The work of the angels now
So Far as we are concerned, the work of the angels began when, as we read, “God (the Elohim, or ‘mighty ones’) created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). We are told that when this happened they all “shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). Why? Because this, and everything that has happened since on this earth, has one purpose only in view: to bring “many sons unto glory” through him who, though initially made “a little lower than the angels”, had by inheritance “a more excellent name than they”, all as outlined in the first two chapters of the letter to the Hebrews. The present work of the angels in relation to ourselves is summarised in the last verse of Hebrews 1: “Are they (the angels) not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (v. 14).
As we read through the Word of God we are given many glimpses of the angels carrying out this task and much instruction as to the way in which they perform their duties. Psalms 34 and 91, in particular, are worthy of detailed meditation in this context, bringing us, as they do, not only to the care that the angels have for us, but also to the way in which we should respond to that care. Their care for us is highlighted by statements such as, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them” (Ps. 34:7), and, “For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Ps. 91: 11,12). Although the words of Psalm 91 are applied to our Lord Jesus in Matthew 4:6, they apply just as fully to each one of us, and the response that Jesus made gives us some idea as to the way in which we should respond to this wonderful care that the angels have for us.
Angelic care is, indeed, very detailed. It would seem from what Jesus says (Mt. 18:10) that we each have an angel who has the specific duty of care for us, with direct access to the Father in heaven and the most intimate knowledge of us in all our ways. As Jesus said:” . . . the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Mt. 10:30). The children of God in times past have indeed recognised this care for them. Jacob, for instance, spoke of the “Angel which redeemed me from all evil” (Gen. 48:16), whilst Elisha was able to see the angels at work and was thus able to say to his servant “Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kgs. 6:16).
When Jesus came to his hour of trial, his angel came to strengthen him (Lk. 22:43). Indeed, he, like Elisha, could have escaped, for he said to his disciples when the multitude came to take him: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently (that is, immediately) give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mt. 26:53). But, as he went on to say, “How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” (v. 54).
This care of the angels is, of course, unremitting. Night and day mean nothing to them (Ps. 139:12), and while we are asleep our angel is busy, so that when we wake our problems have often been resolved. We waste our time, as it were, rising up early, sitting up late worrying. Better to lie down and rest, for it is written: “He gives to His beloved in sleep” (Ps. 127:2, RSV, 1952 edition). Psalm 103 speaks of the angels excelling in strength, and when they exert their powers we must tremble. Having considered the violence and corruption in the earth in the days of Noah, they destroyed man from the face of the earth. In the days of Abraham they came and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:29 states clearly that that destruction was the work of the Elohim). But, nevertheless, the angels are not all powerful, nor do they know everything. That they are limited in power is illustrated by Daniel 10, where the angel who had charge of the kingdom of Persia in those days told Daniel that “the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days” (v. 13). The narrative might also be taken to imply that this particular angel did not know what was to happen next, and from what Jesus says it seems some things are hidden from all the angels (see Mk. 13:32).
We can actually learn quite a lot about the way in which the angels work together by studying carefully the several encounters that Daniel had with them over the years. Gabriel, it seems, was specifically charged with the things concerning the Messiah, for he brought to Daniel the prophecy of the “seventy weeks”— a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah (Dan. 9:21-27); and when that prophecy came to its closing stages Gabriel came to Mary to tell her of the coming birth of Jesus (Lk. 1:26). Michael, however, has a different task. He is a much more powerful angel, as we might expect, because he has the charge of the destiny of the people and nation of Israel, our Father’s chosen people. He came to the help of the angel that had charge of the kingdom of Persia (Dan. 10:13), and is described to Daniel, one of that nation, as “your prince”. He appeared to Joshua when Israel were entering the land of promise (Josh. 5:14—the same word, sar, is used as in Dan. 10:13), and he will lead them to victory when Jesus returns (Dan. 12:1). So we see that whilst each of us has his own particular angel, other angels have charge of the destiny of nations. What a task!
But it is very evident that the angels are in no way indifferent to the outcome of all their work. We have already seen that they “shouted for joy” when it all began, six thousand years ago. There is also “joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Lk. 15:10). Daniel was a “man greatly beloved” of the angels, and when he was smitten to the ground by one of the visions that he saw, his own personal angel (like the appearance of a man) came and strengthened him (Dan. 10:16,18). Jacob, of course, once wrestled with his angel (Gen. 32:24), who also had the appearance of a man. At the moment we are not privileged to see our own angel, but when Jesus returns to call us to the Judgement he will come with the angels (Mt. 25:31; 2 Thess. 1:7). Then at last we, each one, will meet the angel who has cared for us our whole life long. We too, like Daniel, will then sorely need his strength and support as we stand before our King.
Meanwhile the angels, like us, wait for, look for, long for that day to dawn. They, like us, desire to “look into” the things that are going to come to pass, and pray for their fulfilment (I Pet. 1:12). It was an angel who, like Daniel, prayed for the ending of the desolation of Jerusalem when the seventy years were ended, saying: “O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?” (Zech. 1:12). The angel’s prayer rose up to the Father together with that of Daniel, and they were heard. So we can be very sure that as we, from day to day, pray, “Thy kingdom come”, the angels echo our words. Not only do they echo our words, but they are working to the end both that the Kingdom will come and that we may be there to enjoy it.
