 Who exactly is the angel of the Lord? Well, it should come as no surprise to many that he is God. When you look throughout scriptures, you're gonna see this term, this person, the angel of the Lord mentioned. As a matter of fact, if we look through the scriptures, if we start off in Genesis 16, seven, it's the first time that we see this term, the angel of the Lord mentioned. If we scroll through, we'll see the term, the angel of the Lord mentioned also in Genesis 22. We'll see in Genesis 22 again, in Exodus 32, in Exodus three, in Numbers 22. Throughout the Old Testament, we'll see this term, this person mentioned, the angel of the Lord. Now, who is the angel of the Lord? Now, if we look in these passages that I scrolled through, you'll see in Genesis 16, this is the encounter with Hagar, we'll cover that just a little bit. Also, you'll see the encounter with Moses. You'll see this encounter with Abraham. You'll see the angel of the Lord even encounter Blam. And what's interesting about the angel of the Lord in these encounters is he's always called God. I mentioned Genesis 16, so let's go there and let's see this in an interaction with Hagar. In Genesis 16, seven says, Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Sherr. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's made, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I'm clean the presence of my mistress. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority. Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, and notice this phrase that he says, he says, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count. Well, that seems interesting if that were just an angel, but no, this is not any angel. This is a messenger who happens to be God himself. We're gonna see this in a little bit, but he says that I will multiply it. That's something that only God could do or wouldn't even say. Verse 11 says, the angel of the Lord said to her further, behold, you're with child and you will bear a son and you should call his name Ishmael because the Lord has given he to your affliction. Now, does he say so because he's saying that he is the Lord and he has heard your affliction? Well, I think that's the case, let's continue reading. In verse 13, then she says, she called the name of the Lord who spoke with her. Now, interestingly enough about this, it says that she calls and then the name of the Lord, she didn't say the name of the Lord, the person who's telling us a story. Well, who's telling us a story? Moses is telling us a story of Hagar. And so Moses writes in that she calls the name of the Lord. Well, how does she know? How does Moses know since he wasn't there that this is the Lord? Because God is the one telling him the story. God is giving him the story. Moses recounting or writing the story down for us. And the reason why I make this point about the Lord, you'll see exactly who the Lord is. But before we get there, let's finish reading and see what Hagar says. She calls the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God who sees. Have I even remained alive after seeing him? So she says, you are a God who sees. Not saying any old God, but a God, meaning the God and you see and hear and are attentive to my pain and my plight and my afflictions, as he says. So she herself calls him God. In the case of her, she believes that he's God. Again, why is that important? She could be wrong, someone might say, but no, this is not her giving the story. This is Moses writing the story down. Do we now no longer trust Moses' account? And by the way, who's telling Moses this story? God is telling the story. Also, before we go to this issue of the Lord, you'll also see this term in the Bible just like the Angel of the Lord. You'll see the Angel of God. In Genesis 21, 17 is the first time we see the term, Bank of God. And notice who he's speaking to. The Angel of God had called Hagar from heaven and said to her, what is the matter with you? So we see this term, we see it in Genesis 31, Exodus 14, Judges and so forth. So we see this term throughout the scriptures. And the reason why I bring this up here is because the Angel of the Lord who was speaking to Hagar is also referred to the Angel of God who was also speaking to Hagar. Now, I also mentioned about how Moses calls him the Lord. So before we go any further, let's also see who is the Lord. In Deuteronomy 435, he says, to you it was shown that you might know that the Lord he is God, there is no other beside him. So clearly Moses is trying to tell us that in Deuteronomy that the Lord is God and there is no other beside him, no other Lord, no other God. He also reiterates this is a few verses later in verse 39. He says, no therefore today and take it to your heart that the Lord he is God in heaven above and on the earth below, there is no other. So it should be clear abundantly clear, the Lord is God. That part is clear just by the plain reading. And then we also have seen the find that seems though that the Angel of the Lord also is God. How we can make this even and clear is if we go to Exodus three, we see Moses, you know the story when he encounters the burning bush and let's see some of the names that are brought up here. In Exodus three says, now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the west, west of the wilderness and came to Orib, the mountain of God. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush. So here we see the angel of the Lord showing up and the angel of the Lord is who the Bible says that in this case, Moses was there. And so he didn't need him to tell him the story. He's writing, recounting the story. And he says, this is the angel of the Lord that appeared in the midst of the burning bush. So we understand who's in the middle of the burning bush, the angel of the Lord. Now, if we go down to verse three, he says that Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why this bush is not burned up. Now, when the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am. So now, remember, it originally said that the angel of the Lord was in the midst of the bush. Now it's saying the Lord called to him from the midst of the bush, God called to him. And so we see who is in the midst of the bush. Well, Moses says it's the angel of the Lord. He says it's also God. He says it's also the Lord. Now, it's not like it's three people that are in there and that the inside of this burning bush is crowded. No, there's one person there who was identified as God, who was identified as the Lord, who was identified as the angel of the Lord. Well, the Lord is not a big issue since we already know that the Lord is God, according to Moses. And also the angel of the Lord is God, according to Hagar, according to Gideon, according to Abraham, according to Balaam, according to Jacob. So this angel of the Lord is also God. That part should be understood. Now, why is that important? The angel of the Lord is God. The Lord is God. Well, it's very important and vital to our salvation. Why is that? Well, if we go to Romans chapter 10, starting in verse nine, we see what is necessary for salvation. He says that verse nine, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And this is not a confession that he is a Lord, but the Lord. How do I know? Well, let's keep reading. Going to verse 11, he says, for the scripture says whoever believes in him, that Jesus will not be disappointed for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon him for whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So it's definite that this is the Lord. Jesus is the Lord, but he's also the angel of the Lord. The Lord is God. Jesus is the Lord. The angel of the Lord is also God. So who is the angel of the Lord? That's none other than Jesus, the pre and current Christ in the Old Testament, who also is God. So my friends, I hope this has been helpful for you. Hope this gives a little bit of clarification understanding who the angel of the Lord is. Every time that he is interacted with mankind, this is God coming in a veiled form, hit the pre and current Christ to interact with man. And this is why they make the statement that they have literally seen God. Amen.