I've been studying angels lately thru a course I'm taking from Liberty. I've never done a study on angels before but found it interesting. Some people are fascinated with this subject. Some even border on or are full blown worshippers of angels. Many don't realize that angels in scripture are always mentioned as male (Gabriel and Michael ) but yet when we go to the store and pick up a figurine of an angel it's usually depicted as female. Why is that?
What do you know about angels? Most know there are good angels and bad angels and that they are ministering spirits. For many that's as far as it goes. But there is so much more about angels we don't usually think about. Here for the sake of time I'm just focusing on the faithful angels. Maybe later I'll come back with something on evil angels.
I found angels mentioned 273 times in scripture, 108 in the OT and 165 in the NT. So where do they come from? Well from scripture we know their origin comes from God; a special act of God created especially to worship the Son of God before the creation of the earth. They are invisible spirit beings who do not possess flesh and bone. They are as innumerable as the stars in the heavens for angels are associated with the stars.
From scripture I can see they possess individual personalities. We can see they are intelligent with a will and can display emotion. Angels are superior to man but inferior to God. They are stronger and smarter than man. They are not omnipresent, omnipotent or omniscient.
We know they cannot die and the original number of angels will never increase or decrease. They also seem to follow a ranking system. We have the archangels. Two are mentioned by name, Michael & Gabriel. Militarily speaking they would be compared to a 5 Star General.
Michael is mentioned by name on 4 separate occasions. He helps lesser ranked angels. He is going to be the one who will stand up for Israel during the coming tribulation. He disputed with Satan concerning the body of Moses and he is forefront in the fighting of Satan in the heavenlies.
Gabriel is the announcing angel. He spoke to Daniel and was the bearer of good news to Mary and Zacharias on the upcoming birth of their sons. He was the one who warned Joseph in a dream about the plot of Herod.
Then on down the line we can see the mention of Cherubims and Seraphims. Both have wings. Cherubims have 4 wings and Seraphims have 6 wings. A cherubim has four faces. The face of a man in the front and a face as a lion on the right. He has a face as an ox on the left and the face in back as an eagle. They apparently travel in groups of four.
If you remember, it was Cherubim who were placed at the entrance to the garden to keep Adam from it. Golden Cherubim were also constructed, at God's command, and placed at either end on top of the ark of the covenant. Satan was a Cherub angel. Actually he was called the Chief Cherub. Maybe he didn't want that position. We know he desires God's position, but maybe he was looking at Michael first and wanted his job? What? Not General Archangel? Who knows? We do know that he rebelled and took 1/3 of the angels with him to war against God and the faithful angels.
There are other angels. We have ruling angels, guardian angels and angels associated with horses and chariots. Angels have names and titles as well. They are called ministers, host, chariots, watchers, sons of the mighty, sons of God, Holy ones and stars.
So what do they do? I found they have many activities. They worship God, they observe the people of God, they inquire into the prophetical plan of God, they rejoice in the works of God and they perform the will of God. They also witness the wrath of God. For us down here they inform, instruct and interpret both the will and word of God. We see this in conversations with Daniel, Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the apostles, Phillip, Cornelius and John.
They also protect, comfort and deliver us. They also minister to us even in death as they carry us to God when we take our last breath as we read in the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
I found out in my study angels are instrumental in judging the unsaved. They judged the Egyptians, Sodomites and Assyrians as well as Herod. They will judge the earth during the Tribulation as they pronounce the seven trumpet judgments. They cast Satan and his angels out of heaven. They anounce the eternal Hell to unbelievers and predict the fall of Babylon. They will pour out the seven vial judgments, seal the 144,000 and announce Armageddon. They also will accompay Christ at the second coming. Whew! They are very busy. No wonder there are so many of them.
Concerning Israel we see from scripture that the angels fought for Israel. They gave the law to Israel and will in the future regather faithful Israel.
Concerning the Messiah they worship Him as they were made by Him and for Him. They predicted His birth as well as announcing it. After he was born, they protected him and ministered to Him in the wilderness and later in the garden before his death. They rolled away his tombstone and announced His resurrection. They predicted His second coming and will accompany Him when he does come back. They are in total subjection to Him.
Their destiny is to be with us in the New Jerusalem for all eternity.