Which Angel did God appoint to take the Israelites
to the Promised Land?

To discern Judaism we have to ask ourselves if it is God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the one doing horrible things in the OT (e.g. Num 31:6-18), or if it is an angel and if so which angel?

The turning point is when God announces to Moses that He will not lead the Israelites anymore to the Promised Land, because of their sin of making the golden calf.

Moses went up the mountain to get the Ten Commandments from God, and after 40 days there, God told Moses to go down because the people had made a calf of gold and were worshipping it as their god. God was so furious that He said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; ¹⁰ now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation.” (Ex 32:9-10).

Moses pleaded to the Lord not to do that "And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people." (Ex 32:14).

Then Moses went down "²⁵ And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to their shame among their enemies), ²⁶ then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. ²⁷ And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD GOD of Israel: ‘Put every man his sword on his side, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’" (Ex 32:25-27). Though it is not recorded when God told Moses to do this?

THIS IS HOW ALL STARTED: KILLING AND MURDERING

Moses went up again to the mountain and begged God to forgive the people and God told him: “Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. ³⁴ But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.” (Ex 32:33-34).

Therefore God states here that He will not go anymore with them but an angel shall go before the Israelites.

Again in Exodus: " ² And I will send an angel before you, and he will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ³ Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (From 33:2-3 in the Septuagint Version, LXX. The other translations read: "and I will drive out the Canaanites,...", which does not agree with what follows, because God had said, in the same paragraph, that He will not go up among them, lest He consume them).

The difference can be explained by the interpretation the Masoretes gave to the Hebrew Bible, when they added the ‘pointing’ (i.e. the vowels) to the Hebrew text in the 10th century. In the Masoretic Hebrew text, the yod ( י ) has been added together with the other pointing, and this is what makes the difference between speaking in 1st person singular (I) or 3rd person singular (he):

וְשָׁלַחְתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ מַלְאָךְ וְגֵרַשְׁתִּי אֶת הַכְּנַעֲנִי הָאֱמֹרִי וְהַחִתִּי וְהַפְּרִזִּי הַחִוִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי

But the Greek of the Septuagint (written in the 2nd century BC), which was translated direct from the Hebrew original without the pointing (as I explained above), retains the 3rd person singular.

"2 και συναποστελλω τον αγγελον μου προ προσωπου σου και εκβαλει τον αμορραιον ..." etc.

Search: εκβαλει

Match	Lemma	Uncontracted Form(s)	Parsing
εκβαλει; εκβαλει	εκβαλλω	εκ•βαλ(ε)•[σ]ει; εκ•βαλ(ε)•[σ]ει	fut act ind 3rd sg; fut mp ind 2nd sg classical

Now let us examine this very well.

Here in the Septuagint, God said that He will send an angel before them and the angel will drive out the Cananites, etc., He does not say that He will drive them out. for IT IS THE ANGEL THAT WILL DO THAT, God is not going to go with them lest He consume them on the way, as we have said before.

The name of the angel that God appointed to kill all of the first born in Egypt is the "destroyer" and it is also the name of the Angel of the Abyss i.e. Satan (cf. Rev 9:11). Since the angel accompanying the Israelites during their desert journey is going to 'destroy' the Canaanites, Jebusties, etc. (Ex 23:23) along their way, he can be identified as the "destroyer", the angel of destruction. In retrospect, Satan is the angel that God appointed to take the Israelites to the Promised Land. He is the one responsible for all the killing and genocides that they committed in their way. In fact, we are told in Deuteronomy 20:17 that it is not anymore the angel that is going to destroy all these tribes, but now the Israelites themselves are to annihilate them!
¹⁷ כִּֽי־הַחֲרֵ֣ם תַּחֲרִימֵ֗ם הַחִתִּ֤י וְהָאֱמֹרִי֙ הַכְּנַעֲנִ֣י הַחִוִּ֖י וְהַיְבוּסִ֑י כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוְּךָ֖ יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ

¹⁷ "But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee" (Dt 20:17 King James version) This ‘Lord’ is the angel, the ‘Destroyer’, since they had left the mountain to journey to the Promise Land and God had refused to go with them himself.

