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EFAC National Leadership Consultation
  Gen 16-17 
  Paper for E.F.A.C. Conference 2001 by Paul Blackham
  Genesis 16 & 17
  Abram had received amazing assurance that he would have a son – and his son would stand in the Messianic line stretching between Eve and the birth of the Christ. The Word of the LORD had made this prophecy certain to Abram through a complex set of animal sacrifices in Genesis 15.
  Given Abram's faith and hope joined to this gracious sacrament of assurance, we would expect Abram to wait patiently for his son to be born. However, given the endemic unbelief in the sinful human heart, Abram and Sarai begin to become impatient of God's providence.
  Time was moving on and they were both very old. Surely the LORD needed some practical help here?! Perhaps it was time to take matters into their own hands. Sarai was a woman of advanced years who had been unable to produce any children for Abram. We are not told the reason for this infertility, but it was clearly a difficult burden for Sarai to bear. To be denied children can be such a desperate situation for many couples that they will go to great lengths and spend incredible amounts of money to get the children they desire.
  Added to all this, Sarai might have felt the enormous extra burden of failing to produce the son who would be part of the Messianic line. If she fell into unbelief at this point she would end up thinking that the birth of the future Messiah totally depended on her ability to produce a child. Justification by faith would dissolve in the acids of works-righteousness.
  Sadly, unbelief is precisely the reaction this situation produces in Abram & Sarai. They hatched a scheme to produce the promised child through their own efforts by taking advantage of Sarai's servant Hagar [16:1-2].
  Sarai is not doing very well in Genesis 16:2. She tried to make the whole situation part of the LORD's purpose – "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."
  Sarai alleges that the LORD is actually standing in the way of the prophecy being fulfilled! It is a truly remarkable idea! Unbelief leads us to say the most ridiculous things.
  So, on top of the patently ludicrous suggestion that the LORD is trying to defeat Himself, Sarai makes the equally bizarre suggestion that Abram go to bed with Hagar, Sarai's maidservant. Sarai argues that this is the only way that Sarai can build a family for Abram.
  Her argument is full of holes and begins and ends in sin. What would Abram, the model of Christian faith, make of this?
  Verse 2 – "Abram agreed to what Sarai said."!!??!?!
  The sinful nature would find this idea very appealing. He may have been an old man, but it wouldn't be hard to convince the flesh of the merits of this suggestion. Anything that feels so good must be so right!
  Verse 3 – Abram celebrates the 10th anniversary of the gracious gift of the Promised Land by going to bed with another woman.
  Sarai gave Hagar to be Abram's wife, but we shouldn't see this as somehow legitimating the whole sordid affair. I'm sure Sarai and Abram thought that by calling Hagar 'a wife' would give it all a righteous air – but the stench of sulphur could not be so easily masked.
  The creation of Eve from Adam and their union to make one flesh was trampled underfoot by this unbelieving attempt at justification by works.
  Notice that Hagar is deliberately described as 'an Egyptian' twice – verses 1 and 3. Abram had just received a very accurate prophecy about the exile in Egypt that would last between the books of Genesis and Exodus. Is it possible that when Moses wrote this account he wanted to show the way in which Egypt and Israel were entwined even at this early stage?
  Some have suggested it indicates that Hagar is a pagan who refuses to become part of Abram's family. I think we should be reluctant to dismiss Hagar so easily. As we follow her story we see that she has great favour with God and seems to have a clear grasp of so many aspects of the gospel. Her life is also a study in battling between faith in Christ and works-righteousness. It is not clear that she is a follower of Egyptian pagan religion.
  In verse 4 we see how the problems begin. Abram gets Hagar pregnant – but far from this being the joyful solution to the LORD's prophecy, the consequences of sin catch up to them.
