In the Bible, reality is made up of two overlapping realms. The heavens and the earth, our space and God’s space. While life here on earth may seem ordinary, sometimes we can encounter heaven right here in our own realm, this happens a number of times in the Bible and when it does, we often encounter a fascinating character, the angel of Yahweh or called the angel of the Lord. Angels, they’re spiritual messengers who perform missions for God, but the angel of the Lord is no mere angel. How so? Every time he appears, he’s described in ways that’s purposefully puzzling, and it leaves you wondering was that an angel sent by Yahweh, or was that Yahweh himself. There is one particular messenger, a spiritual being that goes by a particular title, Yahweh, the messenger of Yahweh. And there seems to be a particular Elohim who is so closely connected to God’s own, Yahweh’s own identity, he’s the angel of Yahweh and in the narratives where this figure appears, it’s actually hard to tell if it’s Yahweh or distinct from Yahweh.
One of the first stories where this figure appears is in Genesis 16:1-14, the story of Hagar, the Egyptian slave, that got abused by Abraham and Sarah. So, she runs away out in the wilderness and the angel of Yahweh found her by a spiring of water. He starts having a conversation with her. Hagar, what are you doing out here? Well, I’m Sarah’s maidservant and she’s being lame. I’m fleeing from her. So, he has this whole conversation where he’s like, you’re pregnant with Abraham’s child now, I’m going to bless the child, I’m going to protect you. Go back, I’m with you. Her response to this conversation is, then she called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her and then she names God. You are a God who sees, I’ve remained alive even after seeing him. She conflates the angel of Yahweh with Yahweh himself.
Exodus 23:20-23, God says, hey, I’m going to send you guys into the promised land. And Yahweh said, behold, I’m going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place that I’ve prepared. So in all these other places, God, Yahweh himself said he would do that. Now God says, I’m going to send an angel to do it, watch yourself before him. Obey his voice, which is normally something Yahweh would say, obey my voice. Obey his voice, don’t rebel against him, because he’s got a high bar. He won’t pardon you, because my name is in him. Somehow the name is one of these attributes of God that begins to take on life of it’s own, a distinct life, because you call upon the name of the Lord, you can be delivered by the name of the Lord in the Psalms.
So what’s the name? So there something like Yahweh’s name is so utterly unique among all names. It’s like God can take his stamp, his uniqueness, and can become an metaphorically spoken of as a thing that you put in him, my name is in him. This is said of no other, my name is not in Moses, God never says that. Moses speaks in the name of Yahweh, like the prophets speak in the name of Yahweh, no one ever has someone’s name in them. God’s name, very unique turn of phrase, when God says my name is in this angel, it’s connected to this angel being described in ways that elsewhere are described of Yahweh himself. Obey his voice, he will bring you into the promised land. He will lead you through the wilderness. I thought it was Yahweh leading with the tabernacle and the pillar of cloud and fire. Now, couldn’t he just be really just being rhetorical about how important this angel is you’re going to follow. There aren’t any other traditions in the Torah about an angel being the one leading them, it’s the ark of the covenant symbolically representing God’s glory and the fire and the cloud. Wondering through the wilderness, they would see the fire and the cloud, and that’s a tangible thing.
So we’re back to this balance beam, is that fire and cloud Yahweh? No, but also yes. The story of Gideon in Judges 6:11-21, Then the angel of Yahweh came…save it from the Midianites, the angel of Yahweh appeared to him and, Yahweh is with you, oh valiant warrior… So the angel of Yahweh appeared and said Yahweh is with you. Yahweh’s on your side, so based off the earlier stories, it seems like the angel of Yahweh is Yahweh, why doesn’t the angel say I am with you. So the narrative is clearly presenting the angel of Yahweh at this point as distinct. It’s talking about Yahweh in the third person. Angel of Yahweh come and that makes sense, a messenger from Yahweh, Yahweh is with you. …Then Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has…did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now Yahweh has abandoned us and given…Yahweh looked at him and said, Go in this your strength…He said to him, Oh Lord, how shall I deliver…But Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you and shall…
Will be with you, notice his conversation with this character, how it began, the angel of Yahweh appeared…and lay it before you. And he said, I will remain until you return…and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them. The angel of God (of Elohim) the angel of Elohim, so it’s not the angel of Yahweh anymore, at least in this…The angel of Elohim said to him, Take the meat and the…And he did so. Then the angel of the Yahweh put out…and fire spring from the rock…Then the angel of the Lord vanished. So apparently the angel of Yahweh is a human figure who can appear and disappear and is distant in the narrative from Yahweh, but not really because earlier when that angel was on the scene, sometimes the angel say he’s not distinct from Yahweh.
