sermon: The Angel of God
Christ as the Supreme Messenger
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 02-Aug-25; Sermon #1830; 82 minutes
In my recent sermon, the spirit world, which I gave two weeks ago I believe, I focused on the basic information that the Bible supplies about angels in its pages. And overall I think the, the nugget that we could take out of that sermon is that scripture is somewhat sparing. About, about the subject of angels, it doesn't say a lot. There are certain places where angels appear and we are told that they are an angel and they say something or do something, but any other information is, is pretty, pretty sparse. So The Bible gives us basically the bare minimum of what we need to know about angels. And a We do not need any more than thatthat that's an obvious conclusion. God gave us in His word what we need for salvation, and he just kind of sketches the angels for us, shows them at work a little bit here and there and. He essentially says, go with that. That's, that's all you need to know. Of course, this sparsity doesn't satisfy some people. They want more. They want to fill out the sketch into you know, um, what do they call it HD so that they understand everything about it. Uh, this was way before HD, but the Jews between the Testaments were some of these people who tried to have a, a whole angiology just to satisfy their curiosity. That's, that's all I think it really was at first and then it went on and became much more diabolical because the demons got in there and started influencing the way they thought about angels. Until you get to the point where Philo and others Platinus, Neoplatinist were basically saying that these demons, which they called demiurges and other things, produce what we know as gnosticism. So it was not at all benign. When they went off in search of new knowledge about the angels because they were not very critical about the sources that they were getting their knowledge from. But God warns us several times in scripture about going beyond what is written and adding or taking away from. His Revelation because it leads to trouble. Let's just look at one of these in Deuteronomy 4. We'll read the 1st 4 verses. Where we see a basic cause and effect here along with the, the command, the warning not to do this. So Deute Deuteronomy 4 verses 1 through 4. Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. Remember the, the setting of this verse is they are perched right on the edge of the land, they are east across Jordan and they are in the last month before God's going to allow them. To cross the Jordan into the land. So he's saying. OK. Listen to what I have to say here because it's going to be necessary for you in you're living in the land. If you want to live a long life, listen to what I have to say. So verse 2, Immediately after he says this, you shall not add to the word which I commanded you. Nor take anything from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen, remember this has just happened before and it had killed a lot of people just on the brink of the, of the promised land because they did not do this. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Bale Pior, for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Bale of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. So he's talking about the command here to listen to God, to do what he says, not to add to or take away from what he says, just follow. The, the commandments, just follow what God has revealed and it'll go well with you. But when you stray from this, when you start adding to it, adding your own justifications for, for why you do certain things taking away from God's word because you do not think that's very important not at this time, um, then you start to come under judgment and God is very uh, God is sitting there and will correct you. And in the case of the, the problem there at BPR, they had turned into an idolatry. And seeking the Moabite women breaking at least 3 commandments, probably 4 or more, and God as an example. destroyed thousands of them. And would have actually destroyed more, but for Phineas. And so we get a very striking warning here an example about The way God approaches his word. His word is set. His word is, is the way it is. He is a God of love and he gave us the best commandments that he could, the ones that will help us to live. And he says, do not mess with them. These are tried and true. They were given by someone wiser than you. He knew what was, what was going on. He knows the flesh, he knows the things that we come across, and these things that I have told you, he says, will help you to live. We all want to live, do not we? That's actually a, a theme of the book of Deuteronomy. It goes through, we can find it in in Deuteronomy 30, you know, he says, I've set before you life and death. Choose life. So he's saying it just a different way here in chapter 4. So, um, Take the warning from God, not to add to, not to take away from. Take what God has given as Revelation. Who Don't try to modify it. That's where we get into trouble. All right, I began the last sermon by talking about worlds. We live in the material world. Everything is made of matter in this world, even the very smallest things like, you know, atoms and particles and those sorts of things are actually material. They're just so small that they look invisible that we do not think they have a mass, but you ask scientists and they will say the mass of X element is this and it's, it's an actual mass. Because it's material. So everything around us and in us is physical. Visible Audible even. Tangible, we can touch it. Some things you do not want to touch, but. You could if you, if you needed to. We're beings that are limited. To what we can sense and very little more. Now I do not say no more. Because we have a spirit element in us. God gave us a spirit, called the Spirit in man. And so we do have an ability. Sense in one way or another. Spiritual things. That's what allows us to have a relationship with God, even at its most basic, where he can combine his spirit with our spirit, and we can begin to have a relationship. Otherwise, if we did not have that spiritual component, we'd be like the beasts. And not with the inability to have a relationship with God. Solomon calls Human existence Life under the sun, he uses that phrase many times in Ecclesiastes. And unless