What Are Angels?

In Hebrew, angel (Mal’ak) is a job description of one who is dispatched with a message. It’s used 213 times in the Bible.

-111 times as angel(s)
-98 times as messengers
-4 times as ambassadors

This count doesn’t account for Sons of God in the Old Testament or The Divine Council.

Angels, like all spiritual beings, are referred to as Elohim. God is referred to The Elohim. Elohim is a word that describes their main dwelling place. It’s like saying that all animals and humans are earth dwellers or earthlings because it’s where we live.

Sadly, early translators thought Elohim only referred to God. We see examples of this in The Divine Council in Psalm 89. Some Mormons will use this Psalm as an evidence piece that humans become gods. That is false. I will address more about The Divine Council later.

In the Greek, Angels are translated as Aggelos.

ARE ALL SONS OF GOD, ELOHIM?

In the Old Testament, Sons of God (Bene Elohim in Hebrew) are spiritual beings (some refer to them as angels) but in the New Testament, Sons of God refers to believers. We see evidence of this as we read the context of the verses.

The only people who deny this fact are people who reject the supernatural context of the Old Testament. They think these Sons of God in Genesis 6 were human men but that doesn’t explain the offspring who are giants. They also displayed supernatural abilities such as strength, height, and animal like physical characteristics.

If you thought Goliath and his family were just tall, muscular soldiers, think again. There were good reasons why people were deathly afraid of them.

If the Sons of God in Genesis 6 were human men they would have produced normal human offspring. But that’s not what happened. Early writers such as Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Commodianus believed the Sons of God of Genesis were fallen angels.

I push this issue so hard because if we aren’t properly understanding these differences it will affect our understanding of 223 verses in the Bible. That’s a lot of verses to misunderstand.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ANGELS

1) Angels are personal beings
-They have intellect. (Matthew 28:5; 1 Peter 1:12)
-They have emotions. (Job 38:7; Luke 2:13; 15:10)
-They have free will. (Jude 6)

2) Angels are spirit beings
-They aren’t limited to material bodies. (Hebrews 1:14)
-They can only be at one place at one time. (Dan. 9:21-23; 10:10-14)
-They appear in the form of men. (Matthew 1:20)
-Appear in natural sight with human functions. (Gen. 18:1-8; 22:19)
-They are seen by some and not others. (2 Kings 6:15-17)
-They don’t reproduce (unless they are prepared to be banned from Heaven). (Mark 12:25)
-They don’t die. (Luke 20:36)

3) They have physical reality
-They lead people by the hand. (Genesis 19:16)
-They participate in combat. (2 Kings 19:35)
One angel slaughtered 185,000 Syrians in one night.
-They can be entertained unrecognized. (Hebrews 13:2)
We can be in the presence of an angel and not realize it.

4) Angels have attributes in a degree greater than man but less than God
-They have more knowledge of man. (Matthew 24:31; Luke 1:13-16; Matthew 24:36)
-They have more power than Man. (2 Peter 2:11; Acts 5:19)

5) Angels are organized and ranked
-One Archangel, Michael is named. (Jude 9)
-There are chief princes. (Daniel 10:13)
-There are Cherubim. (Genesis 3:22-24)
-There are Seraphim. (Isaiah 6:1-3)
-There are Living Creatures. (Revelation 4)

In Hebrew where the plural is used it means there are a minimum of 3.

MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE ANGEL RANKS

1) The Angel of the Lord.
-The idiom of the Lord Jesus before his birth.

2) Gabriel.
-He’s the Messianic messenger.

3) Michael.
-The military leader on behalf of Israel.

