THE TRINITY 9
Shadows in the OT
1/06/13
I found the following comic a few weeks ago. It has Moses with the ten commandments looking up saying “These are plenty complicated enough for now, why don’t we save the Trinity stuff for later.” I thought that was kind of cute of way of saying how God has revealed His triune nature.
After taking a little break for the holidays, today we continue our study into the doctrine of the Trinity. I want to remind you of the definition of the Trinity that is “Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
We have discussed many things regarding the Trinity, today we begin to look at numerous Biblical passages that I believe will demonstrate the fact that the Trinity is indeed taught in the Bible. Today I want us to look some OT passages that are shadows of the Trinity that is revealed through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
As we are told in Col. 2:16-17; “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
While in the OT we do not have the Trinity revealed to us, we do see shadows of it, we see hints of it.
I want to quote Benjamin Warfield once more regarding this topic, I used this quote a few weeks ago. This is from his article “The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity”
“The Old Testament may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly or even not at all perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament revelation, and here and there almost comes into view. Thus the Old Testament revelation of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended and enlarged.”
This is very true statement. Today I want us to look at some of the dimly lighted furnishings as it were and how when we look at them in the light that is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, we see indeed that they do in fact point to the Triune nature of God. We will be looking at several OT passages today. None of these passage teach the trinity outright, but each one points in that direction.
I also want make note that I am very grateful for the 18th century preacher – theologian John Gill and his work Doctrinal Divinity, especially the 27th chapter. This material was very helpful in putting together this sermon.
There are five shadows that we will be covering today. The first shadow we see is in the fact that God uses plural names for Himself in the Old Testament. I want to preface what I am about to say about these names. As I stated these plural names that God uses for himself are but shadows of a greater revelation. We cannot point to these names as say, “see there is proof of the trinity by the fact that God uses a plural form of singular noun as a name for Himself.”
Some point out that these are what are called “majestic plurals”, they are used to emphasis a person status or majesty, it is used as a figure of speech in the Hebrew language. There are two that we will look at that are used of God, but they are also used of men in other places is the Bible, yet never are they used by the men or rulers themselves, to describe themselves. I point that out because while they may be seen by some as majestic plurals, I believe that when we see them in the revelation and in the light that is Jesus Christ, they do in fact point to triune God.
The first name is “Elohim”. In the OT this word is used over 2500 times. It is the plural form of “el”. What is of interest is that this is the word used in the very first sentence of the Bible for God. Gen. 1:1; “In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth.”
It is obvious that this word is used for a purpose. Certainly this word for God could have the singular, but the author, that is Moses, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit chooses to use a plural form of this word. As I stated, perhaps he is a “majestic plural” that is to show the majesty of God, but I believe it goes deeper than that. And one of the reason I believe that is because when the fuller revelation comes, we see there are three divine person involved in creation.
We of course have the Father, we have the Holy Spirit, for the very next passage we read, Gen. 1:2; “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” So we see the Holy Spirit at work in creation.
Then looking at Gen. 1:3; “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” Here we see the Word of God bring forth light. He who is the Word of God, John 1:1-3 tells us “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” The Word we know is Jesus Christ.
So we see that we have each one of the divine persons said to be involved in Creation. We that said, it would make sense then that God would inspire Moses to use a plural Elohim, to communicate that. Again, is the conclusive evidence of the Trinity? No. But it does point us in that direction.
We must be careful not to think in terms of a plurality of gods, as that would contradict what is written in Duet. 6:4; “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Another example of a plural form of a name or title uses of God is that word “Adonim” This is the plural form of the name “Adonai” (ad-on-i), which is the word we translate Lord. This appears in the plural in reference to God a little over a hundred times.
Let me give you some examples, Psalm 136:3; “Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Both words, Lord and lords are the same Hebrew word, “Adonim”. It is literally “Lords of lords”.
Isa. 10:33; Behold, the Lord (Adonim) GOD of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down,”
Exo. 34:23; “Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD (Adonim) God, the God of Israel.”
So those are just a couple of example were we see a plural name given to God. Are these examples of a “majestic plural”? They properly are, at least that may have been the way the authors of Scripture saw them. But that does not take away from the fact that while they do not prove the Trinity, they certainly point us in that direction.
The second shadow of the Trinity I believe we see in the OT is the plurality that God uses in the self-expression of Himself as Creator. We see this in numerous passages.
The first and most obvious is Gen 1:26. Look at that passage with me. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Here we see God speaking of Himself us the plural terms, of “us” and “our”. While these are plural, what is interesting is that “image” and “likeness” are singular. So we have “Let us (plural) make man in our (plural) image (singular), after our (plural) likeness (singular)”.
Once more, while this passage cannot be looked at as conclusive proof of the Triune nature of God, I believe that is certainly points in that direction. It should be noted the majority of the early church Father thought of this verse was referring to the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There are of course those who argue against this passage as having anything to do with the Trinity. There are those who would say that that this is another example of a “majestic plural”. However, what must be considered is that there is no examples in the Bible of a ruler speaking of himself in this way. That is in the plural sense and in the third person. So there is no biblical support for making that assumption here.
Another, argument some give regarding Gen. 1:26 is that God is speaking to the angels that surround His throne. This argument as many problems. First, angels are not made in the image God, only mankind is. Therefore for God to say “Let us make man in our image, (keep in mind that image is singular), would imply that angels have the same “image” and “likeness” of God. This is simple something that is taught nowhere in Scripture.
This would also make angels co-creator with God. Once more this does not stand the test of Scripture. In Isa. 44:24 we read; “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,”
Also Isa. 40:14; “Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?”