“Equal unto the angels”
The angels are busy both with the care of the children of God and with the world at large, but the day is near when they are going to hand over their responsibilities to the children of God, as envisaged by the writer to the Hebrews when he wrote that “unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak” (Heb. 2:5). Instead, the “world to come” will be under the subjection of Christ Jesus, together with his brethren and sisters, in fulfilment of that purpose first declared when Adam and Eve were created: that they should have “dominion” (Gen. 1:28). The nature of that dominion is expanded upon in Psalm 8:6-8, to which Hebrews refers when speaking of our future glory and honour with Jesus when he returns.
It was Jesus who declared that the faithful will be “equal unto the angels” (Lk. 20:36); but this is, of course, equality of nature only, in that “death hath no more dominion” over them. The angels themselves are not equal in rank, and they differ in their ability to foresee and to control events. This will undoubtedly be true of us also in the Kingdom. Jesus actually gives us a number of indications of this. From what he said we see that in the Kingdom there will be a hierarchy, with himself as “King of kings”, then someone on his right hand, another on his left, the twelve apostles sitting on twelve thrones over the twelve tribes of Israel (Lk. 22:30), and so on down to those who are over “five cities” (Lk. 19:19).
The way in which we shall exercise our duties and responsibilities in that day is not set before us in any detail, but it does not seem that we shall necessarily always be visible to the peoples over whom we shall rule, any more than the angels are at the moment. Isaiah gives the impression that the saints appear suddenly to those over whom they rule, in that whilst he says “thine eyes shall see thy teachers”, he goes on to say: “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isa. 30:20,21).
It is, of course, the nation of Israel that will take a dominant role in the age to come, as pictured for instance in Isaiah 60. The whole nation will have the “gifts of the Spirit”, as prophesied by Joel (2:28,29). Some of the implications of that prophecy have already been seen on the Day of Pentecost and after, when our first-century brethren and sisters “tasted” the “powers of the world to come” (Heb. 6:4,5). But that was nearly two thousand years ago now, and we await the greater fulfilment of the prophecy in God’s chosen people when their King returns to them. For us, endowed with immortality, the future is wonderful.
The powers that we shall then possess will far transcend those displayed in the apostles in the first century, or to be displayed in Israel in the Kingdom. We shall indeed be able to “move mountains” when necessary, even as the angels do today. It is we, confronted with disobedience, who will have to act. If a family refuses to go up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of tabernacles, we will have to see that “upon them shall be no rain” (Zech. 14:17). The powers manifest in our King of kings, the Lord Jesus, then reigning in Jerusalem as depicted in Psalm 2:9-12, are promised to us also (Rev. 2:26,27).
Whilst the time of the Kingdom is spoken of as a time of “rest”, it is not a time of sitting down, of folding the hands and doing nothing. On the contrary, there is work to do—a great work We shall then have ceased from our own labours, but we shall have to go forward, doing the work of God, even as it is written of Jesus himself in that day: “his work (is) before him” (Isa. 62:11). The work that lies before us in the Kingdom is pictured to us in many ways in many places in the Word, often by imagery and in parables, but nowhere more beautifully than in the Song of Songs (5 to 8). There we are to be seen labouring in a vineyard, or a garden, and we finally have to bring forth the fruits of our labours (Song 8:11,12), even as was said by those who listened to Jesus’s parable about God’s vineyard: ” He . . . will let out His vineyard unto. . . husbandmen, which shall render Him the fruits in their seasons” ( Mt. 21:41).
There will thus be a great work to do, leading to a glorious harvest at the end of the Millennium, climaxing in the final abolition of sin and death from this beautiful earth of ours. That is the work of a thousand years, and it is the Apostle Paul who takes us to that climax in 1 Corinthians 15:24: “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father”. When that happens, then at long last God will, as Paul goes on to say, be “all in all”. No longer will there be a barrier, as it were, between God and men on the earth, as there is today, and as there still will be in the Millennium. That end, which will be in view, is glorious indeed so wonderful that Paul could find no words to describe it to us (2 Cor. 12:4 the margin says “possible”, which is better than “lawful”).
But whilst this barrier will be there for the mortal nations in the Millennium, it will not be there for us. Jesus said not only that “the meek . . . shall inherit the earth”, but also, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:5,8). How that will happen, we do not know in any detail, but we do know that what is now hidden from our view will then be plain for us to see, as Jesus promised to Nathanael: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (Jno. 1:51). We even know where this intimate association between us on earth and God the Father in heaven will be established: in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Did not our father Jacob have a vision of it all there? (Gen. 28). He called the name of the place Bethel, or “the house of God”.
Our exhortation is all there in that concept: the house of God. We are a part of that house now, if “we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3:6). We should know now how to behave ourselves in that “house” ( 1 Tim. 3:15); and if we are indeed “vessels. . . unto honour” (2 Tim. 2:20) we shall at the last enter into that “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1) and “go no more out” (Rev. 3:12). Seeing that we have such a glorious hope, let us hold fast till he come, that no man take our crown.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One