A Quick, Compelling Bible Study Vol. 69: Angels in the Hebrew Bible

Thanks for joining us as we begin our two-part study about angels in the Bible. Today we examine the Old Testament, and next week the New.

Everyone loves angels, those adorable, cuddly, invisible, flying beings with fluffy white wings depicted throughout culture in music, art, literature, cartoons, and movies.

Speaking of movies, among my favorites is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring a hard-working angel named Clarence. But my beloved “real” angel is St. Michael – a high-ranking "archangel" – among the few mentioned by name in the Bible and best-known for his “Prayer of Protection” discussed in Vol. 20.

Guiding us through our brief study meant to stimulate further interest in this extensive topic is Mike Aquilina, who authored “Angels of God.” Mike has written numerous books and is Executive Vice President and Trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.

Aquilina says, “The word ‘angel’ is from the Greek word, angelos, meaning ‘messenger’ also the root of ‘evangelist,’ and ‘evangelical,’ that means ‘news.’ Thus, ‘ev-angel’ is ‘good news,’ referring to the gospel.”

The Biblical appearance of angel messengers conflicts with Hollywood’s cherub-faced friendly depiction and the reason why angels usually say, “Don’t be afraid” before delivering their heavenly messages from God. Although the word angel is rooted in “messenger,” they are called upon to perform varied tasks, most notably as guardians.

In the Bible, angels are called many names. Aquilina says, “the Bible uses a wealth of terms such as seraphim, cherubim, choirs, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, sons of God, ministers, servants, hosts, watchers and holy ones.”

The first time an angel is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is in the third chapter of Genesis:

“After he [God] drove the man out, he [God] placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).

Here the cherubim act as God’s guards tasked with keeping sinful “fallen man” from gaining access to the tree of life to “live forever,” as God states in Genesis 3:22. (See Christ, Jesus in the New Testament about how the “live forever” matter is resolved or begin by reading Vol. 32.)

Later in Genesis, we meet “The angel of the LORD,” who intervened in a history-altering birth story while ministering to Hagar in the desert. Hagar was a frightened maid-servant who ran away after being mistreated by Abram’s wife, Sarai. (Much family drama ensues, and note that in Genesis 17, God renamed Abram and Sarai as Abraham and Sarah.)

The angel informs Hagar that she must return to Sarai because: “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count” (Genesis 16:10).

Famously, the angel tells Hagar: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Genesis 16:11-12).

Another job of angels is to serve as guides for critical missions, like when Abraham’s servant was sent to find a wife for his son Isaac. Upon departing, Abraham told the servant: “The LORD, before whom I have walked faithfully, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success..” (Genesis 24:40).

Sometimes in the Bible, angels appeared to be men but made clear they were speaking on behalf of God’s will. Angels as men have also accompanied the LORD on pivotal visits, such as delivering news of a forthcoming, miraculous birth. That occurred when Abraham had “three visitors” in Genesis 18:1-15, the Lord and two of His angels. And then the two angels went on to warn Lot before the Lord destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:1-29.

Aquilina tells us that “in the Old Testament, it is not always easy to make a distinction between God and his angels.”

Engaging in military maneuvers was another angelic duty dramatically demonstrated in Exodus. While trying to escape Egypt, the Hebrew people, led by Moses, were chased by Pharaoh’s army and stopped at the water’s edge before the sea miraculously opened for them to cross. But first, an angel had to strategically change position:

“Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them” (Exodus 14:19).

Now let’s review a representative sampling of Psalm verses featuring angels in their roles as guards, protectors, and messengers of His Word.

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” (Psalm 34:7).

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11). (For more about this “Psalm of Protection,” see Vol. 10.)

“Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word” (Psalm 103:20).

The book of Daniel is where the angels Gabriel and Michael are named in Daniel’s visions about the Son of man, the fate of Israel, God’s judgment, and the end times.

Again, in a messenger role: “And I heard a man’s voice from the Ulai calling, ‘Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.’ As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. ‘Son of man,’ he said to me, ‘understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.’”(Daniel 8:16-17). (See Vol. 53 for more about “Son of man.”)

