Seeing His Face

What do you want most out of eternity? Ask that around a table, and the answers come quickly.

One person says, "Seeing the people I have lost. That is the first thing, and I would not pretend otherwise." Another says, "A new body. Whatever comes next, I want to be done with this one." A third says, "Honestly? An explanation. I want to know why things went the way they did."

Every one of those hopes is somewhere in the Bible. But none of them is what John puts at the very end of it. He gives one short line and lets it carry everything: "they shall see his face."

That sentence is bigger than it looks. Moses once asked to see God's glory, and God told him, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." The veil in the tabernacle, the most holy place behind it, and the high priest going in only once a year were all there because coming near a holy God was deadly for sinful people. In this verse that barrier is simply gone, and John gives the reason in the same breath: "there shall be no more curse." God's people can now look on His face and live, because what made it deadly has been taken away.

Look carefully at who "they" are. John names them just before: "his servants shall serve him." A few verses later the same chapter says plainly who stays outside the city. So this promise is not for everyone, whatever they do. It is for God's own people, and they carry His name on their foreheads where anybody can read it.

So whose face have you been avoiding? It might be a parent, an old friend, or somebody you fell out with and have only texted ever since. Send the message today. If it is safe, ask for twenty minutes in the same room. You are heading toward a place where God's people will see Him face to face, and that hope can make you brave enough to face one person now.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 211 is Thou Knowest (Ezekiel 37:3).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna