Our Holy Bible
starts with this sentence: In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth.
By Heaven is
meant not an empty space beyond our space, but the living world of invisible
spirits. Thus, the above sentence could be phrased in other words: In the
beginning God created the invisible and the visible world, as it is said in the
first article of our Creed. The Psalmist says: By the Word of the Lord were the
heavens established, and all the might of them by the Spirit of His mouth (Ps.
32:6).
In this case,
according to the interpretation of the Fathers of the Church, the Father is
called the Lord; the Son, the Word of the Father; and the Holy Spirit, the
Breath of the Father.
The Prophet
Isaiah saw seraphim's (6:2) and Ezekiel the cherubim's (10:8) with some other
strange creatures around the throne of the Highest. Micaiah said to the King
Ahab: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne and all the host of heaven standing
by Him on His right hand and on His left (I Kings 22:19).
Nehemiah said
in his prayer: Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; Thou has made heaven, the
heaven of heavens, with all their host (Neh. 9:6).
The great
Daniel saw God on His throne-and a thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him (Chapters 9 and 10).
St. Paul
speaking of the power of Christ says: Who is this image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by
Him, and for Him. And He (Christ) is before all things, and by Him all things
consist (Col. 1:15-17; cf. I Pet. 3:22).
Summing up all
the names of the angelic hosts, St. Dionysius the Areopagite classifies them by
their ranks-three times three equals nine: "thrones, dominions,
principalities, seraphim's, cherubim's, powers, sovereignties, archangels, and
angels." All of them, however, we popularly call angels, or angelic hosts.
We read in the
Book of Job, how the Lord gave answer to the complaints of that suffering man,
saying: Where wast thou-when the morning stars (i.e. first created angels) sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38: 1-17).
Our Orthodox
Church has dedicated Monday to the holy angels. Therefore, every Monday in the
church services we are reminded of the holy angels with praise and prayer:
"Holy Archangels and Angels, pray to God for us."
The Nature of
Angels
The nature of
angels is in some ways quite different from the nature of man, and in other
ways similar to it. On the one hand, the differences are these: The angels are
bodiless and, as such, invisible to our physical eyes. Having no body, they
consequently have no bodily needs or desires and passions, no cares about food,
drink, clothes or shelter. Nor do they possess the impulse and cravings for
procreation. They neither marry nor are given in marriage (Matt. 22:30). They
have no worries about the future either, and no fear of death. For, though God
created them before man, they are neither aged nor aging, but unchangingly
youthful, beautiful and strong. They have no anxiety about their salvation and
no struggle for immorality, being already immortal. Unlike men, they are not
faltering between good and evil, being already good and holy as when God
created them.
On the other
hand, the angels are similar to men in that they are personalities, everyone
being individually conscious of himself. Like men, they have intelligence,
emotions, free will and acting capacity. And withal they bear personal names
like men. Some of their names we know either from Scripture or Church
Tradition. They are: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Salathiel, Barachiel,
Jeremiel, Jegudiel.
Comparing men
with angels, St. Paul quoted they words of an ancient prophet who spoke of God:
O Lord - what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that
Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the Angels; Thou
crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy
hands; Thou has put all things in subjection under his feet (Heb. 2:6-8; Ps.
8:4-6).
Indeed, God
gave a tremendous dominion over His works to the first sinless Adam, before
this man despised God's commandment and joined Satan, God's adversary. Before
the sin, man was equal to God's angels in power, purity and beauty. But through
sin man's dominance over God's works dwindled to almost nothing. Nature became
disobedient to him who was disobedient to God. Disobedient to its former lord,
nature yet livers in expectation. The Apostle speaks of that as follows: For
the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God, in order to be again obedient and happy, as in Eden. Until then
the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, being
itself in the bondage of corruption, like its fallen lord (Rom. 8:19,22).
Yet,
regenerated through Christ, man will again be angel-like, clothed with Christ's
glory. Meanwhile, his elder brethren, the holy and unsoiled angels, are
ministering to him, as physicians to the sick, toward his health and salvation.
As it is written of them: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Heb. 14:14). Of this,
however, more shall be spoken later.
The Activity of
the Angels
The activity of
the angels is twofold: in Heaven to glorify God, and on earth to carry out
God's orders concerning men. The word "angel" itself means herald or
messenger. They rest not, day and night, saying: Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
which was, and is, and is to come, writes a seer (Rev. 4:8). And another writes
of the ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs
of salvation (Heb. 1:14).
Says St.
Gregory the Theologian: "Some of those intelligences are standing before
the great God, and others cooperate in holding the whole world." And
Damascene: "They are powerful, and ready to accomplish the will of God,
and they appear anywhere and instantly, according to their subtle nature,
wherever God orders them."
