The Angels of God

When the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy. It seems to indicate that whenever God made them, they shouted for joy and got all happy when God made an inhabitable planet and put mankind on it.

Angels have often been lumped into mythology or fantasy. Today we continue our countdown of Skip's top 40 messages on the Connect with Skip Heitzig YouTube channel. In the number 28 spot is the message, The Angels of God, where Skip sheds light on angels, their purpose, and their role concerning you. But first, we want to let you know about a unique opportunity you have to visit the ancient land of the Bible. You know, there's always something new to see and experience in Israel, and I'm so excited to let you know that I'm taking another tour group in 2022. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north, seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship. Now I've been to Israel a number of times over the years, and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets older. I can't wait to see you in Israel. Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Hitek. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q.

That's inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q. Now, we're in Hebrews chapter 1 as we dive into the teaching with Skip Hitek. A lot of people believe in things, and they take their cues not from the Scripture, but from popular media or popular books, and so it is with angels. That's why I want to look at the Bible with you to see what the Bible has to say about these very powerful and interesting beings. So, we're in Hebrews chapter 1, and I want to show you a list of several traits about angels, things they do, things they are, and we'll get a good running start on it.

It's a short chapter, so we can read it all together. Hebrews 1 says, God, who at various times and in various ways, spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. Who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you. And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. But when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, Let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But to the Son, he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak you will fold them up.

And they will be changed, but you are the same, for your years will not fail. But to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool? Are they not, that is angels, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Now Hebrews chapter 1 is about Jesus, but the author compares Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with other beings, and angels are mentioned several times in this chapter as he compares them to that. So, kind of taking our cues from here, let me list several traits about angels. First of all, angels are significant.

They are significant in God's plan. Six times in those 14 verses, he mentions angels. He talks about God, the Father, Jesus, the Son, and he speaks about angels, all of them, as very, very real. 34 books in the Bible talk about angels.

17 in the Old Testament, 17 in the New Testament. If you were to add up all the times that angels are mentioned, you would have almost 300 specific places where angels are mentioned in the Bible. The word angel, singular, shows up 199 times. The plural form, angel, shows up 93 times, so almost 300. When we get to the New Testament, it uses a very specific word translated into English, angel. It's the word angelos, which literally means one who is dispatched or a messenger. An angel is a messenger, as we're going to see, a messenger of God.

Now, that's a word that can refer to any messenger, a human messenger, but it most often refers to these spiritual beings, a certain class of spiritual beings. There are other names that are mentioned in the Bible for these creatures. For example, in Job chapter 1 and chapter 2, these angels are called sons of God, and they're given that title because angels don't procreate. I'm going to touch on this again, but they are direct, special creations of God, and therefore can go by the term sons of God.

That's Job chapter 1 and 2. They're called in Psalm 89 holy ones. They're called spirits here, a couple of places. Verse 14 calls them ministering spirits. Daniel chapter 4 refers to angels as watchers, and Ephesians and Colossians call them dominions, principalities, powers, or authorities. Then there are special kinds of angels. The Bible talks about cherubim, and cherubim were sort of like special agent angels. Their task was to guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis chapter 3.

Think of centuries at Buckingham Palace, or the Swiss Guard in front of the Vatican, or the Secret Service guarding the president. On the Ark of the Covenant, there were two cherubim that were carved out with their wings touching in the middle. And God said, that is the place that I will meet you.

That is the place from where I will speak to you. God was seen and called one who dwells between the cherubim, that special class of angelic beings. There's another being of angels called seraphim, and the seraphim seem to provide the background music to heaven. They're the ones crying out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The whole earth is filled with his glory. So we have cherubim, we have seraphim, and then we have, in the book of Revelation, something called living creatures. Four living creatures. Now they may be related, they may be one of the cherubim or seraphim, we're not sure, but these four living creatures are singled out as unique. They come to us in Revelation chapter 5 and Ezekiel chapter 1. What makes them really weird is that they have very unique faces.

Four faces, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of a man, the face of an eagle. Time forbids going into all the exegesis of that, but enough to say that there's a lot of different types of angels. Question is, where did they come from? Answer, God made them.

God created them. They didn't always exist, so they're not eternal, but they are immortal. That is, God created them and they will never die.

They will live forever. So in Genesis chapter 2 verse 1, we are told, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. So God created the heavens and the earth and the angelic beings called the host of heaven. Now we don't know exactly when they were made. Some speculate they were made before the heavens and the earth were made before the universe. Others figure that they were created between day 1 in Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and day 6. But certainly they were created before the seventh day of creation when God created human beings on the earth.

