The NIV translates the word μορφῇ in Philippians 2:6 as ‘nature’:

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

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 2:5-8 NIV

However, this is not a good translation of the word μορφῇ. In Mark 16:12 in the NIV the very same word μορφῇ is translated as ‘form.’ It is very clear from the context of Mark 16;12 that the word means ‘form’ and not ‘nature’:

¹² Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

Mark 16:12 NIV

Therefore, we see that Philippians 2:6 should actually be translated as: ‘Who being in very form God’. Verses 7 and 8 reinforce the fact that Jesus was the ‘form’ of God before He became Jesus by discussing His human ‘form’ and human appearance as opposed to His human character or personality. Verse 7 say Jesus was made in ‘human likeness’ i.e. he took human form and verse 8 says that he was found in appearance as a man i.e. he looked like a man. Clearly before this He had the visible form or appearance of God.

Numbers 12:7;8 says:

Not so with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to Face and even plainly and not in dark sayings and he sees the form of Yahweh….

Numbers 12:7;8 Interlinear

We know from the Old Testament that God appeared as Yahweh Sabaoth and as the Angel of Yahweh when humans could see Him. It seems to me that Jesus was both Yahweh Sabaoth and the Angel of Yahweh and that Yahweh Sabaoth is the Angel of Yahweh.

However, Yahweh told Moses in Exodus 33:23 that His face must not be seen.

²³ Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

Exodus 33:23 NIV

And in verse 20 He told Moses that no one can see His Face and live:

²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

Exodus 33:20 NIV

The only explanation that I can think of for this apparent contradiction is that when Yahweh usually appeared to Moses, He appeared in the form of a man. However, in Exodus 33 He decided to appear to Moses in the form of the Angel that He truly was. This is why Moses could only look at His back. Clearly, when Isaiah saw Yahweh Sabaoth in Isaiah 6, He also saw Him in the appearance of a Man in the same way that Moses had seen Him as a Man or else he would not have survived the experience of seeing God.

There are 261 instances of God being called Yahweh Sabaoth in the Bible. I will be looking at every single one of these to establish with certainty whether Yahweh Sabaoth is the Angel of Yahweh. If this is the case, it means that a King left his throne room and came and died for us on the cross because Yahweh Sabaoth is the King of Heaven. In Isaiah 6 Isaiah sees Yahweh Sabaoth sitting on His throne:

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah 6:1-7 NIV

Check this out in the Interlinear as well: Isaiah 6 Interlinear

In verse 5 Isaiah says that he has seen ‘the King.’

The first instance I would like to consider occurs in Zechariah 1 where the Angel of Yahweh appears among myrtle trees and hears the report of riders who have walked ‘to and fro’ over the earth:

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.

⁸ During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.

⁹ I asked, “What are these, my lord?”

The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”

¹⁰ Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth.”

¹¹ And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.”

¹² Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” ¹³ So the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.

¹⁴ Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, ¹⁵ and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’

¹⁶ “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.

¹⁷ “Proclaim further: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”

Zechariah 1:7-17 NIV

This passage is one of the most difficult passages of scripture that one can find in the Bible. I will examine it in great detail in a future post.

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A case can be made that there are two Yahwehs in Exodus 19:

 ‘And said Yahweh to Moses to go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes and let them be ready for the third day for on the third day will come down Yahweh in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And you shall set bounds for the people all around saying take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain surely shall be put to death. Not shall touch him a hand, but surely, he shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. Whether beast or man, not he shall live. When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.

So, Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people be ready. For three day not to come near your wives. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were ‘thunderings’ and ‘lightnings’ and a cloud thick on the mountain and the sound of the trumpet was very mighty so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And brought Moses the people to meet with God out of the camp and they stood at the foot of the mountain.’

And Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in fire and ascended its smoke like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became very strong, Moses spoke, and the God answered him by voice. 