  Sarai may have seen Hagar as nothing more than a handy surrogate, but Hagar is no so easily pushed underfoot. This child is supposed to be the child who would carry forward the great prophecy of the Promised Seed originally given to Eve and renewed to Abram. She was the mother of this child – NOT Sarai. Who did Sarai think she was trying to take advantage of her maidservant then walk away with all the glory?!!? No, it wasn't going to be like that at all.
  This chapter demonstrates so many of the tensions of the clinical adultery practised under the name of surrogacy.
  Sarai's speech of verse 5 is so ironic. Notice how she speaks to Abram. "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."
  Although Sarai hatched the scheme, now it turns out to be all Abram's fault. He should never have got Hagar pregnant. Look at all the trouble it had caused for Sarai! What did Abram think he was doing?!? Hagar cursed Sarai – couldn't Abram see the suffering brought by his sin?
  This whole section really needs to be seen as a re-run of Genesis 3. Each blames the other and nobody seems willing confess their wickedness and unbelief.
  Strangely Sarai appeals to the LORD to sort the mess out at the end of her speech - verse 5b. May the LORD judge between Abram and Sarai. Is this perhaps a sign of her readiness to repent about what they had done?
  Abram doesn't consult the LORD about the matter. He isn't ready to turn away from the scheme they had hatched. He seems to still have confidence in their own ability to sort it all out. Verse 6 – "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best."
  Why do we always imagine that we can make a better job of sorting things out than our Loving Saviour?
  Leaving it all to human effort and wisdom was clearly not the thing to do.
  The only possible solution at this stage was the repentance that flows from faith in Christ. They needed to renew their grip on the Promised-Seed prophecy and call upon the LORD to save them from their own sin and self-confidence.
  Instead, they continue to trust in their own strength, and the outcome is that Sarai simply ill-treats Hagar – verse 6.
  Well, there was no way that Hagar, the mother of this apparently awesome child of destiny, was going to put up with ill-treatment from her infertile boss. Hagar packed her bags and left.
  However, Hagar is not forgotten – at least not by "the Angel of the LORD". Verse 7 – "The Angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur."
  Hagar had left behind the ancient Church, the family of fellowship with the LORD. She was out in the desert on her way back to Egypt. In fact she was on the border of Egypt – 25:18 – "…Shur, near the border of Egypt..."
  Hagar was on her way back to Egypt. Whatever impression these worshippers of Yahweh had made on her was fading fast. Their faith in the Messiah was not very impressive in terms of their actual lifestyles. She could leave all that behind no problem.
  BUT, the Angel of the LORD had other ideas. He came to find her and He asked her, "where have you come from and where are you going?"
  This takes us right back to Genesis 3 again.
  Just as His question to Adam in chapter 3 had addressed the real situation, now His question to Hagar similarly focused on the key issues. He makes her recall the ancient church that she is turning away from – and to recognise that there is no hope or salvation in the pagan world of Egypt.
  One Puritan commentator puts the question of the Angel of the LORD in their own words:
  Where have you come from? Consider that you are running from the privileges you were blest with in Abram's tent. Where will you go? You are running into sin; if you return to Egypt, you will return to idol gods.
  Hagar answers in a simple way, keeping the conversation at the level of her problems with Sarai -- "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai."
  Verse 9 – the Angel of the LORD had some frank advice for her – "Go back and submit to the ill-treatment of Sarai. That is where your best interests lie however much you have to suffer."
  This difficult commandment is backed up with a great encouragement [verse 10] – her son will be greatly blessed. He would be a very significant figure in world history. The Angel of the LORD expands and deepens this brief statement – verses 11-12.
  The Angel of the LORD lets Hagar know the child in her womb is a boy and she is to call him Ishmael – meaning 'God hears'. Hagar's misery may have escaped the compassion of Abram or Sarai, but not that of the Angel of the LORD. He had heard of her misery and had gone to find her in the desert. It must have been such a wonderful word of comfort to Hagar, enough to strengthen her to endure any amount of suffering from Sarai.
