The Bible indicates the Godhead is a tri-unity…Father, Holy Spirit, and Son Jesus. Many if not most Bible readers think the God who was seen and active in the Old Testament (OT) was the God whom Jesus referred to as His “Father”. Most readers view this OT God as being strict and more judgmental than their perception of Jesus in the New Testament (NT). Here we’ll look at scriptures which reveal the identity of the Deity who was seen and heard by humans in the OT.
Jn.1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” v.14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word (Lógos in Greek, Mémra in Aramaic), who was also God from the beginning, later became Jesus in the flesh. Jn.17:5 God the Word had glory with the Father before the world existed. Jn.17:24 Jesus spoke of, “My glory which You [Father] gave Me”. What do the scriptures show of God the Word in the OT before He became Jesus in the flesh?
In the Song of Moses, De.32:3-4 “I proclaim the name of YHVH; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock.” v.18 “You [Israel] neglected the Rock who begot you, the God who gave you birth.” (cf. 2Ki.22:2 Septúagint/LXX.) The apostle Paul identified their figurative Rock in 1Co.10:4. “That Rock was Christ.” Continuing, 1Co.10:9 “Neither let us test Christ, as some of them also tested Him, and were destroyed by serpents”. This incident to which Paul referred was in Nu.21:5-6. “YHVH sent fiery serpents and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” The primordial Word of God, who became Jesus the Christ…was YHVH, the OT God/Rock whom His people tested, according to Paul!
Isaiah wrote in Is.6:1, 5 “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted. My eyes have seen the King, YHVH of hosts.” Isaiah saw God. In Jn.12:41-44, John identifies specifically who Isaiah saw. “Isaiah saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. Many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they weren’t confessing Him lest they be put out of the synagogue. Jesus said, ‘He who believes in Me.” According to John, Isaiah saw the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Word of God, as King on the throne! Isaiah didn’t see Father God. Jesus said, no man other than He has seen Father God….
Jesus declared in Jn.6:46, “No man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father”. Jesus said in Jn.1:18, “No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God [Jesus] has explained Him.” Only the Word who became Jesus Christ has seen awesome Father God!
Yet God was visibly seen on many occasions in the OT! Ex.24:1-11 “Moses went up with 70 of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel.” After Moses wrote down the Old Covenant, which the God of Israel gave them, they saw God. According to Jesus, the Father was never seen. Also, YHVH said in Nu.12:7-8, “My servant Moses, with him I speak mouth to mouth, he beholds the form of YHVH”. Jacob said in Ge.32:30, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved”. This wasn’t the Father who was seen in these OT passages…it was the pre-incarnate Christ, the Rock.
Abraham saw God and two angels in Ge.18:1-ff. “YHVH appeared to him by the oaks of Mamré. He [Abraham] looked, three men were standing opposite him. They did eat.” (v.1-3, 8) The three even shared a meal with Abraham! The Lord remained talking with Abraham, while the two angels went on to Sodom (Ge.19:1).
Jesus told the Jews in Jn.8:56-58, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it. Truly I say to you, before Abraham came into being, I AM.” The Word/Jesus, not Father God, is the I AM who appeared as a human seen by Abraham. (God also appeared to Abrám in Ge.12:7.) God said to Moses in Ex.3:14, “You shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you”. Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and others in the OT saw the pre-incarnate Jesus, who was also YHVH/I AM of ancient Israel.
Joshua was told to remove his sandals in the presence of the Commander of the Lord’s host in Jsh.5:13-15. “For the place you are standing is holy. Joshua did so.” Jesus/the Word, who commands His host of angels (Mt.13:41, 26:53), was seen there…not the Father. Compare Ex.3:4-6, 14 where Moses too must remove his sandals in the presence of God/I AM. (also see the topic, “Michael in the Bible”.)
Prior to the Word Jesus being seen as God in the OT, He and the Holy Spirit (HS) were the Creators (under the overall direction of the Father). Ps.33:6 “By the Word of YHVH the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host.” Jn.1:1-3, 10 “All things came into being by Him [the Word]. He was in the world and the world was made by Him.” Col.1:16 “All things have been created through Him [the Son/Word] and for Him.” also see He.1:2. The Word/Jesus/Light was Creator God.
