(Ver 1.1) This is “Part 1” in a study series on the subject of “angels” found in the bible from cover to cover.  People generally do not believe in things that they have never seen or that they do not have any proof of existence. It is very much like the subject of God who is a Spirit (Jn 4:24) and many people do not believe in Him either.  However, the Word of God known as the Bible says a lot about these spiritual beings, we call angels, and it informs us that they definitely are real and that they do certainly exist.  The rest of this lesson will cover things found in the Bible about angels that you should know.  Who are they, what are they, where did they come from, when did they come into existence, what is their purpose and whatever else God leads us to discuss about them.  I personally know people who claim to have seen angels and their descriptions of these creatures are not like the fat little baby angels you see in many picture books or art diagrams.  These creatures are generally very strong, large and tall.  Their strength is so much greater than the strongest man on the earth that there is no comparison that can be made.   In this lesson we will discuss a lot of scriptures and many of them you might or might not already know.  However, I will probably say some things that you probably have never heard or thought about before, so you should read the entire lesson series before you pass final judgment.  So let’s look at the first occurrence of the Hebrew word “H4397” that is translated as word “angel” in the English KJV Bible. The Strong’s definition for this word is “messenger”. In the ancient Hebrew lexicon this word is defined as “one who walks for another”. That appears to define one of the primary roles of angels in simple terms. If we search the Bible, we will find that the first direct mention of this word is found in verse 7 of Genesis 16:

Gen 16:7  And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

The Hebrew word translated as “angel” is used 213 times in the O.T. so that is a lot of scriptures to read and learn from. But that is not all of the references that can be found in the Old Testament. This is because these beings go by many other names, titles, descriptions, symbols, etc. For example, the first time I noticed a reference for angels was in Genesis 1:16 as the mention of “stars”. This symbol for angels occurs especially in Revelation 12:4 where the tail of the dragon sweeps 1/3 of the stars from the heaven. Most wise Bible scholars agree these stars are references to angels.

There are at least two references to angels in Genesis 3. In verse 1, Satan is referred to as a symbolic “serpent”. Most should know this is the fallen angel Lucifer, but we will hpefully go into this more later.  Then in verse 24 of Genesis 3, we find God placing “Cherubim” with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. This is a speciality ranking order of that angels that appear to have a different assignment other than being a “messenger” class of God’s angelic creation. We will discover that God is a very organized creator. There will be angels of differing ranks and responsilbities.

All of this introduction information tells us that angels were widely active in the O.T. times and that these creatures are still implied to be active today based upon what we will find the book of Revelation described future.  While not every occurrence is translated as “angel” of the Hebrew word, there are enough that are this way that I cannot mention them all.

As we learned, the word “angel” means “messenger” in the Hebrew; they are spiritual beings that are normally sent from God to deliver a message to man.  So, an angel could be viewed as a “Word carrier”.  You could also say a “Word courier” or someone who delivers God’s Words to the people on the earth.  You could compare angels to an earthly company like “Fedex” who delivers messages around the world, but of course angels are much more than that as we will find out.   It is interesting to note two things found in this verse.  First is that God qualifies the word “angel” with “of the Lord”.  Meaning there are other types of angels that are not “of the Lord”.  We will discover more about this shortly, but note that God claims some angels to be His and others that are clearly not His.  Later we will also see that within the organization of angels, there exist ranks, classes and orders.

The next thing that is interesting to see in this verse is the Hebrew Word translated as “found” in this verse. This word does not mean the angel had to search for Hagar to finally locater her.  According to Strong’s this word means “to come forth”, “to appear” or “exist”. Did you know that you cannot normally see angels in the world, but that this does not mean they do not exist around us at all times?  It is critical to note that this “angel of the Lord” came forth and appeared in the natural realm so that Hagar could see him and hear him with her physical eyes and ears.

What we will learn soon are that Angels are normally not visible, probably because they were created by God on a higher frequency of movement/vibration. All physical substance contains vibration frequencies. Some are more easily seen, and some are impossible to see with the unaided eye. But according to this verse and some other verses that we will look at later, God may cause or permit some angels to slow their spiritual frequency so that it allows them to become visible in the natural realm.  This means that angels can be visible at times or be invisible at other times.  How they do this, and it is accomplished, I have no idea?

There are many details in the Bible that we are not informed of directly and this is one of them.  We have to assume that they have some power or ability that allows them to do this.  You can read further in this chapter and also see that this angel of the Lord brings Hagar a message from God, and he informs her of what will happen to her and her son Ishmael in the future.  God who sees the end from the beginning can tell you this information, but this is not the normal way that God does things most of the time; I believe that this is an exception to the way God does things.

So, we have just looked at the first direct reference in the Bible about angels, however this is not the first time they are mentioned in the Bible so we will back up in Genesis and read some new very important verses about angels.  What you must realize when reading and studying the Bible, is that God calls the same things in the Bible by multiple names, titles, descriptions and each of these reveal new qualities or features of that person or object being referenced.  So, let’s read a verse that reveals angels to us in a totally brand-new way:

Gen 6:1  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

God starts this chapter by informing us that the children of Adam and Eve began to multiply upon the face of the earth.  There were both males and females born to them and then these children married and had more children and thus continued the multiplication of the earth’s population.  This is of course what God told Adam and Eve to do; to be fruitful and multiply, and to replenish the earth’s population.  So, they were being obedient in this part of God’s commandments, I wonder why?  Now we are going to get into the part about angels, for the preceding verse was put there to set up the next very important verse:

Gen 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

In the next verse in the Bible, we learn some very valuable information about angels.  I’ll start by giving you the time frame for this information.  These verses are occurring within the first 1000 years of human history.  Since Adam lived to be over 900 years old, he must have come close to witnessing the beginnings of what was taking place on the earth during these verses.   The very next thing that you should recognize is that angels are called “sons of God”.  We know that Jesus was the Son of God, but notice angels are also called “sons of God.  It is the same designation of title, but in an entirely different context.  However, we know Jesus was God, but angels were never God. We know in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 that Lucifer was a created being. We also learn Lucifer was “anointed” by the Spirit of God. This would appear to indicate angles to be very similar to humans.

Notice this fact that the Bible calls us (the church) “sons of God” also (1 Jo 3:2).  Why is this?  This is directly attributable because God is called our “Father”.  In Hebrews 12:9 God is called the Father of spirits.  Angels are definitely spirit beings and people are spirit beings also, so God qualifies to be Father of both.

The next important thing to recognize about angels is that they can manifest themselves physically in this world as we saw with Hagar. But Genesis 6 provides greater details. It appears that angels can appear in the same form apparently as human males on the earth with the same sexual reproductive equipment.  Some try to explain that these “sons of Gods’ are not angels, but you can see that they are by other verses in the Bible.  This term “sons of God” is used only a very few times in the O.T.  Other than twice in Genesis 6, the term “sons of God” can be found only three times in the book of Job when Satan appears before God and the “sons of God” come with him.  Most knowledgeable Bible scholars will agree that this reference to “sons of God” is speaking of angels also.

It is very apparent in this verse that angels have physical bodies as well as spiritual bodies. I still believe this is just one body that is able to transition to slower frequencies that are visible in the created natural realm. However, angels are clearly not mortal like sinful fallen humans. Even angels that have sinned like Lucifer travel from the earth realm to the heavenly realm daily (Rev 12:10)  I believe from what I have read in the Bible that angels are spiritual beings that are capable of traveling between the earth and heaven where the throne of God is located at their own will.  I also believe that these angels can manifest themselves in a physical form on this earth when given a divine assignment. But Genesis 6 is an example of unlawful angelic manifestation in the physical realm as we will learn soon.

