Angelos 2. The Angel of the Lord

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2021 09 05

God’s Economy

There was famine in the land

Genesis 26:1 NKJV

1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

The Lord promised blessings by faith in obedience

Genesis 26:2–3 NKJV

2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

Fear inspite of His Word – Do not fear

Genesis 26:7 NKJV

7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”

Sow and you will reap, even when there is famine

Genesis 26:12–13 NKJV

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. 13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;

Wells that Abraham dug, that the enemy has stopped

Genesis 26:18 NKJV

18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.

Blessings contended with, freely you give, because the blesser is with you

Genesis 26:19–20 NKJV

19 Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. 20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him.

The world may quarrel with you for what you’ve been blessed with,

Genesis 26:21 NKJV

21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah.

dig another blessing, the Lord is with you

Genesis 26:24 NKJV

24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”

The rulers of the land will take notice of that

Genesis 26:26–29 NKJV

26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28 But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”

You will find another well

Genesis 26:32 NKJV

32 It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

Dan to Beersheba

Christ Is Better Than the Angels

Paul declared in Hebrews 1:5-14 that Christ was “made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”

And because there is no comparison between Christ and angels as to honor and position, the word of Christ commands greater respect (Heb. 2:1-3):

Paul continues this argument throughout the rest of Hebrews 2, showing that the world was made subject to Christ, not angels.

This same theme is also presented in Ephesians where Paul declares that after Christ was raised from the dead, He sat down at the right hand of God, “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:21 ).

Peter agrees with Paul as well, stating that Christ has “gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (1 Pet. 3:22).

Knowing these things, we can understand all the more Paul’s exhortation not to worship angels:  (Col. 2:18-19)

Angel of the Lord

This is not really an angel at all, but the second person of the trinity, a physical manifestation of God. Yet in numerous passages He is called “the angel of God,” “the angel of the Lord,” “His angel,” “Mine angel,” and “the angel of His presence.”

Because the Bible uses the word angel in these passages, we include Him in our study of special angels. But a careful examination of the scriptures will prove that they refer not to an ordinary angel, but to God Himself.

In the Old Testament, the identity of the Angel can be difficult to distinguish from Yahweh Himself

To whom did he appear?

  1. To Hagar

Ge 16:7-10

  • After she had conceived by Abram, Hagar despised her mistress, Sarai. With Abram’s permission, Sarai treated Hagar harshly. Hagar then ran away and thus encountered the angel of the Lord

And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. (Gen. 16:7-9)

  • Hagar appears to be talking to an ordinary angel, but the next verse reveals His true identity:

“And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude” (Gen. 16:10).

  • He said nothing to indicate He was bearing a message from God. Rather, He spoke in the first person: “I will multiply thy seed.”
  • Hagar’s response proves she knew to whom she was speaking: “And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
  • She called the well Beerlahairoi” (Gen. 16:13-14).
  • Beerlahairoi means “Do I live after seeing God?” or “the well of living after seeing.”

Ge 21:17-18

  • After Isaac was born and weaned, Sarah was concerned that Ishmael would challenge Isaac’s position as Abraham’s true heir. Once again, she wanted Hagar and Ishmael cast out. This grieved Abraham, but God comforted him with the promise that He would make a nation out of Ishmael because he was Abraham’s seed (Gen. 21:11-13).
  • Later, when the provisions for their journey had been spent and death seemed imminent, God comforted Hagar with the same promise:. . . the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. (Gen. 21:17-18)
  • Note that He said, “I will make him a great nation”—the same words God Himself used to comfort Abraham
  1. To Abraham

Ge 22:11-15

  • When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, it was the angel of the LORD who called to him from heaven, saying, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Gen. 22:12).
  • Abraham wasn’t about to sacrifice Isaac to an angel, was he? Yet this “angel” said,”thou hast not withheld thy son . . . from me.”
  • Only God Himself would say such a thing.
  1. To Jacob

Ge 31:11–13

  • When Jacob was preparing Rachel and Leah to leave their father Laban, he recounted how the “angel of God” spoke to him in a dream, assuring him that He had seen all that Laban had done to him (Gen. 31:11-12).
  • But then this “angel” said, “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me” (Gen. 31:13).

Gen. 48:15-16

  • The account of Jacob wrestling with God does not actually mention the word angel,but simply states that “there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day” (Gen. 32:24)
  • Angels have appeared numerous times exactly as men. And as the story concludes, Jacob states, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (v. 30) Furthermore, at the end of his life, when he was blessing Joseph and his sons in Egypt, Jacob said,

“God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads” (Gen. 48:15-16).

  • This Angel was God the Redeemer, the one who had blessed him at Bethel, who had provided for and protected him all the days of his life, and the one who had wrestled with him.
  1. To Moses

Ex 3:1-6

  • Appearance to Moses at the Burning BushThis familiar passage is another example of Scripture referring at first to the angel of the Lord. But we soon see that this “angel” is the Lord Himself

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.  (Ex. 3:1-6; cp. Acts 7:30-38)

  1. To the Israelites in the exodus

Ex 14:19

  • As Israel was making their exodus from the land of Egypt, Scripture says that

the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. (Ex. 13:21-22)

  • When Pharaoh’s armies pursued them, God protected them. But the description given at that point is that

the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. (Ps. 34:7)

Psalm 34:7 NKJV

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,

And delivers them.

