Who Is the Angel of the LORD? | (un)ANSWERED

We've all experienced the odd occurrence of the Bible and was left with fringe questions.

Watch and listen as we leave no question unanswered.

There is a story as old as time. One in which all life finds its purpose. It starts with the simple phrase, in the beginning.

One in which the hands of time began to tick. It is this story that gives us a glimpse into the mystery of creation.

A story in which the chaotic waters of the formless earth were being overshadowed by the

Spirit of God. Where darkness crept into a space between what is and what will be. When that darkness was then split by God calling out, let there be light.

In sheer brilliance, the formless waters distanced themselves from one another for the

Creator commanded a division between the waters of the sky and the waters below. And through the direction of God, the atmosphere found its place.

Then without hesitation, obeying the voice of God that called out from the light, the dry land appeared.

And the waters gathered together in the separation of the land from which the earth was formed. Land and sea, worshiping the

Creator, every molecule held together, obeying the voice of the Lord. The song of the

Lord did not stop there. Fueled by the light of life, the Almighty God of vegetation sprang up for all life found itself unstoppably protruding from the

One who gives all life. As they produced seed and fruit all according to their kind. Then like lightning in a display of infinite power, the fabric of space was woven in and the stars of the second heaven found their place.

And all the sons of God rejoiced with their lights shining in reflection to the Creator, pointing to the true light and life of all men in which all things find their being.

And there we find the sun and the moon, the greater and lesser lights, intricately placed by God to rule over the day and the night.

Yet God was not done. He filled the sea with sea creatures according to their kind, and the waters above with every winged creature according to its kind.

What was once empty was now filled with creatures, all of which display the sheer grace and loving kindness of God towards His creation.

In this love, He also filled the dry land with livestock and every beast according to its kind. It was in these things that He has made

His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, clearly perceived. Ever since the creation of the world.

In the things that what have been made where God's proof is found. In that proof, God made man and women.

God's song sprang up from the dust of the earth, and in that, Adam found his form. Made in the image of God, the pinnacle of God's creation, he stood upright and walked with God in the cool of the garden.

And man was given the ability to govern and rule over the animals. Yet God did not leave Adam alone.

God put Adam to sleep, and from one rib, God created woman from man, and she was named

Eve to be the mother of all living. And it is from these two people that the 8 .1 billion descendants of the earth share their genetic code.

It is also from these two people that sin crept into the world. From walking with God in the cool of the garden to a sacrifice made by God to cover the ashamed

Adam and Eve. There was now a corruption in the being of man. He was no longer upright. In this moment, he needed a mediator.

You see, the great story of God from the beginning does not revolve around man. For in the fall of man, in the disobedience of Adam, a promise was made.

Here is the promise. From the seed of the woman, there will be one who comes to crush the head of the serpent.

There will be one who comes to set man free from the wages of sin, to reverse the curse as far as the curse was found.

Being on this side of the cross, we know that this mediator, right, is the one who reconciled our relationship to the

Father, and that was Jesus Christ. Yet prior to the incarnation of Christ, even in our separation from the

Father, humanity was still never left alone. First, we were left with a promise. Second, we had a mediator who intervened for humanity since the fall.

But here's the question. Who was that mediator? Well, he was the one who walked with Adam in the cool of the garden.

The one who covered Adam and Eve in their shame. This was the pre -incarnate Christ, and we are given, through the

Old Testament, a shadow of the fullness that was to come in Jesus Christ. This is who John called the

Logos, the word in which all things visible and invisible were made. He was with the

Father from eternity past, and he was also with humanity mediating for his people during the duration of the

Old Testament. He has, was, and always will be the King of the Universe. And in this episode of Unanswered, we will be looking at the question, who is the angel of the

Lord? And what does he have to do with Jesus? So the reason why I wanted to speak about the creation account at the beginning of this episode is because it has a purpose.

God is the creator of all things, and in him, all things are held together. The purpose of God in the creation of the world would be, believe it or not, to bring himself glory.

All of creation was to magnify his name. He alone is deserving of all worship. In his grace, he allowed life to bring him glory and bask in the worship of God.

In that, man ought to worship God in spirit and truth. For that is what we were created to do.

But now, as fallen human beings, conceived in iniquity, we profane the name of God. As R .C.

Sproul puts it, we are broken reflections of the image of God to all of his creation. Yet in his glory, he selected a group of people to bring about the

Messiah. So through the promise of the one to come, the wrath of God was subsided. All of the

Old Testament, when we look at it through the lens of Jesus, finds its perfect fulfillment and purpose. We have to understand that when talking about the angel of the

Lord, to understand who he is, we must understand that the pre -incarnate Christ was making the

Father known, in shadows and types, as the mediator for the people of Israel. John 1 .18

states the following, No one has ever seen God, the only God. Who is at the

Father's side? He has made him known. Meaning that even Adam, Abraham, Moses, take any

Old Testament person, had never seen the Father. Instead, the one in which they were interacting with was the pre -incarnate

Christ. He has always made the Father known. Therefore, the angel of the Lord was the pre -incarnate

Christ. And right now, we will get into the word of God to show the amazing story of God in which, with the great love that the

Father loved us, he has given us his Son, first in shadows and in types, then in the incarnation of Christ.

