Introduction
The Old Testament contains a mysterious figure called the Angel of the LORD, who appears at some of the most important moments in Israel’s story. He speaks with divine authority, is identified as God, receives reverence from those who encounter Him, and yet is also somehow distinct from God. He is not treated like a normal messenger, and the more carefully we follow His appearances, the harder it becomes to explain Him as one.
But this raises an important question, because the Bible is clear that no one can simply look upon God in His unveiled glory and live.1 When Moses asks to see God’s glory, the LORD tells him:
20 You cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.
Exodus 33:20 — BibleGateway.com
John says the same thing when he writes:
18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
John 1:18 — BibleGateway.com
And yet, again and again in the Old Testament, people encounter someone visible. Hagar meets Him in the wilderness and names Him “El-roi,” the God who sees.2 Moses encounters Him in the burning bush, where the Angel of the LORD appears, yet the voice from the bush says, “I am the God of your father.” Manoah and his wife see Him ascend in the flame of the altar, having first encountered Him as a man,3 and Manoah says, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”
So who is the Angel of the LORD?
From the earliest Christian reading of Scripture, this figure has been understood as the pre-incarnate Christ, the Son revealing the Father while also making Himself known as God, long before He entered the world as the man Jesus Christ. These appearances are not random interruptions in the story but early glimpses of the same divine mystery that would later be fully revealed in the Incarnation.
This article will follow that thread through Scripture and ask whether, in the Angel of the LORD, we find one of the clearest pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament.
What Does the Word “Angel” Mean?
Before looking at the passages themselves, we need to clarify what the word angel actually means. When Christians identify the Angel of the LORD with the pre-incarnate Jesus, they are not saying that Christ is a created angelic being. That would contradict historic Christian teaching, because Jesus is not a creature but the eternal Son of God, the Word who was with God in the beginning and is Himself God.4
The word translated as angel comes from the Hebrew word mal’akh (מַלְאָךְ), which means messenger or envoy. It can refer to an ordinary human messenger, a heavenly messenger, or, in the case of the Angel of the LORD, the One sent by YHWH.5
That distinction prevents a common misunderstanding. To identify the Angel of the LORD with the pre-incarnate Christ does not place Him in the same category as Gabriel, Michael, or any other created angel. The title identifies Him as the Messenger of the LORD, but the passages themselves will show that this Messenger speaks and acts with the authority of God Himself.
The Angel of the LORD Speaks and Acts as God
With that distinction in mind, we can now turn to the passages themselves. As you read, I encourage you to ask one question: is this Messenger presented as an ordinary messenger, merely delivering words from God, or as One who speaks and acts in a way that belongs to God Himself?
Hagar Calls the Angel God (Genesis 16:7–13)
7 The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” 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 offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the LORD said to her,
12 “Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;
you shall call him Ishmael,
for the LORD has given heed to your affliction.
He shall be a wild ass of a man,
with his hand against everyone,
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall live at odds with all his kin.”13 So she named the LORD who spoke to her, “You are El-roi,” for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”
Genesis 16:7–13 — BibleGateway.com
The first major appearance of the Angel of the LORD comes in the story of Hagar. Hagar was the Egyptian servant of Sarai, the wife of Abram. When Sarai was unable to have children, she gave Hagar to Abram, and Hagar conceived. But the situation quickly became painful and broken. Sarai treated Hagar harshly, and Hagar fled into the wilderness.
That is where the Angel of the LORD finds her.
Hagar is not in a temple, at an altar, or in a position of power. She is a mistreated servant, alone in the wilderness, running from the household of Abram. Yet the Angel comes to her personally, speaks into her suffering, and gives her a promise about her descendants.
The key line comes in verse 10. Rather than saying that God will multiply her offspring, the Angel says, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” He speaks in the first person, giving a promise that belongs to God Himself.
After this, Hagar does not treat the encounter as though she has simply received a message from heaven. Scripture says that she names “the LORD who spoke to her,” and calls Him “El-roi,” the God who sees. The narrator identifies the speaker as the LORD, and Hagar responds as one who has seen God and remained alive.
