Transcription
Hey, did Jesus ever walk around before he was born? Sounds crazy, right? Did Jesus ever walk around before he was born?
Well, according to the Bible, we are going to be looking at what it means in the scriptures when they announce the angel of the Lord appeared unto Well, we're going to find out. So, as we look at the word of God together, there is this remarkable thread that goes all the way through from Genesis to Revelation and that is this title, this description, this label of one who is called the angel of the Lord. And the first thing that we want to make notice of is this. It's in John chapter 8. Please mark this down. Of course, the scribes, the Pharisees, they're attacking Jesus at every turn. That's what they did. I'm actually grateful for them because it's because of their shenanigans that they asked all kinds of atheistic type questions regarding the deity of Jesus and he busted them every time with his eternal answers and truths and wisdom. And so, we're grateful.
In John chapter 8, they are trying to say to Jesus that they, the religious hierarchy, that they are the children of Abraham. They're the real deal and Jesus, we don't even know where you've come from because after all, your mom, you know, got pregnant and at least we know who our father is. Who's your father? And they're really they're really laying into him. And of course, he was never bothered by that. He knew who he was. And um in doing that, Jesus offered up a remarkable answer that should have caused them to run back to their libraries and go to work on some research when he said this. I tell you that before Abraham was, I am. He says and and and by the way, the I am is the the ego a me which is before Abraham was, I am. Before Abraham was, I am the self-contained eternal existing one. I've never had a birth. I'll never had a have a death. I never had a beginning. I'll never have an end. I'm eternal. That's what ego a me is in Greek, the I am, which is by the way, the same of the Hebrew when Moses meets the Lord in the burning bush in uh Exodus. When Moses meets the Lord on Mount Sinai uh Horeb when the bush is burning and the Lord says, I want you to go and tell the children of Israel who sent you. And thank God for questions, right? Abraham says uh I mean, Moses says who do I tell them sent me? Isn't that amazing? Moses is uh remarkably, Moses would have known the names of all these Egyptian gods. But Moses didn't know the name of the one true creator God. And God says to Moses out of the burning bush, you go tell them I am that I am sent you to them. The self-contained eternal existing God.
So Jesus answers the scribes and Pharisees in John 8 and blows their minds. Just blows their minds because he says Abraham came into existence I that. I know that. And Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it. Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, I met Abraham. Abraham met me. We had a conversation together at least once. And you guys want to talk about pedigree? You guys want to talk about who knows who? You guys want to drop names? Well, I met Abraham. And the scribes and Pharisees immediately respond and say, "What? You're not even 50 years old." Which is really weird. You're not even 50 years old. How is it that you claim that you have met Abraham? See, why did they say 50 when Abraham had been dead for well over a thousand years, nearly 2,000 years by Jesus' day. It's kind of a cool thing. Back in the first century era, and maybe this is too much information, but back in the back in 2,000 years ago in the first century era, the rabbis believed that when a man came to the age of 30, he was a a um for the lack of a better term, he was a functioning, viable, responsible young man at the age of 30. He could inherit property. He could inherit all that the father owns. Uh he is He and the father are one. in in life. A A 30-year-old a Hebrew Jew man enters into his uh inheritance, his existence, his prominence at the age of 30. But they didn't say 30. They said 50. They should have said, "You're not even, you know, 16 You're not even 1,500 years old. How can you have met Abraham?" Um they said, "You're not even 50, 50." They believed that at the age of 50 a person entered into their absolute spiritual maturity. They entered into the realm of wise, the elderly, the gray hair, 50. How in the world can you talk about meeting Abraham and and saying such a thing when you're not even qualified to be 50 years old where a Jew enters into their full maturity to know spiritual matters? You might be over 30 or 30 and over. Okay, big deal. We know that you didn't have an earthly father. Okay, we we know that your dad is not known. Your mom got pregnant who knows how cuz we don't believe in you. And we doubt your spiritual maturity even because you're not even 50 years of age. Jesus blows them up. I mean, just blows their minds away. They should have run back to their scriptures and study that.
