Theophany

A Biblical Theology of God's Appearing

Vern S. Poythress

• Publisher: Crossway
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781433554407
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Systematische Theologie & Ethik

"A theologically rich, spiritually edifying exploration of all that the Bible says about an awe-striking reality."—DennisJohnson Each time God appears to his people throughout the Bible—in the form of a thunderstorm, a man, a warrior, a chariot, etc.—he comes to a specific person for a specific purpose. And each of these temporary appearances— called theophanies —helps us to better understand who he is, anticipating his climactic, permanent self-revelation in the incarnation of Christ.

Describing the various accounts of God's visible presence from Genesis to Revelation, theologian Vern S. Poythress helps us consider more deeply what they reveal about who God is and how he dwells with us today.

Part I

The Biblical Theme of God Appearing

1

God Coming

In the Western world, we live in a time of doubt. People ask, “Does God exist? If he does, where is he? How can we find him?” To some people, the words of Job may seem appropriate: “Oh, that I knew where I might find him” (Job 23:3).

The Experience of Job

To many, it seems that God cannot be found. But what if God actually came and met you? What if he spoke to you? According to the Bible, just such a thing happened to Job (Job 38–41), and it was overwhelming. We should not be surprised that it was. It would be overwhelming for us, if we were to meet the God of infinity, who made the galaxies and the stars, and who also made you and me. Meeting God turns out to be an earthshaking experience that may change you forever.

When God met Job, he not only spoke; he appeared to Job in a whirlwind: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1). Job knew that he had met God. There was no mistaking it. Not only did God speak words with divine authority and wisdom, but the visible accompaniment in the whirlwind reinforced the solemnity of the occasion. Job knew that he was meeting the all-powerful God.

Job was changed by the experience. He says,

“I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)

Even before this point in time, Job would have said that God was all-powerful. But when God met him, the truth became new and living for Job—it took on fresh depth. Job had a deep change, a change of heart.

Meeting God Today

Job’s experience was unique. Why does God not give the same experience to everyone else? We cannot say. God decides when and how he will meet us, when and how he will come to us. God deals with each one of us according to his wisdom. He takes into account everything that we are; he treats each person in his individuality and uniqueness (Psalm 139). If we think we want to have an experience like Job’s, we might first think about whether we really want the “full package,” so to speak. For example, do we want to go through the suffering that Job experienced that led up to the climactic encounter with God? And even if we could avoid the suffering of Job, do we really want to be overwhelmed by encountering the infinite God as Job did? In reality, it is frightening.

But God can and does come to meet people in a real and deep way today. For one thing, he does it when they hear how he met Job and how he met other people in cases recorded in the Bible. The Bible is not just a record of past works of God. God had it written so that we might still learn about him today. The Bible is the very word of God, and he still speaks what it says today. The word of God is alive and active (Heb. 4:12). So meeting God happens when we listen to the Bible.

We can learn more by focusing on the places in the Bible that describe God as coming and meeting with people. Among these, we will focus especially on the cases where God appears to people, like the whirlwind in which God came to Job. These cases are among the most intense instances when God comes. We can learn from them the meaning of who God is and how he comes to us today.

Does God Appear?

According to the Bible, God is invisible. But the Bible also describes incidents in which God makes himself visible, by appearing to human beings. How do we fit these two sides together?1

Answering this question helps us understand God, ourselves, and our place in the world. God has made us as creatures, to whom he makes himself known. To know God is all-important. Many people have questions about God. We can receive satisfactory answers only if we come to know him. And we come to know him when he comes to us and shows himself to us. He manifests himself. How?

Seeing God in Christ

The issue gains in depth because the supreme instance of God becoming visible is found in Christ. God makes himself known supremely in Christ. And when Christ was on earth, he was visible. What does it mean to see Christ? And do we see God through him? Christ himself gives an answer in a dialogue with the apostle Philip:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:8–9)

Jesus indicates that it is possible to see God. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9); that is, the person he describes has seen God the Father.

What does it mean, then, to have “seen the Father”? In the next verses Jesus explains more fully how this seeing takes place:

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” (John 14:10–11)

Seeing in the right sense goes together with believing—believing that “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” And that in turn goes together with understanding the meaning of Jesus’s works. Jesus’s opponents saw him with their physical eyes. But they opposed him. They did not accept his claims. It was not enough merely to see him physically. The opponents did not rightly understand the significance of his works. They did not understand who he was, nor the reality that the Father was in him.

Understanding the Works

Jesus more than once points to the significance of his works, if people will only take to heart that significance:

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (John 5:17–21)

Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” (John 10:32–33)

God appears to human beings in Jesus, as Jesus himself affirms to Philip. But people must interpret what they see. They must see God the Father’s works in th...