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Exodus 33:20. (If looks could kill)

YoursTrue

Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
It would make for a huge contradiction with those who believe God is an invisible being who's perpetually outside the universe or something like that.

Starting at Exodus 33:18 Moses was able to see God's back according to the story.

That's another bizarre take on the story because apparently God's lethal divinity apparently projects from his face, and not from his back.
Let's face it. There are different ways of looking at things.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
This is one of the most strangest Bible verses I've ever come across during the time I was a Christian and even now, it's a pretty bizarre statement aside from coming across similar mythological beings in the vast Pantheon of gods and demigods of the ancients, such as Medusa for example, where looks and a gaze would turn you into solid stone and for all intents and purposes quite dead.

But I'm curious what Christian apologetics would say on the matter.

Why would you die if you were to look upon a god purported to be good and holy?

Unfortunately, most of the Christian explanations go way off track and it almost always leads away from the question at hand into to a sermon on love and such, taking the focus almost completely away from the verse explaining how exactly a gaze could kill you.

So far the best attempted explanation I've come across so far, was an association made with vampires that if the bright sunlight hits you you would turn to dust and crumble away because you were so gosh-darn evil and that God comparatively is regarded as being the sunlight, and the people imbued with evil are the vampires whom essentially would crumble and die in the gods presence. Doesn't sound too nice if you are a vampire.

Anyways it's a crazy sounding Old testament verse among many.

Any apologists want to take a crack at this?

Why would you die if you saw God's face?
God doesn't actually have a face. This is why God uses messengers (angels) when he wants to physically manifest, such as at the burning bush. The totality of God is simply beyond us, and beyond what we can handle. That we would die is more of a figurative expression. It's more that we simply CAN'T see God, because he is God, great and awesome and utterly beyond us. Hope this helped.
 

YoursTrue

Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
Then how come Moses could see God's back?
However and whatever Moses saw is something remarkable. Moses related his experience. If I try to envision that experience, I can only understand that it would be overpowering, overwhelming, for humans to see Him now. We are human. He is not. Looking at the sun too long can make a person go blind. And God created the sun. Therefore...God allowed Moses to see a form that would not hurt him but which was glorious.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Can you look at things internally? Meaning can you see in your head?
It is true that the ability to see things in our heads neither proves nor disproves their existence in real life. I can close my eyes, and still "see" my children who are far away. But I also still remember being a kid, and responding with very real fear to the monster under my bed.
 

Vee

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Then how come Moses could see God's back?

There are some parts of the Bible where it might seem that humans have seen God, but when you look at the context, either they saw an angel or they had some kind of vision.
The same way, in Exodus, when it seems like God spoke directly to Moses, the information was actually being transmitted through angels (see Galatians 3:19 and Acts 7:53). Moses faith was incredibly strong, so much that the Bible describes him as "seing the one who is invisible", figuratively speaking of course.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Then how come Moses could see God's back?
This is called anthropomorphism, where we describe God in human terms. It is a form of figurative speech -- it is not literal. God doesn't have a back. He has no form at all.

Saying Moses could see God's back is a way of saying Moses could see God in what God had done, the way you might see the impact of a mighty wind. It's really a very, very deep and insightful way to describe the experience.
 

YoursTrue

Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
It is true that the ability to see things in our heads neither proves nor disproves their existence in real life. I can close my eyes, and still "see" my children who are far away. But I also still remember being a kid, and responding with very real fear to the monster under my bed.
I can sure understand that. And our experiences are just that, more or less personal, depending on who "sees" them and how. :) Have a nice evening. Of course, seeing things in our heads does not mean that Moses, for instance, saw the burning bush, let's say, in his head. But then -- he reported that he saw what he saw. On the other hand, visions are not seen by others, but they -- as far as I am concerned in reference to the Bible -- are true.
 
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