Section Five: the work of angels

Section Five: The work of angels. 

We see, in the following verses, The prayer in the garden. We see that an angel appeared to Jesus. We take note that Jesus was in physical distress, and the possibility existed that he might have failed in his prayer. The work of the angel in this instance was to strengthen. To begin our exploration of the work of angels, we want to zero in on that particular word.

Our first consideration of what angels do is in regard to their service to the Lord. We see that here. Our inquiry, at this point, requires of us that we see Jesus in a particular light – not as Jesus only, but as God in a man. With that requirement in place, and settled, we may ask the proper questions. Take a look at the verses.

Luke 22:43-44 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

So, who was the angel strengthening? If God, we must consider that the flesh, or the agony, in some way hindered the completion of the prayer. God was in the man, but not to a sufficient degree. If the angel was strengthening God, that might work out as the angel adding more God to God.

What if the angel was strengthening the flesh. We might interpret the verse in this way: 'and he prayed the more earnestly because the agony was closing in'. He was about to faint. Since he was in prayer, we can be pretty certain the angel was not offering encouraging words.

Was there a transference of physical energy from the angel to the body of Jesus? Was there a real sacrifice on the angel's part for his Lord? Did the angel deplete his own energy to a point where he needed to lie down and rest? Could there have been such a significant transfer that the angel lost his angelic nature, and became human?

Let's look at an angel's service to the invisible God. What we will note in the following verses is that the nature of the angel holds a clue as to the angel's work. We see an angel on a mission. We see an angel who is fully authorized to speak and act for God.

This is an angel one needs to approach with a high degree of respect, even with a fear of the Lord, for God is actually in the angel. The name of God is in the angel, and that is more than just a vocalized tag. Anything God was known to do, that was his name. If God punished sinners, that was his name. If God destroyed the enemy, that was his name.

This was a mission that we read about; it may have a timeline or schedule; it is a mainline thrust forward, and not a time for other issues. The small details will have to be sorted out later. Read it here.

Exodus 23:20-23 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for My name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine Angel shall go before thee and I will cut them off.

The angel is fully authorized to speak directly to the people. He would have been giving explicit instructions: 'go right', 'turn left', etc. If he said 'jump', you should not even ask how high – just get froggy. We see here that obedience to the voice of the angel is exactly equal to obedience to the voice of God.

What we should get from the above is that whatever an angel is sent to do, he is given the wherewithal to get the job done. That runs from the smallest ability right up to being made into a sort of mini-God.

Of particular interest in the verses just covered is the manner in which God describes the angel. He forewarns the people to 'beware' of the angel. Have you ever passed a house with a 'beware of angel' sign posted out front? Me neither. God forewarns the people not to 'provoke' the angel. This is not the patient spiritual guide that bleeding hearts prefer, but a being you just don't want to mess with.

An angel that is authorized to destroy can be very scary. He wields a power that is beyond all mundane complaint. Envision a real being who has been empowered to destroy simply by stretching out his hand. Are you going to get in front of the hand, or stand behind the angel? You are pretty much helpless to do anything but stand and watch.

2 Samuel 24:16-17 When the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite. And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people.

We see two things in these verses. One is that God does command evil; two is that angels perform the will of God even for evil. We are not here to raise the complaints of atheists, we simply accept that good and evil are both under God's jurisdiction. Evil, as a concept, is not an objective universal constant. It is highly subjective, and never the same. Evil can be anything a person does not like.

Destruction of the masses, disease, and plague, crop failure and drought, a hangnail, or even an annoying message. The parameters of evil have a sliding scale from the minuscule to the colossal.

What we want to pick up on, here, is that when God says destroy, the angel destroys; when God says stop, the angel stops. We cannot presume to say that God is wrong because of our prejudiced attachment to the human body. The importance we place on such concepts may be ours alone.

The same report is given in another book. With the new report, we have new words to consider. The new report adds the possibility that what David saw was a vision. I say this because the destruction is mentioned in light of what we commonly call natural disasters. The sword of the Lord is called a pestilence. The angel of the Lord is not just stretching out his hand; there is a sword in his hand.

