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The Angel of the Lord

Who is “the angel of the Lord”?

He appears at many key moments in the Old Testament. But who is he? Is he a normal angel, like a seraphim (Isaiah 6:2) or cherubim (Genesis 3:24)? Is he an archangel? Who is he?

A survey of his appearances in the Bible may be helpful.

Angel of the Lord Appearances in the Bible

The exact phrase “the angel of the Lord” appears in the following places:

Genesis 16:1-15 (esp v. 13) – With Hagar.
Genesis 22:1-19 (esp v. 11, 15-16) – With Abraham.
Exodus 3:1-7 (v. 2, 7) – The burning bush.
Numbers 22:22-35 – To Balaam.
Judges 2:1-5 – In sorrow.
Judges 5:23 – A curse.
Judges 6:11-24 (esp. v. 12, 16, 22-23) – To Gideon.
Judges 13:1-25 (esp. vv. 18, 21-22) – To Samson’s mother and father (Manoah).
2 Samuel 24:10-17 (esp. v. 16) – Striking down people.
1 Kings 19:1-8 (esp. 5-7) – Encouraging Elijah.
2 Kings 1:3 – Elijah.
2 Kings 19:35 – Striking down.
1 Chronicles 21:1-30 – Striking down.
Psalm 34:7 – Encamps around those who fear him.
Isaiah 37:36 – Striking down.
Zechariah 1:8-12 – To Zechariah.
Zechariah 3:1-10 – With vision of priest Joshua.

In addition to these passages, other variations on the name appear in the Bible. We could add to the above list passages where the “angel of God” appears.

Genesis 21:17 – Angel of God responds to Hagar.
Genesis 31:11-13 – Appearing to Jacob during Laban’s unfairness.
Exodus 14:19 w/ Exodus 13:21 and Exodus 32:34.
Judges 13:6 – Samson’s parents.

And then, more generally, the Angel of the Lord is sometimes referred to simply as “angel” or understood to be an angel in hindsight.

Hosea 12:2-4 with Genesis 32:30.
Genesis 48:15-16 – “The angel that redeemed me.”
Exodus 32:34 – “my angel” with Exodus 14:19 and Exodus 13:21.
Exodus 23:20-21 “an angel” with the Lord’s name “in him.”
Numbers 20:16 – “an angel” delivered us from Egypt.
Isaiah 63:8-9 – “the angel of his presence saved them”
Malachi 3:1 – “the angel/messenger” is the Lord you seek.
Genesis 18:1-22 – Abraham (per son and Lot), with Genesis 19:1.
Daniel 3:24-25 – One who is like a son of the gods, with Daniel 3:28.

You should know that some of the sightings above are disputed. For example, Grudem (1995) does not believe the angel of 2 Samuel 24:10-17, Psalm 34:7, and Zechariah 1:8-12 is the Angel of the Lord. Frame (2013) is more open to the possibility. To be clear, the dispute is not about whether the phrasing appears but whether the phrase “the angel of the Lord” is referring to the Angel of the LORD.

So…

Who is the Angel of the Lord?

The survey of scriptures of above provides us with three clues.

Clue 1: The definition of “angel.” When you hear the word “angel,” you might picture a creature with wings. But in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the word “angel” does not necessarily refer to a specific type of being. There certainly are what we typically think of as “angelic beings,” which are called the cherubim (Genesis 3:24) or the seraphim (Isaiah 6:2), but the word “angel” itself does not necessarily designate a particular type of being. Instead, the word means something like “messenger” or “representative.” In Hebrew, the word is mal.akh, and this is its meaning. In Greek, the word is angelos, and it also means “messenger” or “envoy.” And in fact, it’s related to the Greek word behind “gospel,” euangelion, which literally means “the good message.” So, “angel” means something more like messenger, emissary, envoy, representative.

Clue 2: People’s reactions. When people interact with the Angel of the Lord, they say and do weird things, remarkable things. When Gideon realizes the person he’s been speaking to is the angel of the Lord, he cries out, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face” (Judges 6:22). And the Lord reassures him that he won’t die. When Manoah, Samson’s dad, realized that he had been talking to the angel of the Lord, he too exclaims, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God” (Judges 13:22). And their remembrances of these encounters are given interesting names. The well where Hagar sees the angel is called Beer-lahai-roi, which means “the well of the Living One who sees me” (Genesis 16:14). Abraham calls the place where he meets the angel “Jehovah Jireh,” which means “the Lord will provide.” Gideon builds an altar where he meets the angel, and he calls it “The Lord is Peace” (Yahweh Shalom, Judges 6:24). Jacob names the place where he met the angel “Peniel,” which means “the face of God” (Genesis 32:30).

Clue 3: The Burning Bush. Exodus 3:1-7 reveals some interesting wordplay that reveals his identity. Notice the bolded phrases used interchangeably: “[1] Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. [2] And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. [3] And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” [4] When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” [5] Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” [6] And 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 at God. [7] Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings…” So, who is speaking to Moses here? According to verse 2, it’s the angel of the Lord. According to verse 4, it’s God. According to verse 7, it’s the LORD. Do you see? There are three terms here, and they are all used interchangeably. The “Angel of the Lord” interchanged with “God” interchanged with “Yahweh.”

So, who is the angel of the Lord?

The Angel of the Lord Is the LORD

The angel of the Lord is the LORD himself! This is the only conclusion that makes sense of all the data. This conclusion makes sense of all the clues.

Why is he called an “angel”? Because he is the representative of God. “He is the image of the invisible God…” (Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 4:4). “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…” (Hebrews 1:3a). He is not an angel like a cherubim or seraphim, what we typically think of when we hear that word (Hebrews 1:3b-4). He is an angel in the “representative,” “messenger” sense. The angel of the Lord is a messenger, representative, emissary, envoy of the Lord himself, and he is the Lord himself, made visible.

Why does everyone panic when they realize they’ve seen the angel of the Lord? Why do they give these places names like “the Living One sees” or “the Lord Provides” or “The Face of God”? Because they have seen the LORD!

Why are the terms angel of the Lord, the LORD, and God used interchangeably at the burning bush? Because the angel of the Lord is the Lord! The image of the invisible God.

And yet, there is one more twist. Who is the Angel of the Lord? Clue number four...

Jesus Anachronisms

Jude 5 refers to Jesus saving Israel out of Egypt (“Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt…”). That’s interesting. Jesus was in Egypt at the time of the Exodus? Then in John 8:56–58, we see this scene: “[56] Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” [57] So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” [58] Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”” The “I AM” is the essence of the name YHWH, and it is the same thing the LORD told Moses at the burning bush to say when someone asked who sent him. Tell them “I AM” sent you. Jesus claims that name. What’s going on?

Malachi provides the verbal link. In Malachi 3:1, we read, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger [angel] of the covenant [i.e., Jesus] in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” Guess who the messenger of the covenant is. The Christ! Jesus. And guess what the Hebrew word for “messenger” is. Mal.akh…the same word used for angel!

Preincarnate Christ

Who is the Angel of the Lord? He is…God, yes…but more specifically, where a human figure appears…often, he is God the Son! These appearances of the angel of the Lord in a visible, physical form seem to be appearances of the preincarnate Christ (Ligonier; Scrivener; Bible Project; Grudem, 1995). We have the Lord appearing as a man. In the incarnation, we have the Lord becoming and staying in the physical form of a man. In these Old Testaments scenes, we get glimpses of the incarnation.

Why the Angel of the Lord Matters

A study of the Angel of the Lord reveals an amazing truth: The Lord is with his people!

Not some. Not a little bit. But from day one to the end. From ancient days, the Lord is with his people.

As we glimpsed in the Old Testament passages above and as we see so brightly in the Gospel accounts, the Lord does not just interact with our brokenness remotely, with the flip of a switch. Instead, He enters our mess. He appears to Hagar while the child cries. He provides for Abraham. He stands between his people and the armies of Pharaoh. He walks through the parted waters with us. He enters the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He leads his people like a Shepherd with his sheep. He is with us. He is Immanuel, God with us…

Bibliography

BibleProject. (2019). Angel of the Lord. Retrieved June 5, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgmf8bHayXw

ESV Study Bible (2008). Crossway.

Frame, J. M. (2013). Systematic theology: An introduction to Christian belief. P & R Publishing.

Grudem, W. (1995). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine. Zondervan.

Scrivener, G. (2018, December 20). Where Is Jesus in the Old Testament? How to Find Him on Every Last Page. Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/where-is-jesus-in-the-old-testament

On Church Planting and Cultural Complexities

By Derek Leave a Comment

Part of the impetus behind church planting in America is the diversity of culture present in the States.

Ed Stetzer notes this complexity. He describes American culture as a waffle with many dimples. Each community has its own nuance. Even neighborhoods within local communities may be further nuanced and so forth.

This complexity has been on display in recent days in our country.

The conversations happening at the national level sound different than those happening at the regional level. The regional conversations sound different from those at the state level. In my own community, I even hear differences between the city and county conversations.

