Nearly every Advent season for
several years now I’ve enjoyed reading my way through the book, “O Come All
Ye Faithful”.
A collaborative effort by Joni
Eareckson Tada, John MacArthur, and Robert and Bobbie Wolgemuth, the book
highlights some of the carols of the season with devotionals and a history of
each. I love the music of the season, but I also love the words of these
old hymns of the faith.
One of my favorite, but rarely sung,
Advent songs is, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”. It’s
from one of the stanzas that I took the title for today’s blog:
“Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
That the pow’rs of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.”
What are these angelic ranks
mentioned in the carol?
In Billy Graham’s book “Angels”,
he lists four angelic ranks spoken of in the Bible.
The first is Archangel
The prefix “arch” refers to a
principle or chief or great angel.
Michael, is the only angel
specifically named in the Bible as an archangel.
In Daniel 12:1 Michael is spoken of as the “great prince who protects
God’s people (the Jews)".
Most often when we read about him,
it’s in the context of a battle between him and the forces of darkness.
In Jude 9 he’s contending with the devil over the body of Moses.
In Revelation 12:7-12 Michael is leading the heavenly armies that
battle Satan at the great battle of Armageddon before the return of
Jesus. At the end of the battle he will be victorious and Satan will be
defeated.
In I Thessalonians 4:16 we read that when the Lord returns it will be Michael who
announces His coming:
·
“For the Lord himself will come down
from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the
trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
The 2nd rank is
“angel”. As was mentioned in a previous
blog, there are many, innumerable angels, but only Gabriel is specifically
named in the Bible.
His name means, “God’s hero”, or
“the mighty one”
The Bible often refers to him as, “the
Lord’s messenger”
Whenever we read of him in the
Bible, he’s always bringing good news.
In Daniel 8:15-16, he announces the vision of God for the “end time”.
·
In chapter 9, verse 23, while Daniel
is praying, Gabriel reveals the sequence of events at the end time – including
the return of Jesus.
In the New Testament book of Luke
1:19 – Gabriel appears to Zachariah to
announce the birth of John the Baptist.
In Luke 1:30-31 He appears to Mary to announce the birth of the Messiah,
Jesus.
Do angels and archangels have wings? It’s interesting to note that the Bible doesn’t
mention that either Michael or Gabriel has wings.
·
Commentators speculate that people
probably believe they do because it explains in their minds how angels manage
to move so quickly from one place to another. We don’t know about
archangel or angel wings, but there are ranks of angels that are described in
the Bible as having wings.
The next rank down in angelic
authority – the seraphim.
Seraphim are only mentioned in Isaiah
6:1-6. In this passage Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord:
“I saw the Lord seated on a throne,
high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above Him
were the seraphim, each with 6 wings:
·
with two they covered their faces,
·
with two they covered their feet and
·
with two they were
flying.
And they were calling to one
another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full
of His glory’. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds
shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”
The primary ministry of seraphim as
we read of it here, is to praise the name and the character of God in
heaven. Their ministry relates directly to God because they are
positioned above God’s throne, constantly glorifying Him.
We also see the seraphim cleansing
and purifying the prophet Isaiah in this response to the vision he saw.
Isaiah 6:7
·
“Woe to me!”, Isaiah cried, “I am
ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of
unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty”.
·
Then one of the seraphs flew to me
with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the
altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your
lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
The final rank of angel mentioned
specifically in the Bible are the Cherubim .
Let me ask you a question.
When you hear the word “cherub”, what comes to mind? Chubby babies with
wings, right? Are YOU in for a surprise!
The first time we read about
cherubim is in Genesis 3:24:
·
“After God drove the man out (of the Garden of Eden), he placed on the east side of the
garden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to
the tree of life.”
Okay, so already cherubim aren’t
living up to our image, right? This doesn't sound like a chubby baby with
wings, does it?
In the Old Testament prophetic book
of Ezekiel, chapter 10, the prophet Ezekiel describes cherubim flying
toward the south side of the temple in Jerusalem.
Their movement out of God’s temple
represents the departure of God’s glory because of the sin of the people of
Israel.
Read the following verses and take a
minute to jot down what you learn about cherubim.