And came down Yahweh upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain and called Yahweh Moses to the top of the mountain and went up Moses and said Yahweh to Moses go down and warn the people lest they break through at Yahweh to gaze and perish many of them. And the priests who come near unto Yahweh, let consecrate themselves lest break out against them Yahweh. But said Moses to Yahweh, cannot the people come up to Mount Sinai for You warned us saying set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it. And said to him Yahweh. Away. Get down. Then come up you and Aaron with you, but the priests and the people do not let break through to come up to Yahweh, lest He break out against them. So, went down Moses to the people and spoke to them’.   

(Exodus 19:10-25 Bible Hub Interlinear)

In both verse 22 and 24 the one Yahweh calls the other Yahweh ‘Yahweh.’ In Exodus 19:24 the one Yahweh is actively trying to protect the priests and people from the other Yahweh. He warns Moses not to let the priests and people try to go up to the other Yahweh because the other Yahweh might break out against the priests and people.

If one studies earlier passages in Exodus in which Yahweh speaks to Moses there are no instances of Yahweh using illeism. lleism is the act of referring to oneself in the third person instead of the first person. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that Yahweh suddenly starts to use illeism in Exodus 19. The most reasonable explanation for what is happening in Exodus 19 is that there are two Yahwehs present at Mount Sinai and that one of the Yahwehs is the Angel of Yahweh, the Holy Spirit. The other Yahweh, who is not actually seen, is Yahweh the Father.

¹⁹ When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly.

Numbers 16:19

What does the verse mean when it says that ‘the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly’?

The glory of the Lord is the Holy Spirit.

In 1 Peter 4:14 we read:

¹⁴ If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

1 Peter 4:14

In 1 Enoch 27:2 The Holy Spirit is called God’s Glory:

27.2 Then Raphael, one of the Holy Angels who was with me, answered me, and said to me: “This accursed valley is for those who are cursed for ever. Here will be gathered together all who speak with their mouths against the Lord, words that are not fitting, and say hard things about His Glory.

http://www.bookofenoch.org/enoch26-36.htm

In Ezekiel 8 we see that the Glory of the God of Israel appeared to Ezekiel:

⁴ And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north…….

Ezekiel 8:4-5 NIV

Verse 4 would be clearer for the reader if the word ‘glory’ was capitalized so that the verse reads: ‘And there before me was the Glory of the God of Israel…’

An early Christian, Justin Martyr, who lived in the second century, wrote:

I shall give you another testimony, my friends,” said I, “from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, a certain rational power from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos.”

–  Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, LXI – (“Wisdom is begotten of the father, as fire from fire.”)

Therefore, the Glory of the God of Israel is the Holy Spirit.

We know that Yahweh sent His Angel along 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 23:20-23

This Angel is called the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 63:8-13:

⁸ He said, “Surely they are my people,
    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.

¹¹ Then his people recalled^[b] the days of old,
    the days of Moses and his people—
where is he who brought them through the sea,
    with the shepherd of his flock?
Where is he who set
    his Holy Spirit among them,
¹² who sent his glorious arm of power
    to be at Moses’ right hand,
who divided the waters before them,
    to gain for himself everlasting renown,
¹³ who led them through the depths?

Isaiah 63:8-13

Therefore, when the glory of God appeared to the entire assembly does this not simply mean that the Angel appeared in front of the tent so that the Israelites could see Him?

In Numbers 16, He initially wanted to destroy all the Israelites, but Moses and Aaron begged Him to destroy only those who were in rebellion:

²⁰ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”

²² But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”

²³ Then the Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’”

²⁵ Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He warned the assembly, “Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” ²⁷ So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents.

²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”

³¹ As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.

Numbers 16:20-33

The incident is remarkably like the incident in which Ananias and Sapphira were also removed from the community of the believers in Jerusalem after they lied to the Holy Spirit.

The removal of all those associated with Korah is not the end of the destruction:

³⁵ And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

³⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to remove the censers from the charred remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy— ³⁸ the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the Lord and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites.”

³⁹ So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned to death, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar, ⁴⁰ as the Lord directed him through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the Lord, or he would become like Korah and his followers.

⁴¹ The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people,” they said.

⁴² But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴ and the Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁵ “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown.

