Can a human see God's face?

Ex33:20 God told Moshe that he could not see God's face.  Why was it?

He saw God's face and those who believe in God were suppose to see His face. 

Is this because Israel worshiped the Idol Golden calf?

Was Moshe held responsible for what Israel did even though he was not there and did not participate in the idle worship?

The passage in Ex 33:20 says:  And He said, ‘You are not able to see My face, because the human cannot see Me and live.’

Yours is not a simple question, because Moses clearly did see God both in this context (Ex 34:6, 7) and numerous other times as have many others over the course of time, so some aspect of the meaning has been lost both in translation and in the cultural significance of the terms involved. 

First, there are very many passages that assert that God appeared to an individual or to a group of individuals.  Selected examples:

Gen 12:7 – God appeared to Abram after he had traveled as far as Shechem.

Gen 16:7-13 – The angel of Adonai appeared to Hagar after she fled from Sarai.  She believed the messenger was God and was surprised that she did not die.

Gen 17:1 – God appeared to Abram when he was 99.

Gen 18:1 – 32 – Adonai and two angels appeared to Abraham and ate a meal with him.

Gen 32:24 – 30 – Jacob wrestled with a man whom he later recognized to have been a manifestation of God.

Ex 3:4-6 – Moses saw a manifestation of God in the burning bush.

Ex 14:19 – The angel of God (later identified as Adonai himself) is seen by both Israel and Pharaoh’s army as a pillar of cloud.

Ex 20 – All Israel heard the voice of God at Horeb.

Ex 24:9-11 – Moses and 70 elders of Israel ate a communal meal with God, and they saw the form of God without being stricken down.

Jud 6:11-18 – YHWH appeared to Gideon.

Jud 13 – YHWH appeared to Manoah and his wife.

Is 6:1-4 – Isaiah saw YHWH sitting on his throne in the temple, and he expected to die because of his personal corruptness and that of the people among whom he lived.

In these passages and many others, various individuals or groups of individuals see some manifestation of God.  The simplest form of manifestation is a mere brightness without form, as in the burning bush or the glory that filled the tabernacle and the first temple.  Another type of manifestation takes the form of a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire, or a whirl wind, each of which behaves in a way that cannot be understood as a natural phenomenon.  A third type of manifestation appears like an ordinary human male until he does something fantastic – like vanish from sight or go up to heaven with the flames of an offering.  The final most extreme form is that of a human form that radiates glory, majesty, and power – such as that seen by the 70 elders (Ex 24), Isaiah (Is 6), Ezekiel (Ez 1), the glorified Yeshua seen by Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration (Mat 17:2), and the vision seen by John in the revelation of John (Rev 1:13-15, 4:3-11).

God has made himself known in various ways, but visual appearances to humans are least common.  The most evident manifestation of God is the creation itself, and the next most common are events of history.  A very common formula in scripture is ‘You will see (event or judgment), and then you will know (perceive with understanding) that I am YHWH.’  Now in the context of this passage, the Israelites pressured Aaron while Moses was with God on the mountain; Aaron made the golden calf and declared it to be a representation of YHWH (Ex 32:1-6).  God told Moses to go down the mountain; He said that He would annihilate this group and raise up another nation through Moses, but Moses dissuaded God from doing so (Ex 32:7-14).  Moses went down the mountain with the two tablets, broke the tables before the people, and executed judgment on them through the tribe of Levi (Ex 32:15-35).  Moses went began to plead for the people: 1) that God would remit the guilt of the people's sin or take himself as substitute for the people, 2) that YHWH would himself lead him and the people rather than send a mere messenger, and 3) that God would reveal His glory to him (Ex 33:1-18).  YHWH refused to remit the people's sin but did agree to delay judgment to a later time.  However, he did agree to lead the people himself.  The third request requires some discussion. 

In order to assess God’s response, we need to determine what Moses was asking for.  He surely was not asking for a visual manifestation of God’s presence.  Moses had been experiencing that regularly ever since the first visual appearance at the burning bush, possibly over a period of a year or more.  All the people also had had regular visual manifestations of God’s presence and power at least for the three months that it took for them to get to Horeb.  He was also not asking to experience God’s presence.  (Note: both Ex 34:24 and Deut 31:11 contain a reference to the three pilgrim feasts.  The NASB translation has the phrase “… when you appear before the Lord your God…” but the Hebrew text actually says “… when all Israel goes up to see the face of YHWH your God…” בבוא כל ישראל לראות את פני יהוה אלהיך).

The wording of Moses’ request in Ex 33:18 was ‘Please show me Your glory’ (הראני את כבדך).  The verb form is a hiphil imperative of ראה.  He was clearly asking for more than just a visual experience.  Rather, he is asking God to cause him to perceive, experience, and understand an attribute that is unique to God – His glory.  He and all the rest of Israel had seen God’s glory as an amorphous brightness, but Moses is now asking for a personal knowledge of God, which includes a visual experience but goes far beyond that.  Now, if we accept this as the nature of Moses’ request, then God’s response is: “Request granted but limited in scope.”  The idiom ‘to see God’s face’ can signify merely being in God’s presence as indicated above.  Moses was already experiencing that level of fellowship with God at the time he made the request.  However, God is infinite, and Moses was (and is) finite; so he cannot comprehend God.  In the realization of Moses’ request, God passed by Moses and pronounced the attributes of his glory, but Moses ‘saw’ only the back side of God.  My interpretation of this is:  We humans can know God’s infinite attributes only to the degree that we actually experience them in our lives.  Our understanding of them may be real and accurate, but that understanding will always be limited and finite.  That is the significance of the back side of God.