For some years now, there has been a kind of angel obsession, even in the so-called secular world. There’ve been multiple recent movies and TV series about supposed angels, and even fallen angels being among us, helping us, or harming us. These have been successful Hollywood or streaming hits for a while. Bookstore shelves are packed with titles on angel encounters, and methods to contact your guardian angel, or speak to your guiding angels.
Angels now are found on posters, cards, statuettes, ornaments, and other good luck charms intended to bring the blessing and goodness of the angel into the home.
Some Christians think it is a good thing. I mean, what can be wrong with directing people to spiritual matters, even if it is through angels? After all, won’t people’s fascination with angels ultimately draw them to God? Isn’t it better for people to receive a fairly moral and uplifting message in the form of accounts of angels, than to take in the sex, violence and immorality of other secular media?
Actually not. It has always been the propensity of man to turn angel interest into angel fascination, then angel obsession and finally angel worship. In Colossians 2, Paul warned us “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in falsehumility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,(Colossians 2:18)
As with all things in the spirit world, our curiosity is supposed to be a modest, disciplined curiosity, not trying to open what God has kept shut, not trying to peer behind a curtain that God has drawn.
But with that said, the Bible does have a good amount of teaching on the spirit world, on the creatures and beings we call by the very general name angel. The doctrine of angelology is that branch of Christian theology where we study their origin, their nature, their number, their kinds and classifications, their work.
For the most part, in the Bible we come across angels in passing. There is no book of the Bible devoted to specifically teaching about them, and no biblical writer takes a whole section to simply explain angels. Instead, we come to know these heavenly beings only as their work intersects with our lives.
But there was never a greater outpouring of angelic activity in human history as there was around the birth of Jesus. By contrast, other events in Scripture had very sporadic angelic appearances. We meet the Angel of the Lord several times in Genesis, and the book of Judges. A few angel appearances occur during the times of Israel’s kings. Daniel has several encounters with angels as he receives his visions. But nothing compares to the concentration of angelic activity surrounding the birth of Jesus. When it comes to the announcement and arrival of the birth of Jesus, we have four consecutive angelic appearances in a fairly short space of time. This is a positive explosion of angelic manifestations, and it shows the sheer importance of the event of the birth of Jesus.
Using the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, we find an angel appearing first to Zacharias the priest, then to Mary, then to Joseph, and then to some shepherds in the field. Each of these prepares the way for the most significant birth in human history.
Each of them is also a powerful lesson about faith. The response of the people who receive the angelic visitation is each a vivid picture of how we can be in response to God’s message. One is doubtful, another is trusting, a third is uncertain, and a fourth is fearful.
And, along the way, we will learn more about these fascinating creatures that share God’s universe with us, whose futures and destinies are tied up with ours.
We begin to day with the angel and the doubtful priest from Luke 1.
I. The Patient Priest
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
Zacharias was one of those few Israelites born into the tribe of Levi and therefore able to be a priest. Not all Levites were priests, but all priests had to be Levites. The Levites were responsible for setting up, taking down, and transporting the tent of meeting, and once the Temple had been built, other roles to do with setting up, maintaining, and so on. They began serving at age 25 and had to retire at 50, probably because those roles required significant physical labour.
But the Levites who were priests did not have to retire because of age, they could continue on until they were too infirm to do their duties.
Zacharias was probably 60 or older. He was a priest and married to Elizabeth, the daughter of the priest, which was supposed to confer double-honour on them and their offspring. You can imagine, when they were young, how many friends and relatives had waited for their children. They expected a thoroughbred priest to be born to the union of two priestly families. But we imagine the years of their youth turning into the years of middle age, and then even old age, with no children forthcoming. No doubt the gossips began speculating about why God had judged them unfit to have children. In a culture which prized having children almost above all else, there were certainly raised eyebrows. It had been a life of waiting, and enduring suspicion.
We read in verse 65 that they lived in an unusual place for priests: Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. (Luke 1:65)
The hill country of Judea would have been some small town south of Jerusalem, a humble unpretentious place. Most priests lived in Jericho or in a section of Jerusalem known as the Opel-quarter. Perhaps they wanted to be away from the gossip and in-fighting and ladder-climbing of the Jerusalem elite.
But apparently, what set Zacharias and Elizabeth apart was that their waiting had never become grumbling, their waiting had never become despair or discontent. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. (Lk. 1:6)
He had probably lived most of his life under Roman rule. Pompeii first brought the Roman Eagle to conquer Jerusalem in 63 B.C., when Zacharias may have been a small boy. Now in his aged years, his life had also been one of waiting for Israel’s deliverance.
He had also waited long for the special privilege of ministering in the Temple. There were many priests, around 20 000 according to Josephus, so around fifty would be on duty each day. To prevent unhappy competitive disputes, the lot was cast to assign to each priest his function. They did this four times. The first was to determine who would offer the morning sacrifice. The second was to determine who was to trim the golden candlestick, and the third was to choose who would make ready the altar of incense within the Holy Place. But the greatest honour fell to the final lot.
