There are many people today who are crazy about angels. Some claim they have seen angels and others decorate their house with pictures, statues and figurines. I went to one day care that was run by the Catholics and it said this place is protected by a guardian angel. There are a lot of misconceptions about angels and some them come from shows like touched by angel. Every time the word “angel” is used in the Bible it always in masculine sense. However, we know from Mat. 22:30 that angels do not marry.
As fascinating as these heavenly angels are we will not be specifically looking at them today. Instead our lesson for today is for us to determine who is the Angel of the Lord in the OT? Depending on your Bible version sometimes this person will be referred to as the angel of the Lord, the angel of God, the angel of Jehovah or simply the angel in singular form.
The Hebrew word from which we get the word Angel is used 214
times in the OT and its definition is this: Messenger, representative or angel.
So we need to understand
that sometimes this word is used to refer to a heavenly messenger and other
times it is used to refer to an earthly messenger. The context of the
scriptures will let you know which one is being talked about. So, it is
important for us to understand that word simply means messenger or
representative and that it does not mean a heavenly messenger every time is
used in the Bible.
Again our main focus is to unravel the clues to find out who is the angel of the Lord in the OT because when you begin to study this topic you will discover that the angel of the Lord stands in a class all by himself.
In our study I want to establish 3 things about the angel of the Lord.
Now we won’t have time to look at every single instance that the angel of Lord is used but we will be looking at enough instances that will help us to see the 3 points that I want to make about him. Let us begin with the first time the angel of the Lord is mentioned in the OT.
Hagar is the 1st person that has contact with the angel of the Lord. Sarah is unable to become pregnant so she gives her maid to Abraham so that he might have children. Well Hagar becomes pregnant and this make Sarah very jealous and she deals with her harshly so Hagar runs away.
Genesis 16:6 So
Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her
as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her
presence. 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. 8 And He said,
"Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you
going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress
Sarai." 9 The Angel of
the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under
her hand." 10 Then
the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants
exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude."
The first thing I want
you to notice is that the angel of the Lord said I will multiply your
descendants. No ordinary angel could make such a claim. Now they might say God
has said he will multiply your descendents but that is not what see happening
here because the messenger or representative of God has said I will. Now lets
continue on to,
11 And the Angel of the LORD said to
her: "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You
shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His
hand shall be against every man, And every man's hand against him. And
he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." 13 Then 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?"
Notice Hagar’s
response is that the angel of the Lord is the God who sees. As we continue on
in our study you find that this is a typical response of those who encounter
the angel of the Lord.
Next, Hagar finds herself in another bad situation. Sarah wants Abraham to cast out Hagar and her son. Now Abraham isn’t too happy about the situation but God tells him to listen to Sarah and that Hagar and her son will be ok as we read in,
Genesis 21:9 And
Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham,
scoffing. 10 Therefore she
said to Abraham, "Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this
bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac." 11 And the matter was very
displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham,
"Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because
of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in
Isaac your seed shall be called. 13
"Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because
he is your seed." 14
So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and
putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and
sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of
In verse 13 we see that
God is telling Abraham that he will make a Issac and great nation just as the Angel
of Lord had stated he would do earlier. Well after Hagar and her son are kicked
out of the camp and they are close to dieing when the Angel of the Lord speaks
to her again.
Genesis 21:17 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.
18 "Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand,
for I will make him a great nation."
Here we can see that the angel of the Lord is heaven with God and yet it is the angel of the Lord who once again says I will make him a great nation. Who else could make this kind of promise other than Deity? When we get to the end of this lesson tonight I will show you that the most logical choice is that that angel of the Lord is Jesus and not the farther nor the Holy Spirit. So, I believe in the text we just looked at that God is referring to the father and the angel of the Lord is referring to Jesus before he became flesh.
Abraham has 3 different encounters with the AOL. We are going to look at the most famous one where God tests Abraham’s faith.
Genesis 22:1 Now it
came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him,
"Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now
your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the
First of all I want to
point just how faithful Abraham was. Here had waited for a long time have this
son and now as verse 2 says God wants Abraham to sacrifice his only son to him
and Abraham had enough faith that he was willing to do this. But, things get
real interesting as you look at verse 12 after the Angel of the Lord stops
Abraham from slaying his son. Now please remember that verse 2 says that God is
the one testing Abraham yet we find that AOL saying, “now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son,
your only son, from Me."
Please notice that the AOL says from me. In other words the angel of
the Lord is the one that Abraham didn’t sacrifice his son to and since the AOL
had the authority to stop Abraham’s sacrifice shows that he is Deity. Now watch
what happens as continue on in verse,
Genesis 22:15 Then
the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 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 -- 17 "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.
