1) God appears to Abraham.
Setting: Abraham is old and without any children from Sarah.
Occurrence: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to
Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be
blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will
multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked
with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you
shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called
Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of
many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make
nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My
covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their
generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your
descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after
you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an
everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:1-8
Question: Are you without friends or family?
2) God appears to Isaac.
Setting: King Abimelech orders Isaac to leave his home at Gerar.
Occurrence: Then he went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord
appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father
Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply
your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar
there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent
there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well. Genesis 26:23-25
Question: Are you homeless?
3) God appears to Jacob.
Setting: Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to
your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred
men are with him.” So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he
divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and
camels, into two companies. Genesis 32:6-7
Occurrence: Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with
him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail
against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of
Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, “Let
Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless
You bless me!” So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said,
“Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but
Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have
prevailed.” Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And
He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him
there. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen
God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Genesis 32:24-30
Question: Are you afraid of family members?
4) God appears to Moses
Setting: The Children of Israel are in Egypt under bondage and Moses has been leading a meaningless life.
Occurrence: Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back
of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of
the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.
So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush
was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this
great sight, why the bush does not burn.” So when the LORD saw
that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the
bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said,
“Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the
place where you stand is holy ground.” 6Moreover He said, “I am the God
of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And
the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are
in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their task masters, for I
know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and
large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the
Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the
Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the
children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression
with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will
send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of
Israel, out of Egypt.”
Question: Are you leading a meaningless life?
5) God appears to Joshua
Setting: The Children of Israel are before Jericho without a plan of attack and manna had ceased to be available.
Occurrence: And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he
lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with
His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him,
“Are You for us or for our adversaries?” So He said, “No, but as
Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And Joshua fell on
his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my
Lord say to His servant?” Then the Commander of the LORD’S army said to
Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand
is holy.” And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was securely shut up because
of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the
Lord said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its
king, and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all
you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall
do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns
before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city
seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to
pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you
hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a
great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the
people shall go up every man straight before him.” Then Joshua the son
of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the
covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns
before the ark of the Lord.”
Question: Are you uncertain on what to do?
6) God appears to Gideon
Setting: And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to
the LORD because of the Midianites, that the LORD sent a prophet to the
children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of
Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house
of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and
out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you
and gave you their land. Also I said to you, “I am the LORD your God;
do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you
have not obeyed My voice.’” Judges 6:7-10
Occurrence: Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth
tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while
his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it
from the Midianites. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and
said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon
said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this
happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told
us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now
the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the
Midianites.” Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of
yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have
I not sent you?” So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel?
Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my
father’s house.” And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you,
and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” Judges 6:11-16
Question Are you afraid of menacing foreigners?
7) God appears to Samson’s parents.
Setting: The Children of Israel were under bondage to the Philistines
and Samson’s parents did not have any children. Judges 13:1-2
Occurrence: And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to
her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you
shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, please be careful not to
drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. For
behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon
his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and
he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
Judges 13:3-5
Question: Are you uncertain about the future?
8) God appears to Isaiah
Setting: King Uzziah has just died and Isaiah is a young prophet.
Occurrence: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting
on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the
temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he
covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of
hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door
were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled
with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” Isaiah 6:1-5
Question: Are you afraid that your country is in turmoil?
9) God appears with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego
Setting: Nebuchadnezzar created a large golden image to be worshipped
by everyone. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego refused and were shown
into a fiery furnace.
Occurrence: Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on
his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and
commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was
usually heated. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were
in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them
into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their
coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and
were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore,
because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot,
the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-Nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego,
fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then King
Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying
to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of
the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” “Look!”
he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire;
and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of
God.” Daniel 3:19-25
Question: Are you worshiping something besides God?
10) God appears to the Disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Setting: Jesus Christ was crucified three days prior and these disciples had lost hope and left Jerusalem.
Occurrence: Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. Luke 24:25-35
Question: Have you lost all hope?
11) God appears to the Apostle Paul
Setting: Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the
disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from
him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of
the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Acts 9:1-2
Occurrence: “While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with
authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king,
along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun,
shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had
fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the
Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard
for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And
He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on
your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a
minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of
the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the
Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to
open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins
and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’ Acts
26:12-18
Question: Are you afraid of dying for Jesus Christ?
12) God appears to the Apostle John.
Setting: I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation
and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is
called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus
Christ. Revelation 1:9
Occurrence: I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind
me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and
send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna,
to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I
saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands
One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and
girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white
like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His
feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as
the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of
His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like
the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet
as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be
afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades
and of Death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things
which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery
of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden
lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and
the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches. Revelation
1:10-20
Question: Are you afraid of suffering for Jesus Christ?