Society of Saint Polycarp: The Angel of the Lord in the Burning Bush

Saturday, July 13, 2013

The Angel of the Lord in the Burning Bush

The Angel of the Lord in the Burning Bush (Exodus 3)

In Exodus 33:20, the LORD (Yahweh) tells Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” Scripture makes this point several times. And, yet, those who see God, somehow, still remain alive and are surprised by it! For example, after such an experience, Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar, said, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” (Genesis 16:13)

Yet, if someone cannot see the LORD, God, Yahweh, and live, and yet people are seeing Yahweh and not dying, who then are they seeing? The Old Testament helps us to understand this phenomenon by often using several distinct titles for revelation of God that people see: the Angel of the LORD (Yahweh), the Name of the LORD, the Glory of LORD, or the Word of LORD.

In the New Testament, Jesus lets us know that He was active and working in the Old Testament. He said, speaking to His fellow Jews:

You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. It is these same scriptures that testify about me…. Don’t think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words? [John 5:39, 45-47]

Later, the post-resurrected Jesus was speaking to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. This is what Luke tells us of this conversation: “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures [the Old Testament] concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)

In Exodus 23, the LORD (Yahweh) told Moses:

I will send an angel ahead of you to protect you as you journey and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to his voice. Do not defy him, for my name is in him, and he will not pardon such rebellion. But if you listen to his voice and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. [Exodus 23: 20-22]

Note that the angel has the name of the LORD, Yahweh. And one cannot separate the name Yahweh from the reality of Yahweh; thus, he is also Yahweh. We know this to be true because this angel has the power to absolve and retain sin as well as the ability to speak as Yahweh.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul speaks of Christ being present with Israel as they traveled through the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt. Paul refers to Christ as the “spiritual Rock”: “They [the Old Testament people of Israel] all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that went with then, and that rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:3-4)

And so when we read in the Old Testament about “the angel of the LORD,” we should first think of the pre-incarnate Christ, not an angelic being.

Knowing this, we see the pre-incarnate Christ appear to:

Hagar as a man (Genesis 16:7),
Abraham, as one of three visitors (18:1-2) or as a voice from heaven (22:11),
Joshua, as the commander of God’s army (Joshua 5: 13-15), and
Balaam, as an angel with a drawn sword (Numbers 22:31).

In Exodus 3, Moses uses “angel of the LORD,” “God,” and “Lord” interchangeably to describe who came to him in the burning bush. This lets us know that “angel of the LORD” refers to God revealing himself in a special way, not simply an angelic being.

1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” The word “angel” means messenger. In Exodus 3, we find the pre-incarnate Christ mediating between God the Father and Moses, bringing to him God the Father’s message.

Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD), when writing about Moses and the burning bush, said this: “Every place where Christ might be is holy.”

1 comment:

Michael L. Anderson, M.D., Ph.DJuly 13, 2013 at 1:39 PM
Thank you for the edifying commentary, Fr. Richard.

Certainly, then, "if everyplace where Christ might be is holy," then God's altars are holy, among we who claim belief in Christ's bodily Presence as we commune.

But behavior, we can be certain, betrays the mind's intents. The kiss of Judas never quite covered the staves, torches and swords behind him.

Surely God's Altar deserves at least a nod or two out of reverence, just as people held precious the hankies of the blessed Apostle Paul, or piously clutched the hem of Christ's garment.

This is, thank our crucified Lord, a Time of Grace. A curtain was torn asunder by God's hand, as a message of such. But the Ark was not shattered into pieces. There is no New Testament license, with all our abundant and undeserved freedom, to ignore altars or treat them with an ignorant casualness or as if were frontroom coffee table.

Your (unworthy) servant,
Herr Doktor
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About our Society

The Society of St. Polycarp is made up of Lutheran clergymen and laity committed to the confessional, liturgical, sacramental, and spiritual renewal of the Church of the Augsburg Confession. Since our Church's problems are not political, but rather spiritual, we pray God to grant us repentance, and seek no political aim. Members of the Society commit themselves to the following Rule.

The Rule
1. Members of the Society confess Holy Scripture to be "the pure, clear fountain of Israel" and also "the one true guiding principle," i.e., the sole norm or "judge, rule, and guiding principle" of the same (FC Ep. Comprehensive Summary, 7; FC SD Comprehensive Summary, 3). We rejoice in the tradition of the Holy Doctors and Fathers of the Church, in whom Christ kept His promise that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against (My Church)" (Mt 16:18), so that the Lutheran confessors could say that "the churches among us do not dissent from the catholic church in any article of faith" (AC Preface to XXII, 1, Latin). We reject all methods of interpretation that seek to understand the meaning of Scripture apart from the guidance of the Church, through which God gave us the Scriptures.