18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
Here we see the angel of
the Lord swearing by himself because he had no one higher to swear by.
Hebrews 6:13 For when
God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He
swore by Himself, 14 saying,
"Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply
you."
Again this very clearly shows us that the angel of the Lord was deity and he says the reason why he was receiving this blessing was because he obeyed his voice. Again only deity could make such a promise.
Next we find out that Jacob has 2 encounters with the AOL.
First let me give you a little bit background to his first encounter with the
angel of the Lord. Jacob was running from his brother Esau because Esau wanted
to kill him. Jacob spends the night at a place called Luz that he ends up
calling
Genesis 28:10 Now
Jacob went out from
Please keep in mind verse 13 said that Lord God was the one speaking to Jacob.
Now after this Jacob continues on his journey and falls in love with Rachel and goes to work for his uncle Laban. Jacob gets tricked and ends up with Leah 1st then Rachel.
After Jacob had served Laban for 20 years he decides to leave and he convinces his wife’s to leave by telling them that God had commanded him to do so. Laban had been taking advantage of Jacob the whole time he served him. So Jacob made a deal that he would keep the streaked or spotted of the flock. Of course all that were born were spotted or streaked because God had intervened.
Genesis 31:10
"And it happened, at the time when the flocks conceived, that I lifted my
eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were
streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted.
11 "Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream,
saying, 'Jacob.' And I said, 'Here I am.'
12 "And He said, 'Lift your eyes now and see, all the
rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted;
for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
13 'I am the God of
So here we have the AOG saying that he is the God of Bethel which once again shows that the angel of God is deity.
Jacob 2nd encounter with the AOL is when he wrestles a man that was actual God
Genesis 32:22 And he
arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his
eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23 He took them, sent them over
the brook, and sent over what he had. 24
Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of
day. 25 Now when He saw that
He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the
socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, "Let Me go,
for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You
bless me!" 27 So He said
to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." 28 And He said, "Your name
shall no longer be called Jacob, but
Here we see that Jacob was wrestling with God and we do not find the word “angel” anywhere in this text. However about 1000 years later we find out more information about this wrestling match in,
Hosea 12:3 He took
his brother by the heel in the womb, And in his strength he struggled with
God. 4 Yes, he struggled
with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him. He found
Him in
Here we have Jacob wrestling with this man who ends up being an angel who Jacob claims in God. So, logically we have the angel of the Lord who is Deity wrestling with Jacob and he claims him to be God just as Hagar did earlier in our lesson.
At the end of Jacobs life he blesses Joseph then he calls on God to bless Josephs 2 sons but they way he does it is a little bit unusual.
Genesis 48:15 And he
blessed Joseph, and said: "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
walked, The God who has fed me all my life long to this day, 16 The Angel who has redeemed
me from all evil, Bless the lads; Let my name be named upon them, And the
name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And let them grow into a multitude in the
midst of the earth."
It should be obvious that the angel mentioned here is God or Deity as well. In fact you back up to verse 3 will see that Jacob call the angel of the Lord God almighty.
Genesis 48:3 Then Jacob said to Joseph: "God Almighty
appeared to me at Luz in the
Now remember the AOL
said that he was this God in Luz or we could say
A good question to answer right now, Can the messenger of the Lord and the Lord both be designated as the Lord? The answer is Yes because we have some instances of where this done in the same verse.
Isaiah 44:6 "
Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of
hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there
is no God.
Hebrews 1:8 But to
the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and
ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and
hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the
oil of gladness more than Your companions."
When you look at the root form of the word Lord which is “havah” it means “to be” or “being” which means deity is self existent, so it would be an appropriate term for any of the persons in the Godhead. In fact all 3 persons of the Godhead are referred to as God in the NT. So there should be no problem in seeing that more than one person can be called God, Lord or Jehovah.
Next we find that Moses encounters the AOTL in the burning bush.
Exodus 3:2 And the
Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a
bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was
not consumed. 3 Then
Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush
does not burn." 4 So
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." 5 Then
He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground." 6 Moreover He said, "I am the
God of your father -- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
Now in verses 2 and 4
either the burning bush was getting crowded or the term Lord, God, and AOTL
refer to the same person. The statement that is made in verse 6 is the same
statement the AOTL has already made to Jacob back in Gen 28:13 because he claims to be the God of Bethel Gen.
31:13. Now look at,
Exodus 3:14 And God
said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say
to the children of
Here Moses ask for his name and he says I AM WHO I AM or simply I AM. What is very interesting about this is that Jesus presents himself as I AM in,
John 8:56
"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was
glad." 57 Then the Jews
said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen
Abraham?" 58 Jesus said
to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
Of course “I AM” means “to
be” which means that Jesus has always existed and therefore he is the one the
best fits as being the angel of the Lord of the OT because by his own confession
he is the I AM.
Stephen also mentions this event in his sermon starting in Acts
7:30-36 where he just retells the
story and mentions in verse 35 that the children of Israel would be delivered
by the hand of the angel that appeared to Moses in the burning bush. But, what
is really interesting is what verse 38 says,
Acts 7:38 "This is he who was in the congregation
in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on
There was only 1 time a voice from heaven spoke to Moses and
the people at
Exodus 20:1 And God
spoke all these words, saying: 2
" I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
The AOTL is the one who lead the children of
The Lord went before them
Exodus 13:21 And the
LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night
in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.
It was the angel of God
Exodus 14:19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp
of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before
them and stood behind them.
The angel was sent it was not the father
Numbers 20:16 'When we cried out to the LORD, He heard our
voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of
Now watch this,
Judges 2:1 Then the
Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led
you up from
So we know that the angel of the Lord is not the father and
yet he is deity because once again he speaking of himself as making this covenant
and how they had not obeyed his voice. Then Paul gives us another hint that the
AOTL that lead them out of
1 Corinthians 10:1
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were
under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the
sea, 3 all ate the same
spiritual food, 4 and all
drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that
followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
According to Paul Jesus
was there with them and from these other verses we can see that Jesus was the
Angel of the Lord.
We have another example of
the AOTL deity in the story of Balaam and the donkey in Numbers 22. In this story Balak wants
to hire Balaam to curse the children of
Numbers 22:22 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 him. And he was riding on his donkey,
and his two servants were with him.
23 Now the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the
way with His drawn sword in His hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the
way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back onto
the road. 24 Then the Angel
of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on
this side and a wall on that side. 25
And when the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD, she pushed herself against the
wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall; so he struck her again. 26 Then the Angel of the LORD went
further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn
either to the right hand or to the left.
27 And when the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD, she lay
down under Balaam; so Balaam's anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with
his staff. 28 Then the LORD
opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done
to you, that you have struck me these three times?" 29 And Balaam said to the donkey,
"Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now
I would kill you!" 30 So
the donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey on which you have
ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to
do this to you?" And he said, "No." 31 Then the LORD opened Balaam's
eyes, and he saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the way with His drawn sword
in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. 32 And the Angel of the LORD said
to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have
come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before
Me. 33 "The donkey saw
Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from
Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live." 34 And Balaam said to the Angel of
the LORD, "I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against
me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back." 35 Then the Angel of the LORD
said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you,
that you shall speak." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak. 36 Now when Balak heard that
Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the city of
So first we find out it was God that told him to only speak what he said in verse 20 and then the AOTL makes this same statement in verse 35 Balaam shows us that words of the AOTL is the word of God which again shows his deity.
In our next 2 examples we will see that the AOTL accepts
worship and an offering and this clearly shows us that the AOTL was not a
created angel nor was it a man because the N.T. makes it clear that the only
one to be worshiped is God. This is why an Angel told John in Rev 22:8-9 as he tried to worship him and this is what
Peter told Cornelius when tried to worship him in Acts 10:25-26
Judges 6:11 Now the
Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in
Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon
threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the
Midianites. 12 And the Angel
of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with
you, you mighty man of valor!" 13
Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all
this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers
told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from
Notice how the AOTL and Lord are used interchangeably.
12: The AOTL speaks to Gideon
14: Then it’s the Lord
20: Angel of God
21: Back to the AOTL
23: The Lord
18: In this verse the AOTL is going to accept an offering made to him. Again, this is only something that could be done to God yet the AOTL doesn’t correct him and accepts it because he is deity.
Many of those who have studied this out also believe that the AOTL is the same person that spoke to Joshua in.
Joshua 5:13 And it
came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked,
and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And
Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our
adversaries?" 14 So He
said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have
now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped,
and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?" 15 Then the Commander of the
LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place
where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.
This certainly seems to
be talking about the same person described as the AOTL because here he is accepting
worship and he is called lord and even makes the same statement that AOTL did
to Moses telling him to take of his sandals because the place he was at was
holy.
Samson parents also have a conversation with the angel of the Lord and they claim that he is God as well.
Judges 13:2 Now there
was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was
Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. 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. 4 "Now therefore, please be
careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything
unclean. 5 "For behold,
you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for
the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to
deliver
Now
we have an unfair advantage because the writer is letting us know that the angel
of the Lord is saying these things but Sampson’s parents simply think that he
is a man of God. Now watch what happens next.
Judges 13:15 Then
Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain You, and we
will prepare a young goat for You."
