“‘Curse Meroz!’ said the angel of Adonai,
‘Curse the people living there with a bitter punishment
for not coming to help Adonai,
to help Adonai against the mighty warriors.’”
-Judges 5:23
Verse 23 presents us with two baffling challenges.
FIRST, who or what in the heck is Meroz?
SECOND, who or what in the heck is this mysterious being known as the “Angel of the Lord”?
You should know there is no mention of the word Meroz anywhere else in Scripture.
So we can only kind of guess as to what it really means.
The general scholarly opinion is that it’s referring to some lone wolf Israelite town that for whatever reason refused to step up and help their Hebrew brothers in their time of need.
The tone of the text suggests they had every reason to help but for whatever reason decided to flake out.
Most likely because of political partnerships they had already locked in with Canaanite rulers in the region.
Or because they just preferred comfort and peace to going to war.
Probably a good combination of both.
However, where things get really interesting is we’re told Meroz was cursed by a being called the Angel of the Lord.
I’ve expounded on this term quite a bit in the past, but it’s been a while.
So let’s give it a quick review.
First, in the original Hebrew, the Angel of the Lord is MALACH YEHOVEH.
Now understand that MALACH does not mean angel.
It simply means a messenger…someone who is delivering a message of some sorts.
It can be a human messenger or a spiritual being and the message being delivered doesn’t have to be some kind of divine message from heaven.
It could be a normal message like “Hey Mary, meet John at the restaurant at 5pm today”.
Actually, more often than not, that’s the sense of how MALACH is used in the Bible.
But, and this is a huge whopping but, IF the formal name of the Lord is attached to the word MALACH, we know instantly something supernatural is going on.
In that case, we know we’re dealing with either some kind of special heavenly being OR a bonafide manifestation of the Lord Himself (and no, I don’t buy this pre-incarnate Christ nonsense, so calm the heck down!).
Whenever we encounter the MALACH YHWH speaking, we’ll find him speaking in the first person as God Himself.
And another key difference between a normal MALACH and the MALACH ADONAI is a normal MALACH always rejects all human attempts to worship him.
But the MALACH ADONAI is cool with accepting worship from humans.
Therefore, we know indeed that we’re dealing with a manifestation of the Almighty Himself here.
Rich,
Was Messiah (our Mediator) mentioned anywhere in the OT? I attend a torah study group and there are those who believe the son and the Father are one and the same…… I stopped believing that a long time ago…. From reading your material. However, the leader states that this Mediator has alway existed and has always been needed. That Adam and the others (throughout the OT) had need of a mediator just the same. He says that Messiah manifested in the flesh upon at tue appointment time. Your thoughts?
Hi Nelly,
I would interpret the “Father and son being one and the same” verse as meaning one and the same in mission. You’ll find this idea expressed in Rabbinical thought as well.
To respond to your comment about the Mediator as always existing and always being needed, you’ll also find that thought throughout the whole OT.
Was not Moses a mediator between the Lord and His People during his time?
Also consider Yeshua’s words when he said “Before Abraham was born, I am”.
Of course, Christians interpret that to mean Yeshua was literally claiming to be the Father Himself.
But I don’t see it that way.
I see it as Yeshua saying his coming was a foreordained plan in the Father’s mind before he ever came to planet earth.
Thanks for reading.
Be blessed and Shalom!
We may note that the word in the Hebraic scriptures for paying respect to someone is “shachah” (bow down, prostrate). Also, this is the same word used regardless of whether one is doing “shachah” to YHWH, angels or humans.
Common English bible translations have (artificially) chose to use the special word “worship” when context refers to God, and reverts to “bow down, prostrate” when context refers to man/ angel. No problem with this good intention…until they decided to use this special word “worship” to the Mashiach as well! From this subtle stepping stone, they then run away with “He must be God because it is written in the Bible that the people WORSHIP Him!”.