Theophany
Throughout this Advent Devotion we are doing 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.
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
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 as 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 recognises one of them as Yahweh. This is because Abraham had already seen Yahweh in this vision.
We hope you enjoyed this Theology Lesson in 60 seconds.
If you are interested in this subject continue this study in our longer post here
Citations:
Faithlife Study Bible. J. D. Barry et al. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012.
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