Maybe you’ve noticed and maybe you
haven’t, but now and then in the Old Testament we come across the phrase, “THE
angel of the Lord”. Who is this unique angel and what distinguishes
him from the ones described as, “AN angel of the Lord”?
The difference is that this angel is
directly identified with God – He is not just FROM the Lord, but IS the Lord
Himself. Let’s look at some of the Bible passage that speak of him.
In Genesis 16:6-14 God had promised Abram that he and his wife Sarai would
have a child. When years passed and they got older, and yet still had no
child, Sarai suggested Abram take her maidservant and sleep with her so that
maybe she would have a child for her mistress.
This was not in God’s plan for
Abram, but he complied with his wife's wishes and slept with his wife's
servant. Her servant Hagar became pregnant and when she did, she began to
despise her mistress.
When Sarai complained to Abram about
it, he gave her the go ahead to do what she wanted with Hagar, and so we
read:
- “Then Sarai mistreated Hagar, so she fled from her. THE angel of the Lord found Hagar. .and, speaking in the first person, told her,
- “Go back to your mistress and submit to her. . . I will increase your descendants”.
Hagar identified this angel as the
Lord Himself:
- She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her, “YOU ARE THE GOD who sees me.”
Then in Genesis 22:2; 9-12 God instructed Abraham to sacrifice the very son He
had promised to him years before, the son of his old age, the son on whom all
of God’s promises to Abraham rested, Isaac.
When Abraham reached the place of
sacrifice, he took the knife to slay his son, but THE angel of the Lord called
out to him from heaven saying, again in the first person:
- “Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from ME your son, your only son.”
Over in Exodus 3:1-6 we read the account of Moses and the burning bush.
Moses saw the bush from a distance and drew near to see what it was because the
bush was on fire, but it didn’t burn up. When he arrived at the place we
read:
- “There THE angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. . . . When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to look, God called to him from the bush. . Then He said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
In Judges 2:1-5 We read that THE angel of the Lord went up from
Gilgal to Bokim and said to the people of Israel:
- “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land. . . . I will never break my covenant with you. . . . “
We can tell just from these few
texts that THE angel of the Lord seems in some ways to be distinct from God,
and also, in some mysterious way, was also identified WITH God and actually WAS
God.
In previous blogs we’ve already said
that God is the creator and angels are a work of His creation – they are NOT
God himself.
But this angel is different.
It would seem that THIS angel must be more than just an angel.
So, who is He?
Could it be that God the Son, the 2nd
person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, came and walked this earth
centuries before He was born as a baby in Bethlehem? Many
theologians and Bible scholars think so.
John Calvin said:
- “I am rather inclined . . . to agree with ancient writers, that in those passages wherein it is stated that the angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham, Jacob and Moses, Christ was that angel.”
Billy Graham says:
- “There are no grounds for questioning the very early and traditional Christian interpretation that in these cases there is a pre-incarnation manifestation of the second person of the Trinity.”
The Bible clearly tells us that
Jesus existed BEFORE He came to earth as a baby.
In John’s gospel, chapter 1, verse 2, he says in reference to Jesus whom he calls “The WORD”:
·
He was “with God in the
beginning”
In John 8:58 Jesus told
the Jews,
·
“Before
Abraham was born, I am”
In John 17:5 In what is known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer, Jesus
said that He had glory in God’s presence:
·
“before the
world began”.
Since Jesus existed before His birth
in Bethlehem, He certainly could have appeared in Old Testament times.
Also, of the 3 persons of the
Trinity, Jesus is the one most involved in manifesting God to man.
In Matthew 1:23 He is Immanuel, “God with us”
In John 1:18 Jesus is the One and Only Son of God who is both:
·
“at the Father’s side”
and “has made Him known”
In 1 Timothy 3:16 we read that Jesus:
·
“appeared in
a body” and “was seen by angels”
In the Old Testament book of Exodus
23:23, God says this of this special angel:
·
“See I am
sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and bring you to the
place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he
says. Do not rebel against Him; He will not forgive your rebellion, since
my Name is in Him.”
THE angel of the Lord then is no
ordinary angel – this one had God’s Name in
Him and He could forgive sins – though in Mark’s gospel, chapter 2, verse 7 it
says:
·
“Who can
forgive sins but God alone?”
Once Jesus was born, there were no
longer any appearances of THE angel of the Lord – which is a additional
evidence that He may have been that angel.
But Jesus could never have saved us
in His appearance as an angel – in order to do that, he had to become ONE of
us, He had to become a man.
In Hebrews 2:14-17, the author
says:
·
“Since the
children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity. . . For surely
it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he
had to be made like his brothers in every way. . . that He might make atonement
for the sins of the people.”
Since His incarnation as a man,
Jesus no longer appears as THE angel of the Lord, and in that we should
rejoice. Only as the perfect Son of God could He die in our place,
forgive our sins, bestow eternal life, and give us victory over sin in the here
and now.
I’m grateful, aren’t you?
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