Yahweh Among Us (#3 in Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh)

When Adam and Eve were first created, and for however long they were in the garden before they disobeyed Yahweh’s command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God came into the garden and spent time with them:

In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard Yahweh Elohim walking around in the garden. (Genesis 3:8, Names of God Bible)

If He was “walking” around and if they were able to see and talk with him, it appears He had taken on the form of a human to fellowship with them.  It is just as likely that he was in human form when Cain and Abel came to present to Him their offerings, and He spoke with Cain. There was immediate and intimate interaction with Yahweh in those days. But before too long, as the human population increased and with it their rebelliousness, we have a singular statement: At that time people began to call on the name of Yahweh. (Genesis 4:26)

Now, instead of intimately walking around and talking with Him, one had to call upon Him, in prayer, presumably. This is a major shift in the way humans related to God. He would appear to people on occasion, but not like He did at the beginning.

I was recently reading the testimony of a man who, as he wept and cried out in his bedroom for his son whose bout of bacterial meningitis left him comatose and with no expectation of recovery, saw Jesus come into his room. I had a pastor who gave testimony to seeing Jesus in person in his home. And the Bible has multiple accounts of God or Christ appearing to people in person. This is the kind of relationship with God that we long for, but that happens too infrequently.

In the Old Testament account, these experiences of God’s personal appearance are often tied to the appearance of the Angel or Messenger of Yahweh. The word “angel” (melek in the Hebrew) means messenger. We use the term “angel” because it comes from the Greek word for messenger, angelos. The Greek word for a good message is euangelion, gospel. When we use the word “angel” it typically makes of think of the superior beings who serve God, and that is appropriate since they are often used as messengers.  But a melek or angelos can be anyone who brings a message.

You can be an angel or messenger of God, a speaker of the good message, the euangelion. But often in the Old Testament there is a particular being who is described as the Messenger of Yahweh, and who is obviously supernatural, even though garbed in natural appearance (as a man, usually, but on one occasion, as flame in a bush).

Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then the Messenger of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. (Exodus 3:1,2).

Is this a “regular” angel, one of God’s created beings whom He often uses to communicate to people, or is this “angel” or messenger unique? Are there still ways in which Yahweh will come to us today? Do we look forward to heaven and the kingdom when we will have that original, intimate face-to-face interaction with God that Adam and Eve had?