YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

We ended yesterday with a brief look at the definitions of the word translated as angel from the Greek aggelos and from our dictionary definition as well. The idea we should come away from all this with is that an angel is a messenger of God and that an angel is a spiritual being of some kind and that we do not understand. Perhaps this can become a bit clearer as we go along. We are most familiar with the angels seen in visions by those ‘holy‘ persons of the bible but we get little information about them from this. There are also cherubim which are considered angelic beings and also seraphim which are rather undefined. The idea of cherubim in the Old Testament must precede the events of early in the Book of Genesis as God put two of them to ‘keep’ the Tree of Life. They make their next appearence in the Book of Exodus where Moses is instructed to make two of them of gold to cover the Ark of the Covenant; to do this, one must know what they are or at least what they look like. The Hebrew word translated cherub is k`ruwb which is defined in the lexicon as cherub, cherubim (pl) an angelic being; as guardians of Eden; as flanking God’s throne; as an image form hovering over the Ark of the Covenant; as the chariot of Jehovah (fig.)**. We see the activity of cherub in a Psalm of David that is also recorded in 2 Samuel 22; David sings a song of praise and deliverance and describes the Lord and cherub thus: “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.  Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook , because he was wroth.   There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind” (2 Samuel 22:7-11). Did David know what a cherub was? or did he take the idea from the design for the Ark? or did he really see this?

David continues the use of the cherubim in the building of the Temple and this is the only bible reference, other than in describing the ‘place’ of God between the cherubim, until the prophecy of Ezekiel where, from his vision, he actually describes them for us. Briefly they “And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. 15 And the cherubims were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar. 16 And when the cherubims went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them” (Ezekiel 10:14-16).  We should remember here that this is a vision and again we should note that there must have been some understanding at this time of what a cherub was seeing that Ezekiel tells us that one of the faces is of a cherub. This is the last reference in the Old Testament to cherubim. The word translated seraphim is translated as fiery serpents (as sent by the Lord) in every place except in Isaiah. Isaiah speaks of the seraphim much like Ezekiel speaks of the cherubim, from a vision and in prophecy and says of them that “each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly” and speaking to Isaiah the a seraph says “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (Isaiah 6:2, 7). These are part of the angelic beings of prophecy. There are more but without description; they came as a messengers to Hagar, Abram’s mistress; to Abraham as he was about to sacrifice his son, to Lot to save him from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and who is the man that Jacob wrestles with all night? an angel of God or God Himself?

Angels of the Lord appear to Moses as the flame of fire in the bush and they went before Israel as the pillar of fire; angels went before Israel into battles. One appears with his sword drawn to Balaam and his ass in the way and another to Gideon who at first thought the angel was a man. We could go on but the point is made that angels have been interacting with men throughout bible history and, other than the vague ideas we have of cherubim and seraphim, there no place that tells us what an angel may look like. The New Testament, except for the Book of Revelation, gives little detail as well. Here we have, according to Luke, the angel Gabriel appearing to Zacharias to tell of the birth of John the Baptist and the Mary the Mother of Jesus to announce His conception; angels appeared also to the shepherds to announce the Master’s birth. Matthew tells us that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and that there were angels present at the tomb of the Christ. Again, we see no revelation of what nor who they are. In the Book of Acts we have angels opening the doors of prisons and appearing in visions to Cornelius and perhaps in voices to Peter and it is an angel that tells Paul of his safety on the voyage to Rome. Still no idea of what or who they are. Last we come to the Book of Revelation which is, in its entirety, a vision of the Apostle John and in which there are many angels and beasts similar to the cherubim of the Old Testament. Still, other than the beasts and some fantastical description of one angel, there is no revelation of who or what an angel really is.

We have gone a long way through scripture to come to the conclusion that we can not tell what an angel is nor a cherubim except to say that they are spiritual beings and are messengers of God. We will now go to the words of the Master for some help in defining what an angel may be and what His references to them may mean. Like we do with our understanding of the Trinity of God and the trinity of man, taking the macrocosm and bringing it to ourselves as the microcosm, let us also take the idea of angels. We must remember again the sayings of the Master regarding His teaching in parables and also the comments of the Apostles regarding such teaching: “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them” (Matthew 13:34) and “But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples” (Mark 4:34). Here we are again then, left to try to discern the teaching behind the teaching of the Master.

Starting slowly and with ideas that we can elaborate on, we begin with this dialogue by Jesus speaking about children: “And Jesus called a little child unto him , and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And who so shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me” (Matthew 18:2-5). While there is nothing here about angels, this is the beginning of the Master’s talk; This is rather clear, to be humble and innocent as a child; this is a requirement for entry to the Kingdom. He also makes the point of their innocence in His saying on receiving one which can be interpreted as accepting and even honoring as it is translated in some versions. Now I assume most people can get most the this idea of our  being like children and of how we should treat them; they are neither far away from their reality as Spirits and Souls nor are they yet close to their having formed a conscious worldly personality. But the Master goes on; after speaking about offending a child and then apparently offenses in general, Jesus goes back to the thought of children and says: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). Let us look at some commentary on this:

• The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible: Take heed that ye despise–stumble. not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven–A difficult verse; but perhaps the following may be more than an illustration:–Among men, those who nurse and rear the royal children, however humble in themselves, are allowed free entrance with their charge, and a degree of familiarity which even the highest state ministers dare not assume. Probably our Lord means that, in virtue of their charge over His disciples ( Hebrews 1:13 , John 1:51 ), the angels have errands to the throne, a welcome there, and a dear familiarity in dealing with “His Father which is in heaven,” which on their own matters they could not assume**^

Admittedly unsure of the meaning, they use a basic but not a scriptural idea of angels to explain this saying.

