Evidence of Jesus is found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.
For now, I just want to focus on His appearances in Judges.
Why is it important to find these many appearances or indications of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures? It is one way to demonstrate the unity of the Bible. This unity points to the fact that it has one single superintending Author, the Holy Spirit. Well, why is this important? Because the Bible is often charged with being the work of man and not of God, despite the Bible’s consistent insistence that it is fully God-breathed out (2 Timothy 3:16-17)!
Why is it important to find these many appearances or indications of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures? It is one way to demonstrate the unity of the Bible. This unity points to the fact that it has one single superintending Author, the Holy Spirit. Well, why is this important? Because the Bible is often charged with being the work of man and not of God, despite the Bible’s consistent insistence that it is fully God-breathed out (2 Timothy 3:16-17)!
In this book, we encounter Jesus initially as the “Angel
(“messenger”) of the Lord” (“Yahweh” in the Hebrew):
·
Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to
Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land
that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant
with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you
shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this
you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you...” (Judges
2:1-3 ESV)
This Angel is no mere messenger. He claims far more about
Himself:
1.
That HE
had brought Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land
2.
That the covenant was His, and
3.
That Israel had failed to obey Him, as if He is
God Himself.
Was He just God’s mouthpiece uttering the words of God? The
Angel’s next appearance argues against this theory. Israel had been oppressed
by their Midianite occupiers for years. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon
and told him that He would rid the land of the Midianites through Gideon. To
convince the skeptical Gideon, He performed a number of miraculous signs:
·
Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of
the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of
the LORD face to face.” But the LORD [“Yahweh”] said to him, “Peace be to you.
Do not fear; you shall not die.” (Judges 6:22-23)
It seems that “Yahweh” is used interchangeably with the “Angel of “Yahweh,” suggesting that they are One. This phenomenon is even more clearly presented in the account of Moses’ exchange with God, while He was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law:
·
And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a
flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was
burning, yet it was not consumed… God called to him out of the bush, “Moses,
Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your
sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
(Exodus 3:2-5)
This account claims that the “Angel” had been in the “midst
of a bush. Then it claimed the God was in the bush, indicating that both
individuals are God. Moses was then required to remove his sandals because of
the presence of God.
Similarly, when Gideon realized that he had been in the
presence of the Angel of the Lord, he asked the “Lord God” if he was now going
to die. “Yahweh” answered that he would not die. He didn’t say, “You don’t have
to worry, since the Angel is not God. He’s just a created being.” However, He
left Gideon with the impression that the Angel is God.
The last instance of the appearance of the Angel is even
more dramatic. He appeared to the barren wife of Manoah, to inform her that she
would bear a son, Samson. Later, he appeared again to both future parents.
Manoah then asked to know His identity. The Angel responded that he should have
already understood His identity. He then ascended in a flame to erase any doubt.
When Manoah saw this, he knew that they had been conversing with the Angel of
the Lord who Manoah knew to also be God:
·
And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely
die, for we have seen God.” But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had meant to
kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at
our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as
these.” (Judges 13:22-23)
Manoah and his wife weren’t the only ones who realized that
God could appear in human form. Abraham must have understood this as he
intervened with God on behalf of Lot (Genesis 18). Jacob certainly understood
this after he had wrestled with the Angel and claimed that he had seen God
face-to-face (Genesis 32).
They also understood that the Angel was a distinct person from God but also God. The very fact that they identified Him as the “Angel of the Lord [Yahweh],” also showed that they understood that there was a distinction between the two.
They also understood that the Angel was a distinct person from God but also God. The very fact that they identified Him as the “Angel of the Lord [Yahweh],” also showed that they understood that there was a distinction between the two.
But was the Angel the second Person of the Trinity. Well, we
know that God the Father dwells in unapproachable light and cannot be seen (1
Timothy 6:16). Could the Angel have been the Holy Spirit? This is highly
unlikely. Instead, the Spirit is introduced immediately afterwards, and He
plays a very different role:
·
And the woman bore a son and called his name
Samson. And the young man grew, and the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the
LORD began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. (Judges
13:24-25)
Never do we see any Scriptural indication that the Spirit or
the Father take on human form.
Why is all of this important? It indicates that Scripture is
a unified collection of documents spanning 1,500 years, three different languages,
and across many different cultures. It reflects a single grand plan, which its
human authors could not have concocted. It was also written, for the most part,
by simply people and not by learned Rabbis, who often were martyred for what
they had written. They never recanted but certified the truth of their message
with their blood.
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