A Divine Revelation of Angels (5 page)

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.(Revelation 3:11–12 niv)

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Angels are often portrayed today as chubby little cupids who look cute and sweet, but this is not the biblical view. In the Bible, those who saw angels were often amazed or overwhelmed at the sight of these magnificent beings.

The Word of God presents a striking picture of the nature, number, and appearance of angels. In the visions and revelations that God has given me, I have seen the manifestation of many of these characteristics.

The Nature of Angels

Angels are a unique creation with specific qualities that reflect who they are and what they were created to do.

Angels Are Spirit Beings

First, angels are spiritual beings, not flesh and blood (although they can take physical form, as I will discuss presently). God “makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire” (Psalm 104:4; see Hebrews 1:7). There are several qualities of angels as spiritual beings that we should be aware of.

Spirits Are Immortal

Spirits are immortal; they do not die, but live eternally. Jesus said,

Those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage; and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels.(Luke 20:35–36 niv)

Spirits Are Not Subject to Physical Limitations

Angels are not subject to physical restrictions as human beings are. As spirits, they are not limited by time or space. Locked doors and solid walls are no barrier to them, and they can appear and disappear. (See, for example, Acts 5:17–23; 12:5–11.)

Spirits Have No Gender

Although we often think of angels in terms of having male or female characteristics, and although they have often appeared to humans in bodily form, spirits have no gender in the sense that they do not marry and have “baby” angels. “In the resurrection [people] neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30).

Angels Are Holy

Second, the Scriptures teach that angels are holy beings.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.(Matthew 25:31)

Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.(Mark 8:38)

And they said [to Peter], “Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.”(Acts 10:22)

If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.(Revelation 14:9–10)

Angels must be holy because they serve a holy God. This passage from Isaiah is a compelling picture of how the seraphim reflect the holiness of the Lord:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”(Isaiah 6:1–3)

Angels Are Elect

Third, the Bible describes angels as “elect.” In 1 Timothy 5:21, Paul wrote, “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.” The word “elect” in the Greek means “select” or “chosen.” (See Strong’s #G1588.) Paul’s meaning is not entirely clear, but he may have been referring to the holiness and eternal nature of all God’s holy angels, as David Jeremiah wrote in What the Bible Says about Angels:

God’s angels are known as the “elect” angels (1 Timothy 5:21), indicating that God chose to let them live eternally in his heaven. Christians are also called “the elect” (2 Timothy 2:10). The angels themselves will be sent by God to “gather his elect from the four winds” (Matthew 24:31), for we too are chosen for eternal life. We and the angels will share permanent citizenship in God’s heavenly kingdom forever.

...C. F. Dickason...says the good angels who did not fall in Satan’s rebellion “remain fixed in holiness.” They are incapable of sin, just as we will be in eternity. But we will be there in heaven only because the blood of Christ has washed away our sins.

Herbert Lockyer, in All the Angels of the Bible, wrote,

The widely held view is that the elect angels are those who retained their purity and obedience when certain of the angels fell. They are the angels who kept “their position of authority” and did not “abandon their own home” (Jude 6).

Angels Are Intelligent Beings, but Not Omniscient

Next, angels are depicted in the Bible as carrying out God’s instructions with intelligence, wisdom, and efficiency. Paul even talked about the language of angels (1 Corinthians 13:1). Yet even though angels have much more knowledge of the spiritual world than we do, they are not all-knowing, as God is. Nothing in Scripture indicates that they are omniscient.

But of that day and hour [of Jesus’ second coming] no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.(Matthew 24:36)

To [the Old Testament prophets] it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven; things which angels desire to look into.(1 Peter 1:12)

Angels know only what God chooses to reveal to them or allows them to know. The Bible teaches that angels learn things by observing God’s working in and through His people! Paul wrote about how God uses the church to reveal certain things to His holy angels:

For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.(1 Corinthians 4:9)

[The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.(Ephesians 3:10 amp)

I believe the angels were amazed when Jesus came to earth as a human being to be the Savior of the world. I think they were filled with wonder to see the extent of Jesus’ suffering and the cruelty of His death on the cross. I think they still marvel today when they behold the deliverance that God’s Son brings to suffering humanity. When God’s people come together for a deliverance service, and His Spirit begins to heal, deliver, and set men and women free, I believe the angels are astounded at all the miracles of God’s grace.

