Angels are so often misrepresented and misunderstood. A lot of our “theology” about them come from religious error and even Hollywood (wings? women? children?). What does the Bible teach us about them?
Dale Pollard
Old Testament Role
In the Old Testament, angels serve, for the most part, as divine messengers and “secret agents” of God’s will. They appear in human-like or supernatural forms to deliver God’s messages, guide, protect, or even execute His judgment.
Here are some examples:
1. Messengers: Angels communicate God’s instructions, such as the announcement to Abraham and Sarah of Isaac’s birth (Genesis 18:1-15) or God’s commands to Moses (Exodus 3).
2. Protectors & Guides: Angels protect individuals or Israel, like the angel guiding the Israelites during the Exodus (Exodus 14:19) or protecting Daniel in the lions’ den (Daniel 6:22).
3. Agents of Judgment: Angels carry out divine punishment, such as destroying Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) or striking down the Assyrian army (2 Kings 19:35).
4. Worship & Service: Angels are depicted as part of God’s heavenly court, praising Him (Isaiah 6:2-3) and serving His purposes (Psalm 103:20-21).
The various types of angels include cherubim (guardians, Genesis 3:24) and seraphim (worshippers, Isaiah 6). Angels are subordinate to God, and their appearances are often horrifying as those they visit are often terrified (Judges 13:21).
New Testament Role
We find that angels continue as God’s messengers and servants but are now closely tied to the life of Jesus and His church. Here are some examples of their role in the New Testament:
1. Announcers of Christ: Angels herald Jesus’ birth (Luke 1:26-38, Gabriel to Mary; Luke 2:8-14, to shepherds) and resurrection (Matthew 28:2-7).
2. Ministers to Jesus: Angels support Jesus, such as after His temptation (Matthew 4:11) or in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43).
3. Guides & Protectors: Angels assist believers, like freeing Peter from prison (Acts 12:7-11) or guiding Cornelius to Peter (Acts 10:3-7).
4. Angels of Judgment: Angels are prominent in Revelation, executing God’s judgments (Revelation 8-9), gathering the elect (Matthew 24:31), and fighting demonic forces (Revelation 12:7-9).
5. Worshippers: Angels praise God and Christ (Revelation 5:11-12) and are part of the heavenly host.
Angels are clearly seen as subordinate to Christ (Hebrews 1:4-14). They inspire awe but— not to be worshipped (Colossians 2:18).
Did God actually send hornets against the Canaanites? What do you think is meant by God sending a hornet before Israel?
Dale Pollard
God not only told the Israelites that He would give them the land of Canaan, He also told them how He would do so. Moses records the very words of God as He explains what the initial steps of the conquest was going to look like and it’s as fascinating as it is strange.
Angelic (Conditional) Assistance
“Behold I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay close attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him” (Ex. 23:20-21).
We’re told that the angel would “go before them” and bring them to pagan armies and peoples such as the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and of course, the Canaanites— to name a few. (V.23).
The Terror & The Hornet
After this the reader is thrown a curve ball as two additional names are introduced.
“I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come…” (v.27).
“…I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, Cannanites, and the Hittites before you” (v.28).
The angel, terror, and hornet are each different Hebrew words but share a commonality— they go before the Israelites.
It sounds like these terms could describe three separate beings or forerunners that were meant to accomplish separate tasks. It’s an interesting idea so that’s reason enough to dive in and investigate. Hopefully by the time we come up for air it’ll make more sense.
Hornets In The Bible
First, let’s deal with “the hornets.” Only three other times in the Old Testament do we find passages with hornets. Exodus 23:28 is the first time it’s used and here Moses is quoting what God told him that He would do.
The next occurrence is in Deuteronomy 7:20 where Moses reminds the Israelites just before they storm the Promise Land about those hornets God said he would send ahead of them.
Finally, the last mention is the most elucidating. In Joshua 24:12 there’s a subtle hint found in most English translations. It says, “And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you…”. All three passages about hornets refer to the conquest event. More importantly, Joshua seems to recall a single hornet rather than multiple hornets.
Make It Make Sense
Joshua is the only passage in most translations that describes a singular hornet but the other two passages actually use the same Hebrew word. Meaning, the translators chose to make the hornets plural in two passages but chose to make it singular in Joshua’s account.
