Face to Face, Pt. 11: God’s Shining Face
Victory Life Durant, Midweek — Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Readings:
OT: Numbers 6:22-27 (ESV) and (NLT)
Keeping the Frame
Humans as God’s Image: Representation and Rule in partnership
The whole biblical story is about God’s desire to take crooked people and the twisted world that we’ve created and to make everything right. Through Jesus, God invites us to become whole, new humans (2 Corinthians 5:16-17). Our new “in Christ” identity is the truth of who we are. Living in a “face to face” relationship with God means seeing ourselves as God sees us: loved equally as the Son is loved by the Father.
What’s true of Jesus becomes true of us.
2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (ESV) 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
“Both human and spiritual maturity are demonstrated in having feelings, desires, and emotions under the guidance and control of what is good. Persons who are not spiritually mature are under the guidance and control of feelings, desires, and emotions.” Jim Wilder
Key Vulnerable Times: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
Six Negative Emotions — [ SADSAD ] — Sadness, Anxiety, Despair, Shame, Anger, Disgust
Joy (Review)
Joy is the greatest fuel for the brain, and it is a relational byproduct, it’s the result of being connected with someone who is happy to be with you and share in the moment. Joy is the greatest fuel for life, work, purpose, and character transformation.
“God designed our brains to run on joy like a car runs on fuel… Joy does not exist outside of relationship.”
John 15:9-11 (ESV) 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
“When we see the sparkle in someone’s eyes, their face lights up with a smile when they see us. We feel joy. From the moment we are born, joy shapes the chemistry, structure and growth of our brain. Joy lays the foundation for how well we will handle relationships, emotions, pain and pleasure throughout our lifetime. Joy creates an identity that is stable and consistent over time. Joy us the freedom to share our hearts with God and others.” ~ JIm Wilder
Psalm 16:11 (ESV) You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
God’s Shining Face and Lifted Countenance
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV) The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
Verses 25-26: When God “shines” his face, he looks on his people for good. The “shining forth” and “lifting up” of Yahweh’s face are more closely defined by His positive presence issuing grace and peace. Yahweh’s face shining upon his people, by which his good pleasure and good acts will be exerted on behalf of his precious possession, is enhanced by the invoking of his grace. Yahweh’s lifting of his face is an expression referring “to an appearance of the countenance expressive of pleasure and affection, functionally equivalent to ‘smile.’” Yahweh’s face “smiling” upon His people bestows to them His “shalom,” which means fullness of life and wholeness in all areas of life: material, familial, societal, and religious.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV) For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Jim Wilder, Renovated: God, Dallas Willard & the Church that Transforms (NavPress and Tyndall House Publishers, 2020), pg. 50
Michel Hendricks and Jim Wilder, The Other Half of the Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2020), 54, 56
E. James Wilder, Edward M. Khouri, Chris M. Coursey, Shelia D. Sutton, Joy Starts Here: The Transformation Zone, (Life Model Works, 2021), pg. 35
Cross-reference with Psalm 27:7-8 and 67:1-7 and Exodus 33:12-20. Connected to Jesus, see John 1:9-18.
Cole, R. D. (2000). Numbers (Vol. 3B, p. 131). Broadman & Holman Publishers. Quoted from M. I. Gruber, “The Many Faces of nasaʾ panim, ‘lift up the face,’ ” ZAW 95 (1983): 253; S. Ahituv, “The Countenance of Yahweh” (Hebrew), in Tehillah Le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg, ed. M. Cogan, B. L. Eichler J. H. Tigay (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1997): 3–12.
Ashley, T. R. (1993). The Book of Numbers (p. 152-153). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.