#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Angel Before YHWH’s Face
Isaiah 63:7–10
7I will tell about the LORD’s kindness, about the LORD’s deeds that should be praised, according to everything the LORD did for us, His great good work for the people of Israel, which He did for them according to His mercies and great kindness. 8He said: “Surely they are My people, children who will not be untrue to Me.” So He was their Savior. 9In all their troubles He was no enemy, but the Angel in Whom He revealed Himself saved them. Loving them and pitying them, He redeemed them. He took them up and carried them all those days of long ago. 10But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.
Isaiah says he will tell about the LORD’s kindness, his deeds that should be praised, according to everything he did for Israel. What things did the LORD do? He brought them down to Egypt in the midst of a famine and saved them through Joseph whom he raised up to the position equal to pharaoh. He settled them in the best of the land so they would become a great nation. The LORD rescued them from the hands of the Egyptians who turned against them with great plagues, signs and wonders. The LORD parted the waters so the Israelites would pass through the sea on dry ground and drowned the Egyptians pursuing them with the same. The LORD keep them feed and well clothed all the time they were in the wilderness. He delivered them from all their enemies on the way. The LORD destroyed the peoples of Canaan whose sin they would not repent even though they had the testimony of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He settled them in a good land flowing with mild and honey, full of cattle and rich fields, mighty cities, a land full of iron and copper and oil. These were the expressions of kindness the LORD did for Israel.
The LORD said that these Israelites were surely his people who would not be untrue to him. He became their Savior. He saved them from the hands of pharaoh. He defeated Sihon and Og. He delivered them from the Anakim and Rephaites. The LORD caused a terror in the land of wherever his people went. Even when the Israelites had rebelled against the LORD and forgot them and the people of the land came upon them and caused them great evil, the LORD was not an enemy to them but the Angel in Whom he revealed himself and saved them. The Angel before God’s face, the Angel of the LORD, this is Christ Jesus the LORD. Not a created angel but the only begotten Word of God through whom the LORD, the Father expresses himself and meets with his people. This Angel loves, pities and redeems the Israelites time and again though they are stiff-necked and hardheaded. He carried them all the time in their rebellion all those days of long ago. But they rebelled again and again and grieved his Holy Spirit.
Even though they grieved his Holy Spirit and he took his name from the temple before the invasion of the Babylonians and again at the hands of the Romans, the Angel of the Lord, the Word of God, the one who bears the name of the LORD became incarnate, took on human flesh, and in that flesh again he showed them his great love, mercy and pity by taking on their sins and their iniquities, their trespasses, their guilt and their shame by sacrificing himself on the cross so they would be redeemed and his people. In his great compassion for all people everywhere he did it for the world so all who would believe this would be joined to his people and co-heirs of his kingdom with them. This is our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Merciful and kind Father, you demonstrated your great pity and love for the people of Israel and for all people by the sacrifice of your son Jesus Christ upon the cross. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we may believe this and become your faithful people. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.