Well, now it’s time to revisit Exodus. Here the angel is mentioned in the singular and then what the angel does to the Lord’s enemies. The angel will bring the Lord’s “terror” on the pagan people which will “throw them into confusion.” The terrified and confused people will “turn their backs” and run from the Israelites. Like a hornet, the angel will literally put the fear of God in them and chase them. Anybody who’s been chased by a hornet will know that fear and madness all too well.
The guardian angel of the Israelites is mentioned several more times throughout the Old Testament but this particular event showcases the role that their angel played in the conquest of Canaan. It’s probably not talking about literal hornets or even just one nasty hornet that buzzed into battle. You could even argue that Exodus 33:2 further attests to this. It states, “I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Cannanites, the Amorites, the Hittites…” God explains how He’s going to assist them and then what His assistant is going to do. God’s angel is going to run off the bad guys like an angry hornet.
Could God accomplish His will with just one little hornet? I think every believer knows the answer to that— absolutely.
The concept of angels and angelic beings filling the role of guardian is found several times throughout scripture. A cherubim with a flaming sword that flashed in every direction to guard the the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3.24). Jesus tells us that each child is assigned an angel and that angel is of such high rank that it can see the face of God (Matthew 18.10). While certain angelic beings, like the Cherubs, are depicted as guardians— it’s possible that any rank of angel might serve in this way (Psalm 34.7).
Here are a few fascinating sections of scripture that shed light on the mysterious operation of God’s heavenly host.
Daniel’s Angel
The Old Testament provides several examples of angelic intervention, but what unfolds in Daniel 10-12 stands apart. A distressed Daniel had been praying for three weeks and it was starting to look as if God had forgotten about His prophet. After Daniel had spent twenty one days of fasting and prayer, we read,
“I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of the multitude” (Daniel 10.5-6).
Daniel’s unnamed angel has finally arrived and he actually provides a reason for why it had taken him so long to respond to Daniel’s prayer. The angels explains, “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince (patron angel) of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes (angels), came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia” (Daniel 10.12-13).
Daniel’s angel was locked in combat with an evil spiritual force he called “the prince of Persia” and things had become so heated that Michael the Archangel (see also, Jude 1.9) had to intervene. Paul would later confirm the reality of spiritual warfare when he tells those first century Christians, “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6.11-12).
Just as Daniel is about to receive information about the future sourced from the Book of Truth (see also, Revelation 20.12), the unnamed angel tells him, “No one supports me against them (the evil forces) except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him” (Daniel 10.21,11.1).
Michael is called by the unnamed angel, “your prince.” The use of the term prince in Daniel 10 has only been used to describe spiritual beings that seemed to yield some kind of ruling power over a nation. Michael isn’t Daniel’s personal angel but instead Israel’s “patron angel.” If Michael wasn’t Daniel’s guardian angel, then perhaps the unnamed angel fulfilled that role. While the unnamed angel responded to Daniel’s prayer and revealed visions of the future— he then returns to continue fighting the prince of Persia. We’re also told that he took special interest in Darius the Mede, so it’s not likely that he was Daniel’s sole protector either.
Peter’s Angel
In Acts 12 we find King Herod on a rampage. He kills James the Brother of John with the sword and then throws Peter in prison. While Herod is persecuting the church, the church begins praying— and God answers with an angel. Peter’s trial is scheduled for the next day but he wouldn’t make it because, “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.
They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
The way in which the angel strikes Peter to wake him, the chains falling off his wrists, the iron gate opening by itself, and then the angel’s sudden disappearance are all details we can appreciate. However, the following verses are also intriguing. Notice who Peter is mistaken for, “…. He (Peter) went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished” (Acts 12.7-16). The early Christian’s make an interesting assumption and they must have had reason to think that Peter’s angel either resembled or could resemble Peter himself.
Non-Canonical Coincidences
The Early Church Fathers On Patron Angels
Clement of Alexandria (Post 202 A.D.): “…for regiments of angels are distributed over nations and cities; and perhaps some even are assigned to particular individuals.”