Then in Daniel 9: 21-27, Gabriel offers Daniel further “insight and understanding.” Daniel’s vision continues, and he is informed that Michael is “your prince” who “will arise” to “protect your people” at the end times in Daniel 10:21 and 12:1.

Unfortunately, messenger angels have not increased my allotted space to continue discussing their vital role representing God in the Hebrew Bible. But for more angel verses, click here.

Join us next week when Mike Aquilina will expand our understanding of angels in the New Testament. As a preview, Mike says, “In the New, angels do the same jobs as in the Old, but we find that our human relationships with angels differ from that of the Old Testament heroes.”

"In Jewish theology, angels (as creations of God) are solely servants of God. The very idea of a “rebel angel” who contests with God throughout the ages is absurd. The angel known a “Ha Satan” (the Satan) has as its purpose the temptation of individuals, and reporting the results back to God. Satan is thus NOT evil, it is a servant of God. No creation of God could hope to “fight” Him and hope to survive for more than a microsecond. Evil is simply the absence of God, just as death is not a thing unto itself, but merely the absence of life."

Your reply is simply contrary to the Hebrew Scriptures themselves as well as illogical. First, as regards the latter, there is no conflict btwn God being omnipotent and a creation of God becoming evil and hoping to “fight” Him and doing so, nor as acting as a servant for God, for in His omnipotence God can allow an adversary in order to serve a purpose. And which is in order to test man, providing an alternative to obedience for beings to whom freedom of choice is enabled. Likewise God would not henceforth drive out any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, "That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not." (Judges 2:22)

Moreover, an adversary can choose to engage in an ultimately unwinnable battle when driven by envy, lust or revenge, finding some satisfaction in any gains allowed by his enemy, while deluding himself that he can prevail in the end.

And as for the devil being evil, that is just what being an adversary to God is, and what the devil, Lucifer, is revealed to be. We see him personified as the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14 who selfishly, and without any warrant, presuming (in the original "Occupy Movement") "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:13-14) thereby implicitly charging that God needed to "share the wealth" as one unworthy of His supreme exalted status, which the devil evidently lusts after. But because presumptuous self-exaltation is evil, and God is omnipotent, then since "he that exalts himself shall be abased," so the result was that "thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14:15)

The next act of the devil that we read of in the Garden of Eden, in which, true to form, the devil implicitly charges God with selfishly keeping deity (or an aspect of it)back from His creations, telling Eve that God lied to them about eating of the of the forbidden fruit for He was keeping Divine power from them, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5) The insinuation was that Eve was a victim of injustice, that pf keeping something that belonged to God from her, meaning (again) that God needed to share the wealth, and that as a victim then she was entitled to what God had, and was justified in obtaining, via rebellion, what was hers, and which choice her husband, albeit knowingly, assented to himself.

Thus we can see who the author of the victim-entitlement mentality is, and which has been (Communism) employed and is today via proxy servants of the devil. Yet as in the case of Adam and Eve, the result of believing the deception of such a supposed results in loss to the deceived but gain for the devil, who achieved a victim by inducing members of God's creation to disobey Him, and obtain some glory and power for himself, all allowed by and limited by the Almighty for His just and ultimately gracious purposes.

Further on we see the devil once again exampling the same premise that God was unworthy of His exalted status, which the devil lusts after, asserting that the only reason Job worshiped God was nut because of God's intrinsic character as it were, but only because of the grace shown to Job, and thus if the latter was removed then Job would disown God. "Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." (Job 1:10-11) And Job's (bereaved) wife acted as a proxy servant for the evil one, telling her husband to do as the devil said he would. (Job 2:8)

However, while the bewildered and falsely-accused (by 3 "friends" since his experience did not conform to their erroneous theology) Job protested, yet he did not do as the devil asserted that he would, but was reproved because in his ignorant pain he "opened his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge" (Job 35:16) and "darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge," (Job 38:2) and after about 77 rhetorical questions from God he confessed, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:5) and after he prayed for his friends then "the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." (Job 42:10)

And thus the devil was further exposed as being the evil adversary and deceiver that he is, being as the Messiah stated, "a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it," (John 8:44) who "climbeth up some other way,... [being] a thief and a robber. (John 10:1) - despite the ignorant deception you have bought into.

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