Dear Kenneth Greifer:
Your arguments don’t hold water. I disagree with Steve here.
Kenneth Greifer wrote:In Numbers 6:24-26, G-d is telling the priests a prayer to say to the people, so it just sounds like He is talking about someone else.
It is יהוה who gave the command to the priests to bless the people, that יהוה is the one who is actually doing the actions not the priests themselves. In each of the actions, יהוה does the action, the priests merely speak on his behalf, which is why יהוה is in the third person. As I mentioned before, each of the actions corresponds to the three persons of the trinity.
Kenneth Greifer wrote:In Isaiah 48:12-16, I think G-d talks about Himself and then Isaiah says G-d is sending him and G-d's spirit which is usually on prophets.
Here you are taking it out of context. The passage is a unit with the same speaker throughout.
Kenneth Greifer wrote:The angel of G-d is unusual because I think it is really just an angel that has G-d's name (presence) in it like it says Exodus 23:20-22 and in Isaiah 63:9-10. I think that G-d speaks through it like a telephone or puppet. You would hear the angel's voice, but really G-d could talk through it. Exodus 23:20-22 says listen to it's voice and do what G-d speaks because the angel speaks, but G-d is actually talking.
Where angels/messengers are named and are speaking on behalf of God, it’s clear that the messenger is a messenger, that he’s not giving his own message, rather the message given him by God. We see this in Daniel where the messenger Gabriel speaks with Daniel.
But in the case of מלאך יהוה he speaks with his own authority, and that authority is God himself, e.g. Numbers 22:31 and following. Notice he accepts the worship that belongs to God alone which the messengers don’t accept.
Kenneth Greifer wrote:Isaiah 63:10 mentions that they grieved G-d's spirit, but there are many quotes that mention different people's spirits being grieved or bitter because that was one way of describing emotions. Their spirit is not a separate being. For example, see Genesis 41:8.
Don’t take out of context and collapse contexts. In Isaiah 63:7–19 recounts God actions, God who is mentioned as יהוה and מלאך and רוח. Each is mentioned as an active agent. Each is mentioned with the corresponding actions for each of the persons in the trinity.
Can you find any verses where a spirit of a person is listed as an active agent distinct from the person himself? I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
Karl W. Randolph.