e desert. An angel reassures Hagar that she and Ishmael will be protected and that he will father a great nation--presumably the non-Hebrew residents of the Middle East. The fact that angels as mediators are also in close touch with God also becomes evident over the course of biblical text. For example, the burning bush that Moses encounters and through which he talks directly to God is no actually introduced by God but by an angel who "appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush" (Exod. 3.2). When the Jews are on their way to the Promised Land and abandon Yahweh to worship the golden calf, God sends an angel to guide them on their resumption of their interrupted journey but cautions that he will punish those who have sinned against him (Exod. 33.32-33).
The awesome power that is conferred on angels of the Lord should be distinguished from the demonic power of mischievous spirits in non Judeo-Christian cultures. However, angelic power in biblical narrative is nothing t be trifled with. A striking example of that is in 1 Chron. 21, in the midst of King David's pillages and plunders across the Levant. David's excesses, hence the excesses of his armies, have displeased God so much that he is on the brink of having an angel destroy Jerusalem. At 1 Chron. 21.12, David's soothsayer Gad predicts that an angel of the Lord will visit pestilence "throughout all the coasts of Israel," whereupon 70,000 Israelites fall. At 21.15, the Lord is sending an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but stops him at the last minute. What makes the episode st
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