Angels

Several angels appear in stories throughout the Old Testament. In the earlier books, the angels are described as heavenly beings created by God. As religious beliefs transformed throughout the ages, so too did the view of the angels. There were angels who brought news of death and destruction and others who killed thousands. There were also stories in the Bible about ministering angels who provided protection and comfort, and delivered words of wisdom from God.

ABRAHAM AND SARAH

In Genesis 16 and 21, angels are introduced in an amazingly dramatic scenario that could have come from a Hollywood production. Imagine the following: a young woman, Hagar, became pregnant by an important man with a powerful wife, Sarah, who was infertile. The unfortunate girl was in a most inferior position, lower even than a servant; she was a slave. And it was the wife herself who had presented the girl as a gift—a concubine—to her husband, Abraham.

Sarah was less than pleased to find that the concubine was impregnated with her husband’s seed. In fact, Sarah made Hagar’s life a living hell. When the poor girl could take no more abuse, she ran away. At this time, of course, there were no women’s shelters, only the wilderness, full of wild beasts and all manner of other dangers. And Hagar had no money, though money wouldn’t have helped much in any case.

During her flight, she found a spring on the road to Shur and stopped there to rest and refresh herself. Here she had the first of two encounters with angelic presences, called holy ones by the Jews. According to Genesis 16:7–11, “the angel of the Lord found her . . . and said to her, ‘Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority [for] you are with child, and you shall bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael.’”

Not knowing what else to do, Hagar obeyed the angel and returned to Abraham’s house and gave birth to a boy, naming him Ishmael as she had been directed. Hagar and her son were soon cast out into the desert (Genesis 21:14–19), and Ishmael was dying of thirst. Fearful for her son’s life, Hagar prayed as she had been taught to do; as she did, she heard the voice she had heard earlier:

“‘What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is,’” said the voice of the angel of God, and Hagar took heart hearing this call from heaven.

“Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. And God was with the lad.”

Abraham, too, entertained angels, as we are told in Genesis, but these appeared as ordinary men. They came and sat down to dinner with Abraham and Sarah. As the angels were departing, they informed Sarah that she would bear a child, a son named Isaac, whose descendants would found a great Hebrew nation. It was this startling announcement, considering the circumstances of the aged couple, that made Abraham realize he had been visited by holy ones, or angels.

ISAIAH ON ANGELS

“Anyone who doubts [the grandeur of angels] should read a first-hand description of angels as they were in Old Testament times, such as what Isaiah said of these heavenly creatures:

“‘In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.’”

“Another passage comments that every seraph has four faces . . . There is a Syrian depiction in sculpture of a demon that exactly meets Isaiah’s standards; it dates from the eighth century B.C.E. It has six wings, holds a serpent in each hand, and is terrifying. . . . Some scholars have pointed out that the Hebrew saraph, possibly the origin of the word ‘seraph,’ means ‘serpent.’ Seraphim is translated as ‘burning ones.’ . . . but let us return to Isaiah:

“‘And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! . . . Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.’”

—Emily Hahn, Breath of God

JACOB

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, had a difficult experience with an angel, wrestling with him all night in the dark. He hadn’t a clue who his adversary was, for the angel apparently appeared as an ordinary man without a wing in sight.

As a young man, Jacob had cheated his brother Esau out of his inheritance by deceiving their blind father. He had also tricked his uncle Laban out of all his wealth and possessions, after which he left his family’s settlement. Jacob married twice and fathered twelve sons. Later in life, Jacob decided to return home. After what he’d been up to, he wasn’t quite sure of his welcome, so he set up camp half-a-day’s camel ride from Esau’s encampment and began sending gifts—entire herds of sheep and goats, thirty she-camels for milking, along with their young, twenty female asses and their ten offspring, and forty cows just for good measure. Milk was much appreciated in the desert climate.

I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him; and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.

—PSALM 34:1–7

Even after sending all these elaborate peace offerings, Jacob’s mind was not at rest; he knew he’d done wrong. He feared Esau might kill him when he discovered he was nearby. One night, an angel came. Jacob wrestled with the angel all night long, not knowing who his adversary was. In the end, Jacob prevailed. He then demanded a blessing from the angel, who gave it without ever identifying itself. But Jacob figured out that his struggle had been with a supernatural being, and since he had won, he concluded that all would be well with his brother.

The next day he arranged to meet Esau. He took all of his wives, servants, livestock, and other riches, and traveled to where his brother awaited him. Esau arrived with an armed guard of 450 men, but he offered Jacob peace and forgiveness and professed to be glad to be reunited with his brother.

Early Jews contended that the universe was a hierarchy, with God at the top and other entities radiating downward from Him. They believed that angels constitute the “court of heaven.” In writings they referred to “the angels of God,” and bene Elohim, “God’s sons.”

