ne oratorio indicates already the same theme which
thunders from all the chorus at the close.

It is scarcely necessary to refute the position that a mere "messenger"
is intended, because angels have not yet "appeared as personal agents
separate from God." Kalisch himself has amply refuted his own theory.
For, he says, "we are compelled ... to refer it to Moses and his
successor Joshua" (_in loco_). So then He Who will not forgive their
transgressions is he who prayed that if God would not pardon them, his
own name might be blotted from the book of life. He, to whom afterwards
God said "I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee" (xxxiii.
19), is the same of Whom God said "My name is in Him." This position
needs no examination; but the perplexities of those who reject the
deeper interpretation is a strong confirmation of its soundness. We have
still to choose between the promise of a created angel, and some
manifestation and interposition of God, distinguished from Jehovah and
yet one with Him. This latter view is an evident preparation for clearer
knowledge yet to come. It is enough to stamp the dispensation which puts
it forth as but provisional, and therefore bears witness to that other
dispensation which has the key to it. And it is exactly what a Christian
would expect to find somewhere in this summary of the law.

What, then, do we read elsewhere about the Angel of Jehovah? What do we
find, especially, in these early books?

A difficulty has to be met at the very outset. The issue would be
decided offhand, if it could be shown that the Angel of this verse is
the same who is offered, as a poor substitute for their Divine
protector, in the thirty-third chapter. But no contrast can be clearer
than between the encouraging promise before us, and the sharp menace
which then plunged Israel into mourning. Here is an Angel who must not
be provoked, who will not pardon you, because "My Name is in Him." There
is an angel who will be sent because God will not go up, ... lest He
consume them (vers. 2, 3). He is not the Angel of God's presence, but of
His absence. When the intercession of Moses won from God a reversal of
the sentence, He then said "My Presence (My Face) shall go with thee,
and I will give thee rest,"[38] but Moses answers, not yet reassured,
"If Thy Presence (Thy Face) go not up with us, carry us not up hence.
For wherein shall it be known that I have found grace in Thy sight?...
Is it not that Thou goe