So, this verse in Genesis 6 says the angels of God looked at the women on the earth and thought they were “beautiful” and they took them for their wives and as we continue reading this caused a perverted race of human and angelic beings to come to be in the earth.  It is interesting to note that it does not sound like these women had much choice in this matter.   To me it sounds like a victory of the spoils of war type of mentality that came upon the angels.  They clearly thought they had a right to these women.  Knowing the strength and power of angels we can understand why.  Read this next verse:

Gen 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

So, this is a very hard saying indeed.  One that is truly difficult to comprehend.  The “sons of God” are said to “come in unto” the daughters of men.  This is a very interesting concept being given to us by God.  It is spoken of in the terms of Noah “entering into” the ark (Gen 6:19).  This means God views the woman’s sexual organ as a door into her body.  In fact, it is designed by God as a two-way door; a man or angel enters in, and babies come out.  These exact same words are used in Genesis 16:2 when Sarah tells Abraham “go in unto my maid” so that I may have children of her”.  We can clearly see that this is natural sex using God’s perspective.  So, we know that the angels (the sons of God) had physical sex with women on the earth and they created a race of giants.

I wonder sometimes, if there are male angels which clearly there are, do female angels exist?  That is a question that I do not know the direct answer to yet.  I do not ever recall reading any description of an angel in the Bible that resembled a female.  But the Bible says that there are an innumerable number of these creatures in heaven, so we do not know everything, do we?

From my Bible studies I have to conclude that there are female angels but the only proof that I have found so far, is that the Bible says Heaven existed first and it is called the “Heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb 12:22) and this city seems to be a pattern of the one that God created on the earth that I call the “earthly Jerusalem”.  If the earthly Jerusalem has females, I can only conclude logically that this was a repeated pattern of the original heavenly city Jerusalem also.  So, in my opinion there has to be female angels, but I do not yet have a direct Bible verse for that yet, so you do not have to accept it.

Gen 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

So where did all of these giants come from that were in the earth?  They had to come from the sexual union of Adam’s daughters (female descendants) and the angels (sons of God).  It is very apparent to me that this union between God’s new creation and the angels was an illegal sinful act and a perversion of creation, that God would have to do something about.  I can see two potential reasons for this union by angelic beings with humans. It appears to be motivated by their hatred of God and humans, using their willful and intentional act of rebellion to try to destroy God’s new creation.  Some can try to say that Satan and the angels were attempting to pervert the bloodline of man, and this is the only reason for what they did.   It is very easy to assume or jump to the conclusion that they were in effect attempting to eliminate the pure blood line for Christ to come into the world.  However, I’m not convinced that Satan or any of the angels knew Jesus (God in the flesh) was coming into the world at that time. Remember there were no Bibles written when all of this was taking place. Moses wrote about this many years later for the first time.

So ,their motivation for taking human women could have been just a conquest or sexual desire and the fact that they thought and believed that they could get away with it.  Angels, Satan and demons are not “all knowing” beings and God has not yet prophesied the Messiah to come in writing at this point of human time.  It is true that the plan of God was already in place before the foundation of our world.  However, there is no written word, no recorded law of God, no divine prophets speaking the word in the earth other than Enoch, that I know of. We do know that there were a few statements of God being spoken directly t Satan, Adam and Eve about the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent.  And that is certainly motivational information that Satan knew someone was coming, because what is the seed of the woman?   So, unless Satan understood what God was saying about the seed of the woman, how would Satan know to start corrupting this bloodline?   We can assume that Satan understood the words of God and that is why the angels did what they did to the women on the earth, but I have no verses to confirm either of these motivations at this time.

In this same chapter of Genesis is the beginning of the story of Noah.  I do not believe that this was just a coincidence.  I believe that Noah was chosen by God to preserve the bloodline and the seed of Adam.  God decided that He must intervene into this perversion by wiping out the human race with a universal flood.  God selects Noah and his 3 sons as those who would preserve the seed of Adam.  Looking at the genealogy of Jesus given to us in Luke 3, God shows us that Jesus mother Mary lineage goes all the way back to Adam through Noah and Shem who have preserved God’s plan.  In other words, there are no angels in the line that Jesus came from.  So, what happened to the angels that sinned and took the women of the earth as their wives?  We are actually given a clue to this event in the N.T. when Peter writes the following:

2Pe 2:4  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

God tells us that the angels who sinned were forcibly thrown into hell and bound with “chains of darkness”.  It is interesting to note that this verse informs us something very important for you to understand.  Angels, demons, and Satan have never been to hell, do not want to go to hell and are trying everything in their power to stay out of hell.  Hell is not a good place that anyone that is halfway normal wants to be.  Too many people think that Hell is Satan’s dominion or kingdom, but you can clearly read in Revelation that even Satan has to be forcibly thrown into this place.  So, Satan and demons are not normal people, but they do not want to be in hell any more than I do.  Think about it, Satan was used to walking streets of gold in heaven why would he want to go to hell?  Did you notice that this verse said that these angels who sinned were cast into hell and chained so that they could not leave?  Does that sound like they wanted to be there, it does not!  The sin of the angels is not directly named in this verse found in 2^nd Peter, but the next verse starts talking about Noah so we can clearly assume that the sin was having sex with the natural women on the earth when they clearly should not have in Genesis 6.  It is not rocket science to read Genesis 6 and 2 Peter 2 and figure this out.

So here we have Genesis 6 the first occurrence or mention of angels in the Bible, or is it?  You see I believe that the first mention of angels in the Bible is a symbolic occurrence way before this in the first chapter of Genesis.  The first two chapters of Genesis is the account of the creation of our world.  Within the first chapter of Genesis is a prophetic timeline of the entire history of mankind on the earth.  If you do not understand that statement, you should read some of my other blogs on the subject.  God uses symbolism in the first chapter from the things that are mentioned, and these things occur in a very specific ordered timeline that reveals a lot of great information to us.  I believe the first reference to angels occurs in verse 16 of Genesis 1:

Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Where are the angels you ask?  That is the tricky part of the mysteries within the Bible; God has hidden significant information within verses that we do not understand until He reveals them to us.  In this verse God speaks of three heavenly objects found in our sky.  Did you notice I said “Heavenly”?  Where is God’s throne?  God’s throne is in “Heaven”.  So, we have three natural symbols that convey spiritual beings and meanings.  I will not discuss the sun or the moon in this lesson, if you need to know who these objects represent you should go read some of my other lessons.  However, the “stars” are innumerable in our night sky.  That is a key word that describes the angels in heaven.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

God tells us in Hebrews that Heaven contains an innumerable number of angels.  This means that God only knows the number of them, and we just do not have the time to count them all.  In other words, the number of angels is not an infinite number; it is just a very big number.  So here is the reason that I bring “stars” into today’s lesson.  If you read later in the Bible in Revelation, you will see how important it is note:

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

As you can clearly see the tail of the symbolic dragon who is revealed to be Satan causes a 1/3 part of the stars of heaven to fall to the earth.  These are not real stars in our night sky; these are only symbolic stars that represent angels.  In the Bible “stars” many times represents angels symbolically.  This is definitely true in Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 and many other places also.  In this verse of Revelation, it clearly tells us that the number of the angels is not an infinite number because a specific fraction 1/3 of them is fallen from heaven to the earth.  If you can divide a number by 3 you have to know what that number is that is being reduced.   Again, this is just basic logic and the laws of mathematics.

This has been a basic introduction to the subject of angels using the Bible.  I have only speculated about one thing and that is I believe that there must be female angels but that I have not found a direct Bible verse to prove that.  The other facts in this lesson definitely are scripture-based teachings found in the Bible.  We have learned that there are many angels that exist, in fact more than we can count, however not as many as God can count.  We have learned that some of these angels do not belong to God anymore.  Those that are faithful to God are numbered in terms of 2/3 of the total population of angels.  The other 1/3 of the angels we are told are cast down to the earth.  We also learned from Peter’s writings that some angels have already been cast into hell for creating a perverted race of beings in an attempt to corrupt the seed of Adam.   So we have seen two witnesses so far that say that angels can manifest themselves in physical forms in our world.  That is a very important fact to keep in mind.  Here is another witness to this fact:

Heb 13:2  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

I’ll end today’s lesson with this thought, God says for us to treat strangers like they could be a heavenly representative from God.  It is very clear to me that God is saying you never know who you are entertaining and that they could potentially have a message for you from God.  I base this on the fact that I believe that an angel’s number one assignment is to be a messenger of God since that is what the name “angel” means.   We will discuss more scriptures about angels in my next lesson and hopefully see what else the Bible says that they can do.   God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading this series about angels, you can go to “Part 2“.