Jesus’ Preincarnate Appearances – Moses – Pt 03

Summary

Podcast Summary: Jesus’ Preincarnate Appearances – Moses – Pt 03

Podcast: Grace in Focus
Host: Bob Wilkin (B), with David Renfrow (C)
Date: July 15, 2026
Duration: ~13 minutes

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Bob Wilkin and David Renfrow delve into the preincarnate appearances of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, focusing on his encounters with Moses. The hosts examine the theological implications of these appearances, especially regarding the burning bush episode, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and parallels to Jesus’ ministry in the New Testament. The conversation emphasizes how these theophanies support Free Grace Theology's distinctions between justification and sanctification.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Preincarnate Appearances of Christ (Theophanies) in the Old Testament

• Opening Theme: The second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, appears bodily to various figures in the Old Testament, not just as an abstract presence or angel.

  • Quote: "Does Jesus Christ appear to people in the Old Testament? The answer is overwhelmingly yes."
    —David Renfrow [01:22]

• Previous Examples Reviewed: Adam and Eve, Abraham before Sodom and Gomorrah and during the offering of Isaac.

  • Jesus is sometimes referred to as the "New Moses," drawing a parallel between Moses’ leadership in the Exodus and Christ’s future deliverance of Israel.

2. Christ’s Appearances to Moses

The Burning Bush (Exodus 3)

• Event: Moses encounters a burning bush that is not consumed by fire—a miraculous sign.

  • Quote: "The angel of the Lord, capital A, capital A, appeared to him in a flame of fire in the midst of the bush."
    —Bob Wilkin [03:44]

• God's Direct Command: Moses is told, "Take your shoes off, this is holy ground," underscoring the sacredness of being in Yahweh's presence.

  • Quote: "It's holy ground because he's standing before Yahweh, before the Lord."
    —David Renfrow [04:21]

The Meaning of "Moses"

• Moses' name means "to draw out," referencing his rescue from the Nile as an infant (a further sign of miraculous deliverance).

The Calling of Moses

• Purpose of the burning bush encounter: God calls Moses to shepherd the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt—foreshadowing Christ’s own shepherding role for Israel.

  • Quote: "It's really the calling of Moses to do what the Lord wants him to do...to leave slavery in Egypt to the promised land."
    —Bob Wilkin [05:18]

• Moses as a Type of Christ: Initially hesitant and feeling inadequate, Moses is assured by God, who provides Aaron to assist him, symbolizing divine provision for God’s messengers.

  • Notable command: God identifies Himself as "I am that I am" (Yahweh), marking a direct revelation of His nature.

Parallels with the Ten Commandments

• At Sinai: Jesus (preincarnate) gives Moses the Ten Commandments after Israel’s Exodus—these are etched in stone "by the finger of God," not written on paper.

  • Quote: "The Lord wrote these commandments with what? ... It says his finger."
    —Bob Wilkin [08:01]

• Comparison to John 8: The episode of Jesus writing in the dirt during the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11) is highlighted as a New Testament echo of the Sinai event.

  • Quote: "Why would John tell us that, that he wrote with his finger? ... If what John is saying is this is the one who wrote the Ten Commandments with his finger."
    —David Renfrow [09:19]

• Theological Insight: Jesus, as the Lawgiver, authoritatively interprets and fulfills the Law, emphasizing that eternal life was always by faith in Messiah, not by law-keeping.

  • Quote: "Those commandments were never designed to give us life. Life was always by faith in Messiah. Abraham knew that, Moses knew that, all of the Old Testament believers knew that."
    —David Renfrow [10:32]

3. Rejection and Fulfillment

• Tragically, Israel's rejection of Jesus as Messiah led to national disaster (notably the war and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD), as prophesied by Jesus.
• The pattern of witnessing miracles yet turning away is paralleled between the Israelites in Moses’ time and the Jews in Jesus’ day.
  • Quote: "Jesus did so many miracles and so many things that were patterned after what's in the Old Testament...and also the obstinance of the Jewish people."
    —Bob Wilkin [11:45]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the burning bush: "I think Moses at that point was overwhelmed by what was going on."
  —Bob Wilkin [03:36]

