Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

And as a matter of fact the words which the Lord later says to Moses … are commonly and not without reason understood to prefigure the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the back parts are taken to be his flesh, in which he was born of the Virgin and rose again, whether they are called the back parts [posteriora] because of the posteriority of his mortal nature or because he deigned to take it near the end of the world, that is, at a later period [posterius]. But his face is that form of God in which he thought it not robbery to be equal to God the Father, which no one surely can see and live.… After this life, in which we are absent from the Lord, where the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, we shall see “face to face,” as the apostle says. (For it is said of this life in the Psalms, “Indeed all things are vanity: every man living,” and again, “For in your sight no man living shall be justified.” In [this] life too, according to John, “it has not yet appeared what we shall be. For we know,” he said, “that when he shall appear we shall be like to him, because we shall see h…

And as a matter of fact the words which the Lord later says to Moses … are commonly and not without reason understood to prefigure the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the back parts are taken to be his flesh, in which he was born of the Virgin and rose again, whether they are called the back parts [posteriora] because of the posteriority of his mortal nature or because he deigned to take it near the end of the world, that is, at a later period [posterius]. But his face is that form of God in which he thought it not robbery to be equal to God the Father, which no one surely can see and live.… After this life, in which we are absent from the Lord, where the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, we shall see “face to face,” as the apostle says. (For it is said of this life in the Psalms, “Indeed all things are vanity: every man living,” and again, “For in your sight no man living shall be justified.” In [this] life too, according to John, “it has not yet appeared what we shall be. For we know,” he said, “that when he shall appear we shall be like to him, because we shall see him as he is.” And he certainly meant this to be understood as after this life, when we shall have paid the debt of death and shall have received the promise of the resurrection.) Or [is it] that even now, to whatever extent we spiritually grasp the Wisdom of God, through which all things were made, to that same extent we die to carnal affections.… Since we regard this world as dead to us, we also die to this world, and may say as did the apostle: “The world is crucified to me and I to the world.”

Another point that can trouble us is how it was possible for the very substance of God to be seen by some while still in this life, in view of what was said to Moses: “No man can see my face and live,” unless it is possible for the human mind to be divinely rapt from this life to the angelic life, before it is freed from the flesh by our common death.

As regards this life, Moses is told, “Nobody has seen the face of God and lived.” You see, we are not meant to live in this life in order to see that face; we are meant to die to the world in order to live forever in God. Then we won’t sin, not only by deed but not even by desire, when we see that face which beats and surpasses all desires. Because it is so lovely, my brothers and sisters, so beautiful, that once you have seen it, nothing else can give you pleasure. It will give insatiable satisfaction of which we will never tire. We shall always be hungry and always have our fill.

Hence the answer made to Moses is true that no one can see the face of God and live, that is, no one living in this life can see him as he is. Many have seen, but they saw what his will chose, not what his nature formed, and this is what John said, if he is rightly understood: “Dearly beloved, we are the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like to him, because we shall see him as he is”; not as men saw him when he willed under the appearance that he willed; not in his nature under which he lies hidden within himself even when he is seen, but as he is. This is what was asked of him by the one who spoke to him face to face, when he said to him, “Show me yourself,” but no one can at any time experience the fullness of God through the eyes of the body any more than by the mind itself.

Exodus 34:28

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

The forty-day fast of Lent draws its authority from the Old Testament, from the fasts of Moses and Elijah, and from the gospel, because the Lord fasted that many days, showing that the gospel is not at variance with the Law and the Prophets. The Law is personified by Moses, the Prophets by Elijah, between whom the Lord appeared transfigured on the mountain.

Exodus 36:30

And there were eight boards; and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets.

Sometimes, however, under one figure of either an act or an utterance, two terms may have one meaning. Thus the boards which were fitted together into the construction of the ark signify both the faithful and the eight souls who were saved in the same ark. Similarly, in the Gospel, in the parable of the sheepfold, Christ himself is both the shepherd and the door.

Ezekiel 1:10

As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

It appears to me that those who have taken the lion to point to Matthew, the man to Mark, the ox to Luke and the eagle to John have made a more reasonable application of the figures than those who have assigned the man to Matthew, the eagle to Mark and the lion to John. For in forming their particular idea of the matter, they have chosen to keep in view simply the beginnings of the book, and not the full design of the several Evangelists in its completeness, which was the matter that should, above all, have been thoroughly examined. For surely it is with much greater propriety that the Evangelist who has brought to our attention most particularly the kingly character of Christ should be taken as being represented by the lion.… That Luke is intended under the figure of the calf, in reference to the sacrifice made by the priest, has been doubted by neither of the two sets of interpreters.… In this way it further follows that Mark, who has set himself neither to give account of the royal lineage nor to expound anything distinctive of the priesthood … appears to be indicated simply under…

It appears to me that those who have taken the lion to point to Matthew, the man to Mark, the ox to Luke and the eagle to John have made a more reasonable application of the figures than those who have assigned the man to Matthew, the eagle to Mark and the lion to John. For in forming their particular idea of the matter, they have chosen to keep in view simply the beginnings of the book, and not the full design of the several Evangelists in its completeness, which was the matter that should, above all, have been thoroughly examined. For surely it is with much greater propriety that the Evangelist who has brought to our attention most particularly the kingly character of Christ should be taken as being represented by the lion.… That Luke is intended under the figure of the calf, in reference to the sacrifice made by the priest, has been doubted by neither of the two sets of interpreters.… In this way it further follows that Mark, who has set himself neither to give account of the royal lineage nor to expound anything distinctive of the priesthood … appears to be indicated simply under the figure of the man among those four living creatures.