a person, unless God opens a person's eyes to the spiritual. And the spirit world that is beyond what we can, can sense, including his own existence and his plan and all his, his work in the world. That person is blind to the considerable spiritual activity. Happening beyond his ability to observe. And even when we are given his spirit, Our ability, our minds. that God has opened have very limited insight into the spirit world. Uh. We may observe something, let's say like the story I told last last time about my dad and um. In, in Pittsburgh. And A Be able to, to deduce a few things about, let's say an angel. I believe that that, that angel that came and rescued him and, and Mr. Hoops um was You know he was that being was an angel. And he If you could say so, fought on behalf of God's ministers doing their duty but, um. We can see that that instance very much parallel what we see in in scripture about the angels, especially what it says there in Hebrews 1:14 about them being ministering spirits to those who have inherited sal salvation. So We can see this because God has opened our minds to it, but we can't see. The actions of angels, but rarely, extremely rarely our eyes haven't been opened to the point where we see our angel as Jesus said one place that is guarding over. God's people Or maybe I do not know. He says our angel in the singular, so maybe each one of us has a singular angel assigned to us and you know. I, I, I imagine in my mind's eye, these angels rolling their eyes, oh, I get him, but They, they do their, their duties seriously and humbly as we, as I said last time. But even though we have limited insight into the angelic world, We're called to live. Not under the sun lives, but over the sun lives. That, that phrase is not in the the Bible. I do not think it's just the opposite of under the sun but We're to live above the sun lives. You could say we are supposed to live um out of this world. Or live not of this world. Those are the kind of lives God wants to see heavenly lives, godly lives. But We are still burdened by matter, and that's the ball and chain around our ankles. Um Because it's very difficult. To live godly in this present age. Because our flesh is so strong. It, it tries to keep us bound to this earth and all of our carnal desires. And overcoming that is a strenuous exercise, constant strenuous exercise of trying to live above that level. Um, it's a It's a burden And that is why the first fruits will be rewarded so greatly because they have struggled. In this life with not only their own flesh but with the predations of Satan, the devil and his angels, we are overcoming and growing and trying to attain to the kingdom of God in the same way that Jesus Christ had to, he did it perfectly. He never sinned and so he passed with flying colors, so much so that he was able to give his life so that we could all have the chance to do that. But We are called one with him, will be his bride because we will have overcome and grown and attained the kingdom under the same circumstances. Against our flesh, against this world, against all the deceptions of Satan, the devil. And so I'm sorry you've been put into this game. That's the toughest game. In the world, uh. Ever And so that is why God says, If you do it, I'm going to reward you greatly. You're going to get a new name, you're going to be part of the temple you're going to be my son's bride, you'll be kings and priests, you'll have all this glory. Because you did something special. Now Most of the work is done for us. Of course, we do not earn that. But we do get a reward for enduring. And for growing and producing the fruit under these very adverse conditions. So we've been called to While in the flesh to live this above the sun life. We are, if you want to call it this, we are called to believe without seeing. That is, live by faith in the Son of God and what he teaches. By Revelation in his word. Which we understand by the spirit that he gives us. I mean, we do not, we do not actually do a whole lot you know, if we are putting it into percentage God does 99.9% of the work for us, gives us all the skills that we need, gives us the circumstances helps us overcome and grow, um, and then we do that 0.01%. Uh, which is mostly. Believing Having faith Remember what Jesus said to Thomas? In John 20 after Thomas said, I need to see the, the marks in his hands and put my hand in his side. I will not believe that he's been resurrected. Do you remember what he said? In response to that, it was a mild rebuke to Thomas. He said there John 20:29, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. So that's what we are asked to be to do. From conversion on. From the time God starts calling us and working with us, we are asked to believe in the Son of God, and all that he does and all that he says, all that he reveals to us that is happening or will happen. And to hang on to that, to the very end, even though we have to live. Within this body of flesh. That's very tough. So, Kind of to summarize this, we live in both worlds. We live in the world of matter primarily, but we've also been called to live in the world of spirit. In the spirit world. More than anybody on the face of the earth, they have out there and we do too, but all of us have the spirit in man, but we've been given a measure of God's spirit. That takes us beyond natural man. And so this gives us an element within us of that spirit world. I do not know if you ever looked at it that way. But we are Phasing If you will, between the physical and the spiritual. It's a long phase. It starts, like I said, at our calling, and we are slowly phasing. If you will, into Spirit Our minds, we could say then, are supposed to be ever more engaged in the spirit world. In this Uh, communication process or the um The living with Christ in us. And our bodies, of course, continue to live in the physical world. But we are, we are trying to change. The Bible, the New Testament calls it transform. Or to come into the image of Jesus Christ. And that's in this specific sense I'm talking about today, a phasing from physical to spiritual. It's not like being beamed up, you know, beam me up, Scotty. It's, it's a much more serious and far more wonderful phasing from physical to spiritual. Let's go to II Corinthians 4, if you will. II Corinthians 4. Now, this, this phasing, I do not want you to get me wrong, it