V. The Angel in the midst of the burning bush (Exodus
3:2-4:17)
A. What is an angel?
1. In both the Old and New Testament, "angels"
means something like "messenger" or
"representative."
2. An "evangelist" is someone who delivers the
good news (the Gospel).
3. We basically see three uses of the word "angel"
throughout scripture:
a. A human prophet, priest, pastor, or
preacher
1) Usually translated "messenger"
2) This makes sense if they are
delivering the true "word of God."
3) (We'll consider this in another
lesson).
b. A heavenly being (creature) that God uses
to deliver His messages.
1) This is our most common reference to
the word "angel."
2) Little is actually understood about the
physiology of such beings.
3) As we have seen in a previous
lesson, some of these beings (or what
we suspect to be part of this
classification) are given more specific
titles in the Bible:
a) Archangels
b) Cherubims
c) Seraphims
c. A third usage is what we want to look at in
this lesson which is the preincarnate Christ
(second person in the Trinity).
1) Sometimes called a "Theophany."
2) Sometimes called a "Christophany."
3) These could be two different
manifestations depending on how we
interpret the Trinity.
B. Who is the Angel in this story?
1. To the best of my understanding, the Angel in
this story is the Word.
a. John 1:1
b. 1 John 1:1
c. 1 John 5:7
d. Revelation 19:13
2. This Angel is called "God" or "the
Lord" (3:4,6,7,14,15)
a. Old Testament prophecy declared Jesus
would be called "Mighty God" and
"Everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6).
b. Jesus was persecuted for saying He and
the Father were "one" (John 10:33-33).
3. The Angel is called "I Am" (3:14)
a. John 8:58
Conclusion:
Based on what we see in this passage compared to the different uses of the word "angel" in the Bible, we conclude that this "angel in the midst of the burning bush" is simply a manifestation of the Word of God (also called "God the Son," "The Second Person of the Trinity," "The Preincarnate Christ").