It cleary states in Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him...
Exodus 3:4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Exodus 3:6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
He already saw God, he saw the angel already in the previous verse. This being read correctly states that God is seen as an angel.
When I read this chapter in Exodus it led me on a venture, and made me want to search closely through the other scriptures to see where else God was mistaken as an angel.
I found many where man, and women mistake an angel as God.
Any good arguments on the subject are much apperciated.
2006-09-20 08:00:49 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Angels were used by God as his messengers thoughout the Bible. No man can see God and live, so angels were sent to represent God and often spoke for him as seen at Judges 6:21-23--"Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face.” Then the LORD said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die."
also at Acts 27:23-24--"For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you."
2006-09-20 08:23:45 · answer #1 · answered by Micah 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The word "angel" in both hebrew and greek translates to the word "messenger" in english. This is an important insight when studying. It was the angel that appeared in the burning bush, because one can not look upon God directly and live. That is found in Exodus 30:20. This is one of the reasons that God chooses to work through angels. However, it was not the angel that spoke to him, the angel was the one who appeared. It tells us in Exodus 3:4 that it was God that called to him. There are many cases where the angels speak to people, but in this case the angel, the messenger, was the burning bush. This would indicate one of two things:
1. The angel was taking the form of the burning bush, and was a visible herald for God (vs being God himself), or
2. The messenger was actually the bush, and does not refer to a heavenly entity at all, only the bush.
It was a popular belief in ancient times that if a person saw an angel, they would die. After all, there are occassions that angels didn't come to bring good news, but came to punish people. This is why many times when you see an angel introduce themselves, they start by telling people to either get up off the ground, or tell them not to be afraid. Many people were rather uneducated in God's word at the time except what the priests read to them, so it isn't too hard to believe that people would misunderstand seeing an angel for seeing God.
2006-09-20 15:14:11 · answer #2 · answered by GodsKnite 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no one has ever seen God (John 1:18) except the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses “saw” God, but he did not see God in all His fullness. Exodus 33:19-23 describes this. When God and Moses spoke “face to face,” it is just a figure of speech indicating they were in very close communion,
see 33:22 what moses actually saw
2006-09-20 15:14:20 · answer #3 · answered by JM 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Verse 3 makes it clear, Moses saw the bush burning but the fire was not consuming the bush. Moses went to inspect the thornbush and see why it was not being burned up. When God saw that Moses was turning aside to inspect the bush, God called out to him out of the bush as brought out in verse 4.
2006-09-20 15:12:07 · answer #4 · answered by tropicalladybird 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Angel of the Lord is also known as the preincarnate Christ. Remember that God exists outside of space-time. So the Angel, or Soul of Jesus can appear anywhere, any time.
OTOH, Satan is an angel who would love to have ppl believe that he is a god.
2006-09-20 15:09:47 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
An angel of the Lord is God's representative. Most of the people in the Bible understood that.
2006-09-20 16:22:09 · answer #6 · answered by cnm 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"The angel of the LORD" is a term used in quite a number of OT locations. Would it surprise you if I told you "the angel of the LORD" is Jesus Christ?
Exodus 3 documents the appearance of the angel of the LORD to Moses. Read carefully and see if any of these words sound familiar:
13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Did you catch it?
John 8:56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57 Then the Jews said to Him [Jesus], “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Jesus IS the "I AM," the angel (messenger) of the LORD. He is also God.
Peace.
2006-09-20 15:17:05 · answer #7 · answered by Suzanne: YPA 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He doesn't. It plainly says the angel of the Lord. Meaning sent by the Lord.
2006-09-20 15:42:55 · answer #8 · answered by thinksclearnow 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
u r the confused one bro, Angels do NOT claim to be God. Angels are messengers. God appeared to mosed in form of fire that time and it was not an angel. we humans are just alittle lower than angels, the gap isnt that much but very far to God's place. Very far.
2006-09-20 15:04:52 · answer #9 · answered by tebuny 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Because God speaks to us through angels. If you remember the movie Dogma, God doesn't speak because it blows humans up.
2006-09-20 15:02:36 · answer #10 · answered by TrainerMan 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