And that is because of the text that I just read. God finished the heavens and the earth and all the host of them. So it could be they were made before He made anything else, or they were there and got to witness part of the creation having newly been made. In the book of Job, when God interrogates Job at the end of the book, it's one of the best sections of the book. God says, where were you when I created the heavens and the earth and I formed the universe? And He said concerning that, when the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy.

It seems to indicate that whenever God made them, they shouted for joy and got all happy when God made an inhabitable planet and put mankind on it. So let's say they were just created either way before He created anything else or while He was making the heavens and the earth somewhere between day 1 and day 6. Something else, according to Jesus, they don't reproduce, they don't procreate. It's not like you have a daddy angel and a mama angel and they have all sorts of little angels, cherubs, you know, like in the paintings, fat little babies with wings.

Not at all. Again, a special creation by God, each one individual, I might even say like snowflakes. Snowflakes are unique one from another, you never see two alike. I think God instantly created the angels and they were all very, very unique. But Jesus said this when He was having an argument with the religious leaders of His day and they were talking about the future resurrection and they were trying to trap Jesus with an argument. And Jesus answered the little argument about the future resurrection by just saying this, you're ignorant, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, but concerning the resurrection, in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, that's human beings, but are like the angels of God. So God specially made them. They are immortal, but not eternal.

They will live forever. Now let me throw something else at you. Do you know that you may have actually met an angel? You say, no, no, no, I would have recognized an angel by the wings. Certainly I've never met an angel. Well, you wouldn't have recognized it as an angel.

The book of Hebrews chapter 13 says, don't forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it. I think that one of the reasons we tend to dismiss the idea of angels, most people do by the way, they don't give angels a thought as being real or being in their world, is because of all of the Hollywood movies, all of the sightings people have had, all of the lame caricatures that people have come up with. You know, angels always have long robes, they always sit on clouds, they always play harps, they're always fair-skinned, and often feminine, right?

They're always female. That's how they're portrayed. One man said that his wife reminded him of an angel because she was always up in the air harping about something. Well, in the Bible, these creatures are very, very strong. Michael, for example, in the book of Daniel, is a warrior angel. And the Talmud, the Jewish writings from the past, always describe angels as fiery beings. In one little passage of the Talmud, it said the essence of angels is fire. So one thing we know is they are very, very powerful. So they're significant in God's plan. That's the first trait.

The second trait, they are several in number. In verse 4, 5, 6 of Hebrews chapter 1, verse 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, and 14, it uses the plural, angels. Angels. How many angels are there? Answer, we don't know. A lot would be a good answer.

A whole lot. We don't exactly know how many, but let me give you my take on this. There are only three that are identified in the Scripture by name. Number one is Michael. Michael is called, interestingly, an archangel, archangelos, some kind of superpower being in rank, an archangel. He's called that in Jude, verse 9. But when Michael shows up in the Old Testament and in the book of Revelation, he is seen as a protector, a warrior protector of a nation, the nation of Israel. He is associated specifically with guarding and protecting God's people, the Israelites. That's in Daniel chapter 10 and in the book of Revelation chapter 12. Another one by name after Daniel is Gabriel. Gabriel shows up in Daniel chapter 8 and Daniel chapter 9, and in the New Testament, Luke chapter 2. He seems to be one who's involved in the coming of Jesus Christ. He's the one that gives the announcement to Mary and Joseph that they're going to have a baby, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin. That is Gabriel.

The third one mentioned is, anybody know? Lucifer. This is before he fell. Isaiah chapter 14, he is called Lucifer. Lucifer means son of the morning or light bearer or day star or shining star.

Lucifer, son of the morning, how are you fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer. So those three are mentioned. Now back to the number of angels. We don't exactly know how many there are, but do you know that people have guessed how many there are? In fact, I read about one guy in the Middle Ages named Albertus Magnus or Albert the Great.

He was a philosopher, he was a theologian, and he also taught science at the time. And he said he knew the precise number, and I know you want to know exactly how many angels there are. So according to Albertus Magnus, there are 399,920,004.

Have no idea how he calculated that or came up with it. But we know there must be a lot. Because, for example, when God gives the law on Mount Sinai, we're told in Deuteronomy that the Lord came with myriads of his holy ones or angelic beings. At the birth of Jesus Christ, there was a multitude of the angelic hosts or company of angels.

In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22, it says that when we worship, we worship with an innumerable company of angels. Innumerable. Can't number them.

