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Here, Jacob obviously had very personal dealings with "The Lord God Almighty".
Moreover, on an earlier occasion, in Gen. 32:, where Jacob had traveled from Bethel
to Jabbok, we read:
"There wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of the day . . . . . And Jacob called
the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved"
(Gen. 32: 24, 30).
Again, in Exodus, we read:
"Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of
Israel; and they saw the God of Israel . . . . . they beheld God, and did eat and drink"
(Exod. 24: 9-11).
"The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend"
(Exod. 33: 11).
We have already dealt with the place that the incarnation holds in the Divine scheme,
and have drawn attention to the fact that John 1: 14 does not say, "The Word became
man", but that "The Word became flesh". The New Testament declares that Jesus Christ
was a "man", but it does not say that He became such at the incarnation. Phil. 2:
declares that He was found in fashion as a man, and Rom. 8: that He was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, but Gen. 32: had already indicated that the God of Jacob was
a "man" long before the lowly birth at Bethlehem. All this we have already considered
when dealing with John 1: 14, but it is so important that we repeat some of our
conclusions here. The invisible God expressed Himself before time began. He Who
created the world and all things, first of all humbled Himself by taking visible shape. He
became the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature, the Beginning
of the creation of God. He, the visible God, was the One after Whose image and
likeness Adam was created, and He it was Who walked in Eden in the cool of the day.
He, the visible God, was the God of Israel seen by Moses and the Seventy. And so, when
John 1: 18 declares that "no man hath seen God at any time", and the Old Testament
declares that certain men did see God, there is no contradiction. John 1: 18 refers to God
Who is Spirit, whereas the Old Testament speaks of the One Who, for the purposes of
creation and mediation, became the Image of the invisible God, and in the fullness of
time, for the putting away of sin, became flesh, and the Only Begotten of the Father.
The second clause of John 1: 18 reads in the Authorized Version as follows: "The
only begotten Son, Which is in the bosom of the Father." The Revised Version margin
reads: "Many very ancient authorities read God only begotten." This reading is found in
the Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Ephraemi, and the Codex Regius.
It is also found in 33 of the cursive manuscripts, the Peshito versions, the Memphitic and
Aetheopian, and a host of the Fathers. Arius, though opposed to the doctrine of the deity
of Christ, upheld this reading, and it was incorporated in the creed of Antioch.
Lachmann, Tregelles, & Westcott and Hort also accept it as the true version. The words
"only begotten Son" are the words we should expect, and it hardly seems possible that so
strange a reading as "God only begotten" should have been inserted in place of the more
usual "The only begotten Son". In this marvelous prologue we have some wonderful
revelations of movements in the Godhead, all directed towards manifestation and