God is a spirit (see John 4: 24), but as the
risen Lord reminded His disciples, “a spirit has not flesh and bones
as ye see me having” (Luke 24: 39). It is remarkable then that God
has condescended to be described in the familiar terms of a
body—as having eyes,
ears, hands and so on—thereby conveying to us in some small measure
something of Himself and His actions towards us. Of course, God is
far above our thoughts, and He does not literally have these bodily
features—they are merely figures—but they bring what is essentially
incomprehensible within our range of understanding. “No one has seen
God at any time” (John 1: 18) is a statement of fact, but God has
made Himself known to us in divine revelation—and supremely so in
the One who is the Word of God, and who was “found in figure as a
man” (Phil. 2: 8).
Scripture tells us that God has
eyes. Not actual eyes
of course, but He does see us and He does observe us. Thus “his eyes
are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his steps” (Job 34: 21)
and “his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men” (Ps. 11:
4). Hebrews 4 reiterates the same truth: “And there is not a
creature unapparent before him; but all things [are] naked and laid
bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do” (v13).
The divine eyes are connected with divine grace
and favour. So the Psalmist writes “I will instruct thee and teach
the way in which thou shalt go; I will counsel [thee] with mine eye
upon thee” (Ps. 32: 8). Again, the apostle Peter tells us that
“[the] eyes of [the] Lord [are] on [the] righteous, and his ears
towards their supplications” (1 Pet. 3: 12). But if God can say
“mine eye spared them so as not to destroy them” (Ezek. 20: 17), He
can also say “I also withdraw mine eye, and it shall not spare, nor
will I have any pity” (Ezek. 5: 11). To be “cut off from before
thine eyes” (Ps. 31: 22) is to have lost God’s favour.
Scripture also tells us that God has
ears. Thus “Jehovah,
thou hast heard the desire of the meek, thou hast established their
heart: thou causest thine ear to hear” (Ps. 10: 17). Of course the
language is figurative, but the fact remains that God
does hear. As
Christians, we know “that if we ask him anything according to his
will he hears us” (1 John 5: 14). The divine ear is an ear that can
be inclined towards us
(see Ps. 71: 2), and be
attentive towards the voice of our supplications (see Ps. 130:
2), but, solemnly, it can also be
deaf: “And I also will
deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity;
and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, I will not hear
them” (Ezek. 8: 18).
If God has ears, He also has a speaking
faculty: “And Jehovah will cause the majesty of his
voice to be heard”
(Is. 30: 30, my emphasis). The Bible begins with “And God said”
(Gen. 1: 3), and, after many centuries of divine speaking “God
having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers
in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in [the
person of the] Son” (Heb. 1: 1, 2). God’s communications to man are
incalculably important. Indeed, “It is written, Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word which goes out through God’s
mouth” (Matt. 4: 4). God has been very gracious in deigning to
communicate with His creature, even, on occasion, as with Moses,
speaking “mouth to mouth” and “openly” (Num. 12: 8)—that is,
familiarly, and with really audible words. Woe betide us, therefore,
if we trifle with His Word, for the same mouth that uttered such
wonderful “words of grace” (Luke 4: 22) shall “smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked” (Is. 11: 4).
God also has
nostrils. Thus it was
“by the breath of thy nostrils”
(Exod. 15: 8) that the waters of the Red
Sea were heaped up, so enabling the children of Israel to pass over
on dry ground. In general it seems that the exhalation of the divine
nostrils is connected with judgment. Hence “By the breath of God
they perish, and by the blast of his nostrils are they consumed”
(Job 4: 9) and “the foundations of the world were uncovered at thy
rebuke, Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils” (Ps.
18: 15). By contrast, the divine inhalation has a much more positive
connotation. The burnt offering was “an offering by fire to Jehovah
of a sweet odour” (Lev. 1: 9), and it distinctly tells us of Noah’s
offering that “Jehovah smelled the sweet odour” (Gen. 8: 21). All
this is typical of Christ of course, who “loved us, and delivered
himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a
sweet–smelling favour” (Eph. 5: 2).
Put all the above together, and we have a
face or
countenance. Thus
Daniel prayed “And now, our God, hearken to the prayer of thy
servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon
thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake” (Dan. 9: 17).
David wrote: “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; save me in
thy loving–kindness” (Ps. 31: 16) and “Thou wilt make known to me
the path of life: thy countenance is fulness of joy; at thy right
hand are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11).
Again, the words of Ethan the Ezrahite:
“Blessed is the people that know the shout of joy: they walk, O
Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance” (Ps. 89: 15). The face
thus sets forth the idea of being in the presence and favour of
God—I can see His face. Not literally of course, for man “canst not
see my face” (Exod. 33: 20), but nonetheless real. The converse is
also true, namely that the hiding of God’s face means the
withholding of His grace and favour. Thus “according to their
uncleanness and according to their transgressions I did unto them,
and I hid my face from them” (Ezek. 39: 24). The further thought of
His face being actually against us signifies divine anger: “The face
of Jehovah is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth” (Ps. 34: 16; see also 1 Pet. 3: 12).
Although the believer will never literally see
the face of God, God has been made known to us in Christ and
Scripture explicitly teaches that one day we shall see
His face. For “we see
now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face” (i.e.
with great intimacy, 1 Cor. 13: 12) and “Beloved, now are we
children of God, and what we shall be has not yet been manifested;
we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is” (1 John 3: 2). Perhaps the Spirit of God had this
in mind when He caused the Psalmist to write: “As for me, I will
behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I
awake, with thy likeness” (Ps. 17: 15).
The
arms of God are
indicative of his mighty strength and power: “Hast thou an arm like
God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?” (Job 40: 9) and
“Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save … he
saw that there was no man, and he wondered that there was no
intercessor; and his arm brought him salvation, and his
righteousness, it sustained him” (Is. 59: 1, 16). Again, “Lord, who
has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been
revealed?” (John 12: 38). Very often, this power is executed in
judgment: “Fear and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of thine
arm they are still as a stone” (Exod. 15: 16) and “He has wrought
strength with his arm; he has scattered haughty [ones] in the
thought of their heart” (Luke 1: 51).
Arms, of course, are intimately connected with
hands, and the
thought connected with the latter seems to be a more intimate and
intricate expression of divine power. We
touch with the hands
rather than the arms. Thus the cry of Job “Have pity upon me, have
pity upon me, ye my friends; for the hand of God has touched me”
(Job 19: 21). This hand can either be for punishment as in Moses’
word to Pharaoh “behold, the hand of Jehovah shall be on thy cattle
which is in the field” (Ex. 9: 3), for chastisement, as in “For
thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand cometh down upon me”
(Ps. 38: 2), or for blessing, as with Nehemiah: “And the king
granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” (Neh. 2:
8). Creation is the work of His hands (see Ps. 8: 6), and it is
God’s hands that “have bound me together and made me as one, round
about” (Job 10: 8).
In His hand “is the soul of every living
thing” (Job 12: 10), and as for the saints of God, none can “seize
them out of my hand” (John 10: 28). When we come to the
right hand, this is
most particularly the highest power and authority. Thus “Thy right
hand, Jehovah, is become glorious in power: Thy right hand, Jehovah,
hath dashed in pieces the enemy” (Exod. 15: 6) and “The right hand
of Jehovah is exalted, the right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly”
(Ps. 118: 16). It is to God’s right hand that Christ has been
exalted and from which He will come a second time in power: “From
henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of
power, and coming on the clouds of heaven … having made [by himself]
the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the
greatness on high” (Matt. 26: 64; Heb. 1: 3).
When we come to the
fingers of God we
have divine power in its most concentrated and direct form. The
miracles of Moses were ascribed to “the finger of God” (Exod. 8:
19), and the heavens are “the work of thy fingers” (Ps. 8: 3). The
Lord Jesus cast out demons “by the finger of God” (Luke 11: 20), by
which, according to Matt. 12: 28, the Spirit of God is meant.
Writing is of, course, associated with the fingers (see John 8:
6-8)—the two tables of testimony were “written with the finger of
God” (Exod. 31: 18), and Belshazzar saw the “fingers of a man’s
hand” (Dan. 5: 5) writing out his out his own condemnation. A much
better writing is promised the believer: “Giving my laws into their
mind, I will write them also upon their hearts; and I will be to
them for God, and they shall be to me for people” (Heb. 8: 10).
Much more could be written but space precludes
us. God has a
footstool for His
feet (see Is. 66: 1; compare Ps. 110: 1), and
walks (see Gen. 3: 8;
Ps. 77: 19). Again, He will carry His own “in his
bosom” (Is. 40: 11,
my emphasis), that very bosom occupied by the only–begotten Son (see
John 1: 18). We also read of the “bowels
of mercy of our God” (Luke 1: 78, my emphasis), speaking of His deep
and innermost feelings, and of God being grieved “in his
heart” (Gen. 6: 6, my
emphasis). All this demonstrates that God has not been distant and
aloof from His creature. From the first, He has desired communion
with man. Indeed, man was made in the divine image (see Gen. 1: 26)
for that very purpose. The ultimate of God’s descending grace is, of
course, set out in that sublime passage in John 1: 1: “In [the]
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God”. Here is One in which the figures have become reality, One whom
could say “He that has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14: 9).
God has, truly, come very near to man. Let us see to it that the
effect on our hearts is that we wish to come near to God!
