 Let's examine some interesting facts about the God of the Bible. The God of Israel goes by a variety of names in the Hebrew Bible. Most are El derivatives, El Shaddai, El Olam, and so on. At other times, Israel's God is referred to with the Hebrew, Hashem, the name. We get that, you know, an example in Isaiah 30, 27. In Ugaritic and Canaanite language, they share the same Hebrew word, El, a sort of generic word for a God or Lord. El Shaddai is the name by which the God of Israel identified himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We see this in Genesis 17-1 and Exodus 6-2-3. It wasn't until Moses that God identified himself as Yahweh. Another interesting aspect is how we can view God as man in the Old Testament. A first good example would be in Genesis 18, where we have Abraham and Sarah, who are visited by three men. The language used here is pretty clear. We've got two, which are angels. And the third is the Lord, the God of Israel. A little less clear is Genesis 32, where we have Jacob, who wrestles with a man who is also called an angel. This incident is referenced in Genesis 48. When Jacob is about to die, he blesses Joseph's children. And he says, may the God, the angel who has been rescuing me from all sorts of evil, bless these young men, as Genesis 48, 15 through 16. Grammatically, the Hebrew verb, bless, is singular. It's important because Jacob does not use the word they. For example, may they bless these young men. Instead, the context tells us that the God and the angel in this passage are one in the same. Another example comes from Exodus 2321. There are Old Testament verses about trusting in the name of the Lord. This passage occurs after the crossing of the Red Sea. And after the giving of the commandments of Mount Sinai, it says, be careful, be sure to obey him. Don't rebel against him because he won't forgive your transgression since my name is in him. God is saying, my name, my essence, my presence is in him. In the Hebrew Hashem, the name is another way to refer to the God of Israel. Modern day Judaism doesn't speak the divine name. Why HWH? They will say Adonai, the Lord or Hashem. Interestingly, in the New Testament, when Jesus prays at the Garden of Gethsemane, he thanks God for the name given to him. That's John 1711 through 12. He's not literally thanking God that his name is Jesus. Jesus is essentially saying, I'm glad that I am a man incarnate and I have your name inside me, the essence of God himself embodied. And who took the Israel to the Promised Land? Because if we look at the Hebrew Bible, we have one God, the angel, and the presence of God. And all three are all different ways to speak about the same thing. In the case of the angel, he was visible in human form and he shows up elsewhere as the captain of the Lord's host. We clearly have God as man in the Old Testament. This is very consistent with the Old Testament, but it can easily be missed. Whenever we come across the name of the Lord, think about this passage in Exodus 23 where we see God as man in the Old Testament.