Alleged Contradictions In Scripture – Part 4

“No Man Has Seen God” versus “You…Have Seen [The Father]”

Exo 24:9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
Exo 24:10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Exo 24:11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

Exo 33:18 And he [Moses] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
Exo 33:19 And he [Christ] said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
Exo 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Joh 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Introduction

To atheists and the secular humanists, these verses prove that the Bible is a book of blatant contradictions, worthy of no one’s serious consideration. In one scripture we are told “the elders… and… the nobles of the children of Israel… saw God, and did eat and drink”, while on the other hand Christ Himself tells us “No man has seen God at any time…” Then this very same Christ turns right around and tells us, “You know Him and have seen Him”.

How is it possible, they ask, for anyone to put any faith in a book which so clearly contradicts itself like this? How is it possible that such a book is the world’s consistent best seller year after year? Could it be that there really is an invisible God who is just as real, and far more powerful than invisible electricity? Could it be that same invisible God is working all the affairs of mankind in such a way as to make His Words to simultaneously be both the most hated and at the same time the most beloved words in the world? The fact is that is exactly what that invisible God is doing, and He makes very clear throughout His Word that it is He who has created and is in the process of orchestrating all things, both the good and the evil:

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Pro 20:24 Man’s goings [Good and evil] are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Eph 1:11 In whom also [Christ] we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

In this study we will demonstrate how it is possible to make statements that appear to contradict themselves, while in reality they do nothing of the sort. Many atheists and secular humanists think nothing of telling us that mankind, to quote the Georgia Guidestones, is a “cancer on the earth” because mankind is over-populating the earth. In the same breath these same pompous, self-righteous elitists are asking us to believe that certain men among mankind are capable of ruling the earth with fair, equitable laws which will “make room for nature” by finding a way to eliminate almost 90% of humanity and “MAINTAIN HUMANITY UNDER 500,000,000 IN PERPETUAL BALANCE WITH NATURE.” There were already 4.5 billion people on the planet, meaning about 80% had to go (today it would be closer to 86%) when these words were carved into Elberton granite. This instruction was echoed and expanded by tenet number two: “GUIDE REPRODUCTION WISELY—IMPROVING FITNESS AND DIVERSITY.” It didn’t take a great deal of imagination to draw an analogy to the practices of, among others, the Nazis.” (Wired Magazine: 17.05 American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post Apocalypse)

These are not the words of some crackpot atheist with no power or influence in the affairs of mankind. These words are written in granite slabs which are 19′ 3″ tall, from the base to the top of the capstone, according to the dimensions given in a granite slab just a few feet to the west of the guide stones. Each of the four columns is 6′ 6″ wide, 1′ 7″ thick, and weighs 42,437 pounds. The people who had these stones erected were powerful enough to insure their identity would be kept secret from the public, and from 1980 until today that anonymity has been maintained.

But according to Eph 1:11 this, too, is all being done “after the counsel of [God’s] own will”, and in the final analysis, as with Joseph’s brothers, these men have nothing to do with how God is using them to bring about “the day of evil” for which they were created:

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

“You sold [me] into Egypt… You sold me here”, and in the same breath, we have yet another contradiction:

Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

This past Wednesday, Sandi and I, along with some others, went over to Elberton, Georgia, about an hour and a half east of us, to see the Georgia Guidestones. When we came back home, I read a story that appeared in Wired magazine which you can read at this link:

http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_guidestones

This article is entitled “Modern Stonehenge”, and that is a very apt description of this monument. But what I learned in reading that link is that the people who commissioned the erection of this monument with its godless ‘ten commandments’, have given us those commandments to tell us how they intend to “MAINTAIN HUMANITY UNDER 500,000,000 IN PERPETUAL BALANCE WITH NATURE… after the coming apocalypse”. Those are the words of the man who came to Elberton “on a Friday afternoon in June 1979” and commissioned the construction of that monument. That man introduced himself as R. C. Christian, which he openly told the owner of the Elberton Granite Company and the president of The Bank of Elberton, was a pseudonym.

Here are just a couple of paragraphs taken from the Wired magazine article about the day ‘R. C. Christian’ appeared at the Elberton Granite Company to begin the negotiations to have this monument erected. It is the last sentence which reveals that this man and his associates are, in an outward application, “the wicked [who God has] made… for the [outwardly impending] day of evil”.

“Joe Fendley, Elberton Granite’s president, nodded absently, distracted by the rush to complete his weekly payroll. But when Christian began to describe the monument he had in mind, Fendley stopped what he was doing. Not only was the man asking for stones larger than any that had been quarried in the county, he also wanted them cut, finished, and assembled into some kind of enormous astronomical instrument.

“What in the world would it be for? Fendley asked. Christian explained that the structure he had in mind would serve as a compass, calendar and clock. It would also need to be engraved with a set of guides written in eight of the world’s major languages. And it had to be capable of withstanding the most catastrophic events, so that the shattered remnants of humanity would be able to use those guides to reestablish a better civilization than the one that was about to destroy itself.”

