Gideon encounters the Angel of the LORD
In Judges 6:16 we read, Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you, and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man. (BBE)
As we studied in the previous chapter, the word of the Lord came to Gideon in Judges 6:16, when the Israelites who were the people of God, were subjected to untold misery by the ruthless Midianites. The Midianites plundered their fields that were ripe for harvest, and hindered the Israelites from enjoying the benefits of their hard labor. Gideon along with the Israelites was overwhelmed with a sense of insignificance, abasement, and lack at these constant attacks by Midianites, who frequently swarmed in like destructive locusts. The Israelites were so terrified that they hid in caves to be safe from the fierce Midianite invasion. As the Israelites cried out to the Lord in their distress, the Lord spoke to Gideon, and assured him that He would be with him, and help Gideon overcome the Midianites who were numerous and strong, as though they were just one man.
Someone said it this way ‘when problems come they come in battalions’ and some of us may have passed through such seasons in our lives. It doesn’t really matter if we are faced with countless difficulties, if the Lord is with us we are assured that we can overcome all of it as though they were just one little problem. To those who like Gideon, and the Israelites feel that they are unable to enjoy the fruit of their hard labor, this is the assurance that comes from the Lord. If the Lord is with us like He was with Gideon, He can transform our situation, and bless our efforts to produce bounteous blessings.
The period in which Gideon lived was approximately 1200 years prior to when Jesus lived here on earth. The news of this deliverance was brought to Gideon in Judges 6:12 by an angel of the Lord, who said, “And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said to him, The Lord is with you, O man of war.” (BBE)
The term angel of the LORD is used in Judges chapter 6 Verses 11, 12, 20, 21 and 22, but in Judges chapter 6 verses 14 & 16 it says that the Lord said to Gideon, ‘I will be with you’. When talking about the problems and difficulties they faced, the word came from the angel of the Lord, but when Gideon needed the confirmation that God was with him, the Lord Himself spoke and assured him.
As the terms angel of the LORD and the Lord have been used interchangeably, the question that could arise in our minds is, whether the one who spoke to Gideon was the angel of the LORD or the Lord Himself.
The reality is that when faced with those unsurmountable difficulties, the Lord Himself comes to assure us that He is with us, and will always be with us.
Hagar encountered the Angel of the LORD
We read in Genesis 16:7, “The angel of the LORD met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur.”(GNB)
For a little background to this verse. Abraham and Sarah were childless, and the Lord promised Abraham that they would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the skies, and the sand on the seashore. Sarah however, got frustrated with the wait as they were getting on in years. It seemed that this promise of God had become an improbability. Sarah decided to act, and gave a suggestion to Abraham, to have a child through her maid Hagar. Abraham consented and Hagar got pregnant with a child of Abraham. After Hagar conceived, Sarah was so filled with jealousy that she began to torment Hagar.
Unable to handle the torture at the hands of Sarah, Hagar decided it best to run away from her mistress, into the wilderness, and that was when we read in Genesis 16:7 that the angel of the LORD met Hagar near the spring, in the desert on the road to Shur.
In Genesis 16:10, we read, Then he said, "I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. (GNT)
We read in Genesis 16:13, Hagar named the LORD, who had been speaking to her, "You Are the God Who Watches Over Me." She said, "This is the place where I watched the one who watches over me." (GW)
The angel of the Lord, met with the pregnant Hagar, wandering in the wilderness with no hope whatsoever and assured her that He would make her descendants numerous. However, Hagar suddenly realized that it was the Lord Himself who spoke to he, for it was the Lord alone who could increase her descendants, and promise her a future in her hopeless situation. She therefore acknowledged that it was God who watched over her, and she called the place rightly, the one where she beheld or watched the One who watched over her.
God may have given us a promise which could tarry, and as we patiently await its fulfilment, we must press on with faith, with our eyes fixed on our faithful Lord. It is only when we persevere with faith will we find the promises of God will materialize into reality. On the other hand, if we look at our difficult circumstances with our physical eyes only, we will never experience the unfolding of God’s great and precious promises in our lives.
We live in a time when people are unwilling to put up with even the slightest form of misunderstandings or frustrations. When parents confront or discipline their children, many rebel or sometimes choose to walk away from home, not realizing the perils of doing so. Husbands and wives choose to go their separate ways over minor misunderstandings, unaware that break-up and separation are the devil’s clever schemes to destroy families. We must be cautioned that when we run away like Hagar instead of encountering adverse situations, we will often find ourselves in a worse place than we were in earlier. Oftentimes we think that the hardships we face are huge, only because we do not know realize that there are others around us who are challenged with far greater burdens.
As children of God we must remind ourselves that like Hagar, we can never run, and hide from the presence of the Lord. The Lord is omnipresent – present everywhere. He observes and knows everything; our hearts, our thoughts, our fears, our circumstances and every detail of our lives. It is wise to make God our refuge when things are well, and not run to Him only when in trouble.
We must also guard our hearts, for out of the overflow of our hearts our mouth speaks things that are displeasing to the Lord. That is why the Lord must cleanse our hearts so that what comes out of us is pure and pleasing to the Lord.
Abraham encountered the Angel of the LORD
In Genesis 22:11 we read, “But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." (ESV)
Abraham stood on the mount in the region of Moriah, with a knife in his hand. In front of Abraham, tied down and lying on the altar was his dearly loved son Isaac, the son of God’s promise. With God above watching him, Abraham must have been distressed with his hand raised, and ready to sacrifice his son as the Lord commanded him to.
Abraham’s predicament was tough, on the one hand was God who called Him, watched over Him, blessed him and raised him up. On the other side was Abraham’s only son whom God had blessed him with, lying on the altar ready to be sacrificed. It was at this crucial juncture as Abraham lowered the knife to sacrifice Isaac that the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham in Genesis 22:11. Faced with the choice between choosing God or his son Isaac, whom God had blessed Abraham with, Abraham chose God because he knew that the Lord who gave Isaac, was well able to give him more sons if he had to sacrifice him.
In Genesis 22:12 we read, He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." (ESV)
Here again we see that the angel of the LORD called out to Abraham in Genesis 22:11, but in Genesis 22:12, it was the Lord Himself who commended Abraham for not withholding his son Isaac from being sacrificed.
As long as we sojourn here on earth, we will be constantly challenged with these conflicting choices; should we choose God or should we choose the world, money, relationships, position and possessions. That is why it is a joy to hear of testimonies of those who take a stand and forfeit a job, only because they were refused leave on Sundays, the only day they could join together for worship and fellowship. When someone takes such a decision the Lord will surely bless them because God’s word is clear that when we seek God first and His kingdom, then everything else will be added to us as well. Like Abraham, if we choose God over the earthly blessings in our lives, we can be certain that all that we give up for the sake of the Lord, He will compensate manifold.
The main reason the Lord led the people of Israel through the wilderness for forty years, was that they would learn to trust in Him completely. He could have taken them through a shortcut but the wilderness experience taught them to depend on the Lord for their food, water, security, and every other need. God fed them with manna for all those years they wandered in the wilderness. For the first five days they were commanded to pick up manna that would be enough for only one day. However, on the sixth day they were asked to gather enough for two days, so they could rest and observe the Sabbath as the Lord commanded them to. There were those who tried to collect more on the first five days, only to find them rotting with maggots the next day. But, when they gathered double the amount on the sixth day, with the intention to observe the Sabbath, the manna they collected remained fresh the next day. It was God’s way of making them realize that when they honored God by observing the Sabbath, God blessed them with His divine blessings.
Nowadays, there are many hindrances that prevent people from gathering together to worship the Lord, and hear His word on Sunday. The word of the Lord clearly instructs us that we should not neglect the gathering together of believers, to build and edify one another. The Lord will truly honor those who honor His word, and live in obedience to Him.
If we wonder as to why God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son whom he loved so much, we should turn our attention to the Gospels. God the Father, gladly sent His only begotten Son Jesus, who lived a sinless life on the earth, and willingly went to the cross to die for the sins of the whole world. This time however, God the Father did not hold back, but gave up His son to die the cruel death on the cross as a propitiation for our sins. It is because of the precious blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross that we have the hope of forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life. God demonstrated this amazing love through Jesus, so we could be called sons and daughters of the most High God.
Moses encountered the angel of the LORD
We read in Exodus 3:2, “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.” (ESV)
Moses was brought up with pomp and splendor of Pharaoh’s palace. However, when Moses took up for a fellow Israelite and killed the Egyptian who tormented him, he became the object of Pharaoh’s wrath, and fled to the wilderness. Moses ended up for the next forty years tending his father-in-law’s sheep. He was reduced from being a prince of Egypt to an ordinary shepherd in the wilderness. This is where the angel of the Lord spoke to Moses in a flame of fire, from a burning bush that was not consumed as we read in Exodus 3:2.
We read in Exodus 3: 6-7, 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. 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. (ESV)
Having fled Egypt and having lived in the wilderness for forty years, Moses forgot God’s call, and purpose for his life. The angel of the LORD appeared to Moses through the burning bush, and the Lord Himself introduced Himself to Moses. We read again in this incident that there is reference to the angel of the LORD appearing and the Lord Himself speaking to Moses. God was calling Moses to go back to be a leader to stand before Pharaoh King of Egypt and deliver the people of Israel from Pharaoh’s cruel hands.
There are many who have forgotten God’s call for their lives, and have settled down for the mundane. The Lord’s call to such people is to get back to their first love, and to renew His call for their lives. To such the Lord is calling them back to go back to the place where He first called you.
We looked at Gideon who was in a hopeless situation, Hagar who was in a dead situation, Abraham who was in an impossible situation, Moses who was in a forgotten situation, but God appeared to all of them, and delivered them out of their predicament. God revealed Himself as the angel of the LORD but spoke to them as the Lord Himself.
We read John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” (GNB)
In the New Testament God chose to reveal Himself through His son Jesus Christ. Mary was just a channel God used to bring Jesus into this world. However, many are wrongly misled to honor the mother of Jesus more than Jesus Himself. We must truly give Jesus the honor that is due only to Him alone, and to no one else.
We read in John 1:18 that Jesus Christ was there with the Father from the very beginning but was revealed to us in human form when Jesus came down to this earth. Many Bible scholars infer that in the Old Testament, wherever it is said “the angel of the LORD” appeared, it was pre-incarnate Jesus, as both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit do not take on any form in the Bible. That is the reason why the reference to the angel of the LORD and the LORD (Yahweh) have been used interchangeably. If that is the case then, the angel of the LORD who appeared to Gideon, Hagar, Abraham, Moses and many other in the Old Testament was the pre-incarnate Jesus, the second person of the trinity.
This Jesus who was with the Father from the very beginning was revealed in the New Testament as the Son of God, who came down to earth, born of the virgin Mary, led a sinless life and willingly gave up His life on the cruel cross for the sins of all mankind. He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, was taken up into the heavens, and will come again as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
We read in Hebrews 1:3, “His Son is the reflection of God's glory and the exact likeness of God's being. He holds everything together through his powerful words. After he had cleansed people from their sins, he received the highest position, the one next to the Father in heaven.” (GW)
May we surrender our lives to Jesus who alone can cleanse us from all our sins, and can change every adverse situation in our lives. His grace is all sufficient for us, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.
Rev. F. Andrew Dixon
www.goodnewsfriends.net
Transcribed by: Sis. Esther Collins