The angel hovered in the sky, far up and away. What was in the angel's hand may only have been assumed to be a sword. If not a vision, but some other-worldly being, the weapon could have been a laser-rifle.

Lastly, we see both God and the angel doling out commands: God to the angel, and the angel to Gad. The work of destruction is neither capricious nor a full-throttle non-stop punishment. It seems tuned, as a radio has a tuner, as a radio has an on/off switch and a volume control. The shaping of society lies between demolition and construction. Can you see it?

1 Chronicles 21:12, 15-18 and 27 The sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

Now, we've seen angels serve God, and we've seen angels serve Christ. The ministry of angels, as we have seen, can be positive or negative – depending on the need. What we notice in the following verses is that angels also minister to men who serve God.

Peter's angel not only shows us that work but points to the power by which the work is done. All the angel has to do is get Peter up, and dressed, and out. After that is accomplished, the angel immediately disappears. There are no parting words; he is just gone – which tells us an angel's work has limitations. The angel seemed rude and without manners; he simply did his job and left.

As to the power involved, the gate seemed to open on its own, plus the locked shackles just opened up and fell off. We see again the manipulation of matter by an angel. We wonder at the brevity of the work, however. Was there only enough power given for a bare-bones rescue? Was there a time restraint?

I have lumped some verses together to give the reader a sense not only of the work but of common thought in regard to angels. When you read the verses, keep in mind that Peter was being rushed; he had barely enough time to react to the commands given to him. This he accomplished as he was waking from sleep. He thought he was dreaming.

Then, there was mad Rhoda. She told them Peter was outside, but they had supposed they might never receive him again from his imprisonment. Did they consider the voice as a ghost of dead Peter? That would have been a likely and common consideration. No. They called Peter an angel. That is, by itself, an extremely telling clue as to the relationship between men and angels. Even at that time, men considered at least the human servants of God and Christ to ascended upon death – to become angels. Here it is.

Acts 12:7-11, 15 and 21-23 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, it is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

In contrast to Peter's angel, we take note of the angel that attended Herod. It is an angel of destruction again, but here, we want to look at how the evil played out. We also want to make a mental note that the destruction of this hated leader is not recorded as evil. In this fact, we see the subjectivity of the concept of evil.

The angel destroyed Herod, but why not the people who had not given God the glory? Yes, Herod should have said to them, “No, give glory to God”, but he stood silent. However, it was not Herod who said 'it is the voice of a god', but the people.

Was this singular act of destruction meant to punish one man or warn the people? Had they really thought Herod's voice was that of a god or were they simply kowtowing for fear of the power he wielded? One thing seems clears, if the act was meant to warn the people, it would only be effective if it all played out before their eyes. If he got sick and later died, the lesson would have been lost. Out of sight, out of mind.

A final thought on the death of Herod: I feel quite sure that if the people had been destroyed by the angel, that would have been recorded as evil.

So, angels minister to God, to Christ, and to the likes of such godly men as Peter. Angels also direct, and help the common man in the making of appropriate decisions. It matters less how the angel appears than the result achieved by the angel. When it is critical that a right decision be made, the agency of an angelic prod in the right direction is called for.

Joseph dreamed an angel, but that does not relegate the angel to unimportance, as a construct of Joseph's mind. The higher make use of the lower, not the other way around.

A critical decision was at stake. Imagine if Joseph put Mary away. Jesus would not be received. There is even the possibility, although Joseph would put her away quietly, that the matter came out despite his caution. Mary might have been stoned, and Jesus never born.

The angel, here, ministered to Joseph indirectly; it was actually Jesus the angel served, but there is an intriguing detail to these verses that goes beyond the positive action of the angel. Read them closely. Pay attention to the wording. The father of Christ, said to be God, is actually the Holy Ghost. God and the Holy Ghost are the same.

Matthew 1:20 and 24 The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife.

Please note that even in a dream the importance, rank, or allegiance of an angel can become dramatically focused by the substitution of a single word. The angel in Joseph's dream, both above and below, was no run of the mill angel. Just any old angel would never do in the critical service administered to the Lord while in mortal danger. This angel was 'the' angel of the Lord. For all we know, he could have been the same angel that attended Moses.