Uh why? Mark it down, friends. This is pretty fun. Uh Genesis chapter 16 verse seven. Now, the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water, Hagar, in the wilderness by the spring on the way to Shur. The angel of the Lord. There are angels who serve the Lord. There are angels who do the Lord's ministry. There are angels who are around the throne of God. There are angels who are dispatched from God's presence to slay 185,000 Assyrians in the day of battle. Uh as the scripture says. There's a There's the angel who brings Daniel's answer of Daniel chapter uh 9 and 10. Uh there's the angel Gabriel who make He's the public relations officer for God. He makes the announcements to Israel, always announcing, always announcing. There's the angel Michael who's always fighting. Michael is always fighting and defending Israel. And Gabriel is always making announcements regarding Israel. These are angels. Lucifer is the angel of the morning or the bright and morning star. Angel Lucifer, now of course fallen as Diabolos, the devil, Satan, the dragon. Uh yet Lucifer, Satan is an angel. There's fallen angels. There's holy angels, but there's only one angel of the Lord. And every time when you read your Bible, look uh I do believe, I may be wrong about this. Um you can go you can go prove me right or wrong, it doesn't matter. I'm I'm happy with being wrong on this. I know the old King James, I know the new King James. I don't know about the other versions, but the old and the new King James, they will always have the angel of the Lord capitalized. Angel capitalized, signifying that this is somebody different than your run-of-the-mill, if there's such a thing, angel. Hagar encounters the angel of the Lord, which is known as a theophanies or pre-incarnate, that is a pre-birth Bethlehem appearance of Jesus Christ. Why is this important? Because Jesus Christ is eternal. The Son of God has always been. And we have numerous accounts. Now, in this podcast together, we can only touch on a few, but I hope this gets you excited to go find out more in your own personal study as who is the angel of the Lord. You're going to be delighted to find out.
And so uh how about this? Genesis um um chapter 22 verse 11. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham." So, Abraham said, "Here I am." Notice the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham. Exodus chapter 3 verse 2. And the angel of the Lord, capital angel, appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So, he looked and behold, that's Moses, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Notice that whole thing starts with the angel of the Lord appearing to Moses in a burning bush or what looked like a burning bush. That's Exodus 3:20. How about this? Numbers chapter 22 verse 22. Then God's anger was aroused because he went and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against Balaam. Watch this. And he was riding on his donkey and his two uh servants were with him. Numbers 22:22. The angel of the Lord appeared to stop Balaam from performing his unsanctioned act as a prophet of God. He prostituted his office. Uh the the donkey recognized that it was the angel of the Lord and it freaked out the donkey. And you remember the story, Balaam began to beat his donkey and uh all the while not recognizing and then the angel of the Lord speaks to Balaam and said, "This donkey just saved your life. A donkey being ridden by a donkey, but the donkey with four legs is smarter and more discerning than the donkey with two legs. And the angel of the Lord intervened in Balaam's bad decision-making. The angel of the Lord appeared. Remarkable.
Now, we do know from scripture in the New Testament that angels can appear and disappear. Uh that's in the scripture. The Bible warns us that uh on the negative side, watch out because Satan, who's a fallen angel, do you not know that Satan, who's an angel of light, can appear to deceive people. Wow. We also know though in the positive that the book of Hebrews tells us that we need to be careful how we treat strangers that we are in contact with uh because many people have uh entertained angels in their presence unaware. Why would God do this? I don't know. Uh but it happens. I'm not aware of any time it happened in my life, but that's exactly what the Bible said. Watch out, be kind, walk in the spirit, be gentle, be nice to strangers because you may be talking to ministering to, hanging out with somebody you don't know, but they're an actual angel. And I'm assuming, just an assumption, that God would either have that angel there for my protection or my guidance or warning or to test my heart. I mean who knows? We don't know. So, we need to check our attitude always.
