Moses, Elijah, three Apostles, and Paul talked with Jesus and had visions of God that provide insight into the name of God (at least in the case of Moses). Unlike our names, God’s name means who he is and what he does. These visions thus reveal who God is along with the meaning of his name, and they provide the framework both to understand prayer where we commune with God and to understand our final salvation where we will see God.
Moses has a vision of God
When Moses ascended Sinai, God brought him into heaven. Exodus 24:9–10 records part of his ascent by saying:
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
The ground turned into a heavenly gleam, signifying that Moses was on the pathway to enter into the heavenly places.
Shortly thereafter, Moses alone entered into the God’s most holy place:
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Exod 24:15–18)
We know that he entered heaven because he entered into God’s presence—which is heaven. But the text also tells us that Moses saw a heavenly tabernacle that the earthly tabernacle and its decorations imitate: “And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain” (Exod 25:40).
The author to the Hebrews confirms this reading by saying,
[High priests] serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” (Heb 8:5)
And:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Heb 9:11–12)
And:
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. (Heb 9:24)
In other words, Jesus entered as the great high priest entered into the perfect tent that is not made anywhere in this world because it exists with God. Moses saw this celestial tent when he entered into heaven, and he instructed Israel to make an earthly imitation of it—”a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Heb 8:5).
Now Israel had missed out on seeing this vision of God. They became impatient and so made two golden calves in order to visibility represent God. Their vision of God was something made by their own hands, of this creation; Moses saw the reality of God—or at least a glimpse. There is a marked difference between the two ways of seeing God.
Soon Moses would ask to see the fullness of God. In response, God brings him once again into heaven, into his presence (Exodus 33:17–34:9). Moses ascends Horeb, asks to see God’s glory, gets to learn God’s name by experience, and has God pass before him.
God’s passing before Moses included certain dangers as no one can see God and live (Exod 33:20). So God protects Moses from this fate:
And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (Exod 33:21–23)
Moses stands by God, is protected by God, hears God’s name (Exod 33:19), and sees God’s passing by (well, at least the back of God):
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exod 34:5–7)
God came down in the cloud, wrapping his presence around Moses (he “stood with him there”) and “proclaimed” his name. The name of God, Yahweh, can be understood by what God does.
Names in the ancient world names held meaning—God’s name was no exception. His name meant that he is merciful, gracious, and so on.
To summarize, Moses ascended up a celestial path to meet God not only once but twice. He saw God pass him by at Horeb, learned his name, and saw his glory.
Elijah has a vision of God
Elijah, high on slaying the priests of Baal, gets a wake-up call when Jezebel threatens to murder him. So he flees to Mount Horeb where God gave the covenant and Moses had his vision of God.
There, God too passes him by. While we learn that God’s presence is dangerous in the story of Moses, the narrative of Kings gives us a vivid picture of this danger alluding to God’s theophany in Exodus 19–20 as well as to Moses’ vision of God.
1 Kings 19:11–12 records:
And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
When God speaks, he first sends a wind that shatters mountains and breaks rocks into pieces. Elijah would have stood there in the cave seeing his world destroyed. Then the mountains quake before fire blazes around him.
He is being transposed into God’s presence. The danger there is real but God keeps him safe. Possibly recalling that God told Moses that to see him is to die (Exod 33:20), Elijah hides his face: “And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave” (1 Kings 19:13). Wherever Elijah is (“whether in the body or out of the body I do not know”), he somehow survives mountains falling apart, earthquakes, and a consuming fire.
So let’s just call it what it is. He entered heaven as Moses did. He came to the presence of God who is a consuming fire and whose voice sounds like a trumpet, shaking the ground around it (see Exodus 19–20; esp 19:18–19).
In the end, God strengthens Elijah, sends him to Damascus, and gives him hope for the future. And like Moses had a renewed covenant, so Elijah gains a new follower in Elisha who takes up his mantle.
Three apostles witnessed a vision of God at the Mount of Transfiguration
It is small wonder that Moses and Elijah appear on the Mount of Transfiguration talking with the glorified Jesus. That had already done this as Exodus and 1 Kings records. They are the ones who, while yet alive, talked with the glory of God, that is, Jesus.
At the Mount of Transfiguration, they stood in the presence of Jesus whose “clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them” (Mark 9:13). Mark says “as no one on earth could bleach them” to signify that these clothes belong to heaven—to that place of radiant light, consuming fires, and wind that topples mountains.
Peter, James, and John like Moses and Elijah before them glimpse at God—they have a vision of God whose essence they see in the face of Jesus (cf. 2 Cor 3:18). How? When God became man, he assumed a human form that allowed us to see God and live. As John the Evangelist would say: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
We see God’s glory in the Son: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). Ultimately, we do so by the Spirit as we await the fullness of our coming beatific vision when we will know God face to face (Rev 22:3–4). For the Apostles (and now for us), they saw God through Jesus. After all, that is why Jesus came—to make God known to us.
Paul has a vision of God
When Paul has his vision of Jesus (Acts 9), he decides he needs to reevaluate his life. So he says he spent three years in Arabia before heading to Damascus (Gal 1:17–18). Possibly during this time he “received [the gospel] through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:12). Interestingly, Arabia, where Paul went, included Mount Horeb in its region (Wright, 2018: 63). So it is possible that Paul went to where Moses gave the law and where Moses and Elijah had a vision of God before restarting their ministries (see Wright, 2018: 62–64).
If so, he would be following a tried and tested pattern of prophetic ministry. Paul’s ministry seems to be self-consciously set in the prophetic idiom. So it is possible. Wherever he went (and he might as well have gone to Horeb since it’s a famous mountain in Arabia), we know that he received a revelation from Jesus directly.
And I suspect during this time, Paul made it to the third heaven and heard things that he cannot utter (and perhaps things he could utter like the gospel of Jesus Christ):
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. (2 Cor 12:2–4).
If I am wrong in my identification of when and where Paul ascended to God, then we can least say that Paul had a similar experience to Moses and Elijah.
We have and will have a vision of God
By the Spirit, we unite to Christ. Through uniting to him according to his humanity (we share a common nature), we then have full access to God since we have the whole Christ. So we come to know God experientially in this way.
In prayer, we “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16). In this sense, we have a partial vision of God available to us by the Holy Spirit. Yet we do not yet have the fullness of this experience which will come when God clothes us with immortality and incorruptibility (1 Cor 15:53–54).
Moses wanted to know God’s name and heard it through a dramatic revelation. And Jesus aimed to reveal that same name during his ministry in on earth. He explains, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world” (John 17:6).
Jesus finishes his high priestly prayer by saying:
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:20–26).
Jesus prays that we might be “one” like he and the Father are. That means we become to the Father what the Son is to the Father. This means seeing God’s glory and God’s name.
So when we came to Jesus in faith, we begin to learn God’s name like Moses did. God’s name looks like Jesus. And knowing Jesus now gives us a glimpse of the fullness of our knowing in the future. We have eternal life now because eternal means knowing God and Jesus Christ: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
The goal of our eternal life is that we can know and see God. And heaven, God’s place, will eventually come to earth (Revelation 21:9–27). Revelation 22:3–5 records what happens then:
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
For the first time in history, we will see God’s face directly and we ourselves will possess his name. We will be one as they are one. We will know God in his fullness and enjoy him forever in that beatific vision towards which all Christians strive.
