Angels

VIEW:16 DATA:01-04-2020

Messengers between the heaven and earth with nine orders at present Christian/Jewish/Islam
Gods and Goddess Reference


("messengers".) Often with "of God" or "Jehovah" added. Sometimes called the "holy ones," "saints." The "Angel of God" often means the Divide Word, "the Image of the invisible God," God Himself manifested (Col_1:15; Gen_22:11-12; Gen_16:7; Gen_16:13; Gen_31:11; Gen_31:13; Gen_48:15-16; Gen_33:14; compare Isa_63:9; Exo_3:2; Exo_3:6; Exo_3:14; Exo_23:20-22; Act_27:23-24, compare Act_23:11; Num 22:22-32-35); accepting as His due the worship which angels reject as mere creatures (Rev_19:10; Rev_22:9); this manifestation was as man, an anticipation of the incarnation (Joh_1:18; Gen_18:2; Gen_18:22; Gen_19:1; Gen_32:24; Gen_32:30; Jos_5:13; Jos_5:15).
"Angel," "Son of God," "Gods" (Elohim), "Holy One," in the fullest sense, are names of the divine Word alone. His incarnation is the center by reference to which all angelic ministration is best understood. Compare Joh_1:51, Greek (aparti), "from this time forth ye shall see heaven open" (heretofore shut, against man by sin: Heb_9:8; Heb 10:19-20) "and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man," as the antitypical Jacob's ladder, the center of communication between men and God, the redeemed and the angelic world; Jesus' miracles, of which mention immediately follows (John 2), are firstfruit of this newly opened communion of earth and heaven (Gen_28:12-17). Secondarily, God's created messengers; as Israel (Isa_42:19), Haggai (Hag_1:13), John (Mal_3:1; Mal_2:7), the priesthood, ministers (Ecc_5:6), the rulers or angels of the Christian churches (Rev_1:20), as Elohim, "gods" is applied to judges (Psa_82:6); compare Jesus' application, Joh_10:34-37.
As to the nature of "angels" in the limited sense, they are "spirits" (Heb_1:7; Heb_1:14), of wind-like velocity, subtle nature, capable of close communion with God; sharers in His truth, purity, and love, since they ever behold His face (Mat_18:10), even as the redeemed shall (1Jn_3:2); not necessarily incorporeal; Luk_20:36 (compare Php_3:21), 1Co_15:44, seemingly but not certainly imply their having bodies. Their glorious appearance (Dan_10:6), like our Lord's when transfigured and afterward as the ascended Savior (Rev_1:14-16), and their human form (Luk_24:4; Act_1:10), favor the same view. Close kindred of nature between angels and men is implied in both being alike called "sons of God" (Job_1:6; Job_38:7; Dan_3:25; Dan_3:28) and "gods" (Elohim) (Psa_8:5; Hebrew Elohim "angels," Psa_97:7; Luk_3:38).
Finite, but ever progressing in the participation of God's infinite perfection (Job_4:18; Mat_24:36; 1Pe_1:12). Our fellow servants, "sent forth unto ministry for the sake of them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb_1:14), i.e., on ministrations appointed by God and Christ for the good of them who shall be heirs of salvation. Worship and service are their twofold function; priests in the heavenly temple (Isa_6:1-3; 1Ki_22:19; Dan_7:9-10; Rev_5:11), and sent forth thence on God's missions of love and justice. As finite, and having liberty, they were capable of temptation. Some "kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation" (2Pe_2:4; Jud_1:6). "The elect angels" fell not; they take part, by act and sympathy, in our affairs, and shall witness the Judgment (Luk_15:10; 1Co_4:9).
