BWV #36 The Angel of the Lord

INTRODUCTION Genesis 16:7-16.

In the story of Hagar we see a compassionate God that cares for even those the world considers insignificant.

YHWH comes to her, speaks to her, but He does so through a fascinating individual, the Angel of YHWH.

Or as the NASB translates it, the Angel of the Lord.

Much has been written concerning this individual, and not all are in agreement.

I was first exposed to the matter in seminary when I took a course title Messianic Prophecy in the OT.

Probably my favorite course of study.

However, this passage was not included.

The author of our text obviously fell in the camp of those who do not consider the Angel of the Lord to be Messianic.

Their position is that it is merely a special angel.

One of the principles of hermeneutics that I cling to is that the scripture must be interpreted in light of its historical context; the precise use of language, ie the grammar; and to rely upon the scripture to interpret the scriptures.

The very best commentary on the Bible is the Bible.

And when I apply those principles, I arrive at this conclusion, the Angel of the Lord is the preincarnate Christ.

Like Melchizedek, this is Christ in my opinion.

Which raises the question, why so many different methods of revealing Christ?

The answer is simple, God is God and He can do what He wants, and this is what He wants to do to reveal His Son.

BIBLICAL CLARITY

One of the reasons I so strongly trust the Bible is the detailed clarity we find in scripture is so many ways.

The Bible lists specific places, times, people and so forth,

The Bible is honest and transparent, in that the main human characters come to us exposed to the core.

We see all their flaws.

Do you really think if men wrote this book uncontrolled by the Spirit of God that they would have included all their own personal failures and flaws?

And we have certainly see flaws.

In Adam, Noah, Ham, Abram, Sarai, and now Hagar.

The scripture holds nothing back.

Here we have seen that Abram is at fault.

Sarai is at fault.

The only one who was not at fault was Hagar.

She was an innocent victim of their schemes.

Sadly though, she did not remain innocent.

For she to sinned shamed Sarai and then ran away when it got hot in the kitchen.

We see the clarity of God’s word in the detail of verse one.

The Angel of the Lord found her in a specific spot, on the way to a specific location.

As I shared in chapter 14, archaeology again again confirms the Bible as it uncovers more and move evidence that fits the Biblical record.

I believe this is why YHWH was so detailed in describing places and times.

But our primary focus in this lesson is the Angel of the Lord.

BIBLICAL CONFIRMATION

By definition prophecy is simply revelation.

Sometimes it is futuristic, but not always.

In this prophetic message we see both, simple straight forward revelation, and futuristic realities.

Both help us to understand the person that now speaks to Hagar.

The prophecy here actually helps to define who this being is.

This conversation reveals the nature of the Angel of the Lord to be divine in several ways.

First, a probe intended to bring about confession.

The Angel of the Lord asks, where are you from and where are you going?

We saw the same thing in Genesis 3 from the lips of YHWH, Adam, where are you?

Again in Genesis 4, Cain where is your brother?

And here, where are you going?

All of these probing questions are marks of God as He seeks to bring the subject to a place of confession and repentance.

The Bible is very clear, confession is good for the soul.

Confession does not mean Father forgive me for I have sinned.

The word confess in the Biblical sense means to agree with God.

YHWH wants people to agree with Him, that they have indeed sinned.

Hence where are you, where is your brother, and where are you going.

Each one designed to force a person to admit they are in sin.

This gives us insight into the heart of God.

The man that harbors sin cannot be in fellowship with God in the most intimate way.

Sin separates and stresses the relationship.

Therefore when YHWH intervenes in such a way as to bring about confession, an admission of guilt it is a demonstration that He really does care.

He is not willing that any should perish.

Over the years I have become more and more reformed theologically.

But I still deep down inside have this feeling in my gut, that God reaches out to all people.

Some statements in the Bible seem to contradict that.

But even the story of Cain seems to support my gut.

YHWH reached out to Cain, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord;

Hence I say, YHWH is sovereign in salvation, but you still have to believe.

Here in this text the angel of the Lord demonstrates the compassionate heart of God.

Second, upon her confession, the Angel of the Lord commands her to return to her mistress.

It is a command, the word return is the verb and it is in the imperative mood which means this is a command.

These are instructions to repent.

Repent means to turn around and go the other way.

She is literally fleeing from Sarai, and He says, turn around and go back.

