CHRISTOPHANIES IN THE TORAH

There is a wealth of evidence for the appearances of a Messianic God-Person in the Five Books of Moses, the Torah. We call these “Theophanies” or “Christophanies.” We have good reason to identify a Christophany whenever the “The Angel of the Lord” (in the singular) is mentioned in the Torah. Interestingly, in each one of these appearances, there is direct evidence that He is God. Take His first appearance:

·       The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” So she called the name of the LORD [Yahweh] who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” (Genesis 16:7-13; ESV)

Here, the Angel is also identified by the narrative as the “LORD” (“Yahweh” in Hebrew, a term that is only used for God). Hagar then acknowledges that this Angel is “God.”

This presents us with a paradox. How can this Angel also be God? Aren’t there two people present – the Angel and Yahweh? The paradox is heightened by the fact that the Hebrew word “malach,” which is generally translated as “angel,” is also translated in other contexts as “messenger.” Whichever translation is chosen, “The Angel of God” or “messenger,” both terms indicate that this individual is a distinct person from the God whom sent him. And yet, he is also called “God” or “Yahweh.”

This, of course can be resolved from a Trinitarian perspective. The Son, Jesus, is both a distinct Person, the Angel, and yet God Himself.

 In the next appearance of The Angel of the Lord, Yahweh is merely identified as a man:

·       And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. (Genesis 18:1-2)

Although “The Angel of the Lord” is not mentioned in this account, we are again confronted with the same perplexity as before. Yahweh appears as a man along with two other “men,” who are actually “angels” (Genesis 19:1). While the two go to investigate Sodom after enjoying a meal with Abraham, “Yahweh” remains behind, while Abraham intercedes with Him on behalf of his nephew Lot and his family:

·       So the [two] men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD [Yahweh]. (Genesis 18:22)

However, the rabbis claim that Yahweh cannot take on human form. Therefore, they claim that this “Yahweh” was only a messenger from Yahweh. However, the text will not allow such an interpretation. After Yahweh had assured Abraham that He would spare Sodom if ten righteous could be found within it, Scripture claims that Yahweh left Abraham:

·       And the LORD [not the “man”] went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. (Genesis 18:33)

From all indications, the text leads us to believe that Yahweh was actually present. Nevertheless, rabbinic authorities argue that this person could not possibly be Yahweh because Yahweh cannot be seen (Exodus 33:20). However, this doesn’t discount the second Person of the Trinity, the Son. From an NT point of view, the impossibility of God being seen refers strictly to the Father (John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16).

Jacob later wrestled with a “man,” whom he later understood was God:

·       So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:30)

Later, Jacob identified God as the “Angel” with whom he had wrestled:

·       And he [Jacob] blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” (Genesis 48:15-16)

Notice how Jacob equated the Angel with God! Besides this, after Jacob invokes the name of God three times, he calls upon God to “bless the boys.” However, “bless” is in the singular, which reflects the fact that although he had invoked God three times, he also recognized that they are One!

(Why did Jacob refer to the Angel is the One who “has redeemed me from all evil?” He, God, had allowed Jacob to have his way with Him, even to humiliate and brutalize Him, as a foreshadowing of the Cross.)

Well, isn’t this evidence of a Christophany? Not according to the rabbis. Gerald Sigal wrote:

·       The fact that Jacob sees “elohim face to face” only goes to prove that the divine being [a mere messenger from God] that Jacob wrestles with is not God. But, since the angel represents God, Jacob views the messenger as if it is God Himself. It is quite clear that this angel is not God manifested on earth as a human being. At no time does the Hebrew Bible teach this belief. (The Jew and the Christian Missionary, 143)

Sigal once again appeals to Exodus 33:20, which claims that God cannot be seen. However, this evidently only pertains to God, the Father. Instead, the Torah repeatedly demonstrates that God can be seen in His human appearances.

Then the Angel appeared to Moses in the midst of the burning bush in the middle of the desert:

·       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. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:2-4)

First, it claims that the Angel of the Lord had been in the midst of the bush; then it claims that it is actually Yahweh who is in the midst of the bush. Notice that this Angel is also called “LORD” (Yahweh) and “God!” To reinforce the claim that Yahweh is actually present, the account reads:

·       …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” …And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (Exodus 3:4-6)

Moses understood that this was “holy ground,” because of Yahweh’s presence and not the presence of a mere messenger. Besides, the fact that he was “afraid to look at God” meant that he knew that God was present in the bush.