• On Yahweh’s identification: "His answer is, I am. That I am. And that's where we get the word Yahweh."
  —David Renfrow [06:08]

• On the Law and Jesus: "I'm the author of the commandment, you shall not commit adultery. And you're asking me what we're supposed to do with this woman? I'm the commander, right."
  —David Renfrow [09:19]

• On believing in Christ: "If you tell us that whoever believes in you has everlasting life, then we believe that it's not a matter of keeping the commandments...Life was always by faith in Messiah."
  —David Renfrow [10:32]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–01:05 – Introduction and episode theme
• 01:05–03:22 – Overview of OT appearances of Christ, focus shifts to Moses
• 03:22–06:08 – The burning bush: miracle, command to Moses, meaning of Moses’ name
• 06:46–09:19 – Mount Sinai, the giving/writing of the Ten Commandments, connection to John 8
• 09:19–10:32 – Jesus’ authority as Lord and Lawgiver, faith versus law-keeping
• 10:32–12:19 – Jewish rejection, consequences, pattern across history
• 12:19–13:02 – Recap and preview of further discussion on Moses

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Tone & Style

The dialogue is conversational, warm, and rich with scriptural references—inviting the listener to rediscover familiar Bible stories through the lens of Free Grace Theology. The hosts use practical examples, rhetorical questions, and accessible language, occasionally pausing to draw direct lines between Old Testament theophanies and New Testament revelations of Christ.

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Summary

This episode offers thought-provoking insights on Jesus’ preincarnate appearances to Moses, asserting these encounters as foundational to understanding both Old and New Testament theology. With comparisons between Moses and Christ, and the Lawgiver’s continuous work from Exodus to the Gospels, listeners are equipped to appreciate the distinctive Free Grace perspective on salvation, faith, and divine revelation.

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For more resources and teachings, visit: faithalone.org

Transcript

[A]

The following is a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. We continue our conversation about the Old Testament prehistoric appearances of Christ in bodily form Today. Moses is one to whom Christ appears many times. One of the most remarkable at the burning Bush. We are glad to have you with us today, friend. This is Grace in Focus Radio, a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org you can learn a lot about us there and we want you to subscribe for our subscription free magazine. It is called Grace in Focus, comes out six times per year with some very fine articles from our free grace perspective. Full length, full color. We want you to have it. It is free all except you do have to pay postage if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States. Otherwise free. Thank you for signing up for it. Find out about it at our website, faithalone.org now with today's discussion, here's Bob Wilkin along with David Renfrow.

[B]

We are continuing for the third session our discussion about does the Lord appear physically? Sometimes. Anyway, does he appear to people in

[C]

the Old Testament, particularly the Lord Jesus Christ?

[B]

And we're talking the second person of the Trinity, Second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. And does Jesus Christ appear to people in the Old Testament? The answer is overwhelmingly yes.

[C]

And we've looked at several examples thus far. Adam and Eve in the garden. And we know that he met with Abraham on multiple occasions. And we've looked at several of those occasions before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And when Abraham was offering up his only son, Isaac, he met with him there. And now we're going to look at another key person in the Old Testament, Moses. In fact, some people call the Lord Jesus Christ the New Moses, right? Just as Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt in the Exodus, so the Lord Jesus Christ is going to redeem the people of Israel from bondage. And in Israel, at the end of the tribulation, he's going to come and he's going to set them free from their Gentile domination when the all the countries of the world will have armies surrounding Jerusalem, right? He's going to set them free physically. They already at that point will be believers in him. They already will have eternal life, but they need another kind of salvation. The kind of salvation that's spoken of in Zechariah 9:9 in the triumphal entry. Here comes Savior. He's coming into the city. Well, that salvation there is not salvation from eternal condemnation, although that's included. But it's salvation that was Ultimately promised all the way in the Old Testament. And so when the Lord meets with Moses, he does so on many different occasions. One of them would be the burning bush. What happened at the burning bush?

[B]

Well, the Lord actually talked to him. And the episode of the burning bush happens in Exodus chapter three.

[C]

Right. And so when he appears, Moses sees this bush burning but not being consumed.

[B]

And it's very curious, you know, he's wondering, how in the world could that happen?

[C]

And the Lord tells him to take off his sandals. Right.

[B]

In Exodus 3, 2, it says, the angel of the Lord, capital A, capital A, appeared to him in a flame of fire in the midst of the bush. So he looked and behold, the bush was burning, but the bush was not consumed. I think that's a miracle. Yes, I think Moses at that point was overwhelmed by what was going on. And so in verse 4, God calls to him and says, moses, Moses, there's that repetition again. And Moses says, here I am. And that's when he says, take your shoes off, this is holy ground.

[C]

And it's holy ground because he's standing before Yahweh, before the Lord.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

And by the way, what does Moshe mean? Moses.

[B]

The word Moses or the name Moses comes from a Hebrew verb that means to draw out. And it comes from when Moses was a baby.

[C]

Oh, he was drawn out of the

[B]

Nile, out of the Nile because his mother wanted to protect, because a member of the Pharaoh was killing all the Hebrew men or babies.

[C]

And by the way, that's another miracle, and that's mentioned in Hebrews 11, that his parents by faith put him in this little ark and he was brought to the daughter of Pharaoh.

[B]

He was saved.

[C]

Yes, he was.

[B]

Meaning he was rescued.

[C]

Right, he was rescued. So here Moses, the one drawn out, is now meeting the pre incarnate Lord Jesus Christ.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And what's the purpose of this meeting?

[B]

It's really the calling of Moses to do what the Lord wants him to do. And that is to be his shepherd of the people of Israel, to leave slavery in Egypt to the promised land.

[C]

Right.

[B]

He's going to be the Lord's shepherd amongst his covenant people, Israel.

[C]

And he's sort of a type of Christ.

[B]

He grew into a sort of type of Christ. At first it wasn't that way. I mean, if you read some of the examples of Moses, it's like, well, I can't speak.

[C]

I mean, how am I going to do this?

[B]

I'm totally incompetent.

[C]

And then he says, okay, I'll use your brother Aaron to speak for you. And he's like, well, okay. And then he's got to have some sort of. Who shall I say sent me, right? And his answer is, I am. That I am.

[B]

And that's where we get the word Yahweh.

[A]

We will return to our program content shortly, but we're taking this break to let you know that Grace and Focus is shortly going to be transitioning to digital delivery only. We've appreciated this fine radio station, and being part of its lineup has been a privilege indeed. But we're going to say goodbye to this time slot and make room for another ministry right here. You can continue to listen to Grace in Focus. Just pick the time of day anytime 24 7, and find us on Spotify, Apple, and many other podcast outlets.

[C]

So the Lord meets with him at the burning bush, with Moses at the burning bush. But then the Lord meets with him on many occasions. For example, after the 10 plagues, which you've written about in our magazine, after the deliverance, when they leave Egypt and they're given gold and silver, and they're giving clothing and all kinds of things from the people of Egypt, and. And after they come up to the Red Sea and God opens the Red Sea and saves them through the Red Sea and then destroys the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. After all of that, Moses goes to Mount Sinai, where God gives him the Ten Commandments. Who's the one that gives him the Ten Commandments?

[B]

The Lord.

[C]

The Lord.

[B]

Yahweh, how do we.

[C]

The Ten Commandments weren't written on pieces of paper, were they?

[B]

No, they weren't.

[C]

No.

[B]

They didn't have an office store that they could buy tablets of paper.

[C]

So what were the Ten Commandments written on?

[B]

They were etched in stone.

[C]

How many stones?

[B]

Two stones.

[C]

Two stones. And the Lord wrote these commandments with what? Did he have a stylus or something? He had a chisel.

[B]

It says his finger.

