Seeing is believing… But what is seeing? What is appearing? Are they so straightforward categories? I was reading this morning from 1 Sam 3:21 and came across the most extraordinary phrase: “And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.” (ESV). What is this verse saying?

In 3:1 we see that “And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” By the end of the chapter, with the calling of Samuel to be a prophet this situation has been reversed. Now the word of the LORD is coming to Samuel and the LORD has appeared again. Nice, neat, case closed, right? Or is it?

The NIV changes one small word in 3:21 which changes the meaning of the whole verse. It replaces ‘for’ with ‘and’. If the word really was ‘and’ then we would be hearing two things which may or may not be related:

  1. God appeared at Shiloh
  2. God revealed himself by his word

But that’s not the case. The Hebrew word is a little slippery, but I think in this case is better translated ‘for’. There is a link between God’s appearing and God revealing by his word. The link is that God is appearing by the revealing of his word. Or, to put it another way, God revealing himself by his word is the evidence that God appeared again.

Sounds weird, doesn’t it? Usually we would say he either appeared or he spoke, but we don’t typically say that someone appeared by speaking. But that’s exactly what seems to have been said here. Skip forward to Hebrews and we see something similar happening. In 2:9 the author says, ‘But we see… Jesus’. Now the author didn’t actually ever see Jesus. In 2:3 he admits that he is a second generation believer, not an eye-witness of Jesus. So how did he ‘see’ Jesus? Through the word that ‘was attested to us’ (2:9). He sees Jesus by hearing God’s word. The same idea.

What does that mean for us? Some people hanker for a great vision of God, or some other impressive, spiritual thing. Like angels. Imagine the book you could write about seeing angels. It would be genuine proof that you are truly spiritual. But if we understand what we have in God’s word, the Bible, it’s far more impressive than any vision of angels. In the Bible God appears to us through his word. We get to see God when we read the Bible. It’s not that God looks like a book, but this is how the invisible God reveals himself to us, through his word. You can get no more profound and real spiritual experience of God than through reading his word.

So let’s do it! Let’s get into God’s word and get that profound picture of the LORD who made us and loves us. It’s the clearest picture you’ll ever get of God this side of heaven.