However, when the danger is past, and all is calm, and the coast is clear, it is as if 'the' angel passes the buck to 'an' angel of lesser station. Focus on the way in which 'the' angel addressed Joseph. He did not say 'thus sayeth the Lord', the angel, on his own and with his own words, did the bidding. He said to Joseph, 'I will tell you when to leave.' It is true that when 'an' angel came to Joseph, he also spoke as the first, and could well have been the first, in which case, we might begin to think that men really couldn't tell one angel from another, or didn't care.

Matthew 2:13 and 19 The angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.

There was of old, more or less, a concept of what an angel was and what an angel did. You dreamed of a man. What made you identify that figure as an angel? I suppose people talked about angels back then. A sort of common knowledge may have been present. What they looked like, what they dressed in, all may have been voiced at one time or another.

Still, a man looks like a man. An angel has an air of superiority in some sense. If your dream is just a man, how would he distinguish himself as an angel? Well, he might Identify himself. He might speak for God on some issue – but then, so might a prophet. But, the man in your dream says that he is God. Why then a dream tagged as angelic? Maybe that many believed they would die if they saw God.

An angel is the vehicle and messenger of God. He is authorized to speak for God. If by that authority, the angel says I am God, he may simply be executing his appointed office. Well, here it is; you can judge for yourself.

Genesis 31:11-13 And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me.

The angel is involved in the task of communication. We are talking about spirits. Does it matter if a spirit appears in a dream or vision? Physical proof of a spiritual being may be a dead end. Sure they appear in flesh too, but that is not the real issue. The real issue is the message. The real issue is the communication from God. Communication is key.

Zechariah 4:1, 4 and 5 and 5:5 and 10 The angel that talked with me.

Angels are associated with acts and works of power, as seen in the following verse where an angel broke the apostles out of jail. Locked doors opened before him.

Acts 5:19-20 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

In looking through the instances where an angel of the Lord is mentioned, one will see that there are slightly more instances related to communication than to acts of power. Sometimes, the message comes with the act of power attached. See below.

1 Kings 19:5-7 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.

Now, personally, I see the cake and cruse appearing in a flash – but one should not rule out the possibility that the angel set the fire, cooked the meal, and poured the drink.

Whatever the case, it seems that mankind is the business of angels. They are like ascendant social workers. They give us what we need in the hour of our need, but they don't just throw goodies in our direction. There are guidelines and protocols.

I have on occasion, had to deal with social workers. The food stamp people gave away stamps and cards that allowed me to buy groceries, but the amount was adjusted to my assets. The workforce people gave away jobs, but they limited me to a profile and were not as concerned with what I wanted as with what I could actually do.

The following verse is indicative of angelic social work. Check it out.

Matthew 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

The following verses also show angels in a concerted effort on the behalf of their leadership. They may be viewed in the light of social work, but here, we are not limited to that particular view. We may also view this group of angels like a police force attempting to evacuate residents before a catastrophe strikes. We may even see them as cowboys gathering cattle for the long drive to market. They stand ready for the task, but they are just as in the dark about the actual time as are we.

Interestingly, the elect are widely scattered. The elect will be found in all directions on the Earth, and the wording also hints at elect living in space. People in space, beyond our present tin-can space station, may not be a real option for quite some time.

Mark 13:27 and 32 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

I would like to compare the common work of angels to a common work of man – a work in which many different individuals come together in a focused team to achieve specific goals. N.A.S.A. is what comes to mind. I recall many movies that depict the concerted work of that group and I must rely to some extent on the character of that group as depicted, since I have never actually been there in person to see for myself.

Hallmarks of most of the movie depictions of N.A.S.A. are the hand clapping, and cheering, and weeping tears of joy, and hugging the guy in the next station when something goes right. When a problem is solved, when the worst case scenario doesn't actually happen, when even the mundane occurrence goes according to schedule, there is joy in command central.

With that in mind, read the following.

Luke 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

Too much focus is placed on the individual angel. Later, this study will explore angelic society in more detail, so, it is wise to give some thought to the work that angels do in groups. Among other things, angelic society has an army.

