Christ as the Angel of the Lord

The figure of the angel of the Lord strikes me as both mysterious and very significant. There are passages that seem to indicate that this angel is an entity different than Yahweh, but there are also passages that indicate just the opposite. That this angel is identified with Yahweh but also distinct from him holds significant impact for us as Christians because there are only two other figures in the scriptures of whom this is also true: the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus the ramifications of the angel of the Lord being a pre-incarnate Christ are enormous. However that is not to say that our faith, nor indeed the scriptures, necessitates such an interpretation. As the Apostle John testified in the opening chapter of his Gospel, “In the beginning was the word (John 1:1)…” Therefore, while such an interpretation may not be necessary it may certainly be justified, which is the goal of this paper: to see if we can legitimately assert that the angel of the Lord is indeed Christ.

As I noted earlier, the Apostle John testifies that the Word has been active with the Father in and since the creation of the world. According to Luke, Jesus teaches two of his disciples upon the Emmaus road all the things concerning him in the books of Moses and the Prophets (Luke 24:27). It could quite possibly be that Jesus, in His illustration of the Old Testament, merely claims that whenever Yahweh is mentioned that He is there also. Or could Jesus have taught something in addition to that? Could Jesus have taught his disciples about the angel of the Lord, and that the angel was, in fact, Himself?

Before we get into the heart of the matter and try to answer this question, it is worthwhile to examine the grammatical construction of the term “Angel of the Lord” in the Hebrew Bible. In Hebrew, the term can be transliterated as malik YHWH, which as some may be quick to point out, lacks the Hebrew definite article “the,” in which case it would read hamalik YHWH. As it currently stands, malik YHWH can only be read as “a/an angel of the Lord.” What we must remember is that, in the Hebrew Bible, proper names are always definite (Miller). Therefore, any occurrence of malik YHWH should be translated as “The angel of the Lord.” This leaves us with the problem of how one could render “angel of the Lord” in the Hebrew Bible as indefinite which, as Miller points out, must be done with “a periphrastic genitive with lamed.” He then clarifies the issue:

And, in fact, this construction of “an angel of YHWH” does not occur in the Hebrew Bible at all. The only phrases that are translated into English with ‘an angel of YHWH/God’ are comparisons, in which someone is being compared with ‘the angel of the Lord (see Waltke/O’Connor 13.5 1f).’ In these cases, the definiteness of the noun is not translated as such – it is used as a ‘class.’ (Miller).

Such comparisons are often made between King David and an angel (2 Samuel 14:17, 14:20, 19:27). If the angel of the Lord is indeed the pre-incarnate Christ, then David is ultimately being compared to Christ, which would strengthen the Christian argument that King David serves as a foreshadowing of the perfect King, the Messiah, who would one day come to rule over Israel. Regardless, the Hebrew language allows for the construction of both “the angel of the Lord” and “an angel of the Lord,” which means that its authors could have composed it either way. Thus, as Christians, I think it is safe to say that, grammatically speaking, we are not willfully reading Christ into the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord. This is something of which I would like to be cautious. We will only do harm to the Gospel message if we are willing to lie for the sake of Jesus Christ.

There are also textual issues to consider. For instance, the Septuagint translates Ecclesiastes 5:6 as “Do not say in the presence of God,” whereas the Hebrew Bible reads “Do not say before the angel.” The same difference in translation occurs over Isaiah 63:9, which in the Septuagint reads “Not a messenger nor an angel but he himself saved them” and the Hebrew Bible has “the angel of his presence.” Similarly, later books in the Old Testament go to some length to show that the plagues of Exodus were done by Yahweh himself. Barker documents all of this, and then asks, “Why should there have been this emphasis when the account of the Exodus has several references to angels, as we have seen, and Judges 2:2 actually says that it was the Angel of Yahweh which brought Israel up from Egypt (Barker, p. 32).” Barker also goes on to note that a possible explanation for the later emphasis on Yahweh being at work during the Exodus account, and not a mere angel, was that the understanding of the phrase “angel of the Lord” had changed. Just as the Prophets were quite eager to remind adulterous Israel of Yahweh’s law, it is not difficult to imagine that Israelites also would want to return to a correct understanding of “the angel of the Lord” as being Yahweh and not some lesser entity.

Apart from the grammatical function of the phrase “angel of the Lord,” we should also look at its theological and historical functions within the Hebrew Bible. One of the most significant things that Jesus did in His earthly ministry was to enable the blind to see. It is also one of the signs that Jesus gives to John to affirm His true identity as the Messiah of Israel, “Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor (Matthew 11:4-5).” The previous verses make it clear that John was indeed questioning whether or not Jesus was the Messiah, “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else (Matthew 11:2-3)?’” The words ‘the one,” indicate a certain, specific someone who is set apart from everyone else. John’s earlier testimony to Jesus’ identity confirms this one as the Messiah, the very son of God, “’The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God (John 1:33-34).’”

Similarly, there are three instances involving the angel of the Lord in which sight is regarded as significant. The first instance is Hagar’s fleeing from Sarai after she has become pregnant with Ishmael. Interesting enough, it is the angel of the Lord who finds and speaks with Hagar (Genesis 16:7), who blesses Ishmael (16:10) and prophecies concerning Ishmael (16:11-12). It is then that Hagar gives Yahweh her own name, “’You are the God who sees me,’ for she said ‘I have now seen the One who sees me (Genesis 16:13).’” Hagar does not bestow this name upon the angel, rather upon Yahweh Himself, saying to the angel that the angel is the god who sees her. Thus, to Hagar, there is no difference between the two.

After Ishmael is born Hagar is again in the wilderness, having been sent away because of the jealousy of her mistress, Sarah. When God hears Ishmael crying for being thirsty, it is rather the angel of the Lord who responds. The angel also “opens her eyes” so that she could find water (Genesis 21:19). In this instance, God sees Hagar’s plight and the angel of the Lord speaks and makes Hagar able to see. When Balaam is unable to see the angel of the Lord, it is God who opens his eyes to see the angel standing before him with a sword drawn in judgment against Balaam. In one case the angel of the Lord opens the eyes of those who cannot see, and in another God himself does so.

In the New Testament, Jesus teaches that “no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him (John 6:65).” While Jesus healed many blind people so that they could see, the angel of the Lord opens Hagar’s eyes to her physical need as well. Just as no one can see and react to Jesus as God unless the Father allows for it, similarly Balaam needs God to open his eyes that he may behold the angel of the Lord. Balaam’s spiritual sight was clouded so that he was unable to see the revelation of the angel of the Lord, just as Jesus rails against the Pharisees who think they speak for God and Moses but are blind themselves (Matthew 23:17,26). In the previous examples, Yahweh opens the eyes of one person and the angel of the Lord opens another’s, indicating that the two are interchangeable in at least that one function of enabling sight. Jesus also claims to be one with and equal to the father when he asserts “I and the Father are one (John10:30).” Are there any other ways in which the angel of the Lord and Yahweh are interchangeable, and how do these moments of interchangeability relate to Jesus’ identity as the Messiah?

Yahweh and the angel of the Lord are also interchangeable when the angel approaches Gideon and asks him to fight against the Midianites. Firstly, the author writes that it is the angel of the Lord who appears to Gideon (Judges 6:12). Yet, throughout the dialogue that follows, Gideon is evidently speaking directly to the Lord (Judges 6:14, 16, 18) and also to the angel of the Lord (6:20). Either both were speaking to Gideon at the same time, or they are identified as being the same. Gideon himself helps clarify the number of people who were involved in this conversation when he says “Ah, sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face (Judges 6:22).” Clearly, Gideon has in mind the warning God gave to Moses when he wanted to see God’s glory, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live (Exodus 33:20).” Yet if Gideon had seen someone distinct from God, someone who is merely an angel, then I don’t understand why Gideon would be afraid of his immanent death. Manoah, Samson’s father, has a similar reaction when he realizes that he has seen the angel of the Lord, “’We are doomed to die!’ he said to his wife. ‘We have seen God (Judges 13:22)!’” Here, unlike the conversation with Gideon, the angel of the Lord is not replaced with Yahweh.