The first time
that an angel, a cherub, is mentioned in the Bible is when Adam and Eve are
ousted from the Garden of Eden (earthly Paradise). Then God placed cherubim's -
and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of
life (Gen. 3:24).
1. We may
consider the angels, in the first place, as messengers of good news. Twice
there appeared an angel to Hagar, Abraham's handmaid, consoling her because her
mistress. Sarah dealt harshly with her. "Behold, said the angels, thou art
with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the
Lord hath heard Thine affliction (Gen. 16:7; cf. Gen. 21:17). Ishmael became
the progenitor of the Ishmaelites; Arabs, who are also called Hagarenes.
Three angels
appeared in the plains of Mamre with a message to childless Abraham, that he
shall have a son, which indeed happened the next year (Gen. 18: 10). Thus
Isaac, the progenitor of the Jews, was born.
When Abraham
was ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac, according to the order of God who
wanted to test his fidelity, an angel of Heaven prevented him from doing so.
Said the angel: Now I know that thou fearest God (Gen. 22:12). God Himself,
however, later offered His only Son Jesus Christ, to be slain like a lamb to
save us (Eph. 5:2).
2. The angels
of God save the men of God. In the corrupt city of Sodom there lived a man of
God, Lot. When Sodom was doomed to destruction, God sent two angels to save Lot
and his family (Gen. 19:1-22).
An angel saved
Jacob from the revenge of his brother Essau (Gen. 32:1). And before his death
Jacob spoke of the Angel which redeemed me from all evil (Gen. 48:16).
An Angel saved
the three youths in Babylon from death in the midst of the burning fiery
furnace, into which they were thrown, because they renounced the worship of
idols in place of the only true God (Dan. 3:12-30). Every Matins service we are
reminded of this strange event by the seventh and eighth irmoi of the canons.
And angel saved Daniel from the den of lions into which he was put on account
of his strong faith in the one God. The lions, however, behaved as lambs. To
the astonished King Darius, Daniel said: My God hath sent His angel, and hath
shut the lions mouths, that they have not hurt me, forasmuch as before Him
innocence was found in me (Dan. 6:16-23).
3. The angels
are executors of God's judgments. We quote only a few instances: The city of
Sodom was wallowing in most horrible vices (homosexuality, sodomy). The Lord
sent two angels to save the only righteous man in Sodom, Lot. They came to Lot
and urged him to get out of that city, for the Lord sent us to destroy it. And
they razed Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, by brimstone and fire from the Lord out
of Heaven (Gen. 19:12-25). King David, otherwise a great glorifier of God,
sinned once against the Lord God, and God sent an angel with a drawn sword in
his hand - and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men, until David repented
and cried to God for mercy (I Chron. 21:1-17). Sennacherib, King of Assyria,
beleaguered Jerusalem with a mighty army. He and his dukes blasphemed the Lord
God, called King Hezekiah and his people to surrender. But after Hezekiah
prostrated before God and prayed in the temple, the angel of the Lord went
forth and smote in the camp of Assyrians a hundred and four scores and five
thousand. King Sennacherib fled to Nineveh, where he was killed by his sons
(Isaiah, chapters 36 & 37).
The inspired Psalmist, knowing from history and
from his own experience the part which the angels play in the life of a man or
of a nation, speaks: The angel of the Lord will encamp round about them that
fear Him, and will deliver them (Ps. 33:7). No evils shall come nigh thee, and
no scourge shall come nigh unto thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. On their hands shall they bear
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone (Ps. 90:10-12).
Bless the Lord, he His angels, mighty in strength, that perform His word, to
hear the voice of His words (Ps. 103:20).
God's
Harvesters
In His parable
of the sower and the seed, the Lord Jesus explained: The field is the world;
the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children
of the wicked one; 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; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire:
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear (Matt. 13:38-43). But before the end of the world the end of many of us
will have already come. Lo, when poor Lazarus died, angels into Abraham's bosom
carried his soul; and when merciless Dives died, his soul dropped into hell
(Luke 16:19-23). Remember then, O man that your end is for you the end of the
world. For at your death you shall be either the harvest of angels or of the
wicked one.
It is a good thing to trust in God's mercy, but to trust in God and
to go on sinning without repentance is to mock God. Here is what our Savior says:
I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth (Luke 15:10). But woe unto them that die in sins without
repentance. Here is the stern warning of a great apostle: God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell …and spared not the old world,
but saved Noah bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes (II Pet. 2:4-6). Much less will He
spare those who are Christians by name, but in reality are servants of the
devil in the words and deeds. Like Judas, they might sometime repent but it
will be too late. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of the Father with
His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works (Matt.
16:27).
St. Nicholai
Velimirovic, Bishop of Zica
Source: http://www.serfes.org/orthodox/angels.htm
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