The most solemn part of the day’s service was offering the incense, which symbolised Israel’s accepted prayers. Only once in a lifetime could any priest enjoy that privilege.
So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.
If it happened, a priest was from then on called ‘rich’. Zacharias had waited all these decades for that privilege, but in all these decades it had never come to him. It had been a life of waiting.
The order of priests that Zacharias was part of, the order of Abijah, was on duty on a certain day. Some put this in the month of June, others in the month of October. But on that day, the high privilege of offering the incense had fallen upon Zacharias. One portion of a life of waiting had finally been fulfilled.
That day he chose two assistants. After the instruments had sounded to signify that the highpoint of the day’s worship was to take place, Zacharias and the two would have gone in to the Temple.
One would carefully remove what had been on the altar of incense from the previous day, and then walked backwards, still worshipping and leave.
The second assistant would take live coals from the altar of burnt offering, and place them on the very edge of altar of incense, and then also walk backwards and leave.
Here was now a picture of prayer: the coals from the burnt offering symbolising forgiveness and atonement, and the incense symbolising prayer that could be made to God on the basis of an accepted sacrifice. God accepting prayer because sin had been atoned for. Then the moment came for Zacharias to offer incense.
II. The Angelic Appearance
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
Now Zacharias stood with the golden censer. This was a small vessel made of gold, likely held by a chain that could carry hot coals from the bronze altar, and incense was placed on top of them, creating a smoke with a beautiful fragrance.
Zacharias was now alone in the Holy Place, with only the light of the golden seven-armed candelabra burning on his left, the table of shewbread on his right, and ahead of him, in the centre, was the golden altar of incense, placed in front of the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.
He waited for the moment, before spreading the incense from his censer upon the altar of incense, and waited till it kindled upon those coals, and went up in a fragrant smoke, symbolic of the prayers of Israel, that were at that moment being offered outside the Temple by the thousands of priests and people.
Then, as Zacharias turned, there he saw on the right side of the altar an angel. He knew it was an angel, because no one else was allowed into the Temple except priests, and here was one. It could only have been an angel, one not dressed in priestly garments, one who had not entered with the others. Luke does not tell us how he appeared, whether his appearance was the bodily shape of a human, what his face looked like.
But we do know that most times that angels appear in Scripture, they do appear in a recognisable humanoid form. According to Hebrews 1:14, they are ministering spirits. But because they are spirits doesn’t mean that don’t have a form or even a kind of body. They don’t have material bodies, bodies made of molecules, but that does not mean they have no bodies. They appear to have spirit bodies. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. (1 Corinthians 15:40)
Their bodies are suited to the realm in which they operate, the heavenly realm, meaning they can move, and dwell, and abide in that realm. When they are commanded to, they are able to manifest in our realm.
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
The angel began to tell Zacharias that the second thing he had waited for his whole life was now to be fulfilled: his wife Elizabeth would bare a son, a son to be named Yochanan, John, meaning God is gracious.
But in the next breath, the angel told Zacharias that his son would herald the end of another wait in his life. This child would be filled with Spirit, a Nazarite dedicated wholly to God, one who would be a prophet like Elijah, and would prepare the way for the Messiah. In other words, God’s promises to Israel, to deliver her from her enemies and her humiliation and exalt her were about to finally take place, and Zacharias’ son would be the prophet to announce Messiah’s coming.
Now this is an amazing thing to have so many of the things he had hoped for answered on one day. He had hoped to be the priest to offer incense in the Temple, and today was the day. He had hoped his wife would one day have a child, and here is the promise that it would happen. And he had hoped that Messiah might appear in his lifetime and deliver Israel, and here was the promise that Messiah would live at the same time as Zacharias’s son, John.
It was almost too much to take in.
III. The Doubt and the Discipline
1And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
Zacharias is doubting what he has heard. You’d think that speaking to an angel would be enough to remove your doubts, but it shows that faith is not dependent on signs. Faith is about trusting the message and the messenger. Here an angel is quoting Scripture which Zacharias would have known, from Malachi “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers,” (Malachi 4:5–6)
But Zacharias sounds like Gideon in this moment. How can I know what you’re saying is true? What sign is there to prove that your words are truth? In essence, Zacharias is saying, “Your word is not enough for me to go on. My life circumstances make what you’re saying very unlikely. I am old, and my wife is old. We are not expecting a child, and that makes your prophecy, and even the prophecy of Messiah coming, rather doubtful.”
Now when someone says, “How can I know what you’re saying is true?” what are they saying about you? They are saying, I cannot trust you, your character, to simply trust your words. I need additional verification, corroboration.
So the angel responds with a rebuke of Zacharias’ doubt.
