What the Bible tell us about angels!!

What does the Bible tell us about angels?

The idea for this short study came up during our recent series on Matthew’s Gospel. The word ‘angel(s)’ appears 19 times in Matthew, and on a number of occasions when it came up it aroused a certain amount of curiosity among home group members. What are angels? What do they do? What’s their rôle in God’s world? What part do they play in our lives? People have been fascinated by angelic beings for millennia, and for centuries great artists have tried to capture images of angels on canvas - indeed it has to be said that Renaissance art in particular has a lot to answer for when it comes to modern-day ideas of angels! But the truth is that angels in the great artistic renditions of Biblical themes are usually nothing like the angelic beings described in the Bible itself. Moreover, the modern, New Age obsession with angels as ‘spirit guides’ is also profoundly - and dangerously - non-Biblical. In this short series we’ll be investigating what the Bible tells us about angels. It won’t be like our usual home group studies – no deep theological questions as we had with Matthew, and no obvious life-applications as we found in James. Rather, it will simply be a search for the truth about angels in the only authoritative source of information, the Bible. So clear your mind of any preconceptions, and let’s get going!
Session 1
Angels according to Matthew 1 Curiosity about angels arose during our study of Matthew’s gospel, so let’s start there.

1. Angels are messengers: The word angel comes from the Greek word ἄγγελος (aggelos) meaning messenger. Matthew ‘bookends’ his account of the life and work of Jesus with angelic messages – three to Joseph before Jesus’ birth (Matthew 1:20-24; 2:13; 2:19) and one to Mary Magdalene after Jesus’ death (Matthew 28:2-7). In each case they are messages from an “an angel of the Lord”, implying that they are important communications from God himself.

• In the case of Joseph’s dreams we’re not given any clue as to the appearance of the angel, but judging by Joseph’s immediate response – “when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him” – he must certainly have sensed the source of the angel’s authority.
• We’re not told whether it was the same angel who appeared to Joseph three times, but we can perhaps infer that the angel who appeared the second time was male (2:13: “he said”). However, there may be a translation anomaly here. Greek nouns have gender (as in French and German, for example) so, while the word for ‘angel’ is masculine, angels themselves may in fact be genderless! The text of 2:13 might just as accurately have read “it said”.
• The angel who appeared to Mary must have been pretty strong - the very act of rolling the boulder away from the entrance to the tomb caused a violent earthquake! And his appearance was so extraordinary (flashy, perhaps?) that the guards were frightened almost to death. 1Related references in the New Testament: Mark 16:4-7; Luke 1:11-20; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:9-15; Luke 24:4-7; John 20:11-13; Acts 8

1. Angels are protectors:
   Matthew mentions angels twice in his account of our Lord’s temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). *Regardless of the fact that the first time Matthew records the devil quoting Scripture (Psalm 91:11-12) for his own evil purposes, the implication of the verse is that at God’s command angels will provide protection in dangerous situations.
   *The second point is that angels “attended” - “ministered to” (KJV) – Jesus. Matthew doesn’t say whether the angels ministered to Jesus’ physical or his spiritual needs, but since (as we’ll see later) angels are spirits, we can assume at least the latter. Then, at the very end of Jesus’ ministry, Matthew 26:53 records Jesus’ response to the disciple who used a sword to try to protect him from those who had come to arrest him.
   *This is angelic protection on a military scale! A Roman legion at the time comprised 5,000 soldiers, so by specifying 12 legions Jesus was suggesting a huge fighting force.

2. Angels are administrators of God’s judgement:
   In chapter 13, Matthew records several of Jesus’ “the kingdom of heaven is like...” parables. When Jesus explains some of the parables he is extremely explicit about the rôle of angels in sorting the good from the bad.
   *In Matthew 13:39-41 Jesus’ explains the ‘parable of the weeds’. At the final judgement it will be angels who seek out and destroy the work of the devil. Similarly in the ‘parable of the net’ (Matthew 13:47-50). Does the concept of angels as heavenly storm troopers shock you? Then in Matthew 24:31-36, we hear more of Jesus’ teaching about what the NIV calls “signs of the end of the age”.
   *This time Jesus isn’t explaining a parable; he’s telling it straight! His angels will be the ones sent out to “gather his elect” on judgement day. Notice, however, that, despite the fact that they inhabit heaven and are close to God the Father, angels don’t know everything about his plans!

3. Angels are servants of God’s glory: Matthew 16:27 describes angels as a manifestation of the Father’s glory, and Matthew 25:31 seems to imply that they are part of Jesus’ glorious entourage.
   *The somewhat uncomfortable implication of these verses is that when we face Jesus on judgement day, as we inevitably will, there will be angels in the audience in the throne-room of heaven.
   
   Session 2
   Angels in the rest of the Bible:

1.Where do angels come from?
Psalm 148:2-5 and Colossians 1:16 tell us that angels were created by God – they are part of God’s glorious creation.
*Exactly when God created angels isn’t specified in Scripture, but according to Job 38:4-7 they were certainly around before God created humankind.

1. How many angels are there? Several verses (e.g. Psalm 68:17, in which angels are referred to as “chariots of God”; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 5:11) indicate that angels are too numerous for us to count.

• Angels don’t have babies, nor do they die. How do we know? Luke 20:35-36 tells us so, in a round-about kind of way. What Luke actually says is that when we, as Christians, die we will be raised to eternal life, and in this condition we will be like the angels - in the sense that we will not marry (and reproduce) or die (again).
  *Note that Luke is definitely not saying that dead people become angels; he’s simply saying they will become like angels with respect to these two characteristics.
  *So... if angels neither reproduce nor die, the implication must be that they were all created at one time; in other words, that the number of angels has been constant from the time of their creation by God, and will be so until judgement day.

