Three Men or Three Divine Beings? (Genesis 18 and 19)

The Genesis account in chapters 18 and 19 are used to try and prove the trinity and preexistence of Jesus.

In Genesis 18:1 it states:

“And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;”

There is no question that it says “Jehovah” appeared to Abraham and reading the next verse it says when Abraham lifted his head he saw three men standing before him.

We know that it was not literally the LORD (principle) who appeared to Abraham, it was an agent of LORD who is treated as the LORD and also worshiped as God’s agent.  We have to keep this in mind because scripture is clear that no one has seen God (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12; 1 Tim. 6:16).

We know in the Genesis account that Jacob wrestled with a heavenly being and said to have “seen God face to face.”  Jacob did not fight and overpower God, and since God was losing the battle that He had to resort to dislocating Jacob’s hip.   Hosea said Jacob actually struggled with an angel (Hos. 12:3-4).  So Jacob was not fighting with the LORD (principle), but with an angel (the agent).

I will give another example.  At Mt. Sinai it is said that Jehovah spoke “out of the midst of the fire” (Duet. 4:12) when giving the law to Moses.  But we learn later from Stephen that it was actually an angel (agent of Jehovah) who spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Acts 7:35, 38, 53).  Paul also says, 

“The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator [Moses]” (Gal. 3:19).  

Hebrews 2:2 confirms this point.  What appears to be a contradiction is no contradiction at all.  As the agent of the LORD, the angel is treated as the LORD and as if the LORD actually spoke.

Now many will claim that the “angel of the LORD” is the pre-incarnate (pre-human) form of Jesus and thus God, and there you have your "trinity" (though the shy third member - holy spirit - is hardly mentioned), but nowhere does scripture suggest this.  Jesus is never said to be an angel or called the “angel of the LORD.”  The book of Hebrews is very clear about the supremacy of the Son and the superiority of his ministry over that of God’s servants, the angels (1:5-14).  Jesus is superior to the angels, and since he is superior to the angels cannot himself be an angel, not to mention that in Hebrews we learn that God did not expressly speak through His Son in the Old Testament (Heb. 1:2).  Why?  Because Jesus the Messiah was not yet living.  He was brought into existence (begotten) in Mary’s womb (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35).

The Genesis account in chapters 18 and 19 proves these three were angels in the form of a men.

• "and lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him:" (Gen. 18:1)
•  "the men turned from there, and went forward toward Sodom" (Gen.18:22)
• "The two angels came to Sodom" (Gen. 19:1) 

 Michael A. Barber states,

Angels often spoke the very words that God himself would have spoken had he been personally present.  For example, the angel who visited Abraham spoke as if he were God himself at Genesis 18:1, 13, 17, 20, 22, 26, 33.  However, in the same chapter the angels – including the one acting as chief spokesman – are referred to as “men”: verses 2, 10, 16, 22.In v. 22 it is said that the “men” went to Sodom, but the “LORD” remained.  Inasmuch as there were three “men” originally (18:2), two went to Sodom (19:1), and one acted as spokesman before Abraham (18:10 says “man”” rather than “men”), logically this latter angel was the chief spokesman, the chief representative before God.

Similarly, at Genesis 16:7, it is an “angel of the LORD” who visits Hagar.  But after the visitation Hagar said, “Have I indeed seen God and still live?” (v.13 NEB) 

Other angels, though representatives of God, spoke as if they were God, or viewed as if they were God: Genesis 32:30; Exodus 3:2, 4, 6, 4:24; Numbers 22:32; Joshua 5:14 (compare 6:2); Judges 2:1; 6:11, 15, 22; 13:3, 8, 20; 1 Kings 19:5, 7, 11, 15; Acts 7:30-32; 127, 17.The Trinitarian view of this passage (Genesis 18 & 19) tends to overstep the bounds of absurdity.  Why should the fact that God sent three angels, as opposed to two, or one, have anything to do with the mystical divine persons of the Godhead?  Where is the Scriptural evidence of this connection? (Should Christianity Abandon the Doctrine of the Trinity? Pp. 65,66)

So what we have is the Jewish law of agency, that is, a person’s agent is regarded as the person himself.  God’s agents or chosen representatives in the Old Testament had full authority to speak, command, and use Yahweh’s name.  This is proven in Exodus when God reveals to Moses the phrase “I AM, or “I will be” (Ex. 3:14).  Yet it was actually “the angel of Yahweh” (Exod. 3:2 and confirmed in Acts 7:35) and not God Himself that appeared in the burning bush and talks with Moses.  

Consider what Exodus 23:20-23 says,

"Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off."

So the messenger (angel) actually speaks to Israel, but Yahweh says, "all that I speak." Look up some of these passages where it talks about the angel of the LORD spoke as though he were Yahweh (Gen. 22:10-12; Gen. 31:10-13; Jud. 2:1,4). 

Jesus is not the "angel of the LORD."  The "angel of the LORD" even appears several time in the New Testament.  Especially note in Matt. 28:2,3,5,6 where it states,

“And, behold! A great earthquake occurred! For descending from Heaven and coming near, an angel of the Lord rolled away the stone from the door and was sitting on it. And his face was as lightning and his clothing white as snow.” 

“… the angel said to the women, You must not fear, for I know that you seek Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, even as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

If Jesus is the "angel of the Lord," he could not say, "He is not here."  As said above, Jesus was never an angel nor was he the "angel of the LORD" or a spokesman throughout the Old Testament.  Jesus was not a pre-incarnate Messiah.  God spoke through prophets (and angels) in the era preceding the Messiah (Heb. 1:1-2)