Pure In Heart  Shall See God  
     
 
H ave you ever wished to see God face-to-face and have a personal conversation with Him? There are real life situations where Christians claim to have seen God. Some say God speaks with them on a regular basis, even day-to-day. They will tell you that God “hangs out” or just “chats” with them. I am aware of cases where Christians claim “God” gave them advice that turned out to be false. God does not lie (Num. 23:19) nor does He make mistakes, because He knows all things. This means the conversation they are having is not with God. It is not with an angel because an angel is strictly a messenger of God. Some people even say they see God daily. This cannot be true according to scripture (John 1:18 and 1 John 4:12). The desire to see God face-to-face and to have a conversation with God is strong when you love Him. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us who will see God,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (NASB) Matt. 5:8

Face-To-Presence. Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses and Elijah were men of old who had very unusual relationships with God. The most significant couple in the Bible is Adam and Eve. You would think they had a close friendship with God, but the Bible never says that about Adam. The Bible tells us that Abraham was the friend (James 2:23) of God, not Adam. The Bible never tells us Adam and Eve saw God, but it does tells us that they heard the “sound of the LORD God walking in the garden” NASB (Gen. 3:8). About 622 years later Adam saw Enoch who would later not see death because he pleased God (Gen. 5:24; Heb 11:5). Elijah did not see death either, because God took him to heaven in a “chariot of fire” (2 Kings 2:11). Would you like to have that kind of relationship with God!
Of all the men, it was Moses who spoke to God as a friend speaks to friend. It is Moses who spoke to God face-to-face and mouth-to-mouth. Listen to the words of God,

And it came about, whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the LORD would speak with Moses . . . the LORD [spoke] to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. (NASB) Ex. 33:9, 11

and again,

Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. (NASB) Num 12:5-8

This is the heart passion of many Christians - to speak with God face-to-face. Moses spoke to God mouth-to-mouth but he did not see God. The Hebrew expression “face-to-face” in Ex 33:11, according to the Jewish rabbis, does not mean that Moses actually saw God’s face but that he saw God’s presence. Moses spoke with God “face-to-presence.” Ex. 33:20-23 records the words of God to Moses where Moses is told that he could not see God’s face for “no man can see Me and live (NKJV).” But Moses was allowed to see God’s presence.

 

 
     
 
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  Sermon on the Mount