When the Old Testament says that “the word of the LORD” came to a prophet, it identifies God as the source of the message. Some passages also describe a vision or a personal encounter with Him. John later identifies the eternal Word as the Son who became flesh. I read those earlier encounters in light of that fuller revelation, while letting each account explain how the LORD made Himself known.
The LORD Revealed Himself at Shiloh
In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel was still a boy serving under Eli at Shiloh. Eli’s sons were priests, but they had corrupted the worship they were supposed to lead, and Eli had failed to restrain them. The priests still offered sacrifices at the tabernacle, yet the chapter says that the word of the LORD was rare and there was no widespread revelation. Carrying on with the services had done nothing to remedy the wickedness Eli was allowing in his own household.
When the LORD called Samuel at night, the boy thought Eli wanted him. He went to the priest three times before Eli recognized who was speaking and told him how to answer. The message Samuel then received announced judgment against Eli’s household because Eli knew about his sons’ wickedness and had failed to restrain them.
Samuel had to deliver that judgment to the man under whose care he had been serving. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but when Eli insisted on hearing it, Samuel told him everything and hid nothing (1 Samuel 3:15-18). God went on to establish Samuel as a trustworthy prophet in Israel. The chapter closes by describing how the LORD continued to make Himself known.
Then the LORD appeared again in Shiloh. For the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
1 Samuel 3:21, NKJV
The LORD appeared and revealed Himself by His Word. I understand this as more than entrusting Samuel with information to repeat. He was making Himself known to the boy He had called, and His speaking belonged to that encounter. Samuel had not arranged a meeting or discovered a way to reach God. The LORD took the initiative and taught him to listen.
The Hebrew wording translated “revealed Himself” describes something being uncovered or made known. The word dabar, translated “word,” can refer to speech, a matter, an event, or a thing, depending on the context. Here, “by the word of the LORD” explains how the LORD revealed Himself. Those meanings clarify the sentence, but they cannot by themselves establish a visible appearance of Christ. The New Testament also helps us identify the One who makes God known.
The Word Comes with Personal Authority
The LORD also spoke personally to Abram, long before Samuel’s birth. Genesis 15 describes a vision after Abram had rescued Lot from a coalition of kings. Abram had obeyed God’s call and left his homeland, but he still had no son through whom the promise would continue. The LORD addressed him in those circumstances.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
Genesis 15:1, NKJV
The LORD assured Abram, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Abram could bring his concern about remaining childless to the One who had called him. God answered with a promise about Abram’s own offspring and later made covenant with him. The promise rested on God’s faithfulness, not on Abram finding a way to produce an heir.
In 1 Samuel 15, the phrase “the word of the LORD” introduces a judgment against King Saul, who had disobeyed God’s command concerning Amalek. The LORD sent Samuel to confront him, and the king’s position did not entitle him to a more favorable verdict.
Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.”
1 Samuel 15:10-11, NKJV
Saul had defeated the Amalekites, but he had spared their king and the best of their livestock, contrary to God’s command. He pointed to his victory and defended keeping animals for sacrifice, yet neither success nor a religious explanation could make his disobedience acceptable. Samuel had no right to soften God’s message because the man receiving it was king. A prophet’s responsibility was to deliver what the LORD said, not make it more palatable to an influential audience.
Jeremiah’s commission came centuries later, during Josiah’s reign and before Judah’s exile to Babylon. He would have to address rulers and priests who resisted God’s warnings about judgment. The LORD had appointed Jeremiah to this work before the prophet was born.
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:4-5, NKJV
Jeremiah objected that he was young and did not know how to speak. The LORD commanded him to go where He sent him and say what He commanded, promising to deliver him. The account also says, “the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth” (Jeremiah 1:9). God personally commissioned Jeremiah and gave him the words he was responsible to speak. His youth did not excuse waiting until he felt ready to obey.
Abram, Samuel, and Jeremiah did not have identical experiences, but each heard from the same LORD. The authority of their messages rested with Him. A prophet’s eloquence could not make a false message true, and an unpopular message did not lose its authority because people resented hearing it. We can depend on God’s promises because He is truthful, and we need to heed His warnings because He is holy.
