Michael and the Holy Angels (Remembrance Day September 29)

"Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His who do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!" Psalm 103:20-22

The angelic realm is poorly understood because, for the most part, it is hidden from our direct gaze and we can only catch glimpses of it when God allows. Because of this our imaginations are free to work on very limited information and we are content to conjure up all sorts of pictures of these spiritual beings that are not in keeping with the revelation of scripture. One only needs to look at what the new age society has turned angels into to recognize where this practice leads. Our short excerpt from Psalm 103 actually provides us a summary of all that we need to know. There are six things. First, angels were created by God to give him pure worship. The Seraphim seen by Isaiah around the throne of the Lord in Isaiah 6:1-3 exist only to pronounce His holiness and glory. We see that same image described by John in Revelation 4:6-11 in which he describes these creatures as giving glory, honor and thanksgiving to Him who sits on the throne. Second, the angels belong to God, they are His creation and although they are powerful beings in their own right, they do not exist apart from God and His purposes. That is why their appearance in the Old Testament is often called the coming of "the Angel of the Lord." Because they belong totally to God and His work, they are often referred to as "the holy angels" (Matthew 25:31), they have a share in His holiness and reflect His glory. Third, they are powerful. Paul describes them in II Thessalonians 1:7 as "mighty angels" and Peter refers to them in II Peter 2:11 as being "greater in power and might" as compared to the men of the earth. They are pure spirit, not confined to the material realm as we are, but able to travel the length and breadth of God's universe. Fourth, they do His word, heeding all that properly belongs to it. That is precisely what separates the holy angels from the fallen angels, obedience to the word of God. Some commentators believe that after God created the angels, they assisted Him in the rest of creation and were assigned oversight over portions of His creation. That is why when Job describes the creation of the world by the hand of God in Job 38 he says that the "morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy (see also Job 1:6). Fifth, they are His ministers, bringing to pass His pleasure, His will and counsel. We know that in addition to overseeing the creation of God, the holy angels have been assigned a special place as ministers to the heirs of salvation, God's elect people. Hebrews 1:14 calls them "ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation." and Psalm 104:4 refers to them as "spirits, His ministers a flame of fire." We know that they take a particular delight in seeing the grace of God work in the human soul for salvation, for we read of their rejoicing over such a soul in the parable of Jesus in Luke 15:10. Lastly, they extend the dominion of the Lord, the very real presence of His power and majesty, throughout the universe. It is from this last task that many have said that God rules over creation through His angels. They are called His angels (messengers), His hosts (army), His works (the stewards of His dominion). His glory is their joy, to accomplish His will is their delight.

On this day the Church remembers all of the holy angels who minister to the heirs of salvation, and in particular Michael the archangel who is the patron and protector of the people of God. His name means "who is like God" and from this we can draw the conclusion of how accurately and clearly this servant of God must mirror the glory and majesty of His Lord. He is mentioned by name only four times in scripture. In Daniel 10:13 he is referred to as one of the chief princes and in verse 21 as the upholder or support of the other angels in their work upon earth. In Daniel 12:1-3 he is said to be the "great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people." In Jude 9-10 he is said to have contended over the body of Moses with Satan (apocryphal writings declared this was necessary since Satan intended to make the remains of Moses an object of reverence to the people of God thereby distracting them from the true service of God). Finally, he is portrayed in Revelation 12:7-12 as being the champion of God, leading the holy angels in open warfare against Satan and his host of rebellious angels to cast them down from heaven. From these scriptures and others, the Church has ascribed four offices to Michael the archangel and those angels who serve under his command. First, they are the host of God which fight against Satan. They cast Satan down from the presence of God at the first struggle, and they continue to stand against his evil upon the earth until the triumph on the final day of judgement (Revelation 20:7-10). Second, they rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the evil ones. The Church has believed from the earliest times that God appoints these angels as guardians over his elect. The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 18:10-11 seems to hint at this. Thirdly, Michael is the champion of God's people. As he was the protector of Israel as described in Daniel, so now Michael and his angels are the champions (they actively take up the cause) of His elect wherever they may be upon the earth. Psalm 34:7 declares that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear the name of the Lord, and we can see this more vividly portrayed in the account found in II Kings 6:15-17. Finally, they are the instrument which God has chosen to bring the souls of men to judgement. They gather the elect of God (Mark 13:26-27) so that not one soul is lost (see the promise in Matthew 3:12) and they gather up those things which are offensive to God unto judgement (Matthew 13:37-43).

There are many, many more things written in both the Old and New Testament about angels, the messengers and ministers of God. But let us close with only this one last thing. For all that they are in the sight of God, glorious in His power and holiness, they are a part of the communion of saints which will some day share eternity with us in the presence of God. They are, therefore, not to be reverenced beyond what their official capacity in God's service requires. Paul describes the worship of angels as an entanglement which can defraud us of our true reward in God's kingdom (Colossians 2:18) and the angel who spoke to John at the giving of the book of Revelation was clear to state (as John fell at his feet to worship him) "See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!" Fellow servants who have the testimony of Jesus, a fitting description for the God-ordained relationship between angels and the Church of God. They should ever give us example of what that means. To return to our opening psalm excerpt, we find in the example of the holy angels an exhortation to truly worship God proclaiming his glory, honor and worthiness; to do His word, giving it careful heed and striving to understand it and bring it to pass in all its fullness; to ever be His ministers of salvation, delighting to do His will in every part of our own life; and to walk in faithfulness extending His dominion to the ends of our earth and to the depths of the hearts of men. Such is the true testimony of Jesus Christ in the hearts and lives of His servants.