In this series I am going
to refute the desperate Muhammadan attempt of using the book of Hosea to prove
that Muhammad was a true prophet of God (https://bloggingtheology.com/2019/09/07/is-prophet-muhammad-pbuh-mentioned-by-the-name-in-the-bible/). I am going to show how the theology of this inspired
Scripture actually exposes Muhammad as a false prophet and antichrist,
therefore refuting any attempt of finding prophecies of him by this true
prophet of God.
Multi-Personal God
What makes this prophetic
book rather interesting is that it explicitly identifies the Angel/Messenger of
God/Jehovah (Malak El/Elohim/YHWH) as the very Jehovah God who appeared
to Jacob and who also wrestled with him:
“Jehovah hath also a
controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways;
according to his doings will he recompense him. In the womb he took his brother
by the heel; and in his manhood he had power with God: yea,
he had power over
the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found
him at Beth-el, and there he spake with us, even Jehovah, the God of hosts; Jehovah
is his memorial name.” Hosea 12:2-5
The inspired author is
recalling the following evens in the life of Jacob:
“And Jacob was left
alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the
breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against
him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s
thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the
day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he
said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name
shall be called no more Jacob, but [a]Israel: for thou hast striven with God
and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I
pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?
And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place
Peniel: for, said he, I
have seen God face to face,
and my life is preserved.”
Genesis 32:24-30
Jacob clearly refers to the
Man with whom he wrestled as the God whom he saw face to face.
This next one is rather
remarkable:
“And Jacob went out from
Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all
night, because the sun was set; and he took one of the stones of the place, and
put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed; and,
behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and,
behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And,
behold, Jehovah stood above
it, and said, I am
Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall
be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and
to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed
shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with
thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again
into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have
spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely
Jehovah is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said,
How dreadful is this place! this is none other than the house of God, and this
is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the
stone that he had put under his head, and
set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that
place Beth-el: but the name of the city was Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow,
saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and
will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to
my father’s house in peace, and
Jehovah will be my God, then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar,
shall be God’s house:
and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.”
Genesis 28:10-22
Pay careful attention to
the fact it was Jehovah God who personally appeared to Jacob, and that it was
to Jehovah that Jacob made a vow and dedicated the pillar, calling it Beth-el,
meaning “the house of God.”
The reason this is
remarkable is that elsewhere Jacob recounts a dream in which the Angel of God
appeared to him, claiming to be the very God of Beth-el whom Jacob made a vow
to:
“And it came to pass at the
time that the flock conceive, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream,
and, behold, the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were ringstreaked,
speckled, and grizzled. And the angel of God said
unto me in the dream,
Jacob: and I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and
see: all the he-goats which leap upon the flock are ringstreaked, speckled, and
grizzled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I
am the God of Beth-el,
where thou anointedst a pillar, where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the
land of thy nativity.” Genesis 31:10-13
This explains why Hosea
could identify the Angel as the very God Jehovah whom Jacob wrestled with and whose
favor he sought. I.e., the Angel is none other than Jehovah God Almighty
appearing to his people in their time of need and distress.
At the same time, however,
the Angel is distinguished from another who is called Jehovah God, thereby
unveiling the fact of the one true God of Israel existing as a multi-Personal
Being.
This is brought out more
clearly in the following passage:
“And God
(Elohim) said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el,
and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God (El), who appeared
unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy
brother… And he built there an altar, and called the place [b]El-beth-el;
because there God was revealed (niglu ha Elohim) unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. ” Genesis 35:1, 7
[b] Genesis
35:7 That is, The God of
Beth-el.
Several points need to be
mentioned. First, note the distinction between the words employed for God in
Hebrew, namely, Elohim and El. The passage
has Elohim commanding Jacob to
build an altar to the El who had appeared to him, thereby
clearly distinguishing between the two.
In other words, the Elohim who
is speaking to Jacob is different from the El who had appeared
to Jacob at Beth-el, a fact which is further confirmed by the Hebrew word for
“was revealed”, e.g., niglu. Niglu is third person
common plural (https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/35-7.htm) of galah (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1540.htm). As such, the text literally reads, “when THEY, namely Elohim (plural
noun), were revealed unto him.”
The inspired text is, thus,
confirming that the God who appeared to Jacob is not a singular Person, but a
multi-Personal Being, consisting of both Jehovah and his Angel. After all, as
the foregoing passages affirm, the El who appeared to Jacob at
Beth-el, the Jehovah to whom he vowed and anointed a pillar which he
consecrated as his house, was the Angel of God himself. There’s simply no way
around this inspired truth.
In light of the foregoing,
this is how we would render Genesis 35:1, 7 in order to best capture its
inspired meaning:
“And the Godhead said
unto Jacob, Arise, go up to the house of God, and dwell there: and make there
an altar unto the Angel, who was the God that appeared to you… And
he built there an altar, and called the place the God of the house
of God; because there the Godhead, namely Jehovah and his Angel, revealed
themselves to him.” Genesis 35:1, 7
Hence, both Genesis and
Hosea affirm that God is a multi-Personal Being and that the Angel of Jehovah
is no creature, but is rather Jehovah God Almighty who would often appear visibly
to the people of God.
This explains why this
particular Angel is worshiped as Jehovah God, embodies the very name or essence
of God, and performs unique divine functions, such as forgiving sins:
“Behold, I send an
angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into
the place which I have prepared. Take ye heed before him, and
hearken unto his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all
that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto
thine adversaries. For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto
the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite,
and the Jebusite: and I will cut them off.” Exodus 23:20-23
“Now Joshua was clothed
with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. And
he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take the filthy
garments from off him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich
apparel.” Zechariah 3:3-4
“Then Jehovah opened the
eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of Jehovah standing
in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed his head,
and fell on his face. And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Wherefore
hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I am come forth for an
adversary, because thy way is perverse before me:” Numbers 22:31-32
“And Manoah said unto the
angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that, when thy words come to pass,
we may do thee honor? And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Wherefore askest
thou after my name, seeing it is wonderful? So Manoah
took the kid with the meal-offering, and offered it upon the rock unto Jehovah:
and the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to
pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that
the angel of Jehovah ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah and
his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.
But the angel of Jehovah did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife. Then
Manoah knew that he was the angel of Jehovah. And Manoah said unto his
wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
But his wife said unto him, If Jehovah were pleased to kill us, he would not
have received a burnt-offering and a meal-offering at our hand, neither would he
have showed us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things
as these.” Judges 13:17-23
I’ll have more to say about
this Angel in relation to the book of Hosea in the next installment (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/how-the-prophet-hosea-exposes-muhammad-as-a-false-prophet-pt-2/).
IHS
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