Tag: angels

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The Final Word and the Order of Angels

Jesus came as the Final Word from Heaven to earth. God got down in the dirt with us, as one of us.

There was no other way to say what needed to be said, and so God took a Body prepared and lived the life in Person, under the sun and upon the waves. A top down operation it was not, as we read in the first chapter of the book of Hebrews. He did not ride into the world followed by a mass of angels, though He truly could have as the Captain of the host of Heaven.

Instead, God entered the horizontal plain. He came to see us eye-to-eye. In doing so, He spoke as the truest Prophet, served as the highest Priest, and claimed the surest of all crowns as King of kings.

Through the ages, prophets were raised to deliver the messages. They came and went. A few were heard and their words were heeded at certain seasons.

Voices for God

Samuel, for one, was called by God to bring Israel back to right worship after the disastrous era of the Judges. They had left the tribes fragmented and defeated in their distance from the One who had delivered them from bondage in Egypt.

Samuel’s ministry was one of restoration. The Word came to him as a youth serving in the Tabernacle. A time of renewal and victory was the result of his ministry, as his preaching and teaching touched the people and moved them nearer to God.

But Samuel grew old and this prophet’s sons were weak men who did not walk in his ways. Thus, the people, in a foolish fit of human reason, demanded to have a king set over them like all the other nations.  The Lord gave them over to their request. A throne was established and a king was set upon it.

This arrangement of rule did not make life better for Israel. The kings proved to be all too human. The majority of them governed with selfish ambition. Their ways are recorded in histories that relate a nation plagued by ups and tremendous downs.

And yet God kept sending His Word through people who chose to fear Him and hear Him.

Most prophets wound up like Jeremiah. He preached consistent and true words, but those words were dismissed and mocked. He suffered much and sang out sad laments as the nation and its royal city Jerusalem slid into deep judgment and heathen occupation.

Jeremiah told of the faithful Lord, the One whose mercies never end and are ever new. He delivered the promise of the new and living Covenant to come. This “expected end” would satisfy and replenish every weary soul as the Word would be written upon hearts rather than tablets of stone. “And I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” said the Lord (see Jeremiah 31:31-34).

To understand all of this and how it came to be, we have to read the book of Hebrews. In these pages, we get a clear presentation of who Christ is in His fulfillment of Old Testament truth.

The Throne Claimed

At last, the Son was sent. He did more than talk. He lived out the sentences written from eternity past. And He lived them out as one of us. He fulfilled all the Law of the Lord in word, thought, and deed.

Christ entered into Creation, His Creation, with all of its definition and decrees and limitations. Yes, God took on a body of flesh. He lived in this body according to the leading of the Spirit. The radiance of His glory was seen only briefly and by just three – Peter, James, and John – on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:1-2). Jesus lived within the confines of the universe He formed and upholds by the Word of His power, to the letter.

Why? He came to be the Man of all men to die the death for all men. And by His death He “by Himself purged our sins” (Hebrews 1:3).

After He finished this work of His, He ascended to take His seat at “the right hand of the Majesty on high.” We read of how the disciples watched Jesus rise through the clouds in Luke 24 and Acts 1. Here, in Hebrews 1, we are told where He went.

The Son of Man became superior to angels through all of this, according to this passage. The royal order of the universe was now restored because of Jesus’ accomplishment as the last Adam (see 1 Corinthians 15:45).

The first Adam’s failure disturbed the original order established. Man was meant to exercise dominion through operating in the image of God as Heaven’s designated leaders of life on earth.

To reclaim the kingly position first assigned to man, Jesus became Man. God the Son redeemed all things and regained man’s superiority above the angels. Psalm 8 reveals that man was designed to be crowned with glory and honor and given “dominion over the works” of God’s hands (see Psalm 8:5-6). This status had been forfeited by the fall at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Son became a fellow of ours. He experienced humanity to the full, even unto death.

Reestablishing the Order

More than raising us into right standing with God, Christ’s obedience and offering of Himself also put the angelic realm back into its proper place.

The rebellion of Lucifer, referred to Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, spawned division. This bright, wise, beautiful being sought an exalted status; he lusted for the worship due only to the One Most High. Others sided with him and became demonic affiliates with this fallen prince who possessed power over the world system and its kingdoms, a point noted by Satan to Jesus in the wilderness temptation (see Matthew 4, Luke 4).

Hell lost. The devil was defeated.

Jesus the Son conquered the grave; the curse of death could not corrupt His perfection. As the fully resurrected Man, as a true Son of David, He inherited the Throne of Majesty.

Jesus came from Heaven and situated Himself underneath the cosmic realm of the air. He ambushed Hell and triumphed over the power it possessed by taking all wrath and rage as penalty for sin upon His Person. The fear of death that once imprisoned us was crushed.

All authority belongs to Him. And since we’ve been made one with Him, His authority is ours also.

