December 19: The Angel
Angels are a bit of a hot topic in modern Christianity. Some of us think of the beautiful angel figurines clothed in white and holding trumpets in our grandmother’s Christmas decor, some of us comfort our friends with the idea of their own personal guardian angel, some of us ask angel armies to go to war for us, and some of us have nightmares about how the Bible describes the ‘heavenly creatures’ (seriously, it’s not for the faint of heart).
So what is the angel in our nativity set there for? What’s his purpose? What does he represent? Well, let’s do a deep dive and find out!
Here’s a definition we found that will help frame our understanding.
ANGEL (מַלְאָךְ, mal'akh; מַלְאַךְ, mal'akh; ἄγγελος, angelos). Heavenly messengers in the Bible. The Hebrew and Greek words usually translated as “angel” are probably better translated as “messenger.” From the Lexham Bible Dictionary
Messenger. That lens really simplifies it for us! God sent a messenger to deliver the most important message to both Mary and Joseph.
“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’”
Luke 1:26–28
OK we can’t help but get a little nerdy here… Isn’t it so cool that the Bible gives us the angel’s name? This particular messenger that appeared to Mary–Gabriel–actually pops up in the Old and New Testaments. In fact, he’s one of only two named angels in Scripture (the other being Michael). In the book of Daniel, Gabriel interprets a dream for Daniel and delivers him a prophecy. And, before he appeared to Mary in the book of Luke, he also appeared to Zechariah (John the Baptist’s dad).
When Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, he said that he stands in the presence of God. Goosebumps! It makes us wonder how many mysteries the Kingdom of God holds, how many things we can only guess at and ponder until we meet Jesus face to face in Heaven.
Now, when Joseph is met by a messenger, we aren’t told specifically who it is.
“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’”
Matthew 1:20–21
This angelic encounter stands apart from Mary’s because it specifies that this angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. (We don’t know about you, but that seems much less terrifying than one showing up in your living room!)
We could spend years getting in the weeds of angelology (yes, that’s a real thing!) but we want to leave you with this to think about today…
Can there be more to God than we thought?
We can so easily put God into a little box that’s comfortable and fits our understanding. We get uneasy when the box is stretched and we choose to ignore when the Bible describes God’s kingdom in fantastic and sometimes weird ways. But today, allow God to broaden your horizons. Allow Him to show you that the impossible things can be possible. Allow Him to remind you that you can’t know everything about Him, but He wants to take you deeper.
Who knows? Maybe He has an angel to send you!
Pray: God, thank you for being bigger than I thought you were. Broaden my understanding of your Kingdom!
Further Study: Flip to the book of Daniel and read about Gabriel’s first biblical appearance.
Interact: Let’s get real… What’s your familiarity level with this whole angel conversation? Did you grow up talking about them or is this new territory for you? Share with the community below!
