KJV Genesis 16:7: “And the Angel of the Lord found her by a fountain …”
KJV Genesis 22:11: “And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven…”
NASB Genesis 16:7: “Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water…”
NASB Genesis 22:11: “But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven…”
Genesis, of course, is the book of “first mentions.” In the story of Hagar’s flight from Sarai, we encounter the Angel of the Lord for the first time. The very next mention is in the story of Abraham and Isaac on the mountain in Moriah. In many ways, there is a comparison but also a contrast to be noted in these stories. The communication of the Angel of the Lord is noteworthy and intriguing in its content.
If you will grant me that the Angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ (and I appreciate that not everyone agrees with this), think of the implications of the scene. Hagar has fled from the cruel treatment received at the hand of Sarai. In hopeless despair, she came to rest by the fountain where the Angel of the Lord met her. But now think of the message from the Angel: “Return … submit.” While many practical lessons could be drawn from this, think along a different line for a moment. If, as I have posited, the Angel is the pre-incarnate Christ, then the very first words we ever hear from the lips of the Lord Jesus are to submit to unjust treatment. It is as though He has eternally been occupied with the virtue of submission. Since He was the lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20), submission has marked Him eternally.
The Lord Jesus could identify with Hagar in that He would be marked by submission to that which was unjust and unwarranted in His life on earth. His appearance as a boy of twelve depicts Him as returning to Nazareth, where we read He “was subject to them” (Luke 2:51) despite their misunderstanding and undeserved rebuke of Him.
But what of the second mention of the Angel of the Lord? The moving story of Abraham and Isaac on a mountain in Moriah is well-known to every Sunday school child. As the knife is about to be plunged into the favoured son, the Angel’s voice and command put a halt to the trial, and Isaac is lifted from the altar without enduring the knife and the fire.
Now, rather than a comparison to His own life, the Angel is drawing a sharp contrast. In this second appearance, the Angel intervenes, and a son is spared the suffering linked with the altar. But the Son of God was not spared. “He that spared not His own Son …” (Romans 8:32).
What the Angel of the Lord commanded Hagar in His first appearance is the very virtue that impelled Him to a cross, and He would not experience the escape provided by His second intervention. While we are not privy to the thoughts of His heart, you cannot but wonder what was coursing through His mind on these two occasions: the first a foreshadowing of His life of submission; the latter a reminder of his sacrifice on the altar of Calvary.
Consider:
Though I mention that Genesis 16:7 is the first word we hear from the lips of the Lord Jesus, look at some of the conversations between Father and Son as recorded in the Psalms.