ANGELS’ FUNCTIONS
| FUNCTIONS | SCRIPTURE | COMMENTARY |
| Messengers who bring good news |
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| Prophet | Malachi 3:1-6
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God sends prophets to speak for him. He also sends angels/messengers to speak for him. Angels that speak for God are called “angels of the Lord.” |
| Priest | Malachi 2:1-7 | This scripture says that a priest is a messenger. Thus we have human priests functioning as messenger/angels. But we must be careful to not think of a priest as someone who serves in the role of a religious leader. All New Covenant disciples are good shepherds/priests. They are not like Old/First Covenant hired hands. |
| One who prepares the way for the New Covenant | Malachi 3:1-6 | Angel/messengers speak words that convict religious people of the fact that religion is sin. After religious people respond to God’s call to come out of religion and start listening to his spoken voice, they become New Covenant disciples . |
| Comforters | Isaiah 40:1-11 | Religious people live in a constant state of tribulation because their hearts are evil and impure. After they hear God’s words spoken by angel/messengers, they are raptured into a constant state of peace and joy in their hearts. |
| One who obstructs someone from doing something that is against God’s will. | Numbers 22:20-35 | Balaam is a false prophet who is attracted by the promises for wealth Balaak has offered to him. Balaam and Balaak both symbolically represent religious leaders. The angel of the Lord will obstruct religious people from engaging in idolatrous religious activity. |
| Servants | Isaiah 42:19 | Angles/messengers serve God by speaking for God. |
| Ordinary people who carry messages. | Job 1:14; | The message is always the same: Religion is sin; come out of religion; worship in spirit and truth. |
| Ministering spirits that show the way. | Hebrews 1:13-14; Exodus 23:20; Exodus 33:2 | Angles show the way out of religion into the Promised Land. |
| Angels protect God’s people. | Exodus 23:20 | Angels protect people from religious deception by telling them the truth that religion is sin. |
| Envoys/messengers that bring healing. | Proverbs 13:17; Proverbs 25:13; Jeremiah 49:14; Obadiah 1:1 | God’s word heals sickness and disease. Angles bring healing when they speak God’s words. |
God uses angel/messengers to deliver warnings of judgment, calls to battