Jamin Bradley

According to Stephen’s message in Acts, God appeared to Abraham when he told him to leave his family. While Abraham did not see God regularly, he had seen him enough to recognize him whenever he was around. This fact is especially seen in a strange story where God is on his way to Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham recognizes him and invites him in for a bite to eat. Abraham knew his shape, his form, his face, his walk—his person.

Of course, the Bible tells us that we will die if we see the face of God, so this is clearly God in a form that can be seen and interacted with. Sometimes this physical form of God is simply called the Lord, but he’s also commonly known as the Angel of the Lord. Abraham interacted with God’s physical body under both titles. But there’s another title God’s appearance can be referred to as well: the Word. This title was used for God when he appeared to Abraham in a vision and promised him many descendants.

In the New Testament, Jesus is God whose face could be seen without dying. And as it turns out, Jesus was the same God that Abraham could see without dying in the Old Testament. John explains this when he tells us that Jesus was God’s word made flesh. Later in John 8, the gospel writer documents a strange argument Jesus had with Abraham’s descendants. In that story, Jesus informed the crowd of three things: (1) he has met Abraham; (2) he is older than Abraham; and (3) he is God. In part, this was his way of winking back at the times he appeared to Abraham.

So, of course, they tried to kill him.