Christophanies in the Old Testament: Was Jesus There?

Genesis 18 describes Abraham receiving the LORD as a visitor and speaking with Him about the judgment of Sodom. Although Jesus had not yet been born in Bethlehem, the Son already existed. I understand this as one of His appearances before He became man. The accounts give us reasons to recognize Him, and the New Testament helps us understand how the Son was making the Father known long before His human birth.

The Eternal Son Makes God Known

An appearance of Christ before the incarnation is called a Christophany. The broader word theophany means an appearance of God. Since Christ is fully God, both words can describe the same encounter, although calling something a theophany does not identify the divine Person who appeared. The passage must give us grounds for that identification.

We need to distinguish those appearances from the incarnation, when the Son took a true human nature. His encounters with Abraham and Moses were not earlier births or previous incarnations. When He became man, He did not cease to be God, and He remains fully God and fully man. The permanence of His humanity distinguishes the incarnation from those earlier appearances.

John opens his Gospel by telling us that the Word was already with God, that the Word was God, and that all things were made through Him. The One who later became flesh was the Creator of the world He entered. John then explains how the Son makes God known.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

John 1:18, NKJV

If no one has seen God, who did Abraham and Moses encounter? Jesus said of the Father in John 5:37, “You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.” I read these passages together: the unseen Father makes Himself known through the Son. Those Old Testament encounters do not mean that the people involved had seen the Father in contradiction to Jesus’ words.

Colossians 1:15 calls Christ the image of the invisible God, and Hebrews 1:3 describes Him as the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person. Paul also explains in Colossians that all things were created through Him. That includes the angels, so the Son cannot be one of the created servants He brought into existence. Hebrews 1 goes further and commands the angels to worship Him. Being sent to do the Father’s work does not make the Son a lesser being.

Jesus speaks of His existence before His human birth when He says, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). His words affirm that He existed before Abraham and agree with the eternal deity John describes. Genesis records events before the incarnation, but none took place before the Son existed.

The Son is fully God while remaining personally distinct from the Father who sends Him. The Holy Spirit is also a divine Person, not an impersonal force. This is what we mean by the Trinity: one God eternally existing as three coequal, coeternal Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are not saying that the Father became the Son or that there are three separate gods. The study on the Trinity explains those distinctions more fully.

Melchizedek, the Priest-King

Genesis 14 introduces Melchizedek after Abram had rescued Lot. He was king of Salem and priest of God Most High, and he came to meet Abram with bread and wine. He blessed Abram, who gave him a tenth. Genesis offers little background about this priest-king, but Psalm 110 and Hebrews 7 return to him to explain the Messiah’s priesthood.

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.

Genesis 14:18, NKJV

Psalm 110 declares that the Messiah will be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. In Hebrews 7, Paul explains the significance of Melchizedek’s name and title: king of righteousness and king of peace. He presents him without father or mother, without genealogy, and without beginning of days or end of life. Melchizedek is described as “made like the Son of God” and as remaining a priest continually.

Some Christians understand Melchizedek to have been a human king whose appearance in Genesis foreshadowed Christ. That is called a type: a person or event that anticipates something God will reveal more fully later. On that reading, Genesis omits his ancestry so that the account can illustrate a priesthood which does not depend on descent from Levi.

I believe Melchizedek was the preincarnate God the Son. The description of this priest-king persuades me when I consider its details together, rather than the missing family record alone. Abraham received his blessing and gave him tithes, acknowledging his superior position. Paul explains that even Levi, whose descendants would serve as Israel’s priests, was subordinate to Melchizedek’s order through his ancestor Abraham. Hebrews describes his continuing priesthood, and Psalm 110 declares that the Messiah will hold that priesthood forever.

The phrase “made like the Son of God” is one reason readers disagree. Those who understand Melchizedek as a human type take it as a comparison with someone else. I read it within Paul’s explanation of an enduring priesthood that is not inherited through human ancestry. Those connections lead me to recognize Christ Himself, although Genesis does not explicitly introduce Melchizedek as the Son. The study on Melchizedek examines that argument in greater detail.

The permanence of Christ’s priesthood gives us reason to trust Him. He lives forever and will never need a successor. Because He lives to intercede for us, He can save completely those who come to God through Him. I do not have to fear losing my Priest to death or finding that He can no longer represent me before God.

The Angel of the LORD Speaks as God

In several other passages, the One introduced as a Messenger is also identified as the LORD. The word angel means messenger; it describes His work without settling whether He is a created being. A created angel can deliver God’s words. Here, however, we also need to account for Scripture naming the Messenger as God and attributing God’s own works to Him.

