Transcription
Hagar was not a Hebrew. She was merely an Egyptian servant, exploited, humiliated, and now pregnant, alone, and fleeing through the desert. From a human point of view, a lost cause.
But someone found her on the way. The angel of the Lord. And anyone familiar with scripture recognizes it immediately. When it says the angel of the Lord with the definite article, it likely refers not to an ordinary angel, but to a manifestation of Christ himself before his incarnation. Here he doesn't send fire from heaven or part the sea. He does something simple. He calls her by name. Hagar, Sarai's maid. Notice until then she was just the slave, the maid servant. But God looks upon those the world overlooks. And after speaking with her, the angel makes promises that only God can make. The text shifts. It is no longer the angel speaking but the Lord himself. Hagar immediately understands. "You are the God who sees me." Do you know what that means? That Christ is not only concerned with great heroes of the faith. He also pursues those who seem insignificant and forgotten in the desert. We serve a God who sees and hears our cry when we suffer.
Genesis 18 begins simply, "The Lord appeared unto Abraham." But how did this appearance take place? Did God speak from heaven? Send a prophet, deliver a vision? None of that. He lifted up his eyes and looked and lo, three men stood by him. Abraham runs, prepares water, bread and a feast, and the three eat with him. One of them speaks with divine authority and the text leaves no doubt. The Lord himself was sitting at the table. It is not a symbolic vision. It is God appearing in human form, walking, talking, eating in a temporary visible manifestation. Later, the two other angels go to Sodom and the Lord departs.
Years later, in Genesis 22, Abraham climbs a mountain with his beloved son beside him. The moment comes, Abraham binds Isaac. He lifts the knife. He is truly willing to give up everything. Then suddenly, the angel of the Lord appears, not as a spectator, but as one who has authority to stop the sacrifice, saying, "Abraham, Abraham." And what he says next reveals something extraordinary. "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." Did you catch that detail? He begins by saying, "Thou fearst God." But then adds, "From me." If he were just a messenger, he would have said, "Thou hast not withheld thy son from God." But he says, "Me," speaking as God himself. Therefore, this is no ordinary angel. Once again, it is Christ manifesting before his incarnation.
In Genesis 31, Jacob has problems with Laban after years of being deceived and exploited. As he gathers courage to leave, he recalls a vision he once had, a dream in which the angel of the Lord appeared to him. Up to that point, it might seem like another ordinary heavenly message. But then this angel reveals something astonishing about his identity. "I am the God of Bethel where thou anointest the pillar and where thou vowest a vow unto me." Which is strange because no angel would ever say that. An angel never uses the divine position. They always point to God, never speak as God. But this angel does. He speaks in the first person as God. Recalls promises made to Jacob years earlier and commands with divine authority, "Arise, get thee out from this land and return unto the land of thy kindred." In other words, this is not a common angel. It is a manifestation of Christ himself before his incarnation.
Shortly after, in Genesis 32, on the night Jacob was about to meet Esau, his twin brother and rival, he discovers that the greatest confrontation would not be with the man who hated him, but with the God who would transform him. The text says, "And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." But it quickly becomes clear that this man is not merely human. With a single touch, he dislocates Jacob's hip, something no ordinary fighter could do. Even injured, Jacob clings to him and says, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." Recognizing that he stands before someone with divine authority. Then comes the revelation. "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed." And there is one more striking detail. Jacob asks the name of that man and he does not reveal it. The same mystery repeats in other appearances of Christ throughout the Old Testament. That is why Jacob confirms, "I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved."
Centuries later, Moses was merely tending sheep, living an ordinary life, trying to forget his past. But in the middle of the desert, he sees something strange. A bush burning yet not consumed. Up to this point, it could have been just a curious phenomenon. But the text reveals the true mystery. "The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." And just a few verses later, the one in the bush speaks with an authority no ordinary angel could possess. "I am that I am." An angel doesn't say that. No created being can use that name. The one there is the eternal self-existent God. The one who is and always has been. Everything indicates that this was Christ before his incarnation. The same one who centuries later would say to the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was, I am." They understood immediately. That's why they wanted to stone him. Jesus was identifying himself as the same God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush.
