How many angels can you think of who are named in the Bible? More importantly, do you know more about them than just their names? Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah reveals the unique roles of two of the Bible's best-known angels as he continues the series, Angels: Who They Are and How They Help. To introduce the conclusion of his message, Angels, you have heard about.
Here's David.
Well, the Bible is filled with truth about angels, but some of the questions that surface are questions like this: What is their role in God's plan? Are they present? Do they appear? Do they give us personal insight about our work and in our worship?
Well, the Bible doesn't answer any of those things I said specifically, but gives us great, overwhelming principles to help us understand the role and importance of angels in our life. In just a moment, we'll conclude our discussion of angels. You have heard about, but before we do that, let me just remind you that you can get a copy of this book. Book angels, who they are and how they help. It's a two hundred and forty-page softcover book, and it will separate fact from fiction about angels.
It provides an in-depth biblical look at the topic of angels, and you will discover the reality of how angels can draw you closer to God as you sharpen your sensitivity toward their spiritual reality. This is the book we want you to have. It's the resource for the month of November, and how that works is this: if you send a gift of any size to Turning Point, simply ask for the book on angels, and it will be sent to you by return mail. We're delighted to do that, and we look forward to doing it. We're jealous of getting these materials in your hands and making a difference in your life.
Here's part two of angels you've heard about. In the Old Testament, we learn of the seraphim. In fact, in just one passage in all of the Bible, we are told about the angels who go by the name seraphim.
Now, Isaiah, in his vision, saw God seated on His throne in the temple. Flying above God were these astonishing beings called seraphim. The word seraphim literally means burning ones. These angels apparently dwell so close to the presence of God that they burn with holy brilliance, and the Bible describes them like this: they have six wings. Isaiah says, "With two wings, they cover their faces in reverence." This reminds us of the majestic glory of God.
The Bible says that no man has ever seen God and lived, and even the angels have to protect themselves from the brilliance of the glory of God when they're in His presence. What a picture of the reverence and adoring awe that we all should have for our heavenly Father. Isaiah says, "With two wings, the angels cover their face, and with two they cover their feet." This speaks of the reverence of waiting on God for His next direction. Covered feet in the eastern mind denote deep humility, and then the Bible says, "With two wings they did fly." The two wings propel them back and forth above the Lord, and this pictures the speed with which they can carry out the will of God. The seraphim are six-winged creatures.
Not a few students of the Word of God have noted that these creatures, who were created primarily to worship God, have six wings. Four of them are for worship, and two of them are for work. And someone has reminded us that in our day we seem to have reversed the priority. We work twice as hard, and worship. Not very much.
We would do well to emulate the seraphim in our serving of the Lord God.
Now, if you read Isaiah carefully, you will also discover that these seraphim angels have features like humans, like hands and feet and voices. One seraphim carried a burning coal from the altar in his hand and touched it to Isaiah's lips. The voices of the seraphim were so loud, according to Isaiah, that they shook the doorposts in the temple. They call back and forth, announcing the Lord's holy character.
Now, as far as we know, this is the only passage that is clearly about the seraphim. But I want you to look at one additional one in the New Testament, which, in my humble estimation, Certainly must be the seraphim because of the way they are described. Read with me Revelation four six through eight. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal, and in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
And the four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest day or night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." Six wings, like the seraphim in Isaiah, and what is their message? It is the same message as the angels in Isaiah six: "Holy, holy, holy" is the Lord God Almighty. The seraphim. That's all we know in the Bible about this class of angels. Apparently, just for the worship of God around the throne.
And then there's another class of angels that we sometimes read about, and those are the cherubim. Short for that is cherubs, and we know that word quite well. The word cherub means basically to be diligent. And the cherubs are the angels that stand close to God's throne. And I need to tell you, friends, and listen carefully.
They don't even vaguely resemble the pudgy, naked Valentine babies that we usually think of as cherubs. I want you to know that.
