Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

16: 1-16 GENESIS
4. The Angel of the Lord: the Theojhany at the Well
(vv. 7-14). The scene is the fountain of water (as yet
nameless) in the desert . . . on the way to Sh~r. The
Angel of Yahwe (of Jehovah, of the Lord) “found” the
young woman (by design, of course) at this spot. The
Angel of Yahwe is “here introduced for the first time as
the medium of the theophany. . . . ‘Yahwe Himself in
self -manifestation,’ or, in other words, a personification of
the theophany. This somewhat subtle definition is founded
on the fact that in very many instances the Angel is at
once identified with God and differentiated from Him
(cf. vv. 10, 13 with v. 11)” (Skinner, ICCG, 286). Cf.
also “And the word was with God, and the Word was God,”
John 1:I). Certainly the Angel’s identity with Yahweh
is fully confirmed in v. 13. We present here Whitelaw’s
five arguments (PCG, 228) for the view that The Angel
of the Lord .here is not a created beilzg (hence not one
member of ?the innumerable hosts” of “ministering spirits,”
who figure repeatedly in the story of the unfolding of the
Plan of Redemption, Heb. 1:14, 12:22; Col. 1:16, Psa.
1.48:-2, 5, etc.), but the Divine Being Himself, as follows:
(1) He explicitly identifes Himself with Yahweh on vari-
ous occasions, (cf. v. 13 ) and with Elohim (Gen. 22: 12).
(2) Those to .whom He makes His presence known recog-
nize Him as divine (Gen. 16:13, 18:23-33, 28:16-22; Exo.
3:6; Judg. 6:ll-24; 13:21-22). (3) Biblical writers con-
stantly speak of him ai divine, calling him Jehovah without
the least reserve (Gen. 16:13, 18:1, 22:16; Exo. 3:2, Judg.
6:12). (4) The’doctrine here implied of a plurality of
persons in the Godhead is in complete accordance with
earlier foreshadowings (Gen. 1:26, 11:7). (r) “The or-
ganic unity of Scripture would be broken if it could be
proved that’the cerltral point in the Old Testament revela-
tion was a-creature angel, while that of the New is the in-
carnation af the Godhead” (cf. Col. 1:16-19, John 1:1-3,
14) , Certainly by the Old Testament writers the Angel
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