That is the point that matters in Genesis 16. The Messenger gives the divine promise in His own voice, and Hagar leaves the encounter knowing she has been seen by God.
For that reason, Christians have often understood this as one of the earliest Christophanies in the Old Testament.6
The Angel Speaks as the LORD (Genesis 22:11–18)
11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide,” as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Genesis 22:11–18 — BibleGateway.com
The next scene takes us to one of the most difficult moments in Abraham’s life. God has tested Abraham by asking him to offer Isaac, the son through whom the covenant promise was meant to continue.7 Abraham obeys, takes Isaac to the mountain, builds the altar, and raises the knife.
Then the Angel of the LORD calls to him from heaven.
What He says is striking. The Angel tells Abraham not to lay his hand on the boy, then adds, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Abraham was obeying God, yet the Angel speaks as the One from whom Isaac has not been withheld.
The Angel then calls to Abraham a second time and says, “By myself I have sworn, says the LORD.” What follows is not a minor blessing, but the Abrahamic promise itself: descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore, victory over enemies, and blessing for all nations through Abraham’s offspring.
A fair reading also has to acknowledge the messenger language in the passage. The Angel is sent, and He speaks in relation to the LORD. But His words are not treated as distant or secondary. Abraham’s obedience is directed to Him, and the promise is spoken through Him with the authority of the LORD Himself.
Genesis 22 does not give the whole doctrine of the Trinity in one passage, but it adds another piece to the pattern that later becomes clear in Christ.
The Angel Appears, but God Speaks (Exodus 3:2–6)
2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “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.
Exodus 3:2–6 — BibleGateway.com
This passage moves us from the patriarchs to Moses, and to one of the most famous scenes in the Old Testament. Moses is living in Midian,8 far from Egypt, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. He comes to Horeb,9 the mountain of God, and sees a bush that is “blazing, yet it was not consumed.”
Before Moses hears the voice, before he removes his sandals, and before the divine name is revealed later in the chapter, the visible appearance is described as “the angel of the LORD” appearing “in a flame of fire out of a bush.”
Then, as Moses turns aside, the same scene is described in the language of the LORD and God: “When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.” The Angel appears in the flame, and God calls from the bush. The text does not introduce a second location, or a separate speaker standing somewhere else.
The voice tells Moses not to come closer and commands him to remove his sandals, because the place where he is standing is holy ground. Then He says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hides his face because he is afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3 gives us the same pattern again: God is unseen in His unveiled glory, yet He makes Himself known in a visible encounter. The figure first named in that encounter is the Angel, and the voice from the bush is the voice of God. For Christian readers, this prepares the way for the New Testament claim that the invisible God is made known through the Son.
The Angel Says, “I Brought You Out of Egypt” (Judges 2:1–5)
2 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. 2 For your part, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. See what you have done! 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” 4 When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5 So they named that place Bochim, and there they sacrificed to the LORD.
Judges 2:1–5 — BibleGateway.com
Judges 2 takes place after Israel has entered the promised land, but the people have not remained faithful to what God commanded. They were told not to make covenants with the inhabitants of the land or worship their gods, but they failed to obey fully.
Into that failure, the Angel of the LORD comes from Gilgal10 to Bochim11 and speaks to the people.
This scene is different from the earlier ones. Hagar was alone in the wilderness. Abraham was on the mountain with Isaac. Moses was standing before the burning bush. Here, the Angel addresses Israel as a nation, and He speaks in the language of covenant.
He says, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors.” The deliverance from Egypt was the great saving act of the LORD in the Old Testament. Yet the Angel does not say, “The LORD brought you up.” He says, “I brought you up.”
He then says, “I will never break my covenant with you.” That covenant belongs to God. It was God who promised the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it was God who brought Israel out of Egypt. But here the Angel speaks as the One who made that promise and remained faithful to it.
The people’s response shows the gravity of the encounter. When the Angel speaks, they lift up their voices and weep, and the place is called Bochim, which means “weepers.” This is not a routine warning carried by an ordinary messenger. Israel is being confronted by the One who rescued them and now rebukes them for their disobedience.
