Who is Michael the Archangel?

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Jude 9 calls Michael an Archangel. 1 Thess 4:16 tells us that our Lord Jesus’ ‘loud command’ as He comes down from heaven at the Second Coming, is also called the ‘voice of the archangel’ and the ‘trumpet call of God.’ It is at the archangel’s voice the dead in Christ will be resurrected. Furthermore, John 5:28 Jesus says that the dead will come to life when they hear His voice. Therefore Jesus has to be Michael. In Rev 12:7; Dan 10:13; 12:1 Michael is portrayed as a supernatural being and defender of His people, a role synonymous with what Jesus has done from the beginning of time. The confusion comes in with the word ‘angel.’ People think that since an angel is a created being, Michael also has to be a created being. But the word ‘angel’, which means messenger, is used a number of times with reference to God: Ex 3:2-6 (the ‘angel of the Lord’ in vs 2 is called ‘Lord’ in vs 4, and ‘God’ in vss 4 and 6) Zech 3:1-4 (vs 1 shows that there are 3 players in this story: Joshua, the angel of the Lord and Satan. In vs 2 the angel is called the ‘Lord’, and in vs 4 the angel forgives Joshua, something only a God can do - cf. Mark 2:7) Ex 23:20-21 (this angel also forgives which is a prerogative of divinity) Hosea 12:2-4 (the Hebrew parallelism of vs 3 and 4 show that God is also called an angel). Finally the name Michael means “[The one] who is like God”. Jesus fully qualifies since He is like God in every way – He is fully divine (see Heb.1:1-3). Thus the Bible supports the idea of seeing Michael as a direct reference to Jesus Christ.