Unit 7 · Angels and the Angel of the LORD

In Genesis 32, Jacob is traveling home. He is nervous about meeting his brother Esau. So he sends some people ahead with a message. The Hebrew word for these people is mal'ak. It means messenger. These messengers were ordinary men from Jacob’s own camp.

The same word shows up just two verses earlier. In Genesis 32:1, messengers of God meet Jacob on the road. Those are heavenly messengers. Hebrew uses one word for both groups. A messenger is anyone who is sent with a message, whoever sends him.

Long ago, the Hebrew Bible was put into Greek. This Greek Bible is called the Septuagint. In it, mal’ak became angelos. The English word angel comes from angelos. Michael Heiser stressed what this means in his book Angels (2018). Angel names a job. It tells what someone does, not what kind of being they are.

If angel is a job, who does the job? The Bible uses several names for the beings of the unseen world. In Job 38:7, God says the sons of God shouted for joy when the earth was made. That is a family word. It pictures heavenly beings who belong to God’s household.

Psalm 89:5–7 calls them the holy ones. They gather in a great meeting around God. In 1 Kings 22:19, the prophet Micaiah sees the LORD on his throne. All the host of heaven stands beside him. Host is an old word for a very large army or crowd.

Christian writers noticed this long ago. Augustine was a bishop in North Africa about 400 CE. In his teaching on the Psalms, he said spirit is what these beings are. Angel is the name of their job. Many scholars today make the same point. A son of God who is sent with a message is doing the job of an angel.

At the end of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve must leave the garden of Eden. God places cherubim on the east side of the garden. A flaming sword turns every way. Their job is to guard the path to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). Cherubim is the plural of cherub.

Cherubim show up again in Exodus 25. God tells Moses to make a gold-covered box called the ark of the covenant. On its cover sit two gold cherubim. They face each other, and their wings spread over the top. God says he will speak to Moses from between them (Exodus 25:22).

Ezekiel 10 describes cherubim with four faces and many eyes. They are not babies at all. In the Bible, cherubim guard God’s throne and holy places. Scholars also point out that ancient kings in Assyria set huge winged guardian statues at their palace gates.

Isaiah 6 begins in the year King Uzziah died. The prophet Isaiah has a vision of the Lord on a high throne. Above the throne stand seraphim. Each one has six wings. Two cover its face, two cover its feet, and with two it flies.

The seraphim call to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD." The doorposts shake, and the house fills with smoke. Isaiah feels he is not clean enough to be there. A seraph touches his lips with a hot coal from the altar. It tells him his guilt is taken away. Then Isaiah says, "Here I am. Send me."

The Hebrew word saraph seems to be linked to burning. The same word is used for the fiery serpents in Numbers 21:6. So some scholars think the seraphim may have looked like shining serpents. Other readers picture them in other ways. The text itself tells us only their wings and their words.

Only a few angels in the Bible have names. One is Michael. His name means "Who is like God?" Michael first appears in the Book of Daniel. In Daniel 10:13, a heavenly messenger tells Daniel that Michael came to help him.

Daniel 12:1 calls Michael "the great prince" who stands up for Daniel’s people. A prince here means a leader or ruler. Many scholars, Heiser among them, read this beside Deuteronomy 32:8. In the Septuagint, that verse says God set the borders of the nations by the number of the angels of God. So they see heavenly rulers over nations in Daniel.

Michael appears in the New Testament too. The letter of Jude, verse 9, calls him "the archangel." That means a chief messenger, a leader among angels. Revelation 12:7 pictures Michael leading the angels on God’s side in a struggle in heaven.

The other angel named in the Hebrew Bible is Gabriel. In Daniel 8:16, a voice tells Gabriel to help Daniel understand a vision. In Daniel 9:21, Gabriel comes to Daniel again in the evening. He comes to give Daniel wisdom and understanding.

Gabriel appears again in Luke 1. First he comes to Zechariah, a priest, inside the temple. He says Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth will have a son, John. He introduces himself: "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God" (Luke 1:19).

Six months later, Gabriel is sent to Nazareth. He brings news to a young woman named Mary. He tells her she will have a son named Jesus. To Zechariah and to Mary, Gabriel’s first words are the same: "Do not be afraid." His job fits the word mal’ak. He announces news and explains it.

A third named angel, Raphael, appears in the Book of Tobit. Tobit tells of a Jewish family living far from home in Nineveh. The son, Tobias, must make a long trip. A kind stranger offers to guide him. The stranger says his name is Azarias. A dog comes along too.

On the trip, the guide helps the family in many ways, and the story ends with healing. At the end, the guide tells them who he really is. "I am Raphael," he says, one of seven holy angels who stand before the Lord (Tobit 12:15). The name Raphael means "God heals."

Not every Bible has Tobit. It is in the Old Testament of Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. It is not in the Hebrew Bible. Protestants place it in a separate group called the Apocrypha, outside their canon. The book of 1 Enoch names Raphael too. In 1 Enoch 9:1, Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel look down from heaven together.