  The specific prophecy about Ishmael is not so obviously encouraging. He will be unable to get along with any of his relatives.
  Is this a word of doom which cannot be avoided… or is it a warning about the future, a help focussing Hagar on the challenges Ishmael will face?
  Does Hagar receive this word as a warning to spend extra time developing his social skills as he grew up? It was certainly a useful warning about the heresy and church discipline that would fall on Ishmael and his mum in Genesis chapter 21.
  In verse 15 we see that Hagar must have returned and explained what the Angel of the LORD had told her, because Abram gave the son the name that the Angel of the LORD had commanded.
  Now, we can postpone the key question no longer. Who exactly is this Angel of the LORD? One writer describes Him as a strange and enigmatic figure of the Old Testament. This doubtful and hesitant assessment is incomprehensible to anyone who simply reads the different occasions when He is spoken of.
  Verse 13 tells us exactly who she has met with.
  "She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.'"
  The Angel of the LORD is the LORD. The Angel of the LORD is sent from the LORD yet is Himself the LORD.
  Hagar knows that she has met God and tells The Angel of the LORD "You are the God who sees me. I have now seen the One who sees me."
  She sees God! We cannot pass over such a remarkable statement without careful thought.
  Careful thought… What we can't do is fall into one of the most common traps by simply dismissing all the verses like this with the catch-all phrase "an enigmatic, mysterious verse". There is nothing mysterious about it at all… if we are thinking about it using the Bible rather than philosophy.
  In his book, Angels, Elect and Evil, Fred Dickason summarizes:
  "The Angel of Jehovah has been shown to be equal in essence with Jehovah and yet distinct from Jehovah… He is a pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord Jesus, the eternal Son. Indeed, He is the most frequent Christophany in the Old Testament. His ministries are varied and extensive and well known in the Old Testament times from the days of Abraham to Zechariah."
  That might sometimes seem a bold thesis in the wilderness of contemporary OT study, but historically such a conclusion was trivially obvious.
  The incomparable Jonathan Edwards of the 18th century put the matter like this:-
  When we read in sacred history what God did, from time to time, towards His Church and people, and how He revealed Himself to them, we are to understand it especially of the Second Person of the Trinity. When we read of God appearing after the fall, in some visible form, we are… to understand it of the Second Person of the Trinity... John 1:18. He is therefore called the image of the invisible God - Col 1:15 - intimating that though God the Father be invisible, yet Christ is His image or representation, by which He is seen. 
  The appearances of the LORD are always noteworthy in Genesis. In Genesis 12:7 Yahweh appeared to Abram… and in Genesis 17:1… and in Genesis 18:1. On two occasions in Genesis 26 Yahweh appeared to Isaac. Yahweh appeared to Jacob in Genesis 28, which he remembered in chapter 48:3. But, Yahweh also appeared to him in chapter 35.
  These appearances of Yahweh are not strange puzzles to be left on one side. Rather they play a critical role in the book of Genesis. The characters speak about these appearances and they form decisive moments in their lives. In Genesis 48, when Joseph comes to see the dying Jacob, Jacob rallies his strength, sits up in bed and says, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me…" That incident had left a deep impression on Jacob. It was at the core of his theological understanding.
  Later in Genesis 48 Jacob gives the theological summary of his whole life, in a way summarising the great lesson of Genesis, highlighting the central character in the whole book. Genesis 48:15-16 – "Then he blessed Joseph and said, "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm --may He bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth."
  Notice how Jacob describes the God who had been the focus of the lives of Abraham and Isaac, the One who had been Jacob's Shepherd all his life? That God is the Angel who has always faithfully delivered Jacob from harm. The only blessing worth passing on to Joseph's sons is that this God-Angel bless the boys. Then they will certainly inherit the blessing of Abraham and Isaac. There is nothing primitive about Jacob's theology. He is Christologically focussed in his faith and hope. Christ is clearly the object of his faith.
