So back to the story here it says in verse number 17 if now I've found grace
in thy sight then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence I
pray thee until I come unto thee and bring forth my present and set it before
thee. And he said I will tarry, tarry means I'll wait or stay until thou come
again. And Gideon went in and made ready a kid, a kid is a young goat, and unleavened
cakes of an ephah, a flower. The flesh he brought in a basket and he put the broth
in a pot and brought it unto him under the oak and presented it. So he's got
broth and he's got meat and he's got bread he's basically feeding this guy
the angel of the Lord that showed up. And the angel of the Lord said unto him take the flesh and the
unleavened cakes and lay them upon the rock and pour out the broth.
Apparently he wasn't into soup and he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put forth the
end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened
cakes and there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the
unleavened cakes. So basically he turns this into like a burnt offering just by
touching it with the stick it just burst into flames spontaneous combustion burnt
offering. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight and when Gideon perceived
that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said allow so Lord God for because I've
seen an angel of the Lord face to face and the Lord said unto him peace be unto
thee fear not thou shall not die. Now that's a common fear in the Old Testament of people
thinking that if they see an angel of the Lord they're gonna die or if they see
and the reason why is because God told Moses in the Bible no man shall see my
face and live. No man shall see my face and live and because Moses wanted to see
God and and and no man could see God the Father. That's why the Bible says in John
chapter 1 no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son which is in the
bosom of the father he had declared him the father because no one has ever seen
God the Father at any time. The only exception to that of course would be Jesus Christ has seen
God the Father but of course Jesus Christ is not you know mortal man he's
obviously God in the flesh he's the son of God that's a different ball game but
as far as mortal man human beings none of us have ever seen God the Father on
this planet ok no man can see God the Father and live so I guess we don't know
exactly how much people in the Old Testament knew because there were all
kinds of prophets preaching to them all the time orally even though they didn't
have as much written word you know we've got this big old written word that
explains everything from Genesis to Revelation it all fits together nicely
packaged we get it obviously we don't know everything but we have the big
picture a lot of people make the mistake of thinking well they only knew what was
written in the book of Moses at this point you know just just Genesis through
Deuteronomy or just Genesis through Joshua but that's not true because there
was a lot of oral preaching that was going on you know the Bible talks about Enoch
preaching things that are recorded in the book of Jude there's a lot of oral
preaching that we don't know what they knew we don't know how much they knew
there's a lot of preaching going on that wasn't just in those first six books
that they had at this time so we don't know exactly how much they knew but
apparently they seem to have had some kind of an understanding of God in the
flesh of God appearing in human form because they're they're applying this
fear of you know I've seen the angel of the Lord or an angel of the Lord and
they're saying you know am I going to die because I've seen an angel of the
Lord even though I didn't see God the Father himself now here's the evidence
for this in Genesis I want to say chapter 32 Jacob wrestles with a man all
night and he name is the place where he wrestled with that man Peniel which
means the face of God and he says I've seen God face to face and my life was
preserved so we see Jacob wrestling with a human wrestling with man and
saying I've seen the face of God and my life was preserved so here's what I
think could be going on in people's minds is that they're thinking Jacob
wrestled the angel in Genesis 32 and he said I saw the face of God in my life
was preserved but that seems to have been a special case I'm not Jacob maybe
if I deal with the angel of the Lord the messenger of the Lord which Jesus
Christ is also called the messenger of the Lord or the angel of the Lord in
Malachi chapter 3 it's impossible to interpret any other way than that Jesus
being called the messenger or angel there and so we see that they think to
themselves you know maybe that's dangerous because God is so awesome and
that you know even his angel or when he comes in human form you know could be
deadly but of course we know that coming face to face with Jesus Christ is
absolutely not deadly at all and no one ever died from that at any time no one
ever came face to face with an angel of the Lord or with the Lord Jesus Christ
himself and died this is so this is an irrational fear or an unfounded fear
it's a wrong fear but you can kind of see where they're coming from or where
the thought process and here's the thing it's easy for us to sit back and be like
what's you know dude chill out but obviously if you were actually there
confronted by these angels and and and fire coming out of a rock and stuff who
know you might just be kind of freaked out and who knows what you're gonna say
or think right it's easy for us to kind of just be the armchair quarterback you
know criticizing everything that the Bible characters do but we probably