How about this? Judges chapter 2 verse 1. Then the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to a Bokim and said I told you sorry 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 that's Judges 2 verse 1 The angel of the Lord appears and speaks. How about Judges 6 verse 11. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ofra and watch what happens the angel the Bible says the angel sat down the angel Lord sat down under a tree. Which belonged to Joash The abiezrite While his son Gideon threshed wheat in the wine press in order to hide from Midianites Judges chapter 6 verse 11. Here's a Here's a description where the it is written down where the angel Lord sat down under a tree. Manifestation We know we'll see this soon Looked like a normal guy. Didn't glow Looked normal. But he was the angel of the Lord. Judges 13 verse 3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her indeed now You are barren and have borne no children but you shall conceive and bear a son. The angel of the Lord appeared if my memory serves me right I just have the reference here that I believe would be regarding Samson. Cuz Samson's birth was prophesied by the angel of the Lord. Uh The Mother Samson's mom was Uh It was a miracle for her to conceive. Um because she couldn't become uh pregnant. And the angel Lord says, basically, "You're going to be pregnant." But it's the angel of the Lord saying this. You say, "Jack, how do you know it's just not any angel?" Because it's capital A angel. Angel of the Lord is a manifestation of Jesus Christ himself. Before Bethlehem. There's more.
Second Samuel chapter 24, verse 16. "And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people, 'It is enough. Now restrain your hand.'" Watch this. "And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." That's Second Samuel 24:16. You say, "Well, that's kind of a That's kind of weird." It's consistent because when you read Isaiah chapter 60 out to chapter 66, when you read Joel chapter 2 and 3, when you read Revelation uh chapter 19 to 22, uh you have passages there that describe none other than the one who is the angel of the Lord who is the one who has on his thigh of his robe written King of kings and Lord of lords. His His robe is splattered in blood because he makes war against those who are attacking his people, Israel. He will fight for Israel, the scripture says, as he did in the day battle and in Revelation 19 he comes to gather his church that's in heaven. The door is opened and we exit heaven Revelation 19 with him coming back to earth and he will strike the earth with his wrath with the word of his mouth as a sharp sword that proceeds from his mouth to judge the nations and it all that all that by the way begins with the destruction of the Antichrist at Megiddo or Armageddon.
The first Kings 19:7 and the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said arise and eat because the journey is too great for you speaking about Elijah. The angel of the Lord ministered to him. This is different by the way when angels came and ministered to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, they were angels. No problem. The angel of the Lord as I'm stressing whenever that happens in scripture sit up and take notice market highlight it circle it. Search that word out and find out that Jesus my friends especially those of you who are bound up in the cults Jesus is not an angel. Jesus is not a created being. Jesus is the angelos of the Lord. He is the spokesman. He is the logos the word of God the angel of the Lord. First Kings 19 35 and it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians. 185,000 and when people arose early in the morning, there were there were their corpses were there all dead. Yikes. Wow. It's passages like that where people say, "I don't read the Old Testament. The God of the Old Testament scares me. I I read the New Testament. I like that God." Same God. It's the same God. Different dispensations. The Old Testament economy was operated by God's word and God related to mankind in a in a different way, certain way. All of it leading up to the fulfillment of the old and the revelation of the new. It's the same God.
That's why during this age of grace, call it this dis- dispensation of grace, as Ephesians chapter 1 and 2 says, dispensation. People will get all their knickers in a all bound up when they Oh, dispensation. Oh my gosh. Hey, the word dispensation is in the Bible, folks. And right now you and you and I are in the dispensation of grace. It appears it seems to me if I understand Bible prophecy correctly, the dispensation of grace started at the birth of the church or you could push it and say at the at the ministry of Jesus commencing. But certainly by Pentecost then the gospel of grace goes out to all the earth. It's been going out for 2,000 years. And I believe the gospel of grace as we know it in this dispensation ends at the moment of the rapture. Then God focuses on Israel the salvation of his people, those who will believe, and he winds up using them, and 144,000 of them and more to present the gospel to the ends of the earth. And um that's a study for some other time, But do keep that in mind.
