Christ as the Angel of Jehovah came to Serve us and Care for us to bring us Back to God

Christ as the Angel of Jehovah came to serve us and care for us to bring us back to God.

It is so amazing to see that the very Jehovah who was the Husband, the Head, and the King of Israel, became a Servant to His wife when He came as the Angel of Jehovah to serve them and bring them back to Himself.

God loves His people so much that He Himself becomes the Servant to serve us, care for us, and bring us back to Himself as our Husband.

The book of Joshua is full of rich experiences of God’s presence, victories, and conquering the land; the book of Judges, however, is not so positive.

The content of this book consists of the children of Israel trusting in God, forsaking God, being defeated by their enemies, repenting to God in their misery, being delivered through the judges, and again becoming corrupted.

This became a cycle that was repeated seven times in the book of Judges. First, they trusted in God; then, they forsook God, and they were defeated by their enemies.

The enemies inflicted great misery on them, so they cried out to God and repented, so God sent some judges to deliver them; after this, however, the people of Israel became corrupted again.

We may think that this is Israel’s history and has nothing to do with us, but actually, many times we are just like them, for we may have some victories, but we may forsake the Lord and suffer defeat and misery at the hand of the enemy.

It doesn’t matter how victorious we may be in some of our experiences with the Lord – we should not take this for granted.

Rather, we should always seek to remain in the organic union of God and man, that is, we should always return to the Lord in our spirit, exercising our spirit to contact Him, receive Him, enjoy Him, and experience Him.

We need to seek to remain in the close and intimate fellowship, contact, and love with the Lord.

Our Christian life is a life of romance with the Lord; He comes to court us, He cares for us in love, and again and again, He shows us how much He loves us.

As those who are courted and wooed by God, we simply respond to His love by loving Him back, and He has a way to infuse us with His element to make us the same as He is.

No matter how many failures we have, no matter how far away from God we may be, we need to always return to Him, for He will forgive us, heal us, transform us, and conform us to His image.

He will gain what He is after: He will gain the New Jerusalem as the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

God, the universally great Batchelor, will gain the Bride, the wife of Christ; our destiny is to enjoy an eternal marriage union with God in and as the New Jerusalem.

He is our Husband, and we are His wife.

Out of love for us, He draws us to Himself, He does everything for us in His organic salvation, and He is making us the same as He is so that we may match Him in every possible way. How we love Him!

God who is the Husband, Head, and King of Israel became a Servant to His Wife as the Angel of Jehovah

Judges 2:1 speaks of the Angel of Jehovah (also see 5:23, Num. 22:22).

According to the entire Bible, the Angel of Jehovah is God Himself in His Divine Trinity serving His elect as a servant (cf. Heb. 1:14).

Both in the Old and in the New Testament, a number of times this term is mentioned, “the Angel of Jehovah”, and it is capitalized, for it refers to Christ Himself.

This is not the same as the common many angels the Bible speaks of; it is a special designation, the Angel of Jehovah, pointing to Christ.

Christ was sent as the Angel of Jehovah; he came as the Servant of God to carry out God’s command. God Himself is the Sender, and He sent Christ (who also is God Himself) as a Servant to carry out God’s order.

The embodiment of the Triune God is Christ, and Christ is the Angel of Jehovah; as such a One, Christ took care of Israel as Jehovah in action in the Old Testament (see Exo. 3:2).

This Angel appeared to Moses in the wilderness, and when the Angel spoke, God spoke to Moses and called him.

It was the Angel of Jehovah who appeared to Moses, but it was Jehovah who spoke to him and called him.

Because God’s people were in misery and slavery in Egypt, God heard their cry, and He Himself came to call Moses to go and deliver them.

In Judges 2:1 we see that, because Israel rejected God as her Husband and her King by going about as harlots after other gods to worship them (Judg. 2:17), God came as a Servant to care for them.

In dealing with this situation, Jehovah who is the Husband, the Head, and the King of Israel, He Himself became a Servant to His wife as the Angel of Jehovah to serve her.

This is so touching and endearing, for God didn’t leave His people and go to another people; rather, He came to them as the Angel of Jehovah to care for them in love.

God is to be our Husband, our Head, and our King; many times, however, we reject Him and forsake Him, and we go after other idols, paying attention to and spending more time with other things than the Lord.

God loves us, He wants to give Himself to us and to make us the same as He is for us to match Him for our eternal union, but we are drawn to so many other things, and we forsake Him so many times.

So He comes to us not as a mighty King or as God in heavens, but as the Angel of Jehovah, our Servant.

Even though we may reject the Lord and forsake Him, He still comes to us as a Servant. God will not forsake His people.

How loving is our God toward us!

We have rejected Him as our Husband, we denied Him as our Head, and we do not want Him to rule over us as our King, but He still comes to us as our Servant, the Angel of Jehovah, to care for us in love!

God comes to us as the Angel of Jehovah who was sent by Jehovah to serve us.

He wants to win us over to Himself, so He comes to us not in His majesty and splendour but as the Angel of Jehovah, the Servant of God.

Since Israel did not regard Jehovah as the Head, He became a Servant to come and serve her.

