|  ON
ANGELS
There stands an angel by every man as soon as he is born to guide
him through the mystery of life.
--GREEK PROVERB
Angels
guard you when you walk with Me. What better way could you choose?
--FRANCES J. ROBERTS
 Angels
see only the light, and devils only the darkness.
--JAKOB BÖHME (1575–1624)
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep:
All these with ceaseless praise his works behold
Both day and night.
--JOHN MILTON (1608–1674)
The angels are the dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence
toward us; they regard our safety, undertake our defense, direct
our ways, and exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befall
us.
--JOHN CALVIN (1509–1564)
|
 ON
ANGELS
Zech.
1:9-10 (Message Bible)
I said, "Sir, what are these horses doing here? What's the
meaning of this?"
The Angel-Messenger said, "Let me show you."
Then the rider in the birch grove spoke up, "These are the
riders that God sent to check things out on earth."
 From
Concise Theology
(c) Foundation for Reformation
Angels (their name means “messengers”) are one of the
two sorts of personal beings that God created, humankind being the
other. There are many of them (Matt. 26:53; Rev. 5:11). They are
intelligent moral agents, not embodied or ordinarily visible, although
they are able to show themselves to humans in what appears as a
physical form (Gen. 18:2-19:22; John 20:10-14; Acts 12:7-10). They
do not marry, and they are not subject to death (Matt. 22:30; Luke
20:35-36). They can move from one point in space to another, and
many of them can congregate in a tiny area (Luke 8:30, where the
reference is to fallen angels).
Like human beings, the angels were originally set under probation,
and some of them fell into sin. The many who passed the test are
now evidently confirmed in a state of holiness and immortal glory.
Heaven is their headquarters (Matt. 18:10; 22:30; Rev. 5:11), where
they constantly worship God (Pss. 103:20-21; 148:2) and whence they
move out to render service to Christians at God’s bidding
(Heb. 1:14). These are the “holy” and “elect”
angels (Matt. 25:31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; Acts 10:22; 1 Tim. 5:21;
Rev. 14:10), to whom God’s work of grace through Christ is
currently demonstrating more of the divine wisdom and glory than
they knew before (Eph. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:12).
Holy angels guard believers (Pss. 34:7; 91:11), little ones in particular
(Matt. 18:10), and constantly observe what goes on in the church
(1 Cor. 11:10). It is implied that they are more knowledgeable about
divine things than humans are (Mark 13:32), and that they have a
special ministry to believers at the time of their death (Luke 16:22),
but we know no details about any of this. Suffice it to pinpoint
the relevance of angels by saying that if at any time we stand in
need of their ministry, we shall receive it; and that as the world
watches Christians in hope of seeing them tumble, so do good angels
watch Christians in hope of seeing grace triumph in their lives.
The mysterious “angel of the LORD” or “angel of
God,” who appears often in the early Old Testament story and
is sometimes identified with the God from whom he is at other times
distinguished (Gen. 16:7-13; 18:1-33; 22:11-18; 24:7, 40; 31:11-13;
32:24-30; 48:15-16; Exod. 3:2-6; 14:19; 23:20-23; 32:34; 33:5; Num.
22:22-35; Josh. 5:13-15; Judg. 2:1-5; 6:11-23; 9:13-23), is in some
sense God acting as his own messenger, and is commonly seen as a
preincarnate appearance of God the Son.
Angelic activity was prominent at the great turning points in the
divine plan of salvation (the days of the patriarchs, the time of
the Exodus and giving of the law, the period of the Exile and restoration,
and the birth, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ), and
it will be prominent again when Christ returns (Matt. 25:31; Mark
8:38).
|