• John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible: the phrase, “in heaven”, is omitted in the Syriac and Persic versions, perhaps because it might be looked upon as unnecessary, since it afterwards appears; but is very proper, or pertinent, whether it be considered as descriptive of the angels, who have their habitation there, in distinction from the evil angels, who are cast down from thence; or as pointing out the place where the angels behold the face of God, and who are styled “their angels”; the angels of the little ones, that believe in Christ, who are ministering spirits unto them, the guardians of them, who encamp about them, and do many good offices for them. Some have thought from hence, that every good man has his peculiar angel that waits upon him, and cares for him; but this does not necessarily follow from, these words, only that they all have an interest in angels, and in their good services. This seems indeed to have been a notion that prevailed among the Jews, not only that there were angels which presided over particular nations, but who also had the care of particular persons; so they speak of an angel that was particularly appointed for Abraham. Nor will they allow, that one angel does two messages, nor two angels one message: but that everyone has his particular place, person, and work; of whom it is further said, that they  do always behold the face of my father which is in heaven**^.

Here John Gill is taking up the Jewish idea of the Guardian Angel for which there is no real biblical testimony. He goes on to speak of his explanation as the Jewish idea and to try to explain it to us. John Darby does not address this saying at all and neither does Matthew Henry in his commentary.

So what is the meaning of this saying by the Master? How do we look upon the idea that “their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven”? Do we just say with the writers of the Commentary Critical that this is a difficult verse and venture off into what we think angels might do or how they might act or do we try to discern, based on our previous ideas on the nature and Constitution of Man, the nature of the angel? Since the Master refers to their angels we probably should refer here our angel so as to be consistent with Jesus use of the phrase. From the perspective that we have gained here regarding angels as spiritual beings we should begin by remembering that we too are Spirit, spiritual beings. We have said that we are Spirit and that we have a Soul and that both of these, corresponding to the Father and the Son, can be seen as eternal aspects and, much like the Father God and the Christ Son are essentially ONE, so are our Spirit and our Soul essentially One. We can look at this as our Pure Life, our Spirit, manifesting as the Soul, the Reality of man and then giving this Life to the Form in which we appear and we act.

Taking this further then we can see that the child of which the Master speaks is just that a child, the form to which some Spirit and Soul give Life. This child, innocent and humble is unaware of his Soul just as we are or were. The Soul may be aware of ‘its‘ child but there is little that can be done by the Soul until the child matures and so the Soul of that child can be seen as remaining in communion with its ‘Father in Heaven‘ and through this with GOD. So can we say here that the Master is teaching us that this child’s angel is his Soul which is continually in heaven awaiting its opportunity to communicate and to prompt the mature child to attend to the Kingdom? We can say this if we understand the Spirit and Soul to be pure and spiritual and aloof from the workings of the personality until such time as the personalities’ attention is turned inward and upward to God. We can posit here that our angel is our Soul, ever looking after its form life but helpless to do anything until the Soul is recognized. This view can shed some new light in the subject of miracles attributed to angels. We know so little about the inner workings our our own being and our relationship to our own Soul but the understanding is here for us to grasp; we have only to be in His Presence and aware. We will continue this thought through our current Parable of Teaching the Sadducees in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

United Nations Week has begun and Monday is United Nations Day. This is our opportunity to support this world body which is humanities best hope for lasting peace and for the uplifting of millions upon millions of our brothers and sisters from poverty and hopelessness to a sense of value and of worth. There is a tab at top, Peace In Our Time, which provides additional insight and information. If nothing else, we can pray for the future success of the United Nations. We will leave this banner up as the Quote of the Day until the end of United Nations Week but will try to change the attached scripture frequently.

This new scripture by the Apostle Peter is another testimony to the Unity of Man, all men, with God. Through any religion, with any creed and in any nation man can approach God and will be accepted without any prejudice. According to Peter only respect and righteousness are required!

One World, One Humanity, One God

United Nations Day

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, as which “shall be devoted to making known to the peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations and to gaining their support for” its work.

In 1971 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a further resolution (Resolution 2782) declaring that United Nations Day shall be an international holiday and recommended that it should be observed as a public holiday by all United Nations member states.

United Nations Day is devoted to making known to peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization. United Nations Day is part of United Nations Week, which runs from 20 to 26 October.

 Wikipedia contributors. “United Nations Day.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.

 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him (Acts 10:34-35).

• **^  Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com