ANGEL OF THE LORD
ANGEL OF THE LORD
(Jesus Christ in the Old Testament)
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Mal. 3:1: Behold I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before Me; and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even
the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in behold, He shall come.”
The Angel of the Lord is a mysterious messenger of God in
the Old Testament, sometimes described as the Lord Himself. This is called a theophany (an appearance of
God) or Christophany (appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ). “Angel” is from the Hebrew mal’ak (Strong’s 4397), which means “to
dispatch as a deputy; a messenger, specifically, of God; an angel (also a
prophet, priest, or teacher). Called
either the Angel of the “Lord” (Yahweh) or the Angel of “God”) (Elohim), the
phrase is always in the singular. The
Angel of the Lord brought revelation, deliverance, and even destruction.
The first recorded visitation of the Angel of the Lord is
in Gen. 16: 7-13 to Hagar. “The angel of the Lord found her by a
fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.” As I mentioned while teaching on
Pride got a hold of Hagar.
When she conceived Abraham’s child, she despised Sarah, her
mistress. This is part of the journey of
the wilderness. The Lord had mighty
nations to come forth from Hagar’s womb, but these nations were not to carry
the anointing the Lord had placed on Sarah’s womb. Abraham’s seed had to bring forth nations,
because that was the anointing of the Lord on His life. This is the stumbling block of many
Christians today as they mis-judge their authority in the Lord and
anointing.
The anointing is that which is authorized, consecrated, set
apart; divine glory, presence, equipping, and blessing. As Korah and Miriam so arrogantly declared, “we are all anointed”. But we are not all Moses. We are
all anointed, but we are not all Sarah.
To anoint is to consecrate and ordain a person or thing for
a particular office, function, or service.
There is much conversation about “covering”. When the Lord calls and appoints a person to
minister over His flock, He anoints that person to do that work. Anointing is from the Hebrew mishchah (Strong’s 4888), which means
“unction (the act); a consecratory gift”.
Its root (Strong’s 4886), means “to rub with oil, to anoint; by
implication, to consecrate; also to paint; smear”. The phrase, “the Lord’s anointed,” referred
especially to the King’s office. In the
Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed by pouring oil on
their heads.
When you come into a fellowship of believers, the Lord will
have anointed a shepherd over that fellowship.
The “Anointed One”(Jesus) within the believer is a prophet declaring God
unto men, a priest bringing men unto God, and a king ruling in God’s name. If government leaders are not ruling in God’s
name, they are usurpers of the anointing.
If ministers of the gospel are trying to “control”, “meddle” or use the
anointing to “build a name for themselves”, they are usurpers and operating
under a false authority of their flesh.
The anointed Deacons and Elder over a fellowship of saints
constitute the anointing for which that fellowship has been raised up by a visitation
of the Angel of the Lord over the appointed Elder.
We are to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
confession, fully authorized to bear the name of the One who sent Him. (Mt.
28:18-20; Heb. 3:1) Jesus is our Savior, Protector, and Judge (Jn. 5:22; Acts.
4:12)0---the One who guides us through the wilderness of spiritual adolescence
to New Jerusalem (purity). He is the
Messenger of the New Covenant who washed us from our sins in His own blood
Rev. 1:5 “And from
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the First Begotten of the Dead,
and the Prince of the Kings of the earth, to Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in
His own blood.”
The Book of Revelation is the unveiling of this mighty
Angel. (Rev. 1:3) “Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this
prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at
hand.”
There are many scholars who adamantly believe that the
angels of the churches in the Book of Revelation are ministers. This conclusion comes from Rev. 22:8-9: “And I John saw these things, and heard
them. And when I had heard and see, I
fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.
Then says he to me, See you do it not:
for I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets and of them
which keep the sayings of this book; Worship God.
This angel definitely identifies himself as not being the
Angel of the Lord. He is identified in
21:9 as “one of the seven angels which
had the seven vials full of the seven
last plagues.” It is my belief this is an angel, not a man. We are not to worship angels. They are fellow servants with us in the Kingdom. (heb. 1:14: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." (Heb. 1:7) "And of the angels He says, Who makes His angels spirits and his minister a flame of fire."
Another reason why I believe the Lord places His Angels in
local assemblies is we have a mighty Angel that stands over the pulpit of this
church to guard the anointing, commission and mandate given to me by a
visitation of the Lord for His eternal purposes. We have many angels in this church. All of you have guardian angels. We have Praise and Worship Angels. I have an Angel of Glory that walks with me. The Lord has shown me this Angel. However, there is the Angel of the Lord. He is described as the Son of Man in Revelation 1.
