Gwen Frangs / Corrandulla / 28 May 2022
The Angel of Yahweh
In the Old Testament the Angel of Yahweh appears in a number of places and is identified as God. For example,
- In Genesis 16:13 Hagar calls the Angel of Yahweh, God.
- In Genesis 48:15-16 Jacob calls this same Angel, God.
- In Judges 13:22, Manoah calls the Angel of Yahweh, God.
- In Exodus 3, when the Angel of Yahweh appears as fire in a bush, He is referred to as God by the author, both in verses 4 and 6.
- In Genesis 22:12 the Angel of Yahweh calls Himself God.
- In Zechariah 12:8, God the Father calls the Angel, God.
- Hosea calls the Angel, God in Hosea 12:4-5.
The Word of Yahweh
In the Old Testament the Word of Yahweh appears to Abraham in Genesis 15 (Genesis 15:1 Interlinear Bible ; Genesis 15:4 Interlinear Bible). He is a Person. We can be sure that the Word of Yahweh spoken of in Genesis 15 is a Person because the pronoun ‘he’ is used to refer to Him in Genesis 15:5 (Genesis 15:5 Interlinear Bible). It says in this verse that He brought Abraham outside to look at the stars.
The Angel of Yahweh and the Word of Yahweh are the same Person
Careful study of the scriptures reveals that the Angel of Yahweh and the Word of Yahweh are the same Person. In John 1 we are told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John is speaking about how the Word of Yahweh became flesh as Jesus. Paul speaks about this in his letter to the Philippians. In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul writes:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a]6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b]7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8 ESV
We see from John 1:1 that the Word of Yahweh was God, just as the Angel of Yahweh was God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 NIV
Because the Word of Yahweh became Jesus, we can know that He was also the Angel of Yahweh. This is because the apostles Paul and Jude taught that Jesus was the Angel of Yahweh. It was the Angel of Yahweh Who was accompanying the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to the promised land and Who killed some of them with snakes in Numbers 21. In 1 Corinthians 10:9 Paul identifies Jesus as this Angel Who was with the Israelites in the wilderness when he says:
9 We should not test Christ,[a] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.
1 Corinthians 10:9 NIV
If one reads the account of some of the Israelites being killed with snakes in Numbers 21:4-9 in the original Hebrew, the text says that it was Yahweh Who killed the Israelites with the snakes. So, why would Paul be linking Jesus with this incident? He does this because he knew that in Exodus 23 Yahweh tells Moses that the Angel of Yahweh will go with the Israelites:
20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.
Exodus 20:20-23 NIV
He also knew that in Exodus 33, Yahweh tells Moses that He Himself will not be in the midst of the Israelites on this journey because He might kill them on the way:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
Exodus 33:1-4
If one reads these verses in the original Hebrew, Yahweh actually says to Moses that He will not go up in the midst of the Israelites (Exodus 33:3 Interlinear Bible). Therefore, Paul knew that Yahweh, the Father, Who is an invisible spirit, was not in the midst of the Israelites on the journey. The Father was not present in the midst of the Israelites in the form of an omnipresent Spirit because He did not want to kill them. It was the Angel of Yahweh Who was with them. Paul identified this Angel as Christ in 1 Corinthians 10:9.
Jude also identified this angel as Jesus. In Jude 5, Jude describes what happened in Numbers 16 at the time of the rebellion of Korah:
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[a] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude 5
Jude is speaking about Jesus in this verse because the word ‘Lord’ in the original Greek text is Ἰησοῦς» which means ‘Jesus’. It is clear from Jude 5 that Jude also recognized Jesus to have been the Angel of Yahweh, Who destroyed the rebellious Israelites in Numbers 16. Just like Paul, Jude would have known that the Father was not in the midst of the Israelites on the journey to the promised land. He would have known that this meant that every time that Yahweh is mentioned during the journey, it has to be the Angel Who was being referred to. Both Paul and Jude would have been aware that the Angel was also called Yahweh in the Old Testament. In Hosea 12:4-5 in the original Hebrew, the name Yahweh of Hosts is used as the name for the Angel that Jacob wrestled with (Hosea 12:4-5 Interlinear Bible). Both Paul and Jude would have been fully aware that God, the Father, told Moses in Exodus 20:21 that the Israelites should not rebel against this Angel because He would not forgive their rebellion. They would have recognized that the Israelites were experiencing this unforgiveness on the part of the Angel of Yahweh when He killed some of them with snakes and when He killed Korah and his family. God, the Father, foresaw that this was going to happen and warned Moses about it before it happened. Unfortunately, the Israelites ignored His warning. Therefore, we have John identifying Jesus as the Word of Yahweh and Paul and Jude identifying Jesus as the Angel of Yahweh. It is clear from the teaching of these three apostles that Jesus is both the Word of Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh and that these two Old Testament figures are the same Person.
In Exodus 6: 2-3 we are told:
2 And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh—‘the Lord.’ 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob in El-Shaddai but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them.
Exodus 6:2-3
Although commonly translated as God telling Moses that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, this is not what the verse actually says. The correct translation of the verse says that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in El Shaddai. I have corrected the Interlinear translation above to read ‘in’ El Shaddai because the preposition on the word ‘el’ is בְּ which is the preposition ‘in’ in ancient Hebrew.
In Exodus 6:2-3 the preposition בְּ is attached to the beginning of the word אֵ֣ל forming the word בְּאֵ֣ל. The word אֵ֣ל is the ‘El’ of El Shaddai. If you look at the blue parts of speech under the original Hebrew text the preposition is listed as Prep-b. Prep-b, according to the Hebrew parsing, means ‘in’ (https://biblehub.com/hebrewparse.htm). It does not mean ‘as’ because כְּ is the preposition which means ‘as’ (8af3842462324e4d5443b28852f9368b3e9aa672.html). Therefore, the verse does not read:
….. I am Yahweh and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as El Shaddai…
Rather, the verse reads as:
….I am Yahweh and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob in El Shaddai…
Jesus confirmed this when He came to earth. He told His disciples that the Father was ‘in’ Him:
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…
John 14:11a
Since Yahweh appeared to the Patriarchs in El Shaddai, then the Word of Yahweh Who appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15 was El Shaddai.
In Genesis 48, Jacob tells us that El Shaddai is an Angel:
In Genesis 48 Jacob speaks about El Shaddai, Who appeared to him at Luz (Genesis 48:3).
Twelve verses further on in the chapter, in Genesis 48:15-16, Jacob continues to speak about El Shaddai and describes El Shaddai both as God and as the Angel:
15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers
Genesis 48:15-16
Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
—may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
on the earth.”
This Angel must be the Angel of Yahweh Who is referred to as God in the Old Testament verses which I referenced at the outset of this article. Therefore, the Old Testament confirms by means of Exodus 6:2-3; Genesis 15: 1-5 and Genesis 48: 1-16 that the Word of God is the Angel of Yahweh. This Angel was called El Shaddai. This is interesting because El Shaddai means God of the Mountains. When Jesus was on the earth, He actively sought out mountains. His most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, was taught while He was sitting on a mountain.
Zechariah chapter 1 provides further proof the Angel of Yahweh is the Word of God. In Zechariah 1: 7-9 we read:
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.
8 During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.
9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?”
The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”
Zechariah 1:7-9 NIV
The Angel Who was talking to Zechariah has to be the Word of Yahweh Who came to Zechariah in verse 7. This is confirmed in Zechariah 1: 12-13:
12 Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” 13 So the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.
Zechariah 1:12-13 NIV
We see in verse 13 that the Angel Who talked with Zechariah is the Angel of Yahweh because Yahweh answers the Angel Who talks with Zechariah. It would make no sense that the Angel of Yahweh prays to Yahweh the Father in verse 12 and that Yahweh the Father responses to an entirely different angel than the Angel of Yahweh. Therefore, in Zechariah 1:13 the phrase ‘the Angel who talked with me’ refers to the Angel of Yahweh. Therefore, the Angel Who talks to Zechariah in Zechariah chapter 1 is the Word of Yahweh, Who comes to Zechariah in Zechariah 1:7.
Who exactly is this Person Who is called the Word of God and the Angel of Yahweh. I believe that we can think of Him as an emanation of the Holy Spirit. He was the Holy Spirit, but He was the Holy Spirit in a form that a human being can handle being in the presence of. Perhaps He can be thought of as an inextinguishable spark taken from the Fire that is the Holy Spirit. He was both a part of the Fire, but also separate from the Fire. If we saw the Holy Spirit as He really is, it would kill us because of His immense power. So, when He came to speak to a human being, He adopted a form which the human being would survive seeing Him in. This form of the Holy Spirit was called the Word of God or the Angel of Yahweh by the Israelites because He brought the words of Yahweh to various people.
The Word of Yahweh did not always look the same when people saw Him. The apostle Paul was aware of this because in Philippians 2:8 he says that He was ‘found in appearance as a man’. This indicates that Paul knew that this Heavenly Being did not always have the appearance of a man. He had other appearances as well. Although, at certain times, He appeared looking like a man, there were also times when He appeared to people looking different to a man. For example, when He appeared to Moses in the burning bush He looked like flames of fire. When He appeared to Manoah and his wife and went up in the fire, He must have undergone a transformation from looking like a man to turning into fire on front of Manoah and his wife:
20 As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.
Judges 13:20
In Ezekiel 1 He is seen by Ezekiel as a man Who is burning with fire:
26 Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.
Ezekiel 1:26-27 NIV
The Word of God, the Angel of Yahweh, is now the Son of Man, Jesus Christ and He will remain as the Son of Man forever. That part of the Holy Spirit Who brought the words of God to people in the Old Testament, has now become eternally fixed in the form of a man. This is why there are three bearing witness in Heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7).
However, if the Holy Spirit existed before Jesus, why is it the case that when the Trinity is referenced in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit is placed in third place after the Father and the Son? I believe that this is to signify a shift in the power dynamics between mankind and angels which has come about because of the fall of Satan and his angels and because of Jesus, the Man, dying on the cross to restore all things to God. The apostle Paul makes it clear that as a result of what Jesus accomplished that God has now placed mankind in a position that is superior to angels and that one day we will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). Therefore, God as a Man is placed before God as an Angel when the Trinity is referenced in scripture. The Holy Spirit, incarnate as the Son of Man, is regarded by God the Father as a Being Who is superior to an angel and He has inherited a name that is beyond all other names. Hebrews chapter 1 says:
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father”[a]?Or again,
“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son”[b]?6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”[c]
7 In speaking of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels spirits,
and his servants flames of fire.”[d]8 But about the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.”[e]10 He also says,
“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
11 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
12 You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.”[f]13 To which of the angels did God ever say,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet”[g]?14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
Hebrews 1
The author of the letter to the Hebrews would have been well aware of the fact that the Old Testament teaches that the Father created everything through the Holy Spirit. By writing that the universe was made through Jesus, He is saying that Jesus is the incarnate Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit made flesh. Therefore, the author of the letter to the Hebrews points out that the man and the angel are fused together into a unique Being, Who is called the Son of God, and that this Being is considered by God to be superior to the angels.