An army operates by a chain of command. The various divisions within an army must work together with precision. Everything one might find in armies of the world might also be found in the army on high. We can use our own terms and descriptions comparatively.

A telling fact about the society of angels may be how large their army is. In the following verse, Jesus indicates a number that could have approached 75,000 individuals, and that was not the entire army. See the angelic minute men of Matthew.

Matthew 26:53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

Let's look at one of the jobs slated for the heavenly host. We begin with a sense of their plurality, but to get a better sense of that, we must judge the field of operation. The larger the field, the more workers are hired. Try to imagine the world with a maxed out capacity of all that is wrong and bad. That will take quite a few angels. They will be an impressive force and will come threshing with extreme prejudice. Just because they are angels, that does not mean it will be a picnic. The bad guys will go kicking and screaming. There will be a lot of running, and crying, and cursing, and blubbering, and pleading, and rolling of heads.

Matthew 13:39, 41, and 49 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just.

Now, there are many in the world who complain about a loving and forgiving God. Why would they do that? Because they are willful beings, and God punishes willfulness. They hope to rationalize and justify their behavior and choices, but it won't fly. The Same God that destroyed whole cultures in the old testament, is the God that forgives in the new: Jesus. The complainers cannot argue them apart. The same God that stands ready to forgive and forget also stands ready to give them a good thrashing (threshing).

2 Thessalonians 1:7 When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.

On the other hand, it might only take a few good angels to lay the Earth low. One mighty angel can start a chain of events that can wipe out millions. Check out the heavenly marines of Revelation.

Revelation 16:1-5, 8, 10, 12 and 17 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters And I heard the angel of the waters say, And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air.

Seven angels, seven vials, seven plagues – are they dropped on the world all at once, or are the plagues sequential? Whole generations will be wiped from the face of the Earth. We see literal hosts massed for mass extinction; we see mighty champions engaged in eradication, but are these merely hired hands? The following suggests another view.

Exodus 34:5-7 The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

What we see in Exodus, above, is an angel called the Lord proclaiming another angel called the Lord. One stood near Moses while another passed before him. The passing angel also proclaimed the Lord. Now, if God in the burning bush was actually an angel, this interpretation of Moses' other encounter seems less far fetched.

The Lord, may not be another individual, as in another angel or even a separate deity, but rather a deistic quality shared among angels. The Lord may be short for the description that follows in the angel's proclamation – that is mercy, grace, long-suffering, abundant goodness and truth, etc. The Lord might here be viewed as a creed shared and practiced among members of an ascendant society.

These verses are used by many to illustrate an unsavory aspect of God. Some protest that a God who punishes children for the faults of their fathers is a mean and spiteful individual. They see in these verses an application of guilt by lineage. I see something altogether different.

I see guilt, not as secondary, but as primary. The practices of sin are taught to children, who in turn pass it on to their children. Innocent people are not being punished, only the 'guilty'. Each person is guilty at a level of individual accountability and will be punished for their own sins.

Now, just who are these angels that will judge mankind? Let's take a look at a verse from John that will give us a radically new view. Look closely.

John 1:51 Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

We see the angels of God going in two different directions, and yet, their separate destinations are the same: “upon the Son of man”. So, how does that work? For us to see this 'Son of man' as the same person, we need a 'from' and a 'to'. What we have, however, is wording that suggests two separate destinations.

Jesus said that heaven would appear to open, but it does not necessarily follow that the angels would either come from there or go to it. Jesus may have meant something totally radical by his expression; heaven opening might possibly refer to a heavenly revelation: that is, a spiritual revelation. His continuation about angelic traffic may be the explanation of the revelation.

Something will be opened up to mankind; something will be revealed. Will it be a 'Son of man' enabling of the individual? Will it be a realizable connection between man and God? Will it be the creed that is shared and practiced among ascendant beings?

Our next verse gives us an explanation of the covenant of faith, which was given to man long before the law was put into play. What should we know about that covenant? It was 'of' God (and 'of' can be here viewed the same as 'by'), it was also a covenant of inheritance, that through death something should be passed on. Before the law, God's relationship to man was 'in' Christ, that is, in the hand of a mediator between God and man, and that mediator would also be a descendant of the man to whom the promise was given.

