Abraham
spoke with God (Gen 12, etc.). Jacob, his grandson, met God “face-to-face. “And Jacob called the name of the place
Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen
32:30). So did Moses. “And the LORD spake
unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” (Ex 33:11a).
Anthropomorphic.
The
Scriptures frequently portray God as anthropomorphic -- having the physical
figure, facial features, and appendages (sometimes used figuratively) of a
human being.
He has a head with hair (“the
hair of his head like the pure wool” --
Dan 7:9b); eyes and ears (“Now mine eyes
shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place”
-- 2 Chron 7:15; 1 Pet 3:12); a
nose with nostrils (“These are a smoke in
my nose, a fire that burneth all the day” -- Isa 65:5b; Ex 15:8); a mouth
with lips (“he shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked”
-- Isa 11:4b).
God
has a torso with shoulders (“the LORD
shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders” --
Deut 33:12b); a back (“And I will take
away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be
seen” -- Ex 33:23); a behind to sit upon (“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did
sit” -- Dan 7:9a).
He
has arms (“with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I
rule over you” -- Ezek 20:33b); hands (“I
will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I
pass by” -- Ex 33:22b); fingers (“two
tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” -- Ex
31:18b); legs to walk with (“And they
heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” --Gen
3:8); feet (“the place of my throne, and
the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the
children of Israel for ever” --Ezek 43:7a).
God
in human form seems to feel discomfort under the heat of the sun and get hungry
as well. “And he took butter, and milk,
and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them (Elohim); and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat (Gen 18:8).
Human
emotions.
The
LORD likewise displays the wide spectrum of human emotions. He can have
positive feelings, like satisfaction (“And
God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” -- Gen
1:31); love (“the LORD thy God turned the
curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee” -- Deut
23:5b); amusement (“I also will laugh at
your calamity” -- Prov 1:26a); pity (“Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him”
-- Ps 103:13); mercy (“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion;
slow to anger, and of great mercy” -- Ps 145:8).
On
the other hand, God can also be filled with negative emotions, such as sadness
and disappointment (“And it repented the
LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” --
Gen 6:6); anger (“And my wrath shall wax
hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and
your children fatherless” --Ex 22:24); hatred (“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn
assemblies” -- Amos 5:21); spite (“I
will mock when your fear cometh” -- Prov
1:26b).
The
LORD can also feel regret and change His mind (“And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the
face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls
of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them” -- Gen 6:7).
Based
on these verses, it seems as though God is no different from any ordinary man!
The
LORD’s proxy
Despite
the preceding descriptions of God, the Bible tells us that nobody has seen or
heard God at any time at all! To begin with, God, being spirit, is invisible: “Who is the image of the invisible God…” (Col 4:12 ).
Christ
says it could not have been God Himself: “And
the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have
neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape” (John 5:37). The
apostle John teaches the same truth. “No
man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of
the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18 ). Paul confirms it: “…God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has
seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:15b-16, NIV). Who, then, did Abraham, Jacob, and
Moses speak with “face-to-face”?
Aggelos,
the messenger.
Let
us go over one passage wherein Abraham met God in person. “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” (Gen
18:1-3).
God
once appeared to Abraham as three men. The word in the original Hebrew
Scriptures most frequently translated “God” is elohim, meaning “gods” (singular, el or eloah, “god”). Some
Bible teachers interpret elohim as
the three persons of the “Trinity.” But, usually, when the term Elohim is used to refer to God, it is
said to be used as a plural of magnitude and majesty. When used in reference to
angels, elohim truly means the plural
form – more than one.
Now,
consider the meeting between God and Moses. “And
the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of
a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was
not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God
called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he
said, Here am I” (Ex 3:2-4). Note that, first, the “angel of the Lord”
appeared to Moses from the middle of a burning bush. Then, we read it was the
LORD Himself. Next, it was God who called to Moses from the bush. The terms
“angel of the Lord,” “the LORD,” and “God” are used interchangeably. We get the
impression that all three are one and the same!
An
“angel of the LORD” also appeared to Manoah, Samson’s father-to-be. “But the angel of the LORD did no more
appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the
LORD. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen
God” (Judg 13:21 -22).
The connection between the “angel of the LORD” and “God” is borne out clearly.
Manoah knew that it was the “angel of the Lord,” and yet he referred to the
angel as “God” Himself!
The
God whom Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Manoah, and even Adam and Eve conversed with
was not the Ein Sof or “Infinite
Nothngness,” but the “angel of the LORD” – His alter-ego, proxy,
representative, or emissary. (The English word “angel” comes from the Greek aggelos, which means “messenger.”) The
angel is also called “the LORD” by God’s authority. “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to
bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his
voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name
is in him” (Ex 23:20 -21).
Similarly, as a country’s president today is addressed as “Excellency,” his or
her ambassadors are also called “Excellency.”
When
God destroyed Sodom Gomorrah Sodom Gomorrah 19:24 ). One called “the LORD” in the sky near
the earth rained on the two cities fire and brimstone coming from another one
also called “the LORD” higher up in heaven!
Author
David Allen Deal (The Mystic Symbol)
wrote: “The lesser YHWH (angel of the LORD), also called ‘Metatron’ in the Book
of Enoch, is also well-attested to among the Jewish rabbinical sources. He is
called the ‘lesser YHWH,’ and the use of the term acknowledges the existence of
a greater YHWH, the Father, who is above all.”56
The
God with whom Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Manoah, even Adam and Eve, and the other
blessed Biblical men had dealings and spoke “face-to-face” was the angel of the
LORD.
_______________
56David
Allen Deal, The Mystic Symbol, p.
169; quoted in Ancient American; cited
in Indian Sabbath Trail tract
(Excerpted from Chapter 1, Mysteries
of Our Maker, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven
and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)
