No One Has Ever Seen God

We have examined two Old Testament passages about encounters with someone called Yahweh or the LORD. We’ll now move on to cover numerous other Old Testament passages involving this same Yahweh. But before we do, let's recognize that this One called Yahweh (a) is someone who had equality with the Father, and (b) is not the Father.

We'll look at more Old Testament passages, passages which all prove that Jesus [whose name at the time was not yet Jesus, but the Word] was Lord during pre-New Testament times. He was Lord during the times covered by the writings of Genesis and the Old Testament books. Our goal: That you would behold the glory of Jesus as presented to us in the Old Testament.

One of the most convincing reasons we know that these passages are a revelation of the pre-incarnate Christ and not the One God is the topic of our study now. What is that reason? When we read of our Lord Jesus' face-to-face encounters with people in the Old Testament, they saw him! Anyone called Lord in the Old Testament who meets face-to-face with human beings had to have been Jesus? But why? A face-to-face encounter couldn’t possibly be with the One God. No man has ever seen God.

To be specific, no man has seen God’s face. You'll recall that Moses saw God’s back. Outside of visions and revelations, that’s the closest any human (besides Jesus) has ever come to actually seeing the face of the One God, our Father.

With this basic truth that 'no man can see God' we are not contradicting another truth: We know what the One God and Father looks like. Visions of the One God were given to men and recorded three times in the Scriptures. But seeing a vision of God is not the equivalent of seeing God with your eyes.

Daniel 7, Ezekiel 1, and Revelation 4 each reveal visions of God, not actual face-to-face encounters with the Almighty. These do not disprove the indisputable truth that 'no man can see God and live.' They prove that visions and dreams are not the same thing as encounters. They are seen with the mind's eye. In an encounter, we see with our physical eyes. That's what Job longed for:

I know that my Redeemer lives,

And he shall stand at last on the Earth;

And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,

that in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me (Job 19:25-27; NKJV)!

Old Testament Proof

It is a basic Bible principle that God cannot be seen by the eyes of man. Still, people argue against it. If you're one of those people who argue that God can be seen, are five Old Testament passages enough to prove to you that he cannot be seen? Here they are:

No one may see me and live (Exodus 33:20).

… but my face shall not be seen (Exodus 33:23).

Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice… So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire… (Deuteronomy 4:12, 15).

If he were to pass by me, I would not see him. Were he to move past me, I would not perceive him (Job 9:11; NASB).

… if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him (Job 23:8-9).

Old Testament characters knew that they were not allowed to look upon God’s face. Moses was greatly afraid to look at the face of God so he hid his face when the Angel of the LORD [Jesus] appeared in the burning bush.

He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (Exodus 3:6).

‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look (Acts 7:32).

New Testament Proof

Now, here are nine New Testament passages that prove that God will not be seen by mortal eyes:

The Son is the image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15).

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the Only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever… who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16).

[God is called] …him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27).

No one has ever seen God (1 John 4:12).

… whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen (1 John 4:20).

Jesus affirmed the truth that God cannot be seen, repeating it at least four times in the Gospels.

… pray to your Father, who is unseen… (Matthew 6:6)

No one has ever seen God… (John 1:18)

… You have never heard his [the Father’s] voice nor seen his form (John 5:37).

Jesus even took the subject of God’s invisibility as a something to prove how special he is—declaring that he is the only one who has seen the Father.

No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father (John 6:46).

Three Who Have Seen God

Now, we know that Jesus means by John 6:46 (the last verse we read) that he is the only one among men who has seen the Father. Angels and the Holy Spirit also see the Father. The angels, for example, have meetings in which they come before God to report to him. Others are constantly before him.

… their angels in Heaven always see the face of my Father in Heaven (Matthew 18:10).

We know that the Holy Spirit was with God at Creation, and that he has face time with the Father, getting to know God’s mind by interviewing him. The Spirit knows God’s thoughts and comes from God--meaning that when he comes to us, he comes directly from the presence of God.

What can we conclude from all this information about the Holy Spirit? That he has seen God face-to-face!

In the Beginning God created … and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:1-2).

… no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God … the Spirit who is from God (1 Corinthians 2:11, 12).

Jesus: Seen in the Old Testament as Lord

The bottom line is that if someone sees Yahweh in the Old Testament and lives, they are not seeing the One God. They are seeing the pre-incarnate Christ, the Word. They call him Yahweh and God because the Father gave him equality with him, but don't confuse the two. Jesus is not the One God. Rather, the One God is his Father.

Jesus spoke of God, and made it clear that God cannot be seen. Jesus, on the other hand, has been seen--yes, even in the Old Testament. Why? Because then, as he was Lord, and as God wanted to reveal his greatness to mankind, he sent Jesus as Lord. God sent Jesus as his Messenger, the Angel of the LORD.