Angels Have Superhuman Power but Are Not Omnipotent

The apostle Peter said that “angels...are greater in power and might” (2 Peter 2:11) than human beings. Paul also referred to angels as “mighty,” saying,

It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.(2 Thessalonians 1:6–7)

Angels are given great strength and ability by God to carry out His will and commands. However, they are not all-powerful, as He is. They don’t have unlimited power or authority, but only what God gives them.

The powerful might of angels is demonstrated many times in the Bible in its depictions of angels working on behalf of God’s people and fighting God’s battles. Here are several examples:

The Lord said to Moses, “...And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.”(Exodus 33:1–2)

The Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheeba seventy thousand men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.”(2 Samuel 24:15–16)

And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand.(2 Kings 19:35)

Daniel said to the king, “...My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him.”(Daniel 6:21–22)

He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.(Matthew 24:31)

I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea.(Revelation 7:1–2)

So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.(Revelation 9:15)

The Number of the Angels

Next, how many angels are there? There are various references in the Bible to numbers of angels. In Matthew 26:53, Jesus referred to “legions of angels”: “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” Again, a Roman legion could be made up of between three thousand and twelve thousand soldiers, including cavalry and support staff. Therefore, Jesus was talking about tens of thousands of angels being readily available to come to His aid.

Daniel had a vision in which he saw “the Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:9), or God Himself, on His throne. Daniel said that “a thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him” (v. 10). That number comes to more than one hundred million! Yet, even then, apparently not all the angels were present because, in Revelation 5:11, John looked at the angels and elders around God’s throne and said that “the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (emphasis added). In other words, there were even more than one hundred million. The writer of Hebrews refers to an “innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22). There are too many angels for us to count!

Another reason we know there are multitudes of angels is that they are referred to as “hosts” of the Lord. In fact, numerous times in the Old Testament (285 times in the King James Version), God is referred to as the “Lord of hosts” or the “God of hosts.” In the New Testament, the angel choir that was praising God at Jesus’ birth was called “a multitude of the heavenly host” (Luke 2:13). The Hebrew and Greek words that are translated “hosts” or “host” refer to an army, particularly one organized and ready for war. (See Strong’s #H6635; #H4264; #G4756.) Consider these Scriptures that refer to the Lord of hosts:

[Hannah] made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.”(1 Samuel 1:11)

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”(1 Samuel 17:45)

Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left.”(1 Kings 22:19)

O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord?(Psalm 89:8)

Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure.(Psalm 103:20–21)

So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion.(Isaiah 31:4)

O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.(Isaiah 37:16)

For thus says the Lord of hosts: “Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory.”(Haggai 2:6–7)

God saves and delivers through His mighty hosts of angels. There is an innumerable host of angelic beings who surround and worship the Lord day and night and who do His bidding.

The Appearance of Angels in the Bible

Third, what do God’s angels look like? Angels are choice specimens of beauty and grace, reflecting the glory of their Creator. Sometimes, angels are not visible to the human eye as they go about fulfilling God’s Word and purposes. At other times, they are visible to us.

Even though angels are spirits, they can take on various physical forms as they carry out God’s will. Humans have observed angels (at least) since the fall of mankind when God placed the cherubim in the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the Tree of Life with a flaming sword (Genesis 3:24).

In the Bible, angels did not appear to people as a form of mist or ethereal fog. They sometimes appeared as dazzling, strange, or overpowering entities who could seem frightening, while at other times, they appeared as human beings. These manifestations seemed to be in keeping with the functions and roles they were carrying out. Angels were sometimes seen sitting down, and other times standing up. (See, for example, Judges 6:11; Matthew 28:1–2; John 20:12; Genesis 18:2; Isaiah 6:2; Luke 24:4.) They almost always seemed to inspire awe, however, in those who saw them, as was the case with Samson’s parents, who encountered the angel of the Lord: