Genesis 3:22 says, “Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” In this verse Elohim again referred to Himself with the plural pronoun Us. This implication of the Trinity is in relation to man’s eating of the tree of life—to take God in as man’s life. This proves again that the Trinity is for man’s enjoyment of God.
Genesis 6:3 says, “Jehovah said, My Spirit will not strive with man forever.” At Noah’s time, because mankind became rotten, corrupted flesh, God had no way to go on with man. In a good sense, God gave up striving with man. However, Jehovah did not say, “I will not strive with man,” but, “My Spirit will not strive with man.” Here it is not merely Jehovah but the Spirit of Jehovah who would not strive with man. This refers to the Divine Trinity working on the fallen man. Again, we see that the Trinity is related to God’s work on man so that man may enjoy Him.
Genesis 11:6-8 says, “Jehovah said,...Let Us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So Jehovah scattered them from there over the surface of all the earth.” God’s speaking to Himself with the pronoun Us in this passage was in relation to the confounding and scattering of mankind so that man might not be successful in frustrating God in the fulfillment of His purpose with man. This is also related to man’s partaking of God. Even though this instance is on the negative side, it still implies that the Trinity is for God’s dispensing into man so that man may enjoy Him.
Genesis 18:1-2 says, “Jehovah appeared to him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre...And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and there were three men standing opposite him.” Verses 13, 14, and 22 clearly reveal that one of these three men was Jehovah and that the other two were angels (v. 22; 19:1). Jehovah appeared to Abraham before His incarnation (John 1:14) as a real man. Abraham washed His feet and served Him a meal, and He ate it. We may ask if the Son of God became a man two thousand years ago or four thousand years ago, when Abraham lived. With us there is the element of time, but with God there is no element of time. For instance, the Lord Jesus was crucified about two thousand years ago, but Revelation 13:8 says, “The Lamb...was slain from the foundation of the world.” In the eyes of God Christ was crucified when the world came into being. This is God’s way of taking account of things.
Jehovah appeared to Abraham as a man in relation to the ancestry of Christ for fulfilling God’s purpose to redeem man and work Himself into man (Gen. 19:36-37; Ruth 1:4; 4:13, 21-22; Matt. 1:5-16). The Lord appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18 directly for the purpose of rescuing Lot out of Sodom (chs. 18—19). After Lot was rescued, he produced two sons by improper means. One of Lot’s sons was Moab, and Ruth was one of Moab’s descendants. Ruth married Boaz, who was the grandfather of David, and David was a great grandfather of Christ. Thus, Christ came partly from the genealogy of Lot. The entire book of Genesis is a genealogy of Christ. The first few verses of Matthew 1 are an extract of Genesis. Genesis was written as a full record of Christ’s generation. Thus, when the Lord came to rescue Lot in Genesis 18, He was taking care of one of His ancestors. Here we see the Trinity in relation to the generation of Christ, to bring God into humanity.
Genesis 16:10 says, “The Angel of Jehovah said to her [Hagar], I will greatly multiply your seed.” Verses 7 and 9 also mention the Angel of Jehovah, and verses 11 and 13 show that the Angel of Jehovah turned out to be Jehovah Himself.