That is the very definition of repentance.

So again we see a Godlike quality in this Angel of the Lord.

Third, the Angel of the Lord predicts her future.

We now know, with incredible accuracy.

But pay attention to the pronouns and how they are used.

Hagar’s seed is going to be multiplied to the extent they are uncountable, by who?

By the Angel of the Lord.

“I will”

Does that sound familiar.

I mention the “I will” statements often because they most often are spoken by God.

Now stop and think, does the Angel have the sovereignty to make this promise and guarantee the outcome?

I don’t think so.

When Angels speak, they say some thing like “the Lord says” or thus saith the Lord.

They give some indication that the message is of God.

For example, Luke 1:30

Luke 1:30 LSB

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

This alerts Mary to the fact that the Angel is speaking not for himself, but for God.

Here in Genesis 16, the Angel makes a prophetic statement that requires sovereignty and ultimate power.

The pronoun is “I”, I will do this for you.

This is not how angels speak, this is how God speaks.

In addition to the pronoun used, there is also the way the statement is framed.

It is almost identical to the way YHWH spoke to Abram.

Only God could bring this great promise to fruition.

Fourth, the Angel of the Lord describes the future of Ishmael and his descendents.

Then with incredible accuracy the prophecy is shared.

Ishmael will be a wild and stubborn man, and so too his descendents is the idea.

Certainly we see that today.

The Arab peoples are virtually uncontrollable.

If they aren’t fighting others then they are fighting each other.

Which is also part of the prophecy.

The Arab nations have the mentality that it is us against the world and that the whole world is against them.

You certainly see strong Muslim traits in this.

The Arabs and Muslims have very little allegiance, and no tolerance for others.

Next, they shall live to the east of all his brothers.

Is that true, is it accurate?

Ishmael was a half brother to Isaac.

Thus the descendents of Isaac and Ishmael are in the eastern mindset, brothers.

Isaac’s descendents lived in Canaan, and Ishmael’s still to this day mostly live to the east.

All of the Arab nations are to the east of Israel.

Some of them are more to the south, but they are all east in general.

This is not to be confused with Muslims in general.

The Muslim faith has spread to the west into Africa and Europe, and even Gaza is in the west.

But most of those are not direct descendents of Ishmael, they are converts to the Muslim religion.

The Palestinians are the one Arab exception, and it could be argued that they migrated back at a later time.

So thus far we see some very God like qualities.

To be fair, we have to consider the possibility that this Angelic being is merely speaking for YHWH.

That is certainly seen in the last clause of verse 12.

“Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.”

This statement gives rise the idea that the Angel is merely speaking for YHWH.

My response to that might surprise you.

Jesus spoke this very same way in the Gospel

He frequently spoke of God the Father doing this or that.

And we have no problem with the fact that Jesus is God.

So that fact that the Angel of the Lord is clearly speaking for YHWH is really not a big deal as far as I am concerned.

Last and best of all comes the testimony of Hagar.

One very important principle of interpretation is the historical aspect, what really happened, where it happened etc,

Part of that is to always ask the question how did they understand what was being said then?

For example, Jesus repeated referred to Jesus as My Father.

To the untrained mind, this means nothing really.

But to the spiritual leaders of Israel, those who understood the Bible, they knew it was not innocent at all.

They knew He was saying I am of the same nature and essence as God.

They knew it was a claim of deity.

And they wanted to kill Him because they considered that a blasphemous statement.

I have used this to deal with those who want to claim that Jesus never claimed to be God.

Yes He did, even His enemies understood that much.

So we need to always ask, how did those involved perceive an event, a word, or a person.

In this case the answer is crystal clear.

Her response to the Angel of the Lord is very direct, specific and clear.

“You are a God who sees.”

She did not say YHWH is a God who sees.

She uses the personal pronoun “you” and applies it to this person with whom she is speaking.

She understood she was speaking to God.

Next, notice the depth of her understanding.

I even remained alive here, after seeing Him.

Admittedly the skeptic jumps on this.

Him is a problem.

But not an insurmountable one.

Especially when you consider, she is adding a personal thought here, it is almost like she is thinking out loud.

I don’t believe she is speaking to the Angel at that point, but rather marveling to herself that she has seen God face to face and did not die,

Which begs the question, where did that concept come from?

There is only one possibility, Abram.

