Last week I mentioned the trinity is rarely indicated in the Old Testament, but Jesus does appear a number of times there. Maybe we could look at just one of those instances.
First, I’d like to go to Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 5:
For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?
Since both the First Person of the Trinity and Second Person are equal, taking on the relationship of Father and Son changes the ranking. At this point in history, probably at creation, the second Person of the trinity became submissive to the first. As a result, Jesus was sometimes sent by the Father to do His work. We see this in the New Testament when the Father sent Jesus to save us:
1 John 4:14 (ESV) And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
So, now that we’ve established that Jesus is submissive to the Father and can be sent implying Jesus is sometimes used as a messenger, we need to understand this in no way lessens Jesus’ divine nature, only His rank.
The word for “messenger” in Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments, is often translated “angel.” So, when Steven speaks of an angel appearing in the burning bush before Moses, we know it was not an angel, an angelic being, but Jesus Himself, God the Son, sent by God the Father..
Acts 7:30 (ESV) “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.”
We know this because Jesus Himself claimed to be that messenger in John 8:58:
John 8:58 (ESV) Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
“How is that Jesus claiming to be the One in the burning bush?” you might ask. Let’s look at the burning bush scene in Exodus:
Exodus 3:13, 14 (ESV) Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
Here, Jesus identifies Himself as the God of Moses’ fathers, Yahweh. He also tells the people to call Him by His name “I Am.” So, God establishes His name is “I Am.” Now back to Jesus and John 8:
John 8:58,59 (ESV) 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Jesus used the diving name, and the Jews saw this as blasphemy. They took up stones to kill Him as is the punishment for blasphemy.
Lev. 24:16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
There is another place where Jesus uses the divine name and gets a reaction from the Jews. Remember when the Temple guards came to arrest Jesus? They asked for Jesus of Nazareth and He said “I am He?” The truth is the “He” is not in the Greek. What Jesus did was identify Himself with the divine name:
John 18:6 (ESV) When Jesus said to them, “I am,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
That’s why the Jewish guards drew back and fell to the ground. One more point: In Luke 21:8, Jesus is speaking and warning His disciples of false prophets to come:
Luke 21:8 (ESV) “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am [he]!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.
Here again, the translators inserted the “he” after Jesus identifies Himself as the I Am thinking it would help sentence flow.
Why is this important?
Some look at Jesus as not fully God or as a sort of lieutenant god. But Jesus is fully God and fully equal with the Father (John 5:18). He was active throughout the Old Testament as the Father’s Messenger yet still as the God of Israel.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 