In the fourth Indiana Jones movies, the main villain stands before a group of ancient interdimensional beings and tells them, “I want to know everything.” The ancient beings oblige and show her all the knowledge they possess… and it is too much for the villain to take. Her head explodes. If we were to look upon God, the result might be similar. It’s not that God would punish anybody for looking; it’s just that we couldn’t take it.

How do you picture God? Some people anthropomorphize God as an old man with a big beard, a human-shaped figure of light (or maybe George Burns or Morgan Freeman if they like movies). The truth is, God is immeasurably different than us humans. C.S. Lewis wrote that to get an idea of that difference, consider the difference between you and a slug! That difference, and our inability to comprehend it, is the reason behind things such as God telling Moses to keep the people away from God’s presence on the mountain. That difference may also lead us to us ask, “Do you try to reduce God to something you can grasp, or do you accept that you cannot fully know God in this life?”