  Calvin comments on Genesis 48:15-16:
  Jacob joins the angel to God as an equal. He worships him and asks from him the same things he asked from God (v. 15). If you take this verse as a reference to an ordinary angel, the words are absurd. . . . It is necessary to understand them of Christ, who is intentionally given the title of angel because he has been the perpetual Mediator. Paul testifies that He was the leader and guide of the journey of his ancient people [through the wilderness]. Christ had not yet been sent by the Father to take on our flesh that he might come nearer to us; but he was always the link joining men to God, and God did not reveal himself otherwise than through him. Therefore he is rightly called Angel, Messenger. . . . For there has always been between God and man a distance too great for any communication to be possible without a mediator.
  If we are going to arrive at the kind of understanding of these appearances that is shown by the patriarchs themselves, we must think about them with the theological depth that they demand.
  [It is perhaps best not to always use the word 'Jesus' to describe the pre-incarnate Christ because it can sometimes lead to the mental image of a 1st century Galilean carpenter. Instead of that mental image we must pay attention to the different ways in which the Eternal Son of Man comes to people throughout the Old Testament with different levels of manifest glory -- from the heights of Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6, to the earthiness of Genesis 18 and 32].
  Many people get a bit distracted by the word 'angel'. In several recent studies of 'angels' the appearances of the Angel of the LORD are simply listed along with the other angels. This is just not good enough. There are many excellent studies and comprehensive lists of the many different names for the Living God in the OT. Yet, the same care has not been taken towards the titles for Christ in the OT – at least not in recent times. There are some brilliant pieces of work from the 19th century. When we study the titles of God/Christ in the OT we begin to see that some of them tend to be reserved for just one member of the Trinity. Of course, titles like THE Angel of the LORD, The Commander of the LORD's Army, the WORD of the LORD, the Voice of the LORD, the Angel of God all belong to Christ. There are titles that seem to be usually given only to the Father – e.g. the Most High God [though it is not exclusively the Father's title].
  The word "angel" simply means "messenger" or "one who is sent". The Angel of the LORD simply means "The One Sent from the LORD". It is especially important that we identify Him correctly because that is exactly the language that Jesus of Nazareth uses to describe Himself in the gospels – the One sent from the Father, the One sent to do the Father's will, the One sent to speak the words of the Father. By paying attention to these titles our focus on the pre-incarnate Christ is also a testimony to the Father -- the One who sends. We can never be 'Christomonistic' if we understand the meaning of the titles and mission of Christ. He doesn't send Himself or empower Himself. The Angel of the LORD visits people and performs mighty acts because He is sent from the Father.
  It is exciting for us to follow the main appearances of the Angel of the LORD throughout the OT. We have already looked at Genesis 16:7-11, so we can turn to 21:17, when the Angel of the LORD meets Hagar again.
  Whenever the LORD appears to Hagar He appears under the title of "The Angel of the LORD". Again Hagar and Ishmael are out in the desert, but this time they are not running away from the ancient church. As Luther suggests, they have been excommunicated by the presbyter Abraham because they have opposed justification by faith with justification by works.
  The next time the LORD appears as the Angel of the LORD is, of course, in chapter 22 when He prevents Abraham from sacrificing Isaac. What is absolutely clear is the nature of the Angel of the LORD – ""Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Abraham shows his fear of God in that he did not withhold his only-begotten son from the Angel of the LORD.
  Abraham's reaction to this brief encounter with the Angel of the LORD is striking. He is not left wondering what it could all mean. His gospel faith and understanding is a model of clarity.
  Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
  Abraham had prophesied that God would provide His own Lamb for the burnt offering – verse 8. Instead a ram had been provided as a symbolic substitute for Isaac. Abraham knows that animals provide NO atonement, yet by the prophetic power of the Spirit, he prophesies that the true burnt offering, the sacrifice that would actually take away sin, would be provided by the LORD on that very mountain, in the region of Moriah. It is such a specific and accurate prophecy! I'm sure we have shared that with our unbelieivng friends on many occasions. It is good to keep 2 Chronicles 3:1 handy as well, to show that Moriah is Jerusalem.