Nevertheless, Sigal seems to believe that both the Angel and God were “present” in some sense:

·       …the textual evidence leans in favor of the view that this angel of the Lord functions here solely as a fiery manifestation which attracts Moses’ attention, while it is the God of Israel who actually “appeared,” that is, made Himself known and spoke to Moses…”an angel of the Lord” can in no way be identified as part of the divine essence.” (134-35)

Once again, contrary to the text, Sigal will not acknowledge that God actually appeared in the bush. Consequently, Moses was afraid to look upon Him and had been instructed that this was holy ground. Instead, he has to awkwardly claim that both individuals were somehow present in the one bush. While Moses had been convinced that Yahweh was actually present, Sigal is convinced that he knows better.

Instead, all of these appearances provide us with evidence that God, Yahweh, is not as the present-day rabbi’s claim. Instead, these appearances of a Messianic figure provide us with evidence of the Trinity.

(Before the Battle of Jericho, the Angel, another Christophany, identifies Himself to Joshua as the “Commander of the Lord’s army.” Here too, we find out that this “Commander” is actually Yahweh:

·       And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:14-15)

A mere angel or messenger would have ever received worship. Only the former archangel Satan demanded worship or would have allowed Joshua to worship Him. Consequently, this Commander would have been usurping God’s majesty to demand that Joshua take off his sandals. Instead, this command signified that God was present as He stood before Joshua. The narrative also identifies Him as Yahweh:

·       And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.” (Joshua 6:2)

The Angel had also manifested Himself to Samson’s parents, Manoah and his previously barren wife to promise them as son. However, Manoah was beginning to suspect that this He was more than just a mere messenger:

·       And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name [essence of being], so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” (Judges 13:17-18)

The Angel responded that His name or essence was “wonderful,” (“pawlee;” a term used in reference to the Messiah, Isaiah 9:6, but never to a mere messenger). The narrative also identifies Him as Yahweh:

·       So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” (Judges 13:19-22. We find the same phenomenon in the account of Gideon – Judges 6:22-23)

While Samson’s parents were convinced that they had “seen God,” Sigal is not. He correctly points out that God (Elohim in the Hebrew) is also used to refer to human judges (Exodus 22:8) (129). However, Sigal overlooks all of the other contextual evidence that this couple had actually seen “Yahweh” and had become convinced of this fact.

The Angel was also the One who brought Israel out of Egypt:

·       When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt. (Numbers 20:16)

However, other verses claim that it was God who brought Israel out of Egypt. Again, in order to make sense out of this recurring paradox, it is most easily resolved by concluding that the Angel Himself is God, but as another Person. We find many examples of distinction between the Angel and Yahweh and yet Oneness, exactly what the doctrine of the Trinity posits.

God is often identified as the “Redeemer of Israel.” However, at closer examination, it seems that the “Angel of His Presence” had “saved” and “redeemed” Israel:

·       In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9)

Is this a contradiction? Not unless this Angel is God Himself, the second Member of the Trinity! Here is further evidence. God the Father claimed that He could never be seen:  

·       But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20; 1 Timothy 6:16)

Nevertheless, God was seen:

• So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. (Exodus 33:11)

·       And he [God] said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you [Miriam and Aaron] not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:6-8)

This sounds like a contradiction, unless Moses had seen God the Angel, the second Person of the Trinity. Elsewhere, God says:

·       "Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him… For My Angel will go before you… and I will cut them off.” (Exodus 23:20-23)

If God’s “name” is in Him, this is the same as saying that “My essence or nature is in Him.” God the Father also makes a sharp distinction between Himself and His Angel:

·       “And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." (Exodus 33:2-3)

God, the Father, could not be in the presence of Israel. Therefore, He sent His Angel, the second Person of the Trinity to be with Israel.

