Elohim in the Old Testament

 

Do we see a plurality of God in the Old testament?
Gen 1:1
“God (Elohim) created the heavens & the earth”
Elohim is a plural word
Gen 1:26
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”
The Father is speaking to someone. It makes sense in the context of plurality within the Godhead.
But if God is speaking to the angel Michael, an angel wouldn’t have the same image our likeness as God.
Gen 2:4
“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God (Elohim) made the earth and the heavens”
Elohim : plural word
Gen 19:24
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.
Gen 22:11-12
But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”


Exodus 3: 2-14
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The angel of the Lord (Jesus) is identified as Yahweh


Deut 6:4
 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD (Yahweh) our God (Elohim), the LORD (Yahweh) is one.” (the singular Yahweh + the plural Elohim)
“One” is ehad, which means “one” or “unity.”
Ehad is used as a plurality within unity. Ex: Gen 2:24, “[A man] is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one [ehad]” (NLT). Husband and wife are distinct persons, but they are called “one”= diversity within the unity
https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/deu/6/4/t_conc_159004

Adonai
a title for God 300 times in the OT – the plural form is always used for God (‘my Lords.’)
“singular Adon” is used in reference of human “lords” – kings, authority.

Nehemiah 9:6
You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
Yahweh alone made the earth
So either Micheal the archangel is Jehovah
Or
Jesus is part of the Godhead as Yahweh (the trinity)

 2 Samuel  23:2-3
“The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue.  The God of Israel has spoken;  the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men,  ruling in the fear of God,

Judges 2:1-4
Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.


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