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The Back Side of God:
Comments: Soon or later all Christians must console a fellow Christian who must endure great trials and suffering. There is much to be said on the subject. A fine, elderly, Christian gentleman, about 14 hours before his last moment on earth made some cryptic references about returning home to be cared for by a nurse and physical therapist after three long, arduous months in the hospital and nursing home. The infection just kept moving around his body. After years of a debilitating heart condition, this once corporate owner who knew how to get things done, was now lying helpless and incapacitated for three months. The natural question was why and what was God's purpose in his suffering? I reminded him how Joseph, the greatest administrative talent in the book of Genesis, was sold into slavery and then had to suffer four years in prison because he refused to have sex with his owner's wife. Potiphar's wife told a big lie about Joseph. Luther says, this is how God carves and shapes his precious saints. Keeping the faith in every circumstance is the most agreeable sacrifice to God even if it leads to death. We have to understand God's counsel to the church. "Just as He says to Moses: 'You cannot see My face.'" Exo. 33:20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. 21 Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen." When God works His plan, He turns His face away at first and may seem to be the devil, not God. God seems to be writing the script for our enemies, such as the words of Potiphar's unfaithful wife. The ungodly boast over the sufferings of God's saints saying, "If God loves, you then why are you defeated, suffering, and dying? You must have sinned against God." That's what Job's friends told him. To know the reasons for God's plan, means to know the future and to know the face of God. God tells Moses, Exodus 33:12 "And Moses said unto the LORD, 'See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me.'" (Ex. 33:12). In Genesis, Hagar, whom God nearly allows to die of thirst in the desert with her son says, (Gen. 16:13) "I have seen the back of Him who also sees me." Likewise in Is. 30:20-21: "Your eyes shall see your Teacher, and your ears shall hear the word of One giving admonition behind you." And again Christ tells His disciples, "What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand." (John 13:7). "For God is accustomed to lead and govern His own as is described in the song of Habakkuk: 'Thy paths are in many waters, and Thy footprints are not known.'" It is as if God were saying, "I shall act in such a way that you think I'm a fool or the devil." You must see My back, not My face. You must not see My works and counsels with which I am fashioning and refashioning you according to My good pleasure. If we had our way, God would take our advice. What if God had granted Joseph's requests to be freed from prison and slavery in Egypt and returned to his father's house from which he had been kidnapped? Joseph submitted faithfully to suffering and he did not curse God. While in prison those four years Joseph saw God's back and waited for God to reveal His salvation. The result was that God used these events to raise Joseph up to be the head of Egypt and lead many to faith in God and escape from famine. Therefore, human wisdom and judgment is folly and the wise man trusts that God will be faithful and just to His children. The suffering man thought about this and said, "Yes, but in the New Testament God revealed himself in Christ." He quoted John 14:9 to me where Christ said that when you have seen Me you have seen the Father. My reply, "Christ walked up and down the streets of Jerusalem. But without faith, even if people saw Him they did not know He was God, just like Caiaphis, Judas, and Pilate didn't believe He was God. Only John the Baptist recognized who He was." In this life the Christian can only know God and see His face by faith. We can only see what He has said and done, which means we only see God from His back side. We don't know His reasoning. However, because of the Bible we know that Christ is our Savior and has accomplished our salvation through His sacrifice on the cross. Our future is on God's front side, the side we now only see by faith. The dear man's plans to return to his home the next day fell through. Instead, God took him all the way home where he now sees the face of God. All that was hidden and unknown is now clear to him. God has achieved His purpose. Exodus 33:19 And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Luther's Text on the Back Side of God "This is the God who governs his saints. Therefore one must carefully observe the example of this young man. It is full of virtues of every kind and of godliness. Here one sees how God carved out and formed this dearly beloved and most precious gem, and how He accomplished a most agreeable sacrifice by killing him. For these things are set before the church of God and the consciences of the godly to the end that they may learn to understand the nature of the counsels and works of God, just as He says to Moses: 'You cannot see my face but you shall see my back,' (Ex. 33:20). Hagar also says above (Gen. 16:13): "I have seen the back of Him who sees me." There is no other way to understand this." "When God works, He turns His face away at first and seems to be the devil, not God. Thus in the present account His face was turned toward the harlot and the tyrant; He disregards Joseph and cherishes these alone. Thus Jeremiah also complains: 'Thou art near in their mouth.' (12:2) Therefore they boast that God is at their side, is well-disposed toward them, and cherishes them. 