  In 22:15 The Angel of the LORD spoke to Abraham a second time, this time refreshing the gospel promises to him. He would have countless children all over the whole world through the Promised Seed, the Christ.
  It seems that the Angel of the LORD accompanied Abraham's servant when he went to get a believing wife for Isaac – 24:7, 40.
  The next reference to the Angel of the LORD is in chapter 31 when Jacob confesses that the reason he has been blessed with lots of livestock has nothing to do with his bizarre attempts at genetic manipulation, but is entirely the miraculous work of God. Jacob speaks to Rachel and Leah: -
  God has taken away your father's livestock and has given them to me. In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. The Angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob.' I answered, `Here I am.' And He said, 'Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.' "
  The only thing that we need note here is that the Angel of the LORD describes Himself as the God of Bethel. This is why Bethel plays such a key role in the books of Genesis and Judges. To go to Bethel is to draw near to this 'God of Bethel'.
  Jacob is not in any way perplexed or confused by these words of the Angel of God. He doesn't say, "hang on, you can't be saying that because that would run against my primitive unitarian understanding of God." No, Jacob understands the doctrine of God better than many Christians today. He seems fully comfortable with the understanding that the Angel of God is both sent from the LORD in the heavens, yet is truly God Himself. There is not the slightest hint of any fall into polytheism here. Geerhardus Vos makes the strange statement that the patriarchs couldn't handle the doctrine of the Trinity because they would have just fallen into polytheism. This is just prejudice, because there is nothing in the actual text to suggest anything like that. We will return to that theme tomorrow in Genesis 18-19.
  The only other specific reference to this title of the pre-incarnate Christ in Genesis is the one we noticed in 48:15-16 when Jacob describes the whole lives of Abraham, Isaac and himself as lives walking with the Angel of the LORD.
  Before we take a quick squint at the other references to the Angel of the LORD in the OT, let's just catch our breath.
  So many of our contemporary writings on the OT bear very little resemblance to the carefully nuanced and Christological language of the actual characters in the OT. Most of the books I have read recently simply use the rather bland 'God' or 'Lord' to describe the God of the OT, regardless of which member of the Trinity is actually speaking or acting at any particular time. This is done even when the actual OT characters speak with much greater sophistication and depth.
  If we are to be faithful to the actual text of the OT we need to be much more careful to give a full and realistic expression to the faith of the ancient church – rather than forcing them into some predefined scheme of Yahweh-Unitarianism.
  We must remember the origins of much of contemporary OT study. The concept of PROGRESS was the governing paradigm of the 19th century. It was applied to politics through Marx, with his theory that history was involved in a slow, but inevitable progress towards a communist utopia. It was applied to Biology by Darwin, with his theory that all of life in its vast diversity is simply part of the slow, unfolding of a simple principle of genetic selection. It was applied to Psychology by Freud who saw the human race moving from its infancy in religion and superstition to the maturity of rationalism. It was applied by Hegel to Philosophy, such that human ideas were presented as the product of a long slow unfolding process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. It was applied to religion generally by many scholars in the thesis that primitive man was an animist, then a polytheist, then a simple monotheist, then a complex ritualistic monotheist. The more conservative ones tried to assert that the final stage of the process was trinitarianism – but it was a futile gesture, given that the whole scheme was so hostile to Biblical faith.
  The myth of progress was also applied to Biblical study, such that the Bible too was studied as the history of the developing progression of the history of religion in ancient Israel, from a confused polytheism to a simple, prophetic monotheism, finally to a complex ritualistic Yahweh-monotheism.
  Under these imposed evolutionary schemes Abraham was a theological amoeba, David an early vertebrate and Isaiah possibly a cave-painting Neanderthal!