The Bible is clear that God does not consult anyone in when it comes to His work, and He alone is Creator, not the angels.
I also want to point out that there are several other passages in the OT that speak of God as creator in plural terms. Let me give you 4 examples;
Job 35:10; But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
Psa. 149:2; “Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!”
Eccl. 12:1; “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,…”
Isa. 54:5; “For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”
The verses in Job 35, Psa 149, and Isa. 54, where the word “maker” appears, in the original Hebrew language that word is plural, “makers” in Eccl. The Hebrew would read, “creators”. I believe that this certainly points to more than one person as creator, therefore, more than one person in the Godhead.
This point becomes even clearer when we see that the Father is called creator, Gen 1:26, the Son is called creator, John 1:3, and The Holy Spirit is called creator in Job 33:4 which reads, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
Moving now to the third shadow of the Trinity that we see in the OT is the fact God at times uses plural pronouns in His dealing with mankind. These verse are similar to Gen. 1:26.
We will look at these three as group. First we have Gen 3:22; “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever––”
This comes from the account of the fall of Adam in the garden of Eden. God states that man is now like “one of us” that is know the good and evil.
The next example is Gen. 11:7; “Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”
We know from vs. 6 that this is the LORD speaking. This comes from the account of Babel where God confused the language in order to disperse that people.
Finally we have Isa. 43:9; “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Here is the call of Isaiah to go to the people to proclaim God’s word.
We see that in each case God uses a plural pronouns to describe Himself. And once more folks will make the argument that these are simply examples of “majestic plurals”, you still have to deal with the fact that there is no Biblical example of anyone else speaking of themselves in this manner in the Bible, other than God Himself. And I also do not believe that this in anyway takes away from the fact that while these passages do not reveal the Trinity, they do in fact point in that direction.
We can also see that these passage are not speaking about angels. First Gen. 3:22 cannot be speaking about angels because it states they become like “one of us”. God and angels are not in the same category.
Gen. 11:7 cannot be angels because the Word of God states in vs. 8; “So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.” It was not a work of angels but of the God Himself. Angel are never said to play a part in it.
As far as Isa. 43:9 goes this cannot be referring to angels either. Read what it state carefully, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”. God uses both the singular “I” and plural “us”. God is not an angel.
So I believe if you look at these passages honestly, while they do not prove the Trinity, they can certainly be said to indicate the triune nature of God, especially with the fuller revelation we have in Jesus Christ.
This brings me to the fourth shadow of the Trinity we see in the OT and that is the “angel of the Lord”. I want to begin this forth shadow by saying that the “angle of the Lord” can be a study in an of itself. But because of time I am going to keep this very brief.
I need to point out to you that when you see the word LORD in all capital letters in the OT, that is what is called the Tetragrammaton. This is what is used to show that that is where the proper name of God was used in the text. A name that has been lost since ancient times. Many scholars believe that name was Yahweh. Some use the name Jehovah, which certainly was not it. I tell you that because it has importance to what we are about to see.
In the OT we have passages the speak of the Angel of LORD, or the Angel of Yahweh. But what is of interest to us in our study is that we have passages the speak of the Angel of Yahweh, but it is also revealed that it is Yahweh Himself. Therefore if Yahweh is sent, and the sender is Yahweh, there must be more the one person who is Yahweh.
Let me give you some examples from the OT where we see the Angel of the LORD, is in fact the Lord Himself.
Gen. 16 and the story of Hagar. We read in verse 7; “The Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness…” In vss. 9-11 the Angel of The LORD tells Hagar of things that will come to pass. In vs. 13 we read this; “So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Here we see that the Angel of the LORD (Yahweh) speaks to Hagar, but Hagar recognizes that it the “LORD” or Yahweh who has spoken to Her.
Another example is from Gen. 22 with Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. Vss. 15-16 “And the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,” We see very clearly that the Angel of the LORD and the LORD are in fact that same.
We see this in Exo. 3 with the burning bush. Look at vs. 2 “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.”
Then in vs. 4 we see that it is in fact God speaking from the bush. “When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
One final example, this one from Judges 6 with the story of Gideon. Look at vs. 12; “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
Then in vs. 14 we see that it is in fact the LORD, “And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
Other examples could be sighted. Again the point is we see passages the speak of the Angel of Yahweh, but it is also revealed that it is Yahweh Himself. Therefore if Yahweh is sent, and the sender is Yahweh, there must be more the one person who is Yahweh.
One final shadow very quickly. We also see in the OT instances where the LORD or Yahweh, that is one God, yet two person who are called LORD or Yahweh, doing different things. A couple examples,
Gen. 19:24; “Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.” We see here the LORD provided something to the LORD. One God, yet it appears we have two persons doing different things.
Another quick example is Jer. 23:5-6; ““Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’”
Notice what is stated here. The LORD, (Yahweh) will raise up a righteous Branch, which is of course Jesus Christ. But notice what he will be called, “The LORD (Yahweh) is our Righteousness. Again, we have one God, Yahweh, yet two person with different roles. One sending, the other being sent.
So today we have seen five of what I call shadows in the OT that I believe point to the triune nature of God. None of these passage teach the trinity outright, but each one points in that direction. And what we will see is that when these shadows are seen in the light of the revelation of Jesus Christ, we see the Trinity.
So much more could be said about all this but we are out of time. I will close with the gospel, the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel that must be believed to have any hope for eternal live.
I pray that you would repent, turn from your sins, and trust in Christ. Believe that He died for your sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again on third day and now sits as the eternal Son of God at the right hand of the Father. May God grant you the grace to believe in the Gospel.
LET US PRAY
