As the heavenly messengers of God, angels are the agents of God’s message, God’s will and God’s Son.[1]  Angels played an active role in the revealing of God’s Word to humanity.  It was the Angel of Jehovah who appeared to Moses (Act 7:30, 35, 38, 53) in order to reveal the law on Mount Sinai (Gal 3:19).  Centuries later it was by an angel that the birth of John the Immerser was proclaimed (Luk 1:11, 13, 18-19) and that the apostle John was shown the events contained in his Revelation (Rev 1:1).  Such advance knowledge, however, does not imply that angels are omniscient.  God simply reveals to them what is needed to carry out their task at hand.  This explains why at times angels have greater knowledge than humans (Dan 9:22-23) while we know for certain that there are things they do not know (Mat 24:36; Mar 13:32).  Their role as messengers also helps us understand their joy when we properly respond to the message of God through repentance (Luk 15:10).

But the angels are also quite active as agents of God’s will.  God has employed angels countless times both as the agents of His providence (Act 27:23) and, in the time of the apostles, as the executors of miraculous gifts (Joh 5:4; Act 5:19) both of which served to expedite the spread of the gospel (cf. Act 8:26).  Today, their role remains one of supplying this same provision to ensure the protection of God’s people (Mat 18:10) and to bear the souls of the righteous dead “into Abraham's bosom” (Luk 16:22).  And then ultimately, on that final day, to execute the will of God “at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven…rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2Th 1:7-8).

The final role of the angels is that of the agents of God’s Son.[2]  As the right hand of God (2Pe 3:21-22) Christ had a multitude of angels at His disposal (cf. Mat 26:53).  Angels prepared for His birth (Luk 1:26-38), they presented Him at His birth (Luk 2:9-11), protected Him from harm (Mat 2:13, 19; 4:1), preserved Him in prayer (Luk 22:43), proclaimed His resurrection (Joh 20:12) and predicted His return (Act 1:9-11).  The constant attention He received from Heaven explains then why Christ Himself stated, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (Joh 1:51).

It may not be until eternity that we humans understand all that there is to know about angels.  What we can know, however, is that whatever it is God expects us to know about them will be contained in His Word (2Ti 3:16-17).  There we learn that angels are messengers of God, spiritual beings sent from Heaven to speak His Word, to execute His plan for humanity and to serve His Son.  And it is to this scene that both we and they belong as children of God.  “[But] ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel” (Heb 12:22-24).