God created the powerful beings we call angels long before He created us.
The Bible shows us there are many types of angels who perform different tasks for God; but, they were all created to worship Him. In this study we will look at a few types of angels that we find in scripture and see what they do.
Seraphim
..."I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Saraphim have six wings and seem quite powerful and awesome! But when they are in the presence of God, they use two wings to cover their faces and two wings to cover their feet in humility.
As for the likeness of their faces,
As for the likeness of the living creatures,
What do angels look like and what do angels do? Let's follow along as Ezekiel describes them to us; he really breaks it down:
"And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures.
And this was their appearance:
Cherubs
Ezekiel 1:5-14"And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures.
And this was their appearance:
- they had a human likeness, but each had four faces,
- and each of them had four wings.
- Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot.
- And they sparkled like burnished bronze.
- Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands.
- their wings touched one another.
- Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went.
- each had a human face.
- The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.
- And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.
- And each went straight forward. Wherever the Spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went.
- their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures.
- And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
- And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.
As we see in Genesis 3:24, cherubs been serving God since the beginning:
"After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life".Real Cherus aren't chunky, flying babies like modern art depicts them. They seem very serious and quite fierce. God named each angel and gave each a distinct personality.
Archangel Michael
He's very power and leads Gods army:
"Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him"Michael is Gods most skilled warrior; full of amazing strength and cunning. Yet, we see him showing respect and humility toward God, His plan, and Gods decision making authority in Jude 9:
"But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”The Lord does rebuke the devil. Michael knows very well that judgement, vengeance, and retribution are Gods job. As we saw earlier, God uses Michael to fulfill his promise to Satan from Deuteronomy 32:35.
"Vengeance is mine and their retribution, At the appointed time when their foot slips..."And Romans 12:19;
"Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord".Michael is mentioned again in Daniel 6:1.
"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people--everyone whose name is found written in the book--will be delivered".
Gabriel
Gabriel seems to be one of Gods principal messengers. We see him giving Mary the message of Jesus coming birth in Luke 1:26. it begins;
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary..."
"But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John".
Angels Have Jobs
They are distinct and have various jobs tasks they do for God. Some serve before Gods throne, some carry his messages. Some angels are sent to protect us and others are sent to carry out Gods judgement; as we see in 2 Kings 19:35.
"That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies".In Psalm 34:7 God uses angels to protect His people:
"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them".Angels protect people all through the Bible. We see it again in Psalm 91:11
"For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways".God even sends angels to break people out of prison when He needs to: Acts 12:6-7
"...Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands..."And Acts 5:19-20
"They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out he said, “Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life".The Bible tells us there are times we are talking with an angel and don't even know it. Hebrews 13:2;
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it."Angels know each one of us in very personal ways. Luke 15:10;
"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents".Gods angels feel joy every time one of us repents! They know us and our lives well. Do we have angels who watch over us personally? Guardian Angel seems like a good term when we consider Matthew 18:10;
"See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven".The Bible tells us there are a lot of angels. Revelation 5:11;
"I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands..."
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