I found the following chapters to be of interest, when the Lord appears to Abraham he appears as “three men”…
1
And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
2
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,
First to note is that he appears as three men, so there is some reference to the Trinity there, but even more curious is that the Lord can appear as a person if he chooses to, such that you could have a conversation with him and not know that it wasn’t a regular human being. This also is something that happens when an angel of the Lord appears. They are often not described as an obvious angel, translucent or glowing white; my impression is that an angel would appear to one as an “unusual person” who was just suddenly in the right place at the right time..." The impression the Bible delivers is that the person who is talking to an angel of the Lord is unaware that its an angel. As above, Abrham acts as though its just three men that appeared or speaking to him as a prophet, not God himself.
Maybe the Lord or an angel of the Lord has appeared to you already. Maybe you have had a conversation with him and didn't know it.
4 comments:
Hebrews 13:2 of course.
On the Angel of the Lord, basically anytime God appears to man it is Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity. When Moses saw God on Sinai it was Jesus. But not as human as when He incarnated as man. That was different. But also when God appeared as pillar of fire or smoke in the desert it was Jesus as well.
But I just read Gen. 18, and I've intentionally not read any commentaries on the chapter, and it DOES read strange, doesn't. I was going to say only one of the angels is the Angel of the Lord, but the chapter doesn't really present that does it? It may indeed be a presentation of the Trinity. Then look at the next chapter how it is only two angels that enter the city.
Now I just read Gill on the passage, and I tend to agree with him: "the truth of the matter seems to be this, that one of them [the three angels] was the son of God in an human form, that chiefly conversed with Abraham, and who rained from heaven brimstone on Sodom; and the other two were angels in the like form that accompanied him in that expedition"...
But it's not clear, which you can see if you read Gill's full commentary.
I just go on the fact that the Bible says God the Father never is seen, but it's always the Son that appears to man.
Ok I never thought of that... I have never actually thought of Jesus appearing as anything but Jesus to be honest.
It feels right to say that the three are Jesus plus two others. In a group of three, one will stand out, this has to be the way. Like the three points of a triangle, one point has to be at the top. Especially considering that in the next chapter there are two angels. When there are two they can be equals, but when there are three one must lead.
Also notice that every time in the Bible that it says "The angel of the LORD," that is Jesus Christ. You'll notice it because this Angel doesn't deny those that worship Him. Check out Joshua and the Angel that visited him (Jos. 5:13), Samson's parents (Jud. 13:10), Gideon's response to seeing the Angel (Jud. 6:22-23), etc.
Good stuff! The Bible is amazing!
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