Five Times Jesus Showed Up Before Bethlehem (and the early church never kept silent about it)
Proto-Tabernacle Series – Week 8
The New Testament doesn’t begin in Matthew 1. It begins in Genesis 1.
Long before the manger in Bethlehem, the pre-incarnate Christ was already appearing in the Old Testament showing up in ways that left people stunned, worshiping, and forever changed. The earliest Christians pointed to these moments again and again. They saw them as proof that Jesus wasn’t a late arrival. He was there from the start.
Here are five clear appearances the early church fathers highlighted:
1. Genesis 18 – The Visitor who ate with Abraham Three men show up. Two are angels. The third eats a meal, accepts worship, promises Sarah a son, and then rains fire on Sodom. Justin Martyr (around 160 AD) was blunt: “It was the Son of God who appeared to Abraham and spoke with him.”
2. Genesis 32 – The Man who wrestled Jacob all night Jacob wrestles a mysterious “man” (אִישׁ – ish) until dawn and walks away limping, declaring, “I have seen God face to face” (פָּנִים אֶל־פָּנִים – panim el-panim). He even names the place Peniel (פְּנִיאֵל – “face of God”). Hosea 12:3–5 later identifies the wrestler as both “God” (אֱלֹהִים – Elohim) and “the Angel” (מַלְאָךְ – mal’akh). The early church fathers: Tertullian, Origen, and Augustine were clear: this was the pre-incarnate Son.
3. Exodus 3 – The One in the burning bush The voice from the flames says, “I AM WHO I AM.” Centuries later, Jesus tells the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58) and they try to stone Him for claiming that exact divine name. Irenaeus (around 180 AD) taught that the Son was the One speaking to Moses in the bush.
4. Joshua 5 – The Captain of the LORD’s army A warrior with a drawn sword appears to Joshua, accepts worship, and commands him to remove his sandals on holy ground the same words given to Moses at the bush. Justin Martyr called this “Jesus, the Commander who appeared to Joshua.”
5. Daniel 3 – The Fourth Man in the fire Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the blazing furnace. Nebuchadnezzar sees a fourth figure and says, “The appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” Hippolytus (around 220 AD) declared: “The Son of God walked with them in the furnace.”
The early church showed a strong consensus on this point. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Hippolytus, and many others (including Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, Novatian, and later figures such as Ambrose and Athanasius) repeatedly identified these moments: Abraham’s visitor, Jacob’s wrestler, the burning bush, the Captain of the Lord’s army, and the Fourth Man in the fire, as appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ. “Why? Because the apostle whom Jesus loved wrote, “no one has ever seen God [the Father]; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known” (John 1:18).
These weren’t random visions, they were prophetic visions. They were the same Person who would one day say “I AM” in the flesh walking with Abraham, wrestling Jacob, speaking from the bush, leading the army, and standing in the fire.
Next Saturday: we finally open Genesis 3:24 in the original Hebrew and watch Eden itself become the first tabernacle. The series is building to something big.
Blessings,
William
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