Chapter 3— The Divine Presence

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground’” (Exodus 3:5). We approach the topic of this chapter with the full reverence it deserves. The divine Presence, whether experienced as reality or in a vision, always produces the same reaction; a sensation of unworthiness and spiritual insufficiency when facing such a sublime privilege. Isaiah recounts his experience: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted.... ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’” (Isaiah 6:1, 5).VOTS 39.1

The divine Presence shows itself in different ways. In this chapter we will analyze three of them: (1) theophanies, or the real and visible presence of a divine Being; (2) visions and prophetic dreams, that due to their supernatural character, indicate a superhuman presence, either real or in the prophet’s mind; (3) the divine Presence that manifests itself in the message shared by the prophet with the people.VOTS 39.2