Angels in the Bible

The Angel of the LORD

The mysterious messenger many Christians read as the pre-incarnate Christ

The angel of the LORD is one of the most mysterious figures in the Old Testament. He appears to Hagar, to Abraham, to Moses at the burning bush, to Gideon and others, and again and again he speaks as God, is addressed as God, and receives worship that a mere angel would refuse. From early times many Christians have read these appearances as pre-incarnate visits of the Son of God, before Bethlehem. Scripture does not settle every question here, so we hold the interpretation honestly and humbly, while marveling that God has always drawn near to seek and save.

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.Exodus 3:2 (KJV)

A messenger who speaks as God

Throughout the Old Testament a figure called the angel of the LORD, and sometimes the angel of God, appears at decisive moments. What sets him apart from ordinary angels is the way he speaks and is spoken to. When the angel of the LORD finds the runaway slave Hagar by a fountain of water in the wilderness, he promises to multiply her seed exceedingly, a promise only God can make, and Hagar responds by calling the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. The messenger and the LORD seem to be one.

The same thing happens at the sacrifice of Isaac. The angel of the LORD calls out of heaven to stop Abraham's hand and then says, now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. From me. The angel receives what was offered to God. Again and again this figure blurs the line between the sent one and the Sender in a way that no other angel in Scripture does.

What is tender about Hagar's story is where the angel finds her. She is a used and discarded slave woman, fleeing into the desert with nowhere to go, and it is there, at a spring in the wilderness, that the angel of the LORD seeks her out and calls her by name. The first person in the Bible to give God a name gives him this one, Thou God seest me. Whoever this messenger is, he comes to the lowest and the least, to a foreigner and a runaway, which is exactly the way God would one day come to the whole world in his Son.

The burning bush and the ground made holy

The clearest instance is at Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and Moses turns aside to see. Then the narrative shifts without explanation: God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The angel of the LORD and the God of Abraham are spoken of as the same, and the ground is declared holy because he is there. Moses hides his face, for he is afraid to look upon God.

It is from this scene that God gives his name, I AM THAT I AM, the name Jesus would later take upon his own lips when he said, Before Abraham was, I am. The One in the bush who declares the divine name is, many Christians have long believed, the same One who would stand among us in flesh and speak that name again.

Worship offered and not refused

The most telling detail is what the angel of the LORD permits. Ordinary angels in Scripture consistently refuse worship. When John falls at the feet of the angel in Revelation, the angel says, See thou do it not, worship God. Yet the angel of the LORD in the Old Testament receives worship and does not forbid it. When he appears to Gideon and to Manoah, they fear they will die because they have seen God, and the appearances are treated as encounters with the LORD himself, not merely with a servant.

This is the strongest reason many careful readers have concluded that the angel of the LORD is no ordinary angel. A created being who accepted worship would be committing the very sin that the fallen angels committed. But if this messenger is a visible appearing of God the Son, then the worship is right, and the mystery resolves into the wonder of a God who came near long before he came in Bethlehem.

We should be careful, though, not to let this become a game of finding hidden appearances behind every verse. The value of the pattern is not that it lets us decode the Old Testament like a puzzle, but that it reveals the unchanging heart of God. Long before the manger, the Lord was already the sort of God who visits, who stays a knife, who speaks from fire, who will not leave his people to perish. The appearances of the angel of the LORD are less a riddle to be solved than a portrait to be adored, the portrait of a God who has always been drawing near to save.

Holding the interpretation honestly

We should be candid that Scripture does not spell all this out in so many words, and thoughtful Christians have not agreed on every case. In some passages the phrase seems to mean simply an angel sent by the LORD who speaks in his name, as a royal ambassador speaks for the king. Not every appearance of the angel of the LORD carries the same weight, and it would be wrong to flatten them all into a single formula. The pre-incarnate reading is a longstanding and well grounded Christian interpretation, held since the early church, but it is an interpretation, offered with reverence and not with dogmatic certainty.

What we can say without any doubt is that this figure reveals a God who does not stay distant. Whether in a given passage he is the Son himself or a herald bearing the very presence of God, the pattern is the same: the LORD draws near, in fire and in words, to rescue, to promise, and to send. The mystery invites worship, not speculation for its own sake.

It is fitting that Scripture leaves a measure of mystery here. Some things about God are given to us to know plainly, and some are given to us to wonder at, and the angel of the LORD belongs partly to both. We are meant to be sure that God draws near to save, and we are meant to stand, like Moses at the bush, with our faces hidden before a nearness too great to fully comprehend. A faith that demands to resolve every mystery has already lost its reverence. Here we take off our shoes, for the ground is holy, and we worship.

How the angel of the LORD magnifies Christ

If the church is right that these are appearings of the Son before his incarnation, then the whole Old Testament is quietly full of Christ. The One who sought out a despairing slave girl in the desert, who stayed the knife over Isaac and provided a lamb instead, who spoke from the bush and named himself I AM, is the same Lord who would be born of Mary and lifted up on a cross. The seeking, saving nearness of God has one face, and it is the face of Jesus.

Even on the more cautious reading, the direction is unchanged. The angel of the LORD points forward to the moment when God's messenger and God's very presence would be undeniably one person, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Every mysterious appearing prepares the way for the plain arrival. The Old Testament whispers what the Gospels announce: God has come to be with his people.

A sober word: Scripture is deliberately restrained about angels. It tells us enough to trust God and never enough to make angels the center of our attention. The Bible distinguishes what is clearly revealed from what later tradition has supposed, and it warns plainly against the worshipping of angels (Colossians 2:18) and against superstition. The angels themselves refuse worship and say, Worship God (Revelation 22:9). Everything true about them points beyond them to the Lord.

Related: The archangel Michael · What are angels? · Who is Jesus? · Angels in the Bible