Two Yahwehs (#7 in Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh)

In 1988, when I was on staff at Central Church in Memphis TN, the Ted Koppel Report came to our church to hold a television panel discussion with seven famous televangelists, John Wimber, Jerry Falwell, Jack Hayford, E. V. Hill, James Kennedy, James Robison, Robert Schuler (by satellite). Koppel called the broadcast “The Billion Dollar Pie,” and discussed the greed and failure of some other televangelists as an indictment against televangelism in general. The day of the broadcast Ted Koppel got several of us staff members to sit on the stage as if we were the evangelists he was going to be interviewing in order to prepare. It was an amazing and unexpected visit.

Abraham had an even more unexpected and amazing visit at his tent:

And Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. (Genesis 18:1–3)

One of the three “men” is Yahweh, the other two, we learn soon, are angels.  Abraham seems to recognize that Yahweh is visiting him, and he addresses Yahweh as Lord, in the Hebrew, adonai (lord, master).  When Yahweh tells Abraham that He is going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham questions if He will destroy these communities if they have righteous people in them and Yahweh says that even if they have 10 righteous people in them, He will not destroy them.  But the only righteous among them are Lot and his family, less than 10.  So Yahweh sends the two angels to evacuate Lot and his family from Sodom before the coming judgment, and Yahweh goes and stands overlooking these two cities and brings judgment.

Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. Yahweh said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of Yahweh by doing righteousness and justice, so that Yahweh may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Then Yahweh said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” (Genesis 18:16–21)

And Yahweh went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. (Genesis 18:33)

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of heaven. (Genesis 19:24)

Do you see the two Yahwehs? There is the Yahweh who has visited Abraham, the Yahweh who has been accompanied by two angels, all of them appearing in human form, come to judge the twin cities of the plain.  And there is Yahweh in heaven.  Yahweh on earth rains sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh in heaven.  His investigation complete, and Lot rescued from the city, Yahweh on earth authorizes sulfur and fire from Yahweh in heaven.

Rashi, the French rabbi and commentator, tries to explain away two Yahwehs this way,

It is customary for the Scriptural verses to speak in this manner, as in (above 4:23): “wives of Lemech,” and he did not say, “my wives.” And so did David say (I Kings 1:33): “Take with you the servants of your lord,” and he did not say, “my servants”; and so did Ahasuerus say (Esther 8:8): “in the name of the king,” and he did not say, “in my name.” Here too it states “from the Lord,” and it does not state “from Him.”

But we do not have here the same word construction Rashi is describing in Genesis 4:23, 1 Kings 1:33, or Esther 8:8. There, in those places, you have men speaking of themselves in the third person. Here, in Genesis 19, no one is speaking, but rather the author, Moses, is describing what happens. Yahweh, he says, rains sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of heaven.

What do we do with this. Are there two individuals bearing the name Yahweh? It would appear so, in which case, though Yahweh is a name, it is not a name exclusive to the one personage. And based on what we see we may deduce that there is a Yahweh who interacts with people on earth and a Yahweh who is in heaven, the former personage usually designated the Angel or Messenger of Yahweh (or, as in Genesis 31:9-13, the Angel of God). Who the two Yahwehs are seems clear to us now, the Father and the Son. And this means that the Messenger of Yahweh who is a distinct personality from the Yahweh in heaven, yet who is equal to Yahweh in heaven, is without a doubt the Son of God, who will later take on permanent human form, adding human nature to his divine nature.

It makes eminent sense that Jesus, prior to taking on human nature, would be the one who would be the divine Messenger of Yahweh. As John tells us, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (NIV) The Son has the responsibility of making the Father known, and that is exactly what the Messenger of Yahweh does.