—JOAN WESTER ANDERSON, WHERE ANGELS WALK

This same Jacob is the one famous for “Jacob’s ladder.” In a vision, he saw a multitude of angels ascending and descending a ladder that reached up to heaven. The Bible does not report whether the angels in Jacob’s vision had wings, but one would presume not, since they were climbing up and down the ladder. None of these angels had any unusual garments or characteristics that would distinguish them from ordinary men. They had no halos (these would be introduced later in medieval art) and wore no “shining garments of the Lord.” They were just working angels in plain clothes and nothing more. Such angel visitations are similar to those reportedly made by the Greek gods to favored mortals. Hermes appeared often as a youthful stranger, showing the way or being helpful in some manner.

Jacob was deeply involved with angelic presences all through his life, and when he reached the end of it, he reviewed his experiences with the holy ones. In wonder he exclaimed, “God . . . has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil.”

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC

One of the most famous biblical stories of angels has to do with Abraham and his son Isaac. One day, Abraham heard the voice of God calling to him through an angel. In Genesis 22:11, we are told, “And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham’ and he said, ‘Here am I.’”

The voice instructed him to sacrifice his son Isaac. It ordered him to take the boy to the top of a remote mountain and slit his throat in the manner of the usual sacrificial lamb and to let his blood run out as an offering to prove to God that Abraham was a true and complete devotee. Giving up that which was most dear to him, his only child, would show God that Abraham’s devotion included complete surrender to God’s will.

Without questioning this heavenly dictum, Abraham made preparations for a sacrifice, sharpening his knife and gathering wood for a fire. Revealing his aims to no one, not even his wife (one can imagine what might have happened if he had revealed to her God’s peculiar message), he took his son and, accompanied by one servant, went off into the wilderness.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO ANGELS’ DUTIES

Isaiah 6:2 speaks of the six-winged seraphim as distinct from cherubim. God is said to be seated above the cherubim in I Samuel 4:4, Psalm 80:1, and Psalm 99:1. However, in Isaiah’s vision, the seraphim stood above God. Evidently, the duties of these two orders differ: Cherubim are the guardians of the throne of God and act as God’s elite corps of ambassadors; seraphim are charged with the ceaseless worship of God, as well as the purification of His other servants.

Leaving the servant at the bottom of the mountain, Abraham went ahead with the boy, who trustingly expected to help his father sacrifice a lamb.

At one point Isaac realized there wasn’t any animal with them and asked, “Father?” to which Abraham answered, as he had to the angel, “Here I am, my son.”

The boy said, “We have the knife and wood for the fire, but there is no lamb.”

“God will provide,” answered Abraham, knowing that God had already provided the sacrificial lamb in the person of his beloved son. At a certain point, Abraham and Isaac built an altar of stone and laid the fire and lit it. When it was going well, Abraham suddenly took hold of the boy and bound him hand and foot. Laying him across the altar, he raised the keen-edged knife in his hand and put it against his son’s throat. As he was about to slice into flesh of his flesh, the angel’s voice stopped him. “Lay not thy hand upon the lad,” commanded the voice. Abraham obeyed, no doubt thankfully, and at that moment, he spotted a sheep with its woolly fleece entangled in the thorns of a bush. He caught it and sacrificed it, offering it up to God in place of his son.

MOSES

For forty years the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, and the all-powerful Pharaoh refused to free them. Moses, desperate for his people to achieve their freedom, declared: “But when we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt” (Numbers 20:16). After having delivered the people of Israel from Egypt and overseen their emancipation from the Pharaoh, the angel did not forsake them. The angel divided the waters of the Red Sea so they could pass through without getting wet. Then when the powerful army of Egypt was in hot pursuit, the “angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night” (Exodus 14:19–20).

ANGEL OF DEATH

The Angel of Death, an agent of destruction, presumably acting under direct orders from God at the time of David, destroyed 90,000 people. On another occasion, in the Assyrian army camp that was arrayed against the Jews, it came along and killed 185,000 of King Sennacherib’s soldiers as he was about to invade Jerusalem. This last was considered to be such a miraculous intervention that it is mentioned at length. Here is one description: “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses” (II Kings 19:35). Not surprisingly, Sennacherib returned home to Nineveh.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ARMY OF SENNACHERIB

DANIEL

Last, but not least, of Old Testament angelic interventions is the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. King Darius, a man who could recognize piety and courage when he saw it, predicted that Daniel’s faith would save him from being eaten. He came to Daniel just before he was to be tossed into the den of the starved lions and said, “Your God whom you constantly serve will Himself deliver you.”

In the morning, apparently somewhat worried about what might have transpired during Daniel’s night with the hungry beast, the king approached the den and called out, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?”

Alive and well, Daniel was able to answer the worried king, saying, “O king, live forever! My God sent His angel [into the den before Daniel got there] and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me” (Daniel 6:16–23).

CHAPTER TWOAngels in the Old Testament