“The Doctrine of Angels” Part 2

This week we continue to look at the doctrine on Angels. This week we want to focus on the “Orders, And Ranks Among Angels.” Last week we learned that Angels are created beings and are servants of God just as mankind is. We also learned last week that Angels are spirits and have no bodies but can on occasion take on the form of a human body to serve the purpose of God. We also know that Angels are not to be worshiped in any way; just as none of Gods creation is to be worshiped. "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind," Colossians 2:18 also in Revelation 22:8 – 9 John was told not to worship them because they are “fellowservant’s” with mankind. There is not a man alive who can be worshiped or bowed to in any way. Any worship of Gods creation takes away from God’s glory and that is a no, no, and has been from the beginning. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (5.) Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" Exodus 20:4 – 5

Now we want to look at the “Orders, And Ranks Among Angels.” We do not know a whole lot about Angels except what the bible most certainly concludes that Angels do have an order and rank among them. We know that there are at least one “archangel” and his name is Michael. An “archangel” is defined in the Greek as - a chief angel – This word comes from the Greek word “archō” which means - to be first in political rank or power - reign or rule over – with this being said we know that Michael is the top ranked Angel. "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." Jude 1:9 now what we are not 100% certain that there are more than one single archangel, however the scriptures seems to conclude that Michael would be the only one. Notice back in Jude 9 where God said “Michael the archangel” and notice the word “the”, now let us look in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:" and we find that word “the” again which may conclude that Michael is a one – of – a – kind Angel and that he is chief among all angels. However with this being all said it does prove that God has a ranking system among His Angels, however we simply do not know too much about it. How about Gabriel it seems he also occupies a relatively high place among the angels. Although the word “archangel” is never used with his name therefore we must conclude that whatever rank among the Angels Gabriel has he is not a chief angel. But he was a good servant of God because we see him several times in the scriptures and hundreds if not thousands of years apart as he spoke to Daniel and then Zacharias and then to Joseph and Mary about the Lord Jesus Christ. And who knows God still could be using Gabriel or other Angels to communicate with man even today while we are totally unaware. Hebrews 13:2 "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

In conclusion I want to look at Cherubims; there is no scriptural proof that Cherubims are at all Angels as some believe. The Hebrew tells us that Cherubims are - imaginary figures - therefore I must conclude that that is exactly what they are. Genesis 3:24 "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." However this is not proof that they are anything more than “imaginary figures” because God can make anything look real. We will conclude this study on “Angels” next week.