The angel of Yahweh is God in human form. The God of the Hebrew Bible has a body. The evidence for this is overwhelming. Ancient Jewish teaching about the Hebrew Bible revealed there were two Yahweh figures, two powers in heaven. One visible, the other invisible. The importance of this language in Exodus 23:20–22 is clear. When God describes for Moses the angel he is sending before the people to guide them to the promised land as having his Name in him, he is telling Moses that his very presence is within this angel. The angel is the visible form of Yahweh himself. This scripture is key to understanding the identity of the angel of Yahweh.
Exodus 23:20-22 English Standard Version
Conquest of Canaan Promised
20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. 22 “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
Decades later, In Judges 2:1 the angel of Yahweh reports that he accomplished the mission.
Judges 2:1 English Standard Version
Israel's Disobedience
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,
The first-person language—the angel of the Lord says it was he who swore to the earlier patriarchs that they would have the land—identifies him with Yahweh.
Scripture references to "the Name" (Hebrew, ha-shem) is the same as referring to God Himself. Isaiah 30:27-28 uses "the name" as a substitute for God and personifies "the name."
Isaiah 30:27-28 English Standard Version
27 Behold, the Name [Hebrew, ha-shem]of the Lord [Yahweh] comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke, his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; 28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
Genesis 28:10-22 English Standard Version
Jacob's Dream
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made 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 clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder in verse 13. This story is referenced later in Geneiss 31.
Genesis 31:11-13 English Standard Version
11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’”
Genesis 32:24-30 English Standard Version
24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”
The God nature of the man is confirmed in verses 28-30.
Hosea 12:3-4 English Standard Version
3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. 4 He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us—
This passage links the “man” with whom Jacob wrestled and the encounter at Bethel. Therefore, Genesis 32 is a physical encounter with the visible, embodied Yahweh, who in Genesis 31 is the angel of the Lord. There is little merit in proposing that we should read these passages and pretend that Jacob wrestled with an entity who was a stand-in for Yahweh. The text does not veil or obscure that this figure is Yahweh in human form.
The commander of the Lord's army is also another form of the angel of Yahweh
The God, the Creator of the Hebrew Bible does indeed have a human body form. Throughout the Old Testament scriptures proof of this fact is clear in passages including the phrases, the angel of the Lord, the angel of God and the angel of Yahweh.