There’s such a blurring, but there is some kind of distinction, because the angel of Yahweh in the story can vanish, but Yahweh is still there. But apparently Yahweh is still there talking to him afterwards. Seems like a jumble in a way, but there’s no word that’s unintentional. This is just one piece of a much larger pattern connected to physical beings, human beings that appear and they are called here the angel of Yahweh, but then they become indistinguishable from Yahweh. Biblical authors seem to want us to foster that idea, this is a human figure who can appear and disappear and is Yahweh, but is also distinct from Yahweh.
One of the first stories where this figure appears is in Genesis 16:1-14, the story of Hagar, the Egyptian slave, that got abused by Abraham and Sarah. So, she runs away out in the wilderness and the angel of Yahweh found her by a spiring of water. He starts having a conversation with her. Hagar, what are you doing out here? Well, I’m Sarah’s maidservant and she’s being lame. I’m fleeing from her. So, he has this whole conversation where he’s like, you’re pregnant with Abraham’s child now, I’m going to bless the child, I’m going to protect you. Go back, I’m with you. Her response to this conversation is, then she called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her and then she names God. You are a God who sees, I’ve remained alive even after seeing him. She conflates the angel of Yahweh with Yahweh himself.
Exodus 23:20-23, God says, hey, I’m going to send you guys into the promised land. And Yahweh said, behold, I’m going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place that I’ve prepared. So in all these other places, God, Yahweh himself said he would do that. Now God says, I’m going to send an angel to do it, watch yourself before him. Obey his voice, which is normally something Yahweh would say, obey my voice. Obey his voice, don’t rebel against him, because he’s got a high bar. He won’t pardon you, because my name is in him. Somehow the name is one of these attributes of God that begins to take on life of it’s own, a distinct life, because you call upon the name of the Lord, you can be delivered by the name of the Lord in the Psalms.
So what’s the name? So there something like Yahweh’s name is so utterly unique among all names. It’s like God can take his stamp, his uniqueness, and can become an metaphorically spoken of as a thing that you put in him, my name is in him. This is said of no other, my name is not in Moses, God never says that. Moses speaks in the name of Yahweh, like the prophets speak in the name of Yahweh, no one ever has someone’s name in them. God’s name, very unique turn of phrase, when God says my name is in this angel, it’s connected to this angel being described in ways that elsewhere are described of Yahweh himself. Obey his voice, he will bring you into the promised land. He will lead you through the wilderness. I thought it was Yahweh leading with the tabernacle and the pillar of cloud and fire. Now, couldn’t he just be really just being rhetorical about how important this angel is you’re going to follow. There aren’t any other traditions in the Torah about an angel being the one leading them, it’s the ark of the covenant symbolically representing God’s glory and the fire and the cloud. Wondering through the wilderness, they would see the fire and the cloud, and that’s a tangible thing.
So we’re back to this balance beam, is that fire and cloud Yahweh? No, but also yes. The story of Gideon in Judges 6:11-21, Then the angel of Yahweh came…save it from the Midianites, the angel of Yahweh appeared to him and, Yahweh is with you, oh valiant warrior… So the angel of Yahweh appeared and said Yahweh is with you. Yahweh’s on your side, so based off the earlier stories, it seems like the angel of Yahweh is Yahweh, why doesn’t the angel say I am with you. So the narrative is clearly presenting the angel of Yahweh at this point as distinct. It’s talking about Yahweh in the third person. Angel of Yahweh come and that makes sense, a messenger from Yahweh, Yahweh is with you. …Then Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has…did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now Yahweh has abandoned us and given…Yahweh looked at him and said, Go in this your strength…He said to him, Oh Lord, how shall I deliver…But Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you and shall…
Will be with you, notice his conversation with this character, how it began, the angel of Yahweh appeared…and lay it before you. And he said, I will remain until you return…and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them. The angel of God (of Elohim) the angel of Elohim, so it’s not the angel of Yahweh anymore, at least in this…The angel of Elohim said to him, Take the meat and the…And he did so. Then the angel of the Yahweh put out…and fire spring from the rock…Then the angel of the Lord vanished. So apparently the angel of Yahweh is a human figure who can appear and disappear and is distant in the narrative from Yahweh, but not really because earlier when that angel was on the scene, sometimes the angel say he’s not distinct from Yahweh.
There’s such a blurring, but there is some kind of distinction, because the angel of Yahweh in the story can vanish, but Yahweh is still there. But apparently Yahweh is still there talking to him afterwards. Seems like a jumble in a way, but there’s no word that’s unintentional. This is just one piece of a much larger pattern connected to physical beings, human beings that appear and they are called here the angel of Yahweh, but then they become indistinguishable from Yahweh. Biblical authors seem to want us to foster that idea, this is a human figure who can appear and disappear and is Yahweh, but is also distinct from Yahweh.
