Who is the Angel of the Lord?
Written Jan 11th, 2007 by Josh Rives | Email This
One of the ways the Lord chooses to reveal Himself in the OT is through a mysterious character known only as the Angel of the Lord. The confusing thing about this Angel is that sometimes He is identified as a messenger for God and sometimes it seems as though the Angel is actually God. The very first time God uses the Angel of the Lord is not ironically to a patriarch, but instead to Abraham’s slave girl Hagar. In Genesis 16:7-10, the Angel of the Lord finds her and promises her He will give her offspring that can’t be numbered, a promise seemingly only God could make. The next time the Angel of the Lord speaks to her in Genesis 21:17, it is from heaven and names God as distinct from Himself (or speaks of Himself in the third person).
Perhaps the most confusing passage is the burning bush episode with Moses. In Exodus 3:2, the Angel of the Lord is said to be speaking in the bush, yet as the passage continues the “person” speaking is referred to as the Angel, the Lord and God almost as if they are interchangeable. You can see the Angel of the Lord with Moses again in Exodus 14:19 (here called the Angel of God) after the Red Sea crossing. However when Moses goes and speaks and sees the Lord on Mount Sinai, he is not said to speak with the Angel of the Lord.
Another place you will find a more belligerent Angel of the Lord is in Numbers 22:22. God is not too happy with Balaam and so the Angel of the Lord stands in his way, 
but Balaam doesn’t see Him although his donkey does. After the whole talking donkey thing, the Angel of the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes and speaks to him.
You can find two more big encounters with the Angel of the Lord in Judges. The first is to Gideon in Judges 6:11-23 where Gideon panics because he thinks he will die after seeing the Angel of the Lord face to face. However, Gideon does not recognize the Angel of the Lord at first, which might change the mental picture you have been building. The Angel of the Lord appears again to Samson’s parents in Judges 13:3-23 who identify him as a man of God at first, but then make a claim that they have seen God. Manoah, Samson’s father, asks the Angel for His name and He replies that it is wonderful. Good luck figuring out that one.
There are a few theories about the identity of the Angel of the Lord, one being that it is a pre-incarnate Christ. This is mainly based on the fact that the Angel of the Lord does not appear or speak after Christ comes, but there is no other good evidence that He truly is a pre-incarnate Christ. We do know that the Angel can appear or speak from heaven or in dreams. He can also perform the supernatural and while not always immediately recognizable, the sight of Him is overwhelming and leads most humans to label Him as the Lord. I think the most logical solution is that He is a messenger for the Lord like a modern day agent. He speaks for the Lord and appears in His stead probably due to the point God Himself makes in Exodus 33:20. Like an agent or ambassador for a county, where the messenger generally personifies the party represented, sometimes the Angel speaks as if He is the Lord. As for the humans reacting to Him as God, we can only assume that the sight of an angel is overwhelming enough to confuse even the most theologically sound.
References:
- Everlasting Dominion: A Theology of the Old Testament
- Genesis 16:7-10, Genesis 21:17
- Exodus 3:2, Exodus 14:19, Exodus 33:20
- Numbers 22:22-35
- Judges 6:11-23, Judges 13:3-23
What about “the Angel of the Lord” in the Birth of Christ, and the appearance to the shepherds in the field? It is written in the Old Testament the differences but there is no mention in the New Testament which specifically states: “Matthew 2:13 – Joseph is warned in a dream; and Luke 2:9 – And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”
Rita,
Looking through the gospels it looks like the angel that appears is never introduced as “the” angel of the Lord, rather “an” angel of the Lord. One time they say “the” angel of the Lord, but it is after the angel has already been introduced as “an” angel of the Lord. Semantics, I know, but does that mean the same person, being, whatever…
I guess we could reference the original languages and see if its the same word. I have a feeling that it is, but you have to wonder the reasoning behind the translators decision between a definite “the” angel of the Lord and just one of the angels of the Lord.
In conclusion, more research required…
This is how I know that the “angel of the LORD” of the Old Testament, is the (same)incarnate Christ Jesus of the New Testament.
