ANGELIC MINISTRY
[p. 65] ANGELIC MINISTRY
Luke 1:8-12; Luke 1:19; Luke 1:26-33; Daniel 8: 15 - 17; Daniel 9: 20 - 25
I wish to speak this evening about angelic ministry, although in Scripture much evidently is held back as to angels, and we are warned against the worship of angels, or as to them, enquiring into what we have not seen, angels themselves refusing expressly to be worshipped.
Still, Scripture has much to say about them. They existed before man, and evidently before the earth, for Jehovah tells Job that the sons of God — obviously referring to angels — shouted for joy as the foundation of the earth was laid. They are not to be regarded as being at a great distance from us and unknowable by us, for in the epistle to the Hebrews we are enjoined to use hospitality, and some, it is said, entertained angels unawares, implying that it was a great honour. We know that saints of old entertained them, Abraham, for instance, and Lot; Manoah and his wife, too, and others; so that they are capable of communicating with the saints, or christians, being sons of God themselves, they have some affinity with us as sons of God. Then we know that, as to the assemblies, Christ sent His angel to testify the book of Revelation to His bondman John. And later He says He sent His angel, without mentioning John: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify ... these things”, so we should understand something of angelic communication.
Moreover, they are said to be in the heavenly city in which we have part. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed there, and twelve angels are at the gates. If we make a present application, they are not far away from us in an administrative [p. 66] sense, and then we are told in a very comprehensive manner that God has made His angels spirits and that they are sent out for ministry, sent out to minister to those who are heirs of salvation; so that we are attended by them. If we do not understand them, then we have scarcely appropriated much that God has provided for us. You will understand that I am not speaking of them abstractly, or as by themselves, but in the sense in which they are introduced in Scripture as having part in the service of God and in the testimony of God, and as I said, attending every day upon those who are heirs of salvation.
We see them first formally attending a rebellious person, Hagar, but she was of the household of faith, employed in it, and therefore came under the notice and service of angels. Any such as she, who may be rebellious, for she fled from her mistress, would do well to take note that angels may be attending them, for although we turn aside as chafed, or fretted, or in self-will, the ministrations of God follow us, specially by the hands of angels. They had a great deal to do in the Old Testament, even the law being given through the service of angels, and in that connection we are taught that they represent what is mysterious. Christians ought to be initiated in all mysteries, and we should learn that mysteries belong to us. We read of the mystery of the seven stars which the Lord revealed to John, the seven stars which He held in His right hand being the seven angels of the assemblies, but it was mysterious. If the truth be known, every christian had part in that mystery as representative of the whole, for these angels are in the Lord’s hands, He holds them. First it says He holds them, and then that He has them. They are mysterious, inclusive of all that forms the assembly, for it is a question of [p. 67] responsibility, representation in responsibility, and anyone who elects himself out of that brings his christianity into discredit and doubt. I mention that, so that we may see how this thought of angelic ministry is interwoven with christianity as well as with the dispensation of law. And in that connection the thought is peculiarly mysterious; we have records of repeated angelic services, the persons serving speaking as God Himself in several instances, so that in various ways they represent divine attributes, and even the divine presence in a very concrete way.
Three men came to Abraham, two were angels; they visited Lot later, but as coming to Abraham they are mentioned as men. Indeed, it is doubtful whether men could be in communication with these beings intelligently, save as they appear in that way, that is, in some form intelligible and knowable by us, for we are limited.
This brings me to Gabriel who is called a man, “The man Gabriel”. He represents what I have been saying in a very remarkable way. Again I would say, I am not seeking to bring the matter before you in any academic way, or treating it by itself, but it is a question of what the angels bring to us of God, the various attributes and features of the blessed God that are represented in them. As I said before, they are not far away, because they are attending us, and particularly in Gabriel’s service. He and Michael are the only ones called by name. No doubt each angel is named, as each star is named, but we have these two, one of them is called an archangel, and Gabriel is mentioned by name, and he is evidently a being of rank, for he said to Zacharias, “I am Gabriel, who stand before God” (Luke 1: 19).
