Page 156 - THE REVELATION OF THE THIRD HEAVEN and THE MEAT OF THE WORD

the Son of God but he humbled himself instead (Heb 2:6-8 God as Jesus the Son of
Man is not capitalised in these verses). God has humbled Himself further by being
the Word, written as a book-in-the-spiritual which is God (Rev 19:13) that even we
can pick up, handle and ‘study’ as a book-in-the-material, which being a material
representation is not God as an object to be worshipped (Deut 4:15-16, Rom 1:23).
The word-for-word content, sense, message, meaning, statement and
communication of the single, holistic Word is God (John 1:1, 14, Rev 19:13).

Nonetheless we deceive ourselves if we think that we are in control by such ‘study’
for when we study the Word we are being examined by God (Heb 4:12) more than
the other way round (Isaiah 45:9) and God reveals Himself as He pleases (1 Cor
2:14, 12:11) which is to give understanding according to the faith and prior
understanding to receive it (Mat 13:12, 25:29, Mark 4:25, Luke 8:18, 2 Cor 8:12).
As such and in this context it is good to study the Word for the purpose of correct
interpretation and understanding (2 Tim 2:15).

The default is that God can not be seen (Exodus 33:20) and has never been seen
(John 1:18, 1 John 4:12) but on occasion He is seen, even face to face as with
Jacob who wrestled with Melchizedek (Gen 32:30) and of course Jesus was seen
from all angles. So God can be seen (Gen 17:1, Exodus 24:10-11, 33:11, Num
14:14, Deut 5:4, 34:10, Isaiah 6:1, 5, Heb 11:27). Isaiah saw God as the Lord of
Hosts, not only that but also seated on the throne and with His train with seraphims
(Isaiah 6:1-5). The resolution of the apparent flat contradiction (or antinomy)
between these words into the single correct interpretation of the single, holistic
Word is that invisibility is the default but that there are exceptions making this
another mysterious antinomy. At one point the back of God was visible to Moses
but not the face (Ex 33:23). However no overall, complete, determining or
recognisable form of God was visible to the people (Deut 4:15-16) although
incompletely, i.e. as the 'back parts', God was visible to Moses (Num 12:8, Ex
33:23, Acts 7:30). In the fire there was also an angel making any recognisable
image of God impossible for that reason alone even for Moses (Deut 4:15-16 -
Moses too is to make no image - Acts 7:30). So this was not a face to face
visitation. The three men of Genesis 18:2 are angels not the Godhead of the Trinity
(Gen 18:22). Angels in Heaven are also sometimes described as men (Ezek 9:2,
11) as sometimes are those on earth (Acts 1:10). Also by seeing Jesus we see God
(John 14:7). These restrictions on visibility are part of the Law (Rev 22:18-19).
The restrictions on seeing God i.e.the Godhead or of God, the Father or God, the
Holy Ghost is what is referred to in Exodus 33:20.