| Jacob's Ladder (pictured here as steps) |
What are angels' duties? Angels guard us, as outlined in Psalm 91:11-12. An angel delivered Daniel from the lions when he was in the lions' den (see Daniel 6:22). The Angel of the Lord (the pre-incarnate Jesus) rescued Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:28). And an angel opened the prison doors so the apostles could escape (Acts 5:19-20). An angel also rescued Peter from prison (Acts 12:7-10).
Angels also explain things to humans, as can be seen in the book of Zechariah. In the book of Revelation, an angel explained to John what was going to occur.
An angel rolled the stone away from Jesus' tomb and sat inside it. He told the women that Jesus had risen from the dead, and they were to tell Jesus' disciples that He would go before them to Galilee.
And God has commanded angels to destroy. In 2 Samuel 34:15-16, God sent an angel to destroy the Israelites with a plague due to David's census of the people. In 2 Kings 19:35, the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 of the camp of the Assyrians.
Do angels eat food? I thought that since angels are heavenly beings, they do not eat, but in Psalm 78:23-25, Asaph states that God rained down manna, which is the bread of heaven, and that men ate angels' food to the fullest. This was in response to the Israelites' complaints to Moses that they were hungry.
Do we have personal angels? The believers in Acts 12 thought so. Rhoda answered Peter's knock at the gate but didn't let him in because she was so excited. The believers concluded that it had to be Peter's angel. Evidently, our personal angels look like us. In Matthew 18:10, Jesus tells the disciples that they should not despise children, for their angels always see the face of His Father in heaven.
How many angels are there? The Bible doesn't give us a total number of angels. There are some groups of angels in the Bible that are numbered - for example, the seven angels in the book of Revelation who are in charge of the seven plagues, the seven bowls, etc. Each of the seven churches in the book of Revelation was assigned an angel. In Revelation 5:11, John states that there were ten thousand times ten thousand (100 million), plus thousands of thousands, plus the elders and the living creatures. John was unable to count all the angels, so he gave us a general number.
Do angels have halos? The New Living Translation of Ezekiel 1:28 refers to a halo-like a rainbow that shone in the sky on a sunny day, but Ezekiel is referring to God, and not to an angel. The Bible contains no references to angels having halos. Halos are of pagan origin.
There are creatures in the Bible who have wings but are not angels, and you can find them in Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7:6 and 7:4, and Rev. 4:8.
Should angels be worshiped? No. In Revelation 19:10 (also in Revelation 22:8-9), John falls at the angel's feet to worship him, but the angel told John not to do that since he was a fellow servant. He told John to worship God.
I hope you have enjoyed this study about angels. If there is a topic you would like me to cover, let me know in the comments. Thanks as always for reading! See you next time!
Diane
