One of the more noticeable functions of the heavenly host is that they serve, at least a number of them, serve as God’s warriors, soldiers. The scripture uses military or army imagery and terminology. The members of the heavenly host get that label in certain passages, these are warriors. The Lord himself is called the Lord of hosts, but he actually is the Lord of armies. The reference is that God is himself a warrior, he fights to judge evil, he fights on behalf of his people and with him is this army, this entourage of the heavenly host. So we get this militaristic language to convey the idea that God will and does intervene on behalf of his people on earth to fight on their behalf.
When we think about angels in the Old Testament, it’s hard to miss some of the more important ones. The one that comes most often is the angel of Lord, this angel doesn’t really get a proper name, just referred to as the angel of the Lord. Now, the angel of the Lord is God himself, the second person of the Trinity, showing up as a man in the form of a human being. Now, this isn’t incarnation, the second person of the Trinity is going to be incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth later. So, this technically isn’t Jesus in the Old Testament, although it sort of is and isn’t, it’s the same second person of the Trinity. But if we just isolate our discussion to that figure, the angel of the Lord, and go back to Exodus 23:20-23, we have God saying to Moses, I’m here, but I’m also in that angel. That angel, that supernatural being that came in the form of a man, that’s me. I’m still here, but that’s me as well.
So, this is a really important figure, but there are things about this figure that we kind of miss. This particular angel is the destroyer in the last plague before Passover, the death of the firstborn. Because in Joshua 5:13-15, Joshua meets the captain, the commander of the Lord’s armies. And there’s a specific item of description there, the figure in front of Joshua has his drawn sword in his hand. So the angel of the Lord is a militaristic figure, he is the captain of the Lord’s armies. It would not be surprising to have him be the destroyer in this last plague in Egypt. In modern terms, we think of anyone killing something else as an agent of evil. So what’s going on with the last plague?
We need to remember is that the plagues are collectively a judgment on the gods of Egypt. God says this point blank in Exodus 12:12, I will do punishments among all of the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh. This night I will have victory over the gods of Egypt, and all the plagues can be traced to some judgment on a specific Egyptian deity, and the whole Egyptian religious system. So this is a judgment against the fallen deities. This is the Deuteronomy 32:8-9 worldview of the nations. They’re people, God should be merciful and have compassion, but it’s a reversal of what the Egyptians had done to the people of Israel. What starts this all off in Exodus, is the fact that Pharaoh is ordering the death of Hebrew children, specifically males. So this is God’s way of reversing that incident.
God’s way of pronouncing judgment, it is really sort of an example of the eye for an eye. This final plague really strikes at the heart of where this all started. Pharaoh’s lack of submission, his hostility toward the people of God, it’s sort of a natural kind of bookending reversal effect to what’s going on. But despite all that, at the end of the day, God is the giver of life and God can judge evil any way that he sees fit. And in some cases in the Old Testament, that does mean the death of his enemies and the enemies of his people. That does happen, and God has every right to do that, to defend his own and in this case, he does.
When we think about angels in the Old Testament, it’s hard to miss some of the more important ones. The one that comes most often is the angel of Lord, this angel doesn’t really get a proper name, just referred to as the angel of the Lord. Now, the angel of the Lord is God himself, the second person of the Trinity, showing up as a man in the form of a human being. Now, this isn’t incarnation, the second person of the Trinity is going to be incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth later. So, this technically isn’t Jesus in the Old Testament, although it sort of is and isn’t, it’s the same second person of the Trinity. But if we just isolate our discussion to that figure, the angel of the Lord, and go back to Exodus 23:20-23, we have God saying to Moses, I’m here, but I’m also in that angel. That angel, that supernatural being that came in the form of a man, that’s me. I’m still here, but that’s me as well.
So, this is a really important figure, but there are things about this figure that we kind of miss. This particular angel is the destroyer in the last plague before Passover, the death of the firstborn. Because in Joshua 5:13-15, Joshua meets the captain, the commander of the Lord’s armies. And there’s a specific item of description there, the figure in front of Joshua has his drawn sword in his hand. So the angel of the Lord is a militaristic figure, he is the captain of the Lord’s armies. It would not be surprising to have him be the destroyer in this last plague in Egypt. In modern terms, we think of anyone killing something else as an agent of evil. So what’s going on with the last plague?
We need to remember is that the plagues are collectively a judgment on the gods of Egypt. God says this point blank in Exodus 12:12, I will do punishments among all of the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh. This night I will have victory over the gods of Egypt, and all the plagues can be traced to some judgment on a specific Egyptian deity, and the whole Egyptian religious system. So this is a judgment against the fallen deities. This is the Deuteronomy 32:8-9 worldview of the nations. They’re people, God should be merciful and have compassion, but it’s a reversal of what the Egyptians had done to the people of Israel. What starts this all off in Exodus, is the fact that Pharaoh is ordering the death of Hebrew children, specifically males. So this is God’s way of reversing that incident.
God’s way of pronouncing judgment, it is really sort of an example of the eye for an eye. This final plague really strikes at the heart of where this all started. Pharaoh’s lack of submission, his hostility toward the people of God, it’s sort of a natural kind of bookending reversal effect to what’s going on. But despite all that, at the end of the day, God is the giver of life and God can judge evil any way that he sees fit. And in some cases in the Old Testament, that does mean the death of his enemies and the enemies of his people. That does happen, and God has every right to do that, to defend his own and in this case, he does.
