It seems to me that when this angel speaks to Gideon, it is accepted by the writer of this book, that the Lord speaks to Gideon.

This raises some questions.

1. Is it that the angel of the Lord is the Lord himself?
2. Is it that the angel of the Lord speaks the present word of the Lord to Gideon?
3. Is it that this present angel (messenger) of the Lord is Jesus?

I’m going with #2 above, that is , that this angel sent by God speaks to Gideon only what God presently wanted to talk to Gideon about, and he did it exactly as the Lord God would have him to do it.

I also consider #3 a possibility, but am not willing to teach it as fact because I can not prove it by the scriptures. Maybe some people can. I don’t know.

One of the dangers of embracing the Trinity doctrine is that a man may be tempted to look for it in the scriptures, and accept anything as truth that would seem to add support to it.

I’m not convinced I should be a Trinitarian. Do I need to be converted? I have received salvation without it, though I had heard it. I never really accepted it enough to support it. I often found it to be confusing.

I’ve participated in holy communion without the doctrine. I even took part of one holy communion in which it seemed that it was
a necessity for one to be a Christian, by the one who was ministering it.

Now from the following veses of this chapter, I can tell that God talked to Moses from this burning bush.

This gives rise to a few questions.

1. Was this angel God?
2. Did God speak to Moses by or through this angel, being a messenger for God?
3. Was it that the angel did the appearing, but that God did the
speaking?

I think I will go with #2, that is that God spoke to Moses from this burning bush by his angel. I could think of this angel as a representative of God, sent by him for this purpose. I suspect that this messenger only said what God wanted said, the way he wanted it said.

4. Could God appear as an angel?
5. Can God appear as a man?

When I read from Genesis 18, it seems to me that God appeard
as a man, and so did his angels that came with him. (his two witnesses who would be a part of his work of coming to see what
is the conditition of Sodom)

6. Could Jesus appear as an angel?

It seems to me that whatever God has done, I can suspect that Jesus may be found doing the same, sometime.

7. Can Jesus appear as a “regular” man (normal or natural human being)?

Jesus appeared to the two men who were on the road to Emmaus. This he did after his resurrection.

As pertaining to Genesis 18, I consider that God appeared to Abraham and that his appearance was that of a man, and that he came with two angels with him who also appeared as men.
As the Lord was about to go unto Sodom, Abraham drew near to the Lord and began to intercede for the city, the same where Lot was. The manner of Abraham was to do justice and judgment and to command his household after him to do the same, to keep the way of the Lord. This seems to be that which allowed God to
bring upon Abraham the blessings he had promised.

I think about a song by Johnny Cash. He sang about the Christmas story (Luke 2) where the shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night, and the angel appeared unto them telling them the good news, and how they went to see. In the song he asks
repeatedly, “Who kept the sheep?,.. Who kept the sheep?”

It’s not an uncommon thing in scripture. King David’s life was often found to be mixing in with revelations about Jesus. We should expect to see the same thing happening in his son Solomon as he also was a spiritual man of understanding.

Paradigms. People have paradigms. Some of them are changing.

a. That he is God.
b. That he is the second person of the Trinity.
c. That he is the Son of God.

I opt for c., but I’m thinking of d.

d. That he’s about to take names.

I once said something like, “Let’s go get a cup of coffee.”, but my friend was not me, nor was I my friend, but then I don’t see myself as a part of a trinity. Maybe some people do, but seeing such things does not mean a man will be in heaven, for that is not the gospel.

The gospel has the power of God to bring men to heaven, to eternal life, not our theology about the nature of God or whether or not he is one or three, or three in one, or any variation thereof.

Sometimes I don’t know why people teach such things unless they like to be lawyerly and put people to sleep.

I think we should be waking people up instead of putting them to sleep.

Wasn’t it Jesus that was with God when he made man in his image and also the image of his Son?