Ezekiel 3:4

And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

What does that show, if not that God was speaking through the prophet? Now it is we clergy who were above all terrified by the prophet's words, that is, the leaders whom God appointed to speak to his people, and so we begin by seeing our own faces in those words. For as the reader intoned them we had a kind of mirror held up to us in which we could inspect ourselves, and inspect ourselves we did. Inspect yourselves, too, then.

Ezekiel 3:18

When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

You have frequently heard in the holy Scriptures in what great danger bishops are placed, if they are unwilling to carry out what the apostle urges on them.… But when we reprove someone, if the person we reprove is bad, he fixes his attention on the one he is being reproved by and happily and more readily acknowledges what has to be put right in his reprover than in himself. And if he can find something true to say against the one who is reproving him, he is delighted. How much better to rejoice about his own healthy condition when he has been put right than about another person’s illness when he is rebuked!

Ezekiel 3:19

Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

If he does this, he goes out from there, not by physical withdrawal but defended by his behavior; he has done what he had to do, even if the other person did not heed the warning he should have heeded.

Ezekiel 9:4

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

But maybe that person wasn’t yet a Christian. We at least, brothers and sisters, should listen; we to whom as believers the gospel is chanted, we by whom the one who said all this is worshiped, whose sign is worn by us on our foreheads and held in our hearts. It makes a great deal of difference, you see, where a person keeps the sign of Christ, whether on the forehead or both on the forehead and in the heart. You heard, when the holy prophet Ezekiel was speaking, how before God sent an exterminator of a wicked people, he first sent a marker and said to him, “Go and mark with a sign the foreheads of those who groan and grieve over the sins of my people, which are committed among them.” Yet for all that they groan and grieve; and this is why they have been marked with a sign on the forehead—the forehead of the inner self, not the outer one. There is a forehead of the face, you see, and a forehead of the conscience. In fact, sometimes the inner forehead gets a knock, and the outer one blushes; it either blushes for shame or turns pale with fright.

Ezekiel 9:6

Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

So there is a forehead of the inner self. That is where those people were marked, to save them from being wiped out. Because even if they did not put right the sins that were committed among them, at least they were pained by them, and by their very pain they set themselves apart; while set apart for God, they were mixed together in the eyes of people. They are marked with a sign in secret; they escape harm in public. The destroyer is sent next and is told, “Go, destroy, do not spare young, old, male, female; but do not go near those who have the sign on their foreheads.” What a sure guarantee has been given you, my brothers and sisters, you among this people who are groaning and grieving over the wicked deeds committed in your midst and are not committing them!

Ezekiel 11:19 · 5 passages

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

Those and other divine testimonies, which it would take too long to enumerate, show that God by his grace takes away the stony heart from unbelievers and forestalls merit in people of good will in such a way that their will is prepared by prevenient grace, but not that grace is given through prevenient merit of the will. This is shown both by thanksgiving and by prayer: prayer for unbelievers; thanksgiving for believers. Prayer is to be made to him that he may do what we ask; thanksgiving is to be offered when he has done it.

Flesh is not mentioned in this passage in order to signify carnal desire but rather in the way in which the prophet says that a heart of stone is taken away from the people and a heart of flesh is given them.

This grace, which from divine generosity is bestowed secretly in human hearts, is rejected by no one, no matter how hard-hearted he may be. For it is given so that hardness of the heart may first be taken away. Therefore, when the Father is heard within and teaches, so that one may come to the Son, he takes away the heart of stone and bestows a heart of flesh, as he promised by the word of the prophet. For it is thus that he makes them children of the promise and vessels of mercy that he has prepared for glory.

If God is not able to remove from the human heart even its obstinacy and hardness, he would not say, through the prophet, “I will take from them their heart of stone and will give them a heart of flesh.” … Now can we possibly, without extreme absurdity, maintain that there previously existed in any person the good merit of a good will, to entitle him to the removal of his stony heart, when all the while this very heart of stone signifies nothing else than a will of the hardest kind and such as is absolutely inflexible against God?

For by the heart of flesh and the fleshy tables is not meant a carnal understanding: but as flesh feels, whereas a stone cannot, the insensibility of stone signifies an unintelligent heart, and the sensibility of flesh signifies an intelligent heart.

Ezekiel 13:10

Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:

They who choose to declare their own honor have refused to dwell in [God’s] house; and therefore they do not sing a new song with all the earth. For they do not share it with the whole world; and hence they are not building in the house but have erected a whitened wall. How sternly does God threaten the whitened wall?… What is the whitened wall but hypocrisy, that is, pretense? Outside it is bright; inside it is dirt.

Ezekiel 14:7

For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:

Those dissatisfied with any facet of your creation are unsound in mind, as I was when many things that you made displeased me. Because my soul did not dare to be dissatisfied with my God, it would not identify as yours whatever dissatisfied it. In this way it had strayed into a belief in two substances, and it got no rest but recounted the opinions of others. Recoiling from that error, it had made for itself a god inhabiting the boundless area of all space, and it had considered that god to be you, and had "set it in its heart" and had become again the shrine of its idol, deserving of your loathing. But after you stroked my ignorant head and closed my eyes so that they should not see vanity, I retired from myself a little, and my madness was lulled to sleep. I awoke in you and saw you infinite in a different way, and that vision was not with the eyes of the flesh.

Ezekiel 14:9

And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

You must believe that there were evil merits in that person whom God permits to go astray and to become hardened. But for the person on whom he has mercy, you must acknowledge with an unswerving faith that this is a case of the grace of God who is not rendering evil for evil but good for evil.