Consider Hagar in Genesis 16. She had fled after Sarai dealt harshly with her, and the Angel of the LORD found her beside a spring in the wilderness. He called her by name and promised, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly” (Genesis 16:10). The account then calls the One who spoke to her the LORD, and Hagar names Him “You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees.”

The LORD sought out Hagar, a servant who had been mistreated, and spoke about her future. His compassion belongs in our understanding of His identity. If I defend Christ’s deity from this passage and dismiss a mistreated person as beneath my attention, I have failed to heed the example of the Lord who went to find her in the wilderness.

In Genesis 22, the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven and stopped him from killing Isaac. The command to offer Isaac was a unique test in God’s covenant dealings with Abraham, and God Himself prevented the sacrifice. The Angel then declared, “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD” (Genesis 22:16). Hebrews 6 explains that God swore by Himself because there was no one greater by whom He could swear. Abraham was receiving God’s own oath confirming His promise. This encounter involved a voice from heaven rather than a visible visitor, but the words help identify the Messenger.

At the burning bush, Exodus 3 first names the Angel of the LORD as the One who appeared to Moses in the flame. It then says that the LORD saw Moses and that God called to him from the bush. Moses was approaching God’s presence when he heard this command:

Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”

Exodus 3:5, NKJV

The Speaker then identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exodus uses Angel, LORD and God to identify the same Speaker throughout this encounter.

Later, Exodus 23 says that God’s name is in the Angel and commands Israel to obey Him. In Judges 2, the Angel speaks of bringing Israel out of Egypt and of His covenant with them. He claims the LORD’s deliverance and covenant as His own. Read alongside the burning bush, these statements give us reason to recognize more than a created servant passing along instructions.

Revelation 22:8-9 describes John falling before a created angel. The angel told him, “Do not do that” and “Worship God.” He refused worship because he was a servant. In the Old Testament passages we are examining, the Messenger is identified as the LORD while also being sent by Him. That personal distinction agrees with what the New Testament reveals about the Son, who is sent by the Father without ceasing to be God.

For those reasons, I recognize the divine Angel of the LORD as the Son before His incarnation. Being a Messenger describes His mission, just as being sent by the Father does in the New Testament. It does not make Him a created being. The study on The Angel of the Lord considers the individual passages more closely.

The LORD Appears to His Servants

Genesis 18 describes the LORD visiting Abraham without introducing the title Angel of the LORD. It says that “the LORD appeared” to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre. Abraham saw three men and welcomed them with a meal. The LORD spoke about Sarah and the promised son before the conversation turned to Sodom. The other visitors went toward the city, while Abraham remained before the LORD and pleaded concerning its judgment.

Abraham asked, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). He knew he was addressing the One whose judgment would determine Sodom’s fate. Genesis describes the LORD appearing visibly, receiving hospitality and speaking with Abraham about His promise and the city’s sin. John’s explanation that the Son reveals the Father leads me to understand this visitor as Christ.

In Genesis 32, Abraham’s grandson Jacob wrestled through the night with a Man who touched his hip, changed his name to Israel and blessed him. Jacob called the place Peniel because, as he explained, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). Hosea 12:3-5 looks back on that struggle and speaks of the Angel and the LORD God of hosts, confirming that Jacob had encountered the LORD.

Jacob’s struggle did not mean that he had overpowered God. The LORD allowed him to wrestle, yet could disable his hip with a touch. I see God confronting Jacob’s self-reliance here. He received a blessing and a new name, but had to walk away limping, dependent on the One who had blessed him. He could hardly point to that injured hip as proof that his own strength had secured God’s favor.

Before the battle at Jericho, Joshua encountered a Man holding a drawn sword. In Joshua 5, the Man identifies Himself as Commander of the army of the LORD. Joshua fell on his face and worshiped, and the Commander told him to remove his sandal because the place was holy. His acceptance of worship and His command about holy ground lead me to recognize another Christophany, even though the passage does not use the title Angel of the LORD.

Moses had stood on holy ground before being sent to Egypt; now Joshua stood on holy ground before the battle at Jericho. The LORD was continuing His work for Israel, and the men He appointed to lead were accountable to Him. Joshua had to bow and receive instructions from the true Commander. I need the same willingness to submit when I ask Christ to direct me. If I intend to disregard whatever interferes with my plans, I am asking Him to approve a decision I have already made.

Later, in Judges 6, Gideon was threshing wheat out of sight of the Midianites when the Angel of the LORD came to him. During their conversation the passage calls the Speaker the LORD, who commissioned Gideon to deliver Israel. After fire consumed the offering and the Angel departed, Gideon feared he would die because he had seen Him face to face. The LORD reassured him, “Do not fear, you shall not die” (Judges 6:23).

