Gwen Frangs / Corrandulla / 16 July 2022
Yahweh appeared to the Patriarchs in El Shaddai
Exodus 6:2-3 says:
2 And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh—‘the Lord.’ 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob in El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them.
Although commonly translated as God telling Moses that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, this is not what the verse actually says. The correct translation of the verse says that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in El Shaddai. This Angel, El Shaddai, is the tabernacle of God in the same sense that the Church is the tabernacle of God. Both El Shaddai and the Church are inhabited by the Father. El Shaddai was created especially to be the tabernacle of God the Father. He is the Word of God and the Father speaks through Him both in Heaven and on the earth. Therefore, Yahweh tells Moses that He appeared to the Patriarchs in El Shaddai.
El Shaddai is the name of the Word of God
In Genesis 15 (Genesis 15:1 Interlinear Bible ; Genesis 15:4 Interlinear Bible) we see that the Word of God appears to Abraham. We know, because Yahweh tells Moses in Genesis 6:2-3 that He appeared to the Patriarchs in El Shaddai, that this means that the Word of God Who appears to Abraham in Genesis 15 is El Shaddai. Therefore, El Shaddai is the name of the Word of God. The apostle John tells us that Jesus Christ is the Word Who became flesh. Therefore, Jesus Christ is El Shaddai incarnate. Before Jesus was the Son of Man, He existed as El Shaddai, the Angel of Yahweh.
El Shaddai was the Angel Who led the Israelites through the wilderness
The apostles Paul and Jude make it clear that the pre-incarnate Christ was the Angel Who led the Israelites through the wilderness.
In 1 Corinthians 10:9 Paul identifies Jesus as this Angel Who was with the Israelites in the wilderness when he says:
9 We should not test Christ,[a] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.
1 Corinthians 10:9 NIV
If one reads the account of some of the Israelites being killed with snakes in Numbers 21:4-9 in the original Hebrew, the text says that it was Yahweh Who killed the Israelites with the snakes. So, why would Paul be linking Jesus with this incident? He does this because he knew that in Exodus 23 Yahweh tells Moses that the Angel of Yahweh will go with the Israelites:
20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.
Exodus 20:20-23 NIV
He also knew that in Exodus 33, Yahweh tells Moses that He Himself will not be in the midst of the Israelites on this journey because He might kill them on the way:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
Exodus 33:1-4
If one reads these verses in the original Hebrew, Yahweh actually says to Moses that He will not go up in the midst of the Israelites (Exodus 33:3 Interlinear Bible). Therefore, Paul knew that Yahweh, the Father, Who is an invisible spirit, was not in the midst of the Israelites on the journey. The Father was not present in the midst of the Israelites in the form of an omnipresent Spirit because He did not want to kill them. It was the Angel of Yahweh Who was with them. Paul identified this Angel as Christ in 1 Corinthians 10:9.
Jude also identified this angel as Jesus. In Jude 5, Jude describes what happened in Numbers 16 at the time of the rebellion of Korah:
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[a] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude 5 NIV
Jude is speaking about Jesus in this verse because the word ‘Lord’ in the original Greek text is Ἰησοῦς» which means ‘Jesus’. It is clear from Jude 5 that Jude also recognized Jesus to have been the Angel of Yahweh, Who destroyed the rebellious Israelites in Numbers 16. Just like Paul, Jude would have known that the Father was not in the midst of the Israelites on the journey to the promised land. He would have known that this meant that every time that Yahweh is mentioned during the journey, it has to be the Angel Who was being referred to.
Because Jesus pre-existed as El Shaddai and Jesus pre-existed as the Angel Who led the Israelites through the wilderness, this means that the Angel Who led the Israelites through the wilderness was El Shaddai. Therefore, when Yahweh says that He is going to send an Angel with the Israelites (Exodus 20:20-23 NIV), He is saying that He is going to be sending El Shaddai with the Israelites.
El Shaddai is the Holy Spirit
Isaiah 63 verifies that El Shaddai is the Holy Spirit:
8 He said, “Surely they are my people,
Isaiah 63:8-10
children who will be true to me”;
and so he became their Savior.
9 In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.[a]
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
10 Yet they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy
and he himself fought against them.
However, Isaiah 63 is not the only confirmation that El Shaddai is the Holy Spirit. The New Testament makes it clear in scripture after scripture that Jesus is the Holy Spirit incarnate. I demonstrated this comprehensively in an article entitled The Holy Spirit. The apostles knew that Jesus was the incarnate Holy Spirit. For example, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, recognizing that the Spirit of Jesus, was the Holy Spirit, says in Acts 16:
Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
Acts 16:6-7
Therefore, Jesus is El Shaddai, the Holy Spirit, incarnate.
Why does Yahweh say that He is sending ‘an’ Angel?
Why does Yahweh say in Exodus 23 and in Exodus 33 that He is sending ‘an’ Angel with the Israelites, rather than that He is sending ‘the’ Angel with the Israelites. After all in Genesis 48:15-16 Jacob calls El Shaddai ‘the Angel’. I believe that it is a matter of perspective. Yahweh is the Creator of El Shaddai. To Yahweh, El Shaddai is ‘an Angel’ because Yahweh is a Being Who is far superior to angels. However, to Jacob, El Shaddai was a superior Being to himself, because from the perspective of a man an angel is a superior Being. Furthermore, Jacob was aware that this particular Angel was also very special among angels. He identified this Angel as God in Genesis 48:15-16. The apostle Paul acknowledges Jacob’s identification of the Angel as God in his letter to the Philippians when he says:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:6-8 NIV
I never tire of using this scripture because I am completely in awe of the fact that this great angelic Being humbled Himself to become a man and then humbled Himself even further to die on a cross in order to take away the sins of the world. This great Angelic Being Who is called El Shaddai, is the Holy Spirit and He became a man and died for us. There is nothing more amazing in the entire universe than that. I want to fall on my knees before Jesus Christ, the incarnate Holy Spirit, and worship Him for eternity.