Bible Studies

A STUDY OF PSALM 27 VERSE 8

by GLENN PEASE
01/29/22
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INTRODUCTION
In this study I have included much material that I have written in other places. I have done this because it all revolves around the key theme of the face of God. I have put all I have on that theme in one place to give as much insight into the topic as I have studied over the years.

1. It is surprising how many references there are in the Bible to seeking the face of God, or having his face shine on you. Let me give you a quick reading of the many text to give you an impression of how common it was to speak of the face of their invisible God of Spirit.

* Psa 4:6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.
* Psa 11:7 For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.
* Psa 17:15 And I -- in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.
* Psa 22:24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
* Psa 24:6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
* Psa 31:16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
* Psa 34:16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
* Psa 44:3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.
* Psa 51:9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
* Psa 67:1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us.
* Psa 80:3 Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
* Psa 80:7 Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
* Psa 80:19 Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
* Psa 104:15 wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.
* Psa 105:4 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
* Psa 119:58 I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.
* Psa 119:135 Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.

1B. His heart talks to his head and says, "Seek his face," And the head then talks to the will, and the will says, "I will do it. I will seek God's face." Here we see how an emotion can motivate a person to action. What you feel can lead to determining what you do. Spurgeon said, "Note the promptness of the response--no sooner said than done; as soon as God said "seek, "the heart said, "I will seek." Oh, for more of this holy readiness! Would to God that we were more plastic to the divine hand, more sensitive of the touch of God's Spirit." Maclaren stresses the same point, "The completeness and swiftness of his answer could not be more vividly expressed. To hear was to obey: as soon as God's merciful call sounded, the Psalmist's heart responded, like a harp-string thrilled into music by the vibration of another tuned to the same note. Without hesitation, and in entire correspondence with the call, was his response. So swiftly, completely, resolutely should we respond to God's voice, and our ready 'I will' should answer His commandment, as the man at the wheel repeats the captain's orders whilst he carries them out. Upon such acceptance of such an invitation we, too, may build the prayer, 'Hide not Thy face far from me.'" It is the Spirit of God that puts the impulse in the heart to seek God's face, and then we have a choice to respond by doing so, or rejecting that impulse. Proverbs 1:20-23 reveals the consequences of not giving heed to the call of God. In this text the call is that of wisdom, which is the same as the Spirit of God.

20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;

21 at the head of the noisy streets [c] she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

22 "How long will you simple ones [d] love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?

23 If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.

24 But since you rejected me when I called
and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,

25 since you ignored all my advice
and would not accept my rebuke,

26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you-

27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

28 "Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me.

29 Since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the LORD,

30 since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,

31 they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm."

2. Every impulse that men receive to seek the face of God is a call of God to them to turn to him and strive to know him and his will. Every impulse to do the right thing is the call of God to seek his face, and this becomes a way by which God judges the people of the world. Masses have not heard the Gospel of Christ, but they have heard many messages of right and wrong, or wisdom and folly, and which way they respond determines how God judges them. There are many pagans in history that have heard the call of wisdom and have chosen to seek God's face and do what the Spirit of God gives them the impulse to do. They are what I call holy pagans, and they play an important role in God's plan. God uses them because they are open to follow the Spirit of wisdom, and in that way they are seeking the face of God. We won't study this at this point, but go on to see what it means for fully committed believers to seek the face of God.

3. The more we gaze on God, the more we will come to know him and adore him. The angels who gaze on his face at all times adore him most of all. God desires to be known and adored, and so he welcomes those who want to see his glory by gazing on his face. Jesus stands at the door knocking, for he wants to enter and be seen by those within. He wants a face to face conversation with his people. The whole idea here is the intimacy that is possible between God and man. Fallen man is, by the grace of God, allowed to be so intimate with the Creator of all that he can stand before him face to face.

Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face--what will it be?
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me.

Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!

Only faintly now, I see Him,
With the darkling veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.

What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain.

Face to face! O blissful moment!
Face to face--to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so.
Carrie E. Breck, 1898

4. That is the blessed hope of all believers, but David is not here talking about eternity, but of his desire in time to gaze on the face of his God. It is a present experience in time. Spurgeon saw this as a time of prayer and meditation, and he wrote, "As the Master Himself often retired for meditation and prayer to the mountainside and the garden’s shade, that alone with his Father He might seek the face of His God, so let us leave, awhile, the busy scenes of life and the haunts of men to spend a still hour in quiet meditation over the works of God’s hands. And then let us pour out our hearts into His ever-loving breast. How much we lose by not noticing God in Nature and the Presence of our Father besetting us behind and before! I wish we were more in prayer. I long for it for myself—I desire it for you, also. I wish we were more in praise, too. Well would it be for us if the blessings of God, poured out upon us so lavishly, excited in us true gratitude at all times. Happy would that man be who responded to each touch of God’s beneficent hand like a well-made instrument answers to the fingers of the player."

