“How Vast the Resources of His Power …” No. 5

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS

Life in this complex and dangerous world may often make it seem to the child of God that he is so overwhelmed by the forces of evil that he has no chance at all - in the struggle for right. He may feel like a soldier who is cut off from the rest of his company behind enemy lines with no possible chance of overcoming the odds against him. It is, after all, the evil world that has the numbers, the money, the institutions, and the positions of honor. Even our culture, including literature, art, and education, is far more secular (some even call it pagan!) than it is Christian.

There is no question but what we are badly outnumbered in our conflict against evil. Whether it is a youth anticipating college life, a housewife working with her P.T.A., a man undertaking a new venture in the business world, or even a minister in a modern church, the forces of evil are not only present, but they have all the resources of influence, popularity and money to bring to bear against the one who dares to be different.

But are we really outnumbered? Does the world with all its strength have greater resources of power than the children of God? Even when the Christian is only a “minority of one”, saying no when all others are saying yes, or daring to act when no one else will, may really be in the majority. When we realize the vast resources of power that are available to us, we can declare most meaningfully, “If God be for us, who can be against us.”

We must pray for the enlightenment that was given to the prophet Elisha that enabled him to see that all the resources of heaven are for those who trust in God rather than men. Because of his prophecies Elisha was in trouble with the king of Syria, whose great army had surrounded the town of Dothan, determined to destroy the prophet. When Elisha’s servant saw the overwhelming odds against them, he reacted by saying what most of us say in a similar situation, unenlightened as we are, “What shall we do?”

Elisha prayed for his servant, “Lord open his eyes that he may see.” At this the young man beheld what mortal eye cannot usually see. The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elijah. He could then understand what the prophet meant when he said, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” (2 Kings 6:16)

God had sent a multitude of angels to protect the man that put his trust in Him, and once again a solitary figure in history became a majority against evil forces. We must pray that our eyes too will be opened so that we might see the ministry that God assigns to angels in our behalf. The Bible speaks of angels precisely as ministers to us: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation.” (Heb. 1:14)

Jesus was fully aware of the ministry of angels. He assured Peter that an army of angels could be summoned to protect the Christ, if He so desired: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels.” (Mt. 26:53) The term “at once” is forceful here, for while angels are created spirits with bodies of some kind, they never appear in the scriptures as limited by time or space. While delivering Peter from prison, an angel walked and talked with the apostle, and even performed such corporeal acts as awaking Peter by striking him, and yet he obviously had to pass through stone walls and iron gates in order to get to the apostle-even if he did lead Peter out of prison by more natural means. (Acts 12:17-20)

Following the narrative in Acts a few lines further we find that once Peter was freed from prison he went to the home of John Mark’s mother, where many saints had gathered to pray, perhaps for Peter’s release. When a girl saw him at the door, she hurried to tell the others that “Peter is standing at the gate!” Even though they had doubtless been praying for him, they were like we often are when we pray but hardly expect anything to come of it, they accused the girl of being beside herself. When she insisted, they then supposed she had seen something. “It is his angel!” they concluded.

We are not to suppose that Peter’s friends believed that the apostle had already been executed, and that he was appearing as a ghost at their gate, for there is no evidence that the early Christians believed that men turned into angels in the next world. It is more likely that they supposed Peter’s guardian angel had come to comfort him, and for some reason was attending them also as they prayed for the apostle. This does not explain the lack of logic in concluding that Peter’s angel would look like Peter, but they hardly had either the time or the temperament to be logical.

Jesus had taught his disciples to believe in guardian angels, though that exact term is not used: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 18:10) There is ample evidence of rank and order among the angels, with only one archangel, who is named Michael; and we may suppose that the angels of higher rank are given missions of a more sublime nature, while the plain, ordinary angels are sent forth to minister to plain, ordinary folk like us. And it may well be that a particular angel, or a company of them, is assigned to each child of God. What a blessed thought!

Certainly Michael the archangel has been assigned extraordinary missions. It was he who contended with the devil for the body of Moses, and in doing so he took due cognizance of Satan’s position in the hierarchy, for he did not presume to rebuke him, (Jude 9) And it is Michael’s voice that will proclaim from heaven the second coming of our Lord and the resurrection of the dead. (1 Thess. 4:16) So if any angel is to blow a trumpet, and Paul is positive that “the trumpet of God shall sound” (1 Cor. 15:52), it will be Michael that will blow his horn, and not Gabriel. Gabriel, despite his honored position, is never referred to in scripture as archangel, tradition not withstanding.

Gabriel does “stand in the presence of God”, while lesser angels surely do not, and he was given the distinct honor of announcing both the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ. (Lk. 1:19, 26) Verse 26 is precise about the angers mission: “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph.”

It was also Gabriel that brought a vision to Daniel about what would come to pass in the last days (Dan. 8:16), and since we have alluded to the angelic ability to transcend both time and space it is well to note that on another occasion when Daniel was praying, Gabriel appeared suddenly to minister to him. Daniel explains that Gabriel could do this because he was “caused to fly swiftly.” (Dan. 9:21) The context also speaks of Gabriel as a man who could be seen and with whom Daniel could talk, indicating, as the scriptures often do, that angels sometimes assumed the form of men.

