Ezekiel: God who travels Chapter 2

Facing the face of God

Further to my research and readings, the face of God was not only involved with Moses but to Enoch as well. The book of Enoch still remains a mystery & not included in the holy bible.

I do not like to write about complicated verses but here I will present readings explicitly the real face of God as described by Enoch when he met God in the celestial realms. 

But first, let's establish the facts about Enoch in Genesis 5:21-24. "Enoch walked with God and he was no more, for God took him."

Many Jewish and Christians believe that Enoch entered heaven alive, in flesh and blood. And if we read the Slavonic apocalypse of Enoch from Jewish texts, it offers 2 magnificent and indescribable descriptions of the form and face of God.

1st🔖I saw the view of the face of the Lord, like iron made burning hot in a fire and brought out, and it emits sparks and is incandescent. Thus even I saw the face of the Lord. But the face of the Lord is not to be talked about, it is so very marvelous and supremely awesome and supremely frightening. And who am I to give an account of the incomprehensible being of the Lord, and of his face, so extremely strange and indescribable? And how many are his commands, and his multiple voice, and the Lord's throne, supremely great and not made by hands, and the choir stalls all around him, the cherubim and the seraphim armies, and their never-silent singing. Who can give an account of his beautiful appearance, never changing and indescribable, and his great glory? And I fell down flat and did obeisance to the Lord (2 Enoch 22:1-4)

The second account explicitly connects the divine face with the Lord's anthropomorphic "extend." 

2nd 🔖And now, my children it is not from my lips that I am reporting to you today, but from the lips of the Lord who has sent me to you. As for you, you hear my words, out of my lips, a human being created equal to yourselves; but I have heard the words from the fiery lips of the Lord. For the lips of the Lord are a furnace of fire, and his words are the fiery flames which come out. 

You, my children, you see my face, a human being created just like yourselves; I am one who has seen the face of the Lord,[9] like iron made burning hot by a fire, emitting sparks. For you gaze into my eyes, a human being created just like yourselves; but I have gazed into the eyes of the Lord, like the rays of the shining sun and terrifying the eyes of a human being. You, my children, you see my right hand beckoning you, a human being created identical to yourselves; but I have seen the right hand of the Lord, beckoning me, who fills heaven. You see the extend of my body, the same as your own; but I have seen the extend of the Lord, without measure and without analogy, who has no end... To stand before the King, who will be able to endure the infinite terror or of the great burning (2

Enoch 39:3-8).

In both theophanic descriptions the notion of the Lord's "face" plays a crucial role. It is not a coincidence that in both of them the "face" is associated with light and fire. In biblical theophanies smoke and fire often serve as a divine envelope that protects mortals from the sight of the divine form. Radiant luminosity emitted by the Deity fulfills the same function, signaling the danger of the direct vision of the divine form. Luminosity also represents the screen which protects the Deity from the necessity of revealing its true form. Scholars note that in some theophanic traditions, God's form remains hidden behind His light.

The hidden Kavod is revealed through this light, which serves as the luminous screen, "the face" of this anthropomorphic extend. 2 Enoch's theophanies which use the metaphors of light and fire may well be connected with such traditions where the divine "extend" is hidden behind the incandescent "face," which covers and protects the sovereignty.

What is really the face of God?😶‍🌫️

 2 Enoch's theophanies which use the metaphors of light and fire may well be connected with such traditions where the divine "extend" is hidden behind the incandescent "face," which covers and protects the sovereignty of the Lord.

In 2 Enoch 39:3-6 the "face" is closely associated with the divine "extend" and seems to be understood not simply as a part of the Lord's body (His face) but as a radiant façade of His anthropomorphic "form."This identification between the Lord's face and the Lord's "form" is reinforced by an additional parallel pair in which Enoch's face is identified with Enoch's "form":

You, my children, you see my face, a human being created just like yourselves; but I am one who has seen the face of the Lord, like iron made burning hot by a fire, emitting sparks... And you see the form of my body, the same as your own: but I have seen the form (extend) of the Lord, without measure and without analogy, who has no end (2 Enoch 39:3-6).

The association between the divine face and divine form in 2 Enoch 39:3-6 alludes to the biblical tradition from Ex 33:18-23 where the divine panim is mentioned in connection with his glorious divine form - God's Kavod: God's face describes in short, "is without end." Man cannot measure, Man is in short of words to describe what exactly He is. It can be felt and absorbed in this human clothing but it can never be uttered and disclosed in words of who He really is. Clearly, there are no words. That is one truth we need to reflect and accept as the true nature of our God. All poetic words will fail at this point.

There is so much exciting text from Enoch as I have mentioned in the last readings. If then this finds you a gap, I will further add another new prominent bible character named Enoch: When God is face to face. For now, we are going to continue Ezekiel.

( KAVOD: a term with social, moral, and theological implications derived from the Hebrew root for weight, meaning honor, respect, reverence, importance, distinction, or glory.)

Moving from here, I expect this will be lengthy writing and will not be milk and honey words. I will be writing more meat and wine as we chew God's words and drink to His truthfulness of who He is. May the Spirit of truth and my faith, have to burn many days and nights to bring in order, light, and peace so the world may not succumb to alien teachings or any teachings that invalidate who God is. My fervent prayer in spirit is that anyone who can read or translate these writings will be enlightened and seek who really God is other than what I write here.

Ezekiel the prophet of the Valley of Dry Bones. Who is he?

Why God left the heavens and travel to earth bringing all of His grandeur and splendor of His Throne? 

Anyone who does not know who God is, will just probably not know how big and grand this step of God is. Considering God brought His Throne in the firmament and hovered over the earth, driven by its angels called cherubims and heavenly thrones, an extraordinary phenomenon was recorded in the bible by our very own Ezekiel. Can it be real? Did it really happen? A challenge in our thoughts.

Like an ordinary day, we found Ezekiel to be downcast and lying near the Kebar riverbanks. Israel was just in exile from Babylonian's conquest and lost all of Jerusalem to their enemies. Ezekiel stated he saw a vision. A vision meant the ability to see what you imagine happening literally in front of your own eyes, especially a supernatural experience with religious significance.

AC

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