“And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.” (Jeremiah 32:33)
We express an interest in someone when we look at them. To give someone your back signals you have no interest in them; to give them your face indicates that you desire to see and know them.
God has spoken. Few listen. God wrote a book. Very few wish to read it. God has revealed Himself. Men “hide” their face from Him because they don’t care to see Him. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3
What a Friend we have in Jesus! We are in good company when we are “despised and rejected of men.” The history of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is one of patience and long-suffering in the face of contempt. As we are willing to look into the face of our suffering God, we are changed into His likeness. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18) He makes us like Him – one who patiently bears despising and rejection, one who keeps loving, even when he is unloved.
We all at one time gave God our back. We had no interest in the Son. But the rejected Cornerstone is now “precious” to us. (1 Peter 2:7) He is intriguing, fascinating, beyond wonderful. He is worthy of our total interest.
Give Him your face, and He will give you His in return.