'God dwells here!' they cry out. But Joseph, Jacob, and Abraham do not have this face turned toward them. This means that the devil is dwelling here. 'You cannot see My face' (Ex.33:20). For God is accustomed to lead and govern His own as is described in the song of Habakkuk: 'Thy paths are in many waters, and Thy footprints are not known.' Likewise in Is. 30:20-21: 'Your eyes shall see your Teacher, and your ears shall hear the word of One giving admonition behind you.' And Christ says to Peter: 'What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand' (John 13:7). 'You want to see My face; you want Me to do what seems to you to be advantageous and good. But I shall act in such a way that it will seem to you that some fool has done this, not God. You must see My back, not My face. You must not see My works and counsels with which I am fashioning and refashioning you according to My good pleasure. It should seem foolish to you. But you will not accept and understand these things in any other way than as if they were death and the devil himself." "Therefore let us learn this rule and order, which God is wont to employ in governing His saints. For I, too have often attempted to prescribe to God definite methods He should use in the administration either of the church or of other matters. 'Ah, Lord' I have said, 'I would like this to be done in this order, with this result!' But God would do the very opposite of what I had sought. Then the thought would come to me: 'Nevertheless, my plan is not disadvantageous to the glory of God; but it will contribute very much toward the hallowing of Thy name, the gathering and increasing of Thy kingdom and the propagation of the knowledge of Thy Word. In short, it is a very fine plan and excellently thought out' But the Lord undoubtedly laughed at this wisdom and said, 'Come now, I know that you are a wise and learned man; but it has never been My custom for Peter, Dr. Martin, or anyone else to teach, direct, govern, an lead Me. I am not a passive God. No, I am an active God who is accustomed to do the leading, ruling, and directing.'" . . . (Luther digresses to the problems of the Sacramentarians.) "If Joseph had said: 'Lord God, allow me to live with my father in Hebron,' or if the had murmured against God because of the unjust accusation and captivity, and God had satisfied his wishes not to be consigned to slavery or hurled into bonds, then, according to the wisdom of his own reason, which finds it difficult to render this obedience to God, he would never have been raised to such a position of honor. But since he was full of the Holy Spirit, he submitted patiently to the Lord's will until at length he was exalted not only for his own consolation and glory but also for the temporal and spiritual welfare of Egypt, whose means of salvation he becomes through these troubles and this imprisonment. For he saw God's back and waited until God should reveal and show forth His salvation, which is far richer and far more magnificent than he would have ever had the courage to pray or hope for. Therefore our wisdom is truly foolish, and we are not only foolish but even folly itself." LW7:103-105 "Hence these are words of one who is glad and filled with wonder. 'Ah,' says Hagar, 'how incredulous I have been! I did not think that God was concerned about me, and I assumed that I was seeing God from behind, not His face; that is I assumed that God had turned away from me. But now I realize that the back, which he showed me, is His face. He indeed saw me before; but I preoccupied as I was with my afflictions, was not able to look closely. Now, however, I know that He loves me and that He cares for me.'" "These words are, therefore, like a universal hymn of all the godly. Where there is affliction, we see God from behind; that is, we conclude that God has turned away from us, as He says in Isaiah (54:8): 'For a moment I hid My face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you'; that is, 'At first I acted as though I did not know you, as though I had abandoned you.' This is the view from behind, when we feel nothing but afflictions and doubts; but later, when the trial has passed, it becomes clear that by the very fact that God has showed Himself to us from behind He has showed us His face, that He did not forsake us but turned away His eyes just a little." LW3:71-72 "Thus Moses views God's mercy from behind, as it is seen in the divine Word. As for the rest, Moses knew what he was to do; but he was not able to see God's plan and purpose." LW22:157 "The man who deserves to be called a theologian is not the one who seeks to understand the invisible things of God through the things that are made (Rom. 1:22) but the one who understands that the visible things and the hind parts of God are seen through suffering and the cross." LW22:157 footnote 125
September 8, 2001 |