Most important to our study of the works of angels, the inheritance, the covenant of promise, was ordained 'by' angels. Now, who are angels that they may ordain anything? Let us see the definition of the word.

To invest officially (as by the laying on of hands) with ministerial or priestly authority, to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law, to enact, to destine or foreordain, to issue an order.

Galatians 3:19 It was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

We should look very closely at just what is being said here. In order to appoint or establish, there must be authority. Earlier, in verse 17, the act that is here 'by' angels is 'of' God. This lends support to the sense, already received, of God as a quality that ascendant beings are infused with, as a creed they shared.

Let us say, for the sake of this argument, that the scenario involves a group of angels who establish a pact with mankind. A mediator, one of their group, is foreordained and invested with priestly authority by the laying on of hands. This official decree and enactment must carry the weight of authority. From where does that authority originate?

Are they a single, authorized unit? Do they convene from their separate realms of authority? Was there a debate beforehand? Was there a vote? One thing is sure: my view of what an angel may be is not as narrow as it once was.

Now that I have angels and God all mixed up, I might as well through in the redeemer for good measure. It is dawning on me that angels may be a society of ascendant beings, caretakers of mankind. It seems they may share authority among them, a creed, and also a mindset, that is the very definition of the character of and nature of God. It appears also within their realm of jurisdiction to pardon and save. See the ever-expanding work of angels in Genesis.

Genesis 48:16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil.

Let us assume, for the moment, that Jesus was that ordained mediator, and that he was one of the council that convened to hammer out the finer points of human history. He was chosen because he had practical experience in redemption. Judging where he may have come from, a sound study would focus on his wording for clues to veiled truths.

Consider the words he chooses to use in his parables.

Luke 16:22 The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

Jesus indicates a work of angels. This may be a whole division unto themselves – a sort of transportation guild. They might transport all the dead, or they may be refined, and their duties limited to one type of dead or a single direction.

It is clear I never caught this before, but why wasn't the beggar transported to heaven? Why did Jesus choose the expression 'Abraham's bosom'? Aside from indicating consciousness after death, to what does it refer? Some might call it heaven, some might call it paradise, some might see it as a comfortable waiting room in hell.

The expression was prevalent in Jesus day, and, as many references explain it, comes from the custom of reclining at meals – hence John resting his head on Jesus' bosom.

As a concept, Abraham's bosom is a place all faithful Jews may rest their heads – it is a place of honor shared by all the righteous, and it refers directly to the covenant of promise, the preordained 'seed', and mediation.

The mediator, aside from being the chosen one, may have, in the process of being chosen, received the top spot and full authority within the group that chose him. He may direct the angels in the administration of the covenant. Not only the guild of transporters is under his direct authority, but also the guild of guardians.

Psalms 91:11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Now, some descriptions of angelic works afford a better view of the nature of angelic constitution. Jesus speak, again, in the following verse about angelic works, and again, we owe it to the study to pay close attention to the words he chose to use.

In the following verse, Jesus iterates that the guardians of children ( although this may not be limited to this particular branch) are physically (in the angelic sense of the word) able to be in two places at once. While they guard their charge on Earth, they also 'behold the face' of the father of Jesus. Check it out.

Matthew 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Of course, my take is not the only take. 'Their angels' could refer not to guardian angels so much as to the personae of the children – whether present or future.

Apart from that, there is the expression 'behold the face' which may have a meaning other than its face value implies. Jesus implied elsewhere that an association with God is limited. No man has ever seen God – and if the only begotten is the only one to declare God, then the angels might share in that begotten nature.

Similarly, Christ also indicated that no has ascended but the one who came down. That speaks clearly of a former condition as well as an expected condition. But, according to his own words, Christ was presently in that condition – that is: connected. Beholding the face of God the father, being begotten of that father in a connection that transcends time may be an angelic staple of the ascendant.

Jesus is described as being in the 'bosom' of God, which may be what the expression 'the bosom of Abraham' is based on. God, heaven, paradise – these might be alternate words for a connection that the angels guard and maintain.

