Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”; Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”; cf. 2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.” Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.
(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;
Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”; 104:4 marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds; His ministers a flaming fire,” i. e., lightnings. See Alford on Heb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [in Ps. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especially v. 3), where we have: ‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’ For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means ‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”
Farrar on Heb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”; “The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’; 2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.” John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel. Rev. 14:18—an angel ‘that hath power over fire’; John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel; Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection; Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”
(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;
Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”; 11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”; 12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.” Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether “the spirit of the age” or “the national character” in any particular case may not be due to the unseen “principalities” under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, in Eph. 2:2, “the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.” May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?
(e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;
1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority [i. e., a veil] on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministration isher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.” Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints. 1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.
Alford regards “the angels of the seven churches” (Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard “the angels of the seven churches” as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word “angel” means simply “messenger,” and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—see Hag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally, “the angel of Jehovah.” The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that “angel” was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly, “angels” constitute an official class.
(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;