Read alongside Exodus 3, the connection is hard to miss. In Exodus, the Angel appears when God begins to deliver Israel from Egypt. In Judges, He speaks as the One who brought that deliverance to completion. The same pattern continues: God is unseen in His unveiled glory, yet He makes Himself known through the divine Messenger at the centre of Israel’s story.
God Says His Name Is in the Angel (Exodus 23:20–23)
20 “I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.
22 “But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
23 “When my angel goes in front of you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out.
Exodus 23:20–23 — BibleGateway.com
Exodus 23 gives us God’s own instruction concerning the Angel who will go before Israel. The passage is not focused on an appearance, but on obedience. Israel is told in advance how they must respond to the One God is sending before them.
The LORD says, “I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.” The Angel is connected with God’s protection of Israel and His promise to bring them into the land.
Then comes the warning: “Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.”
That final phrase is the centre of the passage. In Scripture, God’s name is not just a label. It represents His revealed identity, His authority, and His presence among His people. So when God says, “my name is in him,” the Angel is being described in a way that goes far beyond a messenger being given an errand.
The next line holds the Angel’s voice together with God’s own command: “if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say.” Israel is told to listen to Him, and God describes that obedience as doing what He Himself says.
Exodus 23 gives theological language to the pattern we have already seen. The Angel goes before Israel as One sent by God, yet He bears God’s name, commands Israel’s obedience, and stands before them with God’s own authority.
The Angel of the LORD Is Distinct from God, Yet Identified with God
Before moving on to other visible appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament, we need to pause and make something clear. Christians are not arguing that the Angel of the LORD is a second God beside the LORD. The Bible does not allow that; it is fiercely monotheistic from beginning to end.
The point is that the Angel is presented in a way that does not fit the category of an ordinary created messenger. He is sent by the LORD, yet speaks as the LORD. He can be distinguished from God, yet He is also identified with God.
This is not a denial of monotheism. It is the pattern that later becomes clear in the New Testament, where the one God is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Zechariah 3 gives us another example of that pattern, but this time the distinction is even more explicit.
The LORD Rebukes Satan Through the Angel (Zechariah 3:1–5)
3 Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD and the accuser standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to the accuser, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was wearing filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And to him he said, “See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel.” 5 And he said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with apparel, and the angel of the LORD was standing by.
Zechariah 3:1–5 — BibleGateway.com
Zechariah’s vision takes place after the exile,12 when the people of Judah have returned from Babylon, and the temple is being rebuilt. Joshua the high priest stands before the Angel of the LORD, while Satan stands at his right hand to accuse him.
Joshua is not just a private individual in this scene. He is the high priest, the one who represents the people before God. Yet he stands there in filthy garments, which picture guilt, uncleanness, and the need for cleansing.
Then the passage says, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan!” But notice the wording. The LORD speaks, yet He says, “The LORD rebuke you.” The LORD is speaking, and the LORD is also spoken of. That is the distinction we need to notice. The passage is not presenting two gods, but it is giving us language that is more complex than a simple one-person view of God.
The vision then turns back to Joshua. The Angel commands that his filthy garments be removed and says, “See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you in festal apparel.” This is more than a change of clothing. Joshua’s guilt is taken away, and he is restored to stand before God.
Zechariah 3 brings the whole pattern into a heavenly courtroom. Satan accuses, Joshua stands guilty, the LORD rebukes Satan, and the Angel removes Joshua’s guilt. The passage holds together the two truths Christians are pointing to throughout this article: the Angel is distinguished from God, yet He acts with the authority of God.
The Angel of the LORD Appears Visibly, Even in Human Form
So far, the argument has focused mainly on speech, authority, covenant, and divine identity. But there is another part of the Old Testament witness that now needs to be brought into view. These encounters are not only verbal. In several places, God is encountered in a form people can see, approach, speak with, and, in some cases, even describe as a man.
This matters because the idea of God revealing Himself through visible, personal presence is not a late Christian invention. It reaches back into Genesis itself and continues through Israel’s story. These passages do not yet give us the full doctrine of the Incarnation, and they are not saying that God became man in the same way He later would in Jesus Christ. But they do prepare the ground for it.
