With all this in mind, we will look at another Pentecost curiosity. Please turn to Exodus 23, where we find the end of the giving of the law, which we believe was on Pentecost. Chapters 20-23 contain the law, and now notice Exodus 23:20:
We know that the Angel of the Lord is the One who became Jesus Christ. He was the Messenger, the Spokesman, the One who acted on God’s behalf. And in verse 20, the One who spoke the law from Mt. Sinai told Israel He would send this Angel who had His name.
Now, this is where the question comes in: Who was it that gave the law and then said this? It sounds like the Supreme God spoke this. So, do these verses involve one God being, or two? This is not a minor question, because God records things to help us understand the way the God Family operates. If we confuse the roles that They reveal in Scripture, it can change our concept of God, and such a change can have drastic ramifications.
Now, consider just a portion of what would need to be reinterpreted if the Father was the Lord who spoke here, and interacted with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets. This matter was so important that John begins his gospel with a broadside against Gnosticism, by saying that not only was Jesus God, but He was the Word—the Spokesman, the Representative and Executor of the God Family—from the very beginning. That was His major role. John says He declared the Father. Jesus said He came to reveal the Father. He said Abraham never tried to kill Him, and Abraham rejoiced to see His day. He lamented at how often He wanted to gather Jerusalem’s children together. God’s word says 8 times—including twice by Jesus—that no one has seen the Father except for the Son.
The Son said that access to the Father only came through Him, but if the Old Testament characters spoke with the Father, saw the Father, ate with the Father, wrestled with the Father, then they had access without Christ. Either they interacted with someone else, or else Christ’s words cannot be trusted—perish the thought! Certainly, the Father was also God of Israel, and God of the patriarchs, because He is the God of all! Yet if the patriarchs and priests and prophets interacted with the Father without being reconciled through Christ, and the Father spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai, then Christ’s many statements, and indeed, His entire role, are called into question. The Savior starts to get blurry.
Now, remember the pattern we saw in John 14—16. Jesus said He would send the Helper, but He also explained that He is the Helper. He also said He would send the Helper in His Name, even as the Angel here was called by the Lord’s name. If Christ can send Himself to dwell in His people, the God of Israel can also send Himself as an Angel to go before His people. He refers to Himself with third-person titles regularly, and there is no need to insert another God. Because of this established pattern, when a verse or passage appears to describe two God beings, it is worth considering whether the Logos is just referring to Himself with another title, as we have seen. Notice verse 23, where there is a parallelism: “if you obey His voice, and do all that I speak….” It is like Jesus saying, “If you are ashamed of Me, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you.” It is like Jesus saying He would send the Helper, and He (Jesus) would come to them.
If we can receive it, it was the Angel of the Lord—the pre-incarnate Christ—who brought Israel from Egypt, brought them to the Promised Land, and then made the covenant. That is plain and direct—there is no figurative language there.
So, Stephen says it was the Angel who spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, and gave Moses the living oracles. This is a key piece, because Exodus says the Lord, Yahweh, spoke. So, Stephen identifies the Angel as the One who said, “I am the … . . .