In Judges 13, the Angel announced Samson’s birth to Manoah’s wife. Later He directed Manoah to offer a sacrifice to the LORD and then ascended in its flame. Manoah cried, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God!” (Judges 13:22). His wife answered by considering what God had actually done. Why would He accept their offering and reveal His purpose for their child if He intended to kill them? She took His holiness seriously without letting fear overturn the reassurance He had given them.

Centuries later, Zechariah saw a vision involving Joshua the high priest, a different man from the Joshua who led Israel into Canaan. In Zechariah 3, the high priest stood before the Angel of the LORD in filthy garments, with Satan there to accuse him. The LORD rebuked Satan, and the Angel directed those standing before Him to remove Joshua’s filthy garments. He told Joshua, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes” (Zechariah 3:4). His priestly office had not enabled him to remove his own guilt. The cleansing came from God, and the Angel announced it as His own work.

We see that mercy fully revealed in Jesus Christ, our righteousness and our Advocate, the One who speaks on our behalf before God. Gideon and Manoah feared death after encountering the LORD, while Joshua stood in garments that pictured his defilement. God dealt mercifully with each of them. Our peace with Him likewise depends on the Savior He has provided, rather than our ability to excuse guilt or make ourselves holy.

Daniel, Isaiah, and the Glory of Christ

In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego thrown into a furnace because they refused to worship his golden image. He expected three bound men to die. Instead, he saw four men walking freely in the fire and described the fourth as “like the Son of God” (Daniel 3:25). He later spoke of their God sending a messenger to deliver them.

I believe the fourth Man was a Christophany, although the king’s words alone do not establish His identity. Nebuchadnezzar was describing what he saw without the understanding of the eternal Son that John later gives us. I recognize Christ in the Deliverer who stood with God’s servants in the fire because that encounter agrees with the wider pattern of the Son making God known and rescuing His people. The identification is an inference from the account read alongside other Scripture; Daniel does not explicitly name the fourth Man as Christ.

Isaiah’s vision has a more direct New Testament explanation. In Isaiah 6, he saw the Lord high and lifted up on His throne as the seraphim cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” Isaiah declared himself undone, a man of unclean lips who had seen the King, the LORD of hosts. John later referred to Isaiah while explaining the unbelief that followed Jesus’ signs.

These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.

John 12:41, NKJV

John identifies the glory Isaiah saw as Christ’s glory, giving us an explicit connection in the New Testament. The Lord Isaiah saw enthroned is the same Son who later lived among men and endured their rejection. He remained fully God when He became man.

Reading These Appearances Without Guessing

These passages do not all identify the Son in the same way. John explicitly connects Isaiah’s vision with Christ, while my identification of Melchizedek and the fourth Man in the furnace draws together evidence from several passages. I believe those conclusions are well founded, but I should not present every identification as equally certain or pretend that each account explicitly names Him.

Some readers object that Christophany is not a biblical word. Neither is Trinity, but both can explain biblical teaching if we define them accurately. The label cannot establish an identity the passage leaves unexplained. Scripture describes created angels as well as symbolic visions, and each account needs to be read on its own terms. Daniel 6, for example, does not identify the messenger who shut the lions’ mouths as the Angel of the LORD or give enough information to know that He was Christ.

Others understand the Angel of the LORD as a created messenger speaking on God’s behalf. A created angel could repeat God’s words, but that does not adequately explain the accounts calling this Messenger the LORD, placing God’s name in Him, or describing His own oath and covenant acts. Taken together, those details persuade me of His divine identity. The New Testament’s revelation of the Son who makes the unseen Father known also explains how He can be sent by the LORD without ceasing to be God.

The Son who blessed Abraham and commissioned Moses later became man to accomplish the redemption those encounters anticipated. Jesus willingly gave Himself into the hands of wicked men, who tortured Him and put Him to death. He endured that bodily suffering and gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. His sinless life qualified Him to offer that sacrifice. Through His shed blood and death, He completed our atonement before His burial and bodily resurrection.

The Father and Son remained united in that redemption. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Christ willingly gave Himself for sinners and is our only Savior and Mediator between God and man. He died for the whole world, and His offer of salvation is genuine even though people can resist and reject it.

Everyone who repents and believes in Christ is born again, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit. A truly born-again believer is eternally secure, but that assurance gives us no permission to excuse sin. Receiving new life is different from adopting a Christian name while refusing His authority. Obedience is evidence of that new life; it does not earn salvation or keep us saved. The Lord who commanded Moses and Joshua still calls His people to obey Him.

My Final Thoughts

The Son who met these people is the Lord I worship today. He sought out Hagar in the wilderness and commissioned Moses to deliver Israel, caring for people and keeping His promises long before Bethlehem. Studying those encounters calls me to trust Him as well as recognize Him. I need to hear His instruction with a willingness to change my conduct, just as the people He addressed had to respond to Him.