Those who know that God is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” will immediately recognize that God is using these men to tell us that they are planning an apocalypse which will leave only mere “shattered remnants of humanity”. This helps to explain why our own government will not investigate what happened when the World Trade Towers came straight down. The fact that we are being blatantly told by a group of extremely wealthy men that the earth’s population must be maintained at 500 million after “the most catastrophic events [leaving only] the shattered remnants of humanity” and no one even attempts to find out who this group of men are, explains why there is no interest in doing anything that would forestall the destruction of civilization by integrating every section of the globe with those who are historically proven to be the known and sworn enemies one of the other.

Have you never wondered why all the so-called Christian nations are being seeded with Muslims who use our own laws to spread their anti-Christian religion? Have you never questioned why anything that smacks of the enforcement of our already existing immigration laws is immediately labeled as racist, while never mentioning that the very nations which are sending their evangelical Muslim pilgrims into the Christian nations, do not tolerate for one moment a Christian speaking publicly of Christ in their own country or for that matter in their communities in the Christian nations with whom they dwell?

This deliberately planned destruction of civilization helps us understand why otherwise logical men are refusing to protect borders or enforce our immigration laws. Every completely illogical thing that is being done on a national level is working to fulfill this prophecy, which must precede the salvation of all, which is what God will cause to come of all of the evil plans of mankind (1Co 15:22; 1Jn 2:2).

Isa 19:2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

And in Jeremiah:

Jer 25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.
Jer 25:32 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
Jer 25:33 And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

Jer 30:12 For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.
Jer 30:13 There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.
Jer 30:14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.
Jer 30:15 Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.

These wicked men, who are planning the destruction of civilization, are “the cruel one[s]” whom God is using to chasten us “for the multitude of [our] iniquities”. But why, in the final analysis, has this world “hardened their hearts against the fear of God”? Why, in the final analysis, has God given a group of men the ability to decimate the populations of the nations? This, in the final analysis, is the only reason:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

How does God work to harden hearts in the leaders of the nations of this world? This is how God has done that. This is how this world is really run. The United Nations, The European Union, the nations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the BRICS nations are one and all actually fulfilling this Truth:

Dan 4:17 This matter [the temporary removal of King Nebuchadnezzar from His own throne] is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

You and I are “the watchers”:

Eze 3:17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and [you] give them warning from me.

We are also the holy ones who make known God’s intentions to His people and proclaim “that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men”:

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

What an incredible calling we have been given, to speak for God! But the message we have been given to deliver to Christ’s body and “to every man” is one which will cause us to be “hated of all men” (Mat 10:22).

A part of that very unpopular message we have been given to deliver to “all men” is that “the basest of men” are set over the nations by God Himself “to fulfill His will”, and like Joseph’s brothers, these wicked men think their wickedness was all their own idea. The fact is that our ways, good or evil, are of the Lord, and are not our own ideas as we want to imagine:

Pro 20:24 Man’s goings [the good and the evil] are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

The beast will not even know that he is fulfilling God’s will as He seeks to destroy the great whore or God’s elect:

Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Rev 17:13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
Rev 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
Rev 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

“One hour” conveys a short season which will, at that time, seem like an eternity. During that “one hour” humanity will turn on the religions of this world and will “hate the [religions of this world] and shall make [the adherents of those religions] desolate and naked and shall eat [the] flesh [of the followers of the religions of this world] and burn [them] with fire”:

Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

We are watching this take place every day, with every governmental decision which decrees that Biblically righteous actions are not to be tolerated in the public arena. These ten horns represent those who are the power behind the thrones of every nation on earth. These ten horns are the Biblical symbol of the same people who are capable of causing nations to go to war. They are capable of bringing down the World Trade Towers, in the light of day, and making the masses believe that jet fuel from two airplanes causes molten metal to spew forth from the steel columns supporting those buildings. These are the same people whom God has given the ability to quash any inquiry into why that molten metal is seen spewing forth from the corners of the World Trade Towers in the videos of the fires that were raging immediately following the attacks on the first two buildings. God has truly given “the basest of men” the ability and the means of blackmailing and bribing key leaders in every nation on earth to bring about the near destruction of His own people, as the beast turns against the whore. We see this in the death of our Lord, just as it was done to Joseph, to Daniel, to his three friends and to Mordecai and Esther.

Let’s take the time to take note of what all these stories reveal about how the beast must turn against the great whore of Revelation, and how in doing so he will also threaten the destruction of God’s elect.

Gen 41:24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me [Pharaoh].

In this early type of the persecution of the harlot and the “seed of the woman”, Joseph’s own brothers typify the great harlot who leads the charge against the elect of God. But Christ will never leave nor forsake us (Heb 13:5).