Now I wish we had time to read an extended passage about cherubs in Ezekiel chapter one, but it would take far too long. But let me just encourage you to write this down in your notes, and you will be overwhelmed at the information in that chapter concerning the cherubim. And in case you're not sure about this, and in case you don't read it, let me give you a little summary about what the passage says. Charles Dyer, who was a great expositor of the Word of God, has written a little summary about the cherubim, and it's really interesting to listen to his description of these creatures, taken right from the Book of Ezekiel. He says the general appearance of the living beings was somewhat like a man; however, they would never be mistaken for humans.
They each had four faces and four wings.
Now, here's something to remember: How many wings do the seraphim have? Six. How many wings do the cherubim have? Four. They're different creatures.
They're created different by our God of all creativity. And according to Dyer, the Scripture says the cherubim's legs were straight, which implies they were standing upright, but their feet were calf-like instead of human. They were burnished like bronze. Ezekiel. The four cherubim also had human-like hands, having four faces on four sides of their heads.
Can you imagine that? And being connected in a square, they were able to travel in a straight direction and to change direction without ever turning. What an incredible discussion! You know, that's not the angel that I pictured when I first started this series. And I dare say, if a cherub were to walk on this platform, you wouldn't all go ah.
You would fall on your faces as dead men, as most of the people did when they were confronted by the holy angels of God. Ezekiel, after describing all of these creatures with the four faces and the hands, and all of the rest, in Ezekiel ten twenty, he wrote, "This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel by the river Kebah, and I knew they were cherubim, the cherubs." Unlike other angels, the cherubim never convey instructions or messages from God to human beings. They are never directly called angels. And yet, the thing that intrigues me is I've studied this is in the Old Testament far more than the seraphim, who appear only in one passage in Isaiah six. The cherubim are everywhere in the history of Israel.
The cherubim were very prominent in the Old Testament chronology of God's chosen people. For instance, the cherubim first appear in the Old Testament when God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden for their sin. Do you remember that? He evicted them. And in Genesis three twenty three and twenty four, we read: Therefore, the Lord God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken, and He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the Tree of Life.
Someone has reminded us that God. Kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, and put the angels there to teach us that sin and paradise are incompatible. The cherubim are also found in the tabernacle, which Moses was instructed to build for the worship of the people. Do you remember that? When God was giving the instruction to Moses, He gave him detailed instruction not only about the tabernacle itself, but about every single piece of furniture that was to go inside.
And one of the more prominent pieces of furniture was that which is called the Ark of the Covenant. And the ark of the covenant, according to the word of God, was to be decorated with golden cherubim. Listen to these words from Exodus twenty-five, eighteen to twenty: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work, and you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end. And you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it one piece with the mercy seat.
And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat." And their wings, and they shall face one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. In the construction of the tabernacle furniture, the cherubim were central, and they are important because the Bible says that they were covering the mercy seat, where the presence of God was dwelling. God dwelt in the presence of the mercy seat. Psalm ninety-nine one says, "The Lord reigns." Let the people tremble.
He dwells between the cherubim. Let the earth be moved.
Now, not only were the cherubim designed in the furniture of the tabernacle; they were also woven into the very curtains that hung in the tabernacle. They wove the design of the cherubim into the curtains. Exodus 26:1 says, "Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen." Blue and purple and scarlet thread, with artistic designs of cherubim, you shall weave them. When you walked into the tabernacle of Israel, you would not be surprised to see cherubim everywhere, at the ark of the covenant, woven into all of the curtains, as if to remind the people of God that His angelic host ever stood ready at their need. And then, when the tabernacle was done away with, and it was time to build the permanent structure, the wonder of the world called Solomon's Temple was constructed.
And when Solomon's temple was built, the skilled workmen carved the designs of the cherubim into the walls and the doors. And they actually built two huge figures of cherubim and put them in the temple. First Kings tells us about this in an extended passage. It says, "Inside the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high." One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits. Ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.
Get a picture of this now. And the other cherub was ten cubits. Both cherubim were of the same size and shape. And the height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub. And then he set the cherubim inside the inner room, and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall.