Um Second Kings chapter 1 verse 3. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, "Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire in Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?'" The angel of the Lord appears. Um Second Kings chapter 19 verse 35. I I thought I read that one. Uh maybe not. Yeah, I already read that one. Um Second Chronicles uh chapter 21. Second Chronicles 21, beginning at verse 12. "Either 3 years of famine, this is the this is the challenge. Even You're either going to have 3 years of famine or 3 months uh to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or third option, else for 3 days the sword of the Lord, the plague in the land with with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now consider what answer I should take back to him, the Lord capital, who sent me." And that is the angel of the Lord speaking to David regarding his transgression. Uh because you sinned, you you're going to be chastised. You you can pick you can pick how. That came from the angel of the Lord. Um powerful.
Almost done, folks. Um The angel of the Lord, sorry, this is Psalm 34 verse 7. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. I love that. You know what's cool about that? That's Psalm Psalm 34:7. You know, what's neat about that? Do you remember when God told Moses, "I want you to We're You're going to be leaving Egypt, okay? You're going to head out. You're going to go into the wilderness." And uh Moses said, "Okay, all that's great. But, I'm not going to go with an angel. I don't want an angel." He said, "I'm not going to go unless you go with with us." Isn't that great? Moses said, "I'm not going unless you're going with us." And the Lord said, "I'm I'm going with you. I'm going to lead you." I love that. How did he do it? By the angel of the Lord. Um Psalm 35:5-6. Psalm 35:5-6. "Let them be like chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them." The word chase is what you can imagine, pursue them. "Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them." That's scary, isn't it, to think? That's Psalm 35:5-6.
Wow. You know, I'm going to allow I'm I'm going to um interrupt myself and put this in there where I believe it's the warning that's in Ezekiel. I may be wrong about that, but it comes to my mind that because the children of Israel in the wilderness refused to trust God. You know, listen, when we don't trust God, I'm going to put it blunt. When you and I When you and I trust ourselves, it's because we are looking to our own authority. When you trust someone else, you're looking to their authority. When you don't trust yourself, you're not relying upon your authority. When you do not trust others, you are not relying upon their authority. That's okay, I guess. But when you do not trust God, you are the the whole thing about not trusting God means this, you do not believe in his authority. That's what it means. You say, "I love God. I obey God." Are you sure? Do you worry about stuff that God said don't worry about it? Um when God says, "I'll never leave you or forsake you." and now you're afraid that God's going to leave you and forsake you, you're not trusting him. You're telling him that he's not true. He doesn't keep his word. He can't be trusted. He's not honest. Wow. Well, when the scriptures tell us that he'll never leave us or forsake us, that's beautiful. It's awesome. He's bound by his word, you know. In Psalm 138, the Bible tells us that he will honor his word above his own name. That's huge because there's no other name given among men whereby we must be saved that at the name of Jesus. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ, who is the angel of the Lord, um that whoever confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, they shall be saved.
Isaiah 37:6, "Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000." We read that earlier. And when the people arose early in the morning, the corpses were there. What about Zechariah 1:12? Zechariah 1:12, "Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, 'O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah?'" He's This is Christ interceding against which you were angry these 70 years. The angel of the Lord in ministry. Um finally this before I make some more comment. Zechariah 3:1. Zechariah 3:1. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest. This is not Joshua the commander of the book of Joshua. This is a different Joshua the high priest that is in Zechariah chapter 3. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Zechariah 3 verse 1.