5. Spurgeon goes on, "It is the long-lost blessedness of Eden restored to us with greater sweetness added to it. In Paradise God came and talked with Adam as a man talks with his friend. Our first parents had communion with God which they lost by sin, but it is now more than restored to us in Divine Grace. Heaven will be the place of perfect fellowship but we may foretaste much of the bliss of the future world, and eat of the grapes of Eshcol before we ever tread the green fields of the better land. Yes, it means lost blessings restored, and future ones realized when we can set ourselves face to face with God, and hold blessed communion with Him." Let your hearts ever cry—

“Lord, let me see Your beauteous face!
It yields a Heaven below;
And angels round the Throne will say,
‘Tis all the Heaven they know.
A glimpse—a single glimpse of You,
Would more delight my soul
Than this vain world, with all its joys,
Could I possess the whole.”

5B. Seeking God's face is basically going to him in prayer. It is coming before God and seeking his wisdom and guidance. We see it in II Sam. 21:1, " 1 During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD." We seek God's face when we need his help, and he is the only source that can help us. When you need help to fix your car, you seek the face of a mechanic. When you need help to watch your child you may seek the face of mom, or grandma, or a friend. When you need help to overcome a sickness you seek the face of a doctor. But when you need help that no human can provide, you seek the face of God. Going to the house of God is seeking his face. 2Chron. 7:121-16 says, "Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 "For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.”

5C. T. De Witt Talmage wrote, "...you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible is the newest book in the world. "Oh," you say, "it was made hundreds of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds of years ago." I confute that idea by telling you it is not five minutes old, when God, by His blessed Spirit, retranslates it into the heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through Scripture study, implore God's light to fall upon the page, you will find that these promises are not one second old, and that they drop straight from the throne of God into your heart."

6. So the question is, does God actually have a face that can be seen? And the answer to that question I have put if poetic form.

GOD HAS A FACE
BY Glenn Pease
We cannot see God the Father;
The Holy Spirit leaves no trace.
These facts our faith need not bother,
For in Jesus God has a face.
God has a face that we can see
In both time and eternity.
He joined the human race just so
His heavenly Father we could know.
The eyes of man are so finite
There’s much of God in shades so dim,
But Jesus came to give the light
That we might get a glimpse of Him
You cannot see and live to tell
If God’s glory comes your way,
But Jesus came and bore our hell
And by it tore the veil away.
He let the light of heaven shine
On this dark world of sin and shame.
He took away your sin and mine,
To show love was his aim.
He came to show to our blind eyes
What can be found no other place.
He made it clear as sunny skies,
That God has a loving face.
God has a face and we can see it
If we in his light will run.
God has a place and we can find it
If we say “Thy will be done.”
God has a grace and we can feel it
If all evil ways we shun.
God has a space and we can fill it
If we make Him number one.
God has a face and we can see it
In the person of His Son.

2 Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

THE FACE OF CHRIST Based on II Cor. 4:1-6

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Dr. Rosenow, a man who devoted his life to medical research, was asked, what led him to this as his life's task, and he told this story. He grew up on an isolated farm in Northern Wisconsin, and as a boy he had an unforgettable experience when his brother became dangerously ill. The nearest doctor was sent for, and when he came to the house, Dr. Rosenow, then only a boy, followed the doctor into his brothers room, and hid behind a sofa to observe. What he saw determined his career. The doctor poured out medicine to give to the patient, and then he turned and said to his parents, "Have no fear, he is going to get well." The light that came into his parents faces was wonderful to behold, and so deeply impressed him that then and there the boy behind the sofa determined that he would do something that would cause light to appear in people's faces.

We cannot begin to measure the powerful influence of shining faces in history. Longfellow said of one-

The light upon her face

Shines from the windows of another world.

Saints only have such faces.

When Adoniram Judson, the great missionary, was home on furlough, he passed through Stonington, Conn. Where a young boy saw his face glowing with the love of Christ. He was so deeply impressed that one of the chapters of the book he wrote when he became a pastor was entitled, "What A Boy Saw In The Face Of Adoniram Judson." This boy became Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, a great soul winner. Now you may not know Dr. Trumbull or Dr. Rosenow, or the million others whose lives have been changed by beholding faces, but all of you know the man in this third illustration of the powerful influence of a shining face.

