DESPERATE PEOPLE DO DESPERATE THINGS (PART V)

“No Selfie in God’s Presence”

By Akin Ojumu

Of all the charlatans of this world, the frequent flyers to Heaven are most to be pitied. Each time they tell stories about their trips to Heaven and the numerous occasions they’ve been ushered into the Throne Room in Heaven for an audience with God Almighty, my heart breaks for the story tellers.

Much more than the indignation that rises up within me, on hearing these cock and bull stories, is the pity I feel for these spinners of fairy tales and those who fall prey to their deception.

My empathy for these folks is borne out of genuine concern for their sanity. Anyone who claims they routinely travel to Heaven to pay a visit to God is suffering from self-delusion. Those who believe their urban legend must be out of their minds. Only a self-deluded person would purport to have seen God and be eager to tell the story. It takes a fool to believe in such fantastical whoppers. 

Recorded in the Bible are actual stories of people who found themselves in the presence of God. In all of these encounters, the reactions of these people are eerily similar. When these people stood before God, they were all terrified and afraid. Terror and trepidation came upon them.

God Himself tells us that nobody can see Him and live.

Exodus 33:20

“You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

The following are a few examples in the Old Testament of people who saw God and what their reactions were. I can assure that none of them took a selfie.

Exodus 3:6b – Moses was terrified.

 “And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

Isaiah 6:5 – Isaiah cursed himself out.

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Ezekiel 1:28b – Ezekiel fell on his face.

“Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.”

We find that same reaction of terror and horror also in the New Testament. On occasions when Jesus revealed His true divinity, after performing an extraordinary miracle for instance, the people who witnessed those events were always terrified.

One of such instances was Peter’s reaction to the huge catch of fish in Luke 5. After toiling all-night for fish and catching nothing, Jesus asked Peter to let down his nets for a catch. Reluctantly, he complied, and the result was a great haul of fish so massive that their nets broke. Because their two boats could not contain the catch they had to borrow additional boats from their partners.

And what was Peter’s reaction to this spectacular event?

Luke 5:8

“But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.””

That’s right. Peter fell down at Jesus’s feet and begged Jesus to go away from him because he, Peter, was a sinful man. This awareness of sinfulness expressed by Peter is the same as everybody else who had ever found themselves standing in the presence of God.

We are always overcome by the consciousness of our sinfulness when we stand before a holy God. Just like Adam and Eve after the fall, the stain of sin causes us to want to hide our faces from the refulgent glory of God. Because of spiritual unrighteousness and our moral wretchedness, a sense of foreboding overwhelms us when we behold the purity of God, face to face.

This was exactly what happened with the woman with the issue of blood when she touched the hem of Jesus’s garment, and her infirmity was instantly healed. When she realized what had just happened to her, she was petrified.

Her fear was not because she was ashamed of her menorrhagia. What terrified her wasn’t the fact that she violated the Mosaic Law that forbade her from being in contact with people or touching anyone. She wasn’t afraid of the hostility of the crowd for getting them defiled and unclean with her uncleanness.

The woman’s fear was a holy dread. She was afraid because she understood she wasn’t standing before an ordinary human being. Given what had just happened to her, she knew she had encountered a divine being. It dawned on her, right away, that she was in the presence of YAHWEH. She knew, right there and then, that Jesus was indeed God. And she was very afraid.

Quivering and fully aware she was a defiled and unclean sinner standing in the presence of a pure and holy God, the woman collapsed at the feet of Jesus begging for mercy for her sin.

Mark 5:33

“But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.”

Hearing her confession and perceiving her faith and belief in Him, the Lord Jesus poured His love upon her fear. He covered her trepidation with His cloak of grace. Reaching down to her to help her to her feet, He endearingly referred to her as a daughter.

Mark 5:34

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Not only was the woman healed of her physical ailment, much more importantly, but she was also cured of her spiritual infirmity as well. Her sin was forgiven, and she was made whole, spirit, soul, and body.

To be continued.