2. Members of the Society will promote the importance of daily prayer and meditation on Holy Scripture. Members will commit themselves to praying at least one of the daily offices, keeping fellow members as well as the Church Catholic herself in their prayers. The ideal use of the offices is in the corporate setting; however, the praying of the offices in private is to be carried out if there is no alternative.

3. Valuing Holy Absolution as "a voice from heaven" (Ap. XII, 40), members of the Society will avail themselves of the benefit of this sacrament, as well as promoting its use. Members will seek out father confessors of their own for regular and frequent private Confession and Absolution.

4. Members of the Society will promote the Sacrament of the Altar as the chief parochial service in the Church of the Augsburg Confession (AC XXIV, 34). Members will receive the Sacrament of the Altar often, as well as encourage others to receive it frequently, thereby restoring the traditional Lutheran understanding of the central place of the Sacrament in Lutheran worship. As the Lutheran Symbols assume the weekly celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar (AC XXIV, 34-38; Ap. XXIV, 1), members of the Society will promote this evangelical and catholic practice in their own parishes and in the work of the Society.

5. As the Sacrament of the Altar is the true Body and Blood of Our Lord that is truly present, distributed, and received (AC X, German), members of the Society are committed to the evangelical and catholic doctrine of closed communion, i.e., not admitting to the altar to receive the Holy Communion those who have not previously been examined and absolved (AC XXV, 1-2), let alone those of a confession of the Faith contrary to that of the Church of the Augsburg Confession.

6. Members of the Society will promote the historic liturgies of the Church Catholic, since such liturgies shape pastoral practice and teaching that is consistent with the evangelical and catholic Faith as it has been handed down in Holy Scripture, the Ecumenical Creeds, and the Symbolical Books of the Church of the Augsburg Confession.

7. As the Lutheran Symbols confess the Blessed Virgin Mary to be "the pure, holy, and ever-virgin Mother of God" (Theotokos, Gottes Mutter), as well as "that the blessed Mary prays for the Church" (Ap. XXI, 27; SA I, IV, Latin; FC SD VIII, 24), it is altogether fitting, proper, and consistent with the Faith of the Church Catholic to honor the Blessed Virgin in liturgical celebration. Members of the Society will seek to restore the traditional Marian feasts of the Church of the Augsburg Confession (i.e., the Feasts of the Purification, Annunciation, and Visitation) as a testimony of the grace of God through her, that we might imitate the Blessed Virgin in word and example, and in thanksgiving for the Incarnation of the Son of God through her humble submission to the will of God. Members of the Society will also promote the observance and celebration of saints' days and commemorations. This is wholly in keeping with the evangelical and catholic tradition of the Church of the Augsburg Confession, whose Symbolical Books acknowledge the saints as fitting exemplars of the catholic Faith worthy of imitation, as well as our heavenly intercessors (AC XXI, 1; Ap. XXI, 4-9).

8. As the Church of the Augsburg Confession understands herself as a part of the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, particularly as she exists in the West, members of the Society will take seriously the commitment to the proper ecumenicity this demands. Members will pursue dialogue with:
• Fellow Lutheran Christians to foster and promote Lutheran unity.
• Our separated brethren in the Roman Church, with which the Lutherans at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 clearly sought reconciliation.
• The Eastern Orthodox Church, following the example of the exchange between the Lutheran theologians of the University of Tübingen and Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople (1573-1581).
This reflects not simply the Lutheran commitment to the unity of all Christians, but ultimately the will of Our Lord Himself (Jn 17).

9. Members of the Society will make every effort to make a retreat once a year for the purpose of disciplined prayer and study, silence and reflection, as well as the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar.

Conclusion
Following the example of our patron, members of the Society ultimately strive to be faithful to Our Lord, recalling His words to St. John the Theologian: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Rev 2:10). Members also pray God's grace that we may be able to hand over to our posterity the tradition we have received as Lutheran Christians, and that we may be able to confess with our forebears at Augsburg that "nothing has been accepted among us, in teaching and ceremonies, that is contrary to Scripture or the catholic church. For it is manifest that we have most diligently been on guard so that no new or ungodly doctrines creep into our churches" (AC Conclusion, 5, Latin).