This is not intended to be an exhaustive exploration of the subject of angels – rather just a few thoughts. The thoughts of angels have occupied the minds of many over the centuries. It seems we all have varied ideas. Sometimes the idea of an angel is embedded in strange places.

 Angels in the Old testament.

 As an example, the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, is entitled ‘My Angel’. Malachi means my messenger or angel. The Hebrew word for angel is malak, and simply means a messenger. It can be used for human messengers or for spirit beings sent to do God’s will.

e.g. Genesis 32 “ Jacob sent malak (angels/messengers) ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir.”

Here, the malak were obviously human messengers, but in Judges 13 we read

“As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the malak (angel/messenger) of the Lord ascended in the flame.”

This was obviously a spiritual angel as humans cannot ascend in a flame.

But there are many places where we cannot tell which is meant. Genesis 19:15; ‘With the coming of dawn, the malak (angels/messengers) urged Lot, saying,

“Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here”.’

They may have been spiritual angels or human messengers sent from Melchizedek. We may think, well, these messengers were able to blind the men who were attacking Lot and his family, so doesn’t that mean that they were supernatural angels? No, the prophets were also able to do blind people through the power of God.

2 Kings 6:18 … “ And He (God) smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.”

So, we are left wondering, were these men spirit angels or human servants of God sent by the godly King-Priest Melchizedek, to save righteous Lot from the coming destruction.

So, how can we tell which type of angel/messenger was meant? There is a way – it’s not 100% foolproof, but pretty close.

Let’s look at a couple of examples where the angel is clearly a spirit being.

Genesis 21:17 ‘And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. ¹⁸ Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him fast with your hand; for I will make him a great nation.” ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water…’

This angel called from heaven and made a well miraculously appear. Obviously a spiritual angel.

Genesis 22:11 ‘But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”’

Calling from heaven – it was a spiritual angel.

Exodus 3:2 ‘There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.’

 The angel appeared in flames – obviously a spirit angel.

Numbers 22:22 ‘But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him.’

A spirit angel who caused an ass to talk.

It seems that whenever we see the words ‘angel of God’ or ‘angel of the Lord’ the reference is to a spiritual angel. There are very few exceptions to this (if any); i.e. a reference to an ‘angel of the Lord’ which is not a spirit angel.

There are some references, such as Genesis 24:7 “The Lord, the God of heaven……spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring  I will give this land’—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.’ , where the words ‘angel of the Lord or God’ are not present, but the phrase ‘his angel’ infers the same thing.

So, we have some means of separating the spiritual angel from the human.

Some examples of human angels (i.e. no mention of Lord or God) would be in Genesis 19 where the angels are not referred to as ‘of the lord or God’. I take it mean they were human angels – probably from Melchizedek.

Yet another example of human angels is found in Joshua 6:17 ‘And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the malak (angels/messengers) that we sent.’

Angels in the News Testament

In the New Testament, the Greek word for angel is aggelos, which also can mean messenger or a spiritual angel. Again, we have to use the context to see which one is meant.

e.g. Luke 1:11 “Then an aggelos (angel/messenger) of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.”

Clearly this was a spiritual angel, as it appeared ‘out of thin air’.

Luke 7:24 “After John’s aggelos (angels/messengers) left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John.”

Clearly these were human messengers – disciples of John.

There are times when we have to use the context to decide which is meant. Acts12:15

“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his aggelos (angel/messenger).”

Here, the angel may be a spiritual one – or just a messenger sent from Peter, whom they thought was still in prison.

Just as in the Old Testament, there is a way to tell the difference in the majority of cases. The expression “angel of the Lord”, or “angel of God” always refers to a spirit angel. If the passage just says ‘angel’, it most likely (but not always), refers to a human messenger. A good example is Acts 12:7.

“Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell….”

This miraculous jail escape was performed by a spiritual angel. But, in the verse ¹⁵ They said to her, “You are mad.” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel!” the phrase “of the Lord” is missing and therefore almost certainly refers to a human messenger from Peter.

Some examples of spiritual angels are: Matthew 1:20

 But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit;’’

Luke 1:11 “And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And Zechari′ah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.”

Acts 8:26 ^“But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” …

So, just as in the Old testament, we have a pretty good way of separating out spiritual angels from human.

This understanding can often clear up confusion as to the meaning of a passage. One of the most discussed references to angles appears in 1 Corinthians 11. “¹⁰ This is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels.”  This is so simply resolved if we note that the angels referred to here are NOT ‘of the Lord’. They are human messengers. They were probably ‘sent’ from the stricter churches in Jerusalem to ‘check-up’ on the gentile churches – to see if they were abiding by the ‘traditions’. This is confirmed by Paul’s referring to ‘other churches’ traditions in verse 16.

If I could, I would take every Bible in the world, and replace every word ‘angel’ by ‘messenger’ to eliminate this type of confusion.

Spiritual angels seem to be agencies by which God may choose to speak to humans. They often take on the name of God. If we read Judges 5:11-20 where the terms “angel of the Lord”, and “The Lord” appear interchangeable as the angel represents God:

“The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak”; “The Lord turned to him and said…”; ^“The Lord answered, ‘I will be with you’”;  ^“The angel of God said to him”.

So, angels can carry the name of God and deliver His messages.

Angels have specific identities and roles. Only two angels are named – Gabriel (man of God) who stands in the presence of God, and Michael (one like God) who seems to be a defender of Israel. When Elisha’s servant was in despair (2 Kings 6:17), the prophets prayed that God would open his eyes and he saw that he and the prophet were surrounded by the spirits of God without number. Here, the chariots of fire were the visual sign of God’s protective power – as are angels.

Angels were still active in the early Christian assemblies, directing the preaching of Philip, and teaching Peter to accept Gentiles and other activities. There is no reason to assume that angels no longer act. Hebrews 13:2 suggests we may encounter angels (spiritual or mortal). We can take comfort in the fact that angels may very well surround us in our hour of most need, as they did for Jesus.

Another curious verse about angels appears in 1 Corinthians 4:9

^“For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.”

Again, the words ‘of the Lord’ are missing – and the angels referred to are almost certainly human messengers of God. So, the spectacle of the suffering saint is set before men (those in the world) and messengers (other believers) as an example.

Exceptions: There are certainly exceptions in the New testament, where apparently spiritual angels are referred to as just ‘angels’ not ‘of the Lord’. Hebrews chapters 1 and 2 are an example.

But, in any passage without ‘of the Lord’, it’s probably a good starting point to assume a human messenger first.

Some people feel that we have a personal or ‘guardian’ angel. This maybe so, but it’s worth analysing the sources of this belief.

Psalm 34:7 “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

This psalm refers to the future salvation of anyone who comes to God, as clearly the blessings described in this psalm do not come to us in this life. So – the encampment of angles would seem to be God directing us to a Christ-like life, to give us future salvation.

Psalm 91:11 “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways”.

Although this was specifically applied to Jesus, there is no reason to assume it is not a promise to all who follow God. Again, the context of the Psalm is future blessings, and we know God works through all agencies (spirit and human) to bring us to salvation.

2 Kings 6:17 “And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Again – God’s agencies are protecting us from spiritual evil.