Doesn't mean that you can't have an exact number eventually, but when he saw that, it's just an innumerable crowd. Probably closer to the number is Revelation chapter 5, when John sees the vision of the heavenly system and set up, it says, So at least there are a hundred million angels, that's the math there, plus thousands of others. So let's just safely guess there are probably billions of angels. They're innumerable. So they're significant in God's plan.

There are several in number. A third trait of angels, they are seen only rarely. Notice that they are called spirits here.

Verse 14 of Hebrews 1, are they the angels, not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation. So they are spirit beings. They are non-corporeal beings. That is, they don't have a physical body. Ordinarily. I want to qualify that. Ordinarily.

You say, ordinarily, what does that mean? Sometimes they do. For whatever purpose, God's purpose, he allows angels from time to time to have some kind of a human visage. After all, even in Hebrews, some have entertained angels without knowing it. So they have some kind of physical manifestation or God gives a person the ability to see into the spiritual realm. Which is very, very real. We don't see it, but from time to time, God allows that to happen.

Now the best example I can think of when it comes to trying to understand this comes from a movie. Comes from a series called Star Trek. So in Star Trek, any truckies here?

We have any truckies? Okay, so in Star Trek, what did they do for entertainment on long trips? It was called the holodeck. The holodeck. The holodeck was a room that you went in and it was like a virtual reality room. In the holodeck, you could create holograms, three-dimensional images that you design and then have an experience, like a vacation. So if you're an earthling, you could create in the holodeck the Alps. And you could have a trek, a hike through the Alps. If you were a Klingon, you could recreate famous battles from the past and hone and test your battle skills.

And when you're all done with the holodeck, you simply say computer and program. So from time to time, God puts his program in place so people can actually see angels. One of the famous ones is a guy by the name of Balaam. Balaam was on a donkey, was not obeying God. In Numbers 22, the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with him with his sword drawn in his hand. Uh-oh. Don't mess with that angel.

One of my famous or favorite stories is a less famous story, but I love it. It's about Elijah in 2 Kings 6. In 2 Kings 6, Elisha the prophet and his assistant go to a town called Dothan. They're kind of hiding there until they're found out and the Syrians come down and surround the town of Dothan. So the assistant to Elisha says, alas master, we're surrounded.

And I love it. Elisha said, actually there are more with us than with them. And I'm sure that his assistant looked at him and said, there are? We're surrounded by an army.

How is that possible? And so Elisha the prophet prayed, and I love his prayer, Lord, open his eyes that he may see. And a servant of Elisha looked and was able to see chariots and horses and a vast army all around the army of Syria, surrounding them. So before he was thinking, poor us, we're surrounded. And he thought, poor them. They're surrounded by an entire army of angels. That's Skip Heitzig's number 28 message on our top 40 messages countdown.

It's from the series 2020. Find the full message and more of Skip's teachings and watch him teach live twice a week at youtube.com slash Calvary ABQ. And now we want to share about a special resource that will show you how you can enjoy an even more abundant and satisfying life in Jesus. Listen to this daring promise from the young American President John Kennedy, why some say the moon, we choose to go to the moon and this decay and do the other thing, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. NASA engaged 400,000 people to accomplish this challenge. But this was not the most audacious claim or accomplishment in history.

That honor is reserved for one man, Jesus Christ, who promised to die for the sins of the world and resurrect to overcome death. Listen to Levi Lusko speaking about his new book, The Last Supper on the Moon wanted to show a connection between the battle for outer space and the quest to conquer inner space and how the cross like the Saturn five launch vehicle is the only thing that can bridge that cap. And as our secular society is realizing there are downsides to turning from God turning away from church. You know, you see people leaving the church and drove in and out.

What do you have in tandem with it? Higher anxiety, higher, you know, suicide rates. You have even a lowering of emotional intelligence. We're not in church, we're not in the Bible, but we are on screens.

And what is it doing to the insides of us? Well, there you go. The Last Supper on the Moon is an epic new hardcover book by Levi Lusko, and it's our resource offer this month. Receive your copy when you give a gift of $35 or more to support this program. Just go to connectwithskip.com or call 800-922-1888.

That's connectwithskip.com or call 800-922-1888. Now, if you want to stay up to date on the latest from this ministry and from Skip, we invite you to follow Skip on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You'll find important announcements and great encouragement from Skip.

That's at Skip Heitzig at Skip H-E-I-T-Z-I-G. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares another top 40 message and flies over the book of Ephesians to explain your standing in Christ and how you can live out your faith. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.