What Does God Look Like? Biblical Insights

It’s funny how long I have loved the Lord God Almighty and never really wondered too much what God looks like until I read John’s account in Revelations.

God’s Presence Over His Appearance

When I first became a Christian, I remember feeling His presence so strongly that, somehow, what He looked like didn’t matter too much to me. Because He was so real and tangible.

In recent years, I have not felt that presence in the same way and I’ve had to learn to press into the Lord in different ways.

What’s it like to have a relationship with an unseen God?

As a military spouse, I have loved ones all over this country in different places we have lived. Mentors and friends that have become like family across the United States and the globe.

So my relationship with God has kind of felt like so many of my long-distance friendships. Our connection is based on emails, letters, and conversations on the phone. (I’m old school and don’t facetime or zoom unless I have to for work.) In these relationships, you kind of have a blurry idea of what they still might look like, but it’s been so many years, that’s probably changed. And it doesn’t matter because the friendship is based on love and is rich and deep and has lasted so long.

Has anyone ever seen what God looks like?

One of my favorite memories was memorizing God’s word with my toddler in Bible Study Fellowship. It’s been a decade (and a whole lot of life!) since then, and after years of trying to get back to BSF with my girls, the door opened for us this year… And we are studying Revelations!

(It’s not too late to join for the year. They host studies nationwide and internationally! Click here to find a group near you or to register online.)

Revelations

I wanted us to study Revelations because, to be honest, it kind of scares a few of us in this house. And because I know that’s not God’s heart, I knew we needed to dive in deeper and seek out His heart. Revelations starts with God saying “Peace and kindness to you” from God the Father, “Peace and kindness to you” from Jesus the Son, and “Peace and kindness to you” from Holy Spirit. So that right there tells me His heart is not that this book of Revelations would scare us, but that they would bring peace and kindness to His kiddoes.

Last week, we dove into Revelations Chapter 4. Wow. John was taken up in the spirit to heaven’s throne room. There are several places in the Bible where we can read about different people who had the same experience. Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Moses.

Differences in Descriptions

Their descriptions vary which makes it even more vivid and believable to me. Because they are all trying to describe a supernatural scene, and you can tell the authors are all struggling to describe the supernatural brilliance with the insufficient words and similes of earth.

It also seems like they either didn’t all describe everything they saw at once. Like how if I take my daughters to the Biltmore or the Broadmoor or Neuschwanstein… these magnificent places have so much ornate gorgeous detail! So if you asked all 3 of us to describe what we saw, we would each tell you different things that really impressed us. Some would be similar, described similarly with different adjectives. Somethings one girl mentioned, another might leave out. The same is true of the Gospels, when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all describe encounters with Jesus in their own ways, own words, and with their own personalities.

But they were in the same place at the same time with Jesus. These men were taken to heaven’s throne room at different times, in different centuries throughout history. The scene varies a little. I love this too because, while God is unchanging, I imagine the small differences are like when you go to Grandma’s house over the decades. It doesn’t change a lot but sometimes she has to replace a couch or move a picture on the wall. But it’s still Grandma and still her house.

 As you read the accounts of these different men, note the similarities and the differences:

What DOES God look like?

According to John

The Throne in Heaven

 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits[a] of God. 6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

       “‘Holy, holy, holy

       is the Lord God Almighty,’[b]

       who was, and is, and is to come.”

9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

       11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
           to receive glory and honor and power,
           for you created all things,
           and by your will they were created
           and have their being.”

-REVELATIONS 4:1-12, NIV

According to Isaiah

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

-ISAIAH 6:1-8, NIV

According to Ezekiel

I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, 9 and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.

10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. 12 Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 13 The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. 14 The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.

15 As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. 16 This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. 17 As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. 18 Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

19 When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. 20 Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21 When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

22 Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome. 23 Under the vault their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body. 24 When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty,[b] like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

25 Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. 26 Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

-EZEKIEL 1:4-28

According to Moses

  Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

-EXODUS 24:9-12

The Holiness of God

Reading these different accounts makes me realize that I’ve become used to approaching God as Friend and Father, but this reminds me that He is also fully and completely God Almighty, God Eternal. It makes me revere Him even more. And it reminds me that, however my view of God and what He is like, it’s still going to pale in comparison to His true glory and splendor and might and goodness.

One thing I’ve noticed in worship over the years, is that when I cry out that God is “Holy! Holy! Holy!” I feel His presence even stronger. He surely “inhabits the praises of His people!” (Psalm 22:3). Maybe because when we worship Him like they do in heaven, that’s the quickest, most powerful way to bring heaven down to earth.