To learn something new, you need to reconsider what you already think.
So get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about angels. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah shatters some popular myths about these heavenly beings, while explaining the different types and purposes revealed in the Bible. Listen as David introduces his compelling message: Angels you have heard about. And did you know the Bible names some of them?
Yeah, that's the truth. We're going to meet them today. I hope you will stay with us. We'll take a little break over the weekend and come back and finish this up on Monday. But right now, here is our discussion of angels in just a moment.
As we open our Bibles together, we are in this month of celebration of angels, and you know it's kind of a good thing to be learning about angels as we move toward Christmas. Christmas is filled with angels, and this year, if you study with us during this month, you will have a much greater appreciation. For the role that angels have played in the redemption story, actually, we have a whole message on angels and Jesus, how they actually divide up His life by their presence with Him. Right now, today, we're going to just meet some. Famous angels, and I'm excited about that.
Hey, we're going to the Caribbean in just a few days. That's right, December the 26th through the 2nd of January, we'll be going to the Caribbean aboard Holland America's Zierdam, a beautiful cruise ship. We'll be visiting Grand Turk, San Juan, Saint Thomas, Half Moon Bay. We'll have Michael Sanchez and Uriel Vega with us. We'll have great.
Great fun, great fellowship, a beautiful ship, and wonderful, wonderful, beautiful creation. Hope you can come. A great way to close out the old year and begin the new one. And we look forward to having you there. Right now, here is part one of Angels You Have Heard About.
In his 1990 book *Angels and Endangered Species*, Malcolm Godwin estimates one in every ten popular songs mentions an angel. Of course, that's just romantic fun. But now we've graduated to a whole new level. In our culture, we take angels seriously. In Newsweek's November twenty-eighth, nineteen ninety-four issue, an article titled "In Search of the Sacred" observed that twenty percent of Americans have had a revelation from God, and thirteen percent of the American people said they had seen or sensed the presence of an angel in their life.
It was midsummer 1994, and Kevin and Cindy Cathcart drove their 1993 Ford Bronco on Interstate 40, heading west from Albuquerque to Gallup, New Mexico. Kevin drove while Cindy sat in the passenger seat, and Tipper, their five-year-old golden retriever, relaxed in the back. Suddenly, Kevin saw a huge tire attached to an axle flying through the air in front of them. The next thing he remembers is sitting behind the wheel of his car, with broken glass, rain, and blood all over his face and neck. A tire from an eastbound 18-wheeler had shot across the median and hit the Bronco, causing an explosion, which sounded like a bomb.
In the providence of God, Kevin's cuts were superficial. Cindy sustained a knee injury, and Tipper came through unharmed. The word "miracle" was commonly heard around the accident scene, and the Cathcarts firmly believed that God sent an angel to shield them from death. A few days later, the Cathcarts received a tenth anniversary gift from their friends Lila and Dan Rhodes. When they opened their gift, they were stunned.
Especially after learning that Lila had made the purchase about the time of the accident, without knowing it had happened, you guessed it, the box contained a small crystal angel, reminding them of what they believe they had experienced. This story was told by Ken Gangle in the Dallas Seminary Quarterly. And while we listen to it, we ask ourselves the question: Did this really happen? Did an angel intervene?
Now we know that angelic intervention was common in Bible days. We believe in angels because the Bible is filled with truth about them. But when people talk about angels today, do we believe their modern stories? In our study, we're trying to learn all we can from the almost three hundred references in the Bible concerning angels. We've already discovered some things that are important.
We've discovered that angels were created by God before the foundations of the world were laid. We have learned that the number of angels has neither decreased nor increased since their creation. For all the angels of the whole universe were brought into being at exactly the same time. Many of the terms that are used to describe these angels we have learned are terms of fire and burning, and some scholars believe that the angels are actually created out of the same substance as the stars of the heavens. When we met the last time, we looked at dozens of verses that taught us that the angels of God are innumerable.
