How Can We See God?

Reflection:  Many people are challenged to believe in a God they cannot see.  The bible affirms “Blessed are those who believe without seeing.”  It takes faith to believe in something you can’t see.  Today in our readings we see God making Himself known in three powerful ways so the people can see who He is and what He does.   

First, in the psalm, the writer says, “The heavens declare the glory of the God and the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world.”  David is saying that even though you can’t see God literally, you can see God in the works of his hands.  Creation reveals God’s power and might and preaches His ultimate authority over all things.  Every day the sun rises and sets and the moon takes its place in the sky, show God’s glory and magnificence and His presence for all humankind to behold.

Then, we see in Chronicles, as Solomon, David’s son had constructed the temple in a manner that God had prescribed and offered sacrifices to Him, that God came down through the fire of heaven and consumed the sacrifices.  The glory of the Lord filled the temple and the priests could not enter because of the sheer holiness of God.  We see God took it a step further and appeared to Solomon at night and affirmed the work that had been done. God made promises to Solomon that if he obeyed God, He would be with him in this same power. God also spelled out the consequences of following other gods and what would happen to the temple when God left.  The overarching purpose was that the whole world would know God, and the temple would be a witness to God’s goodness through His people Israel. 

Finally, in Acts, we see the power of God displayed through the person of the Holy Spirit.  As Paul placed his hands on the disciples and prayed for them, they spoke in tongues (a language only God could understand) and prophesied.  These were signs that the Holy Spirit had empowered them for God’s work and set them apart for ministry, just as the Spirit had set Paul apart.  And it says God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that people even wanted to touch his handkerchiefs and aprons which brought healing power.  God was revealing His power through the Holy Spirit working in Paul.  And God had given that same power to the disciples who would minister in the power of the Spirit and do the things Paul was doing.

So again we can see the overarching purpose of the bible is God making Himself known in all His glory through revelation. The revelation started with His Creation, continued through the coming of His Son Jesus, and finally through the power of the Holy Spirit falling on the disciples and empowering their mission to make Christ known.  And God is still working today!  Are you part of what God is doing here on earth? If not find a local church that is committed to making Jesus known through the power of the Spirit working in His church!  Until Jesus returns in God’s timing there is work to be done so that lost people may come to know the God who loves them, and even went as far as to give them His own Son! Amen. 

Psalm 19:1-6

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

5     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

6 It rises at one end of the heavens

    and makes its circuit to the other;

    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

2 Chronicles 6:24-7:22

The Dedication of the Temple

7 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,

“He is good;

    his love endures forever.”

4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. 5 And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God. 6 The priests took their positions, as did the Levites with the Lord’s musical instruments, which King David had made for praising the Lord and which were used when he gave thanks, saying, “His love endures forever.” Opposite the Levites, the priests blew their trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing. 7 Solomon consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the Lord, and there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar he had made could not hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat portions. 8 So Solomon observed the festival at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him—a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. 9 On the eighth day they held an assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the festival for seven days more. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their homes, joyful and glad in heart for the good things the Lord had done for David and Solomon and for his people Israel.

The Lord Appears to Solomon

11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. 13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 17 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’

19 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”

Acts 19:6-20

6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. 8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. 17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge on the day of trouble. Jeremiah 16:19

Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” Luke 8:46

O great Physician, let us feel your healing touch in all our wounded places. Then may we, secure in your strength, go out into the world with healing for others. In Christ’s name. Amen.