{"id":202,"date":"2017-11-24T16:39:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T15:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/?p=202"},"modified":"2017-11-24T16:39:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T15:39:15","slug":"the-name-of-yahweh-and-the-angel-of-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/2017\/11\/24\/the-name-of-yahweh-and-the-angel-of-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"The Name of Yahweh and the Angel of the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Exodus 3, God famously appears to Moses in a burning bush and sends him to rescue the Israelites. Fearing nobody will believe him, Moses says, \u201cSuppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, \u2018The God of your fathers has sent me to you,\u2019 and they ask me, \u2018What is his name?\u2019 Then what shall I tell them?\u201d (Exodus 3:13<\/a>).<\/p>\n

And then God tells us his name.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: \u2018I am has sent me to you\u2019\u201d (Exodus 3:14<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I am\u2014or in Hebrew, YHWH (Yahweh). Most people have at least heard of the story of the burning bush before, and you\u2019ve probably heard that Yahweh is one of the ways the Bible refers to God.<\/p>\n

But the name of Yahweh isn\u2019t just a personal pronoun.<\/strong> In Scripture, the phrase \u201cthe Name\u201d actually signifies the presence<\/em> of Yahweh. \u201cThe Name\u201d is personified, and it\u2019s used interchangeably with Yahweh himself. It even blurs the lines between two separate beings: Yahweh and the angel of the Lord.<!-more\u2013><\/p>\n

\u201cThe name of Yahweh\u201d as it\u2019s used in the Old Testament plays an important role in Christian theology: it lays the foundation for the Trinity, and God\u2019s incarnation as man in Jesus Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his groundbreaking book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible<\/em><\/a>, Dr. Michael S. Heiser uses his expertise in Semitic languages and the Hebrew Bible to piece together what we know about \u201cthe name of Yahweh,\u201d honing in on the ambiguous relationship between Yahweh and the angel of the Lord, who often appears when Yahweh is speaking.<\/p>\n

The following post is adapted from The Unseen Realm<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Yahweh was in the burning bush<\/h2>\n

Moses\u2019 encounter with God at the burning bush has been etched into our minds by Sunday school teachers, ministers, and of course Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s epic film The Ten Commandments<\/em>. But there\u2019s something you may have never noticed about the bush. Hollywood certainly missed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Moses was a shepherd with the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west of the desert, and he came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not being consumed. <\/em><\/p>\n

And Moses said, \u2018Let me turn aside and see this great sight. Why does the bush not burn up?\u2019 And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, \u2018Moses, Moses.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Here I am.\u2019 And he said, \u2018You must not come near to here. Take off your sandals from on your feet, because the place on which you are standing, it is holy ground.\u2019 And he said, \u2018I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.\u2019 And Moses hid his face because he was afraid of looking at God.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Exodus 3:1\u20136<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The text quite clearly states that \u201cthe angel of Yahweh\u201d was in the bush (v. 2). But when Moses turns to look at the bush (v. 3), the text has Yahweh observing him and calling to him\u2014\u201cfrom the midst of the bush\u201d (v. 4). Both the Angel\u2014the visible Yahweh in human form\u2014and the invisible Yahweh are characters in the burning bush scene.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interestingly, verse 6 tells us that Moses was afraid to look at God. This suggests that he had discerned something other than fire in the bush\u2014most likely, the human form of the angel. The New Testament affirms this description in Acts 7:30\u201335<\/a>. The martyr Stephen twice tells us that there was an angel in the bush (verses 30, 35).<\/p>\n

Is the angel of Yahweh actually Yahweh?<\/h2>\n

In the conversation that ensues, Yahweh (v. 7) reveals his covenant name to Moses: I AM (Exod 3:14<\/a>). If Yahweh is speaking to Moses, one has to wonder why the Angel was needed. If Yahweh is doing the talking, why does he need a messenger? Or perhaps when the writer says Yahweh is speaking, he means the Angel.<\/p>\n

Like passages in Genesis (such as Genesis 20:10-18<\/a>), Exodus 3 includes Yahweh and his angel in the same scene as distinct figures, but then creates ambiguity between them. Are there two or one? Are the two the same but different? The reader is being prepped for something dramatic to come. We won\u2019t have long to wait.<\/p>\n

