Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The Angel of the LORD


Do you know who’s who? Sometimes, it may be important to know if you’re talking to God Himself or one of His angels. When you’re reading Scripture, you need to know.  

September’s Awakening, Day 20

The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face.” Judges 6:20–22 NKJV  

 

Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the LORD.) Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, “What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?”  And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?” So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the LORD. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on—it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar—the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God!” Judges 13:2–3, 5–6, 16–20, 22 NKJV  (This is the foretelling of the birth of Samson.)

 

            A distinction must be made between the Angel of the LORD, seen in the Old Testament, and an angel of the Lord, typically seen in the New Testament (and occasionally in the Old Testament as well). The Angel of the LORD in most Old Testament Scripture verses is actually a theophany (a direct manifestation of God Himself to a person). In the New Testament, the angel of the Lord is a created angel, often the angel Gabriel, who brings a direct message from God to those special people on earth. Unfortunately, few translations of the Bible, other than the NKJV, capitalize “Angel” appropriately to help us determine who this entity really is. For that matter, most modern translations fail to capitalize many names directly referring to God Himself and the associated pronouns. This is extremely disheartening, and the reason that multiple translations, including the NKJV, need to be consulted frequently to appreciate the full, vibrant meaning of the biblical text.

            The Angel of the LORD is most often taken to specifically be the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ Himself, before He was born man. Notice that in Judges 13:18, He identifies His name as “wonderful”, the very same description Isaiah gives us of Christ in Chapter 9, verse 6, as we just saw in our devotional yesterday. Furthermore, created angels always refuse worship and speak only on behalf of God, relating a specific message. However, the Angel of the LORD typically speaks with authority in the first person as God Himself, and oftentimes, initiates or encourages a burnt offering sacrifice, accepting worship of Himself. Furthermore, those who see and speak with the Angel of the LORD are often aware that this entity is in fact God and are fearful for their lives because they have seen Him.

            Some notable appearances of the Angel of the LORD are as follows: to comfort and give assurance to Sarai’s maid Hagar in Genesis 16:7–11, to stop Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22:11–15, the “Man” who wrestled with Jacob and renamed him Israel in Genesis 32:22–30, the One who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush in Exodus 3:2, to Balaam in Numbers 22:22–35, to the Israelites in Judges 2:1–4, to Gideon in Judges 6:11–22, to Manoah and his wife in Judges 13:2–22, and in Zechariah’s prophetic visions in Chapters 1 and 3. Sometimes, it’s important to know Who you’re talking to.

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