Ge.2:1-3 “By the 7th day God completed His work which He had done, and He ceased/rested on the 7th day. Then God blessed the 7th day and sanctified it.” It was Jesus who ceased or rested from creating on the 7th day. It was Jesus who set apart the 7th day (not the 1st day or the 6th day), ordaining it as holy time. Therefore Jesus is truly Lord of the sabbath, as He said in Mk.2:27-28. “The sabbath was made for mankind. The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.” (Jesus never revoked His 7th day holy time.)
The following two passages are more evidence that Jesus Christ was the Lord God who appeared in the OT. Quotes are from the Greek LXX/Septuagint; we can compare the same Greek terms in our NT:
Moses told Israel in De.10:17 LXX, “The Lord your God, He is Lord [Strongs g2962] of lords [g2962]”. The God of Israel was “Lord of lords.” Re.17:14 “The Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord [g2962] of lords [g2962].” Jesus the Lamb is “Lord of lords”…same as the OT God of Israel!
God declared in Is.45:21 LXX, “I AM God, and there is not another besides Me; a Savior [g4990], there is none but Me”. 1Jn.4:14 “The Father has sent the Son to be the Savior [g4990] of the world.” Jesus the Son is the Savior…and He was the God/I AM in the OT, seen by Isaiah! There’s no other Savior.
1Co.1:1, 5:7 the Jewish Christian Paul (with the Corinth synagogue ruler Sosthénes, Ac.18:17) wrote of “Christ our Passover”. YHVH told Moses in Ex.12:13, “When I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you”. In mercy, YHVH/“Christ our Passover” passed over the houses of the Israelite firstborns. And it is this Christ who was the solid Rock of OT Israel, according to Paul.
In Ex.20:6, the Lord God said He is “Showing love to a thousand generations who love Me and keep My commandments”. Jesus said in Jn.14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and I will love him”. The Word/Jesus is Lord in the OT, and He spoke the Decalogue.
In Jn.1:18, the Son Jesus said that He declares the Father. Jesus came to reveal His nature. Jesus said in Jn.17:25-26, “Righteous Father, the world has not known You. I have made Your name known to them”. OT Israel hadn’t known the Father. The OT term for “Father”, referring to God, rarely occurs.
Jesus said in Jn.5:37, “The Father who sent Me has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.” Father God was visibly unseen and audibly unheard in the OT. (Not until Jesus & John the Baptizer heard the Father’s voice bear witness of Jesus at His baptism.) Yet De.4:33, Israel heard God speaking at Sinai. Christ the Word, not the Father, was seen & heard in the OT. (also see the topics, “Tri-unity of God” and “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has a God”.)
Again, according to John, it was the Lord Jesus who Isaiah saw high & lifted up. Je.1:4-5 LXX “The Word/Logos [g3056] of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the belly I sanctified you.” v.9 “The Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth.” The word of God came to other prophets, such as Ezekiel & Zechariah, and they delivered the message. None but Jesus has seen the Father. It was Christ the Word/Lord who came to Jeremiah, spoke in 1st Person, and touched his lips!
Ex.19:9-11 Christ the Word came down on Mt. Sinai. All the Israelites were aware of Him. v.16 a thick cloud protected them from seeing His glory (ref De.4:12). Ex.20 Christ spoke His Decalogue or so-called Ten Commandments (including His weekly 7th day Sabbath command), which He inscribed on tablets (Ex.31:18). Following in Exodus 21–23, Christ spoke His judgments to Moses. Then in Ex.24 Moses wrote them down in the book of the covenant (v.4-7)…and he with 70 elders saw God the Word (v.9-11)! (However, man’s flesh is limited and cannot fully see His glory, e.g. Ex.33:18-23.)
After Exodus, the entire 27 chapters of Leviticus are the instructions of Christ the Word, the God they’d seen! Christ gave Moses those instructions while they were still at Sinai (Le.27:34). Including His law in Le.11 (v.46) regarding the clean & unclean creatures He created. Jesus knows which ones are fit for human consumption! The gentile Noah also had been aware of God’s distinction (Ge.7:2).