Next. Angels that chase and persecute. An angelic SWAT team. The militaristic aspects of an ascendant society must not be overlooked. Anyone who has authority requires enforcement. Scripture depicts the army of God: those who enforce his will.

Whenever something is beyond our power, we turn to those who are able to enforce. We have a saying: 'where's a cop when you need one?' We willingly leave certain tasks to certain enforcement bodies: police, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, etc. We do so because we recognize that certain things are, simply, beyond our capacity. The psalmist expressed such a sentiment in the following verses: it wasn't his job; it was beyond his reach; best to leave it to the proper authorities.

Psalms 35:5 and 6 Let the angel of the Lord chase them. . . and let the angel of the Lord persecute them.

Being the proper authorities, angels need to interact with physical men. To do so, they require their own physical bodies. If they are regularly non-physical, then they must transport themselves from that realm to our realm. In the following verses, we see angels as very physical. They are able to eat our food, push and pull us with their hands, talk to us with their mouths. In almost all respects, they appear and function as physical men. But there is power with them that is not with us.

In the first place, they are able to move between physical and non-physical realms. They can alter their constitution. Secondly, they can not only transport themselves in mysterious ways, but they can take hold on physical man and put him where he was not. Read the verses that follow, then tell me that doesn't seem like an episode of Star Trek. “Four to beam up”.

Genesis 19:1-3 and 5, 10,15 and 16 There came two angels at even . . . and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them . . . And he said, “Behold now, my lords, turn in . . . and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways.” and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. The men (angels) put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house . . . and shut . . . the door. . .the angels hastened Lot . . . while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters . . . and set him without the city.

It also sounds like special Ops performing an extraction. I wonder just how many branches and divisions there are to the heavenly host. However, soldiers don't always have soldiering to do. There is downtime. Soldiers learn to 'hurry up and wait'. They often stop and pitch their tents.

Psalms 34:7 The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

I wonder what they do during those inactive periods. Is there an angelic mess where angel food is prepared? Do angels have pass times? Does the heavenly host engage in 'shop talk'?

So, they sit around awhile, take care of personal maintenance – whatever – then the word goes around: they have orders. They prepare to move out and do their angel army thing. Smiter's battalion, take the lead! Forward march!

2 Chronicles 32:21 The Lord sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria.

One angel. He cut off the entire camp. Imagine that. But – what if that one angel was the captain of a host? What if he gave a command, and his soldiers came creeping around rocks, from behind trees, or from under camouflage?

How an event is worded is key to our study. The previous account of the demise of the Assyrian camp offered us only 'an' angel. A rewritten account of the same event offers more of a finger hold. The wording comes nearer to naming the angel; it is the 'angel of the Lord'. Given this wording, we wonder if this was the same angel of the Lord that did some smiting in the land of Egypt.

2 Kings 19:35 The angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand.

The verses which follow give an indication of an angel with angels under him. It gives an indication of the division of labor among angels. In that only one of the angels wore linen, it indicates divisions by rank. What we see is a crew of smiters, but, we also see a sort of processing in which the lines between the military and social workers is blurred.

Many people are no doubt disturbed at the reading of this scripture. They ask in alarm, “what is God doing; what is he thinking, to kill women and children”?

The answer lies in the type of individual who received the mark. Those individuals were the ones, out of an entire multitude, who showed any evidence of possessing the spirit that God was after. It is the work of a spiritual God looking for a particular spirit in man. It is similar to a garden owner telling the workers to weed out every flower and weed save the yellow rose.

Aside from the usual lament of the bleeding heart, there is something in these verses that needs to be noticed. It is that the crew of angels who actually perform the leg work of the mission are called men. They are physical and able to interact physically. They are special crew trained just for this kind of mission and equipped with weapons suitable for a slaughter.

And lastly, before you read the verses, think on the word that was chosen: 'slaughter'. A man with surplus livestock will, at the appropriate time, perform a slaughter. What will he hold back? Which ones will he spare? He will spare the best ones, the ones in which he sees qualities that make his holdings valuable.