The Lord’s word as the Servant of Jehovah in Judges 2:1-3 is not a rebuke or a command but the admonition of a servant.

How much does the Lord love us! He is entitled to come and rebuke us, for we have forsaken Him and we have not listened to Him, but He still comes as a Servant to love us and admonish us!

He comes to plead with us. He just wants to bring us back to Himself as His wife. He may ask us to just listen to Him, return to the Lord, and He will love us again and take care of all things.

What a loving God we have!

Even though He is our Husband who should be our Head, and even though He is our King, He still comes to us in our miserable situation as a Servant, the Angel of Jehovah, to admonish us and bring us back to Himself in love.

We just need to open to Him, heed His voice, and return to Him even as we are, for He will receive us and take us all the way through.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to us as the Angel of Jehovah not to rebuke us but to plead with us and admonish us to return to God. Thank You for reaching out to us even when we forsake You and do not listen to You. Thank You for loving us so much that You reach out to us even in our low estate and draw us to Yourself. Oh Lord, we come to You as we are. Cause us to return to You from any apostasy, from any degradation, and from any corruption and rottenness. Oh Lord, we love You. You are our Husband, our Head, and our King. Have a way in us, dear Lord!

Christ as the Angel of Jehovah is the Acting God in Caring for His People in Love

The Angel of Jehovah in Judges 2 is Christ; the Angel of Jehovah mentioned in the Old Testament is actually Christ Himself.

If we would consider what is revealed concerning Christ in the four Gospels, we will see that He is the Servant of God who came to serve us.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we see Christ as the King; He is the King-Savior coming to bring in the kingdom of God and make us, His believers, the kingdom people.

In Mark we see Christ as a Slave; He is the Slave-Savior coming to serve God and serve man, fulfilling God’s desire to redeem man and bring man back to God.

In the Gospel of Luke, we see Christ as a Man; He is the Man-Savior with bountiful divine attributes expressed through His aromatic human virtues to express God, draw man, and cause man to love God and be drawn to God.

In the Gospel ofJohn Christ is God; He is the God-Savior who came so that we may have life, receive life, enjoy life, be filled with life, and be infused with His life until we become His corporate expression as the Body of Christ, the one new man, and the Father’s house.

God Himself sent Christ, who is God, just as Jehovah sent the Angel of Jehovah; in His Divine Trinity, the First sent the Second to be the Servant of Jehovah to serve God and man for the gaining of man.

The King-Savior in Matthew became a Slave-Savior in Mark to serve man and serve God, to accomplish God’s purpose and bring man into God.

He was not just a Man, the Man-Savior, but also God, the God-Savior who came to dispense the divine life into us.

God desires to save us and be our King, our Husband, and our Head; however, for Him to do this, he had to become a Servant and a Slave.

He did this because He loved us; His love is so great and unlimited, that He Himself became a man, putting on the likeness of the flesh of sin, and He humbled Himself to even die for us.

He went low, low, even to the lowest place of all – He went into death, loving us and serving us to the point of dying for us.

There’s no lower place than death; He entered into death because He loves us, and He wants to gain us.

God became a man to be the Angel of Jehovah, the Servant of God, so that he can care for us in love.

If He were to come in His majesty and glory, we would all be blown away and obliterated, and none of us would be drawn to Him.

But He became a man, a God-man, and He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues, by which He attracted and captivated people.

We all were attracted and captivated by this One who is the Servant of God to serve us and minister God to us.

He is God, the King, and the Head, but our situation is so poor, that He as the King had to become a Servant to serve us.

Christ came as the reality of the Angel of Jehovah to serve us in love, caring for us in love.

Aren’t you glad that He came not to rebuke us but to admonish us and draw us to Himself? He came not to command or rule over us but to serve us, taking care of us so that we return to Him. How we love this One!

Thank You, God, for coming to us not in Your majesty and glory but as a Man – Jesus Christ, who is the Servant of God to care for us in love. We respond to Your love by just opening to You and returning to You from anything that separates us from You. Oh Lord, how we love You! Thank You for not coming to rebuke or tell us of but to admonish us and take care of us in love. We love You, Lord Jesus, the Angel of Jehovah who was sent by God to care for His people! We open to Your care and Your admonition! We respond to Your pleading, Your admonishing, and Your care; we come back to You and we take You as our Lord, our King, and our Head!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Judges (pp. 9-11), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 6, The Intrinsic Significance of the Book of Judges and the Apostasy of Israel in the Worshipping of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Our old man has been crucified with Christ; / Yes, all we are in oldness He sufficed / To bring to naught upon the cross that He / Himself as our new Husband fully be / Enjoyed by us. / Yes, all our strength of independence died, / For we with Christ were fully crucified. / Now we’re so glad to be His proper wife, / Dependently enjoying Him as life / Forevermore. (Hymns #1140)
  – As virgins we must single be, / No other husband could have we, / That when He comes we’ll then be free / To be His Bride forever. (Hymns #1227)
  – As King of kings You became a man, / You died for me—I’ve been redeemed, / In resurrection made us queen / To marry You, my King. / From death You ’rose and entered me, / I now possess Your divinity; / In life and nature we’re the same: / Both human and divine. (Song on, Divine romance)