The fallen are not yet actually confined in the bottomless pit, but are doomed to it, "reserved unto judgment," and though seeming free, and ranging in our air, under the prince of the powers of the air (Eph_2:2), are really in "chains of darkness" already, able only to hurt to the length of their chain. Satan is their prince, a liar, murderer, slanderer; and such are they (Joh_8:44). The probation of the elect angels is over; their crown is won, they are the "holy ones" now (Dan_8:13), under the blessed necessity of sinning no more. "Watchers" of men, jealous for God's honor (Dan_4:13; Dan_4:23). Bad angels are permitted to try believers now, as Job; good angels are God's ministers of vengeance on the bad (Rev_12:8-9; Rev_20:1-2). Such shall the saints be at last, "equal to the angels," holy, made perfect, judges of angels and the world, ministering mediators of blessing to subject creatures (Heb_12:23; 1Co_6:2-3; Rev_5:10).
In the natural world angels minister, as in directing wind and flame (according to one translation of Psa_104:4; Heb_1:7): "the angel of Jehovah" wrought in the plague on the Egyptian firstborn (Exo_12:23; Heb_11:28), and on the rebels in the wilderness (1Co_10:10), on Israel under David (2Sa_24:16; 1Ch_21:16), on Sennacherib's army (2Ki_19:35), on Herod (Act_12:23). An angel troubled the pool of Bethesda (the Alex. manuscript supports the verse, the Sin. and the Vat. manuscripts reject it), giving it a healing power, as in our mineral springs (Joh_5:4): They act, in an unknown way, in and through "nature's laws." In the spiritual world too: by their ministration the Sinaitic law was given, "ordained by angels" (Gal_3:19), "spoken" by them (Heb_2:2), by their "disposition" or appointment (Act_7:53; compare Deu_33:2; Psa_68:17).
From the first creation of our world they took the liveliest interest in the earth (Job_38:7). When man fell by evil angels, with beautiful propriety it was ordered that other angels, holy and unfallen, should minister for God in His reparation of the evil caused to man by their fallen fellow spirits. They rescued at Jehovah's command righteous Lot from doomed Sodom, Jacob from his murderous brother (Genesis 19; 32). "Manna" is called "angels' food," "the grain of heaven"; not that angels eat it, but it came from above whence angels come, and through their ministry (Psa_78:25). When Elisha was in Dothan, surrounded by Syrian hosts, and his servant cried, "Alas! how shall we do?" the Lord opened his eyes to see the mount full of chariots and horses of fire round about (2Ki_6:15; 2Ki_6:17, compare Psa_94:7). By God's angel Daniel was saved in the lions' den (Dan_6:22); compare Dan_3:28 as to the fiery furnace.
Michael (whom some questionably identify with the Son of God) is represented as Israel's champion against Israel's (the literal and the spiritual) accuser, Satan (Dan_12:1, compare Rev_12:7-10). Daniel 10 unfolds the mysterious truth that there are angel princes in the spirit world, answering to the God-opposed leaders of kingdoms in the political world, the prince of Persia and the prince of Grecia standing in antagonism to Michael. In patriarchal times their ministry is more familiar, and less awful, than in after times. Compare Gen_24:7; Gen_24:40 (the angelic guidance of Abraham's servant in choosing a wife for Isaac, and encouraging Jacob in his loneliness at Bethel on first leaving home, Genesis 28) with Jdg_6:21-22; Jdg_13:16; Jdg_13:22. They appear, like the prophets and kings in subsequent times, in the character of God's ministers, carrying out God's purposes in relation to Israel and the pagan world powers (Zechariah 1; 2; 3; 4, etc.).
When the Lord of angels became flesh, they ministered before and at His birth (Luke 1; 2; Mat_1:20), after the temptation (Mat_4:11), in the agony of Gethsemane (Luk_22:43), at His resurrection and ascension (Mat_28:2; Luk_24:4; Joh_20:12; Act_1:10-11). Their previous and subsequent ministrations to men (Act_5:19; Act_8:26; Act_10:3; Act_12:7, Peter's deliverance, Act_27:23) all hinge on their intimate connection with and ministry to Him, redeemed man's divine Head (Psa_91:11; Mat_4:6), Hence they are the guardians of Christ's little ones, not thinking it beneath their dignity to minister to them (Mat_18:10); not attached singly to single individuals, but all or one ready at God's bidding to minister to each. (In Acts 12, the remark, "it is his Peter's angel," receives no countenance from Peter or the inspired writer of Acts, Luke; but is the uninspired guess of those in Mary's house.)
