ANGELS – WORKERS ON OUR BEHALF 

HEBREWS 1:4-7, 13-14 

            Oftentimes as Christians we spend time talking about the devil and his demons and the troubles they cause in our lives.  In fact I think that sometimes we spend too much time focused on them.  This is especially true since we spend so little time talking about the angels of God and what they do on our behalf.  Now we recognize that the angels are not apart of the trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.  In fact in verses 4-7 we are told that Jesus is much more important than the angels, having more authority because He is God’s son and as such, the angels were also commanded to worship him.  The angels were not begotten.  They were created just as man was created.  Jesus is the only begotten son of God. 

          Since the angels are not apart of the trinity and thus had no specific role in the plan of salvation, why are they important to us?  Verse 14 provides an answer too that question.  The angels are ministering spirits that God uses to work on our behalf.  Thus today I want to use the title, “Angels—Workers on Our Behalf.”

          I want to start first by taking a quick walk through the Bible and looking at some of the activities of angels on our behalf. 

EXODUS 23:20-23

          There is some discussion about who this angel might have been.  Some believe that his angel might have been a special guardian angel for Israel.  Some believe it was Michael.  While others believe it was Jesus himself in his pre-incarnate (or pre-flesh) state.  Who the angel was is not important to us.  What is important is that 1) he was given authority from God (My name is in him); 2) He would not tolerate any transgression from the people (They were to do as he said); and 3) he was sent to go before the people, preparing the way for them, guiding and protecting them until they reached the promise land.  Reference was given of this angel again in Exodus 32:34 and also in Exodus 33:2.  However, I could not find a reference where this angel was visually seen.  Israel had a cloud leading them by day, a pillar of fire leading them by night and an angel going before them to clear the way, fighting off all enemies that would attempt to stand against the will of God.  (Example – final oral exam). 

I KINGS 19:4 -8

          Here the angel provides Elijah with food and water in the wilderness to nourish his body for the long trip he had before him.  We don’t know what the food was, but it sustained him for 40 days and nights of traveling through the wilderness. 

          But when you read verse 4, do you get the impression that Elijah was intending on going to Horeb.  Verse 4 reads like Elijah was afraid, discouraged, hopeless and even disappointed in God.  He was feeling sorry for himself and just wanted life to be over.  The angel must have instructed him to go to Horeb to meet God.  When Elijah was feeling discouraged and did not know what to do, the angel was sent to put him back on a path that leads to God.  You will find a similar story in Genesis 16, where Hagar was running from Sarah.  God sent an angel to tell her to go back home because He had a plan. 

DANIEL 6:21-24

          Here an angel was used to provide protection and deliverance for Daniel while he was in the lion’s den.  Note that there was more than one lion but there was only one angel sent.  This was a deliverance not through fighting off the lions, for the lions were also ok the next morning.  The deliverance was in making know the will of God.  I can imagine the angel saying to the lions “Hey listen up.  By order of the most High God, you can not eat this man, nor can you harm him.  He belongs to God.”  In fact I believe the angel got there to give the lions instructions before Daniel got there.  I say this because when the others were thrown in the pit, the lions jumped up at them breaking there bones and tearing at there flesh before they even hit bottom.  So the angel provides protection for Daniel, delivering him unharmed from the lions den.  Angels were also used to deliver the apostles, unharmed, from prison in Acts 5:19, and Peter from jail in Acts 12:7.  

LUKE 16:19-23

          Here the angel came to usher the beggar into eternity.  How many have seen the movie Ghost starring Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick Swazie?  Most of us remember the demons coming to drag the murderers into hell because we remember that scary feeling it gave us about dying and going to hell.  But at the end of the movie the angels come to take Patrick to Heaven.  Now I don’t know about the demons dragging unsaved spirits into hell, but I can clearly see that this man was carried by angels into Abraham’s Bosom, a holding place for those who followed God before the death of Christ. 

ACTS 10:1-6

Cornelius was a Gentile who believed in a prayed to the God of the Jew’s.  Cornelius had not heard about Jesus but wanted to do what was pleasing to God.  God sent an angel to tell Cornelius to call for Peter and that Peter would give him further instructions.  Note that Cornelius was unsaved and so God sent an angel to deliver the message to him.  One a person gets saved, God communicates instructions to him through the Spirit of God.  Though God can still use angels for this purpose, his desire is to develop such a personal relationship with us that he can then communicate directly with us.  He does not want to speak to us through other people or angels.  He wants to talk to us and have us talk to him.  He wants to fellowship with us.   

II KINGS 6:8-17

          Normally because we live in this physical world we do not see what goes on in the spiritual world.  We do not understand all that God must do in order to protect and provide for us.  Here the servant was afraid be cause he could only see himself and Elisha standing against the Syrian army.  Elisha, being the prophet of God, knew that God had his back.  He knew that God had him surrounded by angels in chariots of fire.  He knew that these angels were there to protect him and deliver him out of the hands of the Syrians.

          In John 10:10 Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” and he told Peter in Luke 22:31 “Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.” We have no idea of how many times the devil has tried to snuff out our lives; how many traps he has set trying to snare us back into sin, how many ditches he has dug trying to get us to fall away from God.  But yet we are still here because of God’s protection and care.  God uses the angels to put up roadblocks against the enemy and his forces.  The angels are in constant battle with demons protecting us and delivering to us the blessings that God have for us.  Because the enemy is after us 24 hours a day, so the angels must work on our behalf 24 hours a day. 

DANIEL 10:9-14

          The minute that Daniels started to make his request to God an angel was dispatched with his answer.  Verses 2 and 3 say that Daniel had fasted and prayed about this thing for 3 full weeks (21 days).  While Daniel was fasting and praying, the angel was doing battle with a demon who was trying to keep him from delivering the answer to Daniel.  The delivery angel was able to escape because Michael, the archangel came to his assistance.  There are books, mostly fiction, that suggest that angels are strengthened and recharged in battle by our prayers.  If that really is true, then some will understand why there seems to be very little change in their situations and in their lives.  If we must provide a channel of pray through which the angels travel in order to deliver to us answers and blessing from God, then many angels find their way blocked as soon as they leave Heaven and must fight their way all the way to earth.  Of course stopping to fight eats up valuable time.  Time during which we get frustrated and begin to pray even less; which makes the battle even more difficult for the angel and slows the delivery time even more.  This would suggest that God had a purpose in mind when He inspired the writing of I Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing”.  For the more we pray, the better the battle goes.  The angels are working hard on our behalf.  We must work harder in prayer to assist them. 

Psalm 34:7 -- The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,

                           and he delivers them.

Hebrews 1:14 Angels – ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.