Part IV: Revealing Himself from a Distance

Chapter 14: His Appearance in Stories

When we read the Old Testament, we meet a number of familiar stories—the kind we first learned in Sunday school. But when we look at them closely, we begin to see how the Lord God was revealing Himself to His people all along. Yahweh-Elohim has always desired to unveil His attributes and to have relationship with man. And so, again and again in the Old Testament, the Word appeared to the patriarchs in visible form—a form that could be seen and even touched, yet not a body of flesh like ours; a manifestation of the One who is Spirit. As we saw in earlier chapters, the historic Christian conviction is that these appearances were often of the pre-incarnate Word, the Son, who would one day come in the flesh as Jesus Christ.178

Let us look at a few of these stories.

The Three Visitors at Mamre

One afternoon Abraham was sitting at his tent door in the heat of the day when he looked up and saw three men coming toward him. He ran to meet them, bowed himself to the ground, and addressed one of them as “My Lord”—not “my lords,” though they were three, but “My Lord,” singular. He bowed in homage; and we should remember that angels refuse worship—only the Lord God receives it.179 Abraham welcomed the three as guests, and they had fellowship together: they talked, and they ate. As we saw earlier, spiritual beings appearing in visible form can eat. One of the visitors was the Lord God Himself in visible form, and the Bible plainly names Him “the LORD”:

And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant…. And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh…? And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do…? And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham (Genesis 18:1–3, 13, 17, 33).

During that fellowship at the tent, the Lord renewed His promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son. Then, as the guests rose to leave, the two angels went on toward Sodom and Gomorrah, which were to be destroyed for their sin—but the Lord stayed behind to tell Abraham what He was about to do. And Abraham was given the astonishing privilege of interceding for the city, pleading with God to spare it, until at last he had finished; “and the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham.” Here is God, in visible form, sharing a meal, keeping a promise, and listening to a man’s prayer—fellowship, once again, over a shared table.180

The King of Salem

On another occasion, as Abraham was returning from the rescue of his nephew Lot, he was met by Melchizedek, king of Salem. Scripture calls him “the priest of the most high God,” and describes him in a most remarkable way—without recorded father, mother, or genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life. He brought out bread and wine—fellowship, again, in a shared meal—and he blessed Abraham; and Abraham, in turn, gave him a tenth of all the spoils:

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all (Genesis 14:18–20).

For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God… first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually (Hebrews 7:1–3).

Whoever Melchizedek was, Scripture presents him as a living portrait of Christ—the King of righteousness and King of peace, the priest who is not of the tribe of Levi and whose priesthood has no beginning and no end. Abraham recognized his greatness and gave him tithes; and the bread and wine he brought forth point forward to the table of the Lord. Whether we understand him as a real king-priest whom God set in Scripture as a foreshadow of Christ, or as an appearance of the Word Himself, the meaning is the same: he unveils the One who is our great High Priest “after the order of Melchisedec” (Psalm 110:4).182183

The Rock That Gave Water

In the wilderness, God revealed Himself as the Rock that gives living water. And this Rock, the New Testament tells us, was Christ Himself—the pre-incarnate Word who accompanied Israel and supplied their need: “they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).185

There is a beautiful and sobering pattern in how the Rock gave its water. The first time, at Horeb, God told Moses to strike the rock, and water would flow:

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel (Exodus 17:6).

The second time, when the people again cried for water, God told Moses not to strike the rock but only to speak to it—for it had already been struck once, and once was enough. But Moses, in his anger, struck the rock twice; and for that disobedience he was not permitted to enter the Promised Land:

…Speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water…. And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly…. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them (Numbers 20:8, 11–12).

Do you see the picture? The Rock is Christ, and the Rock was smitten once—for “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28). Having been struck once for our salvation, He need never be struck again; now we have only to speak—to call upon His name—and the living water flows: “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Moses did not know that the rock was the Lord Himself, and by striking it a second time he marred a sacred picture. Notice, too, the mercy in it: even in Moses’ failure, the water still came—abundantly—for God’s grace does not fail even when His servants do.186

Hidden in the Cleft of the Rock

On another occasion, Moses made a bold request: he asked to see God’s glory. He had seen the Angel of the LORD in the burning bush and heard His voice many times on the mountain, but now he longed to behold Him in His glory. God graciously agreed—yet told Moses that no one can see His face and live. So He would show Moses His back, but not His face. And He gave Moses a striking instruction: there was a particular place where Moses must stand—a place near God, a rock—and God would hide him in a cleft of that rock and cover him with His hand as His glory passed by:

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen (Exodus 33:20–23).