The name of Yahweh is in the angel<\/h2>\n

We know what happens after the burning bush. Yahweh, through Moses, delivers Israel from Egypt. Moses leads the people to Sinai to meet their God, receive the law, and prepare for the journey to the promised land. There\u2019s a short conversation between God and Moses about that task that is habitually overlooked by Bible readers. In Exodus 23 God says:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Look, I am about to send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, because he will not forgive your transgression, <\/em>for my name is in him<\/em><\/strong>. But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Exodus 23:20\u201322<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe name\u201d of Yahweh is<\/em> Yahweh<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s something strange about God\u2019s description to Moses that tells us that this is no ordinary angel. This angel has the authority to pardon sins or not, a status that belongs to God. More specifically, God tells Moses that the reason this angel has this authority is \u201cmy name is in him\u201d (Exodus 23:21<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does this curious phrase mean? Moses knew instantly. Anyone thinking of the burning bush account does as well.<\/p>\n

When God told Moses that his name was in this angel, he was saying that <\/strong>he <\/em><\/strong>was in this angel\u2014his very presence or essence.<\/strong> The I AM of the burning bush would accompany Moses and the Israelites to the promised land and fight for them. Only he could defeat the gods of the nations and the descendants of the Nephilim whom Moses and Joshua would find there.<\/p>\n

The Old Testament uses Yahweh and his angel interchangeably<\/h2>\n

Other passages confirm that this reading is correct. This angel is Yahweh. Perhaps the easiest way to demonstrate this is to compare Old Testament passages about who it was that brought Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI am Yahweh, <\/em>who brought you up from the land of Egypt<\/em><\/strong> to be for you as God.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Leviticus 11:45<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou yourselves were shown this wonder in order for you to acknowledge that Yahweh is the God; there is no other God besides him. From heaven he made you hear his voice to teach you, and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire. And because he loved your ancestors he chose their descendants after them. <\/em>And he brought you forth from Egypt with his own presence,<\/em><\/strong> by his great strength, to drive out nations greater and more numerous than you from before you, to bring you and to give to you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Deuteronomy 4:35\u201338<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>Yahweh our God brought us and our ancestors from the land of Egypt<\/em><\/strong>, from the house of slavery, and did these great signs before our eyes. He protected us along the entire way that we went, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. And Yahweh drove out all the people before us.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Joshua 24:17\u201318a<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd <\/em>the angel of Yahweh<\/em><\/strong> went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, \u2018<\/em>I brought you up from Egypt<\/em><\/strong>, and I brought you to the land that I had promised to your ancestors.\u2019\u201d<\/em> \u2014Judges 2:1<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

These passages interchange Yahweh, the Angel of Yahweh, and the \u201cpresence\u201d (panim<\/em>) of God as the identity of the divine deliverer of Israel from Egypt. There weren\u2019t three different deliverers. They are all the same. One of them, the angel, takes human form.<\/p>\n

If Deuteronomy 4:37<\/a> is read in light of Exodus 23:20\u201323<\/a>, then the presence and the Angel are co-identified. This makes good sense in view of the meaning of the \u201cName\u201d which was in the Angel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Name\u201d of Yahweh is personified<\/h2>\n

Some readers with Jewish friends or a Jewish background know that even today the phrase \u201cthe Name\u201d (ha-shem<\/em>) is used by many Jews in the place of the divine name Yahweh. The biblical passages we\u2019ve seen above show that there is biblical precedent for the practice.<\/p>\n

In other passages, \u201cthe Name\u201d functions as a substitute word for Yahweh.<\/strong> In several the Name is personified\u2014the Name is a person. Isaiah 30:27\u201328<\/a> is quite striking in this regard:<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! <\/em>The name of Yahweh<\/em><\/strong> comes from afar,
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0burning with his anger and heaviness of cloud.
\n<\/em>His lips are full of indignation,
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
\n<\/em>And his breath is like an overflowing river;
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0it reaches up to the neck.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Name is clearly cast as an entity, as Yahweh himself, in this text.<\/strong> This is explicit in Psalm 20:<\/p>\n