God’s Word Acts
The LORD’s speaking also accomplishes what He intends, whether He is fulfilling a promise or carrying out a judgment. Psalm 33 takes us back before the prophets and kings to the creation of the heavens.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
Psalm 33:6, NKJV
God’s command brought the heavens into existence because He had the power to accomplish what He said. The words did not function as a spell with power independent of Him.
In Isaiah 55, the LORD invites the thirsty to come freely and calls the wicked to forsake their ways because He is ready to pardon. He explains that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours, then compares His Word with rain that waters the earth and causes it to produce food. What He sends accomplishes its purpose.
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11, NKJV
I can trust God’s promise of mercy because He has promised to pardon those who return to Him. His Word will accomplish what He pleases, so I cannot use it to demand whatever outcome I want. Isaiah’s assurance should lead me to turn back to the LORD and receive His mercy on His terms.
His Word also exposes the lies of people who claim to speak for Him. In Jeremiah 23:29, the LORD asks, “Is not My word like a fire?” The false prophets spoke confidently, but that confidence could not make their claims true or protect them from His judgment. I find comfort in that when false teaching is persuasive and popular. God’s truth does not become weaker because someone has found an appealing way to contradict it.
The Son Makes the Father Known
The Old Testament also describes the LORD appearing to people, including Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Manoah. How should we understand those encounters when the New Testament says that no one has seen God?
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
John identifies the Son as the One who makes the Father known. Jesus said of the Father in John 5:37, “You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.” I read the Old Testament appearances in light of those statements. The people involved truly encountered the LORD through the Son, who reveals the unseen Father.
That is why I recognize the Son in the visible appearances of the LORD. The divine Angel of the LORD speaks as God, bears His name and exercises divine authority to forgive or judge, while remaining personally distinct from the One who sends Him. I also believe Melchizedek was the preincarnate Son exercising His eternal priesthood. Such an appearance before Christ became man is called a Christophany. The studies on the Angel of the Lord and Christophanies in the Old Testament examine the reasons for those identifications.
This does not mean every angel is Christ or that every prophetic message involved a visible appearance. Samuel’s account expressly connects the LORD’s appearing with His revealing Himself by His Word, and Genesis 15 describes a vision in which He addressed Abram. We should acknowledge those details where they are given and avoid adding them to passages that do not describe them.
The Word Was God and Became Flesh
John opens with “In the beginning,” recalling Genesis. He describes the Word as already existing when creation began.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
John 1:1-3, NKJV
The Word was with God and was God. He is eternal and fully divine, yet personally distinct from the Father. We cannot account for John’s words by calling Him “a god” among other gods or an exalted creature. Nor is John describing an impersonal attribute that eventually developed into a person. He is writing about Someone who already existed with God in the beginning.
Verse 3 makes the claim even more explicit. Everything that was made came into existence through Him. If the Son were a created being, we would have to place Him among the things He Himself made, which makes no sense. John identifies Him as the Creator, not a distinguished servant within creation.
Being with God also rules out the idea that the Father and Son are the same Person changing roles. That view is called modalism. The Son speaks to the Father, obeys Him, reveals Him and returns to Him. Those relationships are real. Scripture teaches one God in three personally distinct, coequal and coeternal Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son’s relationship with the Father does not make Him less than God.
The Greek word John uses for Word is Logos. Some readers look to Greek philosophy to explain the term, but John gives us his own explanation of who the Word is. He writes about creation and the light and life found in Him, then identifies the One whose glory the disciples saw, full of grace and truth. I would rather let John’s testimony explain Jesus than begin with Plato and try to fit Christ into that framework.
John’s explanation agrees with the earlier passages. Psalm 33 connects creation with God’s Word, Samuel’s account describes the LORD revealing Himself by His Word, and Isaiah declares that His Word accomplishes what He sends it to do. John identifies the eternal Person through whom all things were made and who makes the Father known. We should not assume that every Old Testament reader understood everything John would later explain. We can receive that fuller revelation while reading the earlier accounts in their own setting.