Rejoice over each recovered penitent (Luk_15:10); are present in Christian congregations (1Co_11:10); exercising some function in presenting the saints' prayers, incensed by Christ's merits, the one Mediator, before God (Rev_8:3; Rev_5:8); not to be prayed to, which is thrice forbidden (Rev_19:10; Rev_22:9; Col_2:18): when we send an offering to the King, the King's messenger durst not appropriate the King's exclusive due. Ministers of grace now, and at the dying hour carrying the believer's soul to paradise (Luk_16:22), but ministers of judgment, and gathering the elect, in the great day (Mat_13:39; Mat_13:41; Mat_13:49; Mat_16:27; Mat_24:31). Their number is counted by myriad's (Heb_12:22; Greek "to myriads, namely the festal assembly of angels") (Deu_33:2; Psa_68:17; Dan_7:10; Jud_1:14).
There are various ranks, thrones, principalities, powers in the angelic kingdom of light, as there are also in Satan's kingdom of darkness (Eph_1:22; Eph_6:12; Col_1:16; Dan_10:13; Dan_12:1; Rom_8:38). (See SERAPHIM; CHERUBIM; MICHAEL; GABRIEL.) Some conjecture that angels had originally natural bodies, which have been developed into spiritual bodies, as the saints' bodies shall (1Co_15:40-46); for they in Scripture accept material food (Genesis 18) and appear in human form, and never dwell in men's bodies as the demons, who, naked and homeless, seek human bodies as their habitation (see Luk_20:36, "equal unto the angels": Php_3:20-21).
Many of the momentous issues of life are seen often to hinge upon seemingly slight incidents. Doubtless, besides the material instruments and visible agents, the invisible angels work in a marvelous way, under God's providence, guiding events at the crisis so as to carry out the foreordained end. They "desire to look into" the mysteries of redemption, and they learn "by the church the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph_3:10; 1Pe_1:12). The saints (the living creatures and 24 elders) occupy the inner circle, the angels the outer circle, round the throne of the Lamb (Rev_5:11).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Angels. By the word "angels" (that is, "messengers" of God), we ordinarily understand a race of spiritual beings of a nature exalted far above that of man, although infinitely removed from that of God — whose office is "to do him service in heaven, and by his appointment to succor and defend men on earth".
I. Scriptural use of the word. There are many passages in which the expression "angel of God" is certainly used for a manifestation of God himself. Compare Gen_22:11 with Gen_22:12 and Exo_3:2 with Exo_3:6 and Exo_3:14. It is to be observed, also, that side by side with these expressions, we read of God's being manifested in the form of man — as to Abraham at Mamre, Gen_18:2; Gen_18:22, compare Gen_19:1 to Jacob at Penuel, Gen_32:24; Gen_32:30 to Joshua at Gilgal, Jos_5:13; Jos_5:15 etc. Besides this, which is the highest application of the word angel, we find the phrase used of any messengers of God, such as the prophets, Isa_42:19; Hag_1:13; Mal_3:1, the priests, Mal_2:7. And the rulers of the Christian churches. Rev_1:20.
II. Nature of angels. Angels are termed "spirits," as in Heb_1:14 — but it is not asserted that the angelic nature is incorporeal. The contrary seems expressly implied in Luk_20:36. The angels are revealed to us as beings such as man might be, and will be when the power of sin and death is removed, because always beholding his face, Mat_18:10, and therefore being "made like him." 1Jn_3:2. Their number must be very large, 1Ki_22:19; Mat_26:53; Heb_12:22, their strength is great, Psa_103:20; Rev_5:2; Rev_18:21, their activity marvelous, Isa_6:2-6; Mat_26:53; Rev_8:13, their appearance varied according to circumstances, but was often brilliant and dazzling. Mat_28:2-7; Rev_10:1-2.
