Listen to the angels

We hear many accounts of angels, but are we aware of the attributes of the “real” things? Here we look at angels from Biblical accounts.

We see them everywhere today, both figuratively and physically. We see the paintings and artistic renderings of angels on church walls and on garden statues. We see the figurative works of angels manifested in those with a kind and generous human spirit. There are many who have studied and developed their own philosophy of angels, but the accuracy of these “mortal” ideas remains in question. Here we will take a look at angels and their attributes through the oldest known source of eyewitness accounts in history... the Bible.

Angels were created by God. Just as He spoke the world into being, He did also the angels. “Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commaded and they were created.” Psalm 148: 2&5. Not only were they created by the word of God, they were created before mankind was. In Genesis 2, before the creation of Adam, we read in verse 1, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.”

Angels were not created with physical bodies, but as celestial spirits. Hebrews 1 gives us a brief glimpse of what they look like as spirits. Verse 7 says He “makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire”. Verse 14 states “Are they not all ministering spirits...?”. Even though angels are spirits and are invisible, they are known to take on human form. The Hebrew definition for angel is “messenger:, and in this role the are the messengers of God humanity. When angels are performing this task they often take on human form, whether presenting themselves physically or in dreams. We see this in numerous Biblical accounts of angels communicating with man, and each time they have taken on human form. One prime example of this is in Genesis 19. The chapter begins with “Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate...”. These two angels came to warn Lot of the impending doom of Sodom & Gomorrah and to help him and his family escape to safety. In this account we see that even though they were angels, while they were in human form they also took on the attributes that came with a physical body. Verse 3 tells us that Lot prepared a feast for them and they ate with him, and verse 4 tells us that they lay down to rest.

2 Kings 6:15-17 gives us an interesting account of angels being seen by one person but not another. A wicked king sent an army of horses and chariots to a place called Dothan to seize a man of God, Elisha. When Elisha’s servant saw how large the army was he was concerned as to how they would get through it. But Elisha, being able to see what his servant could not, said in verse 16, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Wanting his servant to see the army of angels also, in verse 17 we’re told that “Elisha prayed and said ‘O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see’. And the Lord opened the servants eyes, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Even though angels can take on human form with fleshly functions, we do know that even in doing so they are not mortal. When speaking of those who have passed away, in regards to their life in heaven, Luke 20:35&36 tells us that Jesus says “but those neither marry, nor are given in marriage, for neither can they die anymore, for they are like angels...”.