Why does the angel of the Lord call out from heaven to Abraham at Genesis 22?
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OK, a response for consideration. Not necessarily one you are looking for, but one for consideration.
Genesis is a book, written not just ‘in’ Hebrew, but ‘by’ a Hebrew. And, for an audience who were Hebrews. And it is important to understand this, so that when we read it, we don’t read it from a ‘western’ perspective. An example...
GENESIS 38: 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him.
‘We’ read this, and it ‘says’ that the Lord killed him. That’s what it says - in ‘our’ reading. But, to a Hebrew listener/reader, they would be interpreting this from their worldview. And they would instinctively/naturally ‘read/understand’ this passage in this way. .....
This firstborn child was killed, [by someone] because they were ‘wicked’. God is sovereign. Therefore if this person ‘killed’ the firstborn, God must of allowed it. Because this man was wicked. - Therefore The Lord killed him.
So, when God ‘speaks’, it is not necessarily God speaking directly. It will be a representative. BUT when this representative ‘speaks’, it will be as if God is speaking. And importantly - important for ‘westerners’ to ‘know’, itwillbe written as if God (The Lord) is speaking, even though it is a representative.
So we have ..
EXODUS 3: 7 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows
Note - Who is speaking. Note how the ‘author of Genesis’ (Moses, a Hebrew, writing to Hebrews, not westerners!) says it is the Lord. Here, the Lord is speaking to Moses. And now note who Moses responds to .....
EXODUS 3: 11 But Moses said to God ...
But, here is the crucial aspect. The point. Exactly who was in the Burning Bush? ‘We’ would say it was God, or the Lord. But, we don’t need to answer this, the Bible tells us .... at the start of this story ..... clearly!
EXODUS 3: 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.
Now, in ‘western thinking’, we have a crowd in that bush. More than one entity. But - in Hebrew thinking we have an angel. A messenger. A representative. An ‘entity’ representing God, but [importantly] it is as if it were God himself! And in any account of this incident, it would be ‘written/related’ as if it were God.
‘Westerners’ struggle with this concept of representation. A Hebrew wouldn’t. So we ‘look’ for ways to resolve this, example by calling this a ‘Christophony’. Note- I am not saying this can’t be, or wasn’t a pre-incarnation. I am showing, outlining the ‘thinking’ behind how this was written..... because.....
.... This answers your query. That it wasn’t (just/only) an angel who called to Abraham, as far as Abraham would have ‘seen/heard’ this, to him - even though that’s the way it was written - it was God. And in fact, all those ‘other’ incidents throughout the Old Testament that ‘say’ it was God, it would have been a representative (angle/the angel/a prophet/etc.).
God has only ever worked [on earth] through a ‘representative’, example Jesus, and these days, the Holy Spirit.
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