Exodus 24 · a question people ask
They "saw God". Doesn't the Bible say no one can?
This chapter says it twice: "They saw the God of Israel" (24:10), and "They saw God, and ate and drank" (24:11). Later the LORD tells Moses, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live" (33:20). Moses reminds Israel that when the LORD spoke to them at Horeb, "you saw no form; you only heard a voice" (Deuteronomy 4:12). And John writes, "No one has seen God at any time. The only born Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him" (John 1:18). Of what they saw, the chapter describes only what was "Under his feet" (24:10). Christians who hold each of the views below take every one of these verses as true; they differ on how they fit together.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
They saw something of God, not his face
Those who hold this view read "They saw God" (24:11) as God letting them see something of himself while his face stayed hidden. The chapter tells what was under his feet (24:10), not what he looked like. Moses himself was told, "you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen" (33:23), and yet the LORD says of Moses, "he shall see the LORD’s form" (Numbers 12:8). On this view, seeing God in part and not seeing his face are both true.
Exodus 24:10-11 · Exodus 33:20-23 · Numbers 12:8
They saw God the Son
Those who hold this view start from John 1:18: no one has seen God, and the Son "has declared him". Jesus says, "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father" (John 6:46). After quoting Isaiah, John writes, "Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory, and spoke of him" (John 12:41), and Isaiah had said, "my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!" (Isaiah 6:5). On this view, when people in the Old Testament saw God, they saw the Son before he became man.
John 1:18 · John 6:46 · John 12:40-41 · Isaiah 6:1-5
The verses
“They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness. He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.”
“He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.””
“the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.” You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. The LORD spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.”
“No one has seen God at any time. The only born Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.”