Key Abrahamic Motifs: Theophany Encounters

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.  Genesis 18: 1

… do not pass by your servant …  while I fetch a morsel bread, that you may refresh yourselves … Gen. 18:5

Throughout the patriarchal narratives we find mysterious encounters with the mal’ak YHWH (“Messenger of YHWH”). Judging from the reaction of those who meet Him, and the person in which the Being speaks (sometimes in the first person speaking as God), there is no doubt that the assumption of the text is that this Being is a theophany, or a God appearance.”  Notice that the mal’ak YHWH speaks as God in the first person to Hagar (16:10), and that she is surprised that she has actually seen a manifestation of God and survived (v. 13). Chapters 18 and 19 are tantalizingly ambiguous as to the nature of the three “men” that visit Abraham. We know that YHWH Himself appeared to him (vv. 1, 3), and that there were three men, and that they speak together in the third person plural (v. 9), but also singularly in the first person singular (vv. 10, 14). “He” accuses Sarah of laughing (v. 15). Things get even more oblique as the narrative progresses. In verse 16 Abraham is sending the “men” on their way when YHWH converses in the first person with him (vv.17 21). The “men” go in verse 22 toward Sodom, but YHWH stayed back to speak with Abraham, and afterwards “went away” (v. 33). Some light is given in 19:1, where we have the two “mal’ākîm” visiting Lot. Evidently, one of the two supernatural beings was YHWH Himself, who actually lodged and ate with Abraham in human form. In 21:17 19 God hears the cry of Ishmael and the mal’ak YHWH calls down from heaven in human speech to Hagar, and speaks as God in the first person. The same is true of 22:11 18, where the mal’ak YHWH swears in the first person as YHWH “by Myself I have sworn…” (v. 15, cf. 31:11 13). Even more remarkable is the fact that Jacob fought with a “man” all night, only to be shocked when he realized that it was God Himself (32:30). The most revealing passage is the ancient hymn in 48:15 16:

The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

The God who has led me all my life long to this day,

The Messenger (hammal’āk) who has redeemed me from all evil …

There is no doubt that Jacob equated the God of his fathers with the mal’ak YHWH. More than this, mal’ak is emphatic by virtue of its final position in the parallelism and the highly personal role as “redeemer” (as opposed to “walk” and “led”).

Pagan myths are saturated with stories of theophanies, but they are gods of the heavenly pantheon who encounter humans only incidentally, and when they do, it is for their own pleasure (or anger), and the incidents are not framed in historical time. Here we have the Transcendent God encountering actual historical persons in space and time as they lived it out, becoming immanent with His creatures. He is called a “messenger” because He is sent by YHWH. In this way He is differentiated from YHWH as His “messenger.” Yet, at the same time, it is clear in the texts that this Messenger is YHWH as we pointed out above. We can only conclude that the ambiguity is intentional, for it is by this ambiguity that YHWH’s utter transcendence is preserved in the face of His immanence in creation and relationships with mortal man. The incarnation of Christ with its complex theological issues has its roots deep within the patriarchal narratives.

But more than this, consider this observation by an eminent scholar of the last century on the above ,

Its style is that of a cultic hymn.  Characteristic of it is the fact that God is spoken of in the third person and is not directly addressed as “Thou” (cf. Ps. 103.1-5) … This variation in the utterances of adoration is of course made in stirring, poetic style, but it is more than mere ornament.  Behind this ancient cultic style is a very definite conception of God and all talk about God.  These predications are intended to identify the divinity and define it exactly according to its revelation.  For the believer can never speak generally or abstractly about God but only about definite revelations and experiences that exist in his own sphere of life. To this sphere belong, of course, the relationship to God of the fathers and forefathers, i.e., everything they learn of God which is in the tradition of the cult has been handed down to the present as authentic knowledge.        G. von Rad, Genesis, p. 417

When we consider that the Promised Land was understood theologically as a return to Eden, we see that these Theophany encounters are crucial, for the garden was the Holy of Holies where transcendence touched the temporal. Abraham rushing to greet his Creator at his tent door, offering Him a “morsel of bread” to “comfort His heart,” is more than just a quaint unguarded moment; it is paradise on earth.  This moment belongs to all subsequent generations that are authentically and historically related to Abraham as their father by faith. 

Takeaway:  The Transcendent Creator-God appeared to the Patriarchs in human form, or called out to them in human voice, God encounters that defined their knowledge of God, for them and for their posterity, identified as “God of our Fathers.”      

Question: The “Christian” culture in the western world has been identified as “moralistic, therapeutic deism,” where we try to be “good,” want our religion to make us “feel good,” but keeps God at a comfortable distance (See below).  In contrast to this, Patriarchal religion, and by extension, the whole of Scripture, is founded on God encounters in space and time, which were as real to those to whom they were handed down to by tradition as to those who experienced them. To which do you belong to?  Explain. 

Resources: 

Albert Mohler    https://albertmohler.com/2005/04/11/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-the-new-american-religion-2/

von Rad, G. Genesis.  Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1972, p. 417