⁴⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. ⁴⁸ He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. ⁴⁹ But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. ⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the tent of meeting, for the plague had stopped.^[c]

Numbers 16:35-50

In Jude 5 Jude describes what happened in Numbers 16 as follows:

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

There is no doubt that Jude had these incidences in mind because he says in Jude 11:

¹¹ Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

Jude 11

There is also no doubt that Jude is speaking about Jesus in Jude 5 because the word ‘Lord’ in the original Greek is Ἰησοῦς» which is Jesus in Greek.

It is clear from Jude 5 that Jude is identifying Jesus as the Angel of Yahweh who destroyed the rebellious Israelites in Numbers 16.

What is interesting in Numbers 16 is that in Numbers 16:42 we are told:

⁴² But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared.

Numbers 16:42

This reminds one of how Jesus was taken up into a cloud (Acts 1:9-12) and Jesus said that He will return on the clouds (Matthew 26:64). The Son of Man in the book of Daniel comes before the Ancient of Days on the clouds (Daniel 7:13).

In Numbers 16:42 this exact same thing seems to be happening. The cloud appears and covers the tent of meeting and then the Angel appears.

Notice that in Isaiah 63:11 the Holy Spirit is called ‘the Shepherd of His flock’:

¹¹ Then his people recalled^[a] the days of old,
    the days of Moses and his people—
where is he who brought them through the sea,
    with the shepherd of his flock?
Where is he who set
    his Holy Spirit among them,
¹² who sent his glorious arm of power
    to be at Moses’ right hand,
who divided the waters before them,
    to gain for himself everlasting renown,
¹³ who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in open country,
    they did not stumble;

Isaiah 63:13 NIV

The New Testament teaches that this Good Shepherd, the Holy Spirit, became incarnate as Jesus Christ in the following ways:

When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain the disciples saw His glory in the same way that the Israelites saw Him as the Angel of the Lord outside the tent of meeting in Numbers 16.

The apostle Paul recognized that as a man, Jesus is the Holy Spirit incarnate. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17 that ‘the Lord is the Spirit’ and in 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul calls Jesus: ‘the Lord the Spirit’. In Philippians, Paul says: ‘For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance’ (Philippians 1:19 NRSV).

In Galatians, Paul says: ‘And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father’ (Galatians 4:6 NLT). In Romans, Paul says: ‘But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ (Romans 8:9, 10 NRSV).

The apostle Paul recognized that Jesus was this Angel and identified Him as such in 1 Corinthians 10:9:

⁹ We should not test Christ,^[a] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.

1 Corinthians 10:9 NIV

He also identified Jesus as the form of God Who appeared to Moses. Numbers 12:7-8 says:

Not so with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to Face and even plainly and not in dark sayings and he sees the form of Yahweh….

Numbers 12:7;8 Interlinear

In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul writes:

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,^[a]6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,^[b]7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,^[c] being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8 ESV

The apostle Paul knew that the form of God Who appeared to Moses was the Angel of His Presence Who was accompanying the Israelites in the wilderness. He links this Angel to the Holy Spirit through all of the scriptures that he wrote regarding Jesus as the incarnate Holy Spirit.

John describes how Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples: ‘Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” ‘(John 20:22 CEV). Jesus was able to do this because His spirit is the Holy Spirit, because He is the incarnate Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 1:7 says:

⁷ Of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels winds,
    and his ministers a flame of fire.”

Hebrews 1:7 ESV

The Angel, the Holy Spirit, is in the body of Jesus as a wind / spirit because He is Jesus’ spirit. Luke, the author of the book of Acts, recognized that the spirit of Jesus, is the Holy Spirit. He says in Acts 16: ‘And after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the spirit of Jesus did not permit them’ (Acts 16:7 NASB).

On the Day of Pentecost Jesus’ spirit returned as a mighty wind and as tongues of fire and filled more of His disciples (notice in Hebrews 1:7 angels can be made by God into winds and flames of fire). Therefore, it is the Angel of Yahweh, the Glory of God, Who inhabits the Church:

¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate^[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV

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