Where church planting intersects this complexity is in its ability to engage more communities. Smaller and newer churches can inhabit these nuances of culture, and they can quickly and finely adjust to the needs of each community.

These adjustments can happen at many levels. The programs or services a church offers. The teaching and application of God’s word. The tone and timbre of communication. All of these elements can be tweaked in granular ways.

Of course, the above comments are not meant to undermine the need for diversity within a church or to speak against bigger, older churches. All of these factors should be in play. The point is church planting can create a kind of organic organizational dynamic that can be finely tuned to address complex issues in subtle, appropriate ways.

Why Church Planting

By Derek 1 Comment

Why plant a church? Why plant a church in the Bible Belt? Why plant a church when there are already so many churches? Do we really need more churches?

In this post, I want to explain the thinking behind church planting that helped to convince me of its ongoing need today in America.

Misunderstandings

For some time, I was convinced of the importance of church planting in global missions, but, probably like you, I wasn’t sure how it made sense in the United States because we have so many churches already.

But the problem was I did not understand the thinking and strategy behind church planting.

Here is how I first thought that church planting worked:

You have an area.
It is filled with people (the gray dots), but no churches. So what do you do?
You plant a church (the white cross).
The church begins to grow and do its work.
Mission Complete.

Now, you move on to another area and plant another church.

But there were at least THREE problems with the way I was thinking.

Problem 1: Diminishing Outreach of Growing Churches

As any church grows, it will struggle to keep reaching its area (precisely because it is growing).

I know that sounds counterintuitive, but this is true of any growing church. As a church grows, the center gets stronger, which is a good and natural thing, but the outer edges of its reach slow and weaken (Keller, 2002). Certainly, it will keep reaching out and making converts, but its efficiency and pace will diminish.

And the problem is, as you can see on diagram 2, there are still people who have not been reached. No single church, no matter how big it is, can reach every person in an area (Keller, 2012).

Problem 2: Population Complexity

In Diagram 1, I represented people with gray dots, but it’s not that simple.

The reality is there are all kinds of different peoples and stories and cultures in an area. One missiologist (Stetzer, 2014) has remarked that we tend to think of American culture as a pancake (i.e., that we’re all the same), but in reality, American culture is more like a waffle, with many different pockets of culture.

So, for example, in my context, even though our city is fairly small and homogenous, we recognize different regions (East, West, North, South) and different neighborhoods within those regions. And with each of these pockets, comes a set of known stereotypes.

Again, the point here is that no single church, no matter how good it is, will be able to connect to or reach all of these different kinds of people in an area.

Problem 3: Church Decline and Population Growth

In that original diagram I showed you, the variables were static, 30 gray dots and one church. But that’s not accurate. Two things are happening all the time: Churches are closing, and the population is growing.

Let me give you a few stats here:

Every year 3500-4000 churches close (Stetzer, 2006, p. 13).
In 1900, there were 28 churches for every 10k Americans. In 2004, 11 for every 10k.
From 1991 to 2004, the number of unchurched adults doubled in the U.S. (Barna quoted in Malphurs, 2004).
Side note: Are these number accurate? Probably not. The numbers are probably worse (Malphurs, 2004, p. 36) because in America going to church is still considered a good thing, so people lie about their attendance.
There are now 120 million secular folks in U.S. (Stetzer, 2006).

What do these numbers mean? They mean…

The U.S. is now the largest mission field in the Western Hemisphere (Stetzer, 2006).
The U.S. is now the fifth largest mission field in the world (Stetzer, 2006), out of 196.

So, what must the Church do? How do we address…

The diminishing outreach of growing churches?
Population complexity?
Churches decline and population growth?

We plant new churches!

New Churches

“A city needs all kinds of churches reaching all kinds of people” (Keller, 2012, p. 20).

Not only is church planting is reflective God’s character and consistent with the New Testament mode, but, if we drill down into the studies and stats, we see that this strategy addresses these three problems best.

So, how does church planting solve Problem 1, the problem of diminishing outreach for growing churches?

Church Planting reaches NEW People.

Missiologist Peter Wagner has famously observed:

“The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches” (quoted in Malphurs, 2004).

And as Ed Stetzer notes, studies consistently affirm this:

“On a per-capita basis, new churches win more people to Christ than established churches” (Stetzer, 2006, p. 7).

I will not get into the various reasons new churches reach more unchurched people (See also, Beynon, 2011, p. 17 on smaller churches working better. Also, Stetzer and Bird, 2010), but the point is simply that they do. And this point is not contested. So, if you want to keep reaching unbelievers, plant a church.

