angels

I was looking in the Dollar Tree not long ago and there was a large display of angels. Big ones, small ones, delicate ones, black ones, goofy ones – just about every kind of angel one could think of. Of course, the only one they didn’t have were avenging angels like the Bible talks about. Those were no one to mess around with.

It seems that people love the idea of these ephemeral creatures flittering about with sweet sad eyes and blonde hair, creatures who could do no harm.

You remember that one angel killed the entire Assyrian army in the Old Testament (2 Kings 19:35) , and one angel took all of the first born of the entire nation of Egypt (Exodus 11). These were tough angels, not the cutesy pie little fairy creatures in the Precious Moments case at the Christian bookstore. These characters were frightening.

I suppose that the character played by John Travolta in the movie Michael, in some ways, was more like an angel than any other. His angel was strong and in control and didn’t give a flip what others thought about him.

Not that his was necessarily a biblical angel. It was just that his angel seemed more in charge than so many.

But the worship of angels is kind of strange and also ancient. The Bible tells us several times to quit paying so much attention to angels and pay more attention to God and his Son, Jesus. One of the reasons Hebrews was written was to deal with angelolatry in the ancient world. The writer of Hebrews says in 1:3-14:

3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"?
6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."
 7 In speaking of the angels he says, "He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire."
8 But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."
10 He also says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
11 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.
12 You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end."
13 To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"?
14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

The writer of Hebrews is quite clear in his comment that God never commended the angels as his Son or as his Beloved. In fact, they worship the Son (v6) and were designed as purely supplementary to the will of God.

He writes that angels were never intended to be a focal point of God’s creation. They were meant to be messengers, winds, flames of fire, anything else he wanted them to be; not focal points.

They are the wrapper that brought the present, not the present. They are the envelope that brought the message, not the message. It is kind of like falling in love with the postal carrier who brought you the letters from your wife.

Angels are just messengers designed to bring Jesus and his will into being. They are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. They serve us, which is hard to comprehend. But, we do not worship them. We merely accept them as God’s messengers, his winds and flames of fire.

I suppose that there is nothing wrong with small representations of angels, any more than small representations of all of God’s people throughout the Old Testament. It is when we get to worshipping them and placing them coequal with Jesus that problems arise.

That is what happened with the Jews: Moses became the epitome of God’s creation and God told them they were wrong to worship him. Even in Matthew 17, at the transfiguration of Jesus, and his appearance with Moses and Elijah, God told the three apostles in attendance and us incidentally that Jesus is his beloved Son, to hear him, not all the other people.

In the same way, angels are God’s creations and are not to be worshipped. God alone in his manifestations of the Father, Son and Spirit are due that.

Nothing of God’s creation is worth anything without God and outside of his plan. And with the plan of God ruling in our lives, everything will be good.

That is what is hard about our present situation. God is good and his plans are good, even when they are not apparent. Just don’t dwell on the way the good comes to you. Life and its problems are but the package the plan of God comes in. Ignore that and concentrate on what it is that God wants you to see and learn.

Of course, I’m not saying that all the people who torment you are little angels. Maybe from another area of creation. But they work God’s will as surely as it can be worked. Praise his blessed and holy name.