What of the angels and their power? What are they to us? They are our servants as stated rhetorically in Hebrews 1:14:  “Are not [angels} all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Yes, the angels are our ministers, as they were always meant to be. They serve God and because we are His joy, these beings are all around us. Let us therefore be wise, watchful, and kind according to this instruction:  “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).

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Our Glory Is Not Our Own

It wasn’t much of an entrance, by the world’s standards anyway. But then God never needs much to work with. A small corner of a small room in a small town provided the setting for the arrival of the Son of God.

Jesus was delivered by His mother, Mary, in Bethlehem, in a manger, in a space hollowed out for animals to sleep and to feed. With the carpenter Joseph watching and helping, and among oxen and lambs and some barnyard fowl, the Lord of Heaven came forth to begin His stay on earth.

The details have been spoken of over and over and over throughout the centuries. The telling of these things never grows old. Tinsel and glitter and parties and shopping extravaganzas serve to propound a faux brightness and a nervous tension in our midst. Joy lives on, however. Joy reigns. Joy bursts from the hearts of real believers with songs and prayers.

The Christmas story shines so brightly because it shows the glory of God as it is reflected by such common things. This is precisely the point about Creation and about man in particular.

Our glory is not our own. The glory we exude comes from Him. What God has made for His good pleasure are things that serve as a revelation of Him and of all that He is.

Angels and Glory

I think this is what makes us different from the angels. These beings that move among us possess glory that is a part of their equipment. They were given a shine, and it is a shine that is fitted and fixed. Angelic brightness does not grow in intensity. It is what it is.

Lucifer’s original title – light-bearer — referred to the brightness given to him. It was a mode for the service assigned to him, as he was situated near the throne of the Most High. His glory was a gift to him, but he came to view it as mark of superiority. For this reason, the devil initiated a rebellion that captivated a full third of the host (see Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:13-18).

Satan fell into what he is because of his self-centeredness. He grew enamored with his glory and forsook the design of God for his office and status as an anointed cherub.

Angels were brought into existence according to the will of the Lord, and so were we. But they were not made in the image of God as we are. Also, the angels were not made “living souls” by the breath of God.

What does it mean to be made in His image? I believe it speaks of reflection and connection, union and communion. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are Three Persons and One Lord, and as such, God is love. Love is about the things that are related and refreshed and reflected one to another.

The essence of God in His Trinity understanding has always been about glory that is both shared and as well as distinct. The Persons of the Godhead are One and yet each is unique. It is such a marvelous mystery, a reality so far beyond comprehension that it may only be embraced.

Think of how Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:  “Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You … Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed” (John 17:1, 5). In John 16, Jesus spoke of the Spirit like this:  “He will glorify Me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:4). And Jesus talked of His followers to the Father this way:  “All mine are Yours, and Yours are mine, and I am glorified in them” (John 17:10).

Glory, glory, glory in the Highest is what is being communicated by these passages.

Consider this:  when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses, it happened in a wilderness as this man watched over his father-in-law’s flock. Then, God showed up as fire in the midst of a bush. The glow of the glory did not reduce the bush to ashes. Instead, His Presence abided in His Creation and brought Moses near. His Presence consecrated the very ground upon which Moses walked.

Later, we read that Moses’ face absorbed the glory of the Lord as he sat before God. This was noticed by the people and they were afraid to face Moses because of his glow.

In the New Testament, we come to understand that glory has been given to us through the offering and ascension of the Lamb of God and the sending of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, cloven tongues of fire were seen upon the disciples in that upper room on Pentecost as the Spirit moved upon them.

Stephen spoke the Gospel and those who heard him said he possessed the face of an angel. The glory of the Lord shone from him because of the work of the Holy Spirit in him. The record of Luke in Acts 7 reveals that as he perished from the stones thrown at him, Stephen saw Christ as He stood in His place at the throne of grace.

Glory, Closer Than We Think

The glory of God is closer to us than we think. The Holy of Holies, the most hallowed place of Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple, was divided from the rest of the worship center. What was put between this glorious room and everything else?  A curtain – the separation was demarcated by a veil, one that had been stitched and fashioned by the people who worshipped the Lord.

The Holy of Holies’ curtain was decorated with two cherubim. This imagery pointed back to the Garden of Eden and the angels who guarded the way to the Tree of Life in the midst of the Presence in the Garden. Man’s fall put something between the Lord and His prized creatures, the ones He made in His image.

It wasn’t a wall of separation that was erected, however. The glory of the Lord was not locked up behind gates and bars and chains. It was not vaulted or sealed. It was veiled – His glory just inches beyond us. Between man and the glory lay just a curtain, just a woven tapestry; a creation of fabric was what kept the glory of God from human eyes.

Veiled was the sign of His Presence until the coming of the Son. When the Son completed His redemptive work, the Temple curtain was ripped from top to bottom.