[p. 68] Now I want to dwell on Gabriel, and that is what I have in mind in making all these remarks. He it is that is spoken of in all the passages read, and he evidently represents the priestly side of angelic ministry. Their services most generally correspond with our own, all divine service being expressed in some way or other in the Lord Jesus. Of these two angels specified by name, the one represents military service, that is Michael, and the other priestly service, both seen perfectly in Christ, who is “head of all principality and authority”, including angels. Every function and service from God is expressed in Christ, and we love to see it, whether it is expressed directly in Him personally, or in the saints here, or in the angels, it is the same thing. There is instruction in the variety of persons through whom the services come. God has pleasure in the services in whomsoever they may be.
In coming to Gabriel we see him here in the holy place, showing what latitude these beings have, and yet they are subordinated to man. We christians, it is said, shall judge angels. A wonderful thought. We are to judge the world, too. But it is very remarkable that we are to judge angels. We shall have to say to them, and that is another reason why we should be conversant with what Scripture teaches as to them. Angels as a whole, even those fallen, are subordinate to man, Christ being Head of all principality and power as Man. He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, but He is crowned with glory and honour — far beyond angels, indeed, He has gone far beyond all the heavens, showing His deity. He is above the angels, in fact He speaks of them as His own, which is another indication, by the way, of His deity. We could not think of Paul saying, “I ... have sent mine angel”, although he did send a representative in Timothy, in some sense like an angel, but Jesus says, “I ... have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”. The angels are God’s and Christ regards them as His, and He uses them.
I hope no one will think I am enlarging unduly on this point, because of what I have said, but they are not far from us, and they have to do with all that is current at the present time in a wonderful way. Everything is being regulated under God on account of the saints, “those who shall inherit salvation”. Here we have a priestly angel, one who has liberty to appear at the right of the altar of incense, which is in the priestly sanctuary of the temple. I present him thus so that we may see how, in the most spiritual things, we need this angelic service, for our bodies may limit us in the most sacred relations with God. The Lord Jesus Himself had the ministration of angels at the most critical time, an angel ministering to Him in Gethsemane. They minister to us, too, and we constantly need them, for our very bodily limitations interfere with us in the most sacred and spiritual features of the service of God. Here we are on high ground, for the angel has in mind one who is to make way for Christ; he is concerned about him who is to thus serve the Lord Jesus, to make His paths straight. So Gabriel is here at the right hand of the altar of incense as if he were ready to make effective the whole position.
The position was that Zacharias was offering incense, doing it well, as far as the natural eye could see. The people outside were praying; things appeared to be in order, yet there is unbelief in the whole position, and Gabriel is going to bring it out, under God. How we may be engaged in the most orderly way in the service of God, both within and without, and yet unbelief mark the whole position! Gabriel’s service here is to bring [p. 70] that out, not that it is the stated service, but it brings it out in result; the true state of things is brought to light. That is to say, Zacharias, although serving as priest and offering incense, doing it in order externally, is not in the exercise of faith, — for without faith it is impossible to please God, but the angel is here to help what is going on, not to set it aside. He stood at the right of the altar of incense. You can see therefore how these great beings excel in strength, and how they are entirely amenable to the will of God, and ready to do what is needed. Here he is at the right of the altar of incense ready to make effective what was apparent. The unbelief is brought out, Zacharias is exposed, and is caused to be dumb for a season; but his mouth is opened later, and he praises God, thus the angel’s ministry is a perfect success. Zacharias is humbled, Elizabeth is humbled too, but at the end they are seen as two priests. Zacharias and Elizabeth at the end of the chapter are praising God in a truly spiritual way.
So Gabriel says, “I am Gabriel”. Why did he say that? To bring out the service entrusted to him and the great place he had in the service of God, as if Zacharias were to understand that an immediate representative of God was there. He stood before God, as an active servant ready to do His behests. We have to attend to the success of everything — it is the success of things that stimulates and encourages, and the success in the incoming of Gabriel is that Zacharias and Elizabeth become worshippers in the true sense, as they never had been before, as seen at the end of Luke 1.
You will understand that we should make room for angelic service in whatever form it may appear. Some one may say he does not understand. Well, as we consider what Scripture says, the Lord gives us understanding. Every reference to angels in the [p. 71] Bible is for us and we are to understand that. If they serve others why not us? Are we not in need? It is needful, therefore, for all unacquainted with this subject to look into it prayerfully.