Abram, who knew YHWH better than anybody at this time, surely understood that a man can stand in the presence of a holy God, and live.

Again, the skeptic is quick to point out, if this were God, why did she not die?

My response is to again defer to Jesus who walked on this planet for over 30 years and nobody died in His presence simply because He was God.

In fact, Jesus said, If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.

And nobody died.

The point is this, nobody can stand in the presence of God in all His glory and live.

But when God veils His glory, as He did for Moses, as He did in the incarnation, nobody dies.

Likewise, when the pre-incarnate Christ appears, rather it be in the form of Abram, the Angel of the Lord, or the Captain of the Lord’s host, the glory is veiled, set aside, hidden that men would not die.

Hagar addressing the Angel as if He is God.

She marvels at the fact that she in in the presence of God and does not die.

She praises the Angel as the God who see, El-Roi.

Folks, any time you see the little Hebrew word “el”, it is the word for God.

Elohim, the creator eternal God.

El Shaddai, the almighty God.

El roi, the God who sees.

Ishmael, the God who hears.

All of those Jewish names that contain the letters “el” have God in their name.

Emmanuel, Salvation is of God.

Elijah, YHWH is my God.

Elisha, God is my Salvation.

Need I go on.

She is very specific, “you” you the angel of the Lord are El-roi.

It is not just a name, it is a declaratvie statement, you are God and you see all things, even me, in my distress.

So Hagar is convinced she is speaking with God.

Next, I want to draw your attention the testimony of the Spirit of God who inspired Moses to record the event.

Some of this is her words.

But the opening phrase of verse 13 is the Spirit of God telling the story as it unfolds for Moses to record and us to read.

And the Spirit is quite explicit as well.

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her.

The Hebrew text reads she called the name of YHWH.

So when it comes to the question, who is this who is referred to as the Angel of the Lord, I believe it is Christ.

One of the issues that confuses people is the term angel.

It is quite funny to me how the English translators arrived at this.

The English word angel comes from the Greek word Angelos.

It is a transliteration, not a translation.

A translation gives you the meaning of the word in english.

For example, charis is a Greek word that means grace.

Thus when the Greek writer uses charis, the English translators use grace.

Doulos is a Greek word that means slave.

Sadly, most translators fail to honor the true meaning and change the meaning to bond servant.

But even in that, they are trying to convey the meaning of the word doulos, even if they are in error.

But a transliteration is not interpreted, and the meaning is not transferred.

Angelos means messenger, but it is only translated that way when it is applied to a human instrument.

When it is applied to a supernatural servant of God it is left untranslated, and is transliterated.

Which simply means, we use the same basic spelling and pronunciation.

Names are transliterations.

David in Hebrew has meaning.

It means beloved.

But it never appears that way in English when applied to the person,

I hope now we are clear on the difference between a translated word and a word that is transliterated.

Angel here is from Greek as I said.

The Greek word Angelos means messenger.

The Hebrew word here is mal’ak’.

It also means messenger.

But do you see what I mean?

They substitute a transliteration of a Greek word to translated the Hebrew word.

My point is this, they do this every time Mal’ak” is associated with a supernatural being.

The translation should read, the messenger of the Lord.

But because the English translators use the word angel, some people are very biased in their opinion as to the true identity of this person.

The truth is, there are many types of messengers the Lord uses, ie angels.

Pastors are messengers of the Lord, when the do their job right they deliver the word of God to the people of God.

That by definition is a messenger.

Guess what, in Revelation chapters 1, 2 and 3 we find the word angel used repeatedly.

It makes no sense to say this is a heavenly supernatural being like Michael.

The only way it makes sense is if the term angel refers to the pastor or senior elder of the church.

All 7 letters in that portion of the Revelation are addressed to the angel of the church at …

My point is this, don’t get hung up on the term angel when thinking about this person in view.

All the indications are, this is Jesus, the second person of the Trinity in preincarnate form.

So what can we say conclusively?

The Angel of the Lord is not a created being, rather He is a divine being Himself, because…..

He identifies Himself clearly with YHWH, not just here, but in other texts as well,

Those who encounter Him understand that they are in the presence of YHWH.

Those same individuals who encounter His presence refer to Him as YHWH.

The Biblical text aside from the comments of the people involved identify this person as YHWH.

To see it this way is consistent with other texts that present a plurality of God, ie let us.