Ezekiel 9:1-7 He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

Speaking of processing, the verses that follow show us something that is of a similar nature. Instead of the herds being thinned and culled, we see the harvest of the field. In the following description, we see elements that were comparable to farming back in the day. The owner presided over the whole affair while the workers performed the duties – each duty in its own place and time.

In a harvest, there are two matters of interest. First is the hoped-for item; the crop is gathered and stored for two reasons. Second is all that is unwanted or not as useful; this is gathered and burned for two reasons.

In the verses below, we see mention of two sickles. One is the sickle of the owner, the one who initiates the harvest, but we also see a lesser sickle wielded by one who is in charge of the grunt work. Another is seen who is in charge of the fire.

As to the reasons, the harvest is stored for use and for reseeding the field. The fire is stoked not only to clear the refuse of the field  but for the comfort and celebration of the workers.

Revelation 14:6, 8-10, 14, 15 and 17-19 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth.

In reading the verses above, we took note of the teamwork and communication among the angels. Before that, we saw angels with crews and angels with troops. In most of the accounts, thus far, we have noted that angels work in teams more so than singly.

That fact alone should alter our perception of what we read. If we read of 'an' angel, we should now be mindful that other angels, although not mentioned, are at work behind the scenes.

Numbers 20:16 We cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt.

How many forming nations have been attended by the quiet work of unrecorded angels? How many decisive battles have angels attended? How many unexpected and surprising turning points in history have angels labored over? How many key historical figures have angels guided?

With the exodus from Egypt, we usually note the angel that was the pillar of fire and cloud, but how many unseen angels gathered birds and manna to rain on Israel?

There may be many occupations among the angels, and within each, there may be many specialized ranks or divisions. We see a sort of turnkey angel in the following two verses. From this, we may imagine that there is more than a jailer, but a police force, a court system, and even attorneys.

Revelation 20:1-2 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

Other matters are brought to mind in the two verses we just read. One matter is time. The verses suggest periods of inactivity that last a thousand years. Are such periods countered by thousand year periods of activity? I am reminded, here, of the expression, “a movement and a rest”. As I recall, the book of Revelation mentions a thousand-year reign of the New Jerusalem, while the devil is inactive, after which the devil is set free. Will that freedom last a thousand years?

Another matter is the direction of the angel. The devil and his army were cast into the Earth. They were supposedly buried under a mountain. The angel with the key has to come 'down' in order to maintain the bottomless pit. I mention this in regard to an angels ability to become a physical being. These verses suggest an ability to manipulate ascendency.

There are many angels in many fields of work. Few of them rate the mention of a name. Of those who are named, we may assume a measure of leadership. The importance of named angels can be inferred by their core position. There seems to be an inner circle, or a council of mighty angels, that are closer to God than the rest. One such named angel has had encounters with humans like any regular angel might, so what merits the special treatment? Gabriel seems to have had human encounters on a level of historical significance.

He does not show up often, but when he does something important is in the works. He spoke to the mother of Christ, but some six hundred years earlier, he also spoke to the prophet Daniel. Angels may be long-lived, but is that due to thousand year periods of inactivity?

Luke 1:11, 12, 19, 26-30 and 38 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

What I find particularly interesting, in the verses above, is Gabriel's assertion that he 'stands' in the presence of God. He was, more or less, physically present with Zacharias when he said that. Can it be said of the inner circle, that wherever they may be, they are still in the presence of God?

Gabriel didn't just drop by to say hello to Mary. In what he said to her were the words “the Lord is with thee”. Was that simply, for us, an indication that Gabriel was still in the presence of God? Or – might it be that Gabriel brought the presence of God to Mary? Were his words an invocation of some sort? It could well be that the working of the spirit, by which Mary was impregnated, was initiated by the power and skill of that ascended being.

Gabriel is also responsible for the initiation of Daniel's spiritual activation. Could that have been by a similar invocation, and of his bringing the presence of God with him? Gabriel touched Daniel. Was that just to get his attention, or was something transmitted? Without disrespect, I also wonder if Gabriel touched Mary?