never really been in a situation like this we might say something weird too
ok but what we do and what one thing that's undeniable though is that Jesus
Christ does make Old Testament appearances now we don't always know
which time is an Old Testament parents of Christ except for Genesis 32 I believe
is for sure that's an Old Testament appearance of Jesus because he he sees
the face of God and lives I believe of course that put off my shoes from off
my feet you know when that when the captain of the host confronts Joshua
that's for sure an Old Testament parents of the Lord Jesus Christ so there there
are there several that you could point to maybe five or six where you could say
this is for sure actually a pre-incarnate Christ Genesis 18 is one
of those of course you know with Abraham but sometimes it's just an angel of the
Lord but sometimes the angel the Lord is Jesus himself and and like I said you
can't really know for sure always which one it is when you're reading scripture
we get to heaven we'll find out but the bottom line is Jesus did appear
physically in the Old Testament which is really profound if you think about it
because it proves that Jesus existed before Bethlehem's manger that Jesus
Christ existed and that he actually existed in bodily form you know showing
up and walking among us a few times now you know I personally believe and
obviously it's hard to understand exactly how this works because you know
with our human minds hard to comprehend some of these things how I personally
believe that that works is that basically Jesus is outside of time being
God being divine he's not constrained by time in the same way so even though you
know he's born physically in the manger and he or then laid in the manger and
then you know grows up lives his life he dies he's buried he rises again and
then ascends up in heaven obviously he lived that earthly timeline but in John
chapter 3 verse 13 even while he's on this earth he says to Nicodemus no man
hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of
Man which is in heaven so he's basically saying the Son of Man is in heaven right
now how does that work he's talking to him so basically Jesus Christ is always
in heaven in this because he's basically he's God so he's dwelling outside of
time and obviously it's hard for us to wrap our minds around that so that's
because you say how could Jesus appear in the Old Testament even bodily before
he's even born because basically he exists outside of time he's not
constrained by time in the same way that we are he's God so we you know we when
we understand that that Christ is divine we understand the deity of Jesus Christ
you know obviously there are some things that go along with that there's some some
attributes that would go along with that and while Jesus was on this earth he was
obviously limited because you know he he basically had to learn how to walk and
talk as a baby he didn't just come out of the womb knowing everything and even
when he walked on this earth he even said that of that day and hour knoweth
no man only the Father knows the day and the hour and he said neither the
angels in heaven neither the Son knows the day or the hour so he even said I
don't even know the day or the hour in Mark chapter 13 proving that Jesus was
not omniscient while he walked on this earth he obviously was living that time
and I don't think he was you know skipping around time while he's on this
he's not time-traveling while he's on this earth he was born and he lived a
normal timeline so in his incarnation yeah he lives a normal timeline he's not
omniscient and and at times I don't even believe that he was omnipotent because
of you know he's he's it well there's evidence for that because when he died
and he's buried in his souls in hell he's saying thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell you know he's relying on God the Father obviously there because it I
believe that the resurrection was enacted by by the collective effort of
father son and Holy Ghost they were all involved in the resurrection of Christ
the only way to make sense of the way the scripture tells it and so the bottom
line is that Jesus in his earthly timeline shed off you know some of his
power some of his glory some of his omniscience and his omnipresence or
omnipotence and he basically lived as a human being obviously had the power to
heal and do things and and you know through the power of God through the
Holy Spirit he's performing miracles and doing these things and he you know he
knew their thoughts and different things but he had shed a lot of those things
for his earthly existence but he also exists as God just eternally no
beginning no end I mean before the world was even created he was already there
he's in the beginning with God he was in the beginning he was God and so he's
able to to basically pop up a few times in the Old Testament like in Daniel
chapter 325 the form of the fourth man in the fire is like the Son of God so he
appears in the Old Testament and so that's where this comes from like oh
man I'm gonna die they didn't realize that the death upon seeing God only
applies to God the Father which is why when you die and go to heaven you're not
gonna see God the Father you're gonna see Jesus it's not until after the
millennium after the great white throne when death has been completely
eliminated you know the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death when we're
in the new heaven in the new earth there's no death no sorrow no then we
shall see his face and his name shall be in our foreheads at that time when
basically death has been completely limited then we will be able to actually
see God's face and and be preserved and live