A human face can tell us many things. A smile may be warm, encouraging, inviting or conniving. A person’s eyes may look at you, past you, though you or deep into your soul. A face may be menacing or soaked in love. Faces have the ability reveal what lies behind them.
However, God made it clear to Moses that he would not be permitted to see His face.
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Ex 33:18-20).
Whether God has an actual physical face is, perhaps, a topic for another conversation, but The Lord has made clear that we will not get to know Him in the same way we might a friend or a spouse: by seeing with eyes and subconsciously noting the others’ expressions. However, we will know Him through other ways He chooses to reveal himself.
So, what is the face of God that we can see? Moses was invited into the presence of God (a few verses earlier), entering a tent marked by a pillar of cloud where, we are told that “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Ex 33: 11). Assuming the Bible does not contradict itself, what might that mean? Especially as we are exhorted to “seek God’s face”, for example, in Psalm 24.
One explanation may be found in Numbers 12: 8, where The Lord, speaking about Moses, said to Aaron and Miriam: “With him (that is, Moses) I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.”
And earlier in the book of Numbers we read, “When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the LORD spoke to him” (Numbers 7: 89)
Moses saw the form of The Lord, but got to know Him through what he heard,
Just as there are an infinite number of ways that a message can be sent through facial expressions, so The Lord has no limits as to how He might convey His words and His heart to us through His voice. And, of course, the idea of God’s voice can mean many things.
For some it might be an impression laid on their heart or a nudge on their conscience. It might be a verse of Scripture, silently bringing a new perspective to a personal situation. It might be a peace that came out of nowhere, or a sense that I must keep praying until he says it’s enough.
However the Lord chooses to speak or show himself, the song of Asaph is an ongoing call throughout the ages and down to today: “Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always” (1 Chronicles 16:11).