WHAT I LEARNED WHEN I READ THE BIBLE
We know the angel of the Lord is God, but how do we know if he is Jesus? Many biblical experts believe we can come to this conclusion by process of elimination. In John 6:46 Jesus says, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God. He has seen the Father.” Jesus is saying no one, other than Jesus, has seen the Father. Yet, Hagar, Abraham, and Moses all saw the angel of the Lord, who we have previously established is God. Therefore, we can conclude the angel of the Lord cannot be God the Father.
We know the Holy Spirit never takes human form in the Bible. He appeared as a dove and as fire, but not man (Matthew 3:16, Acts 2:3-4). Therefore, we can eliminate that the angel of the Lord is the Holy Spirit. That leaves only Jesus as our final option.
The angel of the Lord was always visible to the human eyes, and in Colossians 1:15 Paul says Jesus has always been the “image of the invisible God.”
We know the angel of the Lord is God, and we are confident the angel is Jesus, although the Bible does not specifically say. Most theologians believe he is. Food for thought.