They are invisible. They are invincible. They are immortal, and they are intrigued by our salvation. I want to take some time in perhaps the more technical of all the messages we will preach on angels to show you just how organized God is with regard to the angelic hosts.
Sometimes we wonder if we talk about angels. Do they just flit around the heavens as they please, doing their own thing, or are they under some design and organizational plan? A careful study of both the Old and the New Testament presents the angels as organized and under the direct authority of the Almighty God.
Now, one of the terms that is often used to describe angels in the Bible is the term "hosts." It is a wonderful word which literally tells us a lot about the angelic beings in the world. The word "host" comes from a Hebrew word and a Greek word, and it means a well-trained army, one that is prepared for war. Angels, you see, respond just like soldier under a general's command. Their loyalty is unquestioned, and their obedience is instantaneous. In the book of Revelation, as John talks about the war at the end of the age, he speaks about the angels of God, and he uses military language, which is what the word "hosts" suggests.
Read with me, Revelation nineteen nineteen, and I saw the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army, who is the one seated upon the horse? That is the Lord Jesus, and who is his army? It is the angelic hosts who follow him into the battle. The great reformer John Calvin said that angels are called God's hosts. Because, as bodyguards surround their prince, they adorn his majesty and render it conspicuous.
And like soldiers, they are ever intent upon their leader's standard. And as soon as he beckons, they gird themselves for the work. In other words, the hosts of heaven are the armies of God, and the armies of God are the angels of His creation. God's angels are organized and under authority. Thomas Aquinas was a great church father who wrote much about angels.
In fact, he believed that there was a very Very structured hierarchy of angelic beings. He had nine different levels of angels. He said the angels were organized like this: the cherubim, the seraphim, the thrones, the dominations, the powers, the virtues, the principalities, the archangels, and the angels. And he had it all set up on a chart. And while he was right about some of the names for the angels, we have no reason to believe that his organizational chart is any better than anyone else's because it is not so presented in the Scripture.
But you will be surprised how many places in the Bible. We are told of the organization of the angels. For instance, Colossians one sixteen says, "For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth." Now watch this: whether visible or invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. Ephesians six twelve suggests the very same thing. Read this verse.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this age and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians six twelve tells us that a very similar organizational plan to God's angelic chart is also operative in the world of the wicked angels. All of this is to say. That there are at least four different tiers of hierarchy in the angelic realm, and those four are thrones and powers and rulers and authorities. God has organized His angels so that they are an efficient, well-oiled, well-instructed, well-prepared, well-trained army.
Far more prepared than any military installation has ever been on the face of this earth, and when the commander in chief speaks, he has the system in place to deploy his angels wherever he sees fit.
Now, some of these angels have their own purpose and terms, and one of the things that's been so interesting to me as I've studied this is to discover all the different things that angels do. Each of the angels has a job. Each of them has a personal responsibility. They're not all just the same.
Some of them are constructed differently so that they can do the things that God has called them to do. Let's take, for instance, the term seraphim. In the Old Testament, we learn of the seraphim. In fact, in just one passage in all of the Bible, we are told about the angels who go by the name seraphim. That passage is a wonderful passage from the Book of Isaiah, and let's read this passage in your heart as I read it aloud.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory." Now Isaiah, in his vision, saw God seated on His throne in the temple. Flying above God were these astonishing beings called seraphim. The word seraphim literally means burning ones. These angels apparently dwelled so close to the presence of God that they burn with holy brilliance, and the Bible describes them like this: they have six wings. Isaiah says, with two wings they cover their faces in reverence.
This reminds us of the majestic glory of God. The Bible says that no man has ever seen God and lived, and even the angels have to protect themselves from the brilliance of the glory of God when they're in His presence. What a picture of the reverence and adoring awe that we all should have for our heavenly Father. Isaiah says, "With two wings, the angels cover their face, and with two they cover their feet." This speaks of the reverence of waiting on God for His next direction. Covered feet in the eastern mind denote deep humility.