Now let's get into it. When we hear the word angel, it is derived from the Hebrew word malak, which means messenger, also angelos in Greek, which is either human or spiritual.

Therefore, the angel of the Lord can also be translated as messenger of the Lord. We must understand that the context of the scripture also determines the meaning of the word, and in light of Hebrews 1 and John 1 .18,

we find that this messenger in the Old Testament is not merely a created servant angel, but that he is the one angel in which

Yahweh's name is. The one who is interceding for his people on behalf of the Father. The unique messenger.

Who is Christ? Who is Yahweh? Yahweh, the second person of the Trinity, making the Father known.

So let us first look at Exodus 23, 20 through 33, but let's build some context, right? This is right after the

Ten Commandments had been given to Moses and the law had been explained. The Lord now gave a contingent blessing upon the people of Israel.

However, what we're going to look at is the identity of the angel of whom will guard the people of Israel and lead them into the promised land.

Here is the scripture, Exodus 23, 20 through 33. When my angel goes before you and brings you to the

Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.

You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.

No one should miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

And I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivites, the

Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.

Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land. And I will set your border from the

Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.

Now, that was a long section of scripture, but it's very important. So we must first look at verse 21. God is speaking about his angel, and he states that this angel has the authority to what?

Forgive sins and to pardon transgressions. But we know that only God has the authority to pardon transgressions.

Here's a scripture, Mark 2 7. Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. For who can forgive sins but God alone?

What we find, a unique identity of the angel for God states that his name is in him, and the verse 21.

Prior to this contingent blessing upon Israel, God has given his special name to Moses, is the authority and power in which the angel is acting.

The character of Yahweh is in the angel. He was a messenger of the Father to the people of Israel.

Now looking at verse 22, we find that Yahweh is telling his people to what? Obey the voice of the angel.

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.

There's a noticeable distinction between the angel and God, his voice and I, right? However, there's also a unification on the commands of the angel and the judgments from God on Israel's enemies.

So let's keep going. In verse 23, we see even more of a blur between what the angel does and what

God does. When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the

Canaanites and the Hibbites and the Jebusites, and I will block them out. However, the most amazing correlation between the angel and God is when

God calls the angel Yahweh, your God, in verse 25. You shall serve the

Lord, your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.

Do you see it? Here we see again the blurring of subjects. The angel now being called the

Lord, your God, Yahweh, your God, whom they are to obey and that the angel will bless the bread and the water of the

Israelites, while God will take their sickness away from them. It is quite clear and utterly astonishing that we find the identity of the angel to be the one unique messenger of the

Father, the one in which is the name of God, the voice of the Lord. We also find in Exodus 15, a few chapters earlier, the same warning to the

Israelites about obeying the voice of the Lord. With the same subject switch from his to I, from third person pronouns to first person pronouns.

Listen to this. This is Exodus 15, verse 26. If you will diligently listen to the voice of the

Lord, your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commands, and keep all his statutes,

I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.

All right, guys, to hit even more at home here, we're going to look at a parallel text to Exodus 23, 20 to 33, and that's

Judges chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. And in Judges chapter 2, we see how Israel failed to uphold that covenant in Exodus 23.

But right now, when we go through this, you'll see how the angel is speaking as Yahweh, being the angel of the

Lord. So here it is. Here's the text. Judges chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. Now, the angel of the

Lord went up from Gilgal to Bacchum, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give your fathers.

I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land.

You shall break down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?

So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept, and they called the name of that place

Bacchum, and they sacrificed there to the Lord. Now this is the same angel of the

Lord from Exodus 23, 20 through 33. The one whom the name of Yahweh is in. The angel of the

Lord that will either bless or curse the Israelites. We can cross -reference this with Jude 1, 5 that states this.

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Now many texts, because there's a textual variant here, say Lord instead of Jesus. However, it does remain that the angel of the

Lord is regarded as the pre -incarnate Christ here. Either Jude is stating that it's Jesus or Lord.

Regardless, the angel of the Lord is inseparable from whom? The Holy God. We then can conclude that the pre -incarnate

Christ led the Israelites out of Egypt. It was also the pre -incarnate Christ who destroyed those whose hearts were hardened in the wilderness.

And who led them in the wilderness, right? Well, it was the angel of the Lord. Now this scripture in Exodus and in Judges is not the first time the angel of the

Lord is mentioned. However, this is a great starting point for us to now look back at the appearance of the angel of the

Lord in the Old Testament. And first, we're going to start with Hagar. Here's the scripture, Genesis 16, 7 -13.

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to shore. And he said,

Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from my mistress

Sarai. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her. The angel of the

Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.

And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name

Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man.

His hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. This is what she called the angel of the Lord. Listen, she called him.

She said, you are a God of seeing. For she said, truly here,

I have seen him who looks after me. It's quite beautiful, right?

It's quite amazing. We find here that the angel of the Lord is coming to Hagar, who is pregnant with Abraham's seed.

The angel of the Lord comforts Hagar amid her affliction. We then find Hagar calling the angel of the

Lord, the God of seeing El Roy in Hebrew. In this, we find that the angel of the

Lord is the God of seeing. Which what does that mean? Well, it means that he intimately knows

Hagar in the midst of her affliction. But here's what is awesome. She spoke in amazement because she saw

God and live. And this happens multiple times throughout the Old Testament. This is not an exhaustive list whatsoever, but listen to this.

Genesis 22, 11 through 23, when the angel of the Lord intervenes with the sacrifice of Isaac.

Genesis 32, 22 through 31, when Jacob wrestles with God. Exodus 3, 2 through 4, when

Moses sees the angel of the Lord in the burning bush. The angel of the Lord states this. He says that he is the

I am that I am. Exodus 14, 19 through 30, when the angel of God delivered the

Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians. Right? Jude 1. Daniel 3, 16 through 30, when the angel of the

Lord protects Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace. This is the same

God who in Judges chapter 6 calls the cowardly Gideon. For the angel of the

Lord appears to him and blesses him and tells him that the Lord is with him. For it was this messenger of the covenant, the reminder of the promise of Abraham, the reiteration of the gospel from Genesis 3, who delivered

Israel from the hands of the Midianites with only 300 men. Do you see how the angel of the

Lord had been mediating for the people of God all throughout history here? Understand that the

Bible states that no one has seen God except for the son who has made the father known.

John 1. 18. Therefore, no one has ever seen the father. It was the person of the son who made the father known all throughout the

Old Testament. Guys, this is why it's so amazing. He was always the mediator.

He was always the one who guided Israel to the point of his incarnation. It was him as the word of the

Lord, the angel of the Lord, who appeared to the prophets. He is the creator of all things, visible and invisible.

He is the one who swore upon himself that he would uphold the covenant with Abraham. It was

Jesus who Isaiah saw sitting on his throne in glory in Isaiah chapter six. That is why

Jesus condemns the Pharisees in John chapter five by saying, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you will have eternal life and as they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

He then concludes in his condemnation, he says, because Moses wrote about me. If you were to believe the words of Moses, you would actually believe in my words.

Yet they refuse to believe in Jesus. Why? Because they don't know him. They don't know the mediator that has been mediating for them all throughout time.

Do you see it? Jesus Christ is the prophecy fulfilled in Isaiah nine.

He is who? The father of Israel, the rock of their salvation from Deuteronomy. He had previously been making the father known, yet they rejected him.

He was their king, but they wanted another. He was their shepherd, yet they pierced his hands. They were his people, yet they handed him over to be slain.

But he is our God. And it was the will of the father to crush him, to bruise him for us.

The messenger of the covenant became the initiator of the new covenant. The one whose blood was spilled on the mercy seat, the one who then resurrected from the dead.

Listen to the words of the angel of the Lord from Zechariah three, one through 10. This is so powerful. Then he showed me

Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you.

Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments.

And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him. And to him, he said, behold,

I have taken your iniquity away from you and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head.

So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the

Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, thus says the

Lord of hosts. If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my court.

And I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Here now,

O Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are assigned, behold,

I will bring my servant the branch for behold on the stone that I have set before Joshua on a single stone with seven eyes.

I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts. And I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.

This is a beautiful messianic prophecy, and it shows the angel of the Lord speaking with the authority of the

Lord of hosts. What did the angel do? The angel removed the iniquity from Joshua. The angel clothed him in new garments.

And then it is reiterated that the angel mentioned as the branch or stone will remove the iniquity from the land in a single day, pointing to what?

The atonement of Christ. And every one of you, it says, will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.

In reference to the branch, the perfect prophet and king, who is who guys? Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, we are told in Malachi 3 .1, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger, the malach of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the

Lord of hosts. It will be the angel of the covenant in whom they were to delight that will come to his temple.

Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, who has guided his people throughout history to bring about salvation and the restoration of the world.

For by one man sin entered into the world and by one man sin was defeated. And all men can have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

So let's recap. The God who created the universe is the same God that we defied. The God in whom we deserve his wrath, however, in the great love in which he loved us, he sent his son to save us.

Before the incarnation, the son was the mediator for God's people as the angel of the Lord. And in his incarnation, he fulfilled his promise to Abraham.

Like Jesus stated, before Abraham was, I am. The Old Testament pointed to Christ and was guided by Christ.

Like Hebrew states, long ago, in many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers, to the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son in the flesh. This is

God's story and it's all for his glory. We must understand that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of the story. And the story was written by him and we are preserved through him all to the praise of his glorious grace.

So as far as who is the angel of the Lord, I consider this one answered.