1. What do angels do all day?
   As we have seen in the previous session, angels perform a variety of rôles. It’s not clear, however, if all angels do all these things or if they specialise. Nevertheless, here are a few of the ways that angels fill their days:
   *They report directly to God (Job 1:6, 2:1) and do his bidding (Psalm 103:20), and they also do as Jesus tells them (1 Peter 3:22).
   *They worship God (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8) ceaselessly in the throne-room of heaven, but angels themselves are not to be worshipped (Revelation 19:10) because they, like us, are simply servants of God.
   *They instruct and educate people (Daniel 9:21-22; Daniel 10:14), and they help and protect people (Genesis 21:17; 1 Kings 19:5-6; Daniel 3:28; Daniel 6:22). They take a close interest in human spirituality (Luke 12:8-9; Luke 15:10), and they carry the souls of the righteous to heaven (Luke 16:22).
2. What do angels look like?
   Angels are “spirits” (Hebrews 1:14). They don’t have physical bodies like humans, and so presumably they are normally invisible to the human eye (in other words, they are what Colossians 1:16 refers to as the “invisible” things created by God).
   However, 2 Kings 6:15-17 tells the wonderful story of Elisha praying that his servant’s eyes would be opened so that he could see “the hills full of horses and chariots of fire” –in other words, the armies of God’s angels!
   *Angels can also take on the appearance of people when the occasion demands. Otherwise, how else might some have “entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2 KJV)? In Genesis 18:2, Abraham welcomed three angelic guests who appeared at first to be ordinary travellers. In the following chapter (Genesis 19:1), two of these angels went to Sodom, where Lot offered them hospitality assuming they were men.
   *Some Bible passages describe angels as having wings (e.g. 1 Kings 6:24; Isaiah 6:2; Ezekiel 1:11; Revelation 4:8), and other verses talk about angels flying (Daniel 9:21; Revelation 14:6) a process for which wings would, of course, be rather useful! But most references to angels in the Bible say nothing at all about wings, so it’s possible that angels can move around without having to depend on winged flight.
   *Angels in the Bible are never cute, chubby infants! When people in the Bible saw an angel, their typical response was to fall on their faces in fear and awe, not to reach out for a tickle or a cuddle! If angels are described at all they always seem to be adults - specifically adult males (e.g. Mark 16:5).
   *The only possible exceptions are the “two women with wind in their wings” mentioned in Zechariah 5:9. But these women are not actually referred to as angels, and some commentators argue that indeed they cannot be angels because they have “wings like those of a stork”, which is an ‘unclean’ bird (see Leviticus 11:19).
   *Sometimes angels appeared as men with unusual features. The two angels at the empty tomb (Luke 24:4) had “clothes that gleamed like lightning”. And here’s a challenge for you! If you’re any good at drawing, try to sketch on paper: o the angel that Daniel saw on the bank of the Tigris River (Daniel 10:4-9), o the angels (“living creatures”) round the throne of God (Revelation 4:6-8), o “a wheel intersecting a wheel”, with eyes round the rims (Ezekiel 1:16-18)!
3. Are there different types of angels?
   The Bible uses several different words for angelic beings, implying that there may be different types, or classes, of angels. Whether these types can be arranged in some kind of angel hierarchy, as some theologians have done, is arguable, and ultimately rather pointless. However, two particular types of Biblical angels deserve special mention.
   *Seraphim (singular Seraph – ‘the burning one’) are mentioned in Isaiah 6:1-7 and described, though not specifically named, in Revelation 4:8. They seem to be the caretakers of God's throne and they continually call out God’s praises.
   *Cherubim (singular Cherub – ‘one who is near’) are mentioned in Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:17-22; 2 Chronicles 3:7-14; Ezekiel 10:1–22; 1 Kings 6:23–28, and in no case are the descriptions of these creatures what we would call ‘cherubic’ 6in the modern sense of the word! The 13th century theologian Thomas Aquinas proposed that Satan was a fallen cherub, perhaps the one mentioned in Ezekiel 28:16.
   Most of the angels who appear in Scripture are anonymous, but we do know the names of two notable angelic beings.
   *Gabriel (‘God is my strength’) first appears in the book of Daniel (8:16; 9:21), where he explains the meaning of Daniel's visions, and then again in Luke (1:19; 1:26) where he foretells the births of both John the Baptist and Jesus. Clearly Gabriel is a fellow to be trusted with momentous news!
   *Michael (‘who is like God?’ – answer, no-one!) is the only angel to be called an archangel in the Bible – in Jude 9. In Daniel 12:1, Michael is described as “the great prince who protects your people”, and in Daniel 10:13 as “one of the chief princes”. If “great prince” and “chief princes” are used here as synonyms for archangel(s), then Daniel 10:3 implies that there are other archangels besides Michael - but we can’t be sure! Michael is clearly a great military commander, leading the angels of God as they drive Satan and his angels out of heaven (Revelation 12:7-9).

And finally.... The Biblical picture of angels is of powerful, intelligent, courageous creatures who serve God and do his will in the great spiritual battle between good and evil that even now rages about us. Angels have emotions, rejoicing both in God’s work of creation (universal scale), and in his work of salvation (individual scale). They interact with humans in all kinds of ways as God commands them – and most of the time we don’t even know it! And angels have minds of their own – unfortunately some - the fallen angels - made the decision to oppose God and do the devil’s work rather than serve God and do God’s work.