will never be completed in this life. We have to die, as it says in Hebrews 9:27. Uh, it's All men must die But the true phasing will happen in the resurrection, but we are preparing our minds for that and that's where, as far as I understand, that's where the spiritual element resides in our minds and so we are prepping our minds for that ultimate phasing into the spirit. When we see him as he is. OK, verses 16 through 18 of II Corinthians 4, Paul says basically the same thing I have here, but just in his own Pauline way. Therefore we do not lose heart, meaning there is always trials out there that's trying to trip us up, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, by the way, that word light doesn't mean light actually, it's a stupid translation. It actually says you know, it's talking about how heavy our burdens are. Uh, I do not know where they got that, but which is for a moment. Is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen this is supposed to be the direction of our sight our mind how we are supposed to approach life. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So, this is Paul using a little bit different metaphor, um, and if you want, you can connect this with my sermon that I gave about a year ago called Seeing the Invisible, where I relied quite a bit on this, this section, but Paul uses the analogy of the the metaphor of the outward man and the inward man rather than physical and spiritual or body and mind in the spirit, but the idea is basically the same. That there is a transformation happening and we have to to begin this transformation now we do it in our mind we do it by seeking those invisible things that are eternal rather than dwelling on the physical things which are but temporary and we will be temporary if we continue down that road pursuing those things so we must as elect sons and daughters of God. Begin to shift our perceptions from what is perishing to the eternal. From the scene to the unseen. From physical to spiritual. And so over the course of our lives, over the course of our conversion or our sanctification, We should be growing to have more in common with that unseen world than with this present physical world. this present evil world. Let's go a few pages forward to the book of Colossians. And see Paul talks about this transformation a bit more. Chapter 3. Verses 1 through the first part of chapter 5, excuse me, verse 5. We do not want to read to chapter 5 because There is no chapter 5, So 1 through 5 and then 9. And 10 If then you were raised with Christ in baptism, seek those things which are above where Christ is Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, and he goes and talks about various evil attitudes and ways. Verse 9, do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man. This old man, new man in the metaphor of taking off clothing, um, we take off all those physical things and the, the evils that are attached to them and all those bad habits that we've accrued over the years and then we do not want to be naked, so we put on the new man. Which is who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. So what is he saying here? We put off the old man, the Adam, if you will, that was created. And send And then this world came to be over time, so we chuck that and we put on new clothing and this new clothing is not the created man, but the Creator. And so in a way, we are trying to work ourselves back to the, as close as we can to the pure state. Of being in the image of our Creator. So Paul is saying the same thing just using different metaphors and I think if as we add to these metaphors we come to a better understanding of what's actually happening to us. And we should actually be working as much as we can with the, what God has given us to be more and more like. The righteousness that is found in the spirit world, the good spirit world. Because there is a bad spirit world, we do not want to get any closer to that at all, but we do want to put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ as we grow in this life. OK, that was my introduction. Because it, it works as background to what what we will see here. As we go on into my main subject and today I will be speaking on a particular aspect of the spirit world. As a matter of fact, I, I've just been talking about him quite a bit here, especially in the last few minutes, and that is the singular angel of the Lord. Capital A Angel. We'll see that in most instances, The angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ. And he comes and appears to people at various times, revealing what he will do for his people. And also then moving his plan forward. Uh, it's very interesting to, to just go through the appearances of the angel of the Lord and, and see what he comes for, what the real reason is. Now, a number of passages in both testaments mention the angel of the Lord, sometimes it's phrased as angel of the Lord. Or sometimes it's called, or he's called the angel of God. Sometimes when being referred to, he is called my angel. Which is kind of uh self, um, Identification Cause usually it's the Lord talking about sending himself. Uh, another place in Joshua 5, he's called the commander of the army of the Lord. He's even called in one place the man of God. When he visited Abraham, they were 3 men. And one of them was the angel of the Lord or Christ pre-incarnate Christ. If you have Bibles that Do this sort of thing that that capitalize the titles. Uh, if the translators of those Bibles believe that the passage passage speaks unambiguously of God in an angelic form, they will capitalize those. So you'll see sometimes angel of the Lord as capital A angel, and in other places they determined that it's an actual angel other than the angel of the Lord of of pre-incarnate Christ, and they will do lowercase a. So you just need to be aware of these things. Uh, this was surprising when I started researching this, an angel of the Lord, whether it's the pre-incarnate Christ or an actual angel appears in 102 verses in the Bible. In nearly 30 separate passages. So Gets a lot of ink in the Bible. This angel of the Lord. And we are going to to see some of these or look at some of these early on, we will not go to all of them, but we will go to the early ones. To get a, get a sense of the overall purpose or purposes in God appearing in this form to his people. Now, to review