Origen, Homilies on Luke (Post 233 A.D.): “To every man there are two attending angels, the one of justice and the other of wickedness.If there be good thoughts in our heart, and if righteousness be welling up in our soul, it can scarcely be doubted that an angel of the Lord is speaking to us. If, however, the thoughts of our heart be turned to evil,an angel of the Devil is speaking to us.”
Rabbinic Commentaries & The Mistaken Identity of Angels
An angel appears in the likeness of Moses (Devarim Rabbah 2.29).
In a Jewish commentary on Ecclesiastes; “At that time an angel descended in the form of Solomon and sat upon his throne” (Kohelet Rabbah 2.4).
Another commentary on Genesis, possibly based on older sources, claimed that Jacob wrestled with Esau’s guardian angel (Bereshit Rabbah 77.3).
The TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) version of this discussion is that when angels mated with human women, they produced abominable offspring whose spirits God refused to admit into the realm of the dead after He destroyed them in the Flood. The wandering spirits eventually possessed some people in the first century whom Jesus and the apostles were able to exorcise. These were the unclean spirits. Because of the power of Christ’s Gospel, they no longer have the ability to hijack our bodies today. If they are still present, they can only help to facilitate situations of temptation. But they cannot touch us or make us sin.
For those willing to understand how I arrived at the above summary, please keep reading.
Allow me to begin by indulging in a little inside baseball. In that case, I’ll start by highlighting one of the differences between my brother’s and my time at Faulkner University: two different godly men led the V.P. Black School of Biblical Studies. My brother had the opportunity to sit at the feet of the late Wendell Winkler, whose background was in preaching schools. Meanwhile, when I graduated, the late Kenneth Randolph was the dean. Brother Randolph decided he wanted students to build their libraries and encouraged instructors to assign textbooks to our classes whenever possible.
I studied hermeneutics under the late Martel Pace. When is an Example Binding? by Thomas B. Warren was the actual text. However, brother Pace insisted on us purchasing Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. When the class began, brother Pace directed us to a sentence in Fee and Stuart’s book. That sentence stated that novel interpretations are incorrect. It is erroneous if no one has ever interpreted Scripture in a given way in over two thousand years of church history. With that clarification, brother Pace told us we could throw the book away as he didn’t want us to learn how to interpret the Bible from Fee and Stuart’s liberal hermeneutic.
Although I felt cheated at the time for wasting money on a book I wouldn’t use, brother Pace’s point has stuck with me. When I approach a Scripture or text and want to understand what it means, I first consult other Scriptures. Then, when I finally turn to human scholarship, I always look for the oldest interpretation of the Scripture. With this method, it is surprising how much of the doctrine taught in contemporary Christendom dates back less than 200 years. Other false doctrines may have origins in the 1500s, during the Protestant Reformation. Others emerged before 1000, eventually leading to the establishment of the first apostate church.
Despite being accurate regarding salvation, we sometimes see deviations from original thought in issues of Christian judgment. For example, I’ve been thinking about angels and demons. I’ve often said that much of what people believe they know about the subject finds basis in Milton rather than Scripture (e.g., the war in heaven). The Bible is silent on angels, including their orders and responsibilities. When asked who the archangels are, you will hear names other than Gabriel and Michael (i.e., Raphael and Uriel). According to some, an archangel by the name of Lucifer fell. From whence does this extra information come? The accepted canon of Scripture does not include it.
On the other hand, the apocryphal Book of Enoch is one source having a lot to say about angels. The Book of Watchers refers to the first thirty-six chapters of the Book of Enoch. The author of Watchers claims to explain things like how angels fell. Given that Jude quotes from the Book of Enoch, this source is more interesting than you might think. Jude quotes the apocryphal book in verses 14-15. This inclusion by the Holy Spirit does not imply that the Book of Enoch is anything other than apocryphal, but rather that this widely read book from before the first century AD still got a few things correct, precisely what Jude quotes. Although it is not a direct quotation, Jude verse six parallels ideas found in the Book of Watchers, namely that the “angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode” (NASB1995) refers to angels who chose to leave heaven to intermarry with human women.