Then John tells us that the eternal Word became flesh. This was the incarnation: the Son truly became man without ceasing to be God. He did not appear briefly in a human disguise and then leave it behind.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14, NKJV
The word translated “dwelt” carries the idea of pitching a tent or tabernacling. Israel’s tabernacle had stood among the people’s tents as the place God appointed for His presence and worship. John describes the Word living among His people in real human flesh. Jesus experienced hunger and weariness, and He wept. His obedience as man was real, as was the physical blood He would shed for sinners.
Paul brings the Son’s revelation of God together with His saving work at the beginning of Hebrews. God had spoken through the prophets in many ways. He has now spoken by His Son, the One through whom He made the worlds. This same Son provided cleansing from our sins.
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Hebrews 1:1-3, NKJV
Paul speaks of redemption through Christ’s blood in Colossians 1, the same chapter in which he describes Christ’s authority over everything created. The Savior who shed His blood for us is also the One who made us.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Colossians 1:16-17, NKJV
The Son continues to sustain the creation He entered to save sinners. Wicked men tortured His innocent body and put Him to death. His sinlessness qualified Him as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and He willingly gave Himself to be slain. He completed His saving work through His shed blood and death before His burial and bodily resurrection. His death was for the sins of the whole world. The Father did not punish or abandon Him; Father and Son were united in providing our redemption.
Having purged sins and risen bodily, He is seated at the Father’s right hand. I need to receive Him as my Savior and respond to what these passages reveal about Him. We receive salvation by grace through repentance and faith in Christ. Moral improvement and religious insight cannot earn it. His invitation is genuine and open to everyone, even though people can resist and reject it.
Someone who is truly born again becomes a new creation, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit. That believer is eternally secure in Christ. I am speaking of God making a person new, not merely someone calling himself a Christian. The new life should become evident in our conduct. Obedience does not earn salvation or keep us saved, but assurance gives us no excuse to carry on in sin as though the Lord who saved us has no authority over how we live.
Revelation 19:13 calls the returning Christ “The Word of God.” The One who existed before creation and became flesh to save sinners will return as King.
Reading and Answering the Word Faithfully
The LORD who spoke to His prophets has given us Scripture as our final authority. It is inspired, inerrant and sufficient for the faith and obedience He requires. The Holy Spirit indwells believers and guides His people, but every spiritual claim must be tested by the written Word. I have no grounds to disregard a command in Scripture while asking God for fresh direction about whether I should obey it.
A strong feeling does not become God’s Word because I announce it confidently. The Holy Spirit will not contradict the Scripture He inspired, and no claim of private revelation can overrule it. If a leader demands obedience to his impressions while refusing to let anyone examine them by Scripture, the church needs to challenge that demand. The written Word gives us a standard the whole church can read and test, including the people being told to submit.
Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:10). I want that willingness to listen when I open the Bible. If Scripture exposes a sin I have been excusing, I need to confess it and turn back to God. Looking for someone who will give me a more comfortable interpretation will not make disobedience acceptable. When Scripture offers comfort through Christ, I can receive that too, trusting His promise rather than trying to earn what He offers through His blood.
At Shiloh, worship continued while Eli left serious sin unrestrained. That makes me cautious about measuring a church’s health by an energetic schedule or polished programs. We need to ask whether Scripture is being taught and received with faith, and whether its correction is being acted on. Entertainment cannot supply the conviction and comfort that come from hearing God’s Word and responding to Him.
My Final Thoughts
I do not believe every “word of the LORD” passage describes a visible appearance of Christ. Each account needs to be heard on its own terms, whether it records a vision, an appearance or a prophetic message. What they share is the authority of the LORD who speaks. John reveals the eternal Word who was with God and was God, and who became flesh to save us. Samuel had to tell Eli what God said even when he was afraid to do so. I want to receive the Scripture that reveals this Savior with the same willingness to obey, including when I would rather avoid what He says.
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.
At the burning bush, the One who appeared to Moses was called the Angel of the LORD. A few verses later, He identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Was he hearing a created angel repeat God’s words, or had God Himself come to him as the Messenger?
I believe the eternal Son appeared in these Old Testament encounters before He became man. An appearance of Christ before His incarnation is called a Christophany. The accounts identify this Messenger as God while also showing Him addressing the LORD. I reach my conclusion by reading those descriptions alongside the New Testament’s revelation of the Son. The title angel alone cannot settle His identity.
