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Blog
The Teacher with Her Back to the Class
May 29, 2025
The Teacher with Her Back to the Class
There was a time when the classroom teacher would stand with her back to the class as she wrote instructions or examples on the blackboard, with chalk. Then came overhead projectors and other devices which allowed her to face the front, none of which makes sense of the phrase, “she has eyes in the back of her head.”
Somehow, even though the teacher had her back to the class, she had a keen awareness of what was going on behind her. She could even call out the offending party, though if most of the class was misbehaving, most any name she called out would have applied. Also, she knew which characters were most likely to be on the “guilty” list.
But the teacher with her back to the class reminds me of God personally involved in Moses’ discipleship as He showed him His glory. The passage is found in Exodus 33. Moses demands to see God’s glory, and God devises a way in which Moses might see some, but not all, of this glory, since mortal men cannot weather the full force. God will place Moses in the cleft of the rock and allow him to “see My back.” I take this to mean that Moses was allowed to see the afterglow of the glory of God, a measure that Moses could endure and appreciate as a mere man.
Though God’s back was toward Moses, God knew Moses intimately, inside and out. He knew where He came from and where He would end up. He knew Moses from eternity past and will know him for all eternity forever and ever. The Teacher with His back to the class faces no loss of knowledge. But what about the student?
What did Moses gain from the experience? I’m sure He was amazed. It was a sight and an experience that He would remember forever. But how was Moses changed by it? What did he actually gain from it?
It seems that the greater, indelible mark on Moses is described in the next chapter, Exodus 34: “The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”” (Exodus 34:5–7 NAS95)
That is, God reveals Himself most remarkably, not through experiences of the eye gate, but rather through hearing in one’s ears the very Word of God by which we are informed of the mysteries of God, not least that God shows mercy and judgment at the same time. We are led to fear and obedience as we hear His words, for which we are better suited than seeing Him. God’s Word outshines the signs and visions that we seek with our eyes. And so we ask, “What has God said?” rather than “What does God look like?”
- “Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart and soul to God, through Christ, with the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God.” - John Bunyan
