Face to Face (Part 2)
Our study of the eleven (11) biblical occurrences of
the phrase “face to face” began with the three (3) instances that
deal with men interacting with other men. Paul’s face to face
encounter with his accusers at Caesarea in the presence of Agrippa
and Festus silenced his critics and garnered the favor of the king.
The apostle John, in his last two epistles, spoke of the spiritual
and personal joy he anticipated from face to face meetings with the
elect lady and Gaius respectively. These would supercede
communication of the pen-and-paper kind.
The remaining eight (8) usages of “face to face”
occur in contexts that describe men having personal encounters with
God. Long before Steven Spielberg gave us “Close Encounters of the
Third Kind” (1977) as an exercise in science fiction, biblical
writers were documenting close encounters of the divine kind that
were as real as the air we breathe. Is there a more significant
encounter that one can experience in this life?
The first mention of “face to face” involves a man we
might have voted “Least Likely” to experience such an encounter.
Consider briefly five of his predecessors, for whom “face to face”
would have been an appropriate reference: Abel, for whose person and
offering the Lord had respect (Genesis 4:4); Enos, the son of Seth,
whose prayerful example led a generation of men to call upon the
Lord’s name (4:26); Enoch, who walked with God until the Lord took
him (5:22-24); Noah, who walked with God and found grace in the
Lord’s eyes (6:8-9); and altar-building Abram, a righteous man to
whom the Lord appeared multiple times on a personal level (12:7-8).
Not one of these “Most Likely” candidates, however, was granted the
first “face to face” reference. The Spirit of God reserved that
unique distinction for the supplanter-in-chief—Jacob!
There a few individuals in scripture that better
epitomize the grace of God toward sinners than does Jacob. He
procured brother Esau’s birthright for a mess of pottage and later
appropriated the blessing of his elder brother by fraudulent means.
Esau’s subsequent anger forced Jacob into fugitive mode. It was
shortly after hitting the road that the Lord appeared to him in a
“ladder” dream with promises (28:10-22). Upon awaking, he concluded
that Luz was “none other but the house of God” (28:17), named it
Bethel (“house of God”), erected a pillar from the rocks he had used
for pillows, and made vows contingent upon God’s faithfulness to his
promises
Fast forward twenty years. Jacob has accrued four
wives, eleven sons, one daughter and great wealth. The angel of the
Lord appears to him in another dream, reminds him of the
twenty-year-old promises made at Bethel, and tells him to “get thee
out of this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred
(31:11-13). Jacob complies, and once again is acutely aware that an
unavoidable encounter with Esau lies ahead. He sends an advance
“present” to Esau so as to “appease him” and find acceptance prior
to seeing “his face” (32:20). As it turned out, the Lord was about
to put Jacob’s concern over Esau’s face in proper perspective with a
glimpse of his own.
On the eve of his meeting with Esau, Jacob made
additional precautionary steps to protect his family. This left him
alone for the night (32:24-32). It was there that he “wrestled with
a man” until daybreak. There is no doubt in the minds of most Bible
students that the “man” with whom Jacob wrestled—and effectively
so—was none other than the Pre-Incarnate Christ. In order to get the
upper hand, the man touched-disjointed one of Jacob’s hip sockets…a
touch that left him with a perennial limp. Still Jacob refused to
relinquish his grip until he had been blessed by the divine
grappler. Jacob’s grip on this man reminds me of the industrial
product Non-serviceable Loctite. Once applied to threaded objects,
only the extreme heat of a torch can break it loose.
The man who changed the name of Luz to Bethel was
about to have his own name changed. God gave Jacob (“heel holder,
supplanter, snare layer”) the name Israel (“God prevails”). This
happens to be the first occurrence of “Israel” in the biblical text.
When Jacob asked the man for his name, he got a rhetorical response,
which led him to the correct conclusion. Thus “Jacob called the name
of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life
is preserved” (32:30). Peniel and Penuel (32:31) both have the same
meaning: “facing God.”
What conclusions can we
draw from Jacob’s face to face encounter? First, face to face
encounters that involve believers always result in an alteration of
one’s identity and life. It’s impossible to meet face to face with
God without a change for the better…and holier. Second, no face we
encounter in this life is of greater import than the face of God.
The man or woman who meets God face to face need not fear the face
of any man. Third, the promises of God have no expiration date.
Whether decades or centuries, the passage of time cannot disannul
them. Fourth, America’s future may very well depend upon believers
who are willing to grapple with God in Loctite fashion until they
have secured a blessing from his merciful hand on behalf of their
nation. Our next Pen will continue to examine those passages that
describe face to face encounters with God.
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