  • The same one who was called “the LORD” (Jehovah in Hebrew) in Ex. 13:21 is called “the angel of God” in Ex. 14:19.
  • When He was giving the law, God also promised protection and guidance into the promised land:

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey 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 Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. (Ex. 23:20-23; cp. 32:34; Num. 20:16; Isa. 63:9)

  • In the OT, God alone has power to forgive or not forgive; hence, a member of deity is referred to here. The full authority of God, as represented by the name of God, was upon Him, in Him, around Him, and in His heart and nature.

The New King James Version Chapter 20

John 20:23
23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

  • This is the same thought Paul expressed, saying that in Christ “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). As the divine representative of the Godhead, the executive of God among Israel, the Angel was essentially all that God could be in their midst to lead, keep, and bring them into Canaan.
  1. To Balaam

Nu 22:22–35

  • In Numbers 22 KingBalak’s attempted to hire Balaam to curse the nation of Israel (Numbers 22:1-8).
  • Having already been forbidden by God (Num. 22:9-14), Balaam nevertheless waited before the Lord a second time, apparently hoping He would change His mind (Num. 22:15-19).
  • God did grant permission, but the Bible says that “God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him” (Num. 22:22).
  • We know from the record that the donkey saw the angel of the Lord with His sword drawn and turned aside, once into a field and once into a wall, crushing Balaam’s foot (Num. 22:23-25).
  • Each time Balaam smote the donkey in his anger. Finally, when the angel was standing “in a narrow place,” the donkey simply “fell down under Balaam” (Num. 22:26-27).
  • This time Balaam was so angry he smote the donkey with a rod. Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth and she said, “What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?” (Num. 22:28).
  • Balaam said, “Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee” (Num. 22:29).
  • Then the donkey asked him if she had ever treated him this way before and he said, “Nay” (Num. 22:30).

Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me: And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive. And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again. And the angel of the LORD said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak. (Num. 22:31-35)

  • The last words of this “angel” prove it is really God, for He gives Balaam the same condition God had already given him in Num. 22:20: “only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak.” The angel speaks in the first person, claiming the very words of God as His own.
  1. To Joshua

Jdg 2:1-5

  • After listing in the first chapter of Judges the failures of the various tribes of Israel to conquer the land, the second chapter begins,

And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD. (Judg. 2:1-5)

  • Though He is called the angel of the Lord here, His words are the words of God. He isn’t merely bringing a message from God; nothing is prefaced by “thus saith the Lord.” This is God Himself speaking.
  1. To Gideon

Jdg 6:11-16

  • Later in the time of the judges, a period in Israel’s history when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6), there came a particular time when “Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD” (Judg. 6:6).
  • In response to their cry, the Lord sent a prophet to them with one of the shortest accusations of God to Israel:

Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice. (Judg. 6:8-10)

  • Then God raised up another judge for their deliverance:

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite:and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. (Judg. 6:11-16)

  • Note that what began as an appearance of the angel of the Lord ended in a conversation with the Lord Himself. The two terms were used interchangeably.As the story continues,
  • God is again referred to as an angel. Gideon asked the angel to wait until he had prepared an offering . Later, the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. (Judg. 6: 17-21)
  • Then Gideon, understanding that he wasn’t talking to an ordinary angel, said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face” (v. 22).
  • Like many, Gideon was afraid he would die if he saw God. But the Lord said to him, “Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die” (v. 23). So, like Noah (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (Gen. 12:7), Isaac (Gen. 26:24-25), Jacob (Gen. 35:7) and others, Gideon also built an altar to mark the place of his encounter with God (Judg. 6:24)
  1. To Samson’s parents

Jdg 13:21–22

  • After forty years of bondage to the Philistines (Judg. 13:1), the Lord was ready once again to deliver Israel, this time through Samson. The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s barren wife and prophesied to her: “Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son” (v. 3).
  • When she reported this encounter to Manoah her husband, she said “A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible” (v. 6). Manoah then prayed that the Lord would send the man of God again, and God answered his prayer (vv.8-11).
  • After the Angel repeated His instructions for Manoah’s wife’s time of pregnancy, Manoah asked the Angel to wait for them to prepare a burnt offering:So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: 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 the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD. (Judg. 13:19-21)
  • Until the Angel ascended in the flame, Manoah didn’t understand who He really was. When he did realize who was dealing with, Manoah reacted with the same fear Gideon had: “We shall surely die, because we have seen God” (v. 22). But his wife used better logic: “If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these” (v. 23).
  1. To David 1 Ch 21:16

1 Chronicles 21:16 NKJV

Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

  1. To Elijah 2 Kings 1:3

2 Kings 1:3 NKJV

But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’

  1. To Daniel Da 6:22

Daniel 6:22 NKJV

My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”

Conclusion

It is clear that all the passages above refer to the manifestations of God and not of an ordinary angel.

In all other places where “the angel of the Lord” is found, the term refers to common angels.

This study will continue next week

 

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