If you leave this fellowship and go to another fellowship,
you will come up under the Angel sent to that church and the anointing over
that church for the mandate of the Lord.
One of the mistakes of Dear Saints of the Lord is they try to push their
calling and mandate on other houses of fellowship. They don’t want to pay the high cost of
fulfilling their calling. Therefore,
they try to “take-over” and/or “usurp” the Glory of another house.
If I go to another House of Worship, even though I have an
anointing on my life, I would never try to usurp the glory of the Minister the
Lord has placed over that house. I would
come up under him/her with all due respect.
I know the cost they have paid
and covet no man’s ministry, nor do I feel it my duty to instruct him/her on
how to do it. Nor would I criticize a
house, but encourage and bless to press on toward the Mark of the High Calling. Do not allow satan to take your crown nor
steal it.
The Angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham and spoke to him
on the mountain in the
Ex. 3:2: “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him
(Moses) in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and,
behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”
The burning bush (possibly a thorn bush) was the flaming
shrub at
Jesus Christ was the “bush” from Heaven enflamed with the
passion and zeal of His Father’s house, yet not consumed (Deut. 4:24) whose
words are Spirit and Life (Jn. 6:63).
The voice of the Lord called to Moses “out of the midst of the bush” (the
curse of the thorns). The Greek word for
“bush” is batos (Strong’s 942) and means
“a brier shrub.”
The Messiah, the “root out of a dry ground” (Is. 53:2);
made everything “holy ground” “And He shall grow up before Him as a tender
plant, and as root out of the ground.”
Just as Moses wondered (marveled) at the sight
(supernatural spectacle) of the burning bush, so our Lord is admired at His
appearing.
Acts 7: 31-33: “When Moses saw it, he wondered at the
sight; and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came to him,
Saying, I am the God your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. Then Moses
trembled and dare not behold.”
The glory of God’s Word is a devouring fire (Ex.
24:17) “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the
top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the Cloud…” This devouring fire consumes the flesh, but
not the spirit.
Judges 6: 20-23 gives us the account of another visitation
of the Angel of the Lord to Gideon.
“And the angel of God
said to Gideon, “Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon
this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then
the Angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and
touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the
rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cake. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of
sigh. And When Gideon perceived that he
was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have
seen an angel of the Lord face to face.
And the Lord said to him, Peace be to you, fear not; you
shall not die.”
Gideon’s problem was that he was timid. He was a coward. (6:12) “And
the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, The Lord is with
you, you mighty man of valor.” I can certainly identify with Gideon’s problem. I was very timid. I married a very strong man so I could hide
behind him and let him fight our battles.
The Lord raised me up in bed one night, and said to me, “Carolyn you have
courage!”
One of the first stands of courage I
had to make was to my husband and my children.
We have to have respect in our homes before we will have the respect due
the ministry.
I believed God and fear left me forever. I fear nothing and no one. It would have been impossible for me to pastor
a church if I were still timid. Many
misconstrue my gentleness with timidity, but they soon learn, “The Lord is with me
to do that which he called me to do.” Why me? I don’t know. Why
Gideon? Why Moses? Why Abraham and Sarah? Why Peter?
Why Paul? Etc. The Lord is
sovereign.
From the One who dwelled in the bush comes the blessings of
God upon all His separated ones who are energized by the strength and zeal of
His Spirit.
Deut. 33:16: “And for the precious things of the earth
and fullness thereof and for the good will of him that dwelled in the bush: let
the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him
that was separated from his brethren.”
2 Samuel 24: 16 describes the visitation of the Angel of
the Lord in judgment against David for numbering the people of
1 Ki. 19:7-8 describes a visitation to Elijah. “And
the Angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him and said, Arise and eat; because
the journey is too great for you. And he
arose, and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat
forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. The angel of the Lord appeared to Elijah a
third time. In 2 Ki. 1: 3; 15. He was sent to the King of
There are other instances of the visitation of the Angel of
the Lord. It is important for us to
understand the seriousness of these visitations, not take it for granted, and
be every reverent and in awe of His awesome presence. We need to understand that when a church
experiences that presence that we are standing on Holy Ground; the Lord has
commissioned and commanded a work to be done through his chosen vessels.
There will always be those who usurp authority and
anointing for their own glory. Those who
have been touched by the Angel of the Lord will be bent-over, in awe and humble
before His Presence. These will never
seek their own, but will know where and to whom they have been sent as a
Messenger of the New Covenant.
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
We stream our messages weekly
Scripture from K.J.V. Text from Understanding Types Shadows
and Names by: Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not
meant to reflect the views of those from whom I have gleaned.