Welcome to the first week of our Ancient Near Eastern Advent Devotion.
How we are going to learn
In this Advent devotional we will be looking at the topic of The Word theophany in the ancient Near Eastern biblical authors worldview. As I have done in the past with other teachings I want to quote from scholarly sources to make my point. I do this in hope that you will see this isn’t just my interpretation of the Scriptures but that this view is steeped in acadeemia.
We will be using two amazing sources which we highly recommend.
- Faithlife Study Bible: This is an amazing resource that is free if you download the app or use it online. To download the app or use this resource online visit their website here. This resource is also available in print which you can purchase here.
- The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: This is my favorite resource for gaining a better understanding for the ancient Near Eastern worldview of the Biblical authors. This is available in a multitude of variations all of which you can find on our resource page here.
Let’s get started
Ancient Near East Counterpart
The ancient Near Eastern biblical authors view of God was similar to all of those in the ancient Near East.
All of the nations which inhabited the ancient Near East believed that the creator god reigned from on top of a mountain with a second god at his side as his second in command. The names of these deities change within the different cultures of the ancient Near East but the roles of these two deities remains roughly the same.
The ancient Near Eastern Biblical authors believed in a single God on top of the mountain who is revealed in distinct persons.
The Ugaritic deities of EL and Baal are perfect examples that even casual readers of the Bible may be familiar with. El is the most high and Baal is his coregent.
“Orthodox Yahwism replaced the coregent slot that Baal occupied with a sort of binitarian Godhead, In which Yahweh occupied both slots. The OT in fact describes Yahweh with the titles and abilities that Canaanite Literature attributes to both EL and Baal… Within Israelite religion, Yahweh’s occupation of both the two highest tiers resulted conceptually in two Yahwehs- one invisible, the other visible. At times both speak as characters in the same scene, but more frequently, they are virtually interchangeable.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: Old Testament Godhead Language
Theophany
Throughout this Advent Devotion we are going to look at the ancient Near Eastern view of theophany and the role it plays in the pantheon of a nation. Theophany is a visible manifestation of a deity revealed to humanity.
“Since people cannot possible process God’s nature as a disembodied, formless spirit, theophany allows God to make His presence known in a physical way that people can discern through their senses.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: Theophany in the Old Testament.
There are many forms of theophany that God uses to make his presence known to people. Whirl winds, smoke, fire are just a couple examples to name a few.
During the duration of these devotionals we will be focusing especially on the ancient Near Eastern belief about theophany as a person and its counterpart in the belief of the Godhead (more than one personage) of the ancient Israelites.
For the first week of Advent we will be looking at the Ancient Near Eastern Biblical authors use of the theophany of Yahweh as the Word of God.
The Word
Abrahams Experience
In Genesis 15:1 it reads “The Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision”.
It is very likely that you have interpreted this passage to mean an audible word from the Lord came to Abraham. This is how I interpreted this passage for a long time. This is the case in many scriptures but not all of them.
Look again what the passage says. The Word of the Lord “Came to Abraham in a vision”. If it only said “came to Abraham” we would have precedent from other prophets that it was an audible word.
“In a vision” should catch our attention here. You see something in a vision and I believe that here Abraham saw the visible Word of God.
Here is a quote from our trusty resource to help us understand this concept better.
“These appearances culminate in Genesis 18, where the embodied Yahweh eats a meal in Abraham’s presence. That Abraham appears to recognize one of the men as Yahweh suggests he had seen this man before.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: Theophany in the Old Testament.
When Yahweh shows up with two other spiritual beings, Abraham recognised one of them as Yahweh. This is because Abraham had already seen Yahweh in this vision.
Samuels Experience
Here is another example from The Book of 1st Samuel
Again in this Chapter we see that “In those Days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”
After hearing the audible word of the Lord it says this “The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, Samuel! Samuel!” Finally its says “The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.”
Here is another quote from our resources
“Samuel’s sleep is disturbed by a voice calling for him. The voice ends up being the ‘word of Yahweh’ in human form. Samuel’s experience of the ‘word’ is both visual and auditory.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: Theophany in the Old Testament.
The word of the Lord comes audibly to a lot of people in the Old Testament. In these passages as well as others, Samuel like Abraham is experiencing way more than just hearing the audible voice of the Lord.
In these instances they are encountering the physical manifestation of the embodied Word of the Lord.
The Trinity that we have come to know as Christians is rooted in Old Testament theology. From the beginning the Invisible God has chosen to reveal Himself to humans through His Visible appearance in the form of a Man.
Before His incarnation, Jesus, the Visible Yahweh, was known in the Old Testament as the second person of the trinity by four different descriptions.
We have seen today that one of these was in the form of God’s Word embodied. Each week during the Advent season we will learn more about the other descriptions of Yahweh’s theophany of a man.
I want to leave you with this last quote.
“Theophanies set the precedent for Jesus. They help make sense of why and how God chose to appear in human form.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: Theophany in the Old Testament.
We hope you enjoyed this 1st week of our Ancient Near Eastern Advent Devotion.
Citations:
Faithlife Study Bible. J. D. Barry et al. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012.
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