In the next paragraph in this chapter, we have Gabriel formally called by his name, and going to Nazareth to visit Mary, and understanding the position. The greatest thing is in mind. It has often been remarked that if an angel were told to sweep a crossing, he would do it. Whatever is needed in the will of God, the angels will do as directed, and this is characteristic of them. Now Gabriel is entrusted with the greatest message — informing Mary of the incarnation, that a divine Person is about to become a Man. We are to understand that all these mighty beings are available for us in the greatest of our transactions, and in drawing near, this priestly angel — in fact he is called a man — sympathetically explains. How sympathetic he is with Mary! “Hail, thou favoured one! the Lord is with thee”. What a word that is! how assuring! The greatest transaction is in mind, a divine transaction, but still she has to do with it, for Isaiah says, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7: 14). How accredited she is in that remarkable scripture! And now Gabriel is before her, he has come to her; he goes in and says, “Hail, thou favoured one! the Lord is with thee”. We need such stimulating words from priestly lips, sympathetic lips, as great matters are before us. It is a poor thing for any of us if he has not had a great matter to attend to. Christians are called into the greatest matters, and God would have us to understand their greatness, and He would have us to understand how to deal with them, and serve in them.
This was the greatest of all transactions in what it involved, the incarnation, but Mary has to do [p. 72] with it. A poor person in Nazareth, yet heaven takes her into account, one of its dignitaries visits her, enters in unto her and greets her in the words mentioned above. Then he tells her the great and glorious story of how she is to be honoured. “Blessed art thou amongst women”, he says; and, “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God; and behold, thou shalt conceive in the womb and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus”.
I am not going to occupy you with Michael by himself, but the facts recorded as to him bear on us, as to whether we understand that the great matters we are called into require angelic services. Of course, all services are under Christ: Michael’s, and Gabriel’s, and the services of every angel are under Christ. It is a question of what He is doing. The Spirit of God brings it home to us. I am not seeking to make ourselves great in our own minds in the flesh, we are unfit for any place at all before God as in the flesh, but think of what we are by the Spirit. In the chapter I have been calling attention to, Luke 1, it is said of the Lord: “He shall be great”. It is not the greatness of a Simon, who gave out that he was great, but what enters into the incarnation is the greatness of Christ, the greatness of man in Christ. The greatness of man is involved, and as we understand that we have to do with great things, we become great persons in that sense. We are stimulated and encouraged by priestly service, as we see in Gabriel’s communication to Mary. Mary would understand her great blessedness later when she was with the Lord. A certain woman said to the Lord, “Blessed is the womb that has borne thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked”, but He said, “Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it”. That is what christians are characteristically, and the blessing lies in that, so that the Lord through Gabriel, through a priestly [p. 73] minister, encourages us as to our blessedness, as the Lord also said, “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” (Matthew 13: 16).
Later on, the Lord met His lovers as He arose, and said, “All hail”. He greets those who love Him and gives us to understand how great we are, and that we are persons called out for great things. It stimulates us to undertake and begin things in a spiritual way in the disallowance of the flesh. Mary says beautifully at the end, “Behold the bondmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to thy word”. She is subject, and that is what characterises, in moral greatness, those who are called into the great things of christianity.
Now I come to Daniel to show how angelic service gives us understanding. It is not that angels are the teachers, but we see here how the principle of giving understanding is set out in Gabriel, who is called a man. It is said “the Lord will give thee understanding in all things” (2 Timothy 2: 7). That is the point. Daniel is greatly concerned about the vision of the great empire before him. These matters are of great importance just now, and brethren should understand them as seen in the book of Daniel. He is particularly concerned about the little horn, which became so great, antichrist in character. And someone with a man’s voice speaks and says, “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision”. You see how in answer to an inquiry of a soul as to these matters, understanding is given (Daniel 8: 15 - 17). Gabriel is a great personage, but subservient to a human voice, which says, “Make this man to understand”. In the verse read it says, “I Daniel had seen the vision”. Let us take that in; we are prone to overlook important truths brought before us, and God is bringing things before us at the present time in view of the end. We have a word in Revelation 13: 18, “He that has understanding [p. 74] let him count the number of the beast”. That is said to all the assemblies, it is not for the future only, but for the present. God would call our attention to what is current in a spiritual way, so that we might understand. Daniel is greatly concerned about what he sees, and a man stands before him and says in a man’s voice, “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision”. Why should I not understand? Here is a human voice speaking to a man telling him in a most imperative way to give Daniel understanding. It is a great personage who speaks, evidently greater than Gabriel.
Then Daniel prays. He gets this part of his instruction and the next chapter shows what prayer is in these matters. In the ninth chapter, Daniel is not concerned about the empire of the beast. His book affords great instruction as to these matters, but he is now concerned in his prayer as to the time of the complete fulfilment of the divine counsels in regard to Jerusalem and God’s people. Heaven was pleased with that. God is looking for prayers of this kind. What do these things mean that are transpiring? Has Scripture anything to say to us? Is there a voice to us? When will be the time of the end? We sometimes hear people speaking platitudes, that the Lord will come shortly, whereas there is no evidence of faith in the remarks. If we speak of the Lord’s coming, it is because we love it, we are those who love His appearing. It is not simply the belief, but we love His appearing. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. The Lord’s appearing and entering into His rights is the idea. He has not yet come, He is still rejected; we show His death till He come, but He will come. Daniel wanted to know, having understood certain things by books; certain dates were given. We have no dates to go by, but we have promises to go by, and the Lord says the Father has reserved all as to times and [p. 75] seasons in His own authority. Even the Son does not know, a remarkable word which we ought to understand, that the Lord has taken a subservient place in the economy of God, and everything is in the Father’s hands.
Hebrews 10: 37 says, “He that comes will come, and will not delay”. Why should I be talking about His tarrying? He is not tarrying, He will not tarry a second when the moment comes. It is a question of the Father’s will. The days are in His authority, and when the fixed day arrives, the Lord will come. For these things we do well to keep the Scripture before us. So, too, in regard to the falling asleep of the saints. Christians sometimes say ‘Gone to heaven;’ ‘Going home;’ but we should keep to Scripture, and such expressions go somewhat beyond Scripture. We add human words and thoughts when we should be using scriptural words and thoughts. Daniel had dates; he read Jeremiah, and in reading the Scriptures he got the mind of God. That will regulate our minds, feelings, and hopes accurately. So he prays, and confesses his sins, being a contrite, humble man. He did not say his fathers only had sinned, he also had sinned. He says, “Whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God; whilst I was yet speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to make thee skilful of understanding”. How beautiful this is! The Lord can do such things for us now; it is a priestly matter. Then Gabriel addresses Daniel in the same spirit as used in addressing Mary, calling him by name, saying “Thou art one greatly beloved”.
[p. 76] How fully in the thing he was! What a man was Daniel in the regard of heaven! And so it says, “I am now come forth to make thee skilful of understanding”. Not only was he to understand, but to be made “skilful of understanding”. Then he says, “At the beginning of thy supplications the word went forth, and I am come to declare it; for thou art one greatly beloved”. What can be more precious than a word like this? The Lord has His own way of telling us, as we do His will, that He is pleased with us. He gives us to understand that we are highly regarded by Him, “greatly beloved”.
Then the angel proceeds, saying, “Seventy weeks are apportioned out upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make expiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal the vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies”. What a comforting word that is! — seventy weeks and all this is to come to pass. What strengthening of heart! We are not given dates like Daniel, as the Lord Himself said, Acts 1: 7 “It is not yours to know times or seasons, which the Father has placed in his own authority; but ye will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you”. It is for us to move in spiritual power, and if we do not get literal dates we get inklings of what is near at hand. The Lord gives us to understand things that indicate the finish. We do not assert things emphatically, but we get assurances, we get the sense of the position, we get to understand by the Spirit how the matter is, and we are restful. It is a question of the sensibilities of the assembly. The Lord stresses the Spirit as over against times and seasons. For us it is a question of the Spirit, everything lies in Him, “he shall guide you into all the truth”. Note particularly what Scripture says. The Father has kept the times and seasons in His [p. 77] own authority. Paul informs us in detail as to the Lord’s coming, and we say to Him with the Spirit, “Come”.
The special point in Daniel 9 is the finish of things, also how we get understanding, and become skilful in understanding. Today, as we are near the Lord, we get impressions as to His coming; and we put things together spiritually, so that we have assurance and can convey assurance to others. Thus we are kept steady and confident, and thus take our part in the service and testimony of God.