Who is the Angel of the LORD in the old testament?

We have an interesting figure who appears throughout the pages of the old testament by the name the angel of the LORD or the angel of God. He is a not a mere angel like the other good angels of God. Many people are of the view that the angel of the LORD is an ordinary created angel, but when you carefully examine the context with which he appears, it proves beyond reasonable doubt that he is not a created angel. This particular figure speaks as God, he identifies himself as Yahweh himself, and at other times he speaks as one sent by God. The angel of the LORD was a divine manifestation of God in human flesh. I dedicated ample time to study about who the angel of the LORD is and am excited to share the truth, which I learnt from the scriptures with you.

Let us look at some of the places where the angel of the LORD appears, so we can gain a better understanding of his true identity.

Sarah treated Hagar her maid harshly and for that reason she fled from her house and see what happened next: Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going?" And she said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai. "Then the angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority." Moreover, the angel of the LORD said to her, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count." The angel of the LORD said to her further, "Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone's hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers." Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are a God who sees"; for she said, "Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him? (Genesis 16:7-13). The angel of the LORD spoke in first person as one, who will multiply her descendants greatly that they will be too many to be counted. Who can do this except God alone. Look at what Hagar also said about the angel: "Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are a God who sees"; for she said, "Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him? She called the angel of the LORD as the God who sees me.

"Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth (Genesis 31:11-13). The angel of God is the same person as the angel of the LORD and he identifies himself as the God of Bethel, an ordinary angel cannot make such claim.

Jacob at a point was a alone and a Man appeared to him and he wrestled with until daybreak. He demanded that the Man will bless him: Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." But he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob. "He said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him and said, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved (Genesis 32:24-30). The Man whom Jacob wrestled with was the angel of the LORD and later he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved". 

Jacob as he blessed his grand children, he invoked  the name of God and the angel of the LORD at the same time: He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; And may my name live on in them, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth  (Genesis 48:15-16). Jacob was fully convinced about the true identity of the angel of the LORD, that he is nothing less than God himself.

One day God tested Abraham, by telling him to offer his only begotten son Isaac as a sacrifice, see (Genesis 22; 1-2). Abraham heeded to God's instructions and when he was about to kill his Son: But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am. "He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord it will be provided." Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice  (Genesis 22:11-18). From the passage, we can see clearly that the angel of the LORD spoke as God, and he is specifically called ''LORD'' in the verse 16, ''declares the LORD''.

It is also written: ''The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am. "Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (Exodus 3:2-6). The angel of the LORD revealed his name to Moses as the I AM WHO I AM (Exodus 3; 14-15). This is not a mere angel, but God himself communicating with his servant.

"Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them (Exodus 23:20-23).

From the passage, we can see that the angel of the LORD is a distinct person from God the father. This angel has the authority to pardon transgression, a divine prerogative that only God can exercise. And the name of the Lord was also in this angel. God will not share his name with an ordinary angel. The angel of the LORD was the one who led the Israelites as a pillar of cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night and brought them safely into the land of Canaan, see prooftext (Judges 2; 1- 4).

''Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lost." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant? "The captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so (Joshua 5:13-15). 

The Man that appeared to Joshua was a divine figure, and he commanded him to remove his sandals for he was standing on a holy ground. This divine figure whom Joshua paid divine obeisance to, was the same person who appeared to Moses, the angel of the LORD

"Now the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you, and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done? Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they will become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.'" When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. So they named that place Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the LORD (Judges 2; 1-5).

It was the angel of the LORD who actually led the Israelites and brought them out of Egypt into the promised land. The angel of the LORD was God himself speaking to his own people. He often uses 'I will', 'I will' which signifies that he speaking in the first person 

"Then Manoah entreated the LORD and said, "O Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born. "God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, "Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me. "Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman?" And he said, "I am. "Manoah said, "Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy's mode of life and his vocation? "So the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Let the woman pay attention to all that I said. She should not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her observe all that I commanded. "Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you. "The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord." For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD. Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?" But 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 on the rock to the Lord, and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that 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. Now the angel of the LORD did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. So Manoah said to his wife, "We will surely die, for we have seen God (Judges 13:8-22).

From the conversation between them, you will realize that God is a separate being from the angel of the LORD, see the verse 9. In the verse 21 and 22, this was what Manoah said: Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. So Manoah said to his wife, "We will surely die, for we have seen God". Manoah knew without any iota of doubt that the angel of the LORD who has spoken to them was God himself, therefore he feared for his life, but I love what his wife said: But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time" verse 23.

It is clear from the scriptures that the angel of the LORD is not an ordinary angel. This person is distinct, he was God in human flesh. Some consider his manifestation as a theophany, an incarnation of God the father in human flesh. But I object to this view, because the father cannot be seen and no one has ever seen him before, see (John 1; 18). The holy Spirit also does not appear as a human being. It is safe to conclude that the angel of the LORD was the pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ in human form. Jesus was present throughout the pages of the old testament. The appearance of the angel of the LORD was a christophany, a divine manifestation of Jesus in human flesh. One interesting thing is that after Jesus Christ came on the scene, the appearances of the angel of the LORD ceased. God bless you 

A thought to ponder 🤔 

The appearance of the angel of the LORD was a christophany, a divine manifestation of Jesus in human flesh

We defend and exposit the truth of the gospel