Introduction
Angels are a common feature of many Christmas decorations
and cards. They are often pictured rather sentimentally, as golden haired
children, or shining, gentle beings wafting about in clouds of light. The
angels we find in the Bible, though, are far more varied and, dare I say it,
interesting. In this series of Advent readings we will meet angels who would
probably terrify us if we met them (there is a reason why so many angelic
messages start “do not fear”!)
About Angels
A great deal has been written about the development of Biblical
ideas about angels – far too much to touch on here. At the time the Bible was
written, however, it was taken for granted that the world was populated by
divine beings of one sort or another. Some faiths believed in a whole host of Gods
and Goddesses, but for the Jews, who held firmly to the belief that there was
just one God, angels were important as they symbolised God’s presence with
people and spoke his messages to them. Sometimes, especially in the Old
Testament, writers flip between talking about the voices of angels and the
voice of God in the course of a story. For example, in the story of Moses and
the Burning Bush, the writer starts off by saying that “the angel of the Lord”
spoke to Moses, but gradually it becomes clear that it is God himself who is
speaking. The point is, though, that the angels only say what God has told them
to say, so to hear from an angel is the same thing as hearing from God. The
word “angel” is derived from “angelos”, which is the normal Greek word
for a messenger of any kind.
The idea of angels developed slowly through the course of
the period covered by the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament), so we
can’t always expect to find a consistent picture, but by the time of Jesus,
there were well-developed ideas of different ranks and orders of angelic beings
– cherubim and seraphim, named archangels like Michael and Gabriel, each with
their own separate functions and positions. Some of these ideas were almost
certainly shared with or borrowed from other cultures and traditions. However,
the important thing is that stories about angels remind us that the God that
Christians and Jews worship is a God who loves us, protects us and wants to
communicate with us. Whether we believe literally in these creatures or not, we
have a God who cares enough about his creation to want to be in touch with it
and present in it.
Angels in the New
Testament
Angels are mentioned in the New Testament quite often, but
it is noticeable that no angels appear during the time of the ministry of
Jesus. There are angels at his birth, angels ministering to him in the desert
before he begins his ministry and angels announcing his resurrection, but
during his ministry there is no need for angels, as people can meet God in him.
During this series of readings we will be meeting angels who
minister in various different ways. We will hear stories about worshipping
angels, warrior angels, guardian angels and herald angels. (There aren’t equal
numbers of these different categories – it depended on the number of stories I
could find about each!)
What might God say to us through the angels this Advent? The
questions at the end of each day’s reflection might help you to find out. You
can think about them on your own, or discuss them with others.
·
Look out
for any Christmas cards you receive this Advent that have angels on them. What
do you think the artist who created them might have thought about angels?