About five hundred years ago, painters in Italy liked to fill their pictures with little winged children. In art, these are often called putti. Around 1512, the painter Raphael put two small winged children at the bottom of a famous painting. People loved them. Over time, baby angels became a common picture.

The Bible describes angels very differently. In Genesis 18, three visitors come to Abraham. The text calls them men. In Genesis 19, two of them are called angels. Hebrews 13:2 says some people have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. So angels in the Bible often look like grown people.

When angels show their glory, people are often afraid. That is why so many visits start with "Do not be afraid" (Luke 1:13; 1:30; 2:10). In the Bible, angels are strong and bright, not cute. Baby angels come from art, not from the Bible’s words.

Many people call a loved one who has died "an angel." It is a loving way to talk. But many Bible scholars point out that no verse says people turn into angels. In the Bible, angels and people are two different kinds of beings.

In Matthew 22:30, Jesus is asked a tricky question about marriage. He says that in the resurrection, people will not marry. They will be like the angels in heaven. Being like angels in one way is not the same as becoming angels.

Hebrews 12:22–23 gives a picture of a great gathering. It lists angels in one group. It lists the spirits of good people in another group. Christians hold many beliefs about what happens after death. But the Bible’s own words keep angels and people separate.

Hebrews 1:14 sums up what angels do. It calls them spirits who serve. It says God sends them to help people who will receive salvation. That fits the word angel, since a messenger is always sent. Angels are servants of God, and they do what God sends them to do.

Bible stories show this help in plain ways. In 1 Kings 19:5–7, the prophet Elijah is worn out and asleep under a bush. An angel touches him and says, "Get up and eat." Bread and water are waiting. In Acts 12:7–10, an angel wakes Peter in prison. His chains fall off, and a gate opens by itself.

Angels in these stories point people to God, not to themselves. In Revelation 22:8–9, John bows down to an angel. The angel tells him not to. "I am a fellow servant with you," the angel says. "Worship God."

In 2 Kings 6, the prophet Elisha is staying in the town of Dothan. One morning his servant wakes up early. An army with horses and chariots has surrounded the town. The servant is afraid. "What shall we do?" he asks.

Elisha tells him not to be afraid. He says, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prays that the servant’s eyes will be opened. The servant looks again. Now he sees the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

Heiser named his big book The Unseen Realm (2015). He meant the world of God and heavenly beings that the Bible says is present but usually not seen. In this story, that world was there the whole time. The servant simply could not see it until his eyes were opened.

Hagar was an Egyptian servant in the household of Abram and Sarai. Sarai treated her harshly, and Hagar ran away into the desert. The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water on the road to Shur (Genesis 16:7). He asked where she was going.

The angel told Hagar to go back. Then he said, "I will greatly multiply your descendants." He did not say God will do it. He said I will. He told her to name her son Ishmael, which means "God hears." The LORD, he said, had heard her pain.

Genesis 16:13 then says that Hagar named "the LORD who spoke to her." She called him "the God who sees me." So the text calls the speaker both the angel of the LORD and the LORD. Readers in every tradition have noticed this. They explain it in different ways, as this chapter shows.

Genesis 22 tells a hard story. The text says God tested Abraham. God asked him to offer his son Isaac on a mountain. Readers in every tradition have found this story difficult. Jewish tradition calls it the Akedah, which means the binding.

Abraham went to the mountain. Before he could harm Isaac, the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven. "Abraham, Abraham!" the angel said. "Do not lay your hand on the boy" (Genesis 22:11–12). Then Abraham saw a ram caught in a bush and offered it instead.

Look closely at the angel’s words. He says, "Now I know that you fear God. You have not held back your son from me." From me, not from God who sent me. In verse 16 the angel adds, "By myself I have sworn, says the LORD." The messenger talks as God talks. Readers have puzzled over this for centuries.

Moses was taking care of sheep near Mount Horeb. Exodus 3:2 says the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire. The fire came from the middle of a bush. The bush was burning, but it did not burn up. Moses turned aside to look.

Now read verse 4. "God called to him out of the middle of the bush." The angel appeared in the bush, and God spoke from the bush. God told Moses to take off his sandals, because the ground was holy. God said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

Moses hid his face. He was afraid to look at God (Exodus 3:6). Philo, a Jewish writer in Egypt about 40 CE, retold this story in his Life of Moses. He said the shining form in the flame could be called an angel. Some Christian readers see the angel and God as one here. Many Jewish readers see God speaking through his messenger.

Judges 6 opens during hard years. Raiders from Midian kept taking Israel’s crops. Gideon was beating out wheat in a winepress to hide it. The angel of the LORD sat under an oak nearby. He said, "The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior" (Judges 6:12).

Gideon asked a bold question. If the LORD is with us, why is all this happening? Then verse 14 says, "The LORD turned to him." The LORD told Gideon to go in his strength and rescue Israel. The writer moves from the angel to the LORD without a pause.

Gideon said his family was the weakest in his tribe. He said he was the youngest in his family. The answer came: "I will be with you" (Judges 6:16). The text slides between the two names, angel and LORD. Jewish and Christian readers have long asked why it does that.

