Already Lord

We have learned that before his incarnation, by virtue of his being in very nature God, and by virtue of having created the Universe—Jesus was already Lord. That is, Jesus already had authority as God--not the One God, of course. But Jesus was God and Lord.

The Father had given Jesus all authority, so how could anyone deny Jesus was Lord? He was indeed the Lord. If Jesus had ‘equality with God’ (Philippians 2:6), then no angel or man could have denied him the honor due him. Indeed, he was called Lord and the Angel of God. He was called the Angel of the Lord, and he was even called Yahweh!

Encounter with Gideon

Consider the names used for the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus in the following passage from the Book of Judges. In this passage, Gideon calls Jesus my Lord while never confusing him with the one he called my Lord Yahweh, his name for the One God. Jesus appeared to Gideon as the Angel of Yahweh.

The Angel of Yahweh appeared to him and said to him, 'Yahweh is with you, you mighty warrior.' Gideon said to him, 'Excuse me, my Lord. If Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us?'

... Yahweh said to him, 'But I will be with you, and you will defeat Midian as if they are one man.'

And he said to him, 'Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, show me a sign that you are speaking with me. Please, do not depart from here until I come back to you and bring out my gift and set it out before you.' And he said, 'I will stay until you return.'

And Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; he put meat in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and he brought them to him under the oak and presented them.

The Angel of God said to him, 'Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock; pour the broth over it.' And he did so. Then the Angel of Yahweh reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and he touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the Angel of Yahweh went from his sight.

And Gideon realized that he was the Angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, 'Oh, my Lord Yahweh! For now I have seen the Angel of Yahweh face to face.' And Yahweh said to him, 'Peace be with you. Do not fear; you will not die' (Judges 6:12-13, 16-23; LEB).

God Called Him Lord

Even God used the title Lord for Jesus before Jesus' incarnation One thousand years before Jesus’ birth, God inspired David to write of another Lord besides the One God. Behold the remarkable words spoken through David, words found in the most oft-quoted psalm of the New Testament, Psalm 110:

The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’ (Psalm 110:1).

With this single revelation, the Jews should have been able to discern that there was another Lord besides God. Psalm 110 was intended to inspire the Jews to ask:

Who might this person be who God invited to sit at his right hand? Who was this Lord to whom Yahweh was speaking?

This psalm alone could have sufficed to reveal that there was another Lord, but God gave the Jews more revelations regardless. The prophets again and again wrote down visions and prophecies as they presented the mystery of the Christ. They revealed to devout believers long ago that someone’s glory was yet to be seen by men--the Lord who appeared to them.

Jesus Teaches Psalm 110

Jesus pushed the Jews to analyze Psalm 110. He wanted them to ask the question “Who is this one that God calls Lord?” He challenged them to think about Psalm 110 and to come up with a suitable interpretation. Read his confrontation with the Pharisees in the passage below, and you’ll see Jesus’ effort to show the Pharisees that the Lord who God invited to sit at his right hand was actually the Messiah!

Jesus asked them [the Pharisees], ‘What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?’

‘The son of David,’ they replied.

He said to them, ‘How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord? For he says, “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

‘If then David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ (Matthew 22:41-45)

David honored King Saul and he called him Lord.

David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, 'My lord the king!' When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground (1 Samuel 24:8).

David also called God Lord. But who in Psalm 110 was he addressing as Lord? Jesus invited the Pharisees to contemplate that question--all the while knowing that it was him. Jesus knew that he was David's Lord.

This is a challenging teaching from Jesus, but he didn’t stop at teaching the Pharisees the Messiah was the Lord to whom God spoke to in Psalm 110. That was not all Jesus wanted to show them. He wanted them to see that the Messiah was much more than what they were expecting.

The Messiah was the Son of God, someone much greater than a son of David! Did you get the point of Jesus’ questions? Read them slowly and you’ll see what he was driving at. Undoubtedly, Jesus was trying to get the Pharisees to see that he was the Son of God.

Consider two of Jesus' questions:

• Whose son is the Messiah?

  • Answer: The Son of God

• Can the Messiah be simply a son of David?

  • Answer: No, he cannot simply be a son of David. He must be greater than David because he is David’s Lord. The Messiah must also be the Son of God.

God’s Name in Him

The Scriptures have long pointed out that someone is highly honored by God—and honored to such a degree that God has put his very name in that individual! In the Old Testament, that one is the Angel of the LORD, meaning the Messenger of Yahweh. Angel does not necessarily mean ‘one with an angelic nature.’ The word angel in Hebrew is often translated as messenger, as it should be here.

In the passage below, observe that God said ‘my name is in him.’

I am sending an Angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my name is in him. 

If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My Angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land… (Exodus 23:20-23)

So what exactly does it mean for God’s name to be in someone? It means at least three things:

• First of all, it means that all that God represents is invested in that person. Put differently, that person is God’s ambassador. He represents God to others.
  

• It also means that God’s reputation is bound to that person’s actions. That is, if that person does something good, it glorifies God. If he does something bad, it makes others think badly of God. God’s name is his fame. His reputation sinks or floats according to what that person does.
  

• Finally, for God to have his name in someone means that God shares his name with that person. God has many names, but his personal name is Yahweh. Just as a father’s last name becomes the last name of his son, God’s name was given to the Angel [Messenger] of Yahweh. That explains why sometimes people called the Angel of Yahweh, Yahweh. He had the name of God in him.

More OT Questions

We gather from the ‘my name is in him’ (Exodus 23:21) passage that this messenger had ‘equality with God’ (Philippians 2:6). Why else would God speak of the Angel in such terms, even stating 'listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say' (Exodus 23:23)? It’s as if the words of the Angel of the LORD were the very words of God.

So, who was that Angel? Who else do we know in history who God has made his equal? There’s only one person, Jesus.

God was leading those who know the Exodus story to ask very thought-provoking questions, wasn’t he? And there are many other passages of Scripture that provoke similar questions. We’ll present two of them below. The first speaks of a Man who is simultaneously called the LORD. Again, who could this be--but Jesus?

Then the Man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. The LORD said to me, ‘This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it…’

Then the Man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the Temple. I looked and saw the glory of the LORD filling the Temple of the LORD, and I fell facedown. The LORD said to me, ‘Son of man, look carefully, listen closely, and give attention to everything I tell you...’ (Ezekiel 44:1-5)

The Lord Who Invokes the Lord

A second passage speaks of a person called the LORD [Yahweh] who invokes another one called the LORD [Yahweh], asking him to rebuke the Devil. So, what we have here is a LORD seeking the help of someone else with the same name, the LORD.

The LORD said to Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!’ (Zechariah 3:2).

It was no mistake for two different LORDs to be mentioned in these passages. The Holy Spirit who inspired these verses was trying to do something very specific: He was trying to spark the curiosity of Bible readers. Even today the Spirit of God presses all of us who study the Scriptures to ask ourselves hard questions like:

• Who was the LORD, also called ‘a man,’ who gave the blueprints for the Millennial Temple to the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 44:1-5?

• Who was the LORD who rebuked Satan in the name of the LORD in Zechariah 3:2?

If in generations past the Jews had asked themselves these questions, they would have been forced to conclude that there was another Lord—one who was God’s spokesman. If the Pharisees had asked themselves these questions, they would have been prepared to receive Jesus as Lord. If people had just dealt honestly with the Bible texts, they would have been led to ask “Who is this LORD who is not the Father?”

God has never kept it a secret that he has established another Lord. It’s an ancient revelation. The difference now is that we know exactly who that person is! We know him by name, and we know his testimony. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have recorded Jesus' testimony for us--and we believe what they wrote.