We all may have thought of that as a twenty or twenty-first bit of slang, but let me tell you, that goes back to the time of Moses!
My reading today took me to First Peter chapter 3, and right there was "the Face of the Lord is against…" Whoa! Where did that come from? Peter was actually quoting David in one of the Psalms, but it got me doing some digging.[more]
Seems that whenever the people (Jewish usually, since it was their God) did some stupid things or thought they were better than God, He "set His face against them." You can check it out yourself in many places in the Old Testament. When they got God ticked off at them – there it was. God effectively said "You messed up and didn't follow directions, so you are on your own." And there was the enemy ready to defeat them.
What do we mean when we say that we're "gonna get up in their face?" In no uncertain words, we are going to tell them off and walk away in a huff. Oh, by the way – most definitely leave them to stew over what you are mad about and let them fail on their own.
Worse yet, how do we feel when some one "gets up in our face?" What's our reaction? What do we change? More importantly, how long does it take us to change?