The angels all obey the command of Jehovah: “I saw Jehovah sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left”(I Kings 22:19). The text is very clear. All the angels were submitted to Jehovah, in obedience. “Bless Jehovah, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word! Bless Jehovah, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will” (Ps. 103:20-21). The angels are ministers of Jehovah, and constitute the armies of heaven, praising him permanently in the highest (Ps. 148:1-2).
The devil tempted Jesus to throw himself from the pinnacles of the Temple, so that the angels of Jehovah might keep him, according to Ps. 91:11-12, which says: “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone”. If Jesus threw himself and the prophecy concerning the angels was fulfilled, He would not be the author of salvation (Heb. 12:2). On the other hand, in delivering Jesus, Jehovah would be in agreement with the devil, for the devil wished Jesus to jump, because if He did that, He would become submitted to him. This would turn into a comic situation. Jehovah keeping the one that the devil had cast down. Let us change the subject.
The angels of Jehovah govern this world, ruling over the nations. The angel of Israel is called Michael. “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued” (Dan. 12:1). A man robed in linen said these words to Daniel (Dan. 10:5-6). That man, whose face looked like lightning, further said: “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia” (Dan. 10:13). This prince of the kingdom of Persia was the angel who governed Persia. There was another prince in Greece (Dan. 10:20). These princes and those of the other nations compose the principalities and powers that rule over this dark world, under the command of Jehovah, according to Ps. 103:20,21. Paul says: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The one whose government is behind the angels’ is this same Jehovah, for he said to Job: “Surely, God will not act wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. Who gave Him authority over the earth? And who has laid on Him the whole world?” (Job 34:12,13). And also in the Psalms: “For Jehovah Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth” (Ps. 47:2). “For the kingdom is Jehovah’s, and He rules over the nations” (Ps. 22:28). “Who would not fear Thee, O king of the nations?” (Jer. 10:7).
We can declare through these texts that Jehovah, too, has his kingdom in this dark world. Jesus does not rule with Jehovah in this world, though, according to John 18:36. The angels rule with Jehovah, but do not rule with Jesus; so Jesus is not with the angels, and the angels are not with Jesus, because, after the resurrection, they were submitted to him. “…through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him” (1 Pet. 3:21,22) and (Eph. 1:20,21).
The angels that ruled this world with Jehovah did not communicate gentleness, but dread. The wife of Manoah, the father of Samson, saw an angel and said that this vision was terrifying (Judg. 13:6). David saw an angel with a sword in his hands and was terrified (1 Chr. 21:30). The angels of Jehovah are not messengers of peace, for they are all warriors (2 Kings 6:12-17). The same Jehovah calls himself “Lord of the Armies”, for Jehovah is a man of war, and not of peace (Ex. 15:3). David declares that war belongs to Jehovah (1 Sam. 17:45-47). Jehovah and his angels governed by means of the atrocities of fratricidal wars.
The angels of Jehovah are, then, destroyers of souls. David, incited by Jehovah, ordered the people to be numbered. Jehovah, in punishment, sent a destroying angel, which killed seventy thousand people through a plague (2 Sam. 24:15,16). Ahaziah, king of Israel, fell off a window and hurt himself. He sent after Baal-zebub, god of Ekron, to ask about his healing. Jehovah told Elijah to say to the king that he would die, as punishment, because he had not consulted Jehovah. The king sent a captain, plus fifty soldiers, to bring the prophet, saying: “O man of God, thus says the king, ‘Come down quickly.’ And Elijah answered and said to them, ‘If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.’ Then the fire from God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty”. The king sent another fifty men with his captain, and again the fire from heaven consumed them (2 Kings 1:1-12). The angel of Jehovah also destroyed one hundred and eighty thousand Assyrian soldiers all at once (2 Kings 19:35).
The angels of Jehovah, besides destroying, are accusers, too. “Furthermore, in your bed-chamber do not curse the king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the heavens will carry the sound, and the winged creature will make the matter known” (Eccles. 10:20).
The angels of Jehovah are unrelenting, and do not forgive anyone. “Behold I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him (Ex. 23:20,21).
The angels of Jehovah are messengers of evil. The word “messenger” in Hebrew means “angel”. They are, therefore, angels of evil (Ps. 78:49).
The angel of Jehovah tells the people to curse: “‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of Jehovah, ‘utterly curse its inhabitants; because they did not come to the help of Jehovah, to the help of Jehovah against the warriors’” (Judg. 5:23).
The angels of Jehovah become themselves Satan. “And the angel of Jehovah said to him, ‘Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way was contrary to me” (Num. 22:32).
This is why Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world”. Jesus dos not rule along with angels that are destroyers and murderers. Jesus wants to forgive all. Jesus is gentle and meek, and not terrifying. Jesus dos not accuse anybody (John 5:45). Jesus is a messenger of grace, peace and of salvation for all. Jesus does not tell anyone to curse. On the contrary, he redeemed us from the curses of Jehovah. Jesus cannot rule along with the angels who can turn themselves into Satan. On the contrary, he came to deliver from the devil and from darkness (Acts 26:18).
Someone will say: Why, then, the angels announced the birth of Jesus? (Luke 2:8-14). The eleventh verse says that Christ (Messiah) was born. The deliverer of Israel. The One who was to destroy the nations as if they were a potter’s vase, and smash them with a rod of iron (Ps. 2:8,9). Jesus, though, did not assume Jehovah and the angel’s method. He did not accept to rule over this dark world. His is a kingdom of love (Col. 1:12,13). The kingdom of Christ is celestial, not earthly (2 Tim. 4:18).
And there is one more thing: In the book of Hebrews, we read that God, the Father, did not avail Himself of the help of angels, but He availed Himself of Abraham’s offspring, which is Christ (Heb. 2:16-17). Well, if the Father did not take the angels under His service, and Jehovah did, they cannot be the same person. What is more, the angels of Jehovah will not have part in the kingdom of Christ (Heb. 2:5).
Jesus rejected the kingdom of Jehovah to rule with the Church in the heavenly places, just as Abraham has done (Heb. 11:8-10).
By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira