Appearing, Dwelling, Abiding: And the Angel of the LORD appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. Exodus 3:2a In 1977, much of the Western world saw a depiction of a developing technology. In the Star Wars movie, the robot R2-D2 displayed a hologram—a light-based physical image—of Princess Leia. That was 1977 in a science fiction movie. But thousands of years before that movie, something similar occurred on earth: God appearing as an angel-man. The future mother of Samson described it best—a Man of God who looked like an angel of God, very awesome appeared to her (Judges 13:6 NIV). She saw what appeared to be a human, yet also appeared to be a very awesome angel. And the being appeared, then disappeared, then appeared again (verses 10, 21). The Angel of the Lord (Genesis 16:7, 9-11; 22:11, 15) is generally considered to be deity—a preincarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. An angel of the Lord (Matthew 1:20; 2:13, 19) is not. After Christ was incarnated in flesh (John 1:14), the Angel of the Lord does not appear again. God appeared to His people in the Old Testament and dwelt with His people in the New—and now abides in us by His Spirit. The glory of the Incarnation is that it presents to our adoring gaze, not a humanized God or a deified man, but a true God-man. Benjamin B. Warfield recommended reading: Judges 13:6,10,21
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:54:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015