King Day 6 Blazing Glory
Revelation 1:9-18
Malachi 4:1-3
Hebrews 4:12-13
Psalm 33:13-15
“[A]mong the lampstands was one like the Son of Man [. . .] His eyes like a fiery flame.” (Revelation 1:14, emphasis mine)
As I considered the image of the all-seeing God with eyes like blazing fire, a conversation I had several years ago with a teenage boy came to mind. He had no Christian background, but he had come along to a church youth club I helped to lead, and somehow as we talked, the topic of confessing sin came up.
“I couldn’t be a Christian,” he said. “If I confessed the things I’ve done, it would give the priest a heart attack.”
I told him that he wouldn’t need to confess to a priest; he could confess directly to God.
His response, “Yes, but the things I’ve done would give God a heart attack!”
I assured him this was not the case as God already knew everything, so nothing he confessed would be a surprise to God. I remember the way the boy’s eyes widened in horror as he struggled to get his head around this, and, despite my attempts to explain God’s mercy and forgiveness, he quickly moved the conversation onto “safer ground.”
There is something deeply unsettling about the fact that God is all-seeing and all-knowing, that nothing is hidden from Him, that “His eyes like a fiery flame” (Revelation 1:14) see right through us.
In the Old Testament, fire is often linked with God’s judgement and His perfect glory, which burns away anything impure. In Leviticus 10:1-3, fire consumes Nadab and Abihu as a result of their disobedience to God, and after the Israelites rebel against God, we read in Numbers 16:35, “Fire also came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were presenting the incense.”
Malachi prophesies, “For look, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble.” (Malachi 4:1)
Verses like these can be so disconcerting because we know, if we’re honest, in many ways we are just like God’s people in the Old Testament. We all make bad choices and turn away from God. God’s Word makes our reality evident to us and shows us we are all accountable before God. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
The Bible teaches God sees it all; there is nowhere to hide. Not only does He observe us and consider our works (Psalm 33:13-15) but He even knows our thoughts! (Ezekiel 11:5) And Psalm 96:13 tells us the Lord “is coming to judge the earth.”
This all sounds like very bad news, but fortunately it’s not the end of the story.
While Jesus was coming to judge, Psalm 96:13 also assures us His judgement is good, “He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His faithfulness.”
Even better, Jesus came to earth not to condemn, but to save. (John 3:17) He came to take God’s judgement, the judgement we deserve, upon Himself! Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Because of Jesus’ death and our faith in Him, we are freed from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9) and face no condemnation! (Romans 8:1)
Viewed through this lens, God’s omniscience becomes less terrifying and more comforting. As Timothy Keller put it:
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretence, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” (The Meaning of Marriage – quoted in Facebook post on 25th April 2013)
This truth is what I attempted to convey to the teenage boy at the youth club.
While there is something unnerving about the thought God sees our sin, and while it should lead us to approach Him with reverence and repentance, there is also something very reassuring about the knowledge God sees us as we are and still loves us. We never need to fear that something we confess will surprise God or turn Him away.
Instead, we can honestly confess to Him, knowing His heart is to forgive and restore; the fire in His eyes is not one which destroys indiscriminately, but one which refines and purifies to make us more like Him.
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