The Glory of the Angel of the Lord

by:  Lonnie Lane

Judaism says it is impossible to see God. He has a voice,
but He cannot be seen. The edict to not make any graven images or idols (Exodus
20:4) is extended to a fear of portraying or even thinking of God as being
visible or having a form. Lest you think that’s only in the Old Testament, the
New Covenant says the same thing: “No one
has seen God at any time” (John 1:18), “Not
that anyone has seen the Father” (John 6:46), or as we love to sing, “To the King eternal, immortal, invisible….”
(1 Tim. 1:17), to name just a few such verses. Sid has interviewed several
persons who have been to heaven and report that they have seen God. He may be
cloaked in light beyond what is almost incomprehensible to us who live in this
fallen world, but He is “seeable,” at least in heaven. He is not just a voice.

Moses wanted to see God in His glory but God made it clear
Moses was incapable of enduring the power of His presence that would come from
seeing His face. Having had but a miniscule experience myself with God’s glory
for no more than thirty seconds or so, I can attest that, not seeing Him but
just experiencing the power of His presence is enough to cause us to feel as if
we would die or explode into a million pieces from the radiating power, even
the power of joy. We couldn’t contain or endure the power of His presence in
these fallen bodies, even if our spirits are ‘saved.’

Well then, what about verses that seem to indicate that YHVH
was physically present, that He made Himself known by manifesting His
presence?  (Please note before we
go on, that where our English Bibles have LORD in caps, if you were reading it
in Hebrew it would read as YHVH which is pronounced as Yehovah. Please see my
article “Pronouncing YHVH” for further explanation.) Consider these verses: “Then Yehovah appeared to Abraham…,” (Genesis 12:7) or “The word (of) Yehovah came to Abraham in a
vision...(17:1). If it was a vision, Abraham must have seen something, not
just heard Yehovah, right?  Or how
about this one:  “Now Yehovah appeared to him (Abraham) by the oaks of Mamre,
while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked,
behold, three men were standing
opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to
meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and
said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by”(18:1-3).

One of the three
men was Yehovah! The other two are identified as angels: “Then the two angels came to Sodom…” (19:1). Yet the three of
them were referred to as “men.”
When Abraham saw Him, it reads as if he recognized Him, having seen Him
before. He jumps up and quickly runs to him, bowing down and calling Him
“Lord.”  The Hebrew word for “bow
down” is the primary Hebrew word for “worship” and the word “Lord” is the one
most often used when speaking to or about Yehovah. If you read through Genesis
18, it sounds like a conversation between two who already know each other, not
like Abraham is speaking to a total stranger.

But then it goes on and we have further evidence of this
“man” being Yehovah: “Then the
men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking
with them to send them off. The Lord (Yehovah)
said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since
Abraham will surely become a great and mighty
nation, and in him all the
nations of the earth will be blessed? For
I have chosen him…(:16-19a, my
emphases). Who else chose Abraham through whom He would bless all the nations
of the earth but Yehovah Himself? No one else owns that statement. The
conclusion is clear that one of these “men” was Yehovah and the one Israel
worshipped as Lord. And Yehovah was revealing what He would do to Sodom.

There are many other instances in the Tenach (Old Testament)
in which Yehovah reveals Himself as a Man, almost always as the Angel of the
Lord. But whenever the Angel of the Lord comes on the scene in the Tenach He always looks like a man, and
He speaks in the first person, saying “I” when announcing what only God in His
sovereignty can do. In Genesis 16 when Hagar fled from Sarah, the Angel of the
Lord found her. It mentions “Angel of the Lord” four times in that story and He
speaks to her speaking as if He was God: “Moreover, the angel  of the LORD said
to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count”(16:10), speaking of Ishmael descendants. God involved
Himself in what was happening. Let’s not miss the magnitude of that. In every
instance the Almighty cares what happens, enough to enter the story and be a
part of it.

Do you remember
the story of Balaam and the donkey that proved to be more spiritual than
Balaam? It’s almost comical except for the gravity of Balaam’s sin. Yahweh was
angry with Balaam and sought to stop him from going to curse Israel.

“But God was angry
because he was going, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as an
adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants
were with him. Then the angel of the
LORD stood in a narrow path of the vineyards,
with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD,
she pressed herself to the wall
and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall,
so he struck her again. The angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow
place where there was no way to turn to the right hand or the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD,
she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam was angry and struck the donkey with his
stick. Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he
saw the angel of the LORD
 standing in the way with his
drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed all the way
to the ground…. The angel of the LORD said
to him, “… Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way was
contrary to me. (Numbers
22:22-32, my emphases).

Imagine, even the donkey bowed to
the angel of the Lord. But when Balaam was intended to curse Israel, he was
acting against or contrary not to an angel, but against the Lord Himself. No
angel would have been an adversary to anyone unless acting under God’s orders
because the person had been “contrary” to God. The story actually mentions “the
angel of the Lord” ten times. Cursing Israel was enough to bring Yehovah
Himself on the scene to let Balaam know how “contrary” (opposite) this was to
God’s will. He stopped the curse from taking place. There’s a lesson in this.
Don’t curse Israel or speak or plan for Israel’s destruction or you are acting
“contrary” to God’s will even today and there will be consequences. Oh, that
the world would know that today.

How about the story of Gideon? No
one to my knowledge made a good movie out of Gideon’s story. It’s such a great
story for special effects. Gideon, if you remember, is such a wimp with all the
violence going on around him from their enemies that he’s hiding in a wine
press to beat out his wheat. Or, maybe he was being clever and wise because he
caught the Yehovah’s attention. The angel of the Lord comes to him and lets him
know He has chosen him to lead Israel’s army against the Midianites. No small
task. He is understandably afraid. Gideon needs some proof that Yehovah is
really asking this of him and will be with him. He asks if he can bring an
offering of a meal to the angel which he does. Then, “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 sprang up from the rock
and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished
from his sight. When Gideon saw
that he was the angel of the LORD, he said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I
have seen the angel of the LORD face
to face.” (Judges 6:20-22).