Psa 105:20 The king [Pharaoh] sent and loosed him [Joseph]; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
Psa 105:21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:
Psa 105:22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.

Joseph being in prison typified his death to this world.

Daniel and his friends’ lives were also threatened in the planned destruction of all the wise men of Babylon.

Dan 2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.
Dan 2:2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
Dan 2:3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.
Dan 2:4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.
Dan 2:5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
Dan 2:6 But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.

“Daniel and his fellows [were about to] perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.”

Dan 2:12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
Dan 2:13 And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.
Dan 2:14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon:
Dan 2:15 He answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.
Dan 2:16 Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.
Dan 2:17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:
Dan 2:18 That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

This typifies the ten horns of the beast turning against the whore to destroy her. It happened to Daniel’s three friends again at a later date:

Dan 3:8 Wherefore at that time [when Nebuchadnezzar had made a golden image] certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews.
Dan 3:9 They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever.
Dan 3:10 Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image:
Dan 3:11 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:12 There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
Dan 3:13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.
Dan 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Dan 3:15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

In this story, the harlot and the beast conspire against God’s elect, who are the first to be “crucified with Christ”, and the saints of God are miraculously delivered from their enemies. The men who cast them into the fiery furnace are themselves destroyed of its flames, while God’s elect are not hurt by the flames which destroy the old man in the second death.

Dan 3:19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
Dan 3:20 And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:22 Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The deliverance must be miraculous just so the flesh cannot take credit for anything God performs.

Dan 3:27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

1Co 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

The same is true in the story of Mordecai and Esther. Queen Vashti symbolizes the great whore who rules over the kings of the earth until the ten horns of the beast turn against her and devour her flesh and burn her with fire. Just as the death of the great whore produces the birth of the manchild who will rule the nations, Vashti too, was miraculously replaced by Queen Esther, who typifies the elect of God:

Est 1:19 If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.

1Sa 15:28 And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.

Vashti typifies the harlot who rules over the kings of the earth. The decree from the king that she is never to see his face again typifies the beast turning against and devouring the flesh of the great whore (Rev 17: 12-17). But the beast must still attempt to “devour the manchild” (Rev 12), God’s elect, and we have that typified in the story of Haman’s persecution of the Jews:

Est 3:10 And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.
Est 3:11 And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee.
Est 3:12 Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king’s ring.
Est 3:13 And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

But as always, God’s elect go through the trial, and by going through the fire of the trial, we are miraculously delivered from those who would destroy us, and we are then miraculously placed in the position of judging those who were intent upon our destruction:

Est 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)

Conclusion

How does all of this relate to the question of whether we can see God or not without first dying?

Exo 24:9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
Exo 24:10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Exo 24:11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

Exo 33:18 And he [Moses] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
Exo 33:19 And he [Christ] said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
Exo 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Joh 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

As foolish as it seems to the natural man, Christ as a mere man and Christ in His glory are quite a different sight, as the vision on the mount demonstrates:

Mat 17:2 And [Christ] was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

Only a spiritually blind man would fail to see that the Christ of Exodus 24:10-11 appeared as a normal physical man who the seventy elders of Israel could see with their physical eyes. That should be easy enough for anyone to understand concerning how Christ can appear as glorified in a vision versus appearing in an unglorified body to carnal men. But how can Christ possibly tell anyone “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him“?

To the great frustration of the atheists and the secular humanists, the answer to that question is that Christ, in John 14:7, is speaking of “seeing” that which is invisible, in the sense of understanding the things of the spirit, which we are clearly told are foolishness to the natural man:

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

‘Seeing’ the Father is a matter of understanding the way He thinks and acts. Invisible things are understood by the things that are made. Christ used the wind to make this point:

Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Joh 3:9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Joh 3:10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Joh 3:11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Joh 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Joh 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

The natural man cannot ‘see’ or understand the things of the spirit because they are foolishness to him.

1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The holy spirit teaches us by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, so it is impossible for a carnal mind to grasp “the things of the spirit” which God has revealed to us by His spirit. Every story we have mentioned today concerning the placing of God’s elect over the kingdoms of this world, reveals a loving heavenly Father to the spiritual mind. Those who have been given ‘the mind of Christ’ see His Father clearly even though He is as invisible as the wind.

The natural man in all these stories would see the imprisonment of Joseph, the slavery of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego, the doomed situation of Esther and Mordecai, and would faint in the face of such odds. But the mind of the spirit causes the man of the spirit to “see the Father’s” hand in every one of those stories. The spiritual man sees clearly the invisible things of the spirit.

The natural man is dismayed by the circumstances of life, while the man of the spirit clearly understands and ‘sees’ the sovereign hand of God at work in every experience of every day and in every event, big and small, of every man of all time:

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

And this is how we are able to ‘see… the things of the spirit”, which no carnally minded man will ever ‘see’:

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,