It took a long time for me to accept this. I was of the school of thought that interpreted Genesis 6’s “sons of God” as the descendants of Seth, who began calling on the Lord’s name (Genesis 4.26). That was a more recent interpretation contradicting the phrase “sons of God,” which almost always referred to angels. Even so, I would never teach what I am about to discuss as doctrine because it may confuse some. However, if one considers the context of Jude, one will notice that the sin of verse six is akin to that of Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 1.7). In other words, it was a matter of immoral sexual behavior. It was never in God’s plan for angels to have companions. They are presumably “complete,” lacking nothing in their distinct being. In response to the Sadducees, this is why Jesus stated, “…in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (emphasis mine—Matthew 22.30 NASB1995).
I’ve heard it preached that Jesus said angels can’t get married, but He said they don’t get married in heaven. It is not a giant leap to conclude that if angels took on a form with a digestive system (cf. Genesis 18.5ff), being able to eat, they could also take on a reproductive system commensurate with the masculine forms assumed in their interactions with humanity. Furthermore, Paul warns us that the devil can disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11.14). So, it appears God endowed angels with such abilities implied by taking on an assumed form.
But how does this relate to unclean spirits? What does this even have to do with Faulkner University and hermeneutics? Following the Scriptures, I will consult other scholarship sources; the earlier, the better. So, I went back and read what early Christian writers like Justin Martyr and Origen had to say about the subject. Justin, in particular, confirmed Jude’s message that the angels’ transgression was sexual. According to Justin, angels fell in love with human women and decided to copulate with them, the latter giving birth to the “mighty men of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6.4). These deviations resulted in conditions that caused God to regret creating man. One of the things that the Book of Watchers says that Justin seems to accept is that these fallen angels taught men how to make weapons of war and fight one another. Have you ever thought about Genesis 6.13? God saw the earth filled with violence. That is an intriguing coincidence.
As a result, God destroyed all except Noah, Noah’s family, and the animals aboard the ark with a Flood. But what became of those who died in the Flood? Would Ecclesiastes 12.7 not be applicable? Their “dust” was returned to the earth, while God received their spirits. But what if among the dead were spirits inhabiting bodies that God did not sanction, a cross between fallen angels and humans? Would He let those spirits into Sheol or Hades? Wouldn’t they be punished like the fallen angels for whom God created hell itself (2 Peter 2.4-10)?
It appears unlikely that the “unclean spirits” mentioned in the Gospels and the book of Acts are the spirits of evil, departed men. A teacher once told me that Legion hung out in the cemetery (Mark 5.1ff) to linger near their former bodies. In other words, whoever the Legion demons were, they were all former humans doomed to spend eternity in hell. But why would God choose to isolate the miraculous period of the first century to allow some evil deceased spirits to remain and not send them immediately into the realm of the dead, as Ecclesiastes 12.7 suggests? Of course, God could direct every such person into the path of Jesus or the apostles for exorcism, but it seems strange to defy nature just to read about a few exorcisms in the Gospels and Acts. Indeed, the ability to raise the dead alone could serve as the ultimate form of confirmation of the Gospel. Moreover, since the power of sin is death, raising the dead would still prove our Lord’s power of the kingdom of darkness (1 Corinthians 15.51-57).
Examine how Jesus interacts with these unclean spirits (aka demons). In Matthew’s account of Legion, another demon-possessed man accompanies Legion (Matthew 8.28). Both possessed men were violent and would not let anyone pass. The ones inside these men recognized Jesus as the Son of God and wondered if He had come to torment them ahead of time(Matthew 8.29). They asked Jesus to send them into an adjacent herd of swine if He was going to cast them out of those men (Matthew 8.31). When Jesus granted their request, the demons caused the herd of pigs to jump into the sea and drown (Matthew 8.32). Why not send them to Hades if these were the departed spirits of evil men? Why put them in pigs?
These unclean spirits knew God would destroy them, but they thought the time was too soon. Of course, we know that those in Tartarus, the place of torment within Hades, like the rich man, immediately knew their eternal fate, but how else would these possessing living men in the first century know such things? They had probably never experienced Tartarus’ torment because they were free to roam (cf. Matthew 12.43-45; Luke 11.24-26). Again, it would appear to be inconsistent with what we know about our existence following death. It makes more sense, however, if there have been spirits of grotesque angel-human hybrids roaming the earth since the Flood.
Let us look at some examples of demon exorcism in Acts to illustrate these fascinating phenomena further. First, Paul cast out an unclean spirit from a young woman who had been following him around Philippi, proclaiming him to be a servant of the Most High God and preaching the way of salvation (Acts 16.16-21). Paul became irritated with her and rebuked the spirit in Jesus’ name, causing the demon to flee. The event that led to Paul and Silas’ imprisonment in Philippi was this exorcism. When Paul expelled the evil spirit, he took away her divining ability that her owners exploited to make money. Then, in Ephesus, Paul exorcised demons without even being in their presence. People took handkerchiefs that Paul had touched, which were enough to heal and drive away the evil spirits (Acts 19.12).
This display of Jesus’ power prompted some of Paul’s opponents to try to imitate him. Finally, Acts 19.13-16 contains a humorous account of a failed exorcism. Sceva’s seven sons took it upon themselves to exorcise an evil spirit in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches. The demon said it recognized Jesus and Paul but wanted to know who these men were. The possessed man then leaped on them and thrashed them mercilessly. It caused quite a stir in Ephesus and inspired both Jews and Gentiles to exalt Jesus’ name (Acts 19.17).
There are no further references to unclean spirits after Ephesus. We know Paul told the Corinthians that the miraculous age would end when the perfect (i.e., complete) arrived (1 Corinthians 13.8-12). By the end of the first century, God had completed His revelation to mankind. And then there was the New Testament. But what about the spirits? Origen, a Christian who lived near the end of the second century, observed that the demons vanished along with the ending of the spiritual gifts bestowed by the apostles through the laying on of hands (cf. Acts 8.14-17).
In other words, Jesus Christ’s power defeated the kingdom of darkness. Those spirits, if still present, could no longer possess people or cause mischief as they did during the brief period described in the New Testament. This statement does not imply that Origen did not have some ideas. He did. Since, as James stated, our lusts entice us, allow our desires to conceive, and give birth to sin (James 1.14-15), the remaining unclean spirits serve as “midwives,” facilitating our sin. This truth does not absolve us of our guilt, but it may point to perpetrators in the unseen realm who are more than willing to assist us.
Angels are not the dainty, long-haired Western Europeans they’re often depicted as being. In Matthew 28, their appearance was like lightning and they had white clothes. Evidently their appearance was other-worldly enough to frighten these soldiers almost to death (28.4). Whether this was some cardiac event or simply shock we cannot know. But to frighten someone that tough to that extent would take something pretty crazy.
But some of these same guys still went straight to the chief priests and took a bribe to keep quiet and spread disinformation (28.11-15). After what they had just seen and experienced, you’d think they would run to a therapist and not the chief priests to help perpetuate something they knew to be false.
We can be tempted sometimes to think that evangelism requires more than just showing someone the word. We might think the miraculous or incredible could persuade even the most stubborn non-believer. The power of our job (making disciples) is in the Word and in faith. The Bible has many accounts of people seeing incredible feats of supernatural power with their own eyes and still rejecting God. Abraham informed the rich man in Luke 16.29-31 that God’s Word is what saves; if that is rejected, no miracle will change this.
If we place our faith in the power of the Word and work to deepen our understanding of the Word, we have all we need to show the power of Jesus.
We sometimes have a tendency to give up when we mess up spiritually. We’ll think, “Guess I blew it, there’s no point in trying now.” Guilt or frustration over the difficulty of living for God and falling short is a powerful Achilles Heel of ours. Paul describes our struggle with sin as combat with self (Romans 7).
A Christian who is fighting to follow God is still going to sin at some point. We sometimes allow the loss of that battle to drag us into a pattern of sinning solely because we’ve become discouraged that we even allowed that sin to happen.
I’d like to point out that we aren’t alone in that struggle. Consider Job 38.7: angels – who do not need faith because they live in the presence of God – were up close and personal to the creation of our incredible universe. They watched in awe as God fabricated the stars. They heard those stars sing, which means that they were amazed by the sheer power and majesty of what we can only hear as obscure signals. They were right there!
Some of those same angels were caught up in sin (II Peter 2.4ff; Jude 6-9). Satan currently has followers who were at one time up close and personal to the Power behind our existence (Romans 12.7ff; Matthew 25:41).
If an angel, a being who does not serve God based on a mere belief in His existence, but because they were originally created for the sole purpose of carrying out His will, and who are eyewitnesses to His existence and unlimited power, can be tempted to the extent that they are willing to abandon the presence of God and forfeit ever seeing His face again, who are we to think that our struggle is that defeating?
God does not have a salvation plan for angelic beings (II Peter 2.4). When they breach their boundaries, that’s it. The moment they act outside of God’s will is the moment they forfeit the presence of God for eternity.
We are lower than angels on the creation totem pole (Psalm 8.5), yet we have Jesus as a mediator defending us before God (I John 2.1) and constantly making us sinless in God’s eyes when we’re doing our best to live for Him (I John 1.7). We have a gift that angels do not enjoy: we get extra chances. As long as we are willing to wage war with our sinful desires, as long as we are striving to be like Him, and as long as we are trying to incorporate the word of God into our lives, we have grace.
We’re stepping out of the concrete and into conjecture, but there is at least some evidence that lust (Genesis 6; II Peter 2; Jude 6-9) and perhaps tragedy (Matthew 18.10) are enough to make an angel forfeit their home. Again, this is pure conjecture but it has, at the very least, some scriptural evidence to suggest legitimacy.
When we sin, we need to take a step back and get some perspective. We must not brush off sin as being inconsequential, but we also must avoid allowing a mistake to send us into a dysfunctional pattern just because we think, “I’ve blown it, there’s no point in trying now” or, “This struggle is too great for me.” If angels aren’t immune, why on earth would we think that we are supposed to be?
The beauty of Christianity is found in God’s grace. It is understandable, seeing how some have abused the subject, to want to avoid the topic altogether. How many, though, have found themselves trapped in sin because they did not understand or believe in the power of God’s continual forgiveness?
Understanding what we have when we make a concerted effort to follow God is of the highest importance. We will sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are liar and there is no truth in us (I John 1.8). When we do sin, let’s remember that not only can we have forgiveness if we’re walking in light, we’re not especially awful just because we find ourselves falling short. If even God’s angels can be tempted to the point of leaving His presence forever, so can we who have not seen His face. And let that cause us to seek His face with even more enthusiasm than before!
Many Americans have recently been recipients of a stimulus check. Quite a few have taken that and made some big purchases or padded a savings account or used it for much-needed relief. Whether or not this stimulus was an economically sound decision, most have seen it as a well-timed gift that – at least in the short term – has lessened some of the difficulties of this pandemic. It was designed to bring relief, and for many it has.
We often look at salvation as something we received at baptism (which we did, I Pt. 3.21, Acts 2.38, Col. 2.12-14). We are grateful to have grace and a mediator for when we fall short as Christians, and this gift is not something we should ever take for granted.
When we think about how we got salvation, though, we don’t always think about the enormous amount of preparation that went into it. The ability to have our sin problem erased (Colossians describes it as a certificate of debt with legal demands in 2.14) is no small gift.
I Peter 1.10-12 says, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven – things into which angels long to look.”
Briefly, I’d look to look at how this passage brings out the enormous value of salvation. Firstly, ancient prophets were told that this salvation was for future generations. They wrote about this while living under a far more difficult system of godly living, knowing that they would not be beneficiaries of that salvation.
Secondly, the early church benefited from the sacrifices and hardships of those who brought the message of salvation to them. It was valuable enough that those men were willing to assume that risk to give it to others.
Thirdly, angels – who, like the early prophets, are not beneficiaries of this salvation – were extremely interested in salvation.
If two of the groups mentioned here were not even beneficiaries but strongly desired to know more about it or recorded it for all time, what does that tell us about salvation’s value? Peter set up its value this way to encourage the early church to live holy lives.
Knowing just how valuable our salvation is should push us to live like we appreciate it! Not only does it have enormous value as a gift, the One who gave it wants us to have it. With that in mind, let’s cultivate greater appreciation and godliness because of the awesome gift of salvation. And if we know anyone who could use it, let’s pass the good news on to them, too.
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