\u201cMay Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble.
\n<\/em>May the name of Jacob\u2019s God protect you.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d \u2014<\/em>Psalm 20:1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSome boast in chariots and others in horses,
\n<\/em>but we boast in <\/em>the name of Yahweh, our God.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d \u2014<\/em>Psalm 20:7<\/a><\/p>\n

How is it that the psalmist would pray that \u201cthe Name\u201d protect anyone? Israelites wouldn\u2019t get much protection from a string of consonants (Y-H-W-H). The point of the psalm is that trusting in the Name means trusting in Yahweh himself\u2014he is the Name.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy has a lot to say about the Name, especially with respect to the Name being the very presence of God that will reside in the Tabernacle, the holy city, and eventually the Temple. Deuteronomy 12 is representative (note the emphasis in bold):<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must completely demolish all of the places there where they served their gods, that is, the <\/em>nations <\/em><\/strong>whom you are about to dispossess\u201d \u2014<\/em>Deuteronomy 12:2 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou shall not worship Yahweh your God like this. 5 But only to the place that Yahweh your God will choose from all of your tribes <\/em>to place his name there<\/em><\/strong> as his dwelling shall you seek, and there you shall go\u201d \u2014<\/em>Deuteronomy 12:<\/em>4\u20135<\/p>\n

\u201cand then at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, <\/em>to let his name dwell there<\/em><\/strong>, there you shall bring all the things I am commanding you.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Deuteronomy 12:11<\/a><\/p>\n

The commander of Yahweh\u2019s army<\/h2>\n

Readers may have already anticipated that the angel in whom Yahweh\u2019s name, his presence, dwells can be identified as the mysterious figure encountered by Joshua just before the wars of conquest. I would agree. Here is the passage in Joshua 5:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it happened, when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up, and he saw a man standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, \u2018Are you with us, or with our adversaries?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Neither. I have come now as the commander of Yahweh\u2019s army.\u2019 And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and he bowed down and said to him, \u2018What is my lord commanding his servant?\u2019 The commander of Yahweh\u2019s army said to Joshua, \u2018Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.\u2019 And Joshua did so.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Joshua 5:13\u201315<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

An important clue to identifying this \u201cman\u201d as the angel of Yahweh is the drawn sword in his hand. The Hebrew phrase here occurs only two other times: Numbers 22:23<\/a> and 1 Chronicles 21:16<\/a>. Both explicitly name the Angel of Yahweh as the one with \u201cdrawn sword\u201d in hand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The connection is unmistakable on two other counts. Joshua bows to the man, an instinctive reaction to the divine presence. The commander orders Joshua, \u201cTake off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.\u201d The wording comes from Exodus 3:5<\/a>, the burning bush passage.<\/strong> The angel of Yahweh was in that bush.<\/p>\n

The angel of Yahweh departs from Israel<\/h2>\n

The angel of Exodus 23:20\u201323<\/a> did indeed go with Moses and Joshua to claim the promised land. In the wake of Joshua\u2019s death, however, Israel failed to complete the task. The Angel of Yahweh appeared in Judges 2 bringing news no one wanted to hear:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, \u2018I brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you to the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, \u201cI will never break my covenant with you. And as for you, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; break down their altars.\u201d But you did not listen to my voice. Why would you do such a thing? Now I say, I will not drive them out from before you; they will become as thorns for you, and their gods will be a trap for you.\u2019 And as the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people wept bitterly.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Judges 2:1\u20134<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The angel of Yahweh\u2019s departure signaled an end to the regular presence of Yahweh with Israel.<\/strong> But even in the dark period of the judges he wouldn\u2019t stay away completely.<\/p>\n