Lk.1:32 Jesus is the Son of the Most High God. Ac.17:23-31 the Most High Father was an “Unknown God”. The OT writers were aware a Most High God exists (ref Ge.14:18, Ps.7:17, 110:1), but He was generally unknown to all but a few. Ac.7:48-49 “The Most High doesn’t dwell in sanctuaries made by hands.” (The Father’s residence was in heaven, Jn.14:2-3). It wasn’t the Father who spoke mouth-to-mouth with Moses (Nu.12:7-8) and sat above the cherubim on the ark in Israel’s man-made sanctuary.
Ps.80:1 “O Shepherd of Israel, You who sits between the cherubim.” That Shepherd who communed with Moses was…Christ the Word! Jesus said in Jn.10:11, “I Am the good Shepherd”. (ref 2Ki.19:15, Zec.13:7, 1Pe.2:25, Is.37:16.) Christ was the God of Israel, the Rock and Shepherd. (Josephus Wars of the Jews 5:5:5 indicated there were no sculptured cherubim in Herod’s temple…the sanctuary was entirely empty! Jesus was out ministering in the Land; He no longer ‘sat’ between the cherubim then.)
He.13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The Word/Jesus said in Mal.3:6, “For I AM YHVH, and change not”. The Word/Jesus doesn’t change His character; nor did He change the moral principles He gave to ancient Israel. Re.14:12 speaks of “the perseverance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God”. They were Jesus’ commandments in Ex.20, His command of the 7th day sabbath, His commands for ecosystem balance of clean/unclean, in Leviticus, Numbers, etc. (see the “Sabbath 7th Day” series, and “Unclean versus Clean Food”.)
But Israel as a whole didn’t like Christ the Rock’s commandments. Le.26 the Word warned ancient Israel of His punishments for disobedience. Israel disobeyed anyway. So Jesus sent them into captivity…the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria, then the southern kingdom of Judah to Babylon in 597 BC. Later when the Word/Jesus came in the flesh, the leaders of the Jews (of the people He’d loved and rescued from ancient Egypt) even wanted Him killed (e.g. Jn.5:18)! They set Him up to die!
Some Bible readers and critics consider the God of the OT a cruel God. Márcion (85–160 AD) was from Póntus, located at the southern coast of the Black Sea (today northeastern Turkey). He didn’t think YHVH was the same God spoken of by Jesus, so he didn’t accept the YHVH of the OT. To Marcion, the God active in the OT wasn’t Jesus or Jesus’ Father. Marcion’s ‘canon’ was only 11 books…10 epistles of Paul plus part of Luke’s gospel. Marcion ‘picked and choosed’; he was extreme.
It’s a misconception to view the OT God as harsh or cruel. The Word/Christ was the Executive and Spokesman God seen in the OT. Christ wasn’t harsh, cruel, impulsive, or changeable. Christ would have spared ancient Sodom, had only 10 righteous people been found there (Ge.18:32)!
Though Jesus wasn’t harsh, He was just. Jesus’ justice system for His ancient theocracy perhaps did reflect a measure of tough love. For example, Jesus acknowledged even in Jn.8:7, “Let him cast the first stone”. Christ’s penalty for adultery was death (though a ransom may be paid instead). The laws and morality given to Moses/Israel are Jesus’ laws and morality. The OT too is Christ-centered. His morality may seem strict to some. But His are the laws of the Kingdom of God!
For that matter, the NT book of Revelation has much killing…it’s even been called horrific! Re.6:16 “Hide us from the presence of the wrath of the Lamb [Christ].” Yet the Lamb’s love exceeds His wrath.
Ancient Israel was Jesus’ theocracy. Many or most of His ritualistic prescriptions cannot be done apart from Jerusalem (temple). In the NT, the Jewish people had come under Roman jurisdiction; they were no longer governed by Jesus’ theocracy. And the NT writings (e.g. Paul’s) reflect changed living conditions under Roman rule of law.