a point from last time. The word translated angel in both Hebrew and Greek, both Old Testament and new. It means messenger. I also mentioned that it can have the uh. The tone of an emissary. Or you could even say a representative. Um, Any one of these will do, but the main idea is as a messenger. So this messenger or emissary of the Lord is a being who performs. Or performed, I should, I'll put it in the past past us. Uh, the angel of the Lord is a being who performed special functions at strategic times in Israel's history. And I I narrow it to Israel's history because the angel of the Lord doesn't appear. Meaning the pre-incarnate Christ doesn't appear outside of Israel's history. In one form or another, in the New Testament, it's, I think, always another angel. Uh, not just the pre-incarnate Christ. Obviously, he was incarnated at that time. And so he's no longer termed the angel of the Lord in New Testament usage. But it's very interesting to see the angel of the Lord appearing in Israel's history and working. Things out according to God's plan. So he often appears. At critical junctures. To move events in a certain direction. Or to reveal new information. Of some sort or another that must be delivered verbally. And personally to one of his servants. Oftentimes, he appears to give a blessing. Or on the other hand, He appears to enact punishment. In every case, though, he is a commanding presence. When the angel of the Lord appears to people. They realize he is something special. There is no doubt in their mind that they are being visited by a superior being of some sort. One that's worthy of worship. And great awe and After that, obedience. And when he says take off your shoes, you, you do. OK, let's go to the first one of these back in Genesis 16. And it's a 16. We're going to read a bit here, pretty much the whole chapter. Well, yes, the whole chapter. No, We're going to read 1 through 15. We're going to leave one verse off. But we will go through this as quickly as possible. Genesis 16:115. Now Serai Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Serai said to Abram, See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing bearing children. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Serai. Then Sarai, Abram's wife took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. After Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan. Not that they were married. A lot of people skip over that. She was just his maid or her maid, but no, there was an actual ceremony. We learned this in Ambassador College in ancient Israel class. Debbie probably remembers that. I do not know, it's in my margin from, from my college notes, but she was a, a concubine and in most cases in in ancient Mesopotamia. And the cultures that followed that, that cultural practice they were married as concubines, lesser wives, um, so Sarah was the main wife and here Hagar was married to Abraham as a secondary wife. OK, verse 4. So he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Ah, I have a son. You do not. So she thought that gave her a bit of leverage. Then sir, I said to Abraham, My wrong be upon you. I gave my maid into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between you and me just a little bit of uh. The, the way this is put is very interesting. It says very clearly in verse 4, no, verse 3. That she was married to Abraham, right? She's a wife, but Sarah continues to call her my maid. She never made the transition here. She was always the maid. Not a fellow wife and I can understand human nature enough to to know that this would probably be uh common especially since Sarah, Sarah, I had been married to Abraham for a long time. This was the newcomer, um. And it was only, it only happened because Well, Abraham needed an air, so. Um, Just it's very interesting to, to catch these little hints of the attitude. Verse 6. So Abraham said to Sarai, Indeed your maid is in your hand. Do to her as you please. Uh, Abram here kind of giving in. And when Serai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence, and not, not a good decision on either of their accounts. Verse 7. Now the angel of the Lord, here is the first appearance, found her by a spring of water in the wilderness by the spring on the way to Shure, and he said, Hagar, Serai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going? Um, just a little bit of a, an addition on that made wife thing. The angel of the Lord calls her Sarai's maid. And just a verse or two before Abraham called her Sarah's maid. And what I take from that is that Hagar never did anything to throw off that um that particular identification. Um, she did not, she did not do anything honorable. In this either. Sarai and Hagar are both vying for Abraham's infection and they both make big mistakes. So, Um, Neither, actually none of them come out of this story very well. OK, he said, Hagar Hagarsera's made, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai. So the angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand. By the way, the chief wife would be in charge of the other any other concubines, so she would be the mistress of that, um, relationship. So return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for multitude. 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. He shall be a wild man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are the God who sees, or this is Elroy. For she said, have I also here seen him who sees me? Therefore, the well was called Beerlaha Roy. Observe it is between Kadesh and Bred. So Hagar bore Abraham a son, and Abram named his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. OK, like I said, this is the first mention of the angel of the Lord and as I've noted in other sermons, first mentions are often quite significant, very revealing, and they set the tone for a words or phrases later usage in scripture. And here the first mention curiously occurs in a story about Hagar. You'd think it would have occurred in a story of Noah or Shem or Abraham himself, but no, he appears to Hagar, an Egyptian woman, a gentile, if you will. And With it is a prophecy about her unborn son Ishmael, who ultimately became one of Israel's bitterest enemies. God did not make this first appearance as the angel of the Lord to the good guys as it were. He did this to Hagar. before she bore is Ishmael. Another strange thing here