[C]

His finger. So Moses has these tablets and. And when he sees that the people have actually made golden calves and were worshiping the golden calves and saying, these brought us out of Egypt, what does Moses do with these tablets?

[B]

He throws them onto that golden calf.

[C]

He breaks them. Right?

[B]

He breaks them on the golden calf, and the golden calf pretty much gets destroyed, which should be.

[C]

Well, he ends up and burns the golden calf.

[B]

Why would you worship a God that's inferior to the God of the Bible,

[C]

which is not a God at all? This golden calf was a nothing, Right? And instead you've got the God of creation. But then Moses ends up with the Ten Commandments. Because those ten Commandments end up in the Ark of the Covenant, right?

[B]

They do.

[C]

And so how does the new ten Commandments be written out?

[B]

Same thing. Two more tablets were etched on by

[C]

the finger of the Lord. Well, guess what happens in John 7, 53, 8, 11? The woman caught in adultery. Guess what happens when they say that we should kill her. What do you say? Jesus stoops down and writes in the dirt. With what? He writes with his finger.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then he stands up and then he gets down and a second time he writes in the dirt with his finger. Why would John tell us that, that he wrote with his finger? And why tell us he wrote twice? Seemingly insignificant, unimportant details. Well, they're important. If what John is saying is this is the one who wrote the Ten Commandments with his finger. And he's saying, I'm the author of the commandment, you shall not commit adultery. And you're asking me what we're supposed to do with this woman? I'm the commander, Right. I'm the one who wrote these commandments with my own finger. And so then he says, well, let the one who's without sin cast the first stone. And they all leave, from the oldest to the youngest, and they realize he got them. And so Jesus met with Moses at Mount Sinai and he gave them the commandments. That's why when Jesus appears to the people in the first century, they should have been worshiping him.

[B]

Right?

[C]

They should have been saying, you're the Messiah, you're the chosen one, you're the one that is the King of Israel. And if you tell us that whoever believes in you has everlasting life, then we believe that it's not a matter of keeping the commandments. Yes, you did give us the commandments to keep us a separate people, right? That the Jewish people would not intermarry, etc. But those commandments were never designed to give us life. Life was always by faith in Messiah. Abraham knew that, Moses knew that, all of the Old Testament believers knew that. And so they should have believed in him and worshiped him. And if they had, and they'd come to faith in him and followed him, the kingdom would have come in the first century.

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

But instead, as a result of their rejection of Jesus, ultimately, 66 to 70 AD, there's the Jewish war. Jerusalem is destroyed as Jesus had prophesied. The temple is destroyed as Jesus had prophesied. And ultimately the kingdom is still awaiting Jesus second coming.

[B]

It just shows that there's a huge pattern there because Jesus did so many miracles and so many things that were patterned after what's in the Old Testament. Like you're saying the finger writing, the law, the Ten Commandments and all that. It's amazing that that pattern is used by the Lord and also the obstinance of the Jewish people. Absolutely. I mean, they literally saw the miracles. They were eyewitnesses to miracle after miracle in the Old Testament during the Exodus. The crossing of the Red Sea is just one of them.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And then Jesus doing miracle after miracle. The Jews in Jesus Day saw his miracles after miracle after miracle and still did not believe. Anytime they came up to some kind of conflict, they'd go, oh, thanks for putting us in this situation. But that's, you know, what do we call that?

[C]

What?

[B]

Sinful human nature.

[C]

Yeah, you're exactly right. Well, we haven't even scratch the surface with just Jesus appearances to Moses. So next time we'll finish up talking about Jesus appearances to Moses. And in the meantime, we're going to

[B]

keep grace in focus.

[A]

Be sure to check out our daily [e-mail] they are short and full of great teaching, just like what you've heard today. Find [e-mail] resources blog. We would like to thank all of our financial partners who help us keep this show going. All gifts are tax deductible and very much appreciated. If you'd like to find out how you can be a financial partner, Visit [e-mail] In our next episode, more of Jesus Preincarnate appearances to Moses. Please join us. And until then, let's keep grace in focus. The proceeding has been a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.