The Same Angel Spoke and Followed Moses and Israel
There’s nowhere we see the Angel of Yahweh say He’s an angel. It’s Moses who tells us that the Angel of Yahweh is the one who appeared to him at the burning bush [Exo 3:2]
Moses tells us that when Yahweh saw that Moses drew close to look, God called out to him from the Bush [Exo 3:4].
As far as Moses is concerned, the one who spoke to him from the bush is God [Exo 3:6].
The Angel of Yahweh—the one Moses calls God—came down to rescue them [Exo 3:8].
Moses’ mission was to bring God’s people out of Egypt, not to take them in [Exo 3:10].
“and God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b]will worship God on this mountain”
[Exo 3:12].
Many interpret this to mean that the sign to Israel that Moses was sent by God was that Moses would bring them to the mountain to worship God—which doesn’t make sense. How would Moses bringing them to the mountain be a sign to
them that God was with him?
The sign is that God was with Moses what God said to Moses.
This obviously meant that God was with him, working miracles, and the miracles were a sign that God sent him.
Another Mission for Moses was to bring out the people to the mountain to worship God [Exo 3:12].
The Angel tells Moses that His name is “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh”, which means “the being that causes things to be”, i.e., the Creator [Exo 3:14].
Why would God give an Angel the name [and therefore, the power] of creation if He hasn’t created?
Some might argue that perhaps He has the name because He will create in future, but Scriptures teach that God has rested from His creation, i.e., He has ceased from creating.
If God is constant—which He is—then he doesn’t change, and will not say He has ceased from creating, only to create again to create in the future.
According to Stephen, it was the Angel who spoke to Moses [Acts 7:35].
God sent Moses “by the Hand of the Angel”. If it wasn’t the Angel, then Stephen would have said “by the hand of God”.
Stephen makes it sure by saying the Angel spoke to him at Sinai [Acts 7:38].
The Angel said, “I have seen the affliction of MY people”. He speaks as God [Exo 3:8]
It was an Angel that God sent to deliver them from Egypt [Num 20:14-16].
The sign that it was God who sent Moses is that He (God) would be with Moses. The sign isn’t that they will worship Him on the Mountain [Exo 3:12].
Moses is like the angel of Yahweh, in the sense that Moses was patterned after Him.
The Angel was God to Moses, as Moses was God to Aaron [Exo 4:15:17]
When Moses said God would send a prophet like him, one of the ways he meant was that the Moses was in the Angel’s likeness, not only that the prophet would be like Moses.
Though Scriptures mean that the Prophet is patterned after Moses, it also means that Moses is patterned after the Prophet. In this way, the Prophet is like Moses
He was like Moses in the sense that the Angel speaks for God, as Aaron speaks for Moses, and Moses for the Angel.
It’s not in every case that Yahweh was physically with Moses as He spoke to Him. Yahweh spoke to Moses through the Holy Spirit. This can be seen when the children of Israel grumbled against Yahweh. Yahweh had been speaking with Moses
before the cloud came. He was obviously speaking to Moses by the Spirit [Exo 16:1-10].
The Manna, though from heaven could go bad if Israel failed to follow God’s instruction [Exo 16:25].