Narrative: As the story is told, the tension is brought along by both the admission of the brother of Jared that he has seen that which he supposes that he should not have seen. Remember that he approaches the Lord as one who comes before a God who is wholly different, and is surprised to find that God with a humanizing and therefore more accessible form. The brother of Jared knows full well that visions of the human form of God are not what the prophets have recorded. He knows that this is something about God that has been previously hidden, and now the brother of Jared has seen the hidden aspect of God. No wonder he has fallen to the earth.
To elevate the tension of this supposed forbidden vision of the humanized form of God, God asks the brother of Jared “Sawest thou more than this?” Here is place where the listener to this story would be in fear. The brother of Jared has seen what he supposes he should not, but it has only been the finger of God. Having seen the finger, he might suppose the rest, but that is not the point. The issue is not that he has seen, and the question is how much he has seen that he should not. For the listener to this story, the tension would be that the greater the imposition of what he should not do, the greater the penalty. This should be the dangerous part of the story, where the man who has done what should not be done receives the penalty for viewing the person of God.
Nevertheless, the strong hint is here that this is not a penalty, for it is based on the great faith of the brother of Jared. What should have been a disaster – the revelation of something God wanted hidden – becomes a measure of praise. The narrative now shifts away from the idea of seeing what should not have been seen to the power of faith that allows one to see that which is hidden to those without that degree of faith.