I need God with a Face

by Robert Mohns

Many of our days are spent in the routines of life according to our various vocations. We are husbands and wives. We are fathers and mothers. We have families to care for. We work, we study, we play. We worship, we pray, we read and meditate on the Scriptures, we serve one another. We enjoy family and friends. And so the routines carry on from day to day.

Every now and again, however, we experience trauma and crisis. We experience pain, hurt, sorrow, loss. Certainly, the routines of our life have been turned upside down in these days of pandemic and will be in the coming days, post-pandemic.

In spite of the cheerleading and good wishes, in spite of words of encouragement to hang in there, we experience seasons when all our efforts to endure fail. There are times when even hanging on is not possible.

This was Job’s situation. Job did not know that the Lord had declared of him that “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8). He did not know of Satan’s accusation: “Does Job fear God for no reason?… But stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face” (Job 1: 9, 11).

What Job did know was that his life had suddenly been turned upside down—and more than that, that he could find no respite from the wave upon wave of affliction that had suddenly engulfed him. Early in the book, Job speaks honestly of what he knows: “What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?” (Job 6:11-13).

Dear saints of God (for that is whom God has made you to be), may God grant you such a heart that yearns every day to see the face of your Redeemer!

Job confesses he has no strength no ability to hang on. He sees calamity from which he cannot escape. A little later, Job describes his situation in this way: “He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness upon my paths” (Job 19:8).

Perhaps you have found yourself in that situation, times when you can go no further. You look around and all you see is a wall too tall to climb. You feel the darkness creeping ever closer.

A young child was having difficulty settling into her first night in a new house. The parents reassured her, “You will be okay. We’ll be in the living room right outside your door. There’s nothing to hurt you. God is with you.” The child replied, “But I can’t see Him in the dark. I want a God with a face.”

This too is what Job longed for. In the very midst of doubts and fears, when the temptation to turn from God and curse Him loomed so close, Job is given these faithful words to hang his life and his salvation on: “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:23-29).

When night comes, trouble knocks, disappointments punctuate the day, and problems overwhelm, we all crave a God with a face. The words from Job’s lips are given to us as well.

Yes, even when you have found yourself in Job’s ash pile, sitting between God’s declaration of your justification and Satan’s accusation, it is the Lord who enters into your life.

For a full festival season now, from those seemingly distant days of Advent, through Christmas, and Epiphany, from Lent to Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, the God with skin on, the God with a face, has accompanied us. Yes, even through the days of COVID-19. Yes, even when you have found yourself in Job’s ash pile, sitting between God’s declaration of your justification and Satan’s accusation, it is the Lord who enters into your life.

By His incarnation He has forever put your face on. God, with your face, has set His face like flint to fulfill all righteousness for you by His sinless, perfect obedient life. By His suffering and death, He has endured the full cup of His Father’s wrath against your sin. He has died your death and on the third day was raised from the dead for your justification. In that great exchange of Good Friday and Easter, He exchanges your weakness for His steadfastness, His strength. He says to you, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). All this He has done so that you will see God with a face, with your own eyes.

In that great exchange of Good Friday and Easter, He exchanges your weakness for His steadfastness, His strength. He says to you, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Sitting in the ash heap of repentance, between God’s declaration and Satan’s accusation, God acted for the sake and saving of His servant Job.

God is ever at work chiseling away at our lives as well. St Paul put it this way: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). Through the Apostle James, God gives us this promised hope: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:11).

So that we might have this hope more firmly set, the Apostle John was given to see the promise fulfilled. In the Book of Revelation, John receives a vision of the saints of God, those who have dipped their garments in the blood of the Lamb, gathered around the throne of God with angels and archangels, singing together the new song.

May we, through Word and Spirit, be granted hearts that faint after the God with a face; Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer.

I know that my Redeemer Lives; What comfort this sweet sentence gives!  He lives, who once was dead; He lives my ever-living head.

He lives triumphant from the grave; He lives eternally to save; He lives all glorious in the sky; He lives exalted there on high.

He lives to bless me with His love; He lives to plead for me above; He lives my hungry soul to feed; He lives to help in time of need. (LSB 461)

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Rev. Robert Mohns is Regional Pastor for Lutheran Church–Canada’s West Region.

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