Yahweh and his angel are one, and yet separate<\/h2>\n

The call of Gideon in Judges 6 includes one appearance during this period. The passage is lengthy, so the important items are in bold.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>The angel of Yahweh came and sat under the oak<\/em><\/strong> that was at Ophrah that belonged to Jehoash the Abiezrite; and Gideon his son was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. <\/em>The angel of Yahweh appeared to him<\/em><\/strong> and said to him, \u2018<\/em>Yahweh is with you<\/em><\/strong>, you mighty warrior.\u2019 Gideon said to him, \u2018Excuse me, my lord. If Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, \u201cDid not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?\u201d But now Yahweh has forsaken us; he has given us into the palm of Midian.\u2019 <\/em>And Yahweh turned to him and said<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018Go in this your strength, and you will deliver Israel from the palm of Midian. Did I not send you?\u2019 <\/em>He [Gideon] said to him<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018Excuse me, my lord. How will I deliver Israel? Look, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father\u2019s house.\u2019 And Yahweh said to him, \u2018But I will be with you, and you will defeat Midian as if they are one man.\u2019 And he said to him, \u2018Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, show me a sign that you are speaking with me. <\/em>Please, do not depart from here<\/em><\/strong> until I come back to you and bring out my gift and set it out before you.\u2019 And he said, \u2018<\/em>I will stay<\/em><\/strong> until you return.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; he put meat in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and <\/em>he brought them to him under the oak<\/em><\/strong> and presented them. <\/em>The angel of God said to him<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock; pour the broth over it.\u2019 And he did so. Then the <\/em>angel of Yahweh<\/em><\/strong> reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and he touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And <\/em>the angel of Yahweh went from his sight<\/em><\/strong>. And Gideon realized that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, \u2018Oh, my lord Yahweh! For now I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face.\u2019 And <\/em>Yahweh said to him<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018Peace be with you. Do not fear; you will not die.\u2019 And Gideon built there an altar to Yahweh, and he called it \u2018Yahweh is peace.\u2019 To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Judges 6:11\u201324<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a fascinating passage. In verse 11 the angel sits down under the oak tree for the conversation. He makes his visible presence known to Gideon in verse 12.<\/p>\n

There is no indication that Gideon considers his presence at all strange. Gideon\u2019s disgruntled reference to Yahweh in verse 13 makes it clear he doesn\u2019t know the man is Yahweh. The reader, however, knows that, since the narrator has Yahweh taking part in the conversation (vv. 14\u201316).<\/p>\n

The scene is reminiscent of the burning bush except that both Yahwehs have speaking roles. This serves to put the two characters on the same level to the reader. That tactic is by now familiar\u2014putting both figures on par to blur the distinction. But in the case of Judges 6, the writer also makes them clearly separate.<\/p>\n

That there are two clearly separate Yahweh figures becomes more dramatic after verse 19. Gideon asks the man (who is logically the angel of Yahweh) to stay put while Gideon makes a meal for him. The stranger agrees. When Gideon returns, he brings the meal to the tree (v. 19). The narrator has the Angel of God receiving it. Again that\u2019s logical, since the angel had sat there at the beginning of the story.<\/p>\n

Now comes the shocker. The angel of Yahweh burns up the sacrifice and then leaves (v. 21). But we learn in verse 23 that Yahweh is still there and speaks to Gideon after the Angel\u2019s departure. Not only did the writer blur the distinction between the two figures, but he had them both in the same scene.<\/p>\n

The Trinity in the Old Testament?<\/h2>\n

The most familiar way to process what we\u2019ve seen is to think about the way we talk about Jesus. Christians affirm that God is more than one Person, but that each of those Persons is the same in essence. We affirm that Jesus is one of those Persons. He is God. But in another respect, Jesus isn\u2019t God\u2014he is not the Father. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. Nevertheless, they are the same in essence.<\/p>\n

This theology did not originate in the New Testament. You\u2019ve now been exposed to its Old Testament roots. There are two Yahweh figures in Old Testament thinking\u2014one invisible, the other visible and human in form. Judaism before the first century, the time of Jesus, knew this teaching. That\u2019s why ancient Jewish theology once embraced two Yahweh figures (the \u201ctwo powers\u201d). But once this teaching came to involve the risen Jesus of Nazareth, Judaism could no longer tolerate it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Quelle<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Exodus 3, God famously appears to Moses in a burning bush and sends him to rescue the Israelites. Fearing nobody will believe him, Moses says, \u201cSuppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, \u2018The God of your fathers has sent me to you,\u2019 and they ask me, \u2018What is his name?\u2019 Then … <\/p>\n

\u201eThe Name of Yahweh and the Angel of the Lord\u201c <\/span>weiterlesen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buch.jehovah-shammah.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}