4th page of 10 pages
Yahweh's messenger/The messenger of God
And Yahweh's messenger appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. (Exodus 3,2)
Using the word "Yahweh's messenger" instead of "Yahweh' appearance himself" belongs to a late period and attests a certain timidity to God. "Yahwe's messenger" combined with "Yahweh" is typical for the author Yahwist (5). "Yahweh's messenger" is often found in the Books of Genesis, Judges and Zecheriah. In Judges 6,22 for example Gideon wants to be sure that he is the chosen guide of Israel against the Midianites. Like in Exodus 3 the names changes here, once Yahweh talks with Gideon, then his Yahweh's messenger or the messenger of God and later Yahweh again (6).
And Yahweh said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." And he said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay till you return." So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the messenger of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them." And he did so. Then the messenger of the Yahweh reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the messenger of the Yahweh vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the messenger of the Yahweh. And Gideon said, "Alas, O Yahweh GOD! For now I have seen the messenger of the Yahweh face to face." But the Yahweh said to him, "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die." Then Gideon built an altar there to the Yahweh and called it, The Yahweh Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. (Judges 6,16-24).
Let us compare the story of Gideon and the story of Moses:
| Gideon | Moses |
|---|---|
| Gideon explicitly requires a sign by God for his election. | Yahweh put himself a sign on Moses' election |
| Gideon sacrifices bread and a goat to Yahweh. | The animal sacrifices is very common in Old Testament. But Moses doesn't sacrifice anything to God. |
| Gideon sacrifices under a terebinthe-tree. | Moses stays near a thurn bush. |
| Yahweh's messenger touches the victim with a stick. | Yahwes does his signs with Moses' rod. |
| Thereafter fire strikes the rock and consumes the meat and the unleavened bred. | The thurn bush is burning without being consumed. |
| Yahweh's messenger disappears and Gideon is afraid. | Moses hides his face, for he was afraid to look at God. |
| Gideon builds an altar to Yahweh and names God: "Yahwe is peace". | Moses askes God who he is. |
Both, Gideon and Moses meet God at a tree. Fire plays in both cases a role. And both stories could come from our own time: Moses and Gideon challenge God, but chicken out of their mission. And Moses does not worship the usual offering or build an altar, anyway. The reason probably is the critics of the Old Testament prophets, that God does not look at the victims but to the behaviour of man.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hos. 6,6, compare Ps. 51,17-19)
Especially Moses' comprehension of God is different from the prophet
before or after the fall of Jerusalem, advanced: For example Mose never
complains about why his mother has born him as Jeremiah did (Jer. 15,10),
but finds objections in order to escape the divine mission: Once, he does not
know how to introduce God to the elders of Israels, then he finds the excuse
do not speak with the Israelites because of his lack of language. He provokes
God, and I wonder, if Moses takes God seriously despite of fire, signs or be veiling. In spite of Moses Gideon behaves more traditionally. Basically he
disbelieves and provoces Yahweh as well as Moses does, but he's afraid of
the divine and therefore he tries to calm God down with sacrifice and altar.
The next comparison brings a new aspect, the begetting of a son. For example the promise of Samson's birth (Judges 13). In this text, during God, Yahweh, listen to Manoah's pray in the background, the messenger of Yahweh appears to Manoah's wife in reality. Where Yahweh truely is, in heaven, in the afterworld, as a spirit in Manoah's room, is not clear.
Yahweh's messenger meets a woman who is not named and augurs her a son. This woman tells her husbund about the visit of the man of God. Manoah prays to Yahweh he should send the man again to guide them regarding the announced child. Yahweh's messenger appears again to the woman on the field and she well-behaved brings her husband on the field.
And Manoah said to Yahweh's messenger, "What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?" And Yahweh's messenger said to him, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?" So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the Yahweh's messenger went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. Yahweh's messenger appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was Yahweh's messenger. And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, for we have seen God." But his wife said to him, "If Yahweh had have liked to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these. (Judg. 13,17-23)
Manoah asks for the messenger's name.
The messenger denied him and says that he has
done "wonderful things". Like Gideon Manoah sacrifices a goat to God. In
the smoke of the victime the messenger disappears into heaven. And Manoah
recognizes the divine messenger and believe to have to die. But his wife
knows better: "If Yahweh would want to kill us, he would not have accepted
the sacrifice", she says. But why does the woman says in this situation, "If Yahweh had
have liked to kill us?"
In this text I cannot comment to the expression "feel like" in detail, so I'd like only to point out, I Samuel 2,15 Yahweh likes to kill Eli's sons who whore with the women at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Young Sichem is overjoyed about Dina, Jacob's daughter (Gen. 34,19). He rapes her, whereupon her twelve brothers see a reason to kill him and all men of his town. The stories in Numeri 27,7.8 and Ruth 3,13 are about levirate marriage. A dilemma of love and death will take place between David and Jonathan.
And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted much in David (I Sam. 19,1).
Is this a homosexual relationship, as it has been mentioned by several commentators.
Another form of love (lust) has expressed in the welcome of the Queen of Sheba to Salomon:
Blessed be Yahweh, your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! (I King 10.9)
What kind of love is meant here? In the life of Salomon the Ark (Aaron) plays an important role. As I explained in the interpretation of II Samuel 6 the name of Aaron goes back to Aruna/Arinna. Arinna was the headquarter of the Hittite sun goddess Wurushemu. The Ark (Aaron) was at the end of the 2nd Millennium BC the sanctuary of the Israelites tribes. The scientists do not know where the name Aaron comes from. But since the end of the 2nd Millennium BC, the Hittite ruled in Syria-Palestine, it is obvious that the Hittite goddes have adapted over time to the local fertility goddess. When the Queen of Sheba greets King Salomon, she speaks about Aaron as "Goddess of the reigning king".
In Judges 13 Yahweh's messenger is the real begetter of Simson. The editor tried changing the facts using terms such as "he did wonderful" and "feel like to kill".
In a similar story Hagar meets Yahweh's messenger at the well Beer-Lahai-Roi (well of life, who looks after me, Gen. 16,7-13). Here, too, was originally the conception of Ishmael taking place at this well, but the author embedded this narrative in the complacent patriarchal story of Abraham.
Yahweh's messenger as begetting stranger appears in several biblical stories, for example:
- Under the Oak of Mamre, Yahweh comes around as thee men and begets Isaac (Isq in Hebrew means to laugh or to have intercourse, Gen. 18)
- Eli helps Hannah to her son Samuel (I Sam. 1)
- Elisa begets with the wife of Shunem a son (I King 4,8-16).
- Mary becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit (Matth. 1,18).
The story of Moses is however different: Yahweh's messenger appears to Moses in a burning bush that is never consumed by fire. Yahweh's messenger represents a deity and according to verse 2 the messenger is actually in flames. But what does means "to be in flames but not be comsuned by fire?" This expression is a symbol of never fading sexual desire, the boundless joy of a vegetation goddess and her demands of Moses. The sexual desire in the cult of the ancient Near Eastern is well known today (7).
In the Old Testament, we know a famous example of such a ritual, the narrative of the Ark brought to Jerusalem (II. Sam. 6). At the second time David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, he danced in his little apron, in fact naked, in front of the Ark. This scene is another indication that the Ark (Aaron) was a female deity.
Text and Design: Esther Keller-Stocker, Horgen, Zürich (Switzerland)
Last correction on 05.02.2010.
I'm looking forward to your comments and your suggestion!
Contact me at esther@estherkeller.ch
