God preached the gospel to Abraham; thus, Abraham believed the gospel. Not types and shadows of it, but the actual substance of it.
Galatians 3:8
Romans 4:3-17
Raymond retweeted
Who is the mysterious figure who appears to Joshua with a drawn sword and commands him to remove his sandals because the ground is holy (Josh. 5:13–15)?
The clearest answer emerges when we read the scene beside Moses’ encounter at the burning bush (Exod. 3).
In Exodus, “the מַלְאָךְ of the LORD” appears in the burning bush (Exod. 3:2). The Hebrew word מַלְאָךְ (malak) means messenger. Moments later, this Messenger declares, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham…” (3:6).
The Messenger is both sent by God (the Father) and is God himself (the Son).
In Joshua 5, Joshua meets “a man” with a drawn sword in his hand who identifies himself as “commander of the army of the LORD” (5:13–14). Joshua falls on his face in worship, and the figure gives the identical command: “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (5:15; cf. Exod. 3:5).
Now get this: the narrative continues, “And the LORD said to Joshua, ‘See, I have given Jericho into your hand…’” (6:2). The commander who appeared to Joshua and told him to remove his shoes is now directly called “the LORD” (Yahweh). The biblical text presents them as the same speaker.
What is going on? This is a Christophany—the Son of God appearing in visible, human-like form to Joshua.
Early Christians recognized this. Justin Martyr (c. AD 100–165) writes in his Dialogue with Trypho, “God begat before all creatures a rational Power…called now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again a Messenger, then God and Lord and Logos; and on another occasion he calls himself Captain, when he appeared in human form to Joshua” (Chapter 61).
Long before he took on flesh in Bethlehem, the eternal Son was already present with his people as the Messenger at the bush, the Commander before Jericho, the Word, Wisdom, and Glory of God.
The Messenger and Commander who made the ground holy is the same Son who later took on flesh for our salvation.
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For more on this, see my book, The Christ Key: Unlocking the Centrality of Christ in the Old Testament, available at a.co/d/1o0hxa5
