Judges: Chap 2: The doctrine of the Angel of the Lord.
length: 64:23 - taught on Dec, 13 2016
Class Outline:
Title: Judges: Chap 2: The doctrine of the Angel of the Lord.
Announcementsopening prayer:
JDG 2:1 Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim [weeping]. 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,
Gilgal is mentioned to emphasize the changes that have occurred from the time of the last appearance of the Angel of the Lord until now.
"Are you for us or for our adversaries?" And he said, "No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord."
Wrong question. God does not play favorites. He always does what is perfect Justice, Righteousness, and Love.
We so often ask the wrong questions because we're stupid sheep, which is why the Spirit helps our weakness when we pray in ROM 8:26 by interceding for us. The Lord did not contemplate helping Israel or the Canaanites. The Lord chose Abraham so that through one nation would come the Messiah as well as the word of God. The Canaanites are not under discipline because of their nationality but because of their evil. Israel will find themselves under the same discipline when they become evil over many generations. His answer, "No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord." shows the immutability of God. "I have come as the captain of the army of God in order to execute judgment." The judgment of God comes righteously and justly at all times. This is why Joshua's question is proper if he were addressing a man, but it is not when addressing God.
JDG 2:1 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,
JDG 2:2 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?
JDG 2:3 "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"
God makes His commands and His word abundantly clear and through it we will be judged.
"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
JDG 2:4 And it came about when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.
JDG 2:5 So they named that place Bochim [weeping]; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.
The Doctrine of the Angel of the Lord.
The Angel of the Lord is a visible manifestation [theophany] of the Son of God.
Malakh Yevah in the Hebrew [go to website below to hear pronunciation, though they will only pronounce Yevah as Adonai]
This is a significant title given to Christ in the Old Testament. It is His principle theophany and is important in confirming the preexistence of Christ and revealing His ministry of God to men in that age.
Scripture teaches that the Angel of Jehovah is specifically the second person of the Trinity.
1. Christ as the Angel of Jehovah is identified as Jehovah in numerous Old Testament passages.
This is not an angel, which is clear in the various passages in which He appears. Cults deny the deity of Christ and so the cults that claim to adhere to the Bible dance around these passages. Such scholastic gymnastics are done by the Rabbis as well.
When the Angel of Jehovah spoke to Hagar:
GEN 16:7 Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
GEN 16:8 And 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."
GEN 16:9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority."
GEN 16:10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count."
GEN 16:11 The angel of the Lord said to her further,
"Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
GEN 16:12 "And 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."
GEN 16:13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, "Thou art a God who sees"; for she said, "Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?"
"Then she called the name of Jehovah who spoke to her"
Hebrew is a consonantal language. Vowel points were added well after the dispersion in the early Middle Ages. And since the Jews would not pronounce this sacred name and would only read it as Adonai, and Christians do pronounce it boldly as children of God, one question is how to pronounce it. It is YHVH. Yaweh, Jehovah, Yevah, are all attempts to pronounce the same Hebrew word.
The sacrifice of Isaac:
GEN 22:15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven,
GEN 22:16 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,
GEN 22:17 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.
GEN 22:18 And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
In some instances the expression “Angel of God” is used as a synonym for Jehovah. The Hebrew for God in these instances is Elohim.
GEN 31:11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'
GEN 31:12 "And 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.
GEN 31:13 '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.'"
Continuing to identify the angel of Yevah turn to:
EXO 3:2 And 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.
EXO 3:3 So Moses said, "I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up."
EXO 3:4 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."
"And when Moses saw it, he began to marvel at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord:"
EXO 13:21 And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.
Compare to:
EXO 14:19 And the angel of God [Elohim], who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.
In Judges where He appears to Gideon:
JDG 6:11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.
JDG 6:16 But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
The Angel of Jehovah is a distinct member of the Trinity. He is God and speaks of God.
NUM 20:14 From Kadesh Moses then sent messengers to the king of Edom [people of Esau]: "Thus your brother Israel has said, 'You know all the hardship that has befallen us;
NUM 20:15 that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly.
NUM 20:16 'But when we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out from Egypt; now behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory.
Either Moses is confused or the Lord sent an angel to lead Israel, which the scripture clearly asserts is the Angel of the Lord who is Jehovah. How does Jehovah send Jehovah. The answer lies in the personal distinctions between the members of the Trinity.
In Zec 1 the Angel of the Lord addresses Jehovah in prayer.