which is Rare it's, it's actually a half a goon. I think that's how it is. It's a means, it happens once in scripture and that is a person, a human, gives God a name. This is the only time that it happens in Scripture. It's highly unusual circumstance, and like I said, she gave them the name Elroy, and that means God who sees. Now, perhaps the most significant thing that this first usage does is that it identifies the angel of the Lord. And if you go through there, you could see the angel of the Lord appeared, the angel of the Lord said, the angel of the Lord said, the angel of the Lord said, it's getting this idea that this is all done by this superior being. It leaves no doubt that this was no ordinary angel. But the God of the Old Testament himself. And as I mentioned, the only time in the Bible, Hagar gives him gives him a name that clearly identifies him as God. El Roy, L meaning the generic name of deity. So in this um Passage Not only is he called El, but he is also called Yahweh in verse 13, um. She called the name of Yahweh. Who spoke to her, you are the God, the elf who sees. So It's very clear clear here in the way Moses wrote it that this angel of the Lord is L and he's also Yahweh. Also, She also calls in the God who sees. And only God sees everything. He's omniscient And in the name of the well, Beerlaha Roy, the sense is When you unpack the Hebrew, the well of the living one who sees me. And so She essentially calls him the eternal, the living one, the one who always lives. And there is more. This passage shows the angel of the Lord seeking Hagar specifically to give her a personal message. This is something God does. He seeks people, he seeks them out and in this case, it was not as a calling necessarily like he calls us, but in this case, he sought her to give her a personal message and the personal message was a command. To return to Sarai and submit. That was the main gist of, of the message. Now why would he do this? Why would he have to take personal action? Seek this particular Egyptian woman. In the wilderness. Well, First thing he did, or first reason why he did is that he is rectifying Sarah's Sarai's abuse. Sara's abuse of Hagar drove her away, and that was not in the cards. That was not supposed to be. And so he had to go to her and basically um. You know, appear as this great wonderful being and say, Hagar, go back. Get back to where you're supposed to be. Why? He Wanted Ishmael born in Abraham's house. He did not want Ishmael born in Egypt or out in the wilderness. He can go there later. But he wanted Ishmael born. In Abraham's house. And why he wants him born in Abraham's house is because that Activity or that act. Sets events in motion for the boy to fulfill the prophecy. That's why he gives the prophecy. He says Hagar, go back because I've got a plan and it involves your son. His name is going to be Ishmael because you've heard me. Right? The Lord has heard your affliction, and he, he says. Warts and all here that he shall be a wild man and everybody is going to hate him and he's going to hate everybody else and he's going to be in conflict with everybody all the time. But hey, here is a little added bit of good. All your descendants are going to glom together. There he's going to dwell among his brethren. They're going to be a very united people. I think that's what it means. And guess what? The descendants of Ishmael have been, they have stayed where they were. And they are pretty much always united and they are all united against Israel. The descendants of Isaac. So he's saying, Hagar, if you want this to come to pass, go back to Sara. Because that's my plan. We can say then, very confidently that the conflict between Sara and Hagar has continued for about, oh, close on to, it's getting closer to about 4000 years. So we see several things here with this appearance of the angel of the Lord. He comes seeking an individual. To do something. He came to correct a problem. He commanded an action. For her to take He made a promise. To Hagar about her son. and his future. And he prophesized about that future. So he did quite a number of very important things in this appearance in this first appearance. So we could think of Genesis 16 as a kind of microcosm of what the angel of the Lord does in his appearances. He may not do all of these things, but these are the things that he does. Overall, we can say. That the angel of the Lord manipulates events so that they follow his design. And then He gives necessary information to the major players. To, to guide them. along the way that he has chosen. All right, let's move forward to Genesis the 21st chapter. Because we get another. Uh, appearance of the angel of the Lord. This scene takes place about 15 years later, after Genesis 16. And it's a kind of follow up to that appearance or you could call it if you want part two. Of the angel of the Lord's appearance in chapter 16. We find that the conflict between these two women has not abated. Let's look at that. We'll read the verses 8 through 21. So the child, this is Isaac, grew and was weaned, and Abraham name has been changed at this point, made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned, and Sarah, also changed in name, saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian whom she had borne to Abram, scoffing. I'll just let you know that this word could also be translated laughing. And probably what we have is a good indication that what Hagar was doing was she was making fun of Isaac, whose name was Laughter. Right? OK. Therefore, she said to Abraham, cast out this Bond woman and her son, she calls her a bond woman that get this rid of this servant, the slave. Attitudes haven't changed much, have they, and her son, for the son of this bond woman shall be, shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac, and the matter was very displeasing and distressing in Abraham's sight. Because of his son, but God said to Abraham, do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bond woman. Hey, he uses the term too. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice, for in Isaac your seed shall be called. This is the origin of that famous quotation that Paul uses. Verse 13. Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman because he is your seed. Your descendant. 