It may have been Gabriel who had one of the tenderest and most momentous angelic missions of all history, that of comforting the Christ as he braced Himself for the ordeal of the cross. The Christ was in such agony that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground” He prayed that great prayer: “Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Then follows that remarkable passage: “And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.” (Mt. 26:43)

The drama is gripping and touching here. We can believe that God sent an angel of the highest rank, one that stands in His very presence, to minister to His Son in this crucial hour. Can we not suppose that the angel laid a kindly hand upon the suffering Christ and spoke words of comfort and encouragement to Him?

If we might be allowed to imagine the unfolding drama, which is summarized in a mere sentence in the narrative, we can see Gabriel or perhaps Michael appearing to the Christ amidst dazzling light while his disciples slept a short distance away. The Christ turns His trembling body and through tear-dimmed eyes sees the angel at His side, but He doesn’t speak.

“I am Gabriel,” says the angel softly. It was I who told the prophets of your coming, and it was I who told your Mother of your birth. And now I have come from the presence of your Father to assure you that all is well.”

Gabriel lays hands of tenderness upon the Christ’s noble shoulders and enfolds Him is a loving embrace, and says:

“The Father knows how you are suffering. He understands how hard it is, and He has sent me to assure you of His love and steadfast purpose for you. It is His will that you go to the cross. He will be with you and will provide you the strength to bear it.”

Once the angel strengthens the distressed Christ, He is firmly resolved to keep His appointment with an agonizing death, and from that moment on He faced the cross with an unflinching faith that it was the Father’s will. On the way to the cross He had heard His disciples confess His Messiahship at Caesarea Philippi, at the Mount of Transfiguration He had the assurance of history as He talked personally with Moses and Elijah about the ordeal of His exodus from this earth, and now in the garden He has the assurance of the Father’s angelic envoy that it is indeed God’s will that He should die as a common malefactor. Now He is ready.

We must believe that we too may be comforted by the angels, as was the Christ, and that they are on duty to minister to us as they have ministered to saints throughout history. There is the suggestion by Paul that we will in some way make an evaluation of their ministry. “Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Cor. 6:5) What a resource of power we have in the assurance that angels are standing by to protect us, and that in time of sorrow they are there to bear us up. We can be assured that even in death they are present to bear us away, as they did Lazarus, to Abraham’s bosom, which inspired the poet to sing:

Come, come, angel band,

And bear me away on your snowy white wings.”

The ministry of angels involves countless thousands of heavenly messengers. We have observed that Jesus spoke of “twelve legions of angels” (Mt. 26:53), which alone would be about sixty thousand; or it may have been His way of saying “countless numbers.” Elisha’s servant saw a mountain covered with them, and the shepherds listened as “a multitude of the heavenly host” sang praises to God for the birth of the Christ. (Lk. 2:13) And when our Lord comes again He will have all the angels with him,” and we can suppose the heavens will be full of the angelic host, standing in holy array in honor of the triumphant Lord of all. (Mt. 25:31) These angels will be sent to the four corners of earth to gather the elect into the eternal kingdom and to destroy the wicked in hell. (Mt. 13:49)

Daniel, in one of his night visions, saw before the throne of God literally millions of angels —“thousand thousands ministered unto Him and ten thousand times ten thousand.” (Dan. 7:10) This number is repeated in Rev. 5:11 as John tells of hearing the voice of angels around the throne of God. Imagine hearing the songs of praise of millions of angels!

The Bible assures us that we have not only come to Jesus and to the city of the living God in becoming Christians, but also to “innumerable angels in festal gathering.” (Heb. 12:22) We are also assured that these angels encamp about the righteous to protect them (Psa. 34:7). God sent angels to close the mouths of the lions who would have devoured Daniel (Dan. 6:22), and it was an angel who spoke to Paul during his shipwreck and assured him that his life would be spared so that he might stand before Caesar. (Acts 27:23)

We may conclude therefore that the ministry of angels to the saints is primarily that of providing guardianship or physical protection. We have seen that they could have been summoned to protect Jesus, that they delivered Peter from prison, that they protected Paul at sea, that they guarded Daniel in the lion’s den, and that they stood like an army in chariots to shield Elisha and his servant from harm. We may conclude, therefore, that when the Bible says that angels are “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation,” it is referring primarily to their protective agency. While they may also aid in comforting us, as they did the Christ, this ministry belongs especially to the indwelling Holy Spirit.

And yet the angels appear to have a broad area of concern in the Christian’s life. In some way they are’ witnesses to our worship, for women are urged to cover their heads in the assembly “because of the angels” (1 Cor. 11:10), and Timothy is charged to be faithful to his duties as an evangelist “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels” (1 Tim. 5:21). The angels are also described as watching the drama of the church’s mission on earth in demonstrating “the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10), and Job tells us that they sang for joy as they witnessed God’s creative power in laying the foundations of the world (Job 38:7).

