The Angel of the Lord

Mike Johnson

The Bible often speaks of the appearance of an angel of God, but it also refers to the angel of the Lord.  Rather than speaking for God, this angel appears to speak as God.  Is this a case of a “theophany,” defined as “a visible divine manifestation of deity,” or is something else meant?  Who is the angel of Jehovah?

There are several positions taken regarding the identification of this angel:

  1. He was part of a group of special angels who acted in certain instances in the Lord’s interest but not necessarily the same angel each time.
  2. This angel is simply an angel with a special commission.
  3. The angel of the Lord is the momentary descent of God into visibility.
  4. He is the pre-incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus.

Examining some of the appearances is the best approach to determining which position is correct.

In the Old Testament, we read where God made a threefold promise to Abraham regarding his descendants (Gen. 12:1-3).  His descendants would be given a land, they would become a great nation, and, through them, all nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3, 7).  Sarah, Abraham’s wife, grew impatient with God’s promise that she and Abraham would have a son from whom would come a great nation.  This was due to their advanced age and the fact that she was barren (Gen. 11:30).  Consequently, she suggested to her husband that he should have a child with her servant, Hagar, and he agreed (Gen. 16:1-2).  Hagar conceived, and problems arose between the two women, forcing Hagar to flee into the wilderness.   The Angel of the Lord found her and told her to return to her mistress, and said, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude” (Gen. 16:10b).  The angel would multiply her descendants, which is the same promise God made to Abraham (Gen. 12:2; 15:5; 17:2).  Then the angel told Hagar she would have a child because “the Lord heard your affliction” (16:11).  The angel spoke as the Lord and for the Lord.  After this, Hagar realized she was in divine presence, and we are told (16:13), “She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, ‘Have I also here seen Him who sees me?’”  She seems to be addressing as God, the angel who spoke to her.

Another event occurred in Genesis 21, involving Hagar again.  God miraculously allowed Sarah to conceive and bear a child.  Abraham held a feast to celebrate the child’s weaning. However, Hagar’s son, Ishmael, now a teenager, grew resentful and began to mistreat Sarah’s young son, Isaac (8-21).  She was forced to leave and was in dire straits in the wilderness, expecting death.  At this point, the angel of the Lord appeared to her,

And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, ‘What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.’ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. (Gen 21:17-19)

Again, the angel of God would make the descendants a great nation.  However, God heard the lad’s voice and opened Hagar’s eyes to see the water.  In both cases, the angel of the Lord spoke and acted like the Lord.

Consider an interesting insight from Novation, who wrote around 235 A.D:

The Angel met with Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid …. Now, was it the Father who was seen by Hagar, or not?  The angel is declared to be God.  But far be it from us to call God the Father an Angel (i.e., Messenger).  Otherwise He would be subordinate to another whose angel He would be …. So we ought to understand it to have been God the Son.  Since He is of God, He is rightly called God, for He is the Son of God.  However, because He is subjected to the Father, and because He is the Announcer of the Father’s Will, He is declared to be the Angel of Great Counsel (qtd. in Bercot 20-21).

Later, to test Abraham’s faith, God told him to take his only son, Isaac, and offer him as a burnt offering (Gen. 22). Abraham was willing to do so.  He had faith regarding the promises made by God and knew God would raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:19).  As Abraham stretched out his hand with the knife, the angel of the Lord intervened,

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ So he said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me’ (Gen. 22:10-12).

The passage continues,

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: ‘By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son —  blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants 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. (Gen. 22:15-18)

Again, the angel speaks as God and identifies Himself as the Lord.   Interestingly, in these two places, the text says the angel of the Lord did not appear to him but spoke from heaven, which is also the case with Hagar in Genesis 21:17, as it says, “the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven.”  There are other possible appearances of “the angel of the Lord” in the Old Testament.

Who is the “angel of the Lord?”  This angel spoke as God, and the designation is sometimes used interchangeably with God.  But how can the angel (messenger) of God be God?  The angel of the Lord is the “Lord’s angel.”  Yet the Old Testament frequently identifies this angel as God.  Consider the following quote from Quertermous:

In the first place, we must re-emphasize that only a proper understanding of the Trinity can reconcile the fact that the Angel of God is both equated with God and also differentiated from Him.  It is clear that we are discussing at least one of the Sacred Three.  But which one?  Could it be the case that different members of the Godhead assumed the identity of the Angel of the Lord on different occasions?  We believe that the evidence points to Christ. (215)

The conclusion above is most likely correct.  Interestingly, there are no clear references to this angel after Christ came to the earth during the events of the New Testament.

Works Cited and Consulted

Bercot, David W. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, Hendrickson, Peabody, MA, 2012.

Quertermous, Travis L. The Hosts of Heaven: A Biblical Study of Angels. Hester Publications, 2002.