The Messenger Who Speaks as the LORD
The Hebrew word translated “angel” is mal’ak, and its basic meaning is “messenger” or “envoy.” It may refer to a human messenger or to a created angel from heaven. The word describes someone’s mission; by itself, it does not tell us that person’s nature. A prophet may serve as God’s messenger without being an angelic creature. In the same way, the eternal Son can be sent by the Father without becoming a created being.
A messenger can repeat God’s words in the first person without becoming God. A prophet speaking a message from the Lord is still a prophet, so a sentence beginning with “I” cannot settle the Speaker’s identity. I look at how the account names Him, the authority He exercises, and whether He is treated as a servant or as the Lord Himself.
In Revelation 22:8-9, John fell before an angel who had shown him the visions. The angel stopped him, called himself a fellow servant, and directed him to worship God. Revelation 19:10 records the same correction. A created servant had no right to receive the worship due to his Creator.
The Angel’s encounter with Hagar in Genesis 16 shows more than a messenger delivering someone else’s words. Abram and Sarai had tried to obtain the promised child through her. When Sarai treated her harshly, Hagar fled into the wilderness while pregnant. The Angel of the LORD found her beside a spring and spoke about her son and his descendants.
Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”
Genesis 16:10, NKJV
He promised, “I will multiply your descendants,” then told her to name the child Ishmael and described his future. Hagar could not guarantee that future for the child she carried, nor could a created angel promise it on his own authority.
Genesis 16:13 says that she “called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees.” The narrator identifies the Speaker as the LORD, so the conclusion does not depend only on how Hagar understood the encounter. She recognized the God who saw her, and the account records no correction.
Hagar was not the mother of the promised Seed, yet the Lord attended to her distress. She had been mistreated in the household through which He was working out His covenant promises. If someone has been hurt among God’s people, loyalty to the group cannot justify overlooking that person’s suffering. The Lord saw Hagar when the people who should have treated her properly had failed to do so.
The Angel spoke with the same authority when God tested Abraham in Genesis 22. God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac, the son through whom the covenant line would continue. As Abraham reached for the knife, the Angel of the LORD called from heaven and stopped him. God provided a ram, and the Angel spoke again.
“By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son.”
Genesis 22:16, NKJV
“By Myself I have sworn” is God’s own oath. Hebrews 6:13 explains that God swore by Himself because there was no one greater by whom He could swear. The oath spoken by the Angel was therefore the Lord’s own commitment to Abraham.
Earlier, in Genesis 22:12, He had said that Abraham had not withheld his son “from Me.” God had commanded Abraham’s obedience, and the Angel described that obedience as owed to Himself. He then promised to multiply Abraham’s descendants and bring blessing to the nations through his Seed. Galatians 3:16 identifies Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of that promise.
We can recognize God’s provision without making every detail a complete explanation of the cross. Abraham does not represent the Father in everything he does, nor does Isaac represent Jesus in every detail. God spared Isaac and preserved the family through whom the promised Deliverer would come. The oath reaches beyond that day’s rescue to the blessing of the nations through Christ.
The command to Abraham was also unique, and God Himself stopped the sacrifice. Scripture condemns human sacrifice. No one can use this account to justify harming a child because he claims to have received a private instruction from God. Such a claim must be judged by God’s written Word.
Holy Ground and Covenant Authority
In Exodus 3, Moses was tending Jethro’s flock when he noticed a bush burning without being consumed. The passage first names the Angel of the LORD, then calls the Speaker the LORD and God.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush… So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush.
Exodus 3:2, 4, NKJV
Exodus describes one continuous encounter. The Messenger called Moses from the bush and told him to remove his sandals because the ground was holy. He then identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses hid his face in fear of looking upon God.
The Lord had heard Israel’s groaning and remained faithful to His covenant through generations of oppression. He revealed His covenant name and sent Moses back to Egypt. Moses raised objections about his ability to carry out the task, including his difficulty speaking, but the Lord promised to help him. The God who had made the promise was committing Himself to bring His people out.
God’s presence made the ground holy. Removing his sandals was Moses’ response to God’s command, not an act that made the place sacred. That gives me reason to be careful about calling a place or practice holy simply because it moves me deeply. A strong feeling does not, by itself, establish that God has set it apart.
