Seek God’s Face – Heal Our Land (Part 3)

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chr. 7:14 ESV).

This is an interesting scripture.  This is an actual instruction from God to King Solomon telling him that people should seek His face.  Yet, when Moses asks to see the His glory, God answers:

But, he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Ex. 33:20 ESV)

So, is God telling us to take up a pursuit of something that we cannot attain?  Are we supposed to search for His face, knowing that we will never be able to actually see it?  I don’t believe that is what this scripture is telling us.

The Hebrew word that was translated as “face” could also be translated as “presence”.  I believe that this phrase could easily be written “pray and seek my presence” or “pray and seek after me.”  There are many scriptures that talk about seeking the Lord, or His presence.  Here are a few:

Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually! (1 Chr. 16:10-11 ESV)

Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isa. 55:6-7 ESV)

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him. (Lam. 3:25 ESV)

The fact that we are told to seek after the Lord does not imply that He is hiding, or that He is hard to find.  According to Strong’s, the word “seek” means to search out, specifically in worship or prayer; by implication to strive after: ask, beg, beseech (implore), desire, enquire, get, make inquisition.

To seek after the presence of the Lord is definitely going deeper than a surface prayer.  The Lord wants us to show the importance our requests are to us.  Often times, people just say “If it is your will, Lord,” or something to that effect.  I don’t believe the Lord needs my permission to do His will.  When I wrote about praying, I mentioned that Moses interceded for Israel, and God relented from the plans that He had to destroy the nation and start over.  You never know, God may be looking for a powerful prayer to affect the way history is being written, rather than us always accepting everything as “His will.”

In the 32nd chapter of Genesis, Jacob meets “a man” and wrestles with him.  When the man was not able to defeat Jacob, he touched his hip, and knocked it out of joint, but Jacob still held on.  Jacob refused to let go until the man blessed him.  Afterwards, Jacob realized that he had been struggling with God.

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Gen. 32:30 ESV)

This is the way that we need to seek God’s face (presence).  We must hold on to God and not let go, even when it gets hard.