The Old Testament already teaches us to expect something more than an invisible God speaking from a distance. It shows us that God can draw near, appear personally, and be encountered in ways that human beings can recognise, without ceasing to be the eternal and invisible God.
The LORD Appears to Abraham in Human Form (Genesis 18:1–3)
18 The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.”
Genesis 18:1–3 — BibleGateway.com
At Mamre, the scene is deliberately grounded and physical. Abraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, and Scripture says, “The LORD appeared to Abraham.” When Abraham looks up, he sees “three men standing near him.”
We should be careful here. The text does not say that all three men are the LORD. Later in the story, two of the visitors go on toward Sodom, while Abraham remains standing before the LORD. But the opening scene still carries weight. The LORD appears, and the scene is described in terms Abraham can recognise, welcome, and address.
This is not yet the Incarnation, and we should not read it as though it were. But it does show that, from Genesis itself, Scripture is already comfortable speaking of the LORD’s presence in personal and human terms. Abraham does not merely hear a message from heaven. He receives visitors, speaks with them, and stands before the LORD.
Jacob Wrestles with God in Human Form (Genesis 32:24–30)
24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.”
Genesis 32:24–30 — BibleGateway.com
The night before Jacob meets Esau, he is left alone. A man wrestles with him until daybreak. This is not described like a dream or a distant vision. Jacob struggles through the night, refuses to let go, receives a wound in his hip, and asks for a blessing.
As the encounter continues, the man’s identity becomes harder to explain. He gives Jacob a new name, Israel, because Jacob has “striven with God and with humans” and prevailed. Jacob then names the place Peniel, saying he has seen God face to face and yet his life has been preserved.
Jacob does not leave thinking he has only survived a fight with a stranger. He leaves limping, blessed, renamed, and convinced that he has met God. The man in the night wounds him, blesses him, and changes the course of his life.
That is why this encounter belongs in the discussion. Jacob wrestles with a man, yet leaves saying he has seen God.
Hosea Says Jacob Wrestled with the Angel (Hosea 12:3–5)
3 In the womb he tried to supplant his brother,
Hosea 12:3–5 — BibleGateway.com
and in his manhood he strove with God.
4 He strove with the angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought his favor;
he met him at Bethel,
and there he spoke with him.
5 The Lord the God of hosts,
the Lord is his name!
Centuries later, Hosea returns to Jacob’s story and gives another inspired reading of the encounter. Genesis describes the figure as a man, while Jacob says he has seen God face to face. Hosea brings the strands together by saying that Jacob “strove with God” and also “strove with the angel.”13
That detail is important. Hosea does not reduce the wrestling match to a purely human struggle. He remembers it as an encounter involving the Angel, while still saying that Jacob strove with God.
The description is layered: man in Genesis, Angel in Hosea, God in Jacob’s own confession. Scripture does not flatten those categories. It holds them together, which is why this encounter points beyond a normal human opponent or a created heavenly messenger.
Gideon Sees the Angel Face to Face (Judges 6:11–24)
The Call of Gideon
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” 13 Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.” 15 He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16 The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.” 17 Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”
19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. 20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour out the broth.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes, and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord God! For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, “The Lord is peace.” To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
Judges 6:11–24 — BibleGateway.com
With Gideon, the encounter begins quietly. He is threshing wheat in a winepress, hiding from the Midianites, when the Angel of the LORD appears and calls him a “mighty warrior.” Gideon does not look mighty in that moment. He is fearful, uncertain, and full of questions about where God has been while Israel has suffered.
As the conversation unfolds, the Angel speaks with more than ordinary authority. He sends Gideon to deliver Israel, answers his doubts, and accepts the offering Gideon prepares. Then the Angel touches the offering with the tip of His staff, fire rises from the rock, and the Angel disappears from sight.
Only then does Gideon realise the weight of what has happened. He says, “Help me, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” His fear makes sense within the world of the Old Testament. To see God, or even to realise one has encountered His presence so directly, is not a casual thing.
But the LORD answers him with peace: “Peace be to you; do not fear; you shall not die.” Gideon then builds an altar and calls it “The LORD is peace.”
