Christian Traditions Part I: Christ Pre-Incarnate Was The Angel Of The Lord In The Old Testament Part I

Introduction.

        I remember my Lutheran Elementary and Middle School days and the countless hours of Bible Study that was within our structure of basic learning. We had lots of time to read the Bible and everyday we read the Bible in the morning. A morning class in which we normally chose the Old or New Testament and went through it, throughout the school year. This was all on top of Luther Catechism class near the end of Middle School, not to also mention weekly church services on Thursday and Sunday. I remember we were never really taught in great depth as I have gone in my Article where I go over Christ's Divinity. However I do remember the Christian Traditions we would be told as we read the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Most of them I recall were of Christ. It was not till my revival of my faith and being brought back to Christ that I began to really learn my faith and what I actually believed in and if it was actually true and so on. Within this Article I will be showing you Christ pre-incarnate was two major figures within the Old Testament. He, undoubtedly the Word of the Lord. There is, and should be no discussion and arguments on this. So I will not be proving that to you, however I will be proving that He was The Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. Within the Old Testament there is often this figure called THE Angel of the Lord. It's title very often has "The" at the beginning of the title to seclude this "Angel" from the other angels of the Lord. I will be doing a separate Article series related to this where I quote from the Jewish Targums to show that the Jewish understanding of the Old Testament even aligns with these points. 

Section 1. The Word of the Lord is The Angel of the Lord

• Genesis 16:9-13 Part I

    9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael; because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” 

    We see here in Genesis 16 that Hagar had just run away from Sarah, Hagar was pregnant with the child she had with Abraham and The Angel of the Lord comes to here and tells her to return to Sarah. Then The Angel of the Lord acknowledges that Hagar is pregnant and then foretells her the gender of her son and then tells her the characteristics of what her son will be like and what the future of her son will be. The Angel of the Lord knows the future of the child before the child is even born, now lets look at the second verse that I have connected here to Genesis.

• Jeremiah 1:4-5 Part II

    Jeremiah’s Call and Commission 4 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
 

    The Word of the Lord, Christ pre-incarnate, came to Jeremiah and says that He, the Word, formed Jeremiah and laid out the future for Jeremiah. Which when you think about what The Angel of the Lord said back in Genesis, The Angel knew everything about Ishmael before he was born, almost as if He, The Angel was creating Ishmael and laying out the future of Ishmael. 

• 1 Kings 6:11-13 Part I

    11 Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, 12 “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my ordinances and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.”

• Acts 7:37-38 Part II

    37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up.’ 38 This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living oracles to give to us.

    In 1 Kings we are told by The Word of the Lord that the commandments and ordinances are His. Then it is in the New Testament that we are told by Saint Stephen, that The Angel was with Moses on Mount Sinai when Moses received the living oracles, the first five books of the Old Testament, which is also when Moses received the Commandments. This is the same Angel who appeared to Moses in the flaming bush. Meaning The Angel of the Lord. 

Section 2. My Final thoughts

    There is not many verses within this Article. I am still searching for more verses that I have not noticed before. Look out for any updates in this series if I find more verses to add to this. I will also start a branch off series that Concern the Jewish Targums as I said in the Introduction Section of this Article. I will be touching upon the Angel of the Lord and the Word of the Lord in at least a few of the those Articles that deal with the Targums. 

"The LORD bless you

and keep you;

the LORD make His face shine upon you

and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn His face toward you 

and give you peace." ☦