Transcription
If you debate a Muslim or an Orthodox Rabbi, you will eventually hear the exact same objection. God is not a man. They argue that the Christian belief in the incarnation, God taking on human flesh, is a pagan Greek corruption. They claim that the God of the Hebrew Bible is completely invisible, formless, and would never step foot in the dirt of human history.
But there is a massive problem with that argument. It ignores the Old Testament. Long before Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem, the Hebrew Bible repeatedly described God stepping into our reality in physical human form. Today, we are looking at five times the Old Testament explicitly reveals God in the flesh.
Number one, the meal with Abraham. In Genesis chapter 18, Abraham is sitting by his tent when three men suddenly appear. The text is crystal clear. It explicitly identifies one of these men as Yahweh, the sacred unutterable name of God. Abraham rushes to prepare a meal. He brings curds, milk, and a prepared calf. And Genesis 18:8 says, "He stood by them under the tree while they ate." Stop there. This is not a vision. This is not a dream. This is Yahweh, the creator of the universe, appearing as a man sitting under a tree and eating physical food with Abraham. The idea of God taking on a physical body wasn't invented in the New Testament. It started in Genesis.
Number two, the midnight wrestling match. In Genesis 32, Jacob is alone in the desert at night. Suddenly, a mysterious man appears and the two of them engage in a physical violent wrestling match until daybreak. The man touches Jacob's hip and dislocates it. But who was this man? Jacob names the place Peniel, which means the face of God. And in verse 30, Jacob declares, "I have seen God face-to-face, and yet my life has been delivered." Jacob didn't wrestle an angel. He didn't wrestle a phantom. He physically wrestled God in human form.
Number three, the commander of the Lord's army. In Joshua chapter 5, Joshua is preparing to attack the city of Jericho. He looks up and sees a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua asks if he is friend or foe. The man replies, "No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord." Immediately, Joshua falls flat on his face and worships him. If this were just an angel, Joshua's worship would have been strictly forbidden. Throughout the Bible, angels violently reject human worship, but this man doesn't reject it. Instead, he tells Joshua, "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." These are the exact words God spoke to Moses at the burning bush. This wasn't an angel. It was God appearing as a warrior.
Number four, the angel in the fire. Speaking of Moses, let's look at Exodus 3. Moses sees a bush burning in the desert. Verse two says, "The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire." The Hebrew word for angel is malak, which simply means messenger. But watch what happens next. The text seamlessly shifts. The messenger speaks from the fire, and in verse six, he says, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." How can the messenger also be the sender? How can the angel of Yahweh claim to actually be Yahweh? It is the ultimate Old Testament paradox. Two distinct persons, yet one God.
Number five, the ascension in the flame. In Judges 13, a man and his wife are visited by the angel of the Lord. They offer a sacrifice on a rock, and as the flame goes up toward heaven, the angel steps into the fire and ascends into the sky. The husband, Manoah, is terrified. He looks at his wife and says, "We shall surely die, for we have seen God." He didn't say, "We have seen an angel." He knew exactly who had just eaten at their table.
The idea that God could take on human form, walk in the dust, and speak to us face-to-face is not a Christian invention. It is a deeply Jewish Old Testament reality. When the Apostle John wrote, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us," he wasn't writing Greek mythology. He was writing biblical history.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments. See you in the next one.