Our 57th Word is Angel
The meaning of angel is a supernatural messenger/servant of God.
“While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him. (Zechariah 2:3)
A tour through the Bible that didn’t include a brief look at angels would be like a tour of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth that failed to mention hobbits, elves, or dwarves.
Angels play a major role in the great story of God. Consequently, they pop up just about everywhere in Scripture, like the time an angel brought the prophet Zechariah an urgent message from God. The people of Jerusalem need to get busy and finish rebuilding the temple! Why? Because one day Messiah’s glory would fill it!
The Hebrew word for “angel” is malak, which means “messenger”. An angel, then, is a heavenly courier, a servant of God who brings communiques from God. That’s not what all angels do, but that’s the primary meaning of the word.
Occasionally in the Old Testament, human messengers or prophets are called by this word. Our focus here, however , is on the heavenly messengers that appear throughout Scripture, the supernatural beings that do God’s bidding.
angels offer praise to God. They are said to protect and guide God’s people. They are shown ministering to God’s servants. They are described as executing God’s judgment. It’s worth noting that typically in Scripture, when angels show up, onlookers very nearly need CPR.
We see angels in Jacob’s dream of the staircase that ascended into heaven. They are active leading up to the birth of Christ and on hand to interpret the empty tomb to Jesus’s confused followers.
The presence of angels in the story of God reveals so much; that there’s more to this life than what we can usually see, that heaven and earth do commingle, that God is serious about getting important messages to His creatures.
Jesus once made a comment about children having angels in heaven. Whatever you believe about “guardian angels,” the Bible does say cryptically, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2).
If you’ve been hoping to become an angel when you die and trying hard to “earn your wings”…hate to break it to you, but that’s an idea from the movies, not from the Bible.
However, there is this: when we deliver messages from God, we are, in a literal sense, being angelic.
Maybe then, we could devote ourselves to that.
Questions to Ponder
- Did you learn any new truth about angels?
- If so, what?
No Thought Police 