Skip to main content

Luke 1:26-27: What is an Angel?

What is an angel? This is a good question that does come up in the scriptures; one such time is when Gabriel visits Mary to announce that she is going to have a son. The Greek for ‘angel’ (ággelos) simply means ‘messenger’: ággelos is used 176 times in the New Testament and only the context determines whether it is a human or celestial messenger. We know from elsewhere in the scriptures that there are times when people –like Gideon (Judges 6); Manoah and his wife, Samson’s mother (Judges 13); possibly like Jacob at Jabbok (Gen. 32), and even Abraham (Gen. 13) did not realize they were entertaining heavenly messengers. They didn’t know they were dealing with angels. It is possible that Mary did not recognise Gabriel as a heavenly messenger when he first arrived. After all she was greatly troubled when he appeared (Lk 1:29).

Mind you she could have been troubled because she did recognise Gabriel as an angel. In our day and age we often think of angels as nice spirit-beings (usually in the form of a woman with wings and a halo over her head) and just about incapable of deviating from the perfect will of God. This is not how people saw angels in Mary’s time. Angels were seen as free moral agents who would just as likely do you harm, as do you good. The Apostle Paul, a later contemporary of Mary, writes about angels a few times in his letters. None of these accounts is necessarily flattering (Rom 8:38-39; Gal 3:19-20; Col 2:18-19). At best he portrays angels as free creatures who can either uphold or oppose the work of God. There is also a story of Tobit with which Mary was likely familiar. This is about an angel who shows up on a bride’s wedding night and kills her husband. Angels were certainly not always seen as nice. Today most of us are familiar with the idea of the ‘fallen angel’.

Now Mary received the good news that she was about to have a child from Gabriel, the same angel who told her cousin Elisabeth’s husband that she was going to have a child. Elisabeth’s husband did not believe Gabriel and was struck mute for a time.

Angels are interesting. Angels are real. Angels are active in our world today. Angels were not always immediately recognised in the Bible and they are not always readily recognized today. I know that I have had positive encounters with them on at least two occasions but those are stories for a different time.

What is important today is not so much that angels can be spirit-beings but that they are always messengers from God and we are all called to be messengers of God’s Good News of Salvation.

The question for us today: are you ready to give and/or receive the Good Message of Salvation from the Lord?
More daily blogs at

More articles, sermons, and papers at
www.sheepspeak.com/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Judges 13:1-7: Strength

Covenants are important to the Lord. I am reminded of Samson. Samson was bound by a covenant without an expiry date (Jdgs 13:7) that he did not even willingly enter into (Jdgs 13, Cf. 1 Sam 1, Lk 1, Lev 27.28-29) and he struggled to keep. Samson was not to drink nor was he to defile himself. Samson was however a liar at times (Jdgs 16:7ff) and a killer (Jdgs 14:19). He visited prostitutes (Judges 16:1). He put himself and others ahead of God at times (Jdgs 14:17). Samson disobeyed his vows. Samson transgressed his covenant with God. The Lord did not forsake him though (Jdgs 16:22, Rom 3:3,4). At times Samson did follow the Lord’s direction. At times he experienced the blessings that accompanied his covenant. At times Samson drew on the strength of the Lord and was used greatly by God to accomplish His purposes. At other times Samson sinned. Every time Samson turned to and drew on the strength of the Lord, the Lord delivered him. No matter what Samson did, the Lord did not leav...
Post a Comment
Read more

Low Saturday (Genesis 3, Revelation 21)

  Hello, I am Major Michael Ramsay from TSA. As well as running The Salvation Army, the Bread of Life soup kitchen, shelter and The Salvation Army thrift store, I am a Christian pastor / teacher. This weekend is Easter. That is the most important time on the Christian Calendar. Christians acknowledge Jesus as God. Our teachings tell us that God, as creator, created the whole world. And when He did it was perfect. Not only did we not harm each other, ourselves or the earth; but we never got sick, we never got injured; and the earth itself – the trees did not fall to the ground and die. Animals did not eat animals. All of creation was in perfect harmony. The Creator even walked in this Garden He created with people He created. Then something happened. The first people created made a choice.   Because of this choice, death, decay, harm and hurt entered the world. Where there was none before, now there was illness, injury and death for all of creation. Plants, animals and al...
Post a Comment
Read more

Luke 24:38-34: Revelation of a King

James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country disguised as a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived. One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid. Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, Cramond Brig, unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is. The King responds ‘I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’ ‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’ ‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’ ‘The palace, is it?...
Post a Comment
Read more