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 Beersheba. The water in the skin was used up and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. Then she went and just noticed these details. The details are important. Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance about a bowshot of about a bowshot, she said to herself, let me not see the death of the boy. It's kind of a pretty hopeless attitude here. So she sat opposite him and lifted her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad. None of the bond woman. 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. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. Then she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink. So God was with the lad, and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. He dwelt in the wilderness of Perran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. All right, like I said, this is about 15 years later. And we see how things have progressed from chapter 16 and there, there is still that conflict between Sarah and Hagar. and Sarah finally gets her wish to have Hagar and Ishmael sent away. Uh, her demand in chapter 16 was jumping the gun by 15 years on what God wanted to do. So when she asked at this point, God told Abraham, let her go. This is, you know, my, my plans have come to fruition up to this point and Ishmael has been born in Abraham's house and he has Learned enough of the way of God and, and come to um Uh, honor Abraham, enough and this is a a big point. That the Arabs his descendants bring up all the time. We too are children of Abraham. And so this is necessary for the conflict that's to last from that point about 4000 years. God wanted this to happen. It's part of his plan, part of what he's working out. Now, here the angel of the Lord is called the angel of God, but verse 18 very clearly clarifies. That it is Yahweh He uses here the first person pronoun I will make him a great nation. So God is taking great care here to make sure that Ishmael survives to fulfill the prophecies that he had made to both Abraham and Hagar about Ishmael because here in this chapter he he tells Abraham here that uh. That he's, he's an important part of the plan. He's going to make of him a great nation. Uh, interesting, both stories in chapter 16 and 21. Contain wells Beer Laharoy and this one, the spring that she found when God opened her eyes. And wells are symbolic of life they contain water. Water is necessary for life and so we see here that God provides life to Ishmael and he provided life to Ishmael because he had a prophecy to fulfill and not only the prophecy but his great plan so he kept him alive and his mother alive and then he was able to fulfill the prophecies. OK, let's go on to chapter 22 because there is another appearance of the angel of the Lord. Now, I want you to be very perceptive of the details of this side of the story because it mirrors what happens in chapter 21 or 16 and 21. Now we are dealing with not Ishmael, which was the false son of prophet, promise. God always said, no, you're not, your heir will not be Ishmael. He had a son of promise in mind, Isaac, and so this takes the other side. Now we are not looking at the false, we are looking at the true. And like I said, they, they mirror one another. Let's start in verse 9. God has already called to Abraham, said, hey, get you go up to a place that I'm going to show you, and the place that he showed them was Mount Moriah, and they started on their way. Uh, there are a couple of details in the early part of this chapter. I will not mention them now. I may mention them in a few minutes, but a lot of the things that happened in these 1st 9 or 8 verses mirror what happened in the other two. But just let's start with verse verse 9. Then they came to the place of which God had told him, Mount Moriah, up there where Jerusalem would be, and Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 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, and he said, Here I am. Remember James was just talking about that phrase. And he said, do not, you know, the other James, not, not James as in Colton, uh. James Sturtz. OK. Uh, where was I? Abraham, Abraham, 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. Like Ishmael did not even exist. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord as shall be provided, 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, in blessing I will bless you, and in 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. OK, we get a sense here if we are reading these various chapters in parallel that Jesus, the angel of the Lord, God is dealing with these two descendants in a very similar way, in a parallel way. And in both, cause I'm treating Genesis 16 and Genesis 21 is one unit here in in both Abraham obeys God's instruction concerning the lads. If you want to look at that back in chapter 21 verses 12 to 14 and here in chapter 22 in the 1st 9 verses you see. Abraham doing exactly what God told him to do. He hears the voice out of heaven, telling him to do this for Ishmael or send Hagar away and he gives her provisions and sends her away and in the other here in 22, he He leaves to go to Mount Moriah, packs up his stuff, takes Isaac along, and does exactly what God said to do. Both instances were tests of Abraham, I believe, to see if he would obey. When he heard what God told him to do. They were tests of his obedience and his submission to God. And both, as I've been kind of mentioning here, were audible tests. They were not the angel of the Lord appearing and saying, Abraham, do this. No, it was just a voice in his head or however it happened, saying Abraham, I want you to do this for Ishmael and Hagar or do this, take Isaac, etc. uh. We could call these tests of hearing. Doesn't Paul say in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing. And so he acted in faith once he heard the voice of God. Now, just as in summary, I'm not going to go to all of these things. I want to give you An indication of all the sorts of interesting parallels and contrast between these, these two situations. For instance, Hagar and Ishmael wandered in the wilderness. Right, he gave them the water and the provisions, and they went and watered it wandered in the wilderness like they had no set plan of where they were going to go or they got lost. But Abraham and Isaac went directly. To Mount Moria It took him 3 days, but he always had that vision of where he was going to go, and