4) Senior Ranks (4 Faces): (Cherubim, Seraphim, et al)

5) Lucifer: ‘The Cherub that covereth’ and his lieutenants.
-Abaddon/Apollyon: The Destroyer
-Gog: The king of locusts

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS

-They continually serve those who will inherit salvation. (Hebrews 1:14)
-They reveal unknown truth. (Daniel 10:14-21; Acts 27:23-26)
-They give personal guidance. (Matthew 1:20-21; Luke 2:8-12)
-They protect you from harm. (Daniel 6:22)
-They deliver us from our enemies. (Acts 5:19; 12:7-11)
-They encourage and strengthen.
Jacob (Genesis 32:1-2)
Daniel (Daniel 8:18; 10:10, 16-19)
Paul (Acts 27:23-24)
Elijah (1 Kings 19:3-8)

-Angels guide us. (Genesis 19:15-17)
-Angels encourage us. (Judges 6:12)
-Angels deliver us. (Acts 12:7)
-Angels enlighten us. (Matthew 2:19-20)
-Angels empower us. (Luke 22:43)
-Angels protect us. (Psalm 91:11-12)

The Divine Council

Have you heard of The Divine Council? There are 7 areas of scripture that refer to the Council.

-Deuteronomy 32:8, 9
-Deuteronomy 43
-Psalm 58:11
-Psalm 82
-Psalm 89
-1 Kings 22:19-23
-Daniel 7

So, who exactly is this Council? First, I want to address the unfortunate theory that the Council are humans. That is not possible when looking at the original Hebrew words used. I will show why below. Given the Hebrew words used in the above-mentioned scripture the Council are spiritual beings. However, I’m not the only one that has put forth this idea. Christians like Dr. Michael Heiser and Chuck Missler have also taught this idea for years.

In Part 1 of the angels series I talked about the word Elohim. As we look at The Divine Council we will see the original Hebrew words being used are Sons of God and Elohim. Understanding the word Elohim is foundational to understanding the supernatural and proper meaning of this scripture. Ancient Israelites understood this, so it’s important we in the 21st Century understand it too, especially if we are to rightly divide the word.

In the screenshots below are 2 sections of Psalm 82 in the Interlinear Bible. I’ve also included 2 screenshots from the concordance which defines what Elohim means and the occurrences in the Bible. The word Elohim describes a being whose primary dwelling place is the spiritual realm. It’s used interchangeably with all spirit beings.

When you see the word Elohim, it’s referring to one of the following:

-Yahweh, the God of Israel (Referenced over 2,000 times)
-The Divine Council Members (Psalm 58:11; Psalm 82; Psalm 89; Deuteronomy 32:8-9; Deuteronomy 43)
-The gods of the nations (1 Kings 11:33)
-Demons (Shedim and are different from the NT demons) (Deuteronomy 32:17)
-The disembodied dead (1 Samuel 28:13)
-Angels (Genesis 35:7)

It’s clear that anytime the word Elohim is used it cannot mean that the text is referring to humans. The Divine Council are divine beings who are set over areas of the world by God. This is why using biblical references like an Interlinear Bible and a Concordance can help us decipher what the text is saying. This is foundational to biblical interpretation. You don’t need to be an ancient Hebrew and Greek scholar to do this. The hard work has already been done for you. You just need to know where to look.

Further, Hebrew words can appear to be the same words in English but have different specific meanings in Hebrew. For instance, the Hebrew word ‘day’ can have many meanings that our English language doesn’t properly translate. This is why each Hebrew and Greek word has a corresponding numerical value so you can go look up what the meaning is. In English we see the word ‘day’ and we think it only means a literal 24-hour period. However, there are numerous Hebrew words for day that have different meanings. This is why looking up the original word being used is so important.

WHY Did God Create The Divine Council?

The Council was created because God wants his family to take part in his plan. God didn’t need to create them because he was unable to do the job himself. He doesn’t need help with anything and honestly could do a perfect job doing so by himself. He enjoys it when his imperfect creation helps him. The Council, like all other Elohim, were created by God. They were created before we were so in essence they are our elders.

When Was The Council created?

The Council was created at the table of the nations in Genesis 11:8, 9. The nations were scattered after Nimrod attempted to usurp God. Deuteronomy 32:8, 9 tells us that God divided the nations according to the number of the Sons of God. As I noted in Part 1, Sons of God in the Old Testament are other Elohim, Angels.

This is a basic overview of The Divine Council and I encourage you to be a Berean and look up these verses on The Divine Council, so you can see it for yourself.