make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes. [psalm 119:135]
God’s face is a face that shines–we cannot even be in his presence without being overcome with its holy radiance. when God speaks to moses and he descends the mountain with the second set of commandments, moses’ skin is so radiant, from being in God’s presence that he must cover his face.
how does God make his face shine upon us? in the person and work of Jesus Christ!
he (Jesus) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. [hebrews 1:3-4]
if we are his, we will one day stand in the presence of Jesus, and his face will shine on us eternally:
and i saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. by its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. [revelation 21:22-27]
let us long to know his statutes, his words are eternal life—let us long for the day we, his servants, walk eternally the light of his shining face!
~ conor eastman