Genesis 16 - Introduction

EXCURSUS F: ON THE ANGEL, [HEB., “MESSENGER OF JEHOVAH”] (Genesis 16).

It is in chapter 16 that we first meet with this term, and as in several places there is an apparent identification of Jehovah’s messenger with Jehovah Himself, and even with Elohim, it becomes necessary to say a few words upon the much debated question, whether it was a created angel that was the means of communication between Jehovah and His ancient people; or whether it was an anticipation of the Incarnation of Christ, and even a manifestation in human form of the Second Person of the Divine Trinity.

God in His absolute and perfect nature is, as we are clearly taught, beyond the reach of human sense, and even of human reason. “No man hath seen God” John 1:18; John 6:46), “for He is the King invisible, Who dwells in the unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:16); but we are taught with equal clearness that it was the office of Christ to reveal Him to us (John 12:45; John 14:9); and that Christ is not merely “the effulgence of His glory, but the very image and impress of His substance” (Hebrews 1:3). In his own nature, then, incomprehensible and exalted far above the reach of our mental powers, God is nevertheless made intelligible to man, and brought near to our hearts and minds in Christ, so that we can conceive of Him as a Person, and as such love and worship Him. Yet was this Incarnation of God the Son the most sublime and awful mystery ever displayed upon earth; and to suppose that it was a mystery often repeated, so far from being a help to our faith, would be the reverse. We may well believe that God prepared men’s minds for so Divine a fact as “the emptying Himself of His glory, that He might be made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7); but that He became Man except at Bethlehem should have for its proof nothing less than the express warrant of Holy Writ.

In three cases there is an apparent identification of the angel with God. Thus of Hagar it is said, “She called the name of Jehovah that speaketh to her El Roï” (a God of seeing); and as a reason for the name she adds, “Do not I see after my seeing?” (Genesis 16:13). Similarly, after Jacob had wrestled with ”a man” until the breaking of the day, he “called the name of the place Peni-el (the face of God): for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). Finally, after “the angel of Jehovah” had gone up in the flame from off the altar, Manoah said, “We shall surely die, because we have seen Elohim (Judges 13:22).

In these and any similar cases the utmost that we can venture to affirm is that they had seen God representatively by the angel; by whom also “Jehovah spake to Hagar.” Upon this latter point there is a valuable note of Bar-I Hebrseus in his Scholia on Acts 7:30, “He that was visible was an angel: He that spake was God.” Nor is there any difficulty in the fact that in Genesis 16:10 the angel says to Hagar, “I will multiply thy seed.” For it is the rule in Holy Scripture to ascribe to the agent the deeds which he executes by God’s commission. Thus Ezekiel speaks of himself destroying Jerusalem (Ezekiel 43:3), the sense being that rightly put in our margin — that “he prophesied that the city should be destroyed.” Sent by Jehovah to execute His will, angel and prophet alike are described as themselves the doers of the task assigned to them. This rule should be remembered in the exposition of Genesis 19, where the two angels speak of themselves as destroying Sodom.

In the case, however, of the “three men who stood by” Abraham at Mamre, there is a very close identification of one of the angels with Jehovah. In the first verse we read that “Jehovah appeared unto Abraham.” This might well be by the mission of the angels, but after a sudden change to the singular number in Genesis 16:10, the speaker is both henceforward called Jehovah, and speaks as not only himself tho doer and judge, but as if it rested with him to save or destroy at his own will. There is also a marked distinction between him and the two angels who visit Lot, and who describe themselves as sent by Jehovah (Genesis 19:13), though even here, in Genesis 19:17, there is an approximation to a higher personification. In the case of the angel who visits Gideon there is again an apparent identification between him and Jehovah (Judges 6:14; Judges 6:16); nevertheless, Gideon still calls him an angel of Jehovah in Genesis 19:22, and he is called an angel of Elohim in Genesis 19:20.

In this case, and in that of the angel who appeared to Manoah, they refuse to partake of food, whereas the three angels who appeared to Abraham at Mamre ate of the food prepared for them. They are also called men, and behave in a very human manner, whereas the angels who appeared to Gideon and Manoah both display supernatural powers, and “do wondrously.” Nevertheless, nowhere else is there so close an identifi-cation between the angel and Jehovah as in this appearance at Mamre, and in the history of the intercession for Sodom both the angel and Abraham speak as if Jehovah was there present in person.
In the case of the revelation to Abraham after the sacrifice of Isaac, the “angel of Jehovah” calls to him from heaven, and we have no account of any appearance in human form.

If, however, we turn to other passages of Holy Scripture the explanation seems plain. In the passage of God’s ancient people through the wilderness, an angel was especially entrusted with their guidance and protection. He is called “the angel of Èlohim,” and his symbol was the pillar of fire and of the cloud (Exodus 14:19). Once, however, he appears in human form to Joshua, and claims the office of captain of Jehovah’s host (Joshua 5:13). In the full description of him in Exodus 23:20, we read in Exodus 23:21 “my Name is in him.” Now this angel is called in Isaiah 63:9 “the angel of God’s presence,” literally, of His Face; and in this there is an evident allusion to Exodus 33:14, where Moses says, “If Thy Face go not, carry us not up hence;” and Jehovah says, “My Face shall go, that I may give thee rest.”

It seems, therefore, that under the Old Covenant, while generally it was created angels who were the medium of communication between God and man, yet that there was one kind of manifestation of Deity so high as that God’s Name was in him, and God’s Face shown by him. As all revelation was by God the Son (John 1:18) we may fearlessly connect this angel with our blessed Lord, called “the angel of the covenant” in Malachi 3:1; but it would be rash and presumptuous to attempt to define the exact nature of these appearances. The union of matter and spirit in any way is beyond our powers of understanding; how much more when that Spirit is God! But this we may reverently say, that these personal manifestations were an anticipation in the Old Testament of that which is the cardinal doctrine in the New — that God has taken upon Him human nature, and appeared in fashion as a man. The saints of old knew of their Redeemer at first only as “the woman’s seed:” they learned next to unite the thought of Him with the name Jehovah; and, finally, they knew that Jehovah was also God. So was the broad foundation laid for the prophetic teaching that He was Emmanuel, in one person God and Man; and for the feeling so necessary for all true personal piety that God vouchsafes His presence on earth. He who now walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks (Revelation 1:13) from ¡time to time manifested His Face visibly to the saints of the Church of old. And not only was the father of the faithful thus visited, but even a runaway handmaid was neither disregarded, nor deemed unworthy of heavenly care. We might lose ourselves in profitless speculations as to the manner of events so mysterious, but the practical lesson is plain, that though “the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, yet He deigns to dwell upon earth” (1 Kings 8:27), and that His presence now vouchsafed by the spiritual indwelling of the Holy Ghost, is as efficacious for guidance, help, and comfort as were these visible manifestations in early times, when there was not as yet that full knowledge of God and of His ways, which has been given us in His Holy Word.