How about Problem 2, the problem of Population Complexity. How does church planting address the challenge of population complexity?

Church Planting Reaches DIFFERENT People.

Studies consistently show that church plants are better at reaching (Keller, 2002; Malphurs, 2004; Stetzer, 2006):

New generations.
New residents.
New people groups.

Why? Not because the existing churches are doing a bad job or don’t care. Not at all. But simply because more churches means more opportunities and more points of cultural connection.

Pastor and church planter, Tim Keller (2012) writes, “One church, no matter how big, will never be able to serve the needs of such a diverse city. Only a movement of hundreds of churches, small and large, can penetrate literally every neighborhood and people group in the city” (p. 362).

And finally, how does church planting address Problem 3, the problem of church decline and population growth? Well, this may seem pretty obvious, but…

Church Planting Reaches MORE People.

I guess this is pretty obvious, but just to say it plainly: You’re not going to disciple more people with less churches. You’re not going to reach a growing population with a shrinking church base.

Studies show (Stetzer, 2006, p. 5) for a denomination to grow and offset declining churches, it needs to plant at the rate of 3% of its total churches PER YEAR(!).

Studies show (Greear, 2015) that to keep up with population growth we need to DOUBLE the rate of churches being planted right now. That’s 7,200 new churches PER YEAR(!).

So Plant a Church

So, if you want to have an impact in a community, plant a church.

If you wish to make more and better disciples, plant a church.

If you wish to see the gospel penetrate new and different people groups, keep planting churches.

If you wish to see the gospel anchored in new generations, plant a church.

If you wish to reaching a growing, diversifying population, keep planting churches.

A city needs all kinds of churches reaching all kinds of people.

References

Beynon, G. (2011). Planting for the Gospel: A hands-on guide to church planting. Christian Focus.

Greear, J. D. (2015). Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send. Zondervan.

Keller, T. (2002). Why Plant Churches. Retrieved from http://download.redeemer.com/pdf/learn/resources/Why_Plant_Churches-Keller.pdf

Keller, T. (2012). Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City. Zondervan.

Malphurs, A., & Aldrich, J. (2004). Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Guide for New Churches and Those Desiring Renewal (3 edition). Baker Books.

Stetzer, E. (2006). Planting Missional Churches. B&H Academic.

Stetzer, E. (2014). 5 Reasons Established Churches Should Plant Churches. The Exchange | A Blog by Ed Stetzer. https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/june/5-reasons-established-churches-should-plant-churches.html

Stetzer, E., & Bird, W. (2010). Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers. Jossey-Bass.

Our Current Lives Matter

By Derek Leave a Comment

Because Christ is risen, our current lives matter.

The Apostle Paul goes into great detail about the resurrection of the dead in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15. Listen to how he concludes that discussion. Starting in verse 54:

“[54] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” [55] “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” [56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [58] Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-58)

Your labor and work and suffering are not in vain! If there was no resurrection, if there was no life after death, what would be the point of all this? Whether you were a good person or an immoral person, what would it matter? Whether you followed Jesus or not, what would it matter? What does it matter if you have learned something? Your knowledge will rot with you. What does it matter if you have grown as a person? Your righteousness will rot with you. What does it matter if you have suffered and come to look more like Jesus? The memory of you will dissolve with your flesh. I mean, what is the point of any striving, any hoping, any anything apart from the hope that one day we will live again with Christ, enjoying the fruit of his labor and ours? The hope that one day we will live again with Christ is what makes everything worthwhile. It changes everything. And apart from that hope, you have no hope.

But we can have hope. Easter says we can dare to hope! Easter proves we have hope. The resurrection of Christ is our anchor. It is our rock. You can build your life on the resurrection of Jesus.

You have hope that though your family goes through hard times, God will one day set all things right. You have hope that you are more than your current limitations. You have hope that you are more than your illnesses. You have hope knowing that God has already made a way to protect and provide for your family. You have hope knowing that God has already made a way to care for your dear loved ones. We have hope. So, though the resurrection of Jesus be only a first fruit, we will keep nibbling on it until the full harvest.

We have the hope of total victory over sin, spiritual death, physical death, a broken world, and current suffering.

This is not the kind of news that you shrug at and flip the page. This is news that demands a response. Why? Because the man Jesus, in coming back from the grave, just showed himself to be the Son of God and the King of Kings. He holds the keys of death and Hades. So, there is no room to shrug him off.

