Lamar Howell's Weblog

THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

“Stand here in the cleft of the rock and I will show you . . . my back.”

I once heard a chilling quote made but cannot remember the author. The proposition was this: “What if the God we think we know is not the God who is?” I wonder if that is what Moses thought when he saw God’s back? This is not the face of God, so God must be somewhat different from what I am seeing.

This causes me to question my own revelation of God as well as that presented by the church Sunday after Sunday. We may be seeing God from a perspective which He has – or some reason – limited us to. If this is true, then we need to ask ourselves why.

I remember as a child being surprised when I was told that from planet Earth there is a side to the moon that we never see. I assumed that since the moon revolved on its axis then naturally it would spin in a complete circle and expose its entire surface. Not true. The same side of the moon faces the earth at all times because its spin matches its rotation. It can be compared to a curious art student moving around a panorama in the center of a room, all the while turned toward it in admiration. The panorama is like the earth and the artist is like the moon. The artist never turns his back to the artwork as he walks around it, but he does indeed rotate. I’m certain there is a scientific explanation for the behavior of the moon, but it is still a curiosity.

Could it be that God is mimicking our behavior by showing us only what we want to see, only what we’re willing to pay the price to see, only what we have limited ourselves to see? God turns as we turn to watch Him. Perhaps God keeps His face toward us as He moves around us, among us, and throughout the world.

Most people are ignorant and indifferent as to the mysteries that lie on the hidden side of the moon. Which brings up the idea that we the church may be equally as indifferent and  moreover, unknowledgeable,  about what lies on the hidden side of God. Logic and imagery suggest that the “hidden side” of God would be his back and that His revealed side would be his face. In fact, this is exactly what he told Moses.

However, in this dispensation of grace, it seems that God has shown us his face, for he says it plainly in II Corinthians that we see the glory of God “in the face of Jesus Christ.” Therefore, I must assume that if there is a side of God we are missing, then it must be his back, the part that Moses saw.

I have never understood how in my many years of church life, I have always felt that we systematically avoided one side of God’s nature while applauding the other. Paul said in Romans 11 that we need to recognize both the “kindness and the severity of God.”

There must be some kind of trick to the doctrine, because once someone gets started on the severe side of God’s nature, it becomes like a weighted dice roll – they always come up a seven or an eleven. And no matter how hard we try, we never get back to a balanced roll. We never trust the dice again.

Somehow in our temerity and weakness, we assume that God is like us. We have a strong side which we show most people, and a weak side which we hope few ever see. But God does not have a strong side and a weak side. It would be better stated that He has a mercy side and a justice side, and the whole coin, so to speak, is His holiness. God’s mercy is not weakness, although there is a trick to his coin toss among mortal men: he has weighted the coin as he squeezes the metal slightly to one side in His wounded hand. Of course, we all reverence the day when the coin will come up tails – judgment day.

I want to know Christ in the power of His resurrection . . . alright, in the fellowship of His sufferings, too. Our desire to see more of God must be more than that kind of a concession.

God is good, but He is not nice; God is forgiving, but He is not lenient; God is easily offended, but He is not thin-skinned; God has shown us His mercy, but He is not senile.

So, pull up a place in the cleft of the rock. It may get scary, but if I am right . . . I will see you on the dark side of the moon.