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adjoining the Throne Room or Audience Chamber is called The Presence Chamber,
or 'the presence' as in Shakespeare's Henry VIII:
'The two great cardinals wait in the Presence'.
Thus, Joseph 'went out from the presence of Pharaoh' (Gen. 41:46).
Earlier, Jacob uses the word four times in Genesis 32:20 with four different
meanings:
'I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and
afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me
(margin, my face)'.
Literally, the words, 'I will appease him' are 'I will cover his face'
using the Hebrew kaphar, 'to pacify' by an offering. (See Atonement, p. 29).
'Before me'. This again is a figurative use of panim, 'face'. Even
the plain statement, 'I will see his face' means something more than the
English words convey. Jacob was hopeful that his brother's anger would have
softened, and as he says, 'peradventure he will accept my face'. The oft -
repeated phrase, 'respect of persons' (Prov. 24:23) uses the 'face' to
represent the 'person', and in these cases, usually some person of seeming
importance. The Psalms make much of the Lord's Presence. To the believer,
to be in the presence of the Lord 'is fulness of joy', but in the selfsame
presence, 'the wicked perish' (Psa. 16:11; 68:2). Again, the presence of the
Lord cannot be limited or localized. 'Whither shall I flee from Thy
presence?' asks the Psalmist in Psalm 139:7.
Some references to the 'face' of the Lord need most careful handling,
involving as they do the very nature of the invisible God, and Him Whose
title is the Image, the Word and the Express Image of God. John 1:18 is
categorical:
'Nobody has ever seen God' (Moffatt),
'No human eye has ever seen God' (Weymouth),
yet we read, 'The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto
his friend' (Exod. 33:11)! In the same chapter we also read, 'Thou canst not
see My face ... and live' (33:20). Earlier, we read that 'a man' wrestled
with Jacob, and this 'man' is called 'the angel' in Hosea 12:4; and
afterwards Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, 'the face of God',
saying, 'I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved' (Gen.
32:30). Later Moses reminded the children of Israel that at Horeb 'The Lord
talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of fire' (Deut
5:4). In what way did God talk 'face to face' with Israel? The answer is
partly given in the very next verse:
'I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you the word of
the Lord' (Deut. 5:5).
It is the teaching of Scripture that the law was given by angels (Acts
7:53; Gal. 3:19), and it is not without significance that Stephen, who
interceded for his murderers, is said to have had a 'face as it had been the
face of an angel'. Isaiah reviewing the history of his people said, 'the
angel of His presence (or face) saved them' (Isa. 63:9). We have already
drawn attention to the two apparently contradictory passages in Exodus 33,