When the people heard this news in the first century, they often responded with this urgent question: “What must I do to be saved?” In other words, how do I get on the right side of history on this one? How do I line up with that guy, the resurrected King? The answer was always the same: Repent and believe in Jesus.

How do you do that? You call on his name in prayer. It’s that simple. The journey can start there.

Sample’s 70/30 Formula for Leadership

By Derek Leave a Comment

Time management gurus stress the importance of putting the boulders in your schedule first. You must prioritize the key actions and items of your life. But does this strategy ever free us from all the details that so often follow? Can we delegate all the little stuff away? I don’t think so.

Leadership necessarily involves dealing with minutiae sometimes.

I have been mulling over this contrarian advice from Steven Sample:

…I have come up with Sample’s 70/30 Formula for Leadership – to wit, under ideal conditions up to 30 percent of a leader’s time can be spent on really substantive matters, and no more than 70 percent of his time should be spent reacting to or presiding over trivial, routine or ephemeral matters. Freshman CEO’s often enter the fray determined to spend most of their time as true leaders (i.e., working on issues that really count) while delegating all the trivial parts of their job to the staff. Such naifs are generally gone in a year or two, victims of a dragon born of minutiae which could have been easily slain in its infancy, but which suddenly grew to man-eating proportions. In other words, most of a top leader’s time must necessarily be spent dealing with trivia and ephemera if he wants to survive and maintain his effectiveness as a leader over the long haul.
The real danger implicit in Sample’s 70/30 Formula is that the 30 percent of a leader’s effort devoted to important matters (such as independent thinking and inspiring his followers) may shrink to 20 percent, and then to 10 percent, and then to 5 percent, and finally to nothing, as the press of trivial and routine matters ultimately consumes all of hi s time and energy. I know scores of corporate CEOs and university presidents who find themselves in this position, and who feel impotent and unhappy as a result. It requires enormous discipline for the top leader in an organization to maintain the substantive component of his job near the 30 percent level.
Of course, there is no bright line separating substance from trivia and ephemera. Moreover, an activity which appears to be trivial or routine at the outset frequently turns out to be substantive, and vice versa. But on balance, Sample’s 70/30 Formula provides a practical upper limit on the fraction of a leader’s time and effort which can be spent on really important matters.
Thus the person who wants to do president (as opposed to simply be president) should be delighted with a 70/30 split in favor of trivia over substance. By contrast, people who need a higher percentage of substance in their lives should stay away from top leadership positions.” (161-162)

Sample, S. B. (2001). The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership. Jossey-Bass.

Matter Matters

By Derek Leave a Comment

Because Christ is risen, matter matters.

The resurrection says something very unique about matter, that is, the physical world around us.

Now, typically, there are two extremes when it comes to how we view matter. On the one side of the spectrum is an atheistic, materialistic view that says there is only matter. Ironically, this demeans matter because there is no higher meaning to matter. Categories like truth and beauty are nonsensical in a purely material world. But this perspective doesn’t quite seem to make sense of the world we experience. It seems like there is more to this world than just atoms. There are such immaterial things as majesty and beauty. So then we turn to religion and philosophy.

On the other side of the spectrum, many religions and philosophies recognize this higher order (beauty and truth). However, it leads them to disdain the physical. Plato believed behind every marred physical object of this world was an ideal, or in other words, an idea version of that thing which is pure. And many religions seek to put off the body and look forward to the day when we will be free from it completely. But that end of the spectrum doesn’t quite sit right either because we sure feel like physical beings, and earth kind of feels like home. There is something in you that knows you were meant wonder at the stars and lay in the grass and soak up the sun.

Enter the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus says something remarkable. It says our physical existence matters. Matter matters. By having a physical body restored to Jesus, God reaffirmed that creation was good, while also confirming that right now it is broken. So in the resurrection, we have forgiveness, justification, and spiritual life, AND we have physical healing and remaking.

And indeed we read of this connection between the resurrection of Jesus and the restoration of all of the physical universe in the scriptures. The Apostle Paul writes in the Book of Romans, “[18] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [19] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. [20] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope [21] that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. [22] For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. [23] And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:18-23). So the death hold on creation is also broken. And when we are physically redeemed so shall this world be redeemed and remade.

There is nothing better than lying in a hammock on a sunny spring day in East Tennessee. The next time you find yourself in such a spot I want you to remember that Christ is risen and that means God has not given up on earth. There will be a new earth for us to enjoy with God, as we were created to do. Gaze at that blue sky through green leaves and remember because Christ is risen, you can be sure God is remaking you, and he is remaking this earth.