THE MANIFESTED GOD

After having a conversation with Moses about the disobedient actions of the Israelites and Moses interceding on their behavior, Moses asked God to allow him to see His glory. In response, God told Moses, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:19-23).

God did have a plan for the future to allow people to see His face, and He did it through the person of His son Jesus. In the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesied about the miraculous birth of Jesus approximately six hundred years before it occurred. He said,  “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

In the New Testament, John described the birth of Jesus as follows: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14). Additionally, Jesus, speaking to the Jews who questioned whether He was the Christ, said, “ I and my Father are one” (John 10: 30).

Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus was comforting and instructing His disciples about His departure from them, and He said, “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Then the response of the disciples named Philip made Jesus reply, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9).

Paul, in 1 Timothy 3:16, described Jesus as the manifested God who completed His earthly assignment in this manner, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” So, we believers who are presently alive can proclaim like Paul that we are looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, for He Jesus is our manifested God.