Exodus 33:20
Exodus 33:2020But He added, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”
JWs cite — "no man can see me and live" — to argue that God is entirely invisible and that OT appearances of God were mediated through angels or visions, not direct encounters with a divine person. Since Jesus is understood as a created spirit being (Michael the Archangel), the OT theophanies are attributed to angelic agency rather than to a pre-incarnate divine Son.
creates a theological puzzle when combined with other OT texts: God says "no man can see me and live," yet records Jacob saying "I have seen God face to face," says the elders "saw the God of Israel" and ate and drank in his presence, and records Isaiah seeing "the Lord sitting on a throne." The NT resolves the tension: says "no one has seen the Father except the one who is from God," and confirms "no one has ever seen God; the only-begotten god who is at the Father's side has explained him." If the Father has never been seen, yet God was visibly present in the OT, the person appearing must be the pre-incarnate Son. Every OT theophany becomes evidence for Christ's deity and pre-existence — not as a created angel, but as the visible manifestation of the invisible God.