he went straight there. shows the difference between the two sets of people. Here's another one, a parallel. Both of the lads, as they were called. Ishmael and Isaac faced death. That was what was on the line. Their lives were on the line. Hagar Places Ishmael under a shrub to die. She gave up You know, lie here in the shade maybe your death will be not as bad as you were out in the sun. On the other hand, Abraham places Isaac atop a pile of wood as an offering. The boys are in two very different states here. One is hopelessly waiting for death, the other is being offered as a sacrifice. Upon God's Command Interesting. Interesting to see what Hagar and Abraham's reactions here are Hagar removes herself. She doesn't want to see her boy die. She goes off and you know a bow shot 2 or 300 yards. She did not wanna be close enough to see him writhing in pain and, and, and perishing. While Abraham raises the knife to kill his son. Because that's what God had asked of him. Notice The resolutions of these. God provides water. British male life. But he provides a ram for Isaac. Himself in symbol in type. So the first to the water represented physical life, but the second, the offering of the ram in his stead. Provided spiritual life. For millions. Ultimately. Billions They also both receive prophecies. You know he's going to be a wild man and everybody's going to fight with him and he'll fight back. Well, that was the one that was given to to Ishmael. It was very simple. And it was about his physical descendants and what they would do in on the world scene. But the other given to about Isaac. Represents yes physical life. We've mined this at the end of chapter 22 for proof of where Isaac's descendants have gone. They, you know, they have the gates of their enemies, they are, they are multiplied beyond the stars of the heavens and all that, um. But then there is verse 18. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. That not only has the physical idea of the great wealth and prosperity that the sons of Isaac have been able to give to the world, but it also doubles as that from Isaac's descendants will come the seat of the woman and he will become the Messiah and the savior, and so all the nations of the world would be blessed through him. And one last one, even the name of the name Abraham gives to the place on Mount Moriah echoes what Hagar named the well in chapter 16. They both basically called the places the same thing. They just use a little bit different words. The the Roy in Elroy in the, in the beer la Lahiroy basically means to see. And in this place in chapter 22 in calling it the Lord will provide, this is Yahweh or Yahweh Jirah. Gira actually with the J being pronounced as Y, Yahweh Yirra. That are Syllable ra is from the same basic three letters as Roy. So they are they are cognate or or their similar words, they both mean to see. But the era has more to do with seeing and providing. Which God did, where, whereas the one in chapter 16 has to do mostly with the physical act of seeing. Remember she said, I've seen him who sees me. But they are basically the same ideas. One's physical, and the other one is spiritual. Or more spiritual, I should say. It's really interesting to see all these parallels. So these passages, 1621 and 22, show the angel of the Lord working out his plan and revealing pertinent information that Abraham and Isaac would need and us too. Along the way, and he even provides theological knowledge and understanding here, uh. That we need, which I mentioned before, you know, Paul draws from this to talk about our, our faith, what it needs to be and other things like that, um. Let me just give you a quick list of the things that come out of here in chapter 22 especially. It provides instruction on where God has placed His name. There Mount Moriah, he later placed the temple there. Uh, God providing a substitutionary sacrifice. Jesus Christ for our sins. This is the first inkling of an idea of the Lamb of God, because Abraham said that my son, God will provide for himself the Lamb. That's in verse 8. Um, Here is where we get Isaac as a type of the true son of Promise. This is also where we get the nations being blessed spiritually by Abraham's ultimate seed. We also get the faith of Abraham here. That we are all to follow as our Father in the faith. And there is many more. Uh, we could, we could probably spend a sermon on just those things that we pull out of this particular chapter. So the angel of the Lord is the one who Presents all these in the You know, many of them are in metaphor or or veiled slightly, but they can easily be seen because of the way Paul and others use them in the New Testament. OK, we are going to skip a an appearance that's in Genesis 3111. Which was to Jacob and we are going to go to Exodus 3 for the final one that we will look at, actually, we will do 2 more very quickly, very quickly. OK, 1 verses 1 through 10 of Exodus 3. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 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 burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight. Why the bush does not burn. 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. There is that word again. Then he said, Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 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. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Parasites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. OK, verse 2 here, positively identifies the burning bush to be an appearance and appearance of the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord was in the bush, and verses 4 through 6 positively identify the personality in the bush as God. Later in verse 14 the angel of the Lord himself names himself as the I Am. So we have Javey there. Again, I do not have time to go through all the things that are happening in this passage, but quickly, the angel of the Lord formally calls Moses here to serve him. It's his formal giving of a commission. And in doing so, he emphasizes his own holiness and identifies himself as God. He's giving him his credentials and giving him a taste of what he is like. He makes sure he identifies himself as the God of the patriarchs, the Fathers of Israel. He is Israel's personal God. In other words, And he commissions Moses as his instrument to lead Israel out of bondage to the out of its bondage