His deity is clearly portrayed in the Old Testament. The Cambridge Bible observes, “There is a fascinating forecast of the coming Messiah, breaking through the dimness with amazing consistency, at intervals from Genesis to Malachi. Abraham, Moses, the slave girl Hagar, the impoverished farmer Gideon, even the humble parents of Samson, had seen and talked with Him centuries before the herald angels proclaimed His birth in Bethlehem.”
In fact if you were to go through all of the Old Testament references to the Angel of the Lord you discover that He appears quite frequently. This Term is used in Gen.16:7-13 regarding Hagar. It is used of Abraham in Gen. 22:11-16 when he is about to sacrifice Isaac. In Gen. 22:15-16 it states: The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 And said, I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord…. You discover it in the account of Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord in Gen. 31:11,13 the Angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob. And I said, Here am I …..13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you vowed a vow to Me.
In the book of Joshua is an amazing account in which Joshua encounters the Angel of the Lord Who refers to Himself as Captain of the Lord’s Hosts. The term Lord of Hosts, Yahveh-Sabaoth, means Lord or God of Angelic Armies. How powerful is that? The other interesting thing about this passage is that angels never receive worship from man. That’s how we know that this is Jesus, and the Angel of the Lord. Josh. 5:13-15 When Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up, and behold, a Man stood near him with His drawn sword in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And He said, No [neither], but as Prince of the Lord’s host have I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, What says my Lord to His servant? 15 And the Prince of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, Loose your shoes from off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so.
All of this to say, when we are commanded to seek God’s Face, we are being commanded to not only seek God’s manifested Presence, but an experiential encounter with Jesus. Question is, Are you willing to turn to see?
Seeking God’s Face Day 1 (February 26): We have heard Your Voice calling to us. Yet too often we have allowed the noise of life to obscure Your call. Although we’ve ignored You before, we now hush our hearts long enough to respond to Your Voice. You are calling, “Come! Come nearer! Come seek My Face!” Our hearts answer back to You, “Yes! I’m coming! I will seek Your Face!” This really is the deepest longing of our hearts. This is what we were made for: To know You. To come near You. To love You. We seek You because You first sought us. Please keep calling us, and we will keep coming.