The pre-incarnate Word of God wasn’t just sitting in heaven judging harp music day after day prior to His becoming Jesus in the flesh! He was the God active in the OT. Jesus wasn’t a rebellious son who came to do away with His Father’s commandments. They are YHVH the Savior’s commandments too. The Father and Son are of like-mind. Jesus did and said what His Father taught Him (Jn.8:28). De.30:10-14 the principles of Christ, the Rock of Ages, are doable.
Have we been deluded by false teaching to think that Jesus came to do away with the morality of laws He gave ancient Israel? Jesus said in Mt.5:17, “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I didn’t come to abolish but to fulfill [g4137].” Christ didn’t come to abolish His OT moral laws and principles of living!
Jesus referred to His Mt.5:17 remarks later after His resurrection in Lk.24:44. “My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled [g4137].” It was the things prophesied and written about Jesus the coming Messiah that must be fulfilled…not His morality/laws which can govern and regulate society and the Kingdom! As recapped in Ac.13:29 concerning Jesus, “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross”.
Surely, Jesus didn’t think Roman laws or the laws of the nations of this world are superior to the laws He gave His theocracy! Jesus’ morality & character is the same yesterday, today and forever (He.13:8).
Christ’s OT laws prohibiting blasphemy, murder, adultery, theft, etc. are truly moral and just today. The holy time of His 7th day sabbath still comes & goes every week since Creation…man cannot stop time. Unclean creatures carrying worms & parasites are still unfit for humans to eat…as in Noah’s day.
But all the OT ceremonial jots & tittles regarding the obsolete Levitical priesthood can no longer be done. He.7:12 “The priesthood being changed, there must be made also a change of the law.” Jesus said the temple was to be destroyed (e.g. Mk.13:1-2). After He fulfilled prophecy, dying as the final sacrifice…there’s no more need for animal sacrifices, tithing to a Levitical priesthood, pilgrim feasts with temple rituals. Attempting to do those ceremonial things elsewhere or on one’s own terms would actually be disobeying Christ’s specific OT statutes! The Kingdom is now the order of Melchisedek.
Ps.119:142 “Thy righteousness is everlasting, and Thy law is truth.” v.151 “All Thy commandments are truth.” v.172 “All Thy commandments are righteousness.” That’s all the commandments of the Word Jesus…in both the OT and NT. In the NT, Jesus or the HS reiterated some, but not all, of Christ’s OT commandments. OT sins such as beastiality, cannibalism, fathers marrying their own daughters, e.g., are still sins for Christians…even though those prohibitions aren’t repeated in the NT. To only accept Jesus’ NT commands as valid, while ignoring His OT commandments, is short-sighted.
However, it requires a circumcised heart to do His commandments. Most of ancient Israel didn’t have the HS. They failed to be a right example to the nations. The rhetorical question of De.4:8-9, “What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law? Therefore take heed lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and they depart from your heart.” (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.) No other ancient nation received such grace as did Israel, so blessed with Christ’s righteous laws/justice system!
But they stumbled over the Rock of Israel, who Peter (and Paul) said is Jesus. 1Pe.2:8 “A stone [g3037] of stumbling [g4348] and a Rock [g4073] of falling; for they stumble because they are disobedient.” In Is.6:5, Isaiah saw Christ the Lord. Is.8:13-14 LXX “Sanctify the Lord. You shall not come against Him as a stumbling [g4348] stone [g3037], neither as against the falling of a rock [g4073]; but the houses of Jacob are in a snare.” (also Ro.9:32-33.) Most Jews opposed and rejected their Lord come in the flesh.
Yet for New Covenant Jewish Christians and gentiles grafted-in, God said in Je.31:33 (LXX Je.38:33) and He.8:10, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts”. The HS writes Christ’s just laws/morality (Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever) on the hearts & minds of willing Christians. His laws will thus become our morality, and won’t depart from our hearts. Thereby we won’t fail, unlike ancient Israel.
Jesus is Lord! He was “the LORD” active in the OT. As we repent and keep obeying Christ the Word…we will be those “who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Re.14:12). And we’ll be those who have right to the tree of life (Re.22:14)! Thank You, Lord.
Bible Topic Exposition 