Who exactly did Adam and Eve see in the Garden of Eden? While the Lord God may well have appeared to the first human couple in chapters 1 and 2 of the Bible, he certainly did by the time we get to chapter 3. He was apparently accustomed to meeting with them as he walked ‘in the garden in the cool of the day’ (Gen. 3:8). After they had sinned in the Garden of Eden, they would have seen God shed the blood of an animal and make garments of its skin to cover their nakedness. If we are to take the biblical account at face value, as I believe we should, then these are the first clear instances of the many occasions in the Old Testament when the Lord appeared to his people in human form. For these times when God is seen by humans, we use the term ‘theophany’. The one God is Trinity; Father, Son and Spirit, so in these appearances, who did the biblical characters see?
Seeing the Son of God
Why should we believe such theophanies are specifically of the Second Person of the Trinity? Because it is only in the Son that God reveals himself. In his holy essence, God is the One ‘who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see’ (1 Tim. 6:16). ‘No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known’ (John 1:18). Jesus himself said: ‘The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me’ (John 12:45). No wonder he was so disappointed with Philip, when he asked to be shown the Father (John 14:8-9)! The Lord Jesus Christ is the very ‘image of the invisible God’ (Col. 1:15), ‘the exact representation of his being’ (Heb. 1:3). Even in the world to come, it is the Son of God who will be seen. In his final prayer in the Upper Room, Jesus says, ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my (not your) glory’ (John 17:24). The God Man, Christ Jesus, is our eternal Mediator.
Nearly half of the theophanies in the Old Testament are recorded in the Book of Genesis, as Christ appears repeatedly to Abraham, and then at various times to Hagar, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. Further famous theophanies are granted to Moses (Ex. 3-4), Joshua (Josh. 5-6), Gideon (Judg. 6) and Manoah and his wife (Judg. 13). In these examples, the Son of God often appears as the Angel (or Messenger) of the Lord, so human in form that, when his true identity is finally revealed, the response is one of instant shock and even horror. How can they have seen God and yet lived? The writer of Hebrews tells us that when the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the midst of the burning bush, ‘he saw him who was invisible’. In other words, he saw the Son of God. No wonder the writer adds that Moses ‘regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt’ (Heb. 11:26-27).
The image of God
Later on in the Bible, the theophanies granted to the prophets are more likely to come in exalted dreams and visions, but the appearance of Christ in human form still prevails (e.g. Is. 6; Ez. 1, 10; Dan. 3, 7). Referring directly to the awe-inspiring vision of the Lord in Isaiah 6, the apostle John tells us specifically that, in this theophany, the prophet ‘saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him’ (John 12:40-41). Similarly, Daniel’s description of the Lord, as recorded in the theophany of chapter 7 of his prophecy, bears a striking resemblance to John’s vision of Christ in Revelation 1.
What are we to make of these numerous manifestations of the Son of God in human form prior to his incarnation? Perhaps we should not be unduly amazed that God appears in the image and likeness of man when man was made in the image and likeness of God in the first place. Clearly, when God made man in his own image, he was conscious of the fact that he should create a body that must ultimately be appropriate for the Son’s everlasting human nature.
While John Calvin tended to dismiss the physical dimension of the image of God in man, many reformed theologians to this day have followed the great Puritan, John Owen, in stressing that the unity of body and spirit is essential to the Bible’s view of man, and therefore to our understanding of the image of God he bears. At the very least, God designed the human body to reflect his image through the faculty of speech and the ability to express the full gamut of emotions the Lord himself displays throughout Scripture.
Shall we see God?
Why did the Son of God choose to appear so frequently in human form prior to his incarnation? Perhaps the simplest answer is that he yearned to fulfil his destiny. The fellowship he had enjoyed so much with Adam and Eve in the Garden before the Fall he always longed to renew. Perhaps we might say that he simply couldn’t wait for the ‘set time’ to ‘fully come’ when he would truly take on human flesh.
This divine longing, of course, finds its echo in the human heart. We were created for the most intimate communion with our Creator, a communion which could never reach its consummation without theophany. Job understood this when, in perhaps the oldest book in the Bible, he declares:
I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me (Job 19:25-27).
In the Psalms, David confesses that he shall only be fully satisfied when he sees the face of his Lord and Saviour (Ps. 17:15). And, when we come to the New Testament, we learn that eagerly waiting for the appearance of Christ is an essential mark of the true believer (1 Cor. 1:7; Tit. 2:13). As Paul explains: ‘For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12). Only then, when the Lord Jesus returns to usher in the new heavens and the new earth, shall our fundamental need be finally met, and our glorification be complete. As John succinctly puts it:
Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).
But, in closing, let us solemnly remember that only those who, by faith, fix their eyes on Jesus now, shall one day have their faith turned to sight. For, as Jesus himself made clear: ‘Blest are the pure in heart, for they will see God’ (Matt. 5:8).
