geocreationism.com

The Geocreationist position is that Jesus is God’s proxy on earth.  If true, then interpreting the Creation Account becomes a lot easier.  After all, if Jesus was physically here to see it, then it lets us interpret the creation account from a more informed perspective.  However, even this isn’t enough, because while the perspective might be Jesus’, the writing came from Moses.  We need some basis for interpreting Moses’ writing, not just the events that it records.  Fortunately, scripture provides us with that basis.  We will start with a well-known event in the New Testament, and then tie it to the Old (Emphasis added):

Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish let us make there three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him!”  And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.  But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”  When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.(Matthew 17:2 to

When we read of Jesus’ transfiguration, we tend to imagine ourselves in the position of the apostles.  This time, imagine being Moses.  Jesus has lifted the shroud of His humanity just a bit, allowing the gloriousness of His divinity to be seen by all who were present.  It is something the apostles had never seen before, and Moses got to be there for it; he even got to talk with Jesus, the LORD Himself!  I wonder what was said.  I wonder if Moses was nervous.  If he was, I do not think it was merely from being in God’s presence.  Don’t get me wrong, it would be an awesome thing to be in the presence of God’s glory here on earth. For Moses however, it was even more: the fulfillment of a request, his heart’s desire!

Moses expressed his desire to see God’s glory shortly after he destroyed the golden calf, while He was planning Israel’s departure from Mount Sinai.

And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.  All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.  So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.(Exodus 33:9 to 11a)

Do you suppose this was Jesus?  And the Holy Spirit was His transport?  Moses could never say outright He was talking to God in human form, because no one at the time would understand.  After all, the Chosen People of the invisible God had just made a graven image and worshipped it!  God therefore was trying to get the Israelites to not associate Him with any type of physical image… being told that God was actually talking to Moses in the physical form of a man would have been a terrible stumbling block to their weak faith.  But if that was the physical Jesus speaking “to Moses, face to face, as a man speaks to his friend,” then it would explain Moses’ careful wording, and the curious progression of the following conversation:

Then Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’  But You have not let me know whom You will send with me.  Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’  Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.  And consider that this nation is Your people.”  And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”(Exodus 33:12 to 14)

Curious that God did not say, “I will go with you,” but “My Presence will go with you.”  We know from the New Testament that the Holy Spirit, traditionally the third Godhead of the Holy Trinity, stayed on earth as Jesus’ helper while Jesus went to be at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.  Perhaps we could say then, that after leaving the Apostles, His Presence went with them to spread the good news.  It should not be surprising therefore that Jesus did the same with Moses.

Then [Moses] said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.  For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us?  So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”  So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”(Exodus 33:15 to 17)

It would seem then that Jesus agreed to have the Holy Spirit stay behind with Moses, to help bring the Chosen People to the promised land.  I imagine Moses breathed a huge sigh of relief at this point, but still dismayed at the distance God was keeping.  Finally Moses, staring at the Man sitting across from him, could not stand it any longer.  He requested one more sign of reassurance “And he said, ‘Please, show me your Glory.’”(Exodus 33:18b)  A bolder request I cannot imagine!  But you know what?  God didn’t reprimand Moses like He had to reprimand the apostles 1,000 years later upon the Mount of Transfiguration, probably because Moses understood Jesus better than even the apostles on some level.  Also, I believe Moses genuinely needed a remarkable level of reassurance if he was to follow a plan from God that would keep the Israelites in the desert for 40 years before finally showing them the Promised Land.

Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you.  I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face*; for no man shall see Me, and live.”  And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.  So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.  Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.(Exodus 33:19 to 23)

This isn’t exactly what Moses had in mind.  He probably figured that if He could Jesus’ face in an ordinary conversation, then why not in His glory? But, if he argued, he didn’t record it.

Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him… Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.  And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…”(Exodus 34:4b, 5 to 7a)

And so the LORD kept His word.  Moses asked to see God’s glory, and he saw it, though only from His back.  It doesn’t seem Moses complained, but he probably wondered what it would have been like seeing God’s glory from the front.  Perhaps he wondered if he ever would see it; perhaps not.  But we know that one day, about 1,000 years later in the presence of Peter, James, John, and Elijah, Moses did see it.  He saw Jesus again and talked to Him in His glory, but face to face this time.

Toward the end of His ministry on Earth, some time after showing the Apostles, Elijah, and Moses His glory, Jesus would pray the following:

And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.  I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.  They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.  Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.  For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.(John 17:5 -

Reread the passage above and consider whether Jesus’ prayer includes the Torah, which Moses scribed, “For I have given to [Moses] the words which You have given Me; and [he] received them, and [has] known surely that I came forth from You; and [he has] believed that You sent Me.”  We tend to think only of the Gospels when we read this prayer, but should it surprise us if Jesus was referring to the Torah as well?  And the Torah incidentally includes the Creation Account.

In conclusion, Jesus was present at the Creation and told Moses about it in his tent, and Moses, the faithful scribe, recorded it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 12:39 am and is filed under Jesus as Witness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.