And then the Bible says, "With two wings they did fly." The two wings propel them back and forth above the Lord, and this pictures the speed with which they can carry out the will of God. The seraphim are six-winged creatures. Not a few students of the Word of God have noted that these creatures who were created primarily to worship God have six wings, four of them are for worship, and two of them are for work. And someone has reminded us that in our day we seem to have reversed the priority: we work twice as hard and worship. Not very much.
We would do well to emulate the seraphim in our serving of the Lord God.
Now, if you read Isaiah carefully, you will also discover that these seraphim angels have features like humans, like hands and feet and voices. One seraphim carried a burning coal from the altar in his hand and touched it to Isaiah's lips. The voices of the seraphim were so loud, according to Isaiah, that they shook the doorposts in the temple. They call back and forth, announcing the Lord's holy character.
Now, as far as we know, this is the only passage that is clearly about the seraphim. But I want you to look at one additional one in the New Testament, which, in my humble estimation, Certainly must be the seraphim because of the way they are described. Read with me Revelation four six through eight. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal, and in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion.
The second living creature like a calf. The third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest day or night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." Six wings, like the seraphim in Isaiah, and what is their message? It is the same message as the angels in Isaiah six: "Holy, holy, holy" is the Lord God Almighty. The seraphim.
That's all we know in the Bible about this class of angels. Apparently, just for the worship of God around the throne. And then there's another class of angels that we sometimes read about, and those are the cherubim. Short for that is cherubs, and we know that word quite well. The word cherub means basically to be diligent.
And the cherubs are the angels that stand close to God's throne. And I need to tell you, friends, and listen carefully. They don't even vaguely resemble the pudgy, naked Valentine babies that we usually think of as cherubs. I want you to know that.
Now I wish we had time to read an extended passage about cherubs in Ezekiel chapter one, but it would take far too long. But let me just encourage you to write this down in your notes, and you will be overwhelmed at the information in that chapter concerning the cherubim. And in case you're not sure about this, and in case you don't read it, let me give you a little summary about what the passage says. Charles Dyer, who was a great expositor of the Word of God, has written a little summary about the cherubim, and it's really interesting to listen to his description of these creatures taken right from the Book of Ezekiel. He says the general appearance of the living beings was somewhat like a man; however, they would never be mistaken for humans.
They each had four faces and four wings.
Now here's something to remember: How many wings do the seraphim have? Six. How many wings do the cherubim have? Four. They're different creatures.
They're created different by our God of all creativity. And according to Dyer, the Scripture says the cherubim's legs were straight, which implies they were standing upright. But their feet were calf-like instead of human. They were burnished like bronze. Ezekiel.
Said the four cherubim also had human-like hands, having four faces on four sides of their heads. Can you imagine that? And being connected in a square, they were able to travel in a straight direction and to change direction without ever turning. What an incredible discussion! You know, that's not the angel that I pictured when I first started this series.
And I dare say, if a cherub were to walk on this platform, you wouldn't all go ah. You would fall on your faces as dead men, as most of the people did when they were confronted by the holy angels of God. Ezekiel, after describing all of these creatures with the four faces and the hands and all of the rest, in Ezekiel ten twenty, he wrote, "This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel by the river Kebah, and I knew they were cherubim, the cherubs." Unlike other angels, the cherubim never convey instructions or messages from God to human beings. They are never directly called angels. And yet, the thing that intrigues me is I've studied this is in the Old Testament far more than the seraphim, who appear only in one passage in Isaiah six.
The cherubim are everywhere in the history of Israel. The cherubim were very prominent in the Old Testament chronology of God's chosen people. For instance, the cherubim first appear in the Old Testament when God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden for their sin. Do you remember that? He evicted them.
And in Genesis three twenty three and twenty four, we read: Therefore, the Lord God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken, and he drove out the man, and he placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life.