So I'm going to throw out some real quick and then then we'll wrap this up. I'll give you one. Abraham is encamped. What seems to be the foothills overlooking Sodom and Gomorrah. You know that his nephew Lot is down in Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham is not. Abraham's looking from afar at this oasis, this incredibly oasis. The Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding area was a well-watered plain. That's a very nice way of putting it. It was luxurious. That's where Lot lived. Abraham did not. But the Bible tells us that uh that these three Let's just I would just put it like this. We'll kind of look through it as with Abraham's eyes. Three men approach. And Abraham greets Abraham greets them and realizes that in some way, shape, or form, it doesn't tell us how, but Abraham realizes these are these are holy these are holy servants of the most high God. What's amazing about this is uh some Bible versions will tell you that uh it's three angels or it's the angel of the Lord and two angels. We know that there's three of them but then as we keep going it becomes clear of what or who are they. The angel of the Lord is speaking with Abraham. Abraham is speaking with him and with them probably no doubt. Abraham in true oriental fashion offers them a meal. It's very normal to this day. Hospitality is a big deal in the Middle East. The ancient Orient. And he ha- he tells Sarah, "Prepare Prepare a meal." The angel of the Lord says to the angels, "Should I reveal to Abraham what I'm about to do?" The two angels continue on and you know the tremendous account in scripture where they make it into Sodom and Gomorrah looking for Lot to deliver Lot and his family but the homosexual community are seeking to rape these two visitors. Which means think about this. If the homosexual community said, "We want to know them." The word is we want to know them intimately. They're beating on Lot's door and says "Where's the men who came into your house earlier today? Bring them out to us. We want to know them carnally." Lot says, "No, no, no, don't do that. Don't do that. I'll give you my daughters. I'll give you my You can do what do whatever you want with my daughters." Isn't that horrible? They didn't want They didn't want a woman or women. They wanted guys. They're thinking, "These two guys are are guys. They're men. We want them." That's how normal they looked. And they're beating and beating and beating on the door. Lot's talking to them. The angels reach out. They pull Lot back in. And they try to break down the door. And the angels strike them with blindness. It didn't stop them from trying to commit this horrific sexual immorality, but the angels the Bible says "Smote them with blindness." The angels got Lot and his children and his wife out. But the Bible tells us as they're leaving, Lot's wife looks back. Now, God is not angry, rude, mean, and short-tempered. To man, God turned her into a pillar of salt and killed her because she looked back. She didn't look back to see or to watch the place be destroyed. She looked back because that's where she belonged. That's the world she loved. She wanted that world. And she was according to the Bible, turned to a pillar of salt. Lot continued out. The angels brought down fire and brimstone and consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. All the while, the angel of the Lord sat with Abraham the entire time. It wasn't three angels. It was two angels being led by the angel of the Lord, which is Christ himself. A christophany, a theophany. It's not unusual in the Old Testament, which means we need to read our Bibles a little slower when we're going through the scriptures. And like the Psalm Psalm 40. Psalm 40 and the book of Hebrews echoes it and repeats it. Behold, in the volume of the book it is written of me. Speaking of Christ. It's true. The angel of the Lord is none other than Jesus Christ before he was born as a man in Bethlehem. Take it when I say man and born as a baby coming into this world, taking upon himself the form of a man, mankind, becoming one of us. Isn't it amazing as I end? Right now at the right hand of God the Father is God the Son. A glorified man. You ever stop to think about that? Jesus Christ is 100% God, always has been. But he's also 100 100% man ever since he was conceived in Bethlehem. To today at the right hand of God is your intercessor and mine. Our advocate. That's why Paul told Timothy that there's one mediator between man and God. It is the man Christ Jesus. The man Christ Jesus. The man, human. Christ, Messiah. Yehoshua, Yeshua. Yah. Jesus. The eternal God.
Listen, I hope this has been a blessing to you. We would love for you to let other people know if these podcasts like this are helping you. You can just give us a huge encouragement by sharing, get getting notifications, um letting others know. Word of mouth is the most precious thing that you can do to encourage us. God bless you guys. Until next time.