Prayer and Unity
To encourage the desire to pray together as a community
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14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
The Background to ,
Humbling Oneself
Praying
Seeking His Face
FACE. Literally, the front part of the head of a human being (Heb. ˒ap̱ “nose”; pānîm, a plural form; Gk. prósōpon), animal, or angel; it is used figuratively in such expressions as the “face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2) and the “face [Heb. ˓ayin “eye”] of the land” (Exod. 10:5).
To the biblical writers, the human face represents the entire person; according to Job 42:9 the Lord accepted “Job’s face,” i.e., Job himself (so KJV, JB; RSV, NIV “Job’s prayer”). Often the face, the most individually identifiable part of the human body, reflects a range of emotions. The psalmist confesses that shame had “covered [his] face” (Ps. 44:15); in describing his grief, Job observes that his “face is red with weeping” (Job 16:16). Elsewhere, joy from a “glad heart” results in “a cheerful countenance” (Prov. 15:13).
The faithful are urged to seek God’s face (Ps. 27:8), meaning his favor (see Gen. 33:10), which God might grant (Num. 6:25) or deny by “hiding his face” in anger (Isa. 54:8; cf. Ps. 27:9; see also Lev. 20:3, “set my face against”). In biblical usage the face of God (Heb. pānîm) is often idiomatic for the presence of the deity (cf. Gen. 4:16). Thinking anthropomorphically, the peoples of the ancient Near East identified the face of a deity with his “glory,” a powerful aura surrounding the deity (cf. Akk. melammu). Accordingly, the Israelites were forbidden to look directly upon the divine face lest they be overwhelmed by God’s might (cf. the anthropomorphic terms of the instructions preparing Moses for the divine theophany at Exod. 33:20–23). But according to the apostle Paul, in the end time believers will be permitted to see God “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12), thereby attaining direct and complete knowledge (cf. Gen. 32:30; Exod. 33:11). Meanwhile, they are assured that they can approach God through the face, or person, of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).