However, it is interesting to note that the angel of the Lord refuses the sacrifice of a young goat, which raises the question as to why, if the angel of the Lord is indeed Yahweh, why he would deny worship. Other angels deny worship, such as the angel that speaks to John in his revelation (Revelation 22:8-9), but certainly not God. While Jesus does accept Thomas’ worship, it is not until after His crucifixion and resurrection (John 20:27), perhaps because before the crucifixion they did not readily or fully understand that Jesus was, in fact, God. That Jesus needed to explain this to his disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:27) and that the angels needed to ask why His followers sought Jesus among the dead (Luke 24:6) seem to indicate that the disciples did not fully comprehend Jesus’ divinity and identity as Yahweh. Furthermore, Samson’s parents were not sure as to the angel’s identity. Firstly Samson’s wife tells her husband concerning the angel of the Lord, “’A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name (Judges 13:6).’” She evidently thought the angel to be a mortal, sent by God, but a mortal man nonetheless. It is only when Manoah sacrifices a goat to Yahweh that Samson’s parents realize the angel of the Lord’s identity. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assert that if the angel of the Lord is Jesus, that both of them would deny worship unless the worshipper knew whom he or she was worshipping.

Those who see the angel of the Lord appear to them in the Hebrew Bible recognize the angel as Yahweh Himself, for they show fear of death for having seen the Lord God face-to-face. They are afraid of seeing the glory which Moses wanted to see, the glory of Yahweh, and perishing as a result. The apostle John writes that

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1,14).”

Jesus’ disciples knew, eventually, that to look upon Jesus Christ was to look upon the glory of God, the same thing which the Israelites under the Old Covenant were afraid to do lest they should die.

Jesus and the angel of the Lord both show a reluctance to allow themselves to be worshipped when there is doubt to their identity. Yet when rightly understood, those who recognize the angel of the Lord treat the location worshipfully, as did the Patriarchs of the Old Testament. For example, when David witnesses the angel of the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, Yahweh instructs David to go back to that same spot and construct an altar there. There are two things to note here, as Barker does,

When the angel of Yahweh, who is mentioned only once, appeared to David at the threshing floor, David did not speak to the angel of Yahweh but ‘David spoke to Yahweh, when he saw the angel who was destroying the people (2 Samuel:16-17).’ It is interesting that David chose to make the threshing floor where the angel appeared a holy place. In the stories of the patriarchs, altars were built where the Lord appeared and not just an angel (e.g. Gen. 12:7; 26:23; 35:1). (Barker p. 31-32).

The angel of the Lord, in this instance, is not so much an object of worship inasmuch as it is identified with the only object worthy of worship: Yahweh. David does not distinguish between the two in terms of significance in worship; the angel of the Lord is clearly a call to worship and to recognize the land as holy because it had been blessed by the distinct and otherworldly presence of God Himself.

Not only is the angel of the Lord a figure that designates the presence of Yahweh, but he is also a figure of deliverance. The angel of the Lord appears to the Israelites at Bokim and calls upon His people to repent of their not keeping their end of the covenant (Judges 2:1-5) just as Jesus, in His earthly ministry, calls upon people to repent of their sins (Luke 3:8, 5:32, 24:47). Yahweh Himself also calls upon His people to repent throughout the entirety of the Old Testament via the Prophets. King David also identifies the angel of the Lord with Yahweh when he writes, “This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them (Psalm 34:6-7).” The parallel structure of this poetry suggests that just as Yahweh hears David, so does the angel of the Lord encamp around those who fear him. Also in light of the parallelism between the two verses, the “him” that the angel encamps around indicates that the people regard the angel of the Lord with fear, as those under the old covenant were often commanded to do only of Yahweh. Both are to be feared, both deliver their people Israel from their enemies (Leviticus 19:14; Deut. 6:2, 10:12, 31:12; Joshua 4:24). Jesus Christ also delivers His followers from sin and death (2 Corinthians 1:10) just as Yahweh delivered Israel from its enemies.

Lastly, the angel of the Lord is also a figure of judgment. The angel appears to Balaam with a drawn sword (Numbers 22:23) and shortly thereafter, once Balaam sees the angel, judges Balaam’s treatment of the donkey and the direction he is headed (Num 22:32-35). The prophet Isaiah also testifies to the angel of the Lord enacting Yahweh’s judgment, “Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp (Isaiah 37:36).” Jesus also asserts that he is the judge appointed by the Father, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him (John 5:22-23).”