16 And the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you
detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you
must offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know He was the
Angel of the LORD.) 17 Then
Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "What is Your name, that when
Your words come to pass we may honor You?" 18 And the Angel of the LORD said to
him, "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?"
See they didn’t
understand that they were talking to the AOTL and he was not going to eat with
them but tell them they can offer up this goat as offering. When they inquire
of his name he literally tells them his name is a secret.
Judges 13:19 So
Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the
rock to the LORD. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked
on -- 20 it happened as the
flame went up toward heaven from the altar -- the Angel of the LORD ascended in
the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on
their faces to the ground. 21
When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah
knew that He was the Angel of the LORD.
22 And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die,
because we have seen God!" 23
But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would
not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor
would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such
things as these at this time."
Now
our text does not tells how Manoah understood at this point that this was the angel
of the Lord but we can see that both of them have the same reaction as the
others that encountered him. They realized they had seen God and lived. Now
notice the last 2 verses.
Judges 13:24 So the
woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the LORD
blessed him. 25 And the Spirit
of the LORD began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and
Eshtaol.
If I am correct about the
identity of the Angel of the Lord then we can see all 3 members of the Godhead
at work here in Samson birth because this last verse is defiantly referring to the
Holy Spirit.
Another interesting occurrence happens in the story of Meshach Shadrach and Abed-Nego. We know that these 3 men would not bow down to the image that King Nebuchadnezzar and he had them thrown into the fiery furnace which was 7 times hotter than usually. As the king was watching as these 3 men were thrown into the flames notice what he observes in,
Daniel 3:25
"Look!" he answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst
of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the
Son of God." 26 Then
Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke,
saying, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, servants of the Most High God,
come out, and come here." Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego
came from the midst of the fire. 27
And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king's counselors gathered
together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the
hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the
smell of fire was not on them. 28
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted
in Him, and they have frustrated the king's word, and yielded their bodies,
that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God!
Now we are not told what kind of knowledge the King had about God or how he concluded that this 4th person was like the son of God or an Angel but we do know that he understood that Daniels God was the God of Gods after Daniel was able to interpret his dream.
Daniel 2:47 The king answered Daniel, and said,
"Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a
revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret."
Daniel may have taught
the King many things about God we simply do not know. But, many believe that
the 4th person the king saw was the angel of The Lord which of
course would be Jesus before he became flesh. Whoever this angel is was also
the same angel that shut the mouth of the lions in Dan. 6:21-22.
It also interesting to note that this angel of the Lord that we have been looking at disappears when we get into the N.T. Now you find the phrase angel of the Lord several time in the NT but other than reference made to the O.T. the angel of the Lord in the N.T. doesn’t show any Characteristics of Deity and the reason why I believe this to be the case is because Jesus became flesh and no longer appeared as man because he became a man.
There are certainly more examples that we could look at from the O.T. that involved the angel of the Lord, but I think we have looked at enough to show that he certainly was not a man and he wasn’t a mere angel because he did things and said things that only Deity could do. Those who met him certainly thought he was God.
So as we come to the end of our lesson I want to show you why Jesus is the most logical candidate for being the angel of the Lord.
First of all God the Father has never been seen by man.
John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The only
begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
But
what about those instances in the OT where people said they had saw God. Well,
as we have seen sometimes they said this when the saw the AOTL. Other times it
appears they say this about the father. But what you will notice in these
instances is that they simply saw a manifestation of his glory.
Exodus 33:20 But He
said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and
live." 21 And the LORD
said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 "So it shall be, while
My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will
cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23
"Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face
shall not be seen."
However,
Jesus has seen Him as He is and He declares Him.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation.
Hebrews 1:3 …the brightness of His glory and the
express image of His person…
So no one has seen the
father but people have seen Jesus. The Holy Spirit is also God but as far as I
know we never see the Holy Spirit appearing to people as a man. In fact the
only time that I aware of where anyone saw the Holy Spirit was when John
Baptists saw him descending on Jesus like a dove when Jesus was baptized Mat.3:16. The Holy Spirit’s work mainly
consisted of being the power behind the miracles and causing people to speak
the oracles of God Acts 1:8; 1Cor.
2:10ff
So the best person that
fits the angel of the Lord is Jesus after all He said that he was the I Am in John 8:58 which was the same thing the
AOL said to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus
3:14. Paul said he was there in the wilderness with the children of
Now this is certainly not a topic that would jeopardize someone salvation but none the less I find it to be a very fascinating topic and I hope you have found it to be interesting as well. Not only do I think these verses I have shown you today identity who the AOTL is in the O.T. it also shows us that the entire Godhead has always been active in our lives since the beginning of time and will continue to be part of our lives even after Jesus comes because those who are faithful will be with them for eternity in heaven.