God Appears in Human Form

We speak about God as spirit, invisible, without a body - and Scripture says that. It also, repeatedly, shows him standing in front of people in human form.
The pattern: in the Old Testament "God often appears in human form, he appears as a man... anthropomorphic language where God has hands and he sits and he stands and he walks."
Three of the strangest examples sit in plain sight. Three men visit Abraham at Mamre, and one of them is the LORD; Abraham feeds them, and they eat. Moses, Aaron and seventy elders go up the mountain, and the text says they saw the God of Israel, and he did not lay a hand on them, and they ate and drank. Jacob wrestles a man until daybreak and names the place Peniel - "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."
None of this is treated as a problem by the writers. It is treated as how he shows up.
Scripture links:
- Genesis 18:1-8 - "the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre... and they ate."
- Exodus 24:9-11 - "they saw the God of Israel... they beheld God, and ate and drank."
- Genesis 32:24-30 - "I have seen God face to face."
Hold that thought. It is where the next series begins.