  There can be no useful evangelical response to this except to turn away from it all and continue the pattern of Bible study modelled to us within the Bible itself.
  So, rather than assume that the ancient Israelites were theological bumpkins who had trouble differentiating the Living God from any other god, let's allow them to define themselves in their own words and experiences as recorded for us in the Bible.
  Let's continue our examination of the title 'Angel of the LORD' to see what the Christology of the OT saints really was.
  There are two critical references to the Angel of the LORD in the book of Exodus – in chapter 3 and in chapter 14.
  In chapter 3:1-6 the Angel of the LORD stands in the burning bush in order to commission Moses as His representative. When we read the incident for ourselves it seems very simple. The Angel of the LORD says,
  "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
  So, the One sent from the LORD, the One sent to perform the will and speak the words of the LORD, is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Furthermore to see the Angel of the LORD is to see God.
  In chapter 14 we see the title 'Angel of God' used once again. This time it is used to describe the way the pre-incarnate Christ leads Israel out of Egypt in the Exodus.
  14:19-20 – "Then the angel of God, who had been travelling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long."
  To get the full impact of these verses we need to just note 13:21-22 –
  "By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people."
  It was Yahweh who was leading them out of Egypt in a pillar of cloud and fire. Some have mistakenly thought that the cloud actually was the LORD – that He had taken the form of a pillar of cloud and fire. However, this kind of speculation is both unhelpful and inaccurate. The Angel of God is the one who is travelling in the cloud – and when he goes to stand behind the people the cloud tags along behind Him.
  This pillar of cloud and fire acts as a kind of giant signpost pointing to the location of the Angel of the LORD among the people.
  By paying attention to these features of Moses' writings we can see why Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 are nothing but straightforward exegesis. Sometimes people speak as if there was something radical or mysterious about the apostolic exegesis of the OT – but it is completely unremarkable, as we have seen.
  The pre-incarnate Christ chose the title of 'The Angel of the LORD' when He came to deal with wicked Balaam in Numbers 22. Again, we see that He is the LORD who deals directly with His people.
  The book that focuses most on the ministry of Christ as The Angel of the LORD is the book of Judges. Judges 2:1-4 is a kind of summary of the whole of the Bible up to that point.
  The Angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, `I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you." When the angel of the LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud…
  See how the Angel of the LORD summarises the Pentateuch. He was the one who swore to give the Promised Land to the Patriarchs. He was the One who redeemed them from Egypt. He has been faithful to HIS covenant – yet they have disobeyed Him.
  These verses are like a little test for us. If we haven't understood what we have read in this way then we should go back to the beginning and start again with a better Christology.
  We could have looked at the other titles under which the Eternal Son acted in the Old Testament. By taking seriously the teaching of Genesis 16 regarding the Angel of the LORD, we have been able to get deeper into the theology of the Pentateuch. We could have looked at Jacob wrestling with a man who is God or Joshua being challenged by the Commander of the LORD's army in Joshua 5:13-15. We could have examined the references to the real King of Israel or simply to 'the Christ'. All of these studies are deeply rewarding once we allow the OT to present its own theology, its own Christology.
  The OT does not have a different Christology or doctrine of God to the NT. While Calvin does not neglect to show how the New Testament has greater clarity than the Old Testament, yet he constantly reminds us that the form and content of redemption and revelation is the same in both Testaments.
  If what Christ says is true – "No one sees the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him" [Matt. 11:27] – surely they who would attain the knowledge of God should always be directed by that eternal Wisdom… Therefore, holy men of old knew God only by beholding Him in His Son as in a mirror. When I say this, I mean that God has never manifested Himself to men in any other way than through the Son, that is, His sole wisdom, light and truth. From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others drank all that they had...
   
  Rev Paul Blackham is Associate Minister, Curate Theologian at All Soul's Church Langham Place
 
              
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