The Angel of the Lord
Author: Pastor Thomas G. Wilson
May 26, 2020
Exodus 3:1-2 KJV [1] Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. [2] And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. … [4] And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said Moses…
The angel of the LORD is in many ways a mysterious figure who appears in numerous passages throughout the Old Testament. Though there is some controversy surrounding the identity of the angel of the LORD, there are generally four schools of thought — that the angel of the LORD is either:
1. A special angel messenger, a heavenly being, who acted as God’s representative (not God himself).
2. God the Father, showing himself as a divine manifestation to humanity. This is known as a theophany - “appearance of God.”
3. God the Son, manifested in a pre-incarnate body form. This is known as a Christophany - “appearance of Christ.”
4. It varies. The figure is sometimes a manifestation of God and sometimes an angelic heavenly being representing God, depending on the context of the text.
Today we will approach our study from the standpoint that the angel of the LORD is a special messenger who acted as God’s representative. The Hebrew word translated as angel means “one sent” or “messenger,” and LORD in Hebrew is YHWH or Yahweh. The angel of the LORD is one sent by YHWH or a messenger of YHWH. While the precise identity of the angel of the LORD is not provided in the Bible, it seems that because the definite article “the” is used, it is specifying a unique being, separate from the other angels. The angel of the Lord speaks as God, identifies Himself with God, and exercises the responsibilities of God. In Exodus chapter 3 some miss the fact that even though the angel of the LORD appears to Moses in the burning bush, it is Yahweh who speaks to him from the midst of the burning bush. The voice speaking distinguished Himself as God in the following ways:
· He identifies as God: If we weren’t told at the beginning that the angel of the LORD appeared to Moses, we wouldn’t even know it. The rest of the narrative shows Moses speaking to God.
· He is recognized as God: Moses turns his face away because he is afraid to look upon God (verse 6).
· He demands worship: The voice speaking tells Moses to remove his shoes because the ground is holy.
· Omniscience: The voice tells Moses he has heard the cries of the afflicted children of Israel in Egypt (verse 7).
· Omnipotence: The message is that He will use Moses to deliver His people. Throughout the exchange, He promises to display His power to Egypt.
· Omnipresence: When Moses expresses doubt, He promises to be with him (verse 12).
· Immutability: When Moses asks what is the Name of the God who sent him to them? God answers “I AM,” it signifies God’s timeless and unchangeable nature.
· Correlation with Christ: Here we see demonstrated a characteristic we recognize from the ministry of Jesus Christ. He is empowering Moses to release his people from bondage (Luke 4:16–21).
The appearance of the angel of the LORD and the voice that spoke to Moses out of the bush in my opinion do not have to be one in the same. I believe there was the appearance of Yahweh’s special messenger and the voice of the LORD spoke to Moses out of the bush. The list of divine characteristics provided above are those reserved for God alone and the estate of angels are created beings who will not receive worship (Rev.22:8-9). Therefore it can be concluded that the angel of the LORD’s appearance signals a special message accompanied by God’s divine presence, power, wisdom, beauty and brilliance.
For further reading: Read Exodus chapter 3
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