Of the nature of "fallen angels," the circumstances and nature of the temptation by which they fell, we know absolutely nothing. All that is certain is that they "left their first estate" and that they are now "angels of the devil." Mat_25:41; Rev_12:7; Rev_12:9. On the other hand, the title especially assigned to the angels of God — that of the "holy ones," see Dan_4:13; Dan_4:23; Dan_8:13; Mat_25:31 — is precisely the one which is given to those men who are renewed in Christ's image. Compare Heb_2:10; Heb_5:9; Heb_12:23.
III. Office of the angels. Of their office in heaven, we have only vague prophetic glimpses as in 1Ki_22:19; Isa_6:1-3; Dan_7:9,10; Rev_6:11, etc., which show us nothing, but a never-ceasing adoration. They are represented as being, in the widest sense, agents of God's providence, natural and supernatural, to the body and to the soul. In one word, they are Christ's ministers of grace now, and they shall be of judgment hereafter. Mat_13:39; Mat_13:41; Mat_13:49; Mat_16:27; Mat_24:31 etc. That there are degrees of the angelic nature, both fallen and unfallen, and special titles and agencies belonging to each, is clearly declared by St. Paul, Eph_1:21; Rom_8:38, but what their general nature is it is useless to speculate.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

Angels are God’s servants and messengers in the heavenly and spiritual realm, where they find true satisfaction in the unceasing worship and service of God. They were created before humans, they belong to a higher order than humans, and their number is countless (Psa_103:20; Psa_148:2; Isa_6:2-3; Dan_7:10; Luk_12:8-9; Luk_15:10; Col_1:16; Heb_12:22; Rev_4:8; Rev_5:11-12; Rev_7:11).
Good and bad angels
At some time before the creation of humans, some of the angels, under the leadership of one who became known as Satan, rebelled against God and so fell from their original sinless state (2Pe_2:4; Jud_1:6). As a result there are good angels and evil angels. Christ has angels and so has Satan (Job_4:18; Mat_25:31; Mat_25:41; Jud_1:9; Rev_12:7-9).
Both good and bad angels are under God’s sovereign rule, the difference between them being that the good angels are obedient and the evil angels rebellious. Even the chief of the evil angels, Satan, is no more than a created being under the authority of God. Satan and the evil angels who follow him can do their evil work only within the limits that God allows (Job_1:12; Job_2:6; see SATAN).
Because of the high position that angels have as God’s heavenly servants, the Bible speaks of them as holy ones, as stars, and even as sons of God. Again these expressions may apply to good angels and bad angels (Job_1:6; Job_2:1; Job_5:1; Job_15:15; Job_38:7; Psa_89:5; Psa_89:7; Rev_9:1; Rev_12:3-4; Rev_12:9). (The remainder of this article will be concerned only with good angels. For further discussion on evil angels see DEMONS.)
Dealings with humankind
Angels have many functions in relation to humankind, but above all they are God’s messengers (Gen_19:1; Gen_28:12; Exo_3:2; Num_22:22; Jdg_2:1-4; Jdg_6:11; 2Sa_24:16; 1Ki_13:18; 1Ki_19:5; Mat_1:20; Mat_2:19; Mat_13:41; Mat_16:27; Luk_1:26-31; Act_10:3-4; Gal_3:19; e.g. see GABRIEL). In many of the earlier Old Testament references, the angel (or messenger) of God appears to be almost the same as God himself. This is possibly because the angel is so closely identified with God as his messenger that when he speaks God speaks. The angel’s temporary physical appearance is God’s temporary physical appearance (cf. Gen_16:7-13; Gen_21:17-18; Gen_22:15-17; Exo_3:2-6).
To the godly, an angel may be a guide (Gen_24:7; Gen_24:40; Exo_14:19; Act_8:26; Act_27:23), a protector (Psa_34:7; Psa_91:11; Dan_6:22; Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; Mat_18:10), a deliverer (Isa_63:9; Dan_3:28; Mat_26:53; Act_5:19), an interpreter of visions (Dan_8:16; Zec_1:8-14; Rev_1:1; Rev_22:6) and, in fact, a sympathetic helper in all circumstances (Mar_1:13; Luk_22:43; Heb_1:13-14). Yet to the ungodly, angels may be God’s messengers of judgment (Mat_13:39; Mat_13:41; Mat_25:31-32; Act_12:23; 2Th_1:7-8).