Later, the LORD promised to send His Angel before Israel on the journey to the land. He warned them about how they must respond to Him.
“Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.”
Exodus 23:21, NKJV
“My name is in Him” connects the Angel with God’s own identity and authority. Israel was to obey His voice and take His warning about rebellion seriously. Defying this Messenger would mean defying the God whose name He bore.
The warning says He will not pardon their transgressions, rather than that He lacks the ability to forgive. It concerns Israel’s defiance of God under the covenant. They could not demand the benefits of His presence while treating His commands as optional.
Before the attack on Jericho, Joshua met a Man standing with a drawn sword. Joshua asked whether He was for Israel or its enemies. The Man answered, “No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come” (Joshua 5:14).
Joshua 5 does not use the title Angel of the LORD, but the encounter has much in common with the burning bush. Joshua fell on his face in worship and asked what his Lord had to say to His servant. The Commander told him to remove his sandal because the ground was holy (Joshua 5:15). Worship was not refused, and the command recalls God’s words to Moses. I understand this as another appearance of the eternal Son.
Joshua had asked whose side the Commander was on, and he found himself receiving orders from Him. I need to approach Christ with that willingness too. If I have already made up my mind and only want Him to endorse it, I am asking for approval while resisting His authority. Bowing before Him means being prepared to do what He says, including when His answer requires changing my plans. The study on Christophanies in the Old Testament considers other appearances before the incarnation.
In Judges 2, the Angel of the LORD confronted Israel over its compromise in the land. He opened His rebuke by recalling their deliverance from Egypt and His promise to their fathers.
“I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you.’”
Judges 2:1, NKJV
The Angel claimed the exodus as His work and the covenant as His own. He had brought Israel into the land He promised their fathers, and they were answerable to Him for ignoring His instructions about its inhabitants and their altars. The people wept at His rebuke.
Israel owed its place in the land to the Lord’s faithfulness. When the people turned to idolatry, He confronted the very ones He had delivered. His compassion gives me reason to receive His correction, even when I would rather avoid hearing it.
Gideon and Manoah Encounter the LORD
Gideon was threshing wheat out of the Midianites’ sight when the Angel of the LORD met him in Judges 6. The Angel addressed him as a mighty man of valor and commissioned him to deliver Israel. That commission meant confronting the enemy from whom he was hiding his crop, and the Lord promised to be with him.
During their conversation, Judges 6:14 says, “The LORD turned to him and said.” Later, Gideon brought an offering, and the Angel touched it with the end of His staff. Fire rose from the rock before He departed. Gideon then said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face” (Judges 6:22).
The LORD answered, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die” (Judges 6:23). He assured Gideon that the encounter would not kill him and gave no correction for believing he had encountered God.
In Judges 13, the Angel appeared to Manoah’s wife and announced Samson’s birth. When Manoah later offered Him food, the Angel declined and directed him to offer a burnt offering to the LORD. Manoah also asked His name, which He described as wonderful, beyond ordinary understanding.
Manoah offered the sacrifice to the LORD, and as the flame rose, the Angel ascended in it. Manoah and his wife fell on their faces.
And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God!”
Judges 13:22, NKJV
Manoah’s wife challenged his expectation of death. If the LORD had intended to kill them, He would not have accepted their offering and disclosed His purpose for their child. Her reply addressed Manoah’s fear that they would die, rather than disputing his recognition that they had seen God.
Manoah was overwhelmed by the fear of having seen God, but his wife held on to the purpose He had revealed for their son. She could acknowledge the holiness of the encounter and still reason from His promise. When fear rises, I need to ask what God has actually said before concluding that His mercy has become unreliable.
Distinction, Mercy, and the Removal of Guilt
In Zechariah 1:12, the Angel of the LORD asked the LORD of hosts how long mercy would be withheld from Jerusalem and Judah. One Person was addressing another, so I do not understand this as the Father appearing under a different name. The Messenger is divine and personally distinct from the LORD He addresses.