He was not a boy as the other two, but was a grown man who had already determined his profession. He was engaged in duties that would make his face bitter and fearful. By his own confession he says, he was in an angry rage when suddenly at midday he saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, and with that vision his whole character and career was changed. Paul had seen the light, not just a light, but the light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that he was persecuting Christ, the face he saw was not a face of anger like his own, but a face of mercy and forgiveness, and from that time one Paul followed only the light that came from his Savior's face.

To behold the face of Christ, and to reflect the light of His face was the constant goal of the Apostle Paul. He was not a man of a thousand faces, but the man of one face-the face of Christ. He renounced all underhanded and cunning methods, and walked in the open light of the face of Christ. Paul could have written the words of the poet,

For this I strive, for this I pray,

For this all else resign:

Be like my Master everyday,

Set forth on earth the Christian way,

Reflect His face in mine.

Author unknown

In Margaret Deland's story, The Awakening Of Helina Ritchie, a small boy looking at a picture of the baptism of Jesus in which the artist had a face looking out of the clouds asked, "Is that a good photograph of God?" Dr. Lavendar, the pastor said, "If it looks like a kind father, I think it is a good photograph of God." The Apostle Paul would say, however, that the real authentic photograph of God is the Son of God, who is the express image of God. Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Paul says to the Corinthians here in verse 6, that the source of our knowledge of God, in all His glory and beauty, is in the face of Jesus Christ. Back in 318 He lays it down as a spiritual principle, that only as we with open face gaze upon the glory of the Lord Jesus, can we be changed by degrees, and become like Him. Looking at the face of Jesus is not just poetry, it is an essential and practical aspect of the Christian life, for those who desire to be Christlike in all their living.

This means, of course, that the face of Christ is not His literal face, but is the whole character and conduct of Jesus as it is recorded in the Gospels. The face, however, is the part of the body the most expressive of one's life and emotions. If you wish to know if a man is happy and glad, or sour and mad, you look, not at his hair, hands, back, or feet, but at his face. The face is the index of the heart and mind. When Shakespeare said, "You have such a February face, so full of frost, of storm, of cloudiness," it is not hard to guess the mood of the one he refers to. As Lewis Evans said, "Your face doth testify but you be inwardly." The eyes in the face take in light from without, while the face itself is the organ by which we express the light, or lack of it, within. Abraham Coles wrote,

Contending passions jostle and displace,

And tilt and tourney mostly in the face.

Unmatched by art, upon this wondrous scroll,

Portrayed our all the secrets of the soul.

This was true for Jesus, as for all men. The life of Christ can be portrayed by a series of portraits showing the expressions of His face. The album would begin with the baby face of Jesus in the manger, and then would come the studious face of boyhood, when he debated with the scholars in the temple. Then comes His delightful happy face as he healed and taught. Then on the mount of transfiguration His face shown as the Sun. Then comes His determined face when He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem to face the cross. Then comes His face of anguish and tears in the garden of Gethsemane. On the cross we see His disfigured face from the crown of thorns, and finally His conquering joyful face manifested in the happy days following His resurrection. We can't begin to look at the whole album, but we can focus our eyes on a couple of these pictures of the face of Christ which should challenge us to seek more often to meditate on Him until we literally see Him face to face. First of all let's look at-

I. HIS DELIGHTFUL FACE.

All of this emphasis of Paul on glory in the face of Christ implies a face of beauty and delightful joy. The middle ages lost sight of this face of Christ. It was an age of ascetics. Men were going off to monasteries where they fasted and cut themselves off from the normal life of man. They forgot that Jesus never did this. The artists began to picture Jesus only as He appeared in those last hours of His suffering. The only text they could see to paint by was that of Isaiah 53:3, "A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." This was a true picture of Christ in His suffering. The deformed face of Christ was real, and for us who know the love behind that agonizing face, even it contains beauty. Christina Rossetti put it so well in poetry.

Is this the face that thrills with awe,

Seraphs who veil their face above?

Is this the face without a flaw,

The face that is the face of love?

Yeah, this defaced, - this lifeless clod,

Hath all creation's love sufficed,

Hath satisfied the love of God,

This face, the face of Jesus Christ.