There are various categories of angels (Gen_3:24; Isa_6:2; Eze_10:3; Col_1:16; 1Th_4:16; Jud_1:9; see MICHAEL). Angels themselves do not have a physical form and do not reproduce their kind as humans do (Mat_22:30). When God sends them as his messengers to humans, he may give them a form similar to that of humans, though they are usually sufficiently different to create a feeling of great awe (Jdg_13:15-20; Mat_28:2-3; Luk_2:9; Luk_24:4; Joh_20:12; Act_1:10; Act_6:15).
Cherubim are spirit beings of one of the higher angelic orders. They usually feature as guardians of God’s throne and protectors of his interests (Gen_3:24; Exo_25:17-22; Psa_80:1; Eze_1:4-14; Ezekiel 10; cf. Rev_4:6-11; see CHERUBIM).
Great though angelic beings are, human beings should not worship them (Col_2:18; Rev_19:10; Rev_22:8-9). Jesus Christ is the one whom people should worship; for he is God, and therefore far above angels (Heb_1:5-13; Eph_1:20-21; Col_2:10; Rev_5:11-14). Those who through faith are united with Christ will thereby share Christ’s dominion in the age to come, and this will involve them in judgment of angels (Heb_2:5-9; 1Co_6:3).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

Angels, a word signifying, both in Hebrew and Greek, messengers, and therefore used to denote whatever God employs to execute his purposes, or to manifest his presence or his power. In some passages it occurs in the sense of an ordinary messenger (Job_1:14; 1Sa_11:3; Luk_7:24; Luk_9:52): in others it is applied to prophets (Isa_42:19; Hag_1:13; Malachi 3): to priests (Ecc_5:6; Mal_2:7): to ministers of the New Testament (Rev_1:20). It is also applied to impersonal agents; as to the pillar of cloud (Exo_14:19): to the pestilence (2Sa_24:16-17; 2Ki_19:35): to the winds ('who maketh the winds his angels,' Psa_104:4): so likewise, plagues generally, are called 'evil angels' (Psa_78:49), and Paul calls his thorn in the flesh an 'angel of Satan' (2Co_12:7).
But this name is more eminently and distinctively applied to certain spiritual beings or heavenly intelligences, employed by God as the ministers of His will, and usually distinguished as angels of God or angels of Jehovah. In this case the name has respect to their official capacity as 'messengers,' and not to their nature or condition. In the Scriptures we have frequent notices of spiritual intelligences, existing in another state of being, and constituting a celestial family, or hierarchy, over which Jehovah presides. The practice of the Jews, of referring to the agency of angels every manifestation of the greatness and power of God, has led some to contend that angels have no real existence, but are mere personifications of unknown powers of nature: but there are numerous passages in the Scriptures which are wholly inconsistent with this notion, and if Mat_22:30, stood alone in its testimony, it ought to settle the question. So likewise, the passage in which the high dignity of Christ is established, by arguing that he is superior to the angels (Heb_1:4, sqq.), would be without force or meaning if angels had no real existence.
That these superior beings are very numerous is evident from the following expressions, Dan_7:10, 'thousands of thousands,' and 'ten thousand times ten thousand;' Mat_26:53, 'more than twelve legions of angels;' Luk_2:13, 'multitude of the heavenly host;' Heb_12:22-23, 'myriads of angels.' It is probable, from the nature of the case, that among so great a multitude there may be different grades and classes, and even natures?ascending from man towards God, and forming a chain of being to fill up the vast space between the Creator and man?the lowest of his intellectual creatures. This may be inferred from the analogies which pervade the chain of being on the earth whereon we live, which is as much the divine creation as the world of spirits. Accordingly the Scriptures describe angels as existing in a society composed of members of unequal dignity, power, and excellence, and as having chiefs and rulers (Zec_1:11; Zec_3:7; Dan_10:13; Jud_1:9; 1Th_4:16).
