We’re continuing our look at Trinitarian themes in the Old Testament. I’m only hitting what I consider to be highlights, although some passages will wait until we get to the New Testament. For the New Testament, if I hit every passage, we’d be in this study a long time. I’m only going to touch on the ones I think most important there as well. Tonight, we’re going to be in Zechariah 2:10-13.
10 “Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD. 11 “Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. 12 The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”
This is a quite interesting passage as we will see that there a lot of motifs going on. The whole is talking about the city of Jerusalem and how God is going to deal with it. The way that he does so is quite unique and it’s one that’s too easy to miss.
Notice who is coming. It is the Lord and the Lord says that he will dwell in their midst. This should be cause of their rejoicing actually. The way God is going to remove the sins of his people is that he is going to come to them.
Now the language of God coming is used in other places in the Bible and it does not refer to a physical appearance. This happens in the Old Testament a number of times.
10 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.11 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.12 He made darkness his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.13 Out of the brightness of his presence
bolts of lightning blazed forth.14 The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.15 He shot arrows and scattered the enemies ,
bolts of lightning and routed them.
Now this is from 2 Samuel 22, but there can be no reason for thinking God literally came and appeared among his people in the life of David.
5 Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
Do we have any basis in the verse in Psalm 144 for thinking that the Psalmist was expecting God to physically come down? (As well as thinking that that would apply physicality to the essential nature of God if they saw God as a physical being by nature.) Now they saw God as capable of taking on a form that would be physical, such as in the Angel of the Lord, and we will see this is no contradiction to the incarnation, but God in himself was not and is not seen as physical.
But verse 11 of Zechariah 2 tells us something. First, it says that the Lord will dwell in their midsts. This could be what John had in mind partially when he pinned John 1:14. However, we are also told that the Lord of Hosts has sent the Lord.
Yet the Lord has been the one giving the prophecies!
The Lord of hosts has always been deity as well in the prophets. Verses 12-13 tell us what the effect of this visit will be, but the important fact is that the Lord is coming to dwell and he is sent by the Lord. Again, we have two persons and there’s no reason to think any of them is not deity.
Tomorrow, we shall continue our look and see what more we find.
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