The RAVYN Blog

Exodus 3 tells a story of an Angel who appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush.

While conversing with God, Moses asked for His name, and God revealed that His name is YHWH. Later, in Exodus 6, God explained to Moses that the earlier patriarchs didn’t know His name:

“I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El Shaddai], but by My name, the LORD [YHWH], I did not make Myself fully known to them. I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.”

Exodus 6:2-5

The name that God appeared to Abraham with can be found in Genesis 17:1, where He tells Abraham:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between Me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”

Exodus 17:1-2 ESV

During this time, God renamed Abram Abraham and established a covenant with him. Abraham would be the father of many nations.

The Angel of the LORD in Exodus

When the Israelites were rescued from the hands of the Egyptians, God tells Moses this:

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.”

Exodus 23:20-21

The Angel of the Lord, whose identity was concealed until the burning bush, was sent to rescue those in captivity. He came to rescue the Israelites during Egyptian oppression and was sent to guard the Israelites through the wilderness. 

Later, this angel appeared again during Israel’s struggles with neighboring nations.

In the Book of Joshua, a Commander was sent to Joshua during the Israelites’ struggle against Jericho.

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”

And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.”

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”

And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Joshua 5:13-15 ESV

Joshua’s leadership over the Israelites continued as the Israelites fought many battles against various neighbors in their pursuit of the promised land. However, throughout these many battles, Israel failed to obey God’s voice.

After Joshua’s death, the Israelites entered an era of judges.

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.

Judges 2:1-5 ESV

If you notice the language used by this ‘Angel of the LORD’, you’ll see how much this ‘Angel’ seems to speak as though He is God.

The Angel of the LORD in Judges

This same Angel of the Lord appears to Gideon, giving him instructions to pursue the Midianites. This Angel promises to be with Gideon during the battle.

Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

And Gideon said to Him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

And he said to Him, “Please, LORD, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

And he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please 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 till you return.”

Judges 6:11-18 ESV

When Gideon brought his sacrifice to this Angel of the LORD, the Angel caused fire to consume the meat and cakes that Gideon had brought.

Gideon, seeing this, realized that he was in God’s presence, but God comforted him with peace.

So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat 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 terebinth and presented them. And the Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.”

And he did so. 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.

Then Gideon perceived that he was the Angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O LORD God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”

But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 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 ESV

The book of Judges highlights the depravity the Israelites fell into and their need for strong leadership. Judges 13:1-25 shows how persistent and continuous Israel was in evil. Even during this, the Israelites suffered at the hands of the Philistines.

God responded to Israel’s suffering by sending the Angel of the LORD to a woman married to a Danite. Dan was one of Jacob’s twelve sons, born to Rachel’s maidservant. His name means ‘the Lord will vindicate’^[a] (often translated as ‘the Lord will judge’).

To vindicate someone means to clear their name of blame or suspicion. In other words, removing their sins^[b].

This was the very first encounter in the Old Testament in which the Angel was sent to a woman to tell her she would have a son. This Angel gives the woman specific instructions, declaring that the child is to be a Nazarite from birth.  Through this child, God would vindicate Israel from their past by sending a ‘deliverer’, a new judge, who would rescue them from their oppression caused by the Philistines. 

Then Manoah inquired of the Angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

“We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” 

Judges 13: 18-22

Manoah asks the Angel for his name, but the Angel replies that his name is ‘beyond understanding’. From the encounter at the burning bush, we see that God’s name cannot be confined to human understanding.

The Angel of the Lord has a significant name, one revealed to Moses before rescuing the Egyptians from captivity. From the beginning, God reveals Himself as the one who rescues and delivers.

Through this, we understand that the covenant between God and the Israelites promised restoration through a soon-coming Messiah, who would fight for them, vindicate them, deliver them from oppression, and set them free from captivity.

Until Next Time…

Understanding God’s revealed name is important in understanding Jesus’ name and its etymology. More importantly, learning about the erasure of God’s name during the Babylonian exile matters, too. 

Under the Faith Forum, we discuss topical situations and how our faith in Christ challenges our perspective on them. We also answer some of the most challenging questions in the For Inquiring Minds Only series.

I welcome healthy discussions in the comments section and encourage you to share your thoughts and insights on the blog.

Remember that our best teacher and guide is the Holy Spirit. Pray for clarity and understanding before reading through a session, and feel free to ask any questions that may arise.

Signed,

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