In the Scriptures angels appear with bodies, and in the human form; and no intimation is anywhere given that these bodies are not real, or that they are only assumed for the time and then laid aside. The fact that angels always appeared in the human form, does not, indeed, prove that this form naturally belongs to them. But that which is not pure spirit must have some form or other: and angels may have the human form; but other forms are possible. The question as to the food of angels has been very much discussed. If they do eat, we can know nothing of their actual food; for the manna is manifestly called 'angels' food' (Psa_78:25), merely by way of expressing its excellence. The only real question, therefore, is whether they feed at all or not. We sometimes find angels, in their terrene manifestations, eating and drinking (Gen_18:8; Gen_19:3); but in Jdg_13:15-16, the angel who appeared to Manoah declined, in a very pointed manner, to accept his hospitality.
The passage already referred to in Mat_22:30, teaches by implication that there is no distinction of sex among the angels. In the Scriptures indeed the angels are all males: but they appear to be so represented, not to mark any distinction of sex, but because the masculine is the more honorable gender. Angels are never described with marks of age, but sometimes with those of youth (Mar_16:5). The constant absence of the features of age indicates the continual vigor and freshness of immortality. The angels never die (Luk_20:36). But no being besides God himself has essential immortality (1Ti_6:16): every other being therefore is mortal in itself, and can be immortal only by the will of God. Angels, consequently, are not eternal, but had a beginning, although there is no record of their creation.
The preceding considerations apply chiefly to the existence and nature of angels. Some of their attributes may be collected from other passages of Scripture. That they are of superhuman intelligence is implied in Mar_13:32 : 'But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not even the angels in heaven.' That their power is great, may be gathered from such expressions as 'mighty angels' (2Th_1:7); 'angels, powerful in strength' (Psa_103:20); 'angels who are greater [than man] in power and might.' The moral perfection of angels is shown by such phrases as 'holy angels' (Luk_9:26): 'the elect angels' (1Ti_5:21). Their felicity is beyond question in itself, but is evinced by the passage (Luk_20:36) in which the blessed in the future world are said to be 'like unto the angels, and sons of God.'
The ministry of angels, or that they are employed by God as the instruments of His will, is very clearly taught in the Scriptures. The very name, as already explained, shows that God employs their agency in the dispensations of His Providence. And it is further evident, from certain actions which are ascribed wholly to them (Mat_13:41; Mat_13:49; Mat_24:31; Luk_16:22); and from the Scriptural narratives of other events, in the accomplishment of which they acted a visible part (Luk_1:11; Luk_1:26; Luk_2:9, sq.; Act_5:19-20; Act_10:3; Act_10:19; Act_12:7; Act_27:23), that their agency is employed principally in the guidance of the destinies of man. In those cases also in which the agency is concealed from our view, we may admit the probability of its existence; because we are told that God sends them forth 'to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation' (Heb_1:14; also Psa_34:7; Psa_91:11; Mat_18:10). But the angels, when employed for our welfare, do not act independently, but as the instruments of God, and by His command (Psa_103:20; Psa_104:4; Heb_1:13-14): not unto them, therefore, are our confidence and adoration due, but only unto him (Rev_19:10; Rev_22:9) whom the angels themselves reverently worship.
It was a favorite opinion of the Christian fathers that every individual is under the care of a particular angel, who is assigned to him as a guardian. They spoke, also of two angels, the one good, the other evil, whom they conceived to be attendant on each individual; the good angel prompting to all good, and averting ill; and the evil angel prompting to all ill, and averting good. The Jews (excepting the Sadducees) entertained this belief. There is, however, nothing to authorize this notion in the Bible. The passages (Psa_34:7; Mat_18:10) usually referred to in support of it, have assuredly no such meaning. The former, divested of its poetical shape, simply denotes that God employs the ministry of angels to deliver his people from affliction and danger; and the celebrated passage in Matthew cannot well mean anything more than that the infant children of believers, or, if preferable, the least among the disciples of Christ, whom the ministers of the church might be disposed to neglect from their apparent insignificance, are in such estimation elsewhere, that the angels do not think it below their dignity to minister to them [SATAN].
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

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