In a typical English Bible translation, there are more than 275 references to the word ‘angel,’ with many more references to specific kinds of angels.
So it begs the question: What are angels like? What is their function? Are they like Cupid — chubby-faced, childlike, flying around on clouds with love arrows in their hands? What does the Bible really say?
Angels are spiritual beings, just as God Himself is a spiritual being, and they were created before the human race. Their appearance is often terrifying to us mortals (see here and here for examples), and they are capable of acts of massive scope and power (see below).
The best-known angels in the Bible are Gabriel and Michael. In my last article, we discussed the most well-known disobedient angel, Satan.
How many angels are there? According to Hebrews, they are innumerable, meaning more than we could possibly count (although God knows their exact number).
What is the function of these spiritual beings? Psalms tells us that they exist to carry out God’s word and do His bidding, and that includes taking care of God’s people. As Psalm 34 teaches, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”
Hebrews adds that angels are “ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.” In other words, they are here to help those who have put their faith in the Savior.
They also serve as messengers and intermediaries, bringing communications from God to His people (see here and here for examples). In fact, both the Hebrew ‘malakh’ and the Greek ‘angelos,’ the respective words for angel in the Bible, have the fundamental meaning of ‘messenger.’
What else does the Bible tell us about angels?
There is no reference to angels being created in God’s image, male and female, as we are.
Some angels, however, are described as cherubim, first mentioned in Genesis 3 after the fall of Adam and Eve. The text states that after the Lord drove them out of the Garden of Eden, “he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”
These cherubim were clearly winged creatures, and their images were crafted in gold and set in the holiest place of the Tabernacle/Temple, as revealed to Moses in ancient Israel. So, the Israelites had an idea of what they looked like.
But these glorious and mysterious beings were not to be worshiped in any way. To do so would be idolatrous. Only God is worthy of worship.
Angels are consistently mentioned throughout the Old Testament, in the Psalms and in the books of the prophets, like Daniel and Ezekiel. Ezekiel explicitly identifies them as cherubim.
Isaiah the prophet also saw winged angelic beings (each with six wings), called seraphim, possibly because they had a burning, fiery appearance (this would be suggested by the root ‘saraph’). These angels were involved in purifying the prophet for his mission.
Later in the book of Isaiah, the prophet would once again witness the work of an angel, as the ‘Angel of the Lord’ killed 185,000 hostile troops in a single night.
Yet the New Testament also contains this curious passage about angels: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
This was written because, apparently, angels can sometimes appear as human beings, their identity not being realized until after they have left.
By the time we reach the book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, angels are extremely active. The veil between our world and the spiritual world is lifted, and John sees a vision of cosmic-scale events.
These angels have great power over nature, also having power to protect the people of God from destruction.
To quote one representative passage: “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.”
This is just a small sampling of what the Bible says about angels. Angels play an important, behind the scenes role in carrying out God’s purposes on the earth.
What is clear from the Scriptures, though, is that angels are at work day and night, invisible to our eyes and operating behind the scenes, yet absolutely real.
Only when we leave this world will we fully understand just how active they were.
Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries and is the author of 40 books. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
