Everything we have seen leads to the certain conclusion that the Angel of Yawheh is the One we now know as the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are two ways we come to this conclusion from the scriptures

1. First, by comparing the Old Testament’s testimony about the Angel of Yahweh to what the New Testament says about the Lord Jesus Christ and
2. Second, based on the knowledge that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah, comparing the testimony and prophesies regarding the Angel of Yahweh to the prophecies about the Messiah.

Here, we will show with the first method—comparing the Old Testament to the New Testament—that the Angel of Yawheh is the One we now know as the Lord Jesus Christ. We will be focusing on the easiest demonstrations.

Below is a summary of the facts and deductions from the record of the Scriptures that tell us that Jesus is the Angel of Yahweh.

The Particularness of the Angel of Yahweh

One of the most important points in our study is the determination that, although the title of “the Angel of Yahweh” may apply to any angel of Yahweh, there is in fact a particular Angel of Yahweh in focus in Scriptures.

Even without paying serious attention to details, that there is a particular angel of Yahweh in focus is impressed upon us as we read through the Scriptures, especially the first books. Now, of course, this may be a misperception, a misimpression and so it is not sufficient to establish the fact.

So, is this impression false?

No, it isn't. There is indeed a particular Angel of Yahweh in focus in Scriptures whom the patriarchs knew and highly regarded as we can clearly see from the following,

1. The testimony of Jacob speaking of “the Angel of Yahweh” as the God of Abraham and Isaac [Gen 48:15-16]. This cannot apply to more than one angel.
2. The prayer of Moses blessing Joseph with “the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush” [Deut 33:16] who, by Moses’ identification, was the “the Angel of Yahweh” [Exo 3:2 cf., Num 20:15-16; Act 7:30,35].  Again, this cannot apply to more than one angel.

As already stated, Jacob had a particular angel in mind, he wasn’t thinking of angels in general but of a particular angel. And so also Moses. So they each had a particular angel in mind.

Furthermore, Jacob and Moses were not speaking of two different angels but of the same Angel of Yahweh. This is confirmed in the fact that both Moses and Jacob were blessing the same son of Jacob—Joseph who had two tribes, Ephraim and Mannaseh—whom Jacob had blessed by the Angel. In other words, Moses was repeating Jacob’s blessing and identified Jacob”s Angel as the Angel of the Burning Bush.

The Importance and Usefulness of this Fact

If “the Angel of Yahweh” was a particular angel, then if we met anyone bearing the same marks and exhibiting the same peculiar characteristics as “the Angel of Yahweh”, no matter the form in which he manifests, then we can be certain that he is “the Angel of Yahweh”.

Knowing with certainty that “the Angel of Yahweh” is a specific Angel makes it certain that whoever this angel is, his peculiar and definning attributes are unique to him. Therefore, whoever we find with these attributes is none other than the Angel of Yahweh, the very same Angel of Yahweh who appeared and spoke to Abraham, Hagar, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua and Gideon.

Because “the Angel of Yahweh” is a specific angel, the following observations and truths of Scriptures about him plainly tell us, without a doubt, that he is the One we now know as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jacob’s Testimony

Jacob identified the Angel of Yahweh with/as the God of Abraham and Isaac [Gen 48:15-16]. This conclusively means that

1. The Angel of Yahweh is a Specific Angel since Jacob is very clearly speaking of a particular angel.
2. The Angel of Yahweh is God—Jacob’s words plainly mean this.
   1. That Jacob really takes the Angel to be God and what this means is confirmed by other accounts where the Angel of Yahweh is called by the Name Yahweh and God and treated as such. 
      (Jacob, however, wasn’t thinking that God was an angel but that there was such a relationship between God and the Angel that the Angel was God. Jacob’s words were born of a certain knowledge of God and His ways which is our interest to learn for ourselves.)
3. Abraham and Isaac related with this very same Angel of Yahweh as their God.
4. This Angel of Yahweh is unique among God’s angels
   1. Surely, not every angel of God is the God of Abraham and Isaac
   2. Therefore, this Angel must be different from others since Jacob describes him as God—the God of Abraham and Isaac
5. This also means that all Jacob’s sons, i.e., all Israel, are under this Angel of Yahweh
   
