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Why does God sometimes say yes, sometimes wait, and sometimes no? In why doesn't God answer my prayers? Trusted Bible teacher Dr. Erwin Lutzer offers biblical wisdom for one of life's hardest questions. Through scripture, he reminds us that God's silence is never indifference. Request your copy today with a gift of any amount to Real Life, visit jackkibbs.com or call 877-777-2346. Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.
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Hey, did Jesus ever walk around before he was born? That sounds crazy, right? Did Jesus ever walk around before he was born? Well, according to the Bible, we are going to be looking at what it means in the scriptures when they announce the angel of the Lord appeared unto. Well, going to find out.
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You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackibbs.com podcast today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.
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So as we look at the Word of God together, there is this remarkable thread that goes all the way through from Genesis to Revelation, and that is this title, this description, this label of one who is called the angel of the Lord. And the first thing that we want to make notice of is this. It's in John chapter 8. Please mark this down. Of course, the scribes, the Pharisees, they're attacking Jesus at every turn. That's what they did. I'm actually grateful for them because it's because of their shenanigans that they asked all kinds of atheistic type questions regarding the deity of Jesus. And he busted them every time with his eternal answers and truths and wisdom. And so we're grateful. In John chapter eight, they are trying to say to Jesus that they, the religious hierarchy, that they are the children of Abraham, they're the real deal. And Jesus, we don't even know where you've come from because after all, your mom, you know, got pregnant. And at least we know who our father is, who's your father? And they're really laying into him. And of course he was never bothered by that. He knew who he was. And in doing that, Jesus offered up a remarkable answer that should have caused them to run back to their libraries and go to work on some research. When he said this, I tell you that before Abraham was I am. He says, and by the way, the I am is the ego emi, which is before Abraham was I am before Abraham was I am the self contained, eternal existing one. I've never had a birth, I'll never have a death, I never had a beginning, I'll never have an end. I'm eternal. That's what egoimi is in Greek, the I am, which is by the way the same of the Hebrew. When Moses made meets the Lord in the burning bush. In Exodus, when Moses meets the Lord on Mount Sinai Horeb, when the bush is burning. And the Lord says, I want you to go and tell the children of Israel who sent you and thank God for questions, right? Abraham says, I mean, Moses says, who do I tell them sent me. Isn't that amazing? Moses is remarkably. Moses would have known the names of all these Egyptian gods, but Moses didn't know the name of the one true creator, God. And God says to Moses out of the burning bush, you go tell them I am, that I am sent you to them, the self contained, eternal existing God. So Jesus answers the scribes and pharisees in John 8 and blows their minds, just blows their minds because he says, Abraham came into existence. I saw that. I know that. And Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it. Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, I met Abraham, Abraham met me. We had a conversation together at least once. And you guys want to talk about pedigree. You guys want to talk about who knows who? You guys want to drop names? Well, I met Abraham. And the scribes and Pharisees immediately respond and say, what? You're not even 50 years old. Which is really weird. You're not even 50 years old. How is it that you claim that you have met Abraham? See, why did they say 50 when Abraham had been dead for well over a thousand years? Nearly 2000 years by Jesus day. It's kind of a cool thing. Back in the first century era, and maybe this is too much information, but back in 2000 years ago, in the first century era, the rabbis believed that when a man came to the age of 30, he was a, for the lack of a better term, he was a functioning, viable, responsible young man. At the age of 30, he could inherit property, he could inherit all that the father owns. He, he and the father are one. In life, a 30 year old, a Hebrew Jew man enters into his inheritance, his existence, his prominence, at the age of 30. But they didn't say 30. They said 50. They should have said, you're not even, you know, 16. You're not even 1500 years old. How can you have met Abraham? They said you're not even 55, 0. They believed at the age of 50, a person entered into their absolute spiritual maturity. They entered into the realm of wise, the elderly, the gray hair, 50. How in the world can you talk about meeting Abraham and saying such a thing when you're not even qualified to be 50 years old? Where a Jew enters into their full maturity to know spiritual matters, you might be over 30 or 30 and over. Okay, big deal. We know that you didn't have an earthly father, okay? We know that your dad is not known. Your mom got pregnant, who knows how? Because we don't believe in you and we doubt your spiritual maturity, even because you're not even 50 years of age. Jesus blows them up. I mean, just blows their minds away. They should have run back to their scriptures and studied that. Why mark it down, friends. This is pretty fun. Genesis 16:7. Now, the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water, Hagar in the wilderness by the spring on the way to shur. The angel of the Lord. There are angels who serve the Lord. There are angels who do the Lord's ministry. There are angels who are around the throne of God. There are angels who are dispatched from God's presence to slay 185,000 Assyrians in the day of battle, as the scripture says. There's