The Angel of the Lord

One same figure runs through the Old Testament, called “the angel of the Lord”. The word says an envoy, distinct from the God who sends him; and yet the text gives him the Name of God, his words, his acts and the worship that belong to God alone. Within the one God, this figure already lets a distinction be seen, and the most ancient tradition recognised in this Angel the Son himself, the Word, before he took flesh.

An envoy who bears the Name

The word rendered by “angel”, Hebrew malak (מַלְאָךְ) and Greek angelos (ἄγγελος), means the messenger: it names a function, the sending, not a nature, and Scripture applies it even to a man, in Mark 1:2 and Malachi 3:1, John the Baptist is called “angel” in Greek and Hebrew. Thus “the angel of the Lord” is sent by the Lord, distinct from him; and yet this envoy acts as God himself, speaking in the first person: he forgives or withholds forgiveness, he saves, and he receives the worship due to God alone. Above all, he bears within himself the very Name of God, those four letters, YHWH (יהוה), which Israel dared not pronounce: in reading, they said in its place the Hebrew word for “Lord,” Adonai (אֲדֹנָי). Announcing this Angel who is to lead his people through the wilderness, the Lord sends him as another and confesses at the same time that he is more than another. “Listen to his voice and do not resist him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.” Exodus 23:20-23 To bear the Name of God is to bear what God is. Distinct from the Lord who sends him, he bears nonetheless the Name of the Lord.

Hagar in the wilderness

The first time, it is “the angel of the Lord” who finds Hagar fleeing in the wilderness. He announces to her, in his own name, a son and a descendance so numerous it cannot be counted, which God alone can promise and accomplish Genesis 16:7-12. And she names the one she has met: “Hagar called on the name of the Lord who had spoken to her: ‘You are the God who sees me.’” Genesis 16:13-14 The account gives the same person two names: “the angel of the Lord” and “God”.

Jacob's ladder

While fleeing toward Laban, Jacob falls asleep at Luz and sees in a dream a ladder set up from earth to heaven, on which the angels of God ascend and descend. A voice then renews for him the promise of the fathers. “The Lord stood above it and said: I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, the God of Isaac.” Genesis 28:12-15 On waking, Jacob names the place Bethel, “house of God”, the gate of heaven, and sets up as a pillar the stone he had under his head, anointing it with oil. Years later, in the country of Laban, it is “the angel of God” who speaks to him in a dream, and he names himself with the very name of the God of that vision. “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me.” Genesis 31:11-13 The envoy who speaks to Jacob and the Lord he had seen at the top of the ladder are one.

Jacob at Penuel

The night before his reunion with his brother, Jacob wrestles until dawn with a stranger of human appearance. In the morning, he names the place Peniel, “face of God”, for having held God before him. “I have seen God face to face, and my life was spared.” Genesis 32:25-31 Long after, Hosea reads this combat again: “He strove with the angel and prevailed… The Lord is the God of hosts, the Lord is his name.” Hosea 12:4-6 The prophet names Jacob's adversary the angel, and the Lord: one alone.

The sacrifice of Isaac

When Abraham raises the knife over his son, it is “the angel of the Lord” who calls him from heaven and stays his hand: an envoy, distinct from the one in whose name he speaks. But his words are those of God himself: it is to himself that Abraham did not refuse his son. “You have not refused me your son, your only one.” Genesis 22:11-12 Then he swears by himself to bless Abraham: now to swear by oneself belongs to God alone Genesis 22:15-18. “When God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself: Surely I will bless you and multiply your descendants.” Hebrews 6:13-14 The envoy speaks, and it is God who binds himself.

The burning bush

At Horeb, the account is precise: it is “the angel of the Lord” who appears to Moses in the bush that burns without being consumed, and at once it is God who calls him from the midst of the fire, orders him to remove his sandals for the ground is holy, and names himself the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob Exodus 3:1-6. Moses veils his face, not daring to look upon God. And when he asks his Name, the answer unveils the very being of God. “I am who I am.” Exodus 3:13-15 The one the text first called the angel is the very one who names himself “I am”: the envoy and God are one, and yet the text distinguishes them. Before the Sanhedrin, Stephen takes up the scene of the bush: an angel appears to Moses, and it is the voice of the Lord that is heard, that of the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob Acts 7:30-32.

The commander of the army of the Lord

At the gates of Jericho, a man appears, sword drawn in hand. To Joshua who asks on which side he stands, he answers that he is the commander of the army of the Lord: he belongs to the Lord, he is at his service, distinct from him. And yet he demands at once of Joshua the gesture God had asked of Moses before the bush, and Joshua falls face to the ground and prostrates himself. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy.” Joshua 5:13-15 This drawn sword in hand is his mark: it is he who bars the way to Balaam Numbers 22:22-35 and who stands above Jerusalem in the days of David 1 Chronicles 21:15-17. Commander of the armies of the Lord, he receives the prostration due to the Lord.

Gideon and the parents of Samson

Gideon receives the visit of “the angel of the Lord”, whom the account, in the course of the conversation, names “the Lord”; when he understands whom he has seen, he believes he will die for having seen God face to face, and he builds an altar to the Lord Judges 6:11-24. The parents of Samson, for their part, ask “the angel of the Lord” his name, who answers that his name is mysterious, too high to be told Judges 13:15-18; then they see him ascend to heaven in the flame of their offering, and Manoah understands whom they have seen. “We shall die, for we have seen God.” Judges 13:20-23 They met the one the text names the envoy of the Lord, and they are certain they have seen God.

A worship no angel receives

An angel refuses to be worshipped. In Revelation, when John prostrates himself before the angel who speaks to him, the angel stops him short and turns the worship back to God. “Do not do that! Worship God.” Revelation 22:8-9 The Angel of the Lord, for his part, accepts it. Joshua prostrates himself before him, Gideon and Manoah present him a sacrifice that he receives by consuming it with fire. He does more still: he forgives sins. Before the prophet Zechariah, the high priest Joshua stands in filthy garments that figure his fault, and it is the Angel himself who takes it from him. “I take away your iniquity, and I clothe you in festal garments.” Zechariah 3:1-5 Now forgiving sins belongs to God alone, and Christ will recall it. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:5-7

The angel of the covenant

The prophet Malachi announces two comings, one after the other. First that of a messenger who prepares the way, whom the New Testament will recognise in John the Baptist; then that of another, at once envoy and Lord. “Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you desire, behold, he comes, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 3:1 The last of the prophets names the Messiah “the angel of the covenant” and “the Lord”.

At once God and distinct from God

“The angel of the Lord” is sent by the Lord, and bears the Name of God, speaks as God, receives the worship of God, forgives as God, and he is announced as the Messiah who is to come. He is therefore not a creature, for no creature bears the Name of God nor receives worship. And he is not, purely and simply, the one who sends him either, since the text distinguishes him from him. He is God, and he is distinct from God. Isaiah will say it in a word, calling him “the angel of his face” Isaiah 63:8-9: the very face of God turned toward men, and yet named his angel. This double truth resolves itself in one way only: in God, who is one, there is a distinction. The Old Testament already shows this distinction before naming it: the one who sends and the one who is sent. The Father and the Son are there, in germ.

The face of the Son before the Incarnation

The most ancient tradition gave a name to this envoy who is God: the Son, the Word, before he took flesh. The New Testament confirms it. It is the Angel of the Lord who, in the Old Testament, says he brought Israel up out of Egypt Judges 2:1-5; and the New Testament says that the one who saved this people out of Egypt is Jesus Jude 5. The one the Old Testament called the Angel, the New calls the Son.