John is the apostle who most clearly brings out the similarities between the angel of the Lord and Jesus. Just as Yahweh is married to the city of Jerusalem, “For your Maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is his name – the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth (Isaiah 54:5), the Lamb of God, Christ, is married to the new city,

“’One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (Revelation 21:9-10).’”

As Barker concisely asserts, “The Bejeweled city who had been the bride of Yahweh became the heavenly city of Revelation 21. There can be no doubt that for John the heavenly Christ was the ancient Yahweh (Barker, p. 202).” Jesus’ disciples, after His resurrection, understood the significance that the Word had played not only throughout the entirety of the Old Testament, but also the whole history of creation as demonstrated by John’s ready understanding of how the Hebrew Bible related and set the context for his own visions of God and experience with Jesus Christ.

This understanding carried on with the early church fathers. Lockyer asserts that the Word was present in the Garden of Eden in God’s mercy shown towards Adam and Eve and in the promise of a redeemer to come (Lockyer, p. 88). Yet this is not nearly as tangible as the earlier examples given concerning the presence of the angel of the Lord and I was curious if someone could make a more concrete case for the angel to be present in the Garden in a more substantial fashion. However, in Origen, we find that this idea is certainly not new. While not in the Bible, there are accounts of the Genesis story which maintain that God’s glory, which Christians understand to be Jesus Christ in light of John 1:14, came to dwell at the entrance of the Garden,

The most telling of all the Christian descriptions of Jesus is that of Origen in his homily on Luke, because it shows how faithfully the early Church had adhered to temple traditions. He describes Jesus as standing in the river of fire beside the flaming sword… the Palestinian Targums remembered where this story originated. Both Neofiti and the Fragment Targums recall the temple setting and render Gen. 3:23, ‘And he cast out Adam and made the Glory of his Shekinah to dwell at the front of the east of the Garden, above the two cherubim.’ Origen knew, then, that Jesus was the one who guarded the gate of Eden. This understanding must date back to the time when the Church had still been within Judaism, perhaps to the first or second generation (Barker, p. 208).

The most striking assertion that Barker makes here is not necessarily how Origen may have allowed non-Biblical texts to influence his understanding of the story of the banishment from Eden, but rather that Origen and the early church must have still been deeply entrenched within the Jewish community based upon this interpretation. This also means that the belief in the angel of the Lord must have been alive and well in Jesus’ day, and that the early Christian Church would have readily understood this angel of the Lord to be Jesus Christ.

The case seems fairly clear. Given that the people written of in the Hebrew Bible, Patriarchs, Judges and Prophets react to the angel of the Lord as if to Yahweh Himself, perhaps most notably in their fear of dying should they look upon him, and in their attributing his words to Yahweh, it is not difficult to assert that these two were seen as equal. The disciples eventually understood Jesus Christ to be equal with Yahweh, and Jesus and the angel of the Lord both judge, make physical and spiritual sight possible, accept worship from those who know their identity, are both occasionally not recognized for who they are, are vehicles of the miraculous and of hope, and both testify to the greater glory of God. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible into the Septuagint also understood Yahweh and the angel of the Lord to be the same, as did the Hebrew author(s) of the Pentateuch who felt the need to stress that where the angel of the Lord is said to be at work, namely in Exodus, it is Yahweh at work. Furthermore, the angel of the Lord is not mentioned in the New Testament except in reference to his activities in the Old Testament, which raises the question as to why this figure would suddenly disappear, especially when this figure has been quite significant throughout the scriptures so far. Lastly, Jesus Christ testifies to His own work throughout the Hebrew Bible to his disciples on the Emmaus road. Perhaps, what he illuminated for them in the scriptures was just this, and more I am sure, that He Himself is the angel of the Lord.

Bibliography

Zondervan, NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 1973.

Lockyer, Herbert. All the Angels in the Bible. Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers, Inc, 1995.

Barker, Margaret. The Great Angel. Holy Trinity Church, London, Great Britain, 1992.

Miller, Glenn. “The Angel of YHWH.” [Online] Available

http://www.christian-thinktank.com/nothe.html