Daniel 9:21-22 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

Now, Gabriel, being an angel, is usually pictured as a being with wings. Angels, in general, are pictured with wings. However, the descriptions of angels in the Bible do not incorporate wings, but give to the angels wholly human attributes.

The verses above, show us a flying Gabriel. There are two ways to see these verses. One is that Gabriel did his flying during Daniel's vision.

Two is that Gabriel flew without wings. When people saw Jesus ascended into heaven, they saw a physical body without wings rise above the ground. If Jesus had sprouted wings in order to fly, I'm quite certain they would have considered that fact worthy of report. Jesus also walked on water, defying gravity or controlling it, without the aid of wings.

The work of angels does not even require the entire angel sometimes. There is an account of a floating hand (defying gravity without the aid of wings) in the following verses. It may not have even been the whole hand. Consider what one might see if an angel was able to reach out from the ascendent realm into ours, as through a hole.

Daniel 5:5-6 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

Angels may be seen in whole and in part. In fact, an angel could be standing right in front of you; so, why don't you see him? Is there something wrong with your physical eyes? Is your brain not firing correctly? You are a thinking, reasoning, rational being with scientific anchors into reality, and yet, the donkey sees more than you do.

Numbers 22:22-35 God's anger was kindled . . . and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again. And the angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me: And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive. And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again. And the angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

Cool story. Yet, if you or I heard an animal speak, we would dismiss it as confusion on our part. Balaam answers the donkey as if it spoke to him every day. I can understand the mindset that would answer an ass. I have been so enraged at inanimate objects, things I've tripped over and items that seem to resist my will with a will of their own, that I have cursed them vehemently as if they could understand. What is cool about the story is that angels can manipulate not only the matter of their own bodies, but anyone and anything around them. Seems they can even humble our proud rational, scientifically inclined minds, use our own natures against us so that we admit to the truths we resist out of hand.

The work of angels encompasses two realms: the worldly realm of man, and the spiritual realm of God. Angels attend both, and they attended both in one in Christ. Now, angels can make donkeys talk and birds feed prophets. The wild animals are no problem to beings with manipulative powers. The rational mind of man would be concerned, to say the least, about those wild animals. The scientifically inclined would say that it is scientifically proven that wild teeth and claws are sharp, and their owners ferocious. The worldly mind of man is a limited mind. Where is the mind of faith that can meet the angels half-way?

Mark 1:13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

Angels attend men of all walks, but the angels that attend God may be of a special order, a higher rank. Even in an ascendant society, there must be diversification. We may assume that there is a low end and a high end. No assumption is required about the work of Christ – that he strove to bring in man. From the creation, man has been worked toward an inclusion into the ascendant society. Christ came not only preaching it, but he came as an example of it.

Matthew 4:5, 6 and 11 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Let us consider the ministry of angels, and the rhetorical 'if'. What job was given to these angels? Was it to get him down? I don't think so; he could walk on water. Had the entire event placed him in an agitated state; was he in need of comfort and solace? I don't think so; he was strong enough to cast out demons. He had virtue, and some to spare.

In fact, the whole episode is, quite frankly, not something that would have been witnessed by an apostle standing by with a writing instrument in his hand. It was a personal event, in all likelihood related by Jesus himself. As a personal event, the parameters of the characters may be alternatively defined.

The devil may be redefined to indicate the temptation in Christ to put God to the test, to flaunt the deity within. The devil and the attending angels may be viewed as the iconic miniatures that stand upon the individual's shoulders and whisper in opposing ears. This event may be the telling of the individual and age-old struggle between good and evil – the eternal, internal struggle.

Angels, then, may be the very thoughts of our minds. Thoughts that keep us sane and level-headed. Thoughts that rise above the worldly and physical aspects of existence. Thoughts that are the communicated nature of spiritual godliness.

The 'if', rhetorical and obvious, speaks not only to the 'son-of-God-ship' of Jesus but to the same within each and every man and woman on the face of the earth. The 'if' points directly to the book of Psalms. The message concerns man and his relationship to the ascendants. The ministry is the work of ascendancy.

Psalms 8:4 and 5 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

The core issue is faith in man as a condition of ascendancy.

Psalms 91:11 and 12 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.