Elsewhere, the Angel is mentioned interchangeably with God, suggesting that the Angel is also God, Yahweh:

·       And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. (Exodus 14:19)

·       Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. (Exodus 14:24)

·       And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. (Exodus 13:21)

Again, the Angel seems to be God Himself but as another distinct Person. The rabbis and the various cults do not seem to want to engage the extensive Biblical evidence. It simply does not accord with their worldview. However, these verses provide for us a compelling glimpse of the Trinity in the Torah and also the following books of the Tanach.

One Reason why we Regard the Bible as God’s Words

When we think about how the Bible proves itself to be the Word of God, we usually think about the miracles and fulfilled prophecies of the Bible. We might also think in terms of the wisdom, unity and the power of the Bible to change lives. There is even a powerful case to be made for how biblical revelation had anticipated the findings of science and archeology. In addition to these evidences, the Bible contains much that would not have been written by the Israelites. In many respects, the Bible is a collection of writings that humans would not have been motivated to write. Let me try to present several examples:

1. THE PATRIARCHS: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the forefathers of Judaism, were certainly not role-models. Instead, the Bible reveals that they were cowards, deceivers, liars and worse. We humans don’t create or select such role models, least of all those who we identify as the Fathers of our faith.

Instead, the human tendency is to fashion them into the saints with whom others would want to identify. This is exactly what the Talmud did with the Patriarchs. It sanitized the Bible’s depiction of them, and made them virtually sinless. In contrast, the Bible’s portraits sharply conflict with what we’d create – so much so, that we feel compelled to modify them.

For instance, the Bible gives us the portrait of a spineless Abraham who routinely passed off his beautiful wife Sarah as his sister so that no one would kill him in order to have her.

Similarly, the Bible presents Israel’s greatest King – David – as an adulterer and a murderer. However, an orthodox Jew informed me that the Talmud had so cleaned up David that his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah were both righteous acts. This is precisely how we humans write our religious books!

2. MOSES: Even the greatest of all Israelites had been forbidden entry into the Promised Land because he had sinned. Aaron also is presented as a humiliated sinner. What hope therefore could the average Israelite entertain about his own future welfare? Not much! Such a revelation could not have been the invention of humans who’d naturally want to maintain a zealous following.

In contrast, in ancient literature, no historian presents his king in a negative light lest he forego his life!

3. THE ISRAELITES: They are not portrayed as faithful to God, but as stubborn and unfaithful. On numerous occasions, Moses warned the Israelites to not think themselves better or more deserving than others. Meanwhile, the Talmud characterizes the Jewish people as spiritually superior, the very thing that the Bible warns against:

·         “After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Deut. 9:4-6)

In fact, we cannot find one verse in the Hebrew Scriptures that suggests that the Israelites were superior to or more deserving than others.

On the contrary, almost all the prophets denounce Israel, so much so that if we didn’t know better, we might conclude that these Scriptures represent the heights of anti-Semitism. Often, Israel is indicted more extensively than any other people. The first chapter of Isaiah is representative of what we find in the writings of the other Israelite prophets:

·         “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.” (Isa. 1:2-4)

We humans don’t characteristically write such disparaging things about ourselves and our people, especially if these writings form the core of our self-identity – our significance and reason-for-being. How is it that the Jewish people would canonize such thoroughly condemning writings? They must have been convinced that they had no other choice, lest they oppose God.

4. MOSAIC LAWS: While much of Moses’ commands resemble those of other legal systems from that period, notably Hammurabi’s Code, much of it is not characteristic of anything else we find in the ancient Near East. For instance:

·         The covenant was transacted with all the people, not just the king – an oddity in its day. Kings wrote the laws, and these laws reflected the fact that the king was morally and religiously above everyone else.

·         The king was required to read the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) to remind him that he was no better than other people (Deut. 17).

·         A day of rest was mandatory for even animals and foreigners (Exodus 20:10). Such concern does not come from the ruling class but from God who created all!

·         The Sabbath (7th) year required the cancellation of debts to protect the poor (Deut. 15:1, 4) – certainly not something that people who make the laws – the power elite - would tolerate!

·         The Jubilee (50th) year required that the land be returned to its original owners. In fact, this law was so radical – so counter to human economics - that there is no evidence that Israel ever obeyed it:

Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.  Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. (Lev. 25:9-11)

It should be noted that such a law depended upon a supreme trust in God to provide in the absence of sowing.