We must realize that Moses was not any more able to distinguish between the angel sent by the Lord and the Lord himself.

In fact in Exodus 34:11, Moses recounts that the Lord said: " ¹¹ 'Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites…'" This time, even in the Greek of the Septuagint, the 1st person singular of the verb ‘drive out’ is used: "¹¹ "πρoσεχε σu παντα οσα εγω εντελλομαι σοι ιδοu εγω εκβαλλω πρo προσωπου uμων τoν Αμορραιον.." etc.

Search: εκβαλλω

Match	Lemma	Uncontracted Form(s)	Parsing
εκβαλλω;	εκβαλλω		lexical form
εκβαλλω; εκβαλλω	εκβαλλω	εκ•βαλλ•ω; εκ•βαλλ•ω	pres act ind 1st sg; pres act sub 1st sg

We can see that the Greek of the Septuagint this time uses the 1st person singular. Already Satan is speaking, he is the lord, and even though he is doing God's will, he does a lot of his own will: he is a murderer, and a liar from the beginning (John 8:44 and Rev 12: 9 ).

To clarify the relation between the angel of the Lord and the Lord God himself, in the Old Testament we read in 1Chronicles: "Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel", and in 2Sam 24:11-16 after David sinned against God, by making a census of the Israelites, and God was going to punish him, we read that: "the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹² "Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’ ¹³ So Gad came to David and told him: he asked him, "Shall three years of famine come to you on your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land?' "
Here we have God speaking to the prophet. Then the prophet explained the three choices to David and asked him to choose one. "¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, 'I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.'"

But the Lord God did not do this; for he sent an angel to do it, Satan, the angel of destruction. "¹⁵ So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and there died of the people from Dan to Beer-Sheba seventy thousand men. "

The "Lord" here refers to God who sent the angel to bring the pestilence:

"¹⁶ And when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented of the evil, and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, 'It is enough; now stay your hand.' "

Clearly it can be seen that it is not God himself bringing the pestilence, and how the angel is about to go too far when God stops him.

A similar situation is presented in the Book of Job: in a dialogue between God and Satan about Job and his righteousness, the devil is allowed to go and test Job, but he has to be given orders not to kill him, for Satan is not allowed to take his life (Job 1:6-12).

Therefore coming back to our point that Satan is the angel that God appointed to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, he is the one that also gave them all the statutes and regulations for the life, sacrifices, war, spoils of war, etc. We are told in Deuteronomy that God gave Moses only the Ten Commandments on the mountain and added nothing else. (Dt 5:22), and that in "…the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. " (Jer 7:22)

Therefore it is right that Christ should tell the religious leaders of his time that their rules and regulation were not from God:

"You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44).

Therefore we can say that the Ten Commandments were truly from God, but as for the rest – sacrifices, kosher food laws and animals, rules and regulations for cleanness – Christ said “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Mt 9:13) and "it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles." (Mt 15:11) and " ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰ These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile" (Mt 15:19-20).

With this understanding of the Law, Jesus fulfil it and we do not need it any more (Mt 5:17), but not so THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WHICH CAME FROM GOD and we ought to keep if we claim that we know Him (1Jn 5:2).

Here I am talking about the 613 commandments which the angel that was sent by God gave to the Israelites. NOT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WHICH CAME FROM GOD and which we ought to keep if we claim that we know Him (1Jn 5:2).

It is worth mentioning that nowadays the laws and regulations that the Jews keep have become even more obsolete than in the times of Jesus. Just to mention one: on Saturdays (the Sabbath) in Israel, people are not allowed to do any work. Under this rule they must not press the buttons of the elevators, so there is a system whereby the elevator moves up and down, automatically stopping at every floor. One enters and leaves the lift at the desired floor without having to press any buttons, and thus incur the penalty of doing work on the Sabbath! In many hotels and hospitals the elevators work with this system on Saturdays.

May they turn to Jesus Christ, who brought them the true meaning of the Torah and the Prophets.