the angel who brings Daniel's answer of Daniel, chapter nine and ten. There's the angel Gabriel, who. He's the public relations officer for God. He makes the announcements to Israel. Always announcing, always announcing. There's the angel Michael, who's always fighting. Michael is always fighting and defending Israel. And Gabriel is always making announcements regarding Israel. These are angels. Lucifer is the angel of the morning or the bright and morning star angel Lucifer. Now, of course, fallen as diablo, the devil, Satan, the dragon. Yet Lucifer, Satan is an angel. There's fallen angels, there's holy angels, but there's only one angel of the Lord. And every time when you read your Bible. Look, I do believe I may be wrong about this. You can go prove me right or wrong, it doesn't matter. I'm happy with being wrong on this. I know the old King James. I know the new King James. I don't know about the other versions, but the old and the new King James, they will always have the angel of the Lord. Capitalized angel, capitalized. Signifying that this is somebody different than your run of the mill, if there's such a thing. Angel Hagar encounters the angel of the Lord which is known as a Theophanes or pre incarnate, that is a pre birth Bethlehem appearance of Jesus Christ. Why is this important? Because Jesus Christ is eternal. The Son of God has always been and we have numerous accounts now in this podcast together. We can only touch on a few, but I hope this gets you excited to go find out more in your own personal study as who is the angel of the Lord? You're going to be delighted to find out. And so how about this? Genesis chapter 22, verse 11. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham. Abraham. So Abraham said, here I am. Notice the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham. Exodus 3, 2. And the angel of the Lord, capital angel, appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked and behold, that's Moses. The bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Notice that whole thing starts with the angel of the Lord appearing to Moses in a burning bush or what looked like a burning bush. That's Exodus 3, 20. How about this? Numbers 22:22. Then God's anger was aroused because he went and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against Balaam. Watch this. And he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him. Numbers 22:22. The angel of the Lord appeared to stop Balaam from performing his unsanctioned act as a prophet of God. He prostituted his office. The donkey recognized that it was the angel of the Lord and it freaked out the donkey. And you remember the story. Balaam began to beat his donkey and all the while not recognizing. And then the angel of the Lord speaks to Balaam and said, this donkey just saved your life. A donkey being ridden by a donkey. But the donkey with four legs is smarter and more discerning than the donkey with two legs. And the angel of the Lord intervened in Balaam's bad decision making. The angel of the Lord appeared remarkable. Now we do know from scripture in the New Testament that angels can appear and disappear. That's in the Scriptures. The Bible warns us that on the negative side, watch out, because Satan, who's a fallen angel, do you not know that Satan, who is an angel of light, can appear to deceive people? Wow. We also know, though in the positive, that the book of Hebrews tells us that we need to be careful how we treat strangers that we are in contact with. Because many People have entertained angels in their presence, unaware. Why would God do this? I don't know, but it happens. I'm not aware of any time it happened in my life, but that's exactly what the Bible said. Watch out, be kind, walk in the spirit, be gentle, be nice to strangers because you may be talking to, ministering to, hanging out with somebody you don't know, but they're an actual angel and I'm assuming just an assumption that God would either have that angel there for my protection or my guidance or warning or to test my heart. I mean, who knows? We don't know. So we need to check our attitude always. How about this? Judges 2:1 Then the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to buch him and said, I told you sorry I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers. And I said, I I will never break my covenant with you. That's Judges 2:1 the angel of the LORD appears and speaks how about judges 6:11 now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the tiramith tree which was in Ophrah, and watch what happens. The angel the Bible says the angel sat down the angel of the LORD sat down under a tree which belonged to Joash the Abigite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide from Midianites. Judges 6:11 Here's a description where it is written down where the angel Lord sat down under a tree Manifestation we know we'll see this soon. Looked like a normal guy, didn't glow, looked normal, but he was the angel of the Lord. Judges 13:3 and the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, indeed, now you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. The angel of the LORD appeared. If my memory serves me right, I just have the reference here that I believe would be regarding Samson. Because Samson's birth was prophesied by the angel of the Lord. The mother Samson's mom was it was a miracle for her to conceive because she couldn't become pregnant. And the angel of the Lord says, basically you're going to be pregnant. But it's the angel of the Lord saying this. You say, jack, how do you know it's just not any angel? Because it's capital. A angel angel of the Lord is a manifestation of Jesus Christ himself before Bethlehem. There's more. 2nd Samuel 24:16 and when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord relented from the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people, it is enough. Now restrain your hand. Watch this. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Argonach, the Jebusite. That's 2 Samuel 24:16, you say. Well, that's kind of a. That's kind of weird. It's consistent because when you read Isaiah, chapter 60 out to chapter 66, when you read Joel, chapter 2 and 3, when you read Revelation chapter 19 to 22, you have passages there that describe none other than the one who is the angel of the Lord, who is the one who has on his thigh of his robe written, king of Kings and Lord of Lords. His robe is splattered in blood because he makes war against those who are attacking his people, Israel. He will fight for Israel, the scripture says, as he did in the day of battle. And in Revelation 19, he comes to gather his church that's in heaven. The door is opened and we exit heaven. Revelation 19 with him coming back to earth. And he will strike the earth with his wrath, with the word of his mouth as a sharp sword that proceeds from his mouth to judge the nations. And all that, by the way, begins with the destruction of the Antichrist at Megiddo or Armageddon. 1st Kings 19:7. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you. Speaking about Elijah, the angel of the Lord ministered to him. This is different. By the way, when angels came and ministered to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, they were angels. No problem. The angel of the Lord, as I'm stressing whenever that happens in scripture, sit up and take notice. Mark it, highlight it, circle it, search that word out and find out that Jesus, my friends, especially those of you who are bound up in the cults, Jesus is not an angel. Jesus is not a created being. Jesus is the anglios of the Lord. He is the spokesman. He is the Logos, the word of God, the angel of the Lord. First Kings 19:35. And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, their corpses were there, all dead. Yikes. Wow. It's passages like that where people say, I don't read the Old Testament. The God of the Old Testament scares me. I read the New Testament. I like that God. Same God. It's the Same God, different dispensations. The Old Testament economy was operated by God's word. And God related to mankind in a different way, certain way, all of it leading up to the fulfillment of the old and the revelation of the new. It's the same God. That's why during this age of grace, call it this dispensation of grace. As Ephesians 1 and 2 says, dispensation. People all get all their knickers all bound up when they. Oh, dispensation. Oh, my gosh. Hey, the word dispensation is in the Bible, folks. And right now you and I are in the dispensation of grace. It appears, it seems to me, if I understand Bible prophecy correctly, the dispensation of grace started at the birth of the church. Or you could push it and say at the ministry of Jesus commencing, but certainly by Pentecost. Then the gospel of grace goes out to all the earth. It's been going out for 2,000 years. And I believe the gospel of grace as we know it in this dispensation ends at the moment of the Rapture. Then God focuses on Israel, the salvation of his people, those who will believe, and he winds up using them and 144,000 of them and more to present the gospel to the ends of the earth. And that's a study for some other time. But do keep that in mind. 2 Kings 1:3. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, the Tishbite, arise. Go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire in Baalzebub, the God of Ekron, the angel of the Lord appears. 2 Kings, chapter 19, verse 35. I thought I read that one. Maybe not. Yeah, I Already read that one. 2 Chronicles chapter 21, 2 Chronicles 21, beginning at verse 12, either three years of famine. This is the challenge. You're either going to have three years of famine or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you. Or third option else for three days, the sword of the Lord, the plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now consider what answer I should take back to him. The Lord capital, who sent me. And that is the angel of the Lord speaking to David regarding his transgression. Because you sinned, you're going to be chastised. You can pick how that came from the angel of the Lord. Powerful, Almost done. Folks, the angel of the Lord. Sorry, this is Psalm 34, verse 7. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. I love that. You know what's cool about that? That's Psalm Psalm 34. 7. You know what's neat about that? Do you remember when God told Moses, I want you to. You're going to be leaving Egypt, okay? You're going to head out. You're going to go into the wilderness. And Moses said, okay, all that's great, but I'm not going to go with an angel. I don't want an angel. He said, I'm not going to go unless you go with us. Isn't that great? Moses said, I'm not going unless you're going with us. And the Lord said, I'm going with you. I'm going to lead you. I love that. How did he do it? By the angel of the Lord. Psalm 35, 5, 6. Psalm 35, 5 6. Let them be like chaff before the wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them. The word chase is what you can imagine. Pursue them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them. That's scary, isn't it? To think that's Psalm 35, 5, 6. Wow. You know, I'm going to interrupt myself and put this in there where I believe it's the warning that's in Ezekiel. I may be wrong about that, but it comes to my mind that because the children of Israel in the wilderness refuse to trust God, you know, listen, when we don't trust God, I'm going to put it blunt. When you and I. When you and I trust ourselves, it's because we are looking to our own authority. When you trust someone else, you're looking to their authority. When you don't trust yourself, you're not relying upon your authority. When you do not trust others, you are not relying upon their authority. That's okay, I guess. But when you do not trust God, you are. The whole thing about not trusting God means this. You do not believe in his authority. That's what it means. You say, I love God, I obey God. Are you sure? Do you worry about stuff that God said? Don't worry about it. When God says, I'll never leave you or forsake you, and now you're afraid that God's going to leave you and forsake you, you're not trusting him. You're telling him that he's not true. He doesn't keep his word. He can't be trusted. He's not honest. Wow. Well, when the Scriptures tell us that he'll never leave us or forsake us. That's beautiful. That's awesome. He's bound by his word. You know, in Psalm 138, the Bible tells us that he will honor his word above own name. That's huge. Because there's no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. That at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ, who is the angel of the Lord, that whoever confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father shall be saved. Isaiah 37:6. Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. We read that earlier. And when the people arose early in the morning, the corpses were there. What about Zechariah 1:12? Zechariah 1:12. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah? This is Christ interceding against which you were angry these 70 years. The angel of the Lord in ministry. Finally this before I make some more comment. Zechariah 3:1. Zechariah 3: 1. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest. This is not Joshua the commander of the book of Joshua. This is a different Joshua the high priest. That is in Zechariah chapter 3. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Zechariah 3:1. So I'm going to throw out some real quick and then we'll wrap this up. I'll give you one. Abraham is encamped what seems to be the foothills overlooking Sodom and Gomorrah. You know that his nephew Lot is down in Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham is not. Abraham's looking from afar at this oasis, this incredibly oasis. The Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding area was a well watered plain. That's a very nice way of putting it. It was luxurious and that's where Lot lived. Abraham did not. But the Bible tells us that these three. Let's just. I would just put it like this. We'll kind of look through it as with Abraham's eyes. Three men approach and Abraham greeps. Abraham greets them and realizes that in some way, shape or form, it doesn't tell us how, but Abraham realizes. These are holy servants of the most high God. What's amazing about this is some Bible versions will tell you that it's three angels or it's the angel of the Lord and two angels. We know that there's three of them, but then as we keep going, it becomes clear of what or who are they. The angel of the Lord is speaking with Abraham. Abraham is speaking with him. And with them, probably, no doubt Abraham, in true Oriental fashion, offers them a meal that's very normal to this day. Hospitality is a big deal in the Middle east, the ancient Orient. And he tells Sarah, prepare a meal. The angel of the Lord says to the angels, should I reveal to Abraham what I'm about to do? The two angels continue on and you know the tremendous account in Scripture where they make it into Sodom and Gomorrah, looking for Lot to deliver Lot in his family. But the homosexual community are seeking to rape these two visitors. Which means, think about this. If the homosexual community said, we want to know them, the word is we want to know them intimately. They're beating on Lot's door and says, where's the men who came into your house earlier today? Bring them out to us. We want to know them carnally. Lot says, no, no, no, don't do that, don't do that. I'll give you my daughters. I'll give you my. You can do whatever you want with my daughters. Isn't that horrible? They didn't want a woman or women, they wanted guys. They're thinking, these two guys are guys, they're men, we want them. That's how normal they looked. And they're beating and beating and beating on the door. Lot's talking to them. The angels reach out, they pull Lot back in and they try to break down the door. And the angels strike them with blindness. It didn't stop them from trying to commit this horrific sexual immorality. But the angels, the Bible says, smote them with blindness. The angels got Lot and his children and his wife out. But the Bible tells us, as they're leaving, Lot's wife looks back. Now, God is not angry, rude, mean and short tempered. It's a man. God turned her into a pillar of salt and killed her because she looked back. She didn't look back to see or to watch the place be destroyed. She looked back because that's where she belonged. That's the world she loved. She wanted that world. And she was, according to the Bible, turned to a pillar of salt. Lot continued out. The angels brought down fire and brimstone and consumed Sodom and Gomorrah all the while the angel of the Lord sat with Abraham the entire time. It wasn't three angels, it was two angels being led by the angel of the Lord, which is Christ himself. A Christophanes, a Theophanes. It's not unusual in the Old Testament, which means we need to read our Bibles a little slower when we're going through the Scriptures. And like the Psalm, Psalm 40, Psalm 40 and the book of Hebrews echoes it and repeats it. Behold, in the volume of the book, it is written of me. Speaking of Christ, it's true, the angel of the Lord is none other than Jesus Christ before he was born as a man in Bethlehem. When I say man born as a baby, coming into this world, taking upon himself the form of a man, mankind becoming one of us. Isn't it amazing as I end right now at the right hand of God the Father is God the Son, a glorified man. You ever stop to think about that? Jesus Christ is 100% God, always has been, but he's also 100% man ever since he was conceived in Bethlehem. Today, at the right hand of God is your intercessor and mine our advocate. That's why Paul told Timothy that there's one mediator between man and God. It is the man Christ Jesus the man Christ Jesus the Man. Human Christ Messiah Yehoshua Yeshua Yah Jesus the Eternal God. Listen, I hope this has been a blessing to you. We would love for you to let other people know if these podcasts like this are helping you. You can just give us a huge encouragement by sharing, getting notifications, letting others know. Word of mouth is the most precious thing that you can do to encourage us. God bless you guys. Until next time,
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