And the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. Do you get the picture? It was a huge, impressive reminder to the people of God of the angelic presence in their midst—the seraphim and the cherubim. The Bible teaches about them, but you know, in the Scripture, there are some angels whose names we know, and I want to talk to you about a couple of them. First of all, I want to tell you about Michael, Michael, the angel.
Michael is the only archangel mentioned by name in the Bible. In fact, most scholars believe that he is really the only archangel who exists. That he stands at the head of all the angels. That the term archangel. Which occurs only twice in the New Testament, always occurs in the singular, which some people believe means that Michael was the only archangel and is the only archangel.
Jude nine tells us about him. Jude says, "Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'" One passage in the Old Testament. Refers to Michael as one of the chief princes. Daniel 10:13 says, "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the king of Persia." Michael is often seen in the scripture as the defender of Israel, the champion of the people of God. Daniel twelve one says, "At that time, Michael shall stand up, that great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people." Michael was a defender of the people of God.
Now, having gone through the scriptures very quickly, let me just tell you that in all the writings of all of the religions that give any lip service to angelic beings at all, Michael is by far the most prominent of all the angels. He is embraced not only by Christianity and by Judaism, but also by the Islamic faith. He ranks as the greatest of all angels. And Billy Graham, in his book on angels, calls him the prime minister in God's administration. Of the universe, the Jews, for instance, believe it was Michael who slew that entire Syrian army on that night when all those men died.
And in some of their legend and folklore, the Jewish people say that it was Michael who grabbed hold of Abraham's arm as he was about to kill his son Isaac and stayed him from doing that.
Now, there's no evidence of that in the Scripture, but that gives you some idea of the image that the Jewish people have of this angel.
Now let me just bring this to where we are. Did you know that the next event on the prophetic calendar for all of us who are Christians is the rapture of the church? And if Michael is the only archangel, then it's going to be his voice that we hear. When the Lord Jesus comes back for us all, for it says to us very clearly in First Thessalonians four sixteen, for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Michael's voice.
And Michael and his angels are going to be locked in a titanic struggle of the universe at the end of the conflict of ages. It's going to mark the defeat of Satan and all the forces of darkness, and Michael's going to be one of the leaders in that charge. Scripture tells us that Michael will finally be victorious in the battle, and hell will tremble and heaven will rejoice and celebrate. Revelation twelve seven and eight says it this way: and war broke out in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. Who is the dragon class?
That's Satan. That's the enemy. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. Isn't it wonderful to know that Michael is an undefeated warrior? He is a champion in behalf of God.
Well, that's Michael, but there's one other angel I want to talk to you about for just a moment. Just give you a little information to intrigue you and get you to know a little bit about these angels we've heard about. And of course, his name is Gabriel. We usually associate Gabriel with blowing of a horn, but the only reason I can find that in the Scripture is that Gabriel was God's great messenger angel. In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Gabriel is the chief of the angelic guards of Paradise.
And the word Gabriel means the mighty one of God. Luke calls Gabriel the angel of the Lord, and Gabriel describes himself in Luke as the one who stands in the presence of God.
Now I need to tell you something that's very interesting about him. He appears four times in the Bible, and every time he shows up, it's so that he can bring good news. Wouldn't you like to have a job like that? You know, if you're going to get chosen in the angelic hierarchy over here, get a job description. I'd sign up for that one.
I'd like to have Gabriel's job. Wherever you go, all you have to do is tell people good news. The first time he appears is in the Old Testament book of Daniel, and it's a terrible setting in many respects because the people of God have been in captivity for 70 years. And Daniel the prophet begins to read what Jeremiah wrote about the captivity. You remember that story?
How he was reading Jeremiah? I think in his devotions one day. And he read that Jeremiah said that the people of God were going to be captives for seventy years. And when Daniel read that, he began to pray immediately. He began to pray, "Oh God, you said it only be seventy years, and so let it be seventy years." And as he was praying, according to Daniel nine, God dispatched an angel to him, and that angel came to confirm to Daniel what Jeremiah had said.
And in Daniel nine twenty one, we read, "Yes, while I was speaking in prayer." The man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.
