More on when God appeared as an angel in scriptures

I was shown that there were occasions in scripture where God appeared in the form of an angel. Here are some examples:

a. God speaking to Hagar as she fled from Sarah (Gen 21: 17-19)

“And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven,and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand;  for I will make him a great nation.

And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink”.

Here are clues:

1. God spoke to Hagar about her situation. It is not immediately shown to us that the angel and God in verse 17 are one and the same.
2. God referred to Himself in the third person in verse 17 when He told Hagar that “God hath heard the voice of the lad..”
3. However, we are soon shown that the angel speaking to Hagar is really God Himself when He became personal told her that  I will make him (Ishmael) a great nation.

b. God speaks to Abraham preventing him from killing his son Isaac (Gen 22: 10-12).

“And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”

Here are the clues:

1.  God, appearing in the form of the angel, referred to Himself in the third person, as if speaking about someone else, when He said to Abraham, “for now I know that thou fearest God…” 
2. However, He exhaled with pleasure  in the same sentence and reverted to the first person when He told Abraham that “thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” .
3. I believe that God used the third person (now I know that thou fearest God) to instill the fear of God in His servant Abraham. At the same time, however, He was so pleased with Abraham’s obedience that He became more personal by referring to Himself as “me” in the end. Remember that God called Abraham His friend (Gen 18: 19).
5. Why does God use this style of speaking and writing? I believe that the style points us to His Greatness and Majesty.  For example, in Deuteronomy 32: 40, God spoke of Himself in His majesty and said, “… I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.”

God is great and mighty. His ways and understanding far exceed ours.  God bless you. More examples when I return.

One God Family – three persons

I believe that the depicitons in the holy of holies in Moses’ and Solomon’s temples were intended to reveal to us who God really is.  There are three people in the Holy of Holies – 2 cherubims and a symbolic representation of Jesus. In the New Testament, the Holy of Holies is the throne of God and Jesus is the person in the midst of the throne as revealed in John’s visions.

Here’s more:

On many of the occasions when God appeared in the Bible as an angel, the scriptures would refer to Him as the  angel of the Lord then later  twin this angel with God as if the two were separate. For example, scriptures say that “…the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked…” (Ex 3: 2).  Exodus 3: 4 later said that “… when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush…”  This was a typical pattern in scriptures, as if God was really shrouding His identity in the text from people who are just surfing the scriptures.

God and Abraham

One of the clearest connections between the revelation of God as an angel was  to Abraham in the plains of Mamre (Gen 18). God called Abraham His friend, so when the three men appeared, Abraham’s response was to bow down in worship. He would not have bowed to the heathen and Genesis 19: 1, 2  clearly stated that the Lord appeared to  him:

“And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day

And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground”

God appeared in the form of the three men,  visited with Abraham and was entertained in fine style. They spoke of the birth of his son Isaac as well as the destruction of Sodom and the cities of the plain. Genesis 18 and 19 then gives a fascinating description of the Oneness of God as revealed in the progression of events, as well as the way He deals with those who are GREATLY BELOVED:

• The three men (God) rose up to go on to Sodom (Gen 18:16).
• God decided to reveal the impending destruction of the cities to Abraham (Gen 18: 15-21) 
• Gen 18: 22 then said that two of the members of the family God went on to Sodom and that Abraham remained there with the LORD. There is no contradication here. In human terms our limited understanding cannot grasp the greatness of One God family (three people)  having the same  characteristics. 
• Abraham interceded with the remaining member of the Godhead on the fate of Sodom (Gen 18: 22-32).
• The LORD went His way at the end of Abraham’s intercession.  Abraham understood that the cities would be destroyed since ten righteous men did not even live there (Gen 18: 33).
• Meantime, the discourse continued into Genesis 19 so that we could see how God functions  in the affairs of men.  Verse one is a continuation of the journey of the two other members of the Godhead - “And there came two angels to Sodom at even”. They appeared now as  angels, although Lot did not know they were angels. The sin of the city was so great that the men of Sodom did not even know that God was among them.
• The agreement of God is revealed in their pleas to Lot to escape since the Lord had sent them to destroy the cities.

Here are examples of how the three people in the Godhead are Lord, Lord and Lord (One God).

• Scriptures show that God is Lord of the whole earth. God said in Isaiah 45: 23, “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Anything that is said of One is said of all. Phillipians 2: 10 says  “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth”.
• I began this discussion by speaking about the two cherubims/the Anointed Ones/the Olive Trees who stand in the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. Isn’t Jesus also the Messiah, the Anointed One (Dan 9: 25-27). Zechariah and John saw Him as the Anointed One in Zech 4 and Rev 5.
• God is rather like the designer of a Treasure Hunt, hiding Himself with well designed puzzles and revealing Himself in the fullness of time. If the two Anointed Ones stand in the presence of the Lord of the whole earth, the humor really is that they too are Lord and Lord. They agree as One. This is the mystery of the God head.

In upcoming posts, I  will share other scriptures in which God appeared as an angel

I also wrote previously at:

•  http://thelordsangels.wordpress.com/category/angels-at-work/page/4/
• More symbolism of the angels’ nonverbal communication in Ezekiel’s visions http://thelordsangels.wordpress.com/2007/09/17/more-symbolism-of-the-angels-nonverbal-communication-in-ezekiels-vision/

Blessings!