The Angel of Yahweh who appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush was the One in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire that went ahead of Israel through their journey in the wilderness. He was also called the Presence of Yahweh and the Glory of Yahweh.

The Presence of Yahweh

1. The one who wrestled with Jacob
   1. Jacob called him “Peniel” [Gen 32:30,24-29], i.e., the Face or Presence of God
   2. Hosea called him “the angel” [Hos 12:3-5]
2. The one who saved them from Egypt was called
   1. “Yahweh’s Presence” [Deut 4:37-38] and also
   2. “an Angel” [Num 20:15-16]
3. The one God sent with Moses and Israel in the wilderness and into Canaan
   1. “An Angel” [Exo 23:20-23]
   2. “My Presence” [Exo 33:14]—in his intercession, Moses asked to know (the name of) the Angel God was sending with him and the Israelites [Exo 33:12] and God answer “My Presence”.
4. Isaiah combines both titles into one calling him “the Angel of His (i.e., Yahweh’s) Presence” [Isa 63:9]

The One in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire

1. We see this from the events at the Red Sea where
   1. Both the Angel and the Pillar of Cloud and Fire shared the same position [Exo 14:19]
   2. That the Angel had been traveling before the Israelites is introduced or mentioned as a fact we should have already known. However, before this it was not plainly stated that an Angel traveled before Israel but that “Yahweh went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way…” [Exo 13:21-22]
2. The one who travelled before the Israelites
   1. God called him an angel [Exo 23:20-23]
   2. It was the Pillar of Cloud and Fire [Exo 13:22]
   3. He was Yahweh in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire [Deut 1:33; Neh 9:19]
3. It may be helpful to remember that the Angel of Yahweh is called Yahweh [Gen 16:13; Exo 23:20-21]. And so we realize that the Yahweh that went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud was in fact that Angel of Yahweh.

The Glory of Yahweh

The one in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire is referred to over and over again as “The Glory of Yahweh” [Exo 16:7,10-11; Lev 9:6,23-24; Num 14:10-11; Num 16:19-20; Num 16:42-44; Num 20:6-7; Exo 24:16-17; Deut 4:24].

1. When Moses asked to see the Glory of Yahweh, “show me Your Glory” [Exo 33:14], God’s answer that Moses could not see His face but only his back shows us that seeing the Glory of God was seeing God. In other words, the Glory of Yahweh in the Cloud was actually Yahweh.
2. Because the “Glory of Yahweh” appearing in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire was in fact Yahweh and not just some phenomenon, it could be said that Yahweh was seen by the Israelites “face to face” [Num 14:14]—he was actually there.

Apparently, this is the same person that appears to the prophet Ezekiel in “an immense cloud” [Eze 1:4] for Ezekiel refers to him as

1. “The likeness of the glory of YAHWEH” [Eze 1:25-28] and
2. “The Glory of Yahweh” [Eze 3:23]