Throughout this week, I've been taking a look at some of the typical thoughts we humans tend to have about angels, and am comparing them to what the Bible reveals to us about angels. Hopefully by this point, you've started to see that the image of angels that we have created tends to be quite different from what the Bible tells us angels are like.
So today I want to tackle the next one. We have this idea that angels are invisibly watching out for us, turning away danger, and making sure that we don't stub our toes or walk into doors, or things of that sort. We tend to think that angels are looking out for our good, and therefore, they would never do anything mean, or act in a way that would confuse us as to their good intentions.
Let's face it, it is nice to think that we have these invisible beings watching over us and protecting us from life's little accidents. We'd like to think that they have our good in mind at all times, and that their definition of good matches up with what we think is good. However, when we look at what the Bible tells us about angels, we may have these thoughts shaken up a bit.
In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis, we have two angels that are sent to get Lot and his family out of the city before its destruction. They basically tell Lot that he needs to get out because they are about to destroy the city because of its wickedness. (If you question the city's wickedness, you can read the story in Genesis 19.) Of course, the results are fairly well-known, as Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire from heaven.
In the book of Exodus, we have God telling Moses to have the people of Israel slaughter a sheep and to paint its blood over their doorposts. That way, the angel of death would "pass over" their houses, and in all the rest, anyone who was the firstborn would be put to death. This sounds all great and nice if you are an Israelite, but sounds rather strange to us if we don't happen to have lamb's blood on our doors.
We have several other stories like this in the Bible. In fact, it is rare that we hear of an angel behaving in a way that we humans would call "nice and gentle". I've mentioned in a previous post that the word angel is merely the word for messenger, in both Hebrew and Greek. Usually, when God sends His messengers, He is sending them to warn people to give up their bad ways (sinful ways) and turn back to God. The idea of that is that there is a consequence should the people not change, and it is usually the angel(s) who carry it out.
Maybe that's something we should keep in mind when we think about angels. If one just happens to show up and give us a message from God, it likely means that either we or the people around us have a need to change. If we fail to heed God's message, then we shouldn't expect that the angel (who, by the way, does only what God tells it to do) to simply act benevolently on our behalf. We should expect that it will do what God has told it to do, and so we should take heart any message that we might hear.
So today I want to tackle the next one. We have this idea that angels are invisibly watching out for us, turning away danger, and making sure that we don't stub our toes or walk into doors, or things of that sort. We tend to think that angels are looking out for our good, and therefore, they would never do anything mean, or act in a way that would confuse us as to their good intentions.
Let's face it, it is nice to think that we have these invisible beings watching over us and protecting us from life's little accidents. We'd like to think that they have our good in mind at all times, and that their definition of good matches up with what we think is good. However, when we look at what the Bible tells us about angels, we may have these thoughts shaken up a bit.
In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis, we have two angels that are sent to get Lot and his family out of the city before its destruction. They basically tell Lot that he needs to get out because they are about to destroy the city because of its wickedness. (If you question the city's wickedness, you can read the story in Genesis 19.) Of course, the results are fairly well-known, as Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire from heaven.
In the book of Exodus, we have God telling Moses to have the people of Israel slaughter a sheep and to paint its blood over their doorposts. That way, the angel of death would "pass over" their houses, and in all the rest, anyone who was the firstborn would be put to death. This sounds all great and nice if you are an Israelite, but sounds rather strange to us if we don't happen to have lamb's blood on our doors.
We have several other stories like this in the Bible. In fact, it is rare that we hear of an angel behaving in a way that we humans would call "nice and gentle". I've mentioned in a previous post that the word angel is merely the word for messenger, in both Hebrew and Greek. Usually, when God sends His messengers, He is sending them to warn people to give up their bad ways (sinful ways) and turn back to God. The idea of that is that there is a consequence should the people not change, and it is usually the angel(s) who carry it out.
Maybe that's something we should keep in mind when we think about angels. If one just happens to show up and give us a message from God, it likely means that either we or the people around us have a need to change. If we fail to heed God's message, then we shouldn't expect that the angel (who, by the way, does only what God tells it to do) to simply act benevolently on our behalf. We should expect that it will do what God has told it to do, and so we should take heart any message that we might hear.
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