Genesis 32:30

NASB	NLT	VOICE
30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”	30 Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”	30 So Jacob called the place Peniel because as he said, “I have come face to face with God, yet my life was spared.”

John 5:37

NASB	NLT	VOICE
37 And the Father who sent Me, He has testified about Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.	37 And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face,	37 In the act of sending Me, the Father has endorsed Me. None of you really knows the Father. You have never heard His voice or seen His profile.

To See or Not to See

Jacob saw God face to face. Jesus said no one has seen His form. Can you truly see God or not see God? I have always understood this as something that cannot happen without risk of death. No one can see the truest, purest form of God for it will be so overwhelmed and mind-blowing – it would truly kill you. This is the contradiction that we’re going to investigate today!

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What do you think? Can you see God like Jacob did?

Jacob’s Divine Favor

In the Old Testament, seeing God was often associated with the fear of death. It was believed that no one could see God and live. This encounter from Jacob shows how personal his relationship with God. Jacob got to live from this. God shows his favor and protection to Jacob, like was made to Abraham and Isaac. We can understand Jacob’s experience as a type of encounter with God, where our broken humanity is still granted life through divine grace.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Jacob got to see God through a divine favor. What does that mean to you?

Seeing God Without Seeing God

In the Old Testament, God’s voice was heard by the prophets, but Jesus addressed the direct encounters for the general humanity. God is spirit and cannot be seen. Jesus would be the visible representation of the invisible God. God was highlighting the authority and mission of Jesus this whole time. From the different Old Testament prophecies, God speaking over Jesus’ baptism, and the Transfiguration.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: While Yahweh may be invisible, we get to see a physical representation of God through Jesus. Jesus is not the Father, yet He is truly God. How does that make things different from Jacob’s encounter?

Seeing God Through Humanity

Seeing God was originally aligned with the ‘fear of the Lord’: a recognition that no one is truly worth to see God and live.  They recognized how powerful God truly is and saw that they could not taint his holiness and purity by being directly in the presence of Him. The person that Jacob wrestled with could have been God himself, but it was probably an angel – a messenger of God himself. Jacob may never have seen God, but the experience with the angel was enough to make Jacob think He talked with God. Jesus became that representation for all people. A way to experience God, see God, but without seeing God directly. The trinitarian mindset shows that God is three beings in one: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is the Almighty Creator. The Son is Jesus – the physical manifestation of who God is. The Holy Spirit resides in us when we allow Jesus into our hearts. It becomes active, present, and alive – a call to share with others. The call is to show others who God is through us, by reflecting his character and love to all people. God created us in His image. We are all real, though imperfect, images of God. We need to go out and share that love and compassion that God gifts to us, to all that we meet.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Seeing God is less about the physicality of seeing Him, and more about what it means to see Him. What does it mean to you to see God in your life right now?

Next part: Love or Revenge || Contradicting the Word || Part 7