Angels
This week's serving of homemade theology is on Hebrews 1:13-14:
People sometimes get too caught up in the supernatural aspects of God's creation. They immerse themselves in arguments over angels, and demons, and various things that probably were kept from our daily physical world for a good reason. Sometimes they take the science that God gave us for dominion over our natural world, and they try to use it on the supernatural. Other times, they mistake the angelic messengers of God for God himself, and worship the angels. (We do this with our pastors, prophets, teachers, etc sometimes too, but that's a tale for another day.) From the sounds of it, people in Paul's time were all focused on the angels, and he wrote to set them straight on a few things.
The truth is that we're more awesome than the angels. God gives orders to the angels, and they carry them out. Their only purpose is to "hear and do." With us, he has a relationship. We have conversations. He talks with us, not just to us. No angel has ever enjoyed that privilege.
I was at a conference recently where the helpers were called 'angels.' It seemed oddly appropriate, given that I'd just read these verses the day before. The job of the angels wasn't to run the conference, or to enjoy the convention. It was to stay out of the way and do whatever was needed for the conference to happen smoothly. Nobody worshiped them or marveled over the stuff they did. Nobody was making a statue of the guy checking bracelets, or declaring a day of remembrance for the guy bringing the microphone to the people in the audience. The angels just did their jobs.
Real angels are the same way. They're God's creation, created to minister to our needs in the world. They're like robots. It does us no more good to worship them and marvel over their work than it does for us to worship the coffee machine or the tickets printed by a transit kiosk. Angels are what we'd be, if we focused only on doing what God had for us to do, and never accepted the relationship he wanted with us: Automatons, machines, trained ponies, etc.
We are the ones who will inherit salvation. Angels are sent to serve us, not to be served. Did God create us to take care of the needs of our guardian angels? Are we slaves to God's creation, or is it really the other way around?
We have the ability to sit at God's side, both as individuals and as the church. He is our Lord, just as he is Lord over everything, but he is also our friend and our heavenly father. There is no other creature I know of that has that to be thankful for. Don't fill your mind with useless conjecture, and your waking hours with spiritual busywork, only to miss out on the most important thing God has to offer his favorite creation.
To which of the angels did God ever say,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet”?
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
People sometimes get too caught up in the supernatural aspects of God's creation. They immerse themselves in arguments over angels, and demons, and various things that probably were kept from our daily physical world for a good reason. Sometimes they take the science that God gave us for dominion over our natural world, and they try to use it on the supernatural. Other times, they mistake the angelic messengers of God for God himself, and worship the angels. (We do this with our pastors, prophets, teachers, etc sometimes too, but that's a tale for another day.) From the sounds of it, people in Paul's time were all focused on the angels, and he wrote to set them straight on a few things.
The truth is that we're more awesome than the angels. God gives orders to the angels, and they carry them out. Their only purpose is to "hear and do." With us, he has a relationship. We have conversations. He talks with us, not just to us. No angel has ever enjoyed that privilege.
I was at a conference recently where the helpers were called 'angels.' It seemed oddly appropriate, given that I'd just read these verses the day before. The job of the angels wasn't to run the conference, or to enjoy the convention. It was to stay out of the way and do whatever was needed for the conference to happen smoothly. Nobody worshiped them or marveled over the stuff they did. Nobody was making a statue of the guy checking bracelets, or declaring a day of remembrance for the guy bringing the microphone to the people in the audience. The angels just did their jobs.
Real angels are the same way. They're God's creation, created to minister to our needs in the world. They're like robots. It does us no more good to worship them and marvel over their work than it does for us to worship the coffee machine or the tickets printed by a transit kiosk. Angels are what we'd be, if we focused only on doing what God had for us to do, and never accepted the relationship he wanted with us: Automatons, machines, trained ponies, etc.
We are the ones who will inherit salvation. Angels are sent to serve us, not to be served. Did God create us to take care of the needs of our guardian angels? Are we slaves to God's creation, or is it really the other way around?
We have the ability to sit at God's side, both as individuals and as the church. He is our Lord, just as he is Lord over everything, but he is also our friend and our heavenly father. There is no other creature I know of that has that to be thankful for. Don't fill your mind with useless conjecture, and your waking hours with spiritual busywork, only to miss out on the most important thing God has to offer his favorite creation.
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