ZEC 1:12 Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, "O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which Thou hast been indignant these seventy years?"
Having determined the deity of the Angel of Jehovah and that He is a Person of the Trinity, it remains to demonstrate that He is the second Person.
Since the doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery to all then none of us would find ourselves befuddled if the scripture indicated that the Angel of the Lord was the Father or the Holy Spirit, but it does indicate that He is the Son.
Along with His human nature the Angel of the Lord emphasizes the uniqueness of the Son of God.
The mystery of the Trinity will remain a mystery, at least in this world. How can a Person be God and at the same time address God? The answer lies in the personal distinctions of the Trinity. We find a number of lines of evidence which identify the Angel of Jehovah as the second Person.
First we look at a logical argument.
a. The second Person is the visible God of the New Testament. Neither the Father nor the Spirit is characteristically revealed in bodily and visible form.
While the Father’s voice is heard from heaven, and the Holy Spirit is seen descending in the form of a dove, Christ, the second Person, is the full manifestation of God in visible form. It is logical that the same Person of the Trinity should appear in bodily form in both Testaments.
b. The Angel of Jehovah of the Old Testament no longer appears after the incarnation.
References to angels in the New Testament seem to refer to either angelic or human messengers. It is a natural inference that the Angel of Jehovah is now the incarnate Christ.
c. The similarity of function between the Angel of Jehovah and Christ can be observed in the fact that Both are sent by the Father.
In the Old Testament, the Angel of Jehovah is sent by Jehovah to reveal truth, to lead Israel and to defend and judge them. In the New Testament, Christ is sent by God the Father to reveal God in the flesh, to reveal truth and to become the Savior. It is characteristic for the Father to send and the Son to be the sent One. These facts again point to the identification of the Angel of Jehovah with Christ.
While the first three are logical arguments, the final one is found in scripture.
d. The Angel of Jehovah could not be either the first Person or the third Person according to JOH 1:18.
JOH 1:1-18 is the prologue of John's gospel.
JOH 1:18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
This passage seems to imply that only Christ could be visible to man and that the first Person and the third Person did not reveal Themselves in visible fashion.
The Angel of Jehovah is the sent One and the Father is the Sender. The Holy Spirit has not appeared bodily, except for one time appearing in the form of a dove. Because of these reasons we conclude that the Angel of Jehovah is the second Person of the Trinity and that the doctrine of the Trinity is indeed a reality, though not understood by any man, since they are not three Gods but One, co-equal and co-eternal. It is also true that Christ has two natures, that of God and Man, but that He is one person. He is not half God and half Man, nor does either nature interfere or infect the other nature. This is as equally a mystery, but a reality. Because they are mysteries, and man in his arrogance has attempted to throw back the curtain that lies over them, that much controversy has plagued the church causing massive divisions which have hindered the gospel.
The Angel of Jehovah characteristically appears in bodily, usually human form.
God is not an absentee landlord. He has been from the beginning to the end intimately involved in the affairs of mankind and especially His people. One cannot put God in a box or ever say that they can determine God's future actions unless they are clearly prophesied. Our God, Yevah, is the Master of all circumstances and the Prince and Completer of salvation. As multifaceted are His ways is the number of His names. Since Malakh Yevah (Angel of Jehovah) is one of the names of Christ, we look at a sampling of His other names.
Son of God, Jesus, Christ, Lord, Master, High Priest, King, Only begotten, First Born, Wonderful, Mighty, Everlasting, Prince of Peace, Savior, Emanuel, Highest, Logos, Jehovah of Hosts, Lord our Righteousness, I am, Creator, Eternal Life, Alpha and Omega, Great Shepherd, Almighty, Angel of Jehovah, Angel of Elohim, Son of Man, Son of David, Seed, Man of Sorrows, Accursed of God, Anointed, Lamb of God, Branch of the Lord, Vine, Tree of Life, Bread from Heaven, Rose of Sharon, Lilly of the Valley, Light of the world, Morning Star, Sun of Righteousness, Rock, Living Stone, Chief Cornerstone, Redeemer, Shiloh, Truth, Faithful Witness, The Amen, Holy One of Israel, Last Adam, Resurrection and Life, Author and Finisher of Faith, Lion of Judah, Husband, Brother, Friend, Physician, Healer, Teacher, Servant, All in All.
If you would like to see and be able to pronounce some of the names of God in the Hebrew, go to:
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