When Gideon
uttered that last statement, having realized who He actually was, he was
terrified because he thought he would die, having seen Yehovah face to face.
The Lord’s response to him calmed his fear when “the LORD said to him, “Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to
the LORD (Yehovah) and named it the Lord is peace (Yehovah Shalom)” (:23,
24).

So what is the meaning to us that
we see that Yehovah appeared as the angel of the Lord in the form of a Man many
times to Israel in what has been termed a pre-incarnate Yeshua appearing to
them. What are we to learn about our wonderful
God from this? Well, He’s involved. He’s very present. He’s right there. He’s
not aloof and waaaay up there,
watching from afar. He’s not only physically on the scene but He appears to be
emotionally present. He cares. And He has plans for what will come about. For
instance, He’s very aware of Abraham’s longing for a child but He also knows
that when He’s about to do something very significant in the affairs of
mankind, He often sets apart a son even before he is conceived to announce that
he will fulfill God’s greatest purposes in his life. That was true for Isaac
and Jacob, both of whom were born of mothers whose wombs God had kept closed so
that when each child was conceived it was with prayer and awareness that God
would have had to do it. The same with Joseph whom Rachel finally bore after
her sister and their handmaidens bore ten sons to Jacob. Samson was another one
to whose parents the angel of the Lord
appeared to announce his birth (Judges 13).

The two
significant births in the New Covenant were miraculous as well, but in both
cases, since Yeshua was about to be born as a person, the announcement of
Yeshua’s birth, preceded by John the Immerser’s, both supernatural conceptions,
were made by “the angel Gabriel sent by
God” (Luke 1:19 and :26-38), who, significantly, is never called the angel
of the Lord, nor does he speak in the first person. He does speak for God
though, introducing himself and saying things like,  “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I
have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news”(1:19). And
we are well aware of Gabriel’s visit to Miriam (Mary) to tell her “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found
favor with God. And behold, you
will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Yeshua. He will be great and will be called
the Son of the Most High…” (:30-32).
Could any more miraculous words be spoken or amazing thing be done?

Yeshua had to have been a baby in
order to become 100% human, the only way He could have been the sinless
atonement (because God Himself can’t die.) It was necessary that He live out a
sinless life as well in order to show us what the life of someone lived
entirely in and for God looks like and that it’s possible under the power of
the Holy Spirit. He further revealed as a Man what it is to live in complete
accordance with Torah, especially the command to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5), to which we could add, “and with your
whole body and blood,” couldn’t we?

But back to the
appearance of Yeshua as the angel of the Lord to Israel at various times, these
instances reveal to us that Yehovah was never the impersonal God who distances
Himself from mankind. He knows exactly when to come; His timing is impeccable,
arriving at the precise moment in history when intervention from God is needed.
He was in the bush when Moses noticed it burning (Exodus 3) and even though
some time later on the mountain Moses was not permitted to see His face, he did
see His back which indicates that He had the form of a man (33:18-23). It is
likely that Moses was in such proximity to God’s immediate presence on the
mountain that to see His face would have meant his destruction. Yeshua
evidently has the ability to mask His glory and to reveal Himself apart from
His power and glory which would be more than we could take. Moses got as close
to His glory as humanly possible and it reflected on his own face: “It came about when Moses was coming down
from Mount Sinai (and the two
tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down
from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of
his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold,
the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him” (Ex.
24:29-30).

Some have thought
that when Moses saw His back he saw the stripes Yeshua suffered, even though in
time it hadn’t happened yet. But Yeshua was crucified before the foundation of
the earth was laid and He as God dwells outside of time and space and after His
resurrection He still bore the scars of the cross still on His hands, feet and
sides: “Jesus came and stood in their
midst and *said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His
side” (John 20:19,20), it is possible that Moses had more understanding
than He spoke of. Perhaps some of the glory on his face that shown so brightly
is because of having seen the glory of Yeshua’s atonement on His back. Maybe he
understood the deeper meaning behind the animal sacrifices, that they were but
types and shadows of what would one day come to pass when the angel of the Lord
He saw in the burning bush or met on the mountain became a Man and gave Himself
for the salvation of the world. We can only speculate.

One thing we can
know, that the angel of the Lord was the Son of God manifesting Himself to
Israel. He is the God of love who watches over His people and who is fully
involved in what He is bringing to pass in the affairs of mankind. As He is the
same always, He is the God who is Israel’s defender and protector and opposes
those who act contrary to Him with regard to Israel and otherwise, though He is
patient “not wishing for any to perish”
(2 Peter 3:9). As He came as the angel of the Lord to turn history in a
direction of His purposes, He is still very much involved even if behind the
scenes in the affairs of mankind, though it may appear as if we are driving
history and men are running the show. There have been numerous people who have
had Yeshua come to them as He is now as Lord of all, though again with minimal
glory so they can bear His presence. He changes things when He appears. And one
day, when He finally appears in all His glory, He will change the earth, the
world and everything in it. And all will know that despite the plans and
intentions of men and nations, the world was, is and always will be His.

Note: For
more on Yeshua in the Tenach, refer to “Who Ate Lunch With Abraham” by Asher
Intrater.

Reprint of this article is permitted as long as you use the following; Use by permission by Messianic Vision, www.sidroth.org, 2012.

Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.  All rights reserved. Used by permission.