THE ANGEL OF THE LORD AND THE FACE OF GOD

Angel of the Lord:  The special form in which God manifested Himself to man, and hence Christ's visible form before the Incarnation.  Known as Christophanies, they are the manifestations of God in visible and bodily form before the Incarnation.  Though once called Theophanies, Christophany is a better term since it was an appearance of Christ.  Because these appearances occur in the Old Testament, they serve as proof of both the Pre-existence and Eternality of Christ.

Genesis 16:10 - "And the Angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude."

Genesis 22:11-12 - "And the Angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.  And He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him:  for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me."

Exodus 3:2 - "And the Angel of the LORD appeared unto him 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."

Judges 2:1, 4 - "And the Angel of the LORD (see v. 4) came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I swore unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break My covenant with you....And it came to pass, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept."

Judges 13:31-32 - "But the Angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.  And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God."  [Note:  This has to be a Christophany as no man has seen God at anytime (Gen. 32:30; Jn. 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 Jn. 4:12).]

Zechariah 12:8 - "In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the LORD before them."

SINCE THE BIBLE IS GOD'S WORD, AND THUS PERFECT, CONTRADICTIONS CANNOT EXIST; THEREFORE, THE CHILD OF GOD SHOULD DILIGENTLY SEEK TO RECONCILE THE APPARENT DIFFERENCES BY PRAYERFULLY STUDYING GOD'S INSPIRED TEXT.