Chapter 14 · Deep dive
Other Mysterious Figures and Related Appearances
The Commander, the Angel of His presence, the messenger of the covenant, and Daniel's glorious man.
Not every mysterious heavenly figure in the Old Testament bears the title 'Angel of the LORD.' This chapter examines the figures most often connected with Him. The absence of the title matters: each figure must be understood from His own setting before we connect Him with the divine Messenger.
The Commander of the LORD's army: Joshua 5
On the eve of Jericho, Joshua looks up and sees a man with a drawn sword. 'Are you for us or for our enemies?' — 'Neither, but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.' Joshua bows facedown before Him, and the Commander says: 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.'
The holy ground and removal of sandals recall Moses' encounter at the burning bush. The drawn sword is a separate detail: it presents the Commander as a warrior, not an echo of Exodus 3. Joshua's bowing can express homage as well as divine worship, so his posture alone does not prove the Commander's deity. The whole setting is stronger evidence: the holy ground, the command to remove sandals, and the LORD's battle instructions in Joshua 6:2. These give good reasons for the historic Christian reading that Joshua encountered the Son before His incarnation, while the title 'Angel of the LORD' is not used and the text does not explicitly identify the Commander as Jesus.
The Angel of His presence: Isaiah 63:9
Isaiah's prayer recalls the Exodus: 'In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them.' The Hebrew of the first clause is textually difficult — an ancient variant turns on a single letter ('he was afflicted' versus 'he did not act as an enemy') — and the versions differ. We state the difficulty and build only on what survives it.
The Masoretic Hebrew reads “the angel of his presence saved them”: mal’akh panav, the messenger of His face/presence. The Septuagint differs substantially: “not an ambassador nor an angel, but the Lord himself saved them.” The Greek confirms divine saving action, not a saving angel; an argument from the angel of His presence must rest on the Hebrew reading. Panim recalls God’s nearness in Exodus 33:14, but the phrase itself does not decide whether the messenger shares God’s nature or represents His presence.
Sources and further reading
- Isaiah 63:9: compare the Greek and Hebrew traditions ↗
The Septuagint’s ‘not an ambassador nor an angel’ differs from the Masoretic angel-of-presence phrase.
The messenger of the covenant: Malachi 3:1
Malachi prophesies: 'I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come.' Two figures appear: the preparing messenger, and 'the Lord' — 'the messenger of the covenant' — who comes to His temple.
Jesus directly identifies the preparing messenger with John the Baptist (Matt 11:10), and Mark presents John preparing the way for Jesus. Christians therefore understand the coming Lord and messenger of the covenant as Christ. The New Testament connection is strong, but the quoted passages do not explicitly give Jesus the title 'messenger of the covenant.' Here again mal'akh describes a mission; it does not make the Lord coming to His temple a created angel.
Key ideas
The man in Daniel's visions: Daniel 10–12
Daniel sees a glorious man: body like topaz, face like lightning, eyes like flaming torches, arms and legs like burnished bronze, voice like the sound of a multitude. The description is strikingly close to John's vision of the risen Christ in Revelation 1 — which is why many Christians have identified Daniel's figure as the preincarnate Son.
Caution is required, and the text itself supplies it. This figure says he was delayed twenty-one days and needed Michael's help (Dan 10:13) — language very difficult to apply to the omnipotent Son. Some interpreters resolve this by distinguishing the glorious man from the speaker; others identify him as a high angel, perhaps Gabriel. The resemblance to Revelation 1 is real, but the delay and the need for help are real too. This study classifies Daniel's glorious man as an open question: possibly a Christophany, possibly an exalted angel, and not a passage on which the study's thesis should rest.
Key ideas
The LORD at Mamre: Genesis 18
Three 'men' visit Abraham at Mamre; two depart for Sodom and are called angels in chapter 19, while the third — addressed as the LORD — remains with Abraham, promises Isaac's birth, and receives Abraham's intercession for Sodom. The text says plainly, 'the LORD appeared to him,' and the LORD speaks and acts in person.
The exact title 'Angel of the LORD' is not used here, so this study treats Genesis 18 as a theophany closely related to the Angel appearances rather than one of them. It belongs to the broader question of how the invisible God was seen — a question the companion study on theophanies examines in full.
What the related figures add
The related figures show that the Angel of the LORD stands within a larger biblical pattern: God draws near to His people in visible, personal form, and the boundary between 'the LORD' and 'His messenger' is repeatedly crossed in both directions. The Commander's holy-ground encounter recalls Moses; the Hebrew account of the Angel of His presence describes deliverance; Malachi promises the Lord's coming to His temple.
Each passage must carry its own weight, and some — Daniel 10 especially — remain open. The New Testament reveals the Son as the one who makes the Father known. That gives Christians a firm basis for recognizing Him in personal divine encounters, without making every sign, vision, or angelic visitor an appearance of the Son.
Key takeaways
- The Commander's holy ground and command to remove sandals recall the burning bush; bowing alone does not establish deity.
- John prepares the way for Jesus, supporting the Christian identification of Malachi's coming Lord and covenant Messenger with Christ.
- Daniel's glorious man is deliberately left open: resemblance to Revelation 1, but delayed and helped by Michael.