The KJV Bible (OT), distingishes the word: “LORD” (capital letters). [The King James (OT) was translated from Hebrew into English] In the Hebrew language the word: YHWH means LORD in English. The word YHWH is pronounced “Yahweh;” it means “He is” or He exists.” The word “Elohim” (God in English) means: strength or power.
The word Adnoai, in the Hebrew language, means “Lord” in English.
The word “Yachid” in the Hebrew language is an “absolute singular” word, meaning “one.”
‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD (YHWH) our God (Elohim) is one (echad) LORD (YHWH).’ Deuteronomy 6:4
God Is: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; these three are One.
I’m not really sure how what you said Betty proves who the Angel of the Lord is. The Bible specifically mentions angelic beings outside of the Trinity. And I don’t think this article is arguing against the existence of the Trinity.
Eli is singular & Elohim is plural. Jesus is the Highest of the Elohim, Eli is the most high GOD Above Yashu’a !.
[...] as if He is God, yet other times He speaks as if doing it in the place of God. More about that here. You can’t read what the Angel of the Lord says though without thinking of the Middle East [...]
[...] it just never told us how God did it before. I imagine that this has to be something similar to the Angel of the Lord, except in the form of three men. Although the passage says that it is the Lord speaking, I think [...]
What do you think about the three men that came to see Abraham. The Bible says: “And Yahweh appreared to him” and then goes on saying that there were 3 men.
The Angel Of Yahweh:
If we look just the OT, then we don’t know who He is really, but if we go to the NT we find that it says that the Messiah was the One that was guiding Israel in the wildernes and that He is the Only Mediator between Yah and men, so from this point of view we can understand that the Angel of Yahweh is the same person.
We need to realized also that we have to look the Hebrew language to know what the Scriptures really say. If we look at the English only, we are going to be confused. In the Hebrew we don’t use capital letters. So the way it is written making a difference between the “Angel” of Yahweh and the “angel” of Yahweh in the English is different than in the Hebrew which looks the same, and it doesn’t make a diffrence in the sentence. So for the hebrew mind this “Angel or angel” is just a messenger. The word angel is a word that comes from the Greek language and it is the word messenger for the Hebrew, but the way it is used now is confusing for the Hebrew mind because if we use the word angel instead of messenger, then we are making a distiction between two things; we are creating a being called “angel” which is powerful and supernatural and then we end up with a “messenger” which can be human or supernatural. So we have a problem already if we do this.
If we change the word messenger for the word angel, we have it saying for example: “And the “messenger of YHVH” appeared to me…” So this way, we have a different meaning to the sentence, and also if we take the capital letters out.
Now we can see differences between the messenger of YHVH that appears as YHVH and the messenger of YHVH that comes in the authority of YHVH to give a messege whether in person or through a dream or a vision, or to do something as a physical act. The way we find these differences is always according to the context of the Scripture. And this way of studying the Scriptures should be good to do, always, for everything else, that is to say: according to the context.
Well, this is a wonderful study, but it can take several pages to go through it so if you want to study more just send me a note.
The quote of the day is: “Study the Scriptures with love, an open mind, a humble heart, without fear and prejudice and without any preconceived ideas”
Hello, what about the angels coming down and up on the ladder?
what about gabriel? the angel of the Lord is referred to as God’s presence. “my presence will
go with you and i will give you rest” in Exodus. gabriel says “i am gabriel, who stands in the
presence of God”. also in Isaiah 63 it says “the angel of his presence saved them”. i believe gabriel is the angel of the Lord, who stands in God’s presence and before God’s face.
Gabriel is The Angel of the pressence.
He’s the only Angel mention in the bible, who looks lika Man and an Angel at the same time..just like the Angel of God.
He is the Angel of the everlasting covenant..He’s the messainic Angel..
All the messianic prophesy comes from Gabriel…Daniel is mention by Jesus as a prophet…He got his prophesy from the Angel Gabriel..
Gabriel is the Angel of revelation the angel of God’s spirit. He is also the Angel who strenthen Michael with a vision.
The dead sea scrolls mentions him in ancient text…He showed Michael a vision of the kingdom of God on earth..
in daniel the other Angels asks him when will the things be… The angels in ch 8 of Daniel asks him questions concerning the future.