But no word about angels is more interesting than Heb. 13:1-2: “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” The writer was no doubt thinking of Abraham, who had angels call on him without his realizing they were angels. But the writer of Hebrews may have had numerous instances in mind when he wrote those words, cases not recorded in the Bible as well as those that are. It had happened often enough in the divine economy for angels to minister to God’s children in the form of human beings, without the recipient knowing their true identity, that the point is made that one should receive strangers since they just might turn out tit be angels. It is the common element of angelic ministration in disguised form that is remarkable in this passage. After all “the law was ministered by angels.” (Heb. 2:2)

This should not be made to mean that when you look across the breakfast table at some stranger that you’ve put up for the night that you might be looking at an angel. It means that God has a way of blessing us when we do such things, and in ways that we are wholly unaware of. It is simply teaching us that we should be hospitable. But still the point is valid that JUSt as angels have at various times ministered in ways unrecognizable to man, they can be thought of as still doing so.

A more extensive study of angels would include a consideration of their origin and nature. Our purpose has been to become more aware of their ministry to us. It is enough for us to think of them as created beings who neither give birth nor die. So their number is neither increased or diminished. They are spirits, which means that they are non-material, but it does not mean that they do not have bodies. A spirit can have a body without having a fleshy one like we have. Jesus taught his disciples, “A spirit has not bones and flesh as you see me have” (Lk. 27:39), and in 1 Cor. 15 Paul makes it plain that there are both material and spiritual bodies. That angels have the ability to take on material form and appear as men, though they are spirits, is a most intriguing feature of their nature.

That angels have bodies similar in nature to our own resurrected body is indicated in our Lord’s teaching in Lk. 20:34-36: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”

This does not mean that we will become angels, for angels were created as angels and were never previously men, but that we will have bodies something like the angels. At least we will not have bodies in which we will have such material experiences as marriage, just as the angels do not have such bodies. We would have to bear with anyone who would attempt to describe in human terminology what an angel looks like. Daniel makes the attempt, and you will notice that he tries to describe the body of the angel, and not simply his dress: “His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the noise of a multitude.” (Dan. 10:6) Daniel explains that this was a vision that only he could see, that the men with him did not see it. So this appears to be more than an angel appearing as a man, but that Daniel actually saw an angel as an angel actually is. So fantastic was the sight that it knocked Daniel out cold!

What might our eyes behold if they momentarily had the insight that Daniel had in his vision or that Elisha’s servant had when he saw the mountain covered with angels in their chariots? If we could see these fabulos creatures gathered in holy array about the bed of a dying loved one, standing ready to usher him into eternal bliss, we would yield to our loss with more gladness. If we could see the angels as they attend our private and congregational devotions, we might be more inclined to praise God in jubilant outbursts. Who knows how many times the angels of God have borne up an airliner, or awakened a driver at just the right moment to avert disaster, in order to protect saints of God.

A more thorough study of angels would also have to consider the fact that they are but a part of a vast spiritual world. If we suppose that our own physical universe is glorious, we can imagine that the spiritual world is even more glorious. And just as the physical world is engrossed in the struggle between good and evil, so is the spiritual world. Even Satan, who rules over evil spirits, is himself an angel. The Bible speaks of the angels “that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 6)

Paul describes the Christians as caught up in this eternal struggle of good and evil in which angels as well as men are on opposing sides. Paul supposed that the reality of evil spirits is in the very air we breathe, for he could speak of Satan as “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which is now at work in the children of disobedience.” (Eph. 2:2) And he referred to “angels and principalities” as among those creatures that would try to separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:38-39). So there are wicked angels in “the nether gloom” awaiting God’s judgment. Others fill the very air, as it were, engulfing us in “the course of this world,” as Paul puts it in Eph. 2:2. We are in warfare. “For we do not have to wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the evil spirits in heavenly places” (Eph.6:12)

Paul sees the victory against the spiritual hosts of wickedness as already partly won, for he speaks of Christ as crippling such influences by his triumph over sin and death: “He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them thereby.” (Col. 2:15)

The complete victory will be accomplished when our Lord comes again. “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He will have dethroned every rule, every power and dominion. For He must reign as king, until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be dethroned is death.” (1 Cor. 15:24-26)

We are therefore in a war in which ultimate victory is assured. The real issue with us should be the side we choose to fight on. Satan and his angels seem to have the advantage from where we sit, for they have “the world” with all its allurements, and they definitely have a lot to offer. If Satan could lure a host of angels from the very portals of heaven, we must not underestimate his ability to deceive us as we struggle in a world that already “lieth in the evil one.” And how much might we already be within his control?

We hope this study makes it clear that in this eternal conflict God sends forth His angels, the good and loyal ones, to help us in the struggle against evil, which is everywhere, yea, in the very air we breathe. But unless we are committed to stand against “the world rulers of this darkness” those good angels might pass us by.

Once we understand that we are at war and that the struggle is critical, reinforcements will come sooner or later. God’s angels are standing ready to help and protect you in the struggle. But they do better when it is clear to them that you are ready to fight.

When triumph finally comes it will be angels innumerable with voices “like the sound of many waters” that will direct the great victory chorus: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.” If we join that mighty host in their struggle now, we will sing the song of victory with them then. —the Editor