to the Egyptians. Here we have another critical juncture in the plan, and he comes down and chooses the man he wants to take it forward. It's time to free Israel from their slavery in Egypt and to lead that lead them to the promised land. Now, the first thing he does with the burning bush siding is impress upon Moses that he, the angel of the Lord, is extremely powerful and can do the impossible. I mean, that's what he says. Look, this bush is burning and it's not being consumed. That's impossible. I've got to look more closely at this. So his mind is immediately steered to believing the impossible. That this God who is now appearing to him can do great and wonderful things. God also. Immediately and pointedly draws Moses's attention to his, his holiness that he is other, he is special, he is sacred. And by doing so, he kind of lets Moses know that his task, Moses's task is also a holy task. This is something that the God of his fathers wanted him to do to set the nation of Israel apart. God also tells him here that he had come down. To deliver Israel, that is, he Won't be steering things from way up in heaven. He's going to come down and personally supervise. And intervene and be personally involved in the whole process of leading Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. He's telling him, I am going to be here. I will be with you It's a momentous announcement delivered by God Himself as he moves events along in his plan. We lack the time to list all the theology revealed in this appearance and later because of it. Uh, aspects of the nature of God hold the top spots also God's holiness, what is true freedom God's interest and intervention in His creation God's faithfulness in fulfilling his promises. Uh, add to that all the subsequent instruction about Passover and unleavened bread and the Sabbath and the holy other holy days because of this, the 10 Commandments were given the sacrifices were set up, the tabernacle was set up the priesthood was set up, and we could just go on and on. He had to do this to get the information in the book for us. And to do those other things that he said he would do. There are those and many more things that all hinge on this special appearance of the angel of the Lord. He got the ball rolling on so much here. Now, there are many more appearances of the angel of the Lord in Scripture, particularly the ones that are in the Old Testament. Unnamed, he wrestled with Jacob. He appears to be the death angel who struck the Egyptians on that first Passover. The angel of the Lord went before the Israelites in the wilderness in the pillar of cloud and fire, and he he. He fought for them in the wilderness. The angel who encountered Balaam is also called the angel of the Lord. He appeared as the commander of the Lord's armies to Joshua. He called Gideon. He announced the birth of Samson to his parents. He finally in Zechariah prophesized gives some prophecies in chapters 1 and 3. You know, as we close quickly, we are going to read Joshua 5, where he appears to, to Joshua as the commander of the Lord's army. We're just going to read three verses here, verses 13 through 15. Where it says, 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 hands, and Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And 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? 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. Now this Subject of the angel of the Lord may seem academic, but it actually has a great deal of meaning for us, which we can see here in Joshua's experience. We have to see ourselves in the place of Joshua here. In the land as it were, but not in full possession, there was still a great deal to go. Remember Cassians 1:13 says that we have already been translated spiritually into the kingdom of the son of his love, so we are already there, we are heirs, but we haven't inherited yet. And we have come before the angel of the Lord. The living Jesus Christ. He is our commander. He wields a drawn sword, which is a symbol of judgment or of wrath. As you know, in the New Testament Christ is often shown with a double-edged sword. Now notice Joshua's question. Are you for us or against us? You know, are, are you on our side or are you on the other people's side? And Christ's answer here as the angel of the Lord cuts through such things as sides. His answer is no, I have come as the commander of the army of the Lord. He just brushes it aside. No. Joshua, that's not how you think. That's not how I'm thinking, he says. The current answer implies that the angel of the Lord is above sight. He's sovereign He's the Creator. He doesn't take sides. He is the side. He is fulfilling God's will as the commander of the Lord's army. That's his purpose. He is there. Because God the Father has told him, go fight this battle. Perhaps the angel's implied return question. is Are you on my side? Are you doing God's will like I am? Are you going to fight with me or against me? Are you going to do the will of God or are you going to go against the will of God? Up to this point, I do not know. Joshua may have thought he commanded God's army in the wilderness, God's army of Israelites in the land. But this one says this angel of the Lord says, I'm in command here, Joshua. The fight will be the Lord's. So he tells Joshua to remove his sandals because he stood in the presence of the holy God. And Joshua submits. Readily. He chose the right side. God's sighed The side that does God's will. And it's interesting that if we were to go on into verse chapter 6, how many instructions he had to follow for the the walls of Jericho to come down. It was like a test for Joshua. Are you going to follow these instructions to the letter? OK. Put ourselves In Joshua's sandals here. Well, no, take them off. We're in the presence of a holy God. As God's elect, about to take possession of the kingdom of God. What's our reaction? We have come before Jesus Christ. He is our holy commander. And he tells us to choose to submit to him. To follow him. Jesus says that a lot in the Gospels. Obey him, do his will. And what Happens if we do that. He will give us the kingdom. He'll do the conquering. He will fight our battles. He will conquer the enemy. If we remain faithful. If we remain obedient. If we trust him. To do what is best. And there you have right there. The formula For how we will inherit the kingdom of God.
RTR/aws/drm