And last, all the arguments against this person being the Angel of the Lord are proved faulty when applied to Christ in the NT.

What I mean by that, is those that say it is impossible this is God or Hagar would die, well that argument is destroyed in the gospels.

One final thought, and then we shall move on.

It is not out of character for an ambassador to sound like the one who sends Him.

Again, this is why they hated Jesus, He spoke of firsthand knowledge of the Father as if He and the Father were one and the same.

And we understand that, because we hold to a Trinitarian view of God.

HISTORY DANCES TO GOD’S TUNE

YHWH, through the Angel of the Lord made asserted promises to Hagar.

Then they do indeed come true.

She went home to Sarai as instructed.

She gave birth to the boy, as foretold.

Abram then named the child Ishmael.

We are not told how that came about.

Did Hagar insist?

Did YHWH providentially intervene?

I don’t know, but what I do know is that if the Lord says it is going to happen, take it to the bank, it is going to happen,

Notice what YHWH did not say, He did not say, now Abram, you have an heir.

This was not the Son of Promise.

This was a child of the flesh.

Romans 9:3–9 LSB

For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s seed, but: “through Isaac your seed will be named.” That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are considered as seed. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Notice the distinction between the child of promise, which is Isaac, and the flesh which represents mans achievements.

Through Isaac your seed shall be named.

Paul is taking us back in time, but forward from where we are in Genesis.

The same is true in Galatians 4:21-31

Galatians 4:21–31 LSB

Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the Law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant-woman and one by the free woman. But the son by the servant-woman had been born according to the flesh, while the son by the free woman through the promise. This is spoken with allegory, for these women are two covenants: one from Mount Sinai bearing children into slavery; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, barren woman who does not give birth; Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; For more numerous are the children of the desolate one Than of the one who has a husband.” And you brothers, in accordance with Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh was persecuting him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the servant-woman and her son, For the son of the servant-woman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.” So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant-woman, but of the free woman.

Fast forward to Genesis 21.

Sarai, who is now called Sarah has given a son to Abram, who is now called Abraham.

She fears the competition between the older Ishmael and her son Isaac.

Ishmael mocked Isaac.

By rights, he could lay claim as the firstborn to Abraham.

He was a threat as far as Sarah was concerned.

This time she demands that Abraham drive them away.

And YHWH agrees.

Isaac was the son of God’s promise.

Ishmael was the son of Abram’s flesh.

YHWH has plans for both.

But Isaac has the greater calling.

So for now, Ishmael will be part of the family.

CONCLUSION

I hate to leave you with only one text of scripture to validate my belief as to who the Angel of the Lord is.

So turn with me to Genesis 22.

I have no intention of trying to exposit this entire text.

We are all very familiar with this story.

God has commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice.

Abram complies and heads of with Isaac.

As Abraham is about to plunge the knife into his son, the son of promise, the Angel of the Lord shows up.

Listen to the words of the Angel of the Lord.

Genesis 22:12 LSB

And He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only one, from Me.”

Pretty clear again, God called on Abraham to sacrifice Isaac unto God.

And the Angel says, you have not withheld your son from Me.

You were willing to sacrifice your son to Me.

And then in Gen 22:15-18

Genesis 22:15–18 LSB

Then the angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares Yahweh, because you have done this thing and have not spared your son, your only one, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have listened to My voice.”

Again, the language is clear, The Angel of the Lord affirms that He is indeed God when He says By Myself I have sworn.

I could site several passages, and they all play out the same way, the Angel of the Lord and YHWH are almost synonymous.

In Judges 6, the Angel of the Lord is talking with Gideon, then the text say Then YHWH turned to him and said.

The Angel that spoke to Gideon is called YHWH.

In Zechariah 3, that same kind of language appears.

Zechariah 3:6–7 LSB

And the angel of Yahweh testified to Joshua, saying, “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will keep the responsibility given by Me, then you will also render justice in My house and also keep My courts, and I will grant you access to walk among these who are standing here.

The Angel of the Lord speaks for YHWH, because He is YHWH, albeit the second person of the Trinity.

So again, if you truly see Christ in the gospels as God, you shouldn’t have a problem seeing Christ as the Angel of the Lord, the very same language is used in both cases, to connect the two to YHWH.

Thus we can say, Jesus is fully God and He is fully Man in His incarnate state.

Why then, could He not appear in that same manner in earlier times?