troysal Loc: Picayune MS

Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

Micah 6:4 shows who brought them out. God!

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

The Angel of the Lord — Unlike any other Angel

This is not a new concept, nor is it inconsistent with Scripture. The identification of the Angel of the Lord as the pre-incarnate Christ is a well known belief in Christianity, and also regarded in some sense as a form of Deity by ancient Judaism, mentioned in the Jewish Talmud because of obviously receiving and accepting worship due only to God.

I was made more fully aware of it in 1985 when reading footnotes in a new copy of the Jewish Tanakh - (Hebrew Old Testament) The Holy Scriptures © 1985, Jewish Publication Society, commonly used in Synagogues and Temples - (Modern Reform Jews call their houses of prayer "temples").

After thoroughly studying the Angel of the Lord in the Bible, I believe His appearances was the pre-incarnate Christ. After Jesus' birth to Mary, fully God and fully man, the Angel of the Lord never appears again in Scripture.

Proclaiming the Messiah “Whose goings forth are from of old from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

There is one very special Angel, a special Messenger of God found in the Tanakh (Hebrew Old Testament). This Angel, known as the Angel of the Lord, that Angel of YHWH or the Malach Adonai (Mah-LAKH Ah-doe-NYE), is the pre-incarnate Yeshua, the Messiah, appearing in human form, many centuries before His birth to Mary, as fully God and fully man.

The pre-incarnate appearances of Messiah are called “Christophanies.” They are not the same as the incarnation, because God appeared in human form only briefly in these pre-incarnations.

In the incarnation (the Word becoming flesh), a permanent union of divine and human nature took place. Dr. James A. Borland, in "Christ in the Old Testament," defines these appearances as follows: “those unsought, intermittent and temporary, visible and audible manifestations of God the Son in human form, by which God communicated something to certain conscious human beings on earth prior to the physical birth of Jesus Christ.” The Malach Adonai foreshadowed a future time when God would come to dwell among men.

In the Jewish Talmud the Angel of the Lord is given the name Metatron, which indicates a special relationship with God. He is also known as “the Prince of the Countenance,” and is considered to represent God because of his close relationship with Him. He is the supreme messenger (malach, angel) of the One True God. The Angel of the Lord guided God’s people Israel, worked miracles among them, and executed judgment on Israel’s enemies.

Let’s look briefly at the Malach Adonai in the Holy Scriptures, beginning with the first mention of this very special Messenger of God, identified with God, and as God, but not the God that no man can see (Ex. 33:20—God, the Father).

Gen. 16:7-13. The Malach Adonai found Sarai’s handmaid Hagar by a spring of water, fleeing from her mistress. The Angel told her to return and pronounced that He would multiply her descendants. He told her that she would bear a son and call his name Ishmael because the LORD had heard her affliction. “Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, ‘Have I also here seen Him who sees me?‘” Hagar called the Angel “God.”

Gen. 18 and 19. “Then the LORD appeared to him [Abraham] by the terebinth trees of Mamre.” Abraham saw three men standing before his tent. Two were ordinary angels. One was not. The LORD told Abraham that he would have a son and asked him, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Two angels continued on their journey to Sodom. The Malach Adonai stayed with Abraham and discussed the fate of Sodom. Abraham called the Angel “the Judge of all the earth.”

Gen. 22:1-18. The Akedah (Binding of Isaac). When Abraham was about to slay his son, the Malach Adonai called to him from heaven and said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (vs. 12). (See also vs. 15-18.) The Angel identifies Himself as God.

Gen. 32:24-30. The patriarch Jacob wrestled with a Man until daybreak. The “Man” blessed Jacob and changed his name to Israel, saying, “For you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (vs. 28). Jacob then called the place “Peniel”: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (vs. 30). (See Gen. 48:15-16.) Not God the Father. God the Son, Yeshua before Bethlehem.

Gen. 31:11-13. Jacob in conflict with his father-in-law, Laban. “Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am‘” (vs. 11). “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me” (vs. 13). (See also Gen. 32:24-30.) God identifies Himself with the Angel.

Ex. 3:1-6, 10-14. The Malach Adonai appeared to Moses in a burning bush, and Moses turned to see why the bush did not burn. “So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush…” (vs. 4). “Moreover He said, I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (vs. 6). The Angel of the Lord is also God.

Ex. 23:20-23. God, through Moses, told the children of Israel, “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.” The Angel was to be obeyed. He had the power to forgive sin. God’s name was in Him. No ordinary angel!

