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Welcome to the third week of Critical Thinking Aloud’s Ancient Near Eastern Advent
How we are going to learn
In this Advent devotional we will be looking at the topic of The Name 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
Our Ancient Near Eastern Advent devotional centers around the ancient Near Eastern biblical authors description of the Invisible God revealing Himself Visibly to humanity through the theophany of a man. In the Old Testament this man theophany is describe in four ways. This week we will be covering the third way they described this man theophany.
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.
Here is a quote for our recommended resources
“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.
In the Hebrew Bible there are many forms that God uses as a theophany 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 theophany of a person and its counterpart in the belief of the Godhead of the ancient Israelites.
Over the coarse of the last two installments we learned that the Invisible God appears to humanity Visibly in the form of The Word of the Lord, and The Angel of the Lord. If you haven’t yet gone over that content yet check it out here.
This week of Advent we are going to learn about how Yahweh appears to humans in the theophany of The Name.
Identifying The Name of the Lord is going to be similar to the other Advent devotionals we have looked at thus far. This new outlook may come as a bit of a surprise to us due to the fact we most likely have already formed a certain understanding of these familiar texts.
I believe we will gain a deeper understanding of the Bible, if we look at the details while critically thinking aloud together.
The Name
Exodus
“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.”
Exodus 23:20-23
In this passage we have some familiar characters. Yahweh is relating to Moses that He is going to send His Angel to lead them through the wilderness into the promise land. Remember that we learned in the second week of this Advent Devotional that The Angel of the Lord is Yahweh and Yahweh is the Angel of the Lord.
Who is The Name
“Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say…” Notice how this passage identifies the Angel of the Lord, and Yahweh as one and the same via The Name.
Here is a quote from one of our recources
“The OT writers at times deliberately make the Angel of Yahweh indistinguishable from Yahweh (e.g., Exod 3:1-14). For Instance, according to Exod 23, the Angel has Yahweh’s “Name” in Him (Exod 23:20-23). This passage gives a glimpse of the Hebrew Bible’s “Name theology,” in which reference to “the Name” actually refers to Yahweh Himself. Thus, in Exod 23, Yahweh indicate that He is in the Angel. And yet, in other passages, Yahweh and the Angel can be simultaneously- but separately- present (Judges 6).”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: Old Testament Godhead Language
Name Theology
A name can represent a being or identify a being. Your name can be invoked to represent you while not present or identify you presence.
Here is a quote from our other trusted recommended resource
“First ancient Egyptians believed in a close relationship between the name of a deity and the deity itself-
The NIV Culture Backgrounds Study Bible- Article on God’s Name pg 112
i.e., the name of god could reveal part of the essential nature of that god.
The Ancient Near Eastern biblical authors shared this same concept with their belief in Yahweh. The Hebrews lived in bondage in Egypt for over 400 years. Their ancient Near Eastern worldview was heavily influenced by Egyptian thought and similar to all Near Eastern people.
Here is an example.
“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. 3 May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. 4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalms 20:2-7
The Name of God is God and God is The Name
Isaiah
“See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire.”
Isaiah 30:27
There is a correlation between the Visible Yahweh and The Name made in this passage out of The Book of Isaiah. The Name of the Lord comes in an anthropomorphic form. The Name has lips, and a tongue.
In this theophany The Name is God’s invisible presence’s made visible to humans in the form of a man.
Gods Presence
The Name can be understood as Yahwehs physical presence. The Invisible God appears visibly in the theophany of a man in Old Testament passages as The Name.
One of my favorite examples of this is in the book of 2 Samuel.
“David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark.“
2 Samuel 6:1-2
I feel this is one of the more interesting examples of The Name being applied to the man theophany in the OT. The ancient Israelites called the ark of the Lord, The Name. This is believed to have been derived from what would transpire in the temple on the Hebrew Festival The Day of Atonement.
Only once year on The Day of Atonement the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies where the ark of the Lord resided. On this day on top of the Mercy Seat between the cherubim the Lord appeared in the form of a man.
Since each year the ark of the Lord is where Yahweh appeared visibly in the form of a man, the ark and The Name were conflated to mean the same thing. The ark is where the presence of the Lord is and The Name is present on the ark.
God Chose to Appear to Us
The Trinity that we have come to know as Christians is rooted in Old Testament theology. Ever since the beginning the Invisible God has chosen to make Himself known to humans through His visible manifestation 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.
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.
In the three weeks of Advent we have discussed three of Yahweh’s man theophany motifs. The Word, The Angel of the Lord, and The Name are all use in the Old Testament to describe the Invisible God appearing in a visible form to humans as a man.
Next week we will learn the fourth.
Peace and Blessing! We hope you enjoyed the 3rd week of our Ancient Near Eastern Advent Devotion.
Citations:
Faithlife Study Bible. J. D. Barry et al. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible Grand Rapids, Michigan USA Zondervan 2016
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