If you turn your back on the Lord, the Lord will turn his back on you.1 This isn’t because he doesn’t love you, but precisely because he does. To bless those who rebel against God would be to encourage them and others to increasingly do so.
As we refuse to change based on the teachings and examples of others,2 he is left with only one remaining way to persuade us: pain. In order to best assist those who continue in rebellion against him, the Lord increasingly exposes them to a greater share of the consequences of their choices. This is symbolically described as both his “setting his face against you” and “hiding his face from you.” The Lord’s face is “set against you” when his perceived role changes from being the provider of blessings to being the provider of punishments.3 The Lord “hides his face from you” when he withdraws from you the merciful unearned blessings he provides to those who seek him.4
The Lord turns his face back towards those who turn back towards him.5 Life features a myriad of ways to increase our appreciation for options for improvement.6 Those who continue to buck against life’s lessons are exposed to ever greater measures of the consequences of doing so,7 while those who turn back to God begin once again to enjoy the blessings of his countenance.8
Footnotes
- 1. And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. (Jeremiah 32:33) ↩
- 2. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears. (Ezekiel 3:7-10) ↩
- 3. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. (Psalm 34:16) And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. (Leviticus 26:17) For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. (Jeremiah 21:10) And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am Lord. (Ezekiel 14:8) ↩
- 4. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. (Deuteronomy 31:17-18) ↩
- 5. ....Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts....(Malachi 3:7) ↩
- 6. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. (Hosea 5:15) ↩
- 7. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. (Ezekiel 39:23-24) And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. (Deuteronomy 32:20-25) ↩
- 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:8) If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14) ↩