Num. 22:35-38. The angel of the Lord interrupted the prophet Balaam and his donkey on their way to curse the Israelites. “Then the Angel of the LORD said to Balaam, ‘Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you, that you shall speak” (vs. 35). Balaam subsequently said to Balak, “The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak” (vs. 38). The Angel’s word and God’s word are one and the same.

Jos. 5:13-15. Joshua was near Jericho when a Man met him who had a sword drawn in His hand. He identified Himself as Commander of the army of the LORD. “And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, and said to Him, ‘What does my Lord say to His servant?” Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so” (vs. 14-15). No ordinary angel. Yeshua before Bethlehem.

Judg. 2:1-5. The Malach Adonai brought the Israelites out of bondage and made a covenant with them, something only God can do! “Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: ‘I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you…But you have not obeyed My voice…” (vs. 1-2).

Judg. 6:11-23. The Malach Adonai encouraged Gideon. “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor.” (vs. 12). Gideon lamented over being delivered into the hands of the Midianites. “Then the LORD turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours; and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (vs. 14). The interchange continues with the Malach Adonai speaking at times and the LORD at other times. One and the same. After seeing the Angel of the Lord perform a miracle, Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face. Then the LORD said to him, ‘Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die” (vs. 22-23). Gideon had met the pre-incarnate Son of God, the only Angel that would accept worship (vs. 24)!

Judg. 13. The Malach Adonai appeared to the wife of a man named Manoah and told her that she would conceive a son who would be a Nazarite to God from the womb. She 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…” (vs. 6). The Angel of the LORD gives Manoah instructions in verse 14, but Manoah did not yet know He was the Malach Adonai. The Angel told Manoah that His name was “wonderful.” While a burnt offering was being presented to the LORD, the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. The Angel was worshiped. Ordinary angels do not receive worship. “And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shall surely die, because we have seen God!‘” (vs. 22). God, yet distinct from God — Ben Elohim, the Son of God - the One who is the Light to the Gentiles, and the glory of God’s people Israel
(Luke 2:32).

The Angel of the Lord ©1994, by Laurence M. Vance
Tanakh - The Holy Scriptures ©1985, Jewish Publication Society
Jewish Jewels / Sunday, 01 December 2019 / Newsletter
A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity ©1809, John Gill
The Oxford Companion to the Bible ©1993, Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, eds.

troysal Loc: Picayune MS

Yes, I am well aware of this line of reasoning. The fact of the matter, though, is it is all speculation that goes far beyond what is written, whether from Jewish or Christian sages. A further fact is that no NT author ever states such a thing, never making any connection between Jesus, the son of God, and the supposed special being in the OT called "malak Yahweh". The truth of the matter, that is according to what is written, is that the designation "malak Yahweh'" applies to any and every agent of God whether human or celestial. Anything beyond this is simply speculation.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Everyone has an opinion. You are entitled to yours.

Your ability to read and comprehend the Holy Scriptures is dependent on the enlightenment provided you by the Holy Spirit, As you lean on Him.

Proverbs 3:5-6
 
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

troysal Loc: Picayune MS

Please don't attribute the foolish speculations of man to the enlightenment of the holy spirit.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Please don't pretend you could possibly ascertain the difference, as you indulge in your own foolish speculations.

Sprinkling a few Greek or Hebrew words in tasteful locations throughout your diatribes in no way render them either the knowledge of men or the wisdom of God. Anyone with an I.Q. surpassing 75 can decipher the meaning of a Greek or Hebrew word.

Everything I accept as truth is dependent solely on scripture. A post with the history of its acceptance or rejection by those Christians, including the Messianic believers in Jesus as their Messiah, who are both godly in lifestyle and learned in the Word of God does not make them the factor on which I hang my hat. It is historical context.

The Jewish people without Christ have not had the Holy Spirit for 2,000 years, but they did preserve God's word for 2,500 years before Jesus' appearance, and on a day written in God's calendar they will recognize and worship Him.

troysal Loc: Picayune MS

Two passages of scripture disprove the whole speculative theory that "malak Yahweh" is the pre-incarnate son of God - Haggai 1:13 and Malachi 2:8. Check it out.

Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

I read both examples and they never say angel of the Lord.
You better go to Sunday school.

Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

Can I borrow this study for a devotional at mens breakfast sometime?
Thanks Marty

Rose42

In your opinion.

troysal Loc: Picayune MS

Oh brother!!! That's because you're reading it in English, which obscures the real meaning. Try looking at the Hebrew.

Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

In the end men will call evil good and good evil.
Beware!

troysal Loc: Picayune MS

What are you talking about? What does that have to do with my last comment?

Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

You think you’re so smart, you figure it out.
I’m pretty sure you have already.