Zechariah 3 shows Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel in filthy garments, with Satan there to accuse him. He is not the Joshua who led Israel into Canaan. His garments signify defilement, and the LORD answers the accuser rather than leaving the high priest to defend himself:
“The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
Zechariah 3:2, NKJV
As the filthy garments are removed, Joshua hears, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes” (Zechariah 3:4). The LORD deals with the guilt itself and supplies Joshua with cleansing and clothing he has not provided.
Joshua’s cleansing anticipates Christ’s work as our righteous Advocate, the One who speaks on our behalf before God. He shed His blood for sinners and lives to intercede for us. The fuller explanation of atonement comes in the New Testament, but here even the high priest needs God to remove his guilt. If I have sinned, arguing that I am better than someone else will not remove my guilt. I need the cleansing God provides through Christ. The study on Melchizedek examines Christ’s superior priesthood through another Old Testament account.
The Eternal Son Makes the Father Known
How can this Messenger be divine and yet address the LORD? Scripture reveals one God in three personally distinct, coequal, and coeternal Persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Being sent by the Father does not require the Son to be a created being. It describes His mission and relationship to the Father, rather than the beginning of His existence.
John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Jesus also says of the Father in John 5:37, “You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.” The people in these Old Testament accounts truly encountered God through the Son, who makes the Father known.
John 1:1 says the Word was with God and was God. Verse 3 says that everything made came into being through Him. If everything created came through the Word, He cannot be one of the things that were created. He is the eternal Creator, personally with the Father and fully divine. The study on the Word of the LORD in the Old Testament considers that language and its connection with Christ more fully.
John 1:14 describes the Word taking on a true human nature. He did not begin to exist at Bethlehem. Jesus affirms His eternal identity in John 8:58: “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” A Christophany is an appearance of Christ before that incarnation, not an earlier birth or a second incarnation.
Colossians 1:15-17 calls Him the image of the invisible God and says all things were created through Him. He is before all things, and creation holds together in Him. In Hebrews 1:1-3, Paul describes the Son as the One through whom God made the worlds. He is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. The Son has eternally been with the Father and shares His divine nature, so He can reveal Him perfectly. His knowledge of the Father is not something a creature acquired through instruction.
A created messenger can repeat God’s words, which is why some readers understand these passages as delegated speech. That explains the use of first-person language. I do not believe it adequately explains why the accounts also identify the Messenger as the LORD, place God’s name in Him, and describe the covenant as His own. The encounters involving worship and holy ground add further evidence of His divine identity. My conclusion rests on these details together, rather than on one first-person statement.
Some readers accept these as appearances of God while leaving the Person unidentified. The Old Testament does not explicitly name Jesus Christ as this Messenger. I identify Him as the eternal Son because the accounts call Him the LORD yet show Him addressing the LORD, while John tells us that the Son makes the Father known.
This does not make every angelic appearance a Christophany. Scripture records many created angels, including messengers called an angel of the Lord in Matthew and Acts. Each passage needs to be read in its own context. Daniel 6 does not identify the messenger who shut the lions’ mouths as the Angel of the LORD, and it does not give enough information to establish that He was Christ.
The One who revealed the Father before Bethlehem is the Son who later became man to save sinners. Jesus is fully God and fully man, virgin-born and sinless. Wicked men tortured Him and put Him to death. He willingly endured that bodily suffering and gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. His sinless perfection qualified Him to be that sacrifice, and His shed blood and death accomplished our atonement. His saving sacrifice was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were united in providing salvation.
Christ died for the whole world, and God sincerely offers salvation to every person. His grace can be resisted and rejected. Everyone who repents and trusts Christ is born again, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and secure in eternal life. The new birth is God’s work of making a person new; merely calling oneself a Christian does not bring it about. Obedience is evidence of that life, not a payment to earn salvation or remain saved. His mercy gives us assurance and a reason to turn from sin. It gives us no permission to continue in lawlessness.
My Final Thoughts
The Angel of the LORD in these encounters is the eternal Son before His incarnation. He cared for Hagar when she was alone and held Israel accountable after bringing the people into the land. I want to trust His care when I am distressed and receive His correction when I have disobeyed, rather than accept only the words I find comforting. He has made the Father known and provided salvation for sinners, and He is the Lord we are called to trust and obey.