Keep in mind that Jesus was the spotless Lamb offered in sacrifice, and so even though He was made ugly by the sin of man, He was in His own perfection the most beautiful of all men. We ought never to lose the picture of His suffering face, but to suppress all others with it, and to impose this gruesome image on the whole life of Christ is a great perversion. Some who have looked so long and often at the face of sorrow have concluded that Jesus never smiled or laughed. This baseless tradition, with nothing but silence for a foundation, began as early as the forth century, and still has its effects yet today, for it is all too seldom that Christians consider the delightful smiling face of Jesus. The evidence for this portrait is abundant, even though there is no specific text that says Jesus smiled, as it says He wept.

One half-positive poet suggests that He might have smiled when He blest the little children. "A Man on earth He wondered once, all meek and undefiled, and those who loved Him said-He wept, none ever said He smiled. Yet there might have been a smile unseen, when He bowed His holy face I ween, to bless that happy child." Such a half-hearted defense of the smiling face of Christ is a witness to how strongly men have been influenced by the sad face of Christ on the cross. It is almost as if it was irreverent to think of Christ as a person enjoying life. It would be extremely abnormal for a person with very little to be happy about to go all through life without a smile or laughter. It is inconceivable that He who came that we might have abundant life should do so. Unless we are convinced that joy, laughter, and smiling is of the devil, rather than the gift of God, we must accept the reality of His delightful face.

Just try and imagine Jesus as a special guest at the wedding of Cana where He added to the joy of the occasion by His miracle of changing water into wine. Can you imagine Him all the while expressing no smile or emotion of delight, but keeping His face as solemn as if He was fasting? I can hardly conceive of Jesus being stuck with such a dead pan face even during the 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. Certainly one who said so often to others in time of trial, "Be of good cheer." Must have had a spring of joy in His own heart to fill His face with light, even while facing the ruler of darkness. Jesus was the light of the world, and in Him was no darkness at all.

Jesus told His disciples to keep their faces clean and to look happy and healthy when they fasted. They were not to display a sad face in search of sympathy, or to be praised for being so sacrificially religious. This alone, without all of His words of joy and rejoicing, is positive proof that we fly in the face of the facts when we picture Jesus with the face of an ascetic. The very record of His weeping shows it was unique and rare for Him to do so because He was generally so happy. Those who deny to Christ the universal pleasure of laughter, and paint Him as a perpetual man of sorrows have an uncanny ability to draw conclusions in total disregard to the facts. Jesus was not only a friend of children, but of publicans and sinners. He was frequently at the banquet table, and I have never seen a banquet where people were not smiling and laughing.

The Pharisees asked Jesus why His disciples did not fast, and Jesus answered in Matt. 9:15, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" Jesus was the leader of a delightfully happy band of men, and fasting just did not fit into their life style at this point. People by the hundreds were being healed, and they were shouting and praising God as their loved ones were restored to health. In such a constant atmosphere of praise and joy, who could fast and be sad? Most of all, how could the Savior, the Bridegroom Himself, the author of all this joy, have anything but a face of delight? More Biblical is the poet who paints the delightful face of Christ without apology.

The men who met Him rounded on their heels,

And wandered after Him because His face

Shown like the countenance of a priest of old

Against the flame about a sacrifice

Kindled by fire from heaven, so glad was He.

Author unknown

Luke 10:21 says Jesus rejoiced in the context of the 70 as they returned from their successful mission. Jesus was seen powerful success everywhere, and He could not help but rejoice as He saw the power of Satan being defeated. If we behold this delightful face of Christ often, we too can be filled with His joy. No wonder Paul said, "Rejoice in the Lord often, and again I say rejoice." Paul was a happy man in spite of all his trials because he beheld daily the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The second picture we want to look at is-

II. HIS DESIRABLE FACE.

His joy is only one of the values we want imparted to us. His face has many other desirable characteristics. His face is a face of peace, a face of purity, and a face of keen intelligence. Everything desirable is found in the face of Christ. If there is anything lovely, think on it says Paul, and nothing can be more lovely than the face of Him who is altogether lovely and the fairest of the fair. A child was afraid of the dark and the mother said as she left the room, "God will be with you." "Yes, I know," said the boy, "But I want somebody here with a face." He wanted a personal God and not just a God of doctrine and theology. In the face of Christ all doctrine becomes personal. The face of Christ does away with abstract speculation and brings God near in everyday life. Jesus is God with a face.