   1. Jacob was adopting Ephraim and Manasseh as his sons when he blessed them by the Angel of Yahweh.
   2. Therefore, the blessing Jacob was giving to Ephraim and Manasseh was not unique to them but was for all Jacob’s sons.
   3. This then means that all Jacob’s sons are under the Angel of Yahweh.
   4. In any case, since the Angel of Yahweh is the God of Abraham and Isaac and, evidently now, the God of Jacob, he is the God of all Jacob’s descendants too.

Jesus is the Angel of Yahweh

The deduction that the Angel of Yahweh was the One Abraham related with as God, by itself is sufficient to identify Jesus as the Angel of Yahweh.

1. First, since the Angel of Yahweh was the One Abraham related with as God, then the Angel of Yahweh was the Yahweh who appeared to Abraham in the company of two other angels [Gen 18:1].
2. Second, Jesus identified himself as the Yahweh who had appeared to Abraham in the company of two angels, and gave him the promise regarding the birth of Isaac [Joh 8:56-58].
3. Therefore, Jesus identified himself as the Angel of Yahweh 

Recognizing the Angel of Yahweh

The Angel of Yahweh rarely introduced himself to anyone, yet the saints recognized him. Hagar and men like Jacob and Gideon, recognized the Angel of Yahweh the very first time they met him in person even without any real introduction. Gideon’s story [Judges 6:11-23] is quite helpful in understanding how these people were able to recogize the Angel of Yahweh and it is this

1. His speaking as God and one who had authority over Israel and
2. His power

Jesus is the Angel of Yahweh

These by themselves point to Jesus as the AoY because he exhibited the very same attributes.

1. Just as the Angel of Yahweh, the Lord Jesus spoke and acted as though he were God with absolute authority [Mat 7:29; Joh 7:46]. And he did this just as the Angel of Yahweh without any explanation as to how this could be.
2. And, just as the Angel of Yahweh, the Lord Jesus excercised the power as of God. This part is quite important because any deluded person could claim he was God but only God can excercise the same power as God[Joh 10:37].

In fact, this was the heart of his troubles with the Jews. (Although they were not thinking that Jesus meant that he was God the Father) They understood what his words and actions meant but found it hard to accept becasue, quite obviously, he was a man but Yahweh is certainly not a man [Joh 10:33].

In fact, Jesus, comparing himself to some other angels, identifies himself as “the One whom the father sets apart as his very own” [Joh 10:36]. In other words, he is the most unique, the most Holy, of all the Angels. This fits the representation of the Angel of Yahweh who clearly is unique among God’s angels 

The Lord Jesus was the Angel of Yahweh.

The Name of Yahweh

We may add that the Name of Yahweh which the Angel of Yahweh bears is the same name the Jesus bears [Exo 23:20-21; Joe 2:32; Act 2:21; 4:12; Rom 10:12-13]

An Important Observation

If Jesus is not the Angel of Yahweh, then the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus as proclaimed by the apostles is not true.

If Jesus is not the Angel of Yahweh, then, for example,

1. Since the Angel of Yahweh is God, Jesus is not the only one apart from the Father who is God as Hebrews claims [Heb 1:7-8]
2. Since the Angel of Yahweh bears the Name of Yahweh, often translated “the Name of the Lord”, then Jesus Name is not superior to the Name of all angels [Heb 1:4]

In any case, the way the apostles spoke of Jesus implies they identified him as someone who had the unique attributes they claimed he possessed. For example, even if they saw Jesus’ glory, there is no way the apostles could have concluded that his glory was exactly that of God [Heb 1:3] except they were identifying him as someone who was already known to bear the same glory as God, i.e., the Angel of Yahweh who went ahead of Israel [cf., Exo 14:19; Exo 33:18; 34:5-8,29; 16:10-11; Eze 1:25-28]