Sermon Tone Analysis

God Visible and Invisible

At the close of last week I noted that the “Word of YHWH” as a visible appearance of God as a man.

This could lead to several questions.

One of those was how a first-century Jew would have parsed the idea of Jesus being the “Word made flesh.”

True, there was Old Testament precedent for God being visible and embodied.

That phenomenon would have helped a first-century Jew accept at least the idea that God could show up in human form.

But it was more complicated than that.

When Jesus referred to God in third person, or prayed to God, what then?

Would a Jew have been able to wrap her mind around that one?

How could God be here (visibly and physically) and still be in heaven?

Today, this apparent conundrum is what keeps many Jews from embracing Christianity — it feels like polytheism to them.

Given this context, it’s amazing how first-century Jews could embrace Jesus as YHWH and not feel as if they were betraying the God of Isreal.

In fact, these same Jews were willing to die instead of worshipping the gods of the Greeks and Romans.

We could also ask certain questions about readers of the Old Testament prior to the time of Jesus.

When ancient Israelites read the passages we looked at last week, did they imagine God was localized in only one place?

Had he left heaven?

Was he no longer omnipresent?

A Startling Reality

the startling reality is that long before Jesus and the New Testament, careful readers of the Old Testament would not have been troubled by the notion of, essentially, two YHWHs- one invisible and in heaven, the other manifest on earth in a variety of visible forms, including that of a man.

In some instances the two YHWH figures are found TOGETHER IN THE SAME SCENE.

This week and next week, we will see that the “Word” was just one expression of a visible YHWH in human form.

The concept of a Godhead in the Old Testament has many facets and layers.

After the birth of his promised son, Isaac, Abraham’s spiritual journey includes a divine figure that is integral to Israelite Godhead thinking: The Angel of YHWH (the Lord).

Although the most telling passages that show this angel as a visible embodiment of the very presence of God occur later in the time of Abraham, there are early hints of his nature during the lifetimes of Abraham and his sons.

The Angel of YHWH

The heart-wrenching story of Genesis 22, where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his covenant son Isaac, is our next stop.

It’s something of a transitional passage.

We’ve seen that Abraham has had several encounters with God.

The expression used to convey the visible, physical nature of those encounters has, to this point, been “the word of YHWH.”

Genesis 22 marks a shift in the language for a visible figure to the “Angel of the Lord (YHWH)”.

Although the Angel of the Lord appears earlier than Genesis 22 (Gen 16: 7-11; and 21: 17), this particular appearance begins to blur the identities of YHWH and his angel.

Genesis 22: 1-9 relates how Abraham had taken Isaac, at the bizarre command of God, to Mount Moriah to offer his son as a burnt offering.

We pick up the story in verse 10

The first thing to notice is that when the angel of the Lord speaks to Abraham, Abraham recognizes the voice.

He does not ask the identity of the speaker, as thought the voice is unfamiliar.

He does not fear that he is listening to the voice of another god.

The reader, however, knows that the source is not YHWH per se, but the angel of the Lord (YHWH).

The word translated “angel” here is the Hebrew mal’ak, which simply means “messenger.”

The next observation is VERY important.

The Angel speaks to Abraham in verse 11 and so is distinguished from God. Gen 22:11-12 But immediately after doing so, he commends Abraham for not withholding Isaac “from me.”

There is a switch to the first person which given that God himself had told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac seems to require seeing YHWH (Lord) as the speaker.

Many would say that this is due to the Angel being God’s mouthpiece, standing in the Lord’s place as it were.

Be that idea is conveyed only later in the passage when the angel prefaces his words with “declares the Lord” In verse 11 there is no such clarification.

The wording of the text blurs the distinction between the Lord and the Angel by swapping the angel into the role of the person who initially demanded the sacrifice as a test — God himself.

Consequently the biblical writer had the opportunity to make sure the Lord and the angel were distinguished, but did not do so.

This “failure” occurs in several other places in the Old Testament even more overtly.

It is not really a failure.

It is not a careless oversight.

The wording is initially designed to blur the two.

Moving on to Isaac and Jacob.

This marks the first visible appearance to Isaac.

It is a sign to Isaac that the covenant made with his father will be carried on through him.

The Lord repeats the words of the covenant to Isaac.

Later in Genesis 26: 23-25

God appears to Isaac again, the baton is passed.

Isaac’s son Jacob receives the same divine approval in a series of visual encounters with the Lord (YHWH).

The first is well-known.

So Jacob is on his way to Haran, the place from which his ancestor Abraham had departed years earlier at the Lord’s command.

Jacob is fleeing Esau after stealing the birthright through deception.

Generally the ladder is seen as, not a extension ladder, but some sort of structure… most likely a stair-step that connected heaven and earth … a ziggurat?

Jacob sees “angels of God” going up and down the structure, an indication of the presence of the divine council.

Jacob also see the visible YHWH standing beside him — the familiar language for God in human form we noted with Abraham.

In verse 15 the Lord promises protection for Jacob and pledges to bring the man back to his location, the land promised to Abraham, and names the place Bethel, the house of God, and erects a pillar to commemorate his conversation with the Lord.

Jacob saw the visible God at Bethel.

Given what we have already seen in Genesis, this isn’t unusual.

Things get more interesting in Genesis 31, the story of how Jacob became wealthy at the expense of his uncle, Laban, Jacobs flocks had multiplied supernaturally despite Laban’s attempt to cheat him.

As their relationship soured, Jacob had a dream ...

The Angel of the Lord explicitly tells Jacob that he was the God of Bethel.

Jacob had seen angels at Bethel and one lone deity — YHWH. the God of Abraham.

It was the Lord who had promised protection, and to whom Jacob had erected the stone pillar.

This passage fuses the two figures.

This fusion is helpful for parsing Jacobs later divine encounters.

As Jacobs life proceeds, he is in and out of trouble.

Yet the Lord is with him.

After he succeeds in fleeing his uncle Laban, he learns in the course of his travels that he will soon be coming face to face with Esau.

At the time of Jacobs trickery Esau had sought to kill him, and as you expect Jacob is wondering if there is still a grudge.

This meeting occurs on Chapter 33.

But it is what happens in 32 that draws our attention.

In Gen 32:1

God sends angels to meet him.

This time it is no dream.

Nevertheless, Jacob is still anxious.

He takes steps to bribe Esau, sending extravagant gifts ahead of the caravan.

He removes his children and their mothers (4) to the other side of the Jabbok, a small stream.

Alone that night he has his most famous encounter with God — or maybe someone else who was also God.

The story reads:

It is clear that the “man” with whom Jacob wrestled was a divine being.

The mysterious combatant himself says “you have wrestled with elohim” a term we know can be translated either God or god.

The narrative nowhere says Jacobs encounter was only a vision.

This elohim is tangible and corporeal.

Hosea 12: 3-4

So what do we have here?

this elohim is tangible and corporeal.

note the parallism.... not only is this opponent seen as God and angel… he is identified with Bethel.

Hosea is telling us that Jacob wrestled with God himself, physically embodied — and identifies God with the angel who said he was the God of Bethel.

This “confusion” is deliberate.

The point is that the Angel of the Lord is the Lord.

One more

God and angel are clearly parallel here - only God can redeem from evil....The bless is singular … the identification is clear… this is a fusion… the identities of God and the Angel of the Lord are fused..

There is one YHWH that is invisible in heaven and one visible on the earth, but they are one.