Gideon asked for a sign. He brought out a meal of goat meat and flat bread. The angel of God told him to set it on a rock. The angel touched the food with the tip of his staff. Fire came up from the rock and burned it all. Then the angel was gone (Judges 6:19–21).

Gideon was afraid. "I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" he cried. In the Bible, seeing God was thought to be very dangerous. But the LORD said to him, "Peace to you. Do not be afraid. You will not die" (Judges 6:23).

Gideon built an altar there. He named it "The LORD Is Peace" (Judges 6:24). The story ends calmly. Gideon had worried because he saw the angel. Some readers say that worry makes sense only if seeing the angel was like seeing God. Others say the messenger carried God’s presence with him.

Judges 13 tells of a couple from the town of Zorah. The husband was Manoah. His wife is not named. They had no children. The angel of the LORD came to her and said she would have a son. That son grew up to be Samson.

Manoah asked the visitor his name. The angel answered, "Why do you ask my name? It is wonderful" (Judges 13:18). Some translations say secret. Manoah offered a young goat on a rock. As the flame went up, the angel went up in the flame. Then Manoah knew he was the angel of the LORD.

Manoah said, "We will surely die, for we have seen God." His wife answered calmly. If the LORD meant to harm us, she said, he would not have accepted our gift or told us all this (Judges 13:22–23). Notice that Manoah says they saw God, not just a messenger. Readers explain that in different ways.

In Exodus 23, Israel is getting ready to travel to a new land. God says, "I am sending an angel ahead of you." The angel will guard them on the way. He will bring them to the place God has prepared (Exodus 23:20).

Then God gives a warning. Listen to him, and do not rebel against him. "He will not pardon your wrongdoing, for my name is in him" (Exodus 23:21). In the Bible, a name is more than a label. It stands for who someone is.

Heiser thought this verse was very important. In the Hebrew Bible, forgiving wrongdoing belongs to God. And God’s name was in this angel. For Heiser, that meant the angel carried God’s own presence. Other readers say the angel simply carried God’s authority, the way an ambassador speaks for a king.

Some verses say no one can see God. In Exodus 33:20, God tells Moses, "No one may see me and live." Yet Jacob says in Genesis 32:30, "I have seen God face to face." Hagar, Gideon and Manoah say much the same. How can both be true?

Heiser offered an answer in The Unseen Realm (2015). He said the Hebrew Bible shows God in two ways. One is God who is unseen, in heaven. The other is God who is seen, often as the Angel of the LORD. Heiser called this the two Yahwehs idea. Yahweh is the personal name of God in Hebrew.

Many English Bibles print that name as LORD in small capital letters. Many Jewish readers do not say the name aloud, out of respect. Heiser said Christians later linked the seen God with Jesus, building on these Hebrew stories. Jewish readers and some Christian readers disagree, as the next lessons show.

Genesis 15:1 says "the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision." A few verses later, this Word brings Abram outside and tells him to count the stars (Genesis 15:5). Some readers take this Word as someone Abram could see. Heiser was one of them.

In 1 Samuel 3:10, the LORD "came and stood" and called the boy Samuel. Many readers take word in these verses to mean a message. Philo, a Jewish writer in Egypt about 40 CE, wrote about God’s Word in another way. He called the Word the eldest of the angels, a chief angel with many names.

The Name works in a similar way. Deuteronomy 12:11 speaks of the place where God will make his name dwell. In Exodus 23:21, God’s name is in the angel. In Genesis 48:15–16, Jacob blesses his grandsons in the name of God and the angel who rescued him. The verb bless there is singular.

Jewish readers have usually read these stories another way. They see the angel of the LORD as a messenger. A messenger may speak in the first person for the one who sent him. A royal herald could read a king’s letter aloud and say I, meaning the king.

The Mishnah is a collection of Jewish teaching written down about 200 CE. It states a rule about an agent. An agent is someone sent to act for another person. The Mishnah says a person’s agent is like the person himself (Mishnah Berakhot 5:5). Readers use this idea to explain why an angel can say I will for God.

Some ancient Jewish teachers argued about a teaching called two powers in heaven. Later rabbis rejected it. They held that there is one God, with no second power beside him. The scholar Alan Segal studied these debates in Two Powers in Heaven (1977). He traced how the rabbis answered readers who saw a second divine figure in some Bible passages.

About 155 CE, a Christian writer named Justin Martyr wrote a long debate. It is called Dialogue with Trypho. Justin talked about the one who appeared to Abraham, Jacob and Moses. He argued that this was the one Christians call the Son of God. Many early Christian writers read the stories that way.

The Gospel of John says, "No one has ever seen God" (John 1:18). It says that God the only Son has made him known. John 1:14 says the Word became flesh and lived among people. Many Christian readers link these verses to the Hebrew stories of God seen.

Not all Christians agree. Augustine, a North African bishop writing about 400 CE, took a careful view. He thought God may have spoken through created angels in some of these stories. So readers differ within traditions too. Each reading starts from the same Bible passages.