Angels are God’s servants, engaged in special service.
Father God utilizes angels as His supernatural servants within human history. We do not have to be anxious about their angelic jobs and responsibilities because they are under our Father’s orders. Evangelist Billy Graham encapsulates their ambition, “They [angels] are motivated by an inexhaustible love for God and are jealous to see that the will of God in Jesus Christ is fulfilled in us.” (1975, p. 88-89.) Graham appropriately titled his book– Angels: God’s Secret Agents.
Secret agents? I like that imagery. Throughout my life, I have been fascinated by spy stories and clandestine operations. When I sleep, I often dream of being a spy. Actually, the only dreams I ever seem to remember are “spiritual” dreams in which God is trying to speak to me and spy dreams. Perhaps that explains why I enjoyed working as undercover security for a department store before I joined the staff of Valley Fellowship. Maybe it also sheds light on why I value pictures of my daughter as a superhero.
Hebrews 1:14 NIV rhetorically solicits, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” The writer assumes readers will answer: “Yes”!
The word “ministering” is the English translation of the Greek word leitourgikos which carries the idea of being “engaged in special service.” (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, p. 591) The Greek word is more closely akin to worship or cultic service, actions of a “liturgy”. Even our English word “liturgy” finds its roots in the Greek roots of this word. Hebrews 9:21 and 10:11 apply a form of this word to the ministry of OT priests. Hebrews 8:2, 6 relates it to Christ’s priesthood. Hebrews 12:22 mentions myriads of angels in festive gathering. I realize the responsibility of angelic worship is important, but the first chapter of Hebrews highlights:
- the role of angels in ministering to Jesus Christ (1:7) AND
- the ministering spirits’ role specifically for believers (1:14).
Heavenly angels are tasked by our Heaven Father to be “engaged in special service.” I still find myself fixating on that thought – “special service”. When I finish posting, I’m going to youtube Johnny River’s 1966 hit “Secret Agent Man”. Okay, now my mind is flooded with spy movie scenes from 007 flicks, Bourne series, Mission Impossible, Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, Cars 2, and more!
Angels surround us in a generally unseen spiritual realm; that’s cloak-and-dagger stuff. Undercover activity by humans isn’t always good. Thugs covertly employed liars to accuse full-of-God’s-grace-and-power Stephen in Acts chapter 6. Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament says the verb “secretly induced” (Acts 6:11 NASB) includes the idea “to employ a secret agent in one’s place.” While fallen angels, demons, also may secretly plot like Stephen’s opponents, Heavenly angels are under our Heavenly Father’s orders to work for God’s interests, our best interests! We should not be fearful; God’s secret service is on assignment for Him.
The mention of personal angelic assistance by the writer of Hebrews (1:14) must have brought encouragement and comfort to those early believers who were facing severe persecution. Doesn’t the thought of an angelic secret service encourage you?
