The angel's saying; "I'm Yahweh. I'm the God of Bethel. Remember that?
You know, we had a meeting back there? I am the God of Bethel."
I mean, how much more explicit can it be?
Angel of the Lord. Exodus 3, familiar story. The question is; who is in the bush?
Who is in the bush?
"Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian,
and led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire
out of the midst of the bush."
Okay. The Angel of the Lord is in the bush. Well, look at verse 4.
"When the Lord saw," when Yahweh saw, "that he turned aside to see,"
Moses turns aside to see what was going on, "God called to him out of the bush."
Well, that makes it sound like Lord and God. Again, there are two different things,
one's referring to the other. But you already know the angel is in the bush.
You got at least two in the bush. And they're both deity.
Well, how can you be sure about the angel of the Lord being deity?
Well, not only is he in this mix, you have; angel, Yahweh, and Elohim in there.
But we get other indications. By the time we hit Exodus 3, the angel of the Lord has a history
in the biblical text. This is the Jacob and Laban story. When Jacob has been instructed
what to do with his flock so that they multiply against Laban's.
And in verse 11, he's relating this as we're reading about it. And Jacob is relating it.
He says, "then the angel of God said to me in the dream,"
so he's having a dream, which is another visionary experience,
"‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see,
all the goats that mate." And so on and so forth.
And in verse 13, here's the important part. The angel tells Jacob, "I am the God of Bethel."
Now, for that to have impact, you have to know something about Bethel.
This is the place where Jacob first encountered Yahweh when he left home,
and he built an altar there to him. The angel is saying, "I'm Yahweh. I'm the God of Bethel.
Remember that? You know, we had a meeting back there. I am the God of Bethel."
I mean, how much more explicit can it be?
Genesis 48:15 and 16. I want to show you this way.
This is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament,
because it's one of the most surprising This is Jacob's prayer.
He's blessing Joseph's children. And we tell this in Sunday school all the time
about, you know, the old man, Jacob gets the older and the younger mixed up,
and he crosses his hands and, you know, bless them,
and Joseph tries to correct him because you're supposed to bless the firstborn
in a special way. And then the other one, you know, and Jacob says,
"no, just don't correct me."
And we get that part of the story, but we missed what he actually prays,
and that's the important part.
"But Israel," Jacob, his name has been changed to Israel, "stretched out his right hand
and laid it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger,
and his left hand on Manasseh's head--thus crossing his hands--
although Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph"
(again, through his children) "saying".
Here's what he prays; there's three stanzas to the prayer.
“The God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked;
the God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day."
Now, the third stanza you expected to be; "the God who did something else."
That's not what you get.
"The angel who has redeemed me from all harm."
And here's the kicker.
"May He bless the lads."
In Hebrew, the verb is singular. You cannot translate it "May they bless",
like God and the angels are separate. No, it says, "may he bless."
You say well, which one is Jacob want to bless the kids?
The answer is yes. Both. It doesn't matter. They're interchangeable.
God and the angel, it's both, they're both Yahweh, what does it matter?
"May he bless the boys."
It's kind of a shocking passage, especially for Jews.
Just trust me because I went through that group of Jews and showed them this stuff
and they're like... They found it incredible.