THE ANGEL OF THE LORD WAS YAHWEH:

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD WAS YAHWEH: I read past the Angel of the LORD for years without thinking much about it. Once you start comparing the passages, though, it gets hard to call Him just another angel. The Hebrew word mal’akh simply means messenger. Jesus is not a created angel. Hebrews 1 makes that crystal clear. The Son is above the angels, and the angels worship Him. What makes the Angel of the LORD different is the way Scripture talks about Him. Hagar meets Him in Genesis 16, and the Angel says, “I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” Genesis 16:10 KJV An ordinary angel would be delivering God’s promise. This One makes the promise Himself. A few verses later, Hagar calls the One speaking to her “Thou God seest me,” and Scripture says it was the LORD who spoke to her. Then Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac. The Angel of the LORD stops him and says, “for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” Genesis 22:12 KJV That wording is hard to miss. Isaac was being offered to God, yet the Angel says Abraham had not withheld Isaac from me. A few verses later, “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD.” Genesis 22:16 KJV Now go to Exodus 3. “And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” Exodus 3:2 KJV Moses walks over, and the voice coming from that same bush says, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Exodus 3:6 KJV The passage opens by saying the Angel of the LORD appeared. By the time Moses is standing there barefoot, he is talking to God. Exodus 23 gets even harder to explain away. God tells Israel He is sending an Angel before them and says, “Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.” Exodus 23:21 KJV God’s name is in Him. Israel is commanded to obey His voice. Divine authority over sin is attached to Him. That is not normal angel language. Gideon has the same kind of encounter in Judges 6. The Angel of the LORD appears to him, then the passage suddenly says, “And the LORD looked upon him.” Judges 6:14 KJV Manoah sees the Angel of the LORD in Judges 13 and comes away terrified. “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” Judges 13:22 KJV Here’s the part that really makes it click for me. The Angel of the LORD is identified as Yahweh, while also being distinguished from Yahweh. Scripture can speak of Him as God and also speak of Him being sent by God. Once you get to the New Testament, that stops sounding strange. The Son is fully God, yet distinct from the Father. The Father sends the Son. The Son reveals the Father. John writes, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son… he hath declared him.” John 1:18 KJV That makes all those Old Testament appearances worth another look. People saw God. They spoke with God. They stood in His presence. The New Testament tells us the Son is the One who makes the unseen God known. That is why I believe the Angel of the LORD was the pre-incarnate Christ. Not Jesus as an angel. Jesus as Yahweh appearing before He ever took on flesh. Bethlehem was not His beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1 KJV The manger was an arrival, not an origin. #MoreJoyMinistries