·         The priestly caste was denied true wealth – land. Instead, God was to be their inheritance. What powerful caste would willingly place themselves in such a disadvantageous position!

·         The law granted soldiers permission to leave the army if they feared (Deut. 20). If any nation granted their soldiers such an out, it would loose its army. Therefore, it would be surprising to find such a law in any man-made legal code.

Similarly, there are many other laws that humans, especially from that period of time, would never tolerate. Therefore, it seems more likely that these laws must have come from above!

5. MOSAIC THREATS: The warnings for disobedience were severe and demanding. If an Israelite failed to keep the law in just one respect, he was under a curse (Deut. 27:26). We humans would not accept such a threatening religion. Nor would the Rabbis, who qualified this teaching in several ways. For instance, Gerald Sigal, The Jew and the Christian Missionary, wrote,

·         [Deuteronomy 27:26] does not refer to the breaking of the Law by an ordinary individual. It is, as the Rabbis explain, a reference to the authorities in power who fail to enforce the rule of the Law in the land of Israel (J.T. Sotah 7:4). The leadership of the nation is thus charged, under pain of the curse, to set the tone for the nation and make the Law the operative force in the life of the nation.

Instead, this verse and many others damn every Israelite. This is a state-of-affairs that no people would tolerate. We come to religion for its benefits and not its curses!

6. PROPHECIES: The Prophets uniformly prophesied Israel’s future failure (Deut. 29:4; Joshua 24:19). Moses even taught Israel a song that would serve to continually indict them. Israel would reject their God, and God would bring destruction upon them (Deut 32:15-35). No one would invent a religion foretelling such negative consequences for its own people. And who would follow such a religion!

Perhaps even more offensive to Israel, the Prophets also envisioned the hated Gentile nations enjoying in the end the abundant blessings with Israel. Perhaps the most poignant demonstration of the Israelite consternation to this Divine plan is exhibited by Jonah, who rebelled against God’s call to preach to Nineveh. This is because he feared that his preaching would serve as a vehicle for God to bless the Ninevites. Even Israel’s prophets are characterized as unworthy of their Master!

7. PENTATEUCHAL HOLIDAYS: Of the five prescribed holidays, only one of them is truly commemorative of an historical event – the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread. The other four seem to be prophetic. They look forward to God working events to their glorious culmination.

However, this is very unusual – something we humans don’t do! Holidays commemorate past events, like the birthdays or deaths of our significant people, military victories, and even great tragedies like Pearl Harbor Day. They make us remember events that are key to our national and religious identity.

Likewise, all of Israel’s non-divinely-ordained holidays are commemorative. Hanukkah commemorates the cleansing of the Temple and the Maccabean military victories. Purim commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in Persia. T’sha b’Av commemorates the destruction of the Temple. Simchat Torah commemorates the giving of the Law on Sinai.

8. ASSIGNMENT OF DATES: We assign dates to occasions we want to remember. Not so the Torah (Pentateuch). There is no assignment of a date to the giving of the law, to any military victories or momentous triumphs over an enemy. There is no “Victory over Jericho” day or “Pharaoh’s Defeat in the Red Sea” day. Instead, the dates are those that are important to God. They certainly weren’t important to the Israelites! In fact, Israel was so dumbfounded about the purpose of some of these dates and prescribed holidays that they had to invent rationale for them.

For instance, the purpose for the “Feast of Trumpets” was never specified. Therefore, the Jewish people invented a meaning for it. They called the day “Rosh Hashanah” (the head of the year) or “New Years Day.” How strange not to know the significance of one’s holidays! Had they been humanly ordained, there never would have been any question!

This is only a mere outline of the ways that the Bible is humanly foreign and sometimes repugnant – not the type of thing that we would create if we had the choice. When we survey the Hebrew Bible, we do not find a human landscape with identifiable benchmarks. Instead, we encounter something entirely alien to our expectations and inclinations – something that doesn’t flatter the ego, but instead humbles us, if we are enabled to see this unearthly terrain through unbiased eyes. But it’s this humbling process that prepares us for a Divine encounter that will leave us unsatisfied with the world we had once inhabited.