The first reference comes, not from our historian Matthew, but from the Devil, in the second temptation. This is not my primary text, but there are a couple of interesting suggestions here. “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.” The Devil, knowing far more about the spirit world than we do, affirms the existence of angels. To the unbeliever this may not mean anything, but to those who believe it is so obvious as to be invisible. That is a strange and funny phenomenon in life – we often don’t recognize things which we see over and over again. During the past few weeks, since we started reading Matthew 4, have any of us said to ourselves: “Satan is admitting the existence of angels?” I doubt it – at least I haven’t. We know that angels exist, so we aren’t surprised when others, even if it’s the Devil, affirms that fact. Liberal, heretical Sadducees may deny the existence of angels, including Satan, but we know otherwise.
Something else, which we may have over looked, is just a little pronoun – “his.” Satan is the captain of an evil army of angels – fallen angels. When he rebelled against Jehovah, there were millions of others who pledged their allegiance to Lucifer. In the course of his temptation of Christ, Satan referred to the angels which remained faithful to God. “Cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.” The Devil seems to acknowledge that these angels are obedient only to the commands of God. He also shows us that they are capable of doing difficult things, like catching a man falling 400 feet and keeping him from stubbing his toe on a rock. These things are so instilled in me, that in all our earlier meditations, they never even came to my mind.
Now let’s try to glean an application or twp from those angels who later came to minister to Christ.
But as is illustrated by Jesus’ temptation, there are things that those angels cannot do. None of them, not Gabriel, not Michael, can step in and face the Devil on Jesus’ behalf. And those things which are required of you and me, are not responsibilities that we can delegate to angels. Probably the very least angel in the host of God could preach this message better than I can, but that is not going to happen. I don’t know if they smile at my ignorance or grimace in pain, but they have no command to correct my errors or to strengthen my arguments. Furthermore, when we are tempted to sin, as our Lord Jesus was, no angel is going to stand between us and the enemy, interrupting the assault. It wasn’t until Satan departed that the angels of God came to minister to the needs of Christ that day.
That doesn’t mean that when we are faced with important decisions, or when we are tempted, we shouldn’t pray, asking God for strength or wisdom. And it doesn’t mean that the Lord might not give some angel orders to assist us in some way. But no angel is going to take over for us, doing what only we can do.
And of course, it goes without saying that we shouldn’t even think about directly calling for angelic help. They are not our servants, even though they may serve us. They are God’s servants, and they do His bidding – His bidding alone. The foolish man who prays to an angel, is quite likely to get angelic help, but it will not be an angel of God. If he gets help at all, it will be demonic help, dressed in the clothing of an angel of light.
But John Gill in his usual dogmatic fashion says that they came in physical, human form as we sometimes see them in the Old Testament. While it is true that they did come to Daniel, and others in the human shape and appearance, it must be remembered that would not have been necessary in this case, because Christ Jesus was no mere man. Christ wouldn’t have been surprised or disturbed no matter how that angelic help arrived. And yet, the Son of God was living in human form himself. His temptations were in some ways physical, and His fasting and hunger were physical and real. So I’m not going to quarrel with Gill in saying that this angelic visitation was physical, visual and real.
I wonder who these angels were and how many of there were there? Were there archangels there that day? Were Michael and Gabriel there, or were lesser angels given the privilege of serving our Saviour?
And how many angels were there that evening? Do you remember what Christ said when Peter was trying to defend Him with his sword? “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” At times in Roman history a legion might have been as many as 6,826 men and horses – 82,000 angels. That would have been a lot of help. In Revelation we are given a glimpse of the throne room of Jehovah. “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” That is an incalculable number of angels – a myriad times a myriad and thousands of thousands.
There could have been a billion angels there to help the Lord, but that would have been too many. Suffice it to say that there were enough present to meet the Saviour’s needs.
I think that they met some of His physical needs. The Lord Jesus, in His humanity, needed to eat, and so they fed Him. An ordinary person who hasn’t eaten solid food for six weeks cannot sit down to a steak dinner. So what did they feed him? Soup? Chowder? Oatmeal? Was it manna? Perhaps the Lord needed a bath or shower; I know that I’d need one after spending that time with Satan. Did those angels carry Jesus back to Israel after all this transcontinental air travel?
There was probably spiritual and emotional ministration as well, although we can’t be sure how much of that sort of thing the incarnate Son of God would need. Did they in some way comfort Him? I know that it is not the same thing for us as it was for Christ that evening…. But what was the angel’s most common greeting when coming to minister to the average human? They usually came with the comforting words – “Fear not.” Did they need to calm Jesus, or was He as cool and collected as His language seem to indicate? Did they make a place for Him to rest and then back away and to watch Him sleep? Did they keep the wild beasts from coming to disturb Him?
All that we have are questions, without a single definite answer.
In Hebrews, Paul makes an important and revealing statement about angels. “To which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” We see that sort of thing from time to time, but perhaps it is there more often and we can’t recognize it.
Have you ever thought about the fact that Elijah had a temptation and victory similar to that of Christ Jesus? On Mount Carmel the Devil, through his false prophets battled the prophet of God. Elijah was initially and outwardly victorious, routing the enemy and stirring the hearts of Israel. But in the hours that followed, he was so physically and spiritually drained that he collapsed. At that point the Lord sent an angel who ministered unto him. “Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.”
Angels are the servants of God, but their service is sometimes directed toward God’s saints. Zachariah the father of the Baptist, was visited by an angel. Daniel was strengthened by angels. “And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.” Cornelius was visited by an angel. Peter was assisted several times and was even released from prison by a ministering angel. On more than one occasion Paul was strengthened by angels. For example, in the storm which drove their ship onto the Island of Melta, an angel visited Paul. He relayed to the crew what it was that he said, “There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
Angels are the servants of God, but their service is sometimes directed toward God’s saints. And that makes us wonder how many times that even we have been visited by angels without our knowing. Sometimes they have been there to comfort, strengthen and keep us. And it appears that sometimes they have just been passing through on their way to help someone else. Paul exhorted us in Hebrews 13 to act like Christians. “Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”
I’ll close with an implication which is contained in Paul’s exhortation. Angels may be different from us in nature, wisdom, knowledge and strength. But they are exactly what we are supposed to be in service and devotion. Doesn’t Paul tell us to be ministering people just as angels are ministering spirits?
It’s as ministering spirits that we see God’s angels here in Matthew 4.