“Then the angel of Adonai came and sat under the pistachio tree in ‘Ofrah that belonged to Yo’ash the Avi‘ezri. His son Gid‘on was threshing wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from Midyan.”-Judges 6:11
When the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, He did it in the same way He appeared to Abraham about 800 years earlier.
What do I mean by that exactly?
I mean he appeared to Gideon as a normal human being…as a traveler just passing by.
I know a lot of pictures (including the one I used in yesterday’s post) show the Angel of the Lord’s appearance to be like…well, um an angel, with full-blown wings and everything.
But that’s not the case and the Jewish sages support this notion as well.
How can we know this is true?
Because Gideon wasn’t at all surprised or startled at the figure sitting before him.
That’s why we know his appearance must have been like a man and not some supernatural angelic being with the power to level whole cities to the ground if it wanted to.
Understand the normal reaction to the appearance of an angel is to freak the hell out.
However, Gideon wasn’t fazed at all.
So we know the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon in human form.
And no man he wasn’t some “pre-incarnate Christ”.
I’m talking about the theological idea that Yeshua was somehow making guest appearances all over the planet willy-nilly here and there thousands of years before he was conceived in Miriam’s womb.
Onward.
The mysterious traveler tells Gideon he is a valiant hero and then informs him the Lord is with him.
Let’s just pause right there for a second.
The part in verse 12 where depending on which Bible translation you’re using says “the Lord is with you” or “Adonai is with you” in the original Hebrew says YHWH is with you.
That’s right folks.
I ain’t speculating or being opinionated here.
I’ve mentioned this before, but 99% of the time where in our English Bibles it says Lord, or God, or Adonai, in the original Hebrew, God’s personal name as first revealed to Moses is there!
And when I say 99% of the time, I mean that literally.
This is key.
Because when the Lord’s real name is used, it makes the situation very personal.
In the ancient world, the existence of multiple gods was taken for granted.
So using God’s personal name cut through all the noise and clarified the identity of the one speaking: the Almighty God of Israel.
And again, this also debunks any idea of this being some “pre-incarnate Christ” sitting before Gideon here because the personal name of the Father is never, and I mean NEVER, applied to the son.
Got that?
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