This is a pivotal movement of the story. Gideon encounters the Angel, fears death because he has seen Him face to face, and receives reassurance from the LORD Himself. Once again, the Angel is not presented as a minor figure in the background of the story. His presence brings Gideon to the edge of holy fear, and the answer he receives is peace from God.
The Angel Appears to Manoah as a Man (Judges 13:3–23)
3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink or to eat anything unclean, 5 for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel of God, most awe-inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name, 7 but he said to me, ‘You shall conceive and bear a son. So then, drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.’ ”
8 Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, “O my Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.” 9 God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” 11 Manoah got up and followed his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12 Then Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy’s rule of life; what is he to do?” 13 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Let the woman give heed to all that I said to her. 14 She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine. She is not to drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. She is to observe everything that I commanded her.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Allow us to detain you and prepare a kid for you.” 16 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you want to prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) 17 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?” 18 But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”
19 So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him who works wonders. 20 When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on, and they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands or shown us all these things or announced to us such things as these.”
Judges 13:3–23 — BibleGateway.com
The account of Manoah and his wife gives us one of the clearest examples of how naturally these categories sit together in the Old Testament. The Angel of the LORD first appears to Manoah’s wife and announces the birth of Samson. When she describes the encounter to her husband, she says that “a man of God” came to her, and that His appearance was “like that of an angel of God.”
Manoah then prays that the “man of God” would return, and when the Angel appears again, Manoah asks, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” The question is important because Manoah is not initially describing the figure in abstract or purely heavenly terms. He is responding to someone who has appeared in a recognisable, personal form.
As the scene continues, the identity of the visitor becomes clearer. Manoah offers food, but the Angel tells him to offer it to the LORD. Then, as the offering burns on the altar, the Angel of the LORD ascends in the flame, and Manoah and his wife fall on their faces to the ground.
Only then does Manoah understand the seriousness of the encounter. He says to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” His wife reasons that if the LORD had meant to kill them, He would not have accepted their offering or announced the birth of their son.
Judges 13 brings the whole question into sharp focus. Manoah and his wife encounter someone who can be spoken of as a man, who is identified as the Angel of the LORD, and who leaves Manoah convinced that they have seen God. It is one of the strongest Old Testament examples of God revealing Himself in a form people can see, speak with, and fear as divine.
The New Testament Reveals the One Who Makes God Known
By this point, the Old Testament has raised a question that cannot simply be left hanging. If God is unseen in His unveiled glory, yet people truly encounter God in visible and personal ways, then we need to ask how Scripture itself resolves that tension.
The New Testament gives the answer by turning our attention to the Son. He is the Word who was with God and is God. He is the One who makes the unseen Father known. He is the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God’s glory, and the One through whom God has drawn near.
This is where the question of Jesus in the Old Testament becomes unavoidable. The Old Testament gives us the appearances; the New Testament gives us the identity of the One who reveals God.
The Word Was God and Made God Known (John 1:1–18)
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
John 1:1–18 — BibleGateway.com
John begins his Gospel by taking us back before creation itself.14 Before anything was made, the Word already was. He was with God, and He was God. This immediately gives us the category we need: distinction, because the Word is with God; divine identity, because the Word is God.
John then says that all things came into being through the Word, and that this same Word became flesh and lived among us. The One who enters the world as Jesus is not a prophet raised up from creation, nor an angelic creature sent with a message. He is the eternal Word through whom creation itself came to be.
That is why John 1:18 is so important for this article. John says that no one has ever seen God, but the only Son, Himself God, has made Him known. The Father remains unseen in His unveiled glory, yet He is truly revealed by the Son.
This gives us the clearest New Testament foundation for understanding the Old Testament appearances of God. If the Son is the One who makes the unseen Father known, then it makes sense that the visible appearances of God before the Incarnation would be appearances of the same divine Son, revealing the Father before He entered the world as Jesus Christ.
