Amongst God’s heavenly family was a very specific Son of God, who served as a very special angel. He carried the title of the messenger of Yahweh—or the Angel of the Lord. This angel appears many times throughout the Old Testament, but there’s something very different about him. He doesn’t just pass along messages from Yahweh, but he talks to people as though he is God (Gen. 16:10, 22:12). He talks to Moses from out of the burning bush (Ex. 3:2–4) and Yahweh explains to Moses that his name is in this angel (Ex. 23:20-22). Both Gideon and Samson’s parents thought they would die when they unexpectedly saw the Angel of the Lord, for they knew that this was what happens when one sees the face of God (Judges 6:22-23; 13:22). But they didn’t have to worry about this, because the Angel of Yahweh was a form of God that could be seen face to face without dying. Indeed, this angel used to travel inside the pillar of fire and cloud that led Israel through the wilderness (Ex. 14:19; Num. 14:14) and he would occasionally descend it to speak face to face with Moses in the tabernacle (Ex. 33:10-11).
It is clear from these stories and more that the Hebrew authors are trying to blur the lines between Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh. Are they the same person or separate entities? The mysterious answer, familiar to all Trinitarian Christians is, “Yes.”
With this in mind, we now have a character to make sense of all the other times Yahweh meets up with humans in physical form throughout the Old Testament. He strolls by Abraham and Abraham recognizes him (Gen. 18:1). He wrestles with Jacob in the form of a man (Gen. 32:24–30), which Hosea identifies as both God and angel (Ho. 12:3-4). Joshua even goes so far as to worship this angelic God-man (Josh. 5:13-15).
Yes, it’s weird. But also, for the Christian, it’s not weird at all. We already believe that Yahweh is three-in-one and that Jesus has always existed and created the world with Yahweh (Jn. 1:1; Col. 1:13-16; Heb. 1:2). Jesus himself even recognized his presence in the Old Testament when he told a crowd in the Gospel of John that he spoke to Abraham back in the day (Jn. 8:52-59). This makes a lot of sense in John’s Gospel since John believed Jesus was God’s word made flesh (Jn. 1:1) and it was God’s word that appeared to Abraham in a vision (Gen. 15:1).
Add to all of this the fact that the Angel of Yahweh, a core character throughout the Old Testament, is mysteriously missing in the New Testament—though we can draw some lines comparing Jesus to Yahweh’s famous messenger. For example, Jesus’ identity as an angelic-like being is revealed to select disciples when he’s transfigured in front of them. At that moment, his face shined like angelic faces were known to shine in the Bible and other extra-biblical sources (Dan. 10:6; Rev. 1:16, 10:1; 4 Ezra 7:97; Apocalypse of Zephaniah 6:11; 2 Enoch 1:5, 19:1), as did his clothes turn a familiar dazzling angelic-white (Dan. 7:9; Lk 24:4; Rev 3:5, 6:11, 7:9, 7:13–14, 19:14; 1 Enoch 14:20, 62:15, 71:1; 2 Enoch 22:8–10; 2 Maccabees 11:8; Pseudo Philo 64:6; 4 Ezra 2:39). Furthermore, God sent “his angel” to speak to John in Revelation (Rev. 1:1), but it was Jesus who actually showed up to speak to him (Rev. 1:14-16).
All of this being said, Jesus was not just thee Son of God of the the sons of God or thee angel of angels, but he also became thee Son of Man of the sons of men. He is at the top of all hierarchies, for he is Yahweh himself in another form. There is nothing above him or outside of his grasp. The entire cosmos may be out of whack due to the decisions of heavenly and earthly beings, but none of it is beyond Jesus. (Col 1:15-20).
Jamin Bradley 
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