In the OT, the verb pāqad has a wide range of meaning, but when God is the subject, He may bring a divine blessing. One example is His visit to Sarah and His promise of her giving birth to Isaac:
Genesis 21:1–2. “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.”
Later, Joseph trusts that God will come to the aid of his brothers (Genesis 50:24–25. “And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.’ ”) In time, God’s people worshiped Him for visiting them:
Exodus 4:31. “And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.”
However, more often this word describes God bringing divine judgment in response to human sin and pāqad is translated “to punish.” This can refer to all nations, but the focus is usually on the sin of His people.
Hosea 9:9. “They have deeply corrupted themselves . . . he will remember their iniquity; he will punish (or visit) their sins.”
Jeremiah uses pāqad more than thirty times. He tells how the Lord asks repeatedly, “Shall I not punish them for this?” His actions are not arbitrary like the pagan gods though. In Jeremiah 21:14, He says, “I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds” and Amos 3:2 gives the basic reason: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” They were His people and He was committed to their holiness.
In the NT, Jesus is described weeping over Jerusalem. He says in Luke 19:42–44:
“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
This is bad news for those who experienced God the Son in their midst and missed it. They looked for a political deliverance, not redemption from sin that required faith and repentance. Soon after this statement, they would put to death the One who came to give them life.
However, for those who believed, there would be another visitation. This statement, made by Peter to those who did repent and believe in Jesus, describes how their changed lives could have an effect on those who had not yet put their faith in Jesus.
1 Peter 2:9–12. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
This could be about the Second Coming, but in my thinking, it is about Jesus visiting unbelievers in conviction and making Himself known to them. It is a visit in which the lights come on and that revelation of who He is and what He has done is made known to their hearts.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I may think this way because this is what happened to me. Jesus visited me in my living room and there was no more doubt or questioning about who He is and what He had done on the Cross. I knew. Perhaps the conduct of Christians was convincing or His Word finally melted my hardness, but it was that visit that sealed my heart. When I pray for others who do not know Jesus, I often ask Him to make a visit to their hearts also — so they will see His goodness and put their faith in Him.
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