Before Abraham Was, I Am (John 8:56–58)
56 Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
John 8:56–58 — BibleGateway.com
Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus makes a remarkable statement about Abraham: “Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” The people listening understand how shocking this sounds, so they ask, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
Jesus does not soften the claim. He answers, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
That final phrase is the centre of the passage. Jesus does not merely say, “Before Abraham was, I existed.” He says, “I am.” The wording points beyond ordinary pre-existence and echoes the divine identity revealed in Scripture.
This addresses the question we have been asking. Abraham belongs to the earliest part of Israel’s story, yet Jesus speaks as One whose life and identity reach before Abraham. If Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and if Jesus can say “before Abraham was, I am,” then the New Testament is not presenting Christ as someone who begins at Bethlehem. It presents Him as the eternal Son, present before the patriarchs, and now revealed openly in the flesh.
The Image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15)
The Supremacy of Christ
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,
Colossians 1:15 — BibleGateway.com
Paul gives the same truth in a concentrated form when he calls Christ “the image of the invisible God.” That phrase holds two things together at once: God is invisible, and Christ is the visible revelation of Him.
An image is not only a reminder of something absent. In this context, Christ is the One in whom the invisible God is truly made known. He does not simply point away from Himself to God; He reveals God because He shares fully in the divine identity.
That helps us understand why the Old Testament appearances of God fit so naturally with the Son. If Christ is the image of the invisible God, then He is the One through whom the unseen God is made visible, not only in the Incarnation, but in the earlier ways God prepared His people for that revelation.
The Exact Imprint of God’s Being (Hebrews 1:3)
3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Hebrews 1:3 — BibleGateway.com
Hebrews pushes the argument even further. The Son is not placed alongside the prophets, angels, or any other servant through whom God speaks. He stands in a category of His own.
The Son does not represent God in the way a messenger represents the one who sent him. He perfectly expresses God’s own being. What belongs to God by nature is revealed in Him without reduction, distance, or distortion.
This helps explain why the Angel of the LORD cannot be understood as a created angel if He is truly the pre-incarnate Christ. The Son may be sent, but He is not a creature. He is the eternal One through whom God speaks, acts, and reveals Himself fully.
Christ Was Present with Israel in the Wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1–4)
Warnings from Israel’s History
10 I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:1–4 — BibleGateway.com
Paul also places Christ within Israel’s wilderness story. Writing to the Corinthians, he looks back to the generation that came out of Egypt, passed through the sea, and was sustained by God in the desert. Then he says that the rock from which they drank was Christ.
Paul is not treating Christ as someone who only appears for the first time in the New Testament. He sees the same Lord at work in Israel’s earlier history, sustaining His people before the Incarnation.
This is important for the argument of the article because many of the passages we have looked at belong to that same world: the exodus, the wilderness, the covenant, and the journey toward the land. If Paul can speak of Christ as present with Israel there, then the idea of the pre-incarnate Christ being active in the Old Testament is not a later invention being forced onto Scripture. It is how the New Testament itself reads Israel’s story.
So, Is the Angel of the LORD Jesus?
The Bible never gives us a verse that says, “The Angel of the LORD is Jesus.” But it gives us something more than a loose guess: a consistent biblical picture.
The Angel of the LORD is sent by the LORD, yet speaks as the LORD. He bears God’s name, acts with divine authority, receives reverent fear from those who encounter Him, guides, blesses, judges, and is identified with God, while still being distinguished from God. The New Testament then reveals the Son as the eternal Word, the image of the invisible God, and the One who makes the Father known.
That is why the Angel of the LORD is best understood as the pre-incarnate Christ, the eternal Son appearing before the Incarnation and preparing the way for the moment He would enter the world in flesh.
This also explains why these appearances do not continue in the same way after the coming of Christ. Once the Son has taken flesh as Jesus, the earlier glimpses have achieved their goal: the Messenger has not disappeared from the story, but has stepped into it fully.
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament, then, is not about forcing Him into places He does not belong. It is about recognising that the story was always moving toward Him. After all, if one of the great purposes of the Old Testament was to prepare human hearts for the coming Christ, then the question is not why Christians would see Him there, but why we would expect Him to be absent from the very story that was preparing the world to receive Him.
