Pre-incarnation Appearances of God The Son
Steve Kissell

Introduction:

A.     An apparent contradiction:

1.      No human has seen God.

a. 1 Timothy 6:16
b. John 1:18
c. 1 John 4:12.

2.      Several humans have seen God

      a.       Numbers 12:6-8
b.      Exod. 24: 9-11
c.       We will notice several other examples in a moment.

B.     This apparent contradiction is resolved by an understanding of O.T. theophanies.

C.     God has appeared in a visible form on various occasions. These appearances, sometimes called theophanies, were that of the Person who would later become the Man Jesus.  I want to show:

1) that these appearances were actually of Deity,
2) that these appearances were literal and physical, and
3) that these appearances were of the pre-incarnate Son of God.

 I.      Appearances to Abraham

A.     The first Scriptural reference to an "appearance" of God is found in Genesis 12: 7.   The word "appearance" is from the Hebrew word "raah" which means, "to be seen", or "to let oneself be seen, to appear." 

            B.  Genesis 17: 1-22.  Notice:

1)          "...the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless'" (17:1).
2)           Abram understood the profound nature of this appearance as evidenced by his falling on his face (17: 3).
3)          3)  The tangible nature of this appearance is seen from verse 22:  "Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham."

C.  At Mamre (Genesis 18: 1-33).    On this occasion the Lord was accompanied by two others who would later be identified as angels (Genesis 19: 1).  At this appearance, Abraham "lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him" (18: 2).  This indicates that in their present form, the Lord and the two angels appeared to be human. 

 II.               The Lord Himself at times made appearances as "the Angel of the Lord."

A.     The first of these: Genesis 16: 7- 13.  Here, Hagar is sent away by Sarai and encounters the Angel of the Lord in the wilderness (!6: 7).  The Angel said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude."  This is clearly a promise that would only be appropriate for God to make.  

Hagar understood the identity of her Visitor as evidenced by her response: "Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the God-Who-Sees; for she said, 'Have I also here seen Him who sees me?'"  Moses, the author of this account, states that it was the Lord who had spoken to Hagar and she affirmed that she had seen the "God-Who-Sees" (16:13).

B.  Genesis 22: 11-18   As Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac, "the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.'  And He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld  your son, your only son, from Me'" (Genesis 22: 11, 12).

A few moments later, the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said; "By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.  In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." ( Genesis 22: 15-18).

This is another statement made by the Angel of the Lord which would only be appropriate for God to make. 

C.  The Angel of the Lord also appeared later to Jacob.  Genesis 28: 11-19 

 This incident is recalled later  in Genesis 31: 11- 13.  There, the Angel of the Lord specifically states, "I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me" (31:13). Years later as Jacob was approaching death, he told Joseph of the incident. He said, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me" (Genesis 48: 3).

D.     Genesis 32:24-30

A statement in Hosea refers to both of Jacob's encounters:

“He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he struggled with God.  Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him.  He found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke to us--that is, the Lord God of hosts. The Lord is His memorial.”  (Hosea 12:3-5) 

Notice that this statement connects the  Angel at Bethel to the "Man" with whom Jacob wrestled at Peniel and equates the Angel with God.

E.  Moses at Mt. Sinai. Exod.3   The Angel "appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush" (Exod. 3: 2).  Verse 4 of this chapter tells us that "God called to him from the midst of the bush."  The Person in the bush identifies Himself in verse 6 as "the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (3: 6).

When God gave Moses the job of leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he asked who he should tell them had sent him.  "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.'  (3: 14 - 15).  The term "I AM" is closely related to the tetragrammaton which is God's name, commonly expressed by the term "Jehovah."   Thus in this account, we have the Angel of the Lord explicitly identifying Himself as Jehovah.

This incident began for Moses a lifelong relationship with Jehovah. Exodus 33:11 summarizes the nature of this relationship thus, "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33: 11). 

When Miriam and Aaron questioned Moses' authority, God responded by saying about Moses, "I speak to him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord" (Numbers 12: 8).  As the book of Deuteronomy closes, we find the statement, "But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (34: 10).

F.      Joshua  (Joshua 5: 13- 6: 2)

This "Man", also known as the "Commander of the army of the Lord," is obviously  not a mere man.  His presence made the ground holy, requiring Joshua to remove his sandals. He is identified as Jehovah (Joshua 6: 2).  This appears to be another face to face meeting with Jehovah.

             G. Gideon is another to whom Jehovah appeared.            (Judges 6: 11- 16)

Notice it was the Angel of the Lord who came and sat under the terebinth tree and spoke to Gideon (6:11-12), and yet it was the Lord who "turned to him and said…" (6: 14).  This is another example of the Angel of the Lord being equated with the Lord.

Gideon realized that the one who spoke to him was more than an ordinary angel (6: 22).  Gideon's response is apparently prompted by his knowledge of the truth declared by God in Exodus 33: 20, i.e., that no one could see God's face and live.

G.     Manoah  (Judges 13: 21-22).

Manoah equated the Angel of the Lord with God Himself.  He asked the Angel's name but was told,   "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?" (13: 18).

A very similar answer was given to Jacob when he asked the same question (Geneses 32: 29). 

We have discovered at least eight individuals of whom Scripture explicitly states they saw Jehovah appearing in a human-like form.

 III.           We  are left to establish the specific identity of this Person.

A. First, we know that there is a sense in which God has always been invisible to the human eye.   (John 1: 18; 1 John 4: 12).  This statement would, at first, seem to contradict  the several Old Testament statements we have examined, e.g., "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33: 11).

It also flies in the face of the fact that thousands of people saw God in the Person of Jesus Christ.  

I believe John provides the solution to this apparent contradiction in John 6: 46:   "Not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from God; He has seen the Father."  Here he specifies "the God" who has not been seen: the Father.   And so we conclude that it was not God the Father who appeared to Abraham and the others in Old Testament times.

B.     Second, there are statements in the New Testament which connect Jesus with Old Testament theophanies:

1) John 8: 53- 59.  Jesus' use of  "I AM" is a clear connection to Jehovah's statement of Exodus 3: 14. The Jews who heard Jesus make this claim obviously understood this meaning ( see John 8: 59).

2) John 12: 37- 41àIsaiah 6: 1-10.  Whose glory did Isaiah see? John says he says the glory of Jesus, yet in Isaiah 6 we read that he saw Jehovah. The Jehovah Isaiah saw was Jesus.           

3) 1 Cor. 10: 1 - 4.  This is a clear reference to the Spiritual Being that accompanied Israel through the wilderness, providing food and water. Several times this Person is identified as Jehovah (Exod. 13: 21 - 22; also identified as the Angel of God, Exod. 14:19; Judges 2:1) Paul tells us this Person was Christ.

Conclusion:  Before the Person we know as Jesus was born a human, He was active in the affairs of humanity.  Many people saw and spoke with Him. No human has seen God the Father, but many have seen God the Son.