I am captivated by the slight glimpse given to us the reader about what Moses, Nadab, Abihu, and the elders saw when they worshiped at a distance with God. It is amazing to think that they mention the pavement! How often would we note the pavement or floor someone is standing on as something noteworthy? We would never say that we would note clothing, hair and eye color, or whether they spoke eloquently. In this case of describing God could any words that Moses could have written done justice to the true image of God? I don’t think that it would have been possible to describe God. Anything that would have been written would have fallen short of the truth and become and idol in some respects. When we are told that the pavement on which God was standing was in appearance like sapphire which was clear as the sky that gives us all a baseline of 3 things we know: pavement, sapphire, and sky. The ground was so clear and beautiful that it hints at how much more amazing God is.
In his book Knowledge of the Holy A.W. Tozer speaks about how we are created in the likeness of God and since we are created beings we have a limited vocabulary about how to describe our creator. We use simile to describe that which we do not understand. Think of the cars that we so frequently drive. Imagine if we were to take a car back in time 500 years. They would have no idea what it was or what to do with it but they would start saying it looks like a wagon, like a cart, or like a coach. In the same way Ezekiel wrote,” Then I looked and behold, a likeness as the appearance of a man… a likeness of fire… appearance of brightness, like the appearance of glowing metal” (Ezekiel 8:2) God is so much greater than we can comprehend and a glimpse is all we have been able to see but that glimpse is all we need.