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19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20 — BibleGateway.com
Footnotes
- Seeing God — In Scripture, God’s unveiled glory is beyond mortal human capacity because He is the eternal Creator, not a being contained within time, space, or physical limitation. Scripture describes Him as dwelling in “unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16). Yet the New Testament also teaches that all things were made through the Son (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2), and that Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). For this reason, Christians understand visible encounters with God in the Old Testament not as sinful human beings beholding the Father’s unveiled essence, but as God making Himself known in a form they could encounter, ultimately through the Son. ↩︎
- El-roi — Hebrew: אֵל רֳאִי (El Ro’i), meaning “God who sees me” or “God of seeing.” ↩︎
- God as Man — Judges 13 is one of the strongest Old Testament passages for the Trinity and the pre-incarnate Christ. The figure is encountered in visible, human form, yet He is also identified as the Angel of the LORD and finally recognised by Manoah as God. This passage shows God making Himself known in the form of a man before the incarnation of Jesus Christ. biblegateway.com ↩︎
- John 1:1 — John identifies Jesus as the eternal Word who existed before creation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The verse both distinguishes the Word from God the Father and identifies the Word as divine, laying the foundation for John 1:14, where “the Word became flesh.” biblegateway.com ↩︎
- YHWH — The personal covenant name of God in the Hebrew Bible, often called the Tetragrammaton, from the four Hebrew letters יהוה. It is commonly rendered as “LORD” in English Bibles, using small capitals to distinguish it from the ordinary word “Lord.” The name is closely associated with God’s self-revelation to Moses in Exodus 3:14–15. ↩︎
- Christophany — A Christophany is an appearance or manifestation of Christ before His incarnation in Bethlehem. Christians use the term for Old Testament appearances in which God is visibly or personally encountered. ↩︎
- Covenant Promise — God’s covenant promise to Abraham was that his descendants would become a great nation, that they would inherit the land of Canaan, and that through his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1–3; 15:1–21; 17:1–8). Isaac was central to this promise because God specifically said, “It is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you” (Genesis 21:12), making Abraham’s command to offer Isaac in Genesis 22 especially striking. ↩︎
- Midian — An ancient region usually associated with northwestern Arabia, especially the area east of the Gulf of Aqaba in modern-day northwestern Saudi Arabia, sometimes extending into southern Jordan. ↩︎
- Horeb — Another name associated with Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, where Moses encountered the burning bush and later received the law. Some traditions distinguish Horeb and Sinai, but in many biblical contexts they appear to refer to the same sacred mountain or mountain region (Exodus 3:1; 19:11; Deuteronomy 5:2). ↩︎
- Gilgal — A biblical site near Jericho in the Jordan Valley. Its precise location is debated, though it is usually placed east or northeast of ancient Jericho, in the area between Jericho and the Jordan River. ↩︎
- Bochim — The exact location of Bochim is unknown, though it was west of the Jordan and is often associated with the hill country near Bethel. ↩︎
- Exile — The period when many of the people of Judah were taken from Jerusalem and forced to live in Babylon after the city and temple were destroyed in 586 BC. The exile was understood as a judgment for Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness, but also as a temporary period after which God promised restoration. Zechariah prophesied after some of the exiles had returned to Jerusalem. ↩︎
- Strove with God/the Angel Hebrew — Hosea uses forms of the Hebrew verb שָׂרָה (sarah), meaning to strive, contend, or struggle. The word does not describe a vague inner feeling, but an active contest. In this context, it points back to the bodily wrestling scene in Genesis 32, where the Hebrew verb אָבַק (abaq) is used, meaning to wrestle or grapple. Hosea is therefore recalling a real struggle, not merely a symbolic disagreement or private spiritual experience. ↩︎
- Before Creation — John’s opening words, “In the beginning,” deliberately echo Genesis 1:1, where Scripture first introduces the creation of the heavens and the earth. By using the same phrase, John places Jesus, the eternal Word, at the very moment of creation, not as part of what was made, but as the one through whom all things came into being (John 1:1–3). The Gospel therefore connects Jesus directly to the creation event and identifies Him with the divine work of Genesis. ↩︎