Someone has reminded us that God. Kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, and put the angels there to teach us that sin and paradise are incompatible. The cherubim are also found in the tabernacle, which Moses was instructed to build for the worship of the people. Do you remember that? When God was giving the instruction to Moses, He gave him detailed instruction not only about the tabernacle itself, but about every single piece of furniture that was to go inside.
And one of the more prominent pieces of furniture was that which is called the Ark of the Covenant. And the ark of the covenant, according to the word of God, was to be decorated with golden cherubim. Listen to these words from Exodus twenty-five, eighteen to twenty. And you shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work, and you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end.
And you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it one piece with the mercy seat. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat. And their wings, and they shall face one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. In the construction of the tabernacle furniture, the cherubim were central, and they are important because the Bible says that they were covering the mercy seat, where the presence of God was dwelling.
God dwelt in the presence of the mercy seat. Psalm ninety-nine one says, "The Lord reigns." Let the people tremble. He dwells between the cherubim. Let the earth be moved.
Now, not only were the cherubim designed in the furniture of the tabernacle; they were also woven into the very curtains that hung in the tabernacle. They wove the design of the cherubim into the curtains. Exodus 26:1 says, "Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen." Blue and purple and scarlet thread with artistic designs of cherubim. You shall weave them. When you walked into the tabernacle of Israel, you would not be surprised to see cherubim everywhere, at the ark of the covenant, woven into all of the curtains, as if to remind the people of God that His angelic host ever stood ready at their need.
And then, when the tabernacle was done away with, and it was time to build the permanent structure, the wonder of the world called Solomon's Temple was constructed. And when Solomon's temple was built, the skilled workmen carved the designs of the cherubim into the walls and the doors. And they actually built two huge figures of cherubim and put them in the temple. First Kings tells us about this in an extended passage. It says, "Inside the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high." One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits.
Ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. Get a picture of this now. And the other cherub was ten cubits. Both cherubim were of the same size and shape. And the height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub.
And then he set the cherubim inside the inner room, and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall. And the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. Do you get the picture? It was a huge, impressive reminder to the people of God of the angelic presence in their midst—the seraphim and the cherubim. The Bible teaches about them, but you know, in the Scripture, there are some angels whose names we know, and I want to talk to you about a couple of them.
First of all, I want to tell you about Michael, Michael, the angel. Michael is the only archangel mentioned by name in the Bible. In fact, most scholars believe that he is really the only archangel who exists. That he stands at the head of all the angels. That the term archangel.
Which occurs only twice in the New Testament, always occurs in the singular, which some people believe means that Michael was the only archangel and is the only archangel. Jude nine tells us about him. Jude says, "Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'" One passage in the Old Testament. Refers to Michael as one of the chief princes. Daniel ten thirteen says, "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty one days, and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the king of Persia." Michael is often seen in the Scripture as the defender of Israel, the champion of the people of God.
Daniel twelve one says, "At that time, Michael shall stand up, that great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people." Michael was a defender of the people of God.
So I told you we'd meet some famous angels. We're in the process of doing that. We have more on this on Monday, so I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime, Friday gives me the opportunity to remind you of how important it is that you go to church. I meet people all the time who say, "I know, Pastor.
I've been hearing you. I'm trying to go back to church. I hear you every Friday." Well. Church is where God does His best work, and I hope that you are involved in a vital church that's making a difference in your community and in the lives of the people who attend. Because the Word of God is at the center of everything that happens.
As you know, we're on television all over the United States on the weekend. You can find us when you're not in church. We hope you will.
So we'll take this time out, and we'll be back on Monday with the next lesson on angels. And I hope you'll join us then. Have a great weekend, everybody. God bless you. The message you just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr.
David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where you can find it, visit our website davidjeremiah dot org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah dot o r g slash radio, or call eight hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three. Ask for your copy of David's book, Angels: Who They Are and How They Help.
It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the New International. National and New King James versions, available in several handsome and durable cover options. Let us know how God is using this ministry by writing to Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue the series "Angels: Who They Are and How They Help" here on Turning Point.
