Angels, Part III

ANGELS, PART III

Quotable Quote:  “The angelic mediation of Divine Truth is another way that God demonstrates His love and care for you.”

Virtually every time there is an angelic appearance recorded in Scripture, the angel(s) informs someone about some important divine insight or initiative. The two classic examples of this are Moses and Mary. We all know about the Annunciation when the Virgin Mary was informed by Gabriel that she would give birth to Immanuel. Less well known is the fact that the Law was given to Moses by angels. “What,” you ask, “did you say Moses got the Law from angels?” Yes, that is exactly what the New Testament says. Read these verses.

Acts 7:53 “you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

Hebrews 2:2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,

Galatians 3:19 Why, …The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.

The point I am drawing out is that God uses the Blessed Angels to inform humans regarding the higher divine things. This appears to be their primary role in relation to us. Of course, they do other things including intervening in historical events (e.g. The destruction of the Assyrian army in 2Kings 18-19) and the strengthening of God’s people. Yet, it appears that their primary function is as instructors of divine truth.

Along this line, you may be surprised to learn the “How does that work?” How does God inform the angels so they can instruct us about key things? Well, great theologians have thought about this. So, let’s explore it.

Here is Aquinas referencing Augustine.

“I answer that, As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. lit. ii), such things as pre-existed from eternity in the Word of God, came forth from Him in two ways: first, into the angelic mind; and secondly, so as to subsist in their own natures. They proceeded into the angelic mind in such a way, that God impressed upon the angelic mind the images of the things which He produced in their own natural being.”

Augustine and Aquinas are proposing that the Divine Word (the Son of God), before He created anything, implanted the knowledge of those things in the minds of angels. What we see here are two important things. First, God acts in a specific and orderly fashion. For instance, the Divine Word is the Person within the Trinity that informs creation. He is the Father’s Word made manifest to us. So, God’s will and actions are made know to creation by the Word, but first to the Blessed Angels. Do you see the orderliness of this? God does not act arbitrarily or capriciously.

The second thing we see from Augustine and Aquinas is that what the Angels know has been “impressed upon” their minds. This means that what they know is part of their own being and doesn’t come to them via sense experience. Angels, of course, don’t have senses because they don’t have material bodies. They are spirits. Humans have to struggle to know things piecemeal by gathering information through our senses. Did you ever doze off in a class and suddenly wake up at the end of the session? Of course, when you woke up you were wondering what the teacher said, so you had to scramble and ask a classmate. Angels, though, just know what they know. Their teacher is the Divine Word and what He taught them is literally part of the angelic being.

So, what is the “take away” from this seemingly obscure insight about angels? I think it is a big deal that God uses His angels to inform us. Certainly, this can happen when an angel suddenly appears to tell one of God’s people about something. But that is rare. On the other hand, evangelicals commonly say things like, “God impressed such-and-such on my heart” or “I sensed the Holy Spirit telling me…”, etc. What you may want to realize is that what God the Holy Spirit is doing is using an angel to instruct your mind.

I believe one of my gifted areas is theological insight. In seminary I gradually became aware that my gifted-ness was different than most of my fellow students. Others had tremendous facility with biblical languages or great exegetical skills. I, though, seemed to be able to look at a bible passage (or a section of Aquinas) and get a broad sense of its deeper meaning. I was struck by how others often appeared to get “lost in the weeds” and miss the point of a passage. These insights just seemed to come to me naturally and without struggle. This gifted-ness is probably a combination of a natural “bent of mind” and a supernatural gift. I say all of this because I believe there have been times when an angel has directed my thinking. I also believe this sort of thing has happened to you.

The angelic mediation of Divine Truth is another way that God demonstrates His love and care for you. Be encouraged today. Angels are watching over God’s beloved children.