So God sent Gabriel to tell Daniel the good news concerning His plan for the people of Israel. Five hundred years later, this is hard to believe when you talk about any one person. But remember, the angels don't age; they're immortal. They were created with adult age, and they don't ever change.
Well, five hundred years later, Gabriel shows up to announce to Zacharias the birth of John the Baptist. We read about it in Luke chapter one, verses eighteen and nineteen. And Zacharias said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years." And the angel answered and said to him, "Here's how you shall know: I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings." So Gabriel announced the birth of John the Baptist. But you know the greatest assignment that any angel has ever had in the history of angelic endeavor.
Was the day God called Gabriel into the throne room of glory, and He said, "We're about to initiate the program of redemption, and Gabriel, I want you to go down to Earth and tell a young teenage girl by the name of Mary." How I have chosen her to fit into my plan, and Luke one twenty six and twenty seven says, and in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, and to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. It appears from the information in the Bible that just like in our organizational plans in churches and in businesses. Everyone has a certain job to do. Everyone has a certain thing to perform. Michael was God's warring angel, God's fighting angel, God's intervening angel, and Gabriel was God's announcing and preaching angel, and each of them function according to the plan of God.
Whatever else you may take away from this lesson, and this is the most technical one we will have in this series, I just wanted to get this foundation down so you know all these terms and know all these angels. Whatever else you take away from this, I hope you will remember this: men and women, our God is a God of order and organization. The world in which we live is a world of order. The cell structure. All of the species, all of the structure of this world, designed to show us that there is a God in heaven who is in charge, and He is a God of design and symmetry and order and organization.
You know, sometimes in churches, and this just really gets to me.
Sometimes in churches, people say there shouldn't be any organization, and what happens is. Chaos. If you want to know the truth, have you been in services like that where people just sort of let it happen? I don't know that there's any great award to be won for trying to be as totally disorganized as we can be when we serve a God of order and organization. And that characteristic of God is not only reflected in the angelic realm, but if you study the Scripture, you will discover God has a plan of structure for the church.
God has a plan of structure for the family. God has a plan of structure for the world in which we live, and for our culture and for our society. Read the Bible, and you will come back with a great appreciation that the God we serve is a God of order and organization and symmetry and design. He is an awesome, great God, and the angelic hosts illustrate that with great, great power. God is.
Not only a God of order and organization, but He is that men and women, so that He can be able and prepared to respond to every need that we have. Isn't that something? There seems to be in the Scripture great evidence for the fact that there are angelic beings who watch over various areas of the world, and what that means to me is that when I pray, and I ask God. For help, if God chooses to use an angel to intervene, He has the system all in place to do whatever He needs to do. It can immediately happen.
It doesn't take a week of conferences to figure out how to get it done. God has set His angels in place to be here for us when we need them. God can answer our prayers without His angels. He doesn't need an angel to respond to our need, but what a thrilling and incredible thought it is to know that the innumerable angels of the vast angelic host stand ready at the bidding of our commander-in-chief, and if we pray, God can deploy His angels in our behalf. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you for listening today. Tomorrow we're going to tackle one of the interesting questions that come up among angels: Are there guardian angels?
Does every Christian have a specific angel assigned to him while he walks on this earth? Maybe you've answered that question for yourself, but you have the Bible's answer. We'll get that tomorrow as we open our Bibles together. I have in my hands. The materials for this series, first of all, the book on angels, which is available to you this month for a gift of any size to Turning Point, and the compatible study guide that goes with it, 140 pages of notes, outlines, questions.
Take you further down the road of every chapter and help you really put this material in your heart. If you send a gift of any size to Turning Point, simply ask for the book on angels and it will be sent to you by return mail. Why not do that today while you're thinking about it? We'll see you tomorrow. Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor Dr.
David Jeremiah. Drop us a note to let us know how God is using this ministry in your life. Write to Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. Visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org/radio, or calling eight hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three.
Ask for your copy of David's book, Angels: Who They Are and How They Help. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the Free Turning Point mobile app to instantly access our content. Search the App Store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries. Visit DavidJeremiah dot org slash radio for details.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series "Angels: Who They Are and How They Help" here on Turning Point.