1And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
For the first time, the angel identifies himself. Up to now, he has not given his name. Why not? Because the identity of the angel was not essential to the truth of the message. Zacharias didn’t need to know that to simply believe the message: this is an angel present in the Holy Place of Israel’s temple, he has knowledge of Zacharias’ prayers, he is quoting Scripture.
So now the angel is rightly offended by Zacharias’ doubt. We can already tell a number of things about angels from this account. Angels have intellect and the ability to reason. Angels have emotions and affections – he is not impressed with Zacharias here. So he now gives Zacharias two things: his own credentials and a sign. He gives his name, Gabriel, which means God is my strength, or possibly Hero/ Strong Man of God. Gabriel is one of only two angels named in Scripture, the other one is Michael. Some think Lucifer is a third, but that is more of a title, son of the morning, or star of the morning, it’s actually Hellel in Hebrew; Lucifer is a Latin derivation. But Michael and Gabriel are both the actual names in the Hebrew. Angels are persons, beings with names. Gabriel tells Zacharias his name, and the fact that he has access to the very presence of God. Angels dwell in that place and dimension the Bible calls the heavens, the place where God manifests Himself to them and to the redeemed spirits of the ages.
We learn that part of the work of angels is to bear messages, to communicate messages from God to select people at different times. He was given this assignment directly by God to bring this message personally to Zacharias. This news is glad tidings, and Zacharias was meant to receive it with believing joy, with grateful faith.
Instead, he has doubted the messenger and the message.
So since he wanted to know how he could verify Gabriel’s sign, Zacharias will receive a sign, but a sign with some judgement and discipline in it. Zacharias didn’t believe Gabriel’s word, so Zacharias will not be able to speak a word.
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.
Outside the people were worried, because there were rabbinic traditions about priests seeing signs or visitations in the holy place, or even dying while serving God.
But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house.
When he came out, and could not speak, but could only gesture and sign with his hands, and they understood that he had seen something. We learn here that angels have great power, and are able to affect or afflict humans. Second Peter 2:11 says “whereas angels, who are greater in power and might”. When Daniel saw an angel, he was physically ill for a time afterwards, because of the sheer power and overwhelming nature of the encounter. Psalm 8 says of mankind “ For You have made him a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5). Angels outrank us in power and in dignity, at least for the time being.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:3 that believers, in our glorified state, will one day judge angels. But for the time being, angels are superior to us in power, might, status and knowledge.
So we then see Gabriel’s message fulfilled in what followed.
Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. 59 So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.” But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” 62 So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.
Zacharias’s doubt has already been answered in two ways. His own muteness and inability to speak, and the fact that Elizabeth has now borne a son. Clearly in those nine months, Zacharias had communicated to her through writing what the boy’s name should be.
But now, in the presence of those who expected him to uphold the tradition of naming a son after the father, he could either lapse into doubt and man-pleasing, or fully believe and uphold what he had heard from Gabriel.
And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him. (Luke 1:57–66)
As Zacharias confirms the command from Gabriel, he proves that his doubts have been replaced by faith. His wife’s pregnancy was no fluke, no coincidence, no happy accident. This was a fulfilment of God’s Word. Not only God’s Word to Zacharias personally through Gabriel, but God’s Word to all Israel, and indeed to all the world, that He would send His Son, send a deliverer, send a rescuer, a Saviour, a Snake-Crusher, a Dragon-Slayer, and Sin-Destroyer, a Redeemer. As He wrote, Zacharias was saying, let God be true, and every man a liar.
God wishes to be trusted on the basis of His Words alone. He may send many things to bolster and verify His Words. But in the end, He does not want you to believe Him based on those signs. He wants you to believe Him based on His character, on His trustworthiness. He wants to be believed because He is Truth, in Him there is no darkness, and no lies. Everything He says is pure Reality. Faith takes God’s account of reality as reality. Faith trusts the Person, and so trusts the Person’s words about life.
We might sometimes have doubts about whether we have heard correctly. We might doubt if we have understood correctly. But it is altogether a different thing to doubt if what God says will turn out to be; if what God says is actually the case.
When it comes to the first coming of Christ, Alfred Edersheim concluded that there are at least 456 passages in the Old Testament that Jewish Rabbis have historically interpreted as being about the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled conservatively, 300 of them in His earthly lifetime.
Around 200 of them remain to be fulfilled in His Second Coming. So what should we conclude? Should we say like Zacharias, “How can we know for sure that these things will happen? Give us a sign?” Or should we say, “The word of the Lord never fails. It came to pass as He said. It will come to pass as He said.” The Incarnation says, God keeps His Word, dispel your doubts.
We walk by faith and not by sight;
no gracious words we hear
from Him who spoke as none e’er spoke,
but we believe Him near.
We may not touch His hands and side,
nor follow where He trod;
but in His promise we rejoice
and cry, “My Lord and God!”
Help then, O Lord, our unbelief;
and may our faith abound
to call on You when You are near
and seek where You are found.
That, when our life of faith is done,
in realms of clearer light,
may we behold You as You are
with full and endless sight.