Joshua was about to face the fortified city of Jericho. He was the leader of the people, the commander of the army. But suddenly he meets someone greater. "And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand." Joshua asks the most logical question. "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" The answer is astonishing. "Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come?" In other words, he didn't come to take sides. He came to take over. Joshua's reaction reveals who this man truly is. He falls face down to the ground and says, "What saith my lord unto his servant." If this were an ordinary angel, he would have immediately rejected worship. As happens in Revelation. But this man with the sword accepts the worship and even says, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." That is the very same phrase God spoke to Moses from the burning bush. In other words, the same God who appeared on Sinai now stands before Joshua as the captain of the heavenly armies.
Gideon was no brave warrior. He was a man hiding, threshing wheat in a wine press to keep out of sight from the enemy. But right there, the angel of the Lord appears. The most interesting part, the angel doesn't arrive with a drawn sword or surrounded by lightning. He simply sits under a tree and says, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." Gideon is confused. He questions, complains, and laments God's apparent abandonment. And then the text shifts again. "And the Lord looked upon him and said..." Notice the transition. It begins with the angel of the Lord. And suddenly the narrator calls him the Lord, not another character, the same one speaking. In other words, the angel of the Lord is the Lord himself. To confirm this, Gideon makes a bold request. "Depart not hence, I pray thee until I come unto thee and bring forth my present." The angel accepts the offering, touches it with his staff, and fire springs out of the rock. Then he disappears. Gideon's reaction leaves no doubt. "Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." But God reassures him. "Peace be unto thee. Fear not. Thou shalt not die."
Before Samson was born, God decided to announce the miracle beforehand through a direct appearance of the angel of the Lord. First, he speaks to Samson's mother. Then, he returns and speaks to his father, Manoah, amazed by this divine figure. They ask a crucial question. "What is thy name? That when thy sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor." The answer is mysterious. "Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is wonderful?" The Hebrew word used for wonderful is the same used in Isaiah 9:6 where the Messiah is called Wonderful Counselor. In other words, this angel bears a name that belongs to the Messiah. But the most astonishing sign follows. Manoah offers a sacrifice unto the Lord. The angel accepts it and ascends in the flame of the altar into heaven. Manoah's reaction confirms who he is. "We shall surely die because we have seen God." This angel is God.
Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. So hot that the very soldiers who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into it died just by approaching. It should have meant instant death. But suddenly the king stands up in alarm and asks, "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is like the son of God." And in verse 28, he concludes, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel and delivered his servants." In other words, that mysterious figure is called both like the son of God and the angel sent by God. Many Christian scholars see here a manifestation of Christ before his incarnation, a Christophany. Others point out that the text doesn't explicitly state it was Christ, emphasizing that we are reading Nebuchadnezzar's own perception, meaning it could have been a glorious angel sent by God.
In Daniel 7, the prophet sees a mysterious figure, "one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven." This phrase is not poetic and it's theological. In the Old Testament, coming with the clouds is language used exclusively for God. No angel is ever described that way. Only the Lord rides upon the clouds. And what happens to this son of man? Daniel continues, "And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away." In other words, this figure is not only heavenly, he is divine. No wonder son of man was Jesus's favorite title for himself. He used it more than 80 times in the gospels. Every time he said it, he wasn't merely saying, "I am human." He was identifying himself as the one Daniel saw. And this became crystal clear in the most dramatic moment of the Gospel of Mark. During his trial before the Sanhedrin, the high priest asked, "Art thou the Christ, the son of the Blessed?" Jesus, who had avoided direct statements until then, finally replied, "I am. And ye shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven." The result? Then the high priest rent his clothes and saith, "Ye have heard the blasphemy." They understood perfectly. Jesus was not merely claiming to be a prophet or an earthly king. He was claiming to be God himself. After the resurrection, Jesus appears to the disciples and declares, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." That is Daniel 7 fulfilled.
Years later, Daniel has another stunning vision of a glorious man. "His eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude." This description immediately echoes that of Christ in Revelation 1. Eyes of fire, feet like burnished bronze, and a voice like many waters. It's no coincidence what John saw at the end of time. Daniel saw centuries earlier. The same glorious presence, the same Lord of glory. The men who were with Daniel fled in terror and the prophet collapsed without strength as though dead. The very same reaction John would have before the glorified Jesus on Patmos.
Now, if you want to go deeper in your Bible study, check out my exclusive resource, Mind Maps of all the books of the Bible, designed to make your learning easier and more effective. You'll also get bonus materials to take your Bible journey to the next level. Don't miss out. Click the link in the description to get instant access. And before you go, don't forget to watch the next video that's showing up on your screen. It's one you won't want to miss.