Caryle said, "I would rather have one real glimpse of the young Jew face of Christ than all the Raffaeles in the world." The face of Christ is so desirable just because an example of perfection to gaze upon changes the gazers into its likeness. Paul is saying this in 3:18, and life proves it to be so. Look at what is evil, corrupt, and defiled and you will tend to become like that which you behold. Thoreau said, "We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones-any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features; any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them." Our face becomes an index of our values and reflects that which we focus our face upon. That is why we are urged to set our affection on things above so we can reflect the light from above.

Nathaniel Hawthorne in the story of The Great Stone Face, tells of a village in a Swiss valley nestled beneath a great mountain. On it was craved a face that was strong, calm, and loving. People said that one day a man with such a face would come and lead them and help them. This impressed one boy so much that he studied the face on the mountain and watched every stranger who came to town. He compared their faces with the face on the rock. Always disappointed, he grew to be a young man, and still was closely studying the face on the mount.

The time came when he attended a public meeting and the speaker suddenly pointed to him saying, "There he is, the likeness of the great stone face." He had studied the face so much that he himself reflected its likeness. This is fiction, but the principle is not. It is fact, and Paul says look on the desirable face of Jesus for thereby you will by degrees become like Him and reflect His glory. We have no picture of Christ, but we have the mirror of the Word which reflects His glory into our face. Let us be often than at this mirror-the beauty parlor of the soul, and let us sing, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me."

William Hillyer wrote,

No pictured likeness of my Lord have I;

He craved no record of His ministry on wood or stone.

He left no sculptured tomb or parchment dim,

But trusted for all memory of Him men's hearts alone

Who sees the face but sees in part; who reads

The spirit which it hides, sees all; He needs no more.

Thy grace-thy life in my life, Lord, give Thou to me;

And then, in truth, I may forever see

My Master's face.

When a great cathedral was being built the artistic work was entrusted only to the most skilled artists, but an old man kept asking for a chance to carve, claiming he was a sculptor. He was unknown so they refused, but he persisted to ask. In order to get rid of him they gave him a block of stone in a dark corner. Day after day he worked with infinite patience until his work was done. Now a special window has been put in to let visitors see his glorious work. People pass by the carving on the main part of the building to see the face of Christ carved by unknown genius in the dark.

The face can convey inspiration. It is said of Oliver Cromwell, on the eve of a great battle, when the odds were against him, that his soldiers would eagerly seek his face before the bugle sounded the charge. "See," they would exclaim as he passed along the line. "See, he has his battle face today." It was to his soldiers a sign of victory. So also, we need to behold the victorious face of our risen Lord to be prepared to fight the battles of life.

Would you like to know the secret

Of the sweetness of the Lord?

Go and hide beneath His shadow;

This shall then be your reward.

But when'er you leave the silence

Of that happy meeting place,

You must mind and bear the image

Of the Savior in your face.

Author unknown

There is a story of Leonardo da Vinci, and of how in the first painting of the "Last Supper" he had put such pains and a such a wealth of detail into two cups standing on the table that a friend, seeing them stared at them in open-mouthed amazement; whereupon the artist seized a brush and with one sweep of his hand painted them out of the picture, crying as he did it, "Not that! That isn't what I want you to see! It's the face. Look at the face!" Fanny Crosby, the great hymn writer who wrote "Saved By Grace," sang often these words from that song: "I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story saved by grace." She said she was grateful to God that she went through this life in darkness, for she said people who see have seen many hundreds of faces, but the first face I will ever see is the face of Jesus.

Lord, let me see thy beauteous face!

It yields a heaven below;

And angels round the throne will say,

Tis all the heaven they know.

Norman Vincent Peale tells of the Belgian family whose father had been taken to the prison in Breendonk by the Nazis. It was a death camp and they never saw him again. How did they endure such torture and death he asked, and the son took him to the cell and told him to get down on his knees and reach up under the bench to the wall and feel the wall. It felt like the outline of a face, he said. "That is precisely what it is," the son said. "One of the prisoners carved the face of the Savior under this bench where the Nazis wouldn't find it. And in the night time he would run his hand over this face." Other prisoners heard of it and asked if they could also run their hand over the face. This is how they got comfort and assurance that Christ was with them in their trials.

In a great church in Copenhagen, Denmark, the famous sculptor Thorwalden made a statue of Christ. When you enter the church it looks like Jesus is looking at you, but you can't see His face. If you go from side to side you the likeness of the Lord, but still you can't see His face. It is only when you walk down the aisle and kneel and look up that you can see His face. Only when bowed down looking up does the face of Christ appear. These, and many other stories, motivated me to write a poem on the face of Christ.

Of all the faces of the human race,

None shine so bright as the Savior's face.

Of all whom we love, of all whom we embrace,

There is none who can take the Master's place.

His light alone will lead us home;

His light above will lead in love;

His glory pure will ever endure,

Of His guiding light you can be sure.

If you would like to like Him be,

Both now and for eternity,

Be blind to all that is low and base

And gaze instead upon His face.

Be willing however great the price

To follow the light from the face of Christ.

7. A second poem I wrote stresses that Christmas was the time when God revealed his face in the flesh for the first time.

THE FACE OF GOD
BY GLENN PEASE
CHRISTMAS IS GOD'S GREAT INVASION
OF THIS EARTH FROM BEYOND SPACE.
ON THIS MARVELOUS OCCASION
HE REVEALED TO MAN HIS FACE.
AT THE START HE WAS A STRANGER
JUST A BABY OUT OF PLACE.
EARTH'S CREATOR IN A MANGER
WAS NOT TO HIM A DISGRACE.
II
SHEPHERDS WATCHING THEIR FLOCKS BY NIGHT
HEARD THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD'S GRACE.
WHEN THE ANGELS HAD LEFT THEIR SIGHT
THEY LEFT TOO WITH HURRIED PACE.
THEY RAN TO BETHLEHEM'S STABLE
WHERE THE CHRIST CHILD THEY EMBRACE.
PRAISING GOD THAT THEY WERE ABLE
TO BEHOLD HIM FACE TO FACE.
III
WISE MEN SAW HIS STAR IN THE EAST
IT WAS RARE, NOT COMMONPLACE.
WHEN HEAVEN CELEBRATES A FEAST
THEY IT'S MEANING LONG TO TRACE.
NO JOURNEY COULD BE ON A PAR
NOTHING COULD THAT SIGHT ERASE.
THEY WOULD EVER FOLLOW THAT STAR
TILL THEY SAW CHRIST'S SHINING FACE.
IV
HE CAME HERE TO BE ONE OF US
TO STAND WITH US FACE TO FACE.
TAKING ON HIM THE NAME JESUS
SAVIOUR OF OUR FALLEN RACE..
TO THE HEAVENS HE'S ASCENDED
HE HAS RETURNED TO HIS BASE.
ALL THAT'S BROKEN WILL BE MENDED
AND ALL EVIL HE'LL REPLACE.
V
WHEN WE SEE THE FACE OF JESUS
WE BEHOLD THE FACE OF GOD.
MAY THIS AMAZING TRUTH SEIZE US
AS WE THROUGH THIS SEASON TROD.
WE LOOK UPON THE FACE OF GOD
WHEN THE FACE OF CHRIST WE SEE.
LET THIS CHRISTMAS SPIRIT YOU PROD
TO LOOK AND IN HIM BE FREE

8. Maclaren wrote, "But, most of all, He summons us to Himself by Him who is the Angel of His Face, 'the effulgence of His glory, and the express image of His
person.' In the face of Jesus Christ, 'the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God' beams out upon us, as it never shone on this Psalmist of
old. He saw but a portion of that countenance, through a thick veil
which thinned as faith gazed, but was never wholly withdrawn. The voice
that he heard calling him was less penetrating and less laden with love
than the voice that calls us. He caught some tones of invitation
sounding in providences and prophecies, in ceremonies and in law; we
hear them more full and clear from the lips of a Brother. They sound to
us from the cradle and the cross, and they are wafted down to us from
the throne. God's merciful invitation to us poor men never has taken,
nor will, nor can, take a sweeter and more attractive form than in
Christ's version of it: 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.' Friend! that summons comes to us; may
we deal with it as the Psalmist did!"

9. The Old Testament saints often saw the face of God in the face of the Angel of the Lord. Most Bible scholars agree that this being was Jesus Christ in his pre-incarnate state, and he was the one that made God visible to his people time and time again. People actually saw the face of God just as Adam and Eve did when God walked with them in the Garden. "God the Father called Him "the Angel in whom My name is" (Yahweh). This same 'Angel of the Lord' appeared to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Daniel and several other important Old Testament leaders. Jesus appeared at several integral times as the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. Known by scholars as a 'theophany' or 'pre-incarnate manifestation', Jesus IS Alpha & Omega (Begining and End), He who pre-existed and created everything- everything that exists."

10. Angel of the Lord scripture study and insight. The Angel of the Lord is also called the “Angel of His Face” and “the Angel of His Presence”. This Angel bears the countenance of God’s presence. This Angel bears the Name of God Himself.