·
Ezekiel 10:5 “The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as
far away as the outer court (of
the temple), like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.”
·
Ezekiel 10:8 “Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked
like the hands of a man”
·
Ezekiel 10:9-18
I
saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each
The four looked alike; like a wheel
intersecting a wheel
As they moved, they would go in any
one of the four directions the cherubim faced
Their entire bodies, including their
backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their
four wheels
Each
of the cherubim had four faces; one face was that of a cherub, the second the
face of a man, the third the face of a lion and the fourth the face of an
eagle.
When the cherubim spread their wings
to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side
Admit it, you’ll never think of
cherubim in the same way again!
It’s difficult to understand or even
imagine these last two orders of angels, but one thing we can say about them is
that their primary task has to do with the worship and glorifying of God – with
the seraphim above His throne, and the cherubim beside it.
Another intriguing question about
angels is this: what role do angels play when Christians die?
·
The Apostle Paul calls death the “last
enemy” to be destroyed
Having been with my mom in the weeks
before she died and then walking with my friend Hilda Kohl through some of the
last days of her struggle with Lou Gehrig’s disease – I can testify to
that. Death IS an enemy.
Paul says in I Corinthians 15:55-57 that the sting of death has been removed by the work of
Jesus on the cross, and by His resurrection – a promise that gives us hope of a
resurrection for US as well on the other side of death. We cling to that
promise and it’s a great encouragement!
It’s the getting there that scares
us, doesn't it? It's the process of leaving this life in order to reach the
life to come that keeps us up nights!
It will comfort you to know that
when the time comes, we don’t make that journey alone – the angels will be
there to help us.
In Luke’s gospel, chapter 16, verses
19-26 he contrasts two deaths – that of a beggar named Lazarus with that of a
rich man. The rich man was dressed in regal purple and fine linen and
lived in luxury, but apparently had no time for God. Lazarus, the beggar
and a godly man, laid at the rich man’s gate, covered with sores and longing to
eat what fell from the rich man’s table.
When death, the great equalizer came
for them, we read this:
“the
beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side”
Did you catch that? The angels
were not just WITH Lazarus, they CARRIED him to Abraham’s side!
Even though Lazarus was a lowly
person in this life, it didn’t disqualify him from having an angelic escort
into heaven. But Lazarus wasn't the only one we read of as having been
carried to heaven. So was Jesus!
·
Mark 16:19 (King James Version) reads: “Jesus was carried up into
heaven”
·
Luke 24:51 (KJV) “While (Jesus) blessed (his followers),
he was parted from them and CARRIED UP into heaven.”
·
Acts 1:9 (KJV) “After He said this, (Jesus) was carried up
before their very eyes”
WHY do angels provide this service
for us at the time of our death?
Authors and pastors, Dr. David
Jeremiah, and Dr. Billy Graham, offer similar explanations.
(The idea of an angelic escort into
heaven) may be related to fact that Satan is described as, “the ruler of the
kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). Maybe we have to cross through
the kingdom of the enemy to get from earth to heaven, so the angels provide
comfort for us as we make the journey.
Reading this explanation takes me
back to the carol I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, leading me to an
entirely different look at the verse I quoted earlier.
“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”'
·
Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
·
As the Light of light descendeth,
from the realms of endless day,
·
That the pow’rs of hell may vanish,
as the darkness clears away.
Whenever I read that verse before my
mind’s eye pictured row on row of angels in dress uniform acting as an honor
guard in full salute, as Jesus made his way from the “realms of endless day”
down to the earth.
I no longer think of it that
way. Now I picture the “host of heaven”, archangel, angels,
seraphim and cherubim, a vast multitude of angels, not in dress uniform, but in
battle gear. They form a vanguard, which Webster's defines as "the
part of an army which goes ahead of the main body in an advance"
to make way and escort the Light of Light, Jesus as He breaks through the
darkness of “the ruler of the kingdom of the air”.
One day, the Lord Jesus will
completely vanquish Satan and vanish the darkness of this world. If I
don't live to see that day, then one day the angels will carry me into the
presence of Jesus! What a day that will be!
Here's a question to pique your
curiosity for blog #9: What is it WE know that angels NEVER
will?
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