Here again is a mystery unveiled: the one who would behold God’s glory and live had to be hidden in the rock—and that Rock was Christ. It is only in Christ, the smitten Rock, that sinful people can come near to the glory of a holy God and not be consumed. Hidden in Him, covered by the hand of God, we are kept safe while the glory passes—and we live.188

From creation until now, the Lord God has desired fellowship and communion with man. In the Old Testament, I have called it fellowship from a distance—limited by sin, mediated through the law, and given only in seasons and glimpses: a meal at Abraham’s tent, bread and wine from a mysterious king, water from a rock, a glimpse of glory from within a cleft. But in the New Testament, through grace in Jesus Christ, the distance is closed. You may welcome Him into your very heart and have fellowship with Him every single day. The One who appeared for a moment to the patriarchs now abides forever with all who are His.

Notes

  1. 178. On the Old Testament theophanies as manifestations of God tangible to human senses—and the historic Christian conviction, going back to Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, that these visible appearances were often of the pre-incarnate Word, the Son (since “no man hath seen God” the Father, John 1:18; 1 John 4:12)—see the discussion in Chapter 2. Some appearances are better understood as angelophanies; interpreters differ case by case. ↩
  2. 179. Colossians 2:18 warns against the “worshipping of angels”; Revelation 19:10 and 22:8–9 record an angel forbidding John’s worship (“see thou do it not… worship God”). That the divine visitor in Genesis 18 receives Abraham’s worship and homage, and speaks and acts as Yahweh, distinguishes Him from a mere angel. ↩
  3. 180. Genesis 18 has long been read as a Christophany, since the narrator names one of the three visitors as “the LORD” (Yahweh) who remains with Abraham while the other two (identified as angels in Gen. 19:1) go on toward Sodom. Early writers such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus identified the divine visitor as the pre-incarnate Word; the Jewish Targums render Him “the Word (Memra) of the LORD.” Some modern interpreters read the scene instead as a mediated theophany with angelic attendants; either way, Abraham stands in the presence of God Himself. ↩
  4. 182. The identity of Melchizedek is debated. Hebrews 7:3 says he was “made like (aphomoioo) unto the Son of God,” language that most interpreters take to mean he was a real historical king-priest deliberately presented by Scripture as a type or foreshadow of Christ—like Christ, but not identical with Him. A minority (including some in the Pentecostal and older expositional traditions) hold that Melchizedek was an actual pre-incarnate appearance of the Word. This book follows the reading that these appearances unveil the same One who would come in the flesh; readers should know that the majority scholarly view treats Melchizedek as a type rather than a Christophany. On the passage see F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, rev. ed., NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 158–166. In either reading, Melchizedek’s bread and wine, his blessing, and his royal-priestly office point unmistakably to Christ. ↩
  5. 183. Hebrews 7:1–3; cf. Psalm 110:4, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,” applied to Christ throughout Hebrews (5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:17, 21). Melchizedek’s appearance without recorded genealogy, “beginning of days” or “end of life,” makes him in the text a fitting picture of the eternal priesthood of the Son. ↩
  6. 185. 1 Corinthians 10:4: “that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” Paul reads the water-giving rock of the wilderness (Exod. 17; Num. 20) typologically—Christ was the true source of Israel’s provision throughout the journey. On this typological reading, see the discussion in Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 445–449. ↩
  7. 186. Exodus 17:6 (the rock struck once at Horeb) and Numbers 20:7–12 (Moses commanded to speak to the rock, but striking it twice) are widely read together as a type: the Rock (Christ) is smitten once for our salvation (Isa. 53:4; Heb. 9:28, “once offered”), and thereafter the people need only to speak—to call upon Him (Rom. 10:13). Moses’ striking the rock a second time marred the picture, and cost him entry to the land (Num. 20:12); yet God’s mercy still gave the water. The typology is a devotional reading grounded in Paul’s own identification of the Rock with Christ. ↩
  8. 188. Exodus 33:18–23. That God placed Moses “in a cleft of the rock” and covered him while His glory passed has long been read devotionally as a picture of the believer’s safety in Christ, the Rock (1 Cor. 10:4); the hymn “Rock of Ages, cleft for me” draws on this image. Note that this is a devotional application; the text’s primary point is the mercy by which a holy God allows sinful Moses to glimpse His goodness and live. ↩
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