JESUS IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES

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)!

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.

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.