While editing Geoff Stevens’s commentary on Exodus for the soon-to-be-released “Volume 1, The Torah,” of our Grace Old Testament Commentary, I came across a discrepancy I’d not noticed before. Geoff and I worked through the issue and came up with what we believe is a sound solution. 

Exodus 33:11a says, “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Since no one has seen God the Father at any time (John 1:18), Yahweh there refers to the preincarnate Lord Jesus Christ.  

According to 2 Cor 3:7, every time Moses met with the Lord Jesus, “the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away.” 2 Corinthians 3:13 says, “…Moses…put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.” 

There can be no question but that Moses saw Jesus’ face.  

But how do we explain Exod 33:20, which says, “But He said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live’”? Moses did see Yahweh’s face (v 11). And Moses lived.  

Here is what Geoff wrote in “Volume 1, The Torah” concerning Exodus 33:20-23: 

33:20-23. However, Yahweh tempered the revelation with protective limits, declaring that Moses could not see His face; for no man shall see Him and live. Moses Himself saw the face of the preincarnate Lord Jesus Christ on many occasions. Just nine verses earlier Moses wrote, “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exod 33:11; cf. Rev 22:4). The LORD also met face to face with many other OT believers (e.g., Adam and Eve, Abraham, Hagar, Jacob, Manoah, Gideon, and Isaiah).   

Verse 20 refers to seeing God’s glory fully manifested. No OT person saw Jesus’ glory fully displayed. Even at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-13), Peter, James, and John merely saw a greater manifestation of His glory. Thus, whether v 20 refers to God the Father or the Lord Jesus, the point is that no human in a natural body could survive seeing a complete manifestation of His glory.  

Yahweh concealed Moses in a cleft of the rock on the mountainside, shielding him with His hand until He had passed by, then removing it to allow Moses a glimpse of His receding back. The references to God’s face, hand, and back are anthropomorphisms if God the Father is in view. 

Sometimes we think of OT believers as having been greatly disadvantaged. After all, they did not have much of the OT (depending on when they lived), and they had none of the NT. They were not permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit. However, unlike believers today, many of them saw the Lord Jesus face to face. They also had living prophets who proclaimed God’s word orally as well as in writing. And the Holy Spirit did work powerfully in their lives, as evidenced by the fact that Abraham was called “the friend of God” (Jas 2:23) and David was “a man after [God’s] own heart” (I Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22). 

I’m not suggesting, as some do, that the Lord Jesus is in every chapter of the OT. He is not. But He did appear many times to many people. None of us have so observed His glory that our faces are literally glowing after worship. 

Keep grace in focus and you will find the OT to be highly profitable in your life.