Jesus came to reveal the salvation of God to all flesh (see Luke 3:6).  God the Son took on flesh, bone, and Blood. Fragile things of frail dust as they are, these in Christ still were subject to the ordinances of nature and the earth. His Body was and is a true Body. He grew weary. He ate food. He wept. He touched many – infants, lepers, blinded eyes, deadened ears.

Our flesh can be sliced with ease. We bleed readily. And so it was with Jesus.

The Son’s glory was deposited into our form, into our likeness. He hid Himself behind the fabric of humanity, our very humanity.

Jesus was born to be torn.

With the tearing of the Son on the Cross, the veil of the Presence of God was opened to everyone. Glory can flow to us and into us and through us. We who are born again in Him are now living temples of the His Spirit. We are free to be set aglow with the glory of God. We can have as much of Him as we want, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians:

“…When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:15-18).

Let us rejoice for what He has made us to be. Though we are common, rough, imperfect works in progress, we still stand as reflectors of the glory of the Lord God Almighty.

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Made for War

The best defense is a good offense – or so I have heard it said by a number of sports coaches through the years. In fact, this is an ancient concept; really it’s one that’s as old as Creation.

Follow this with me. Genesis opens by telling us that “the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). God spoke – “Let there be light” – and the ordering of all things began.

Next, the Lord moved through a series of days to fashion the cosmos as we know it. God did not sit still; He set in motion the processes of fruitfulness and multiplication.

Go through Genesis 1 and notice the pattern the Lord followed. Dry land, the heavens, and the seas were organized and then filled. The land became thick with grass, herbs, and trees bearing fruit. The heavens were brightened as suns, stars, planets, and moons were set in their places. Then, the seas became populated with fish and whales and other creatures; the skies grew cluttered with birds; and on land, all manner of animals and creeping things began to roam and swarm.

At last there came the climax of the Lord’s work days of forming and filling. God determined to make man in His image and to set man in dominion (see Genesis 1:26-28). He formed man from the dust of the Earth, breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life and so man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). Adam, he was called.

As with the rest of God’s Creation, man was formed, but he was filled in a different way, he was filled with God. Adam was set in a garden and given the work of dressing and keeping it. He then named all the animals as the Lord brought them to him.

End of story? Not at all. God saw a void, an emptiness that was “not good” according to Genesis 2:18. The man was alone. The Lord, again on the offensive, put Adam to sleep, took a rib, and made woman from that rib to fill the place at Adam’s side.

There’s more to this part of the story. Adam was to take his bride and come together with her as one flesh in fruitful fellowship and relationship. In their fruitfulness, the man and the woman would multiply.

Simply, they were to be at home with each other and to make a home full of children. The purpose was that human beings might fill the earth and subdue it with their kind — those made in the image of God.

Psalm 8 provides insight into the purpose at the heart of it all. This song, composed by King David, exalts the Lord who ordained strength out of the mouths of “babes and sucklings.” The strength that comes from these weak and helpless ones is what God uses to “still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2). For this cause, so says Psalm 8, the Lord is mindful of man, who though made lower than angels, has been crowned with glory and honor and given dominion (see Psalm 8:4-8).

There’s a war we cannot see, but one we are most involved in, according to the design of God. The Word tells us of how an enemy arose amid the realm of the Lord. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe one cherub, Lucifer, who sought to establish an identity apart from the order of God and to set up an authority “as the most High.” He succeeded in attracting a following from among the angels, a third of this host joined the rebellion (see Revelation 12:4; Hebrews 12:22).

God ‘s offense against this lingering enemy is us, weapons He formed from the dust.

Families are fearsome forces for Hell to reckon with because of their design in the order of God.

Angelic beings cannot multiply as human beings. We know this from Jesus Himself, when in a disputation with the Sadducees about resurrection life,  He declared that angels neither marry nor are given in marriage (see Matthew 22 and Mark 12).

Satan orchestrates efforts to “weaken the nations” and it should come as no surprise that he targets families and children. Every marriage represents another opportunity for fruitfulness and multiplication, a chance for the Lord to gain more arrows to fire in the invisible battles that continue.

Babes and sucklings, God ordained them for strength against His enemy. These are like smooth stones in the sling of David, and they are devastating to the Goliaths who mock the Lord and His people.

Is it any wonder that Satan seeks to eliminate these little ones? Anyone paying attention to modern cultural trends should recognize Hell’s strategy to marginalize biblical marriages that could result in healthy homes and strong families.

The Church of Jesus Christ, therefore, must lead in helping homes become stable expressions of Gospel-centered life. We cannot afford to be casual about the ways husband and wives are troubled. Children need models of tenacious conviction. They need to see couples love, fight, forgive, and forbear, and grow up to become couples who do the same.

Let us pray fervently for victories in our homes. Not just for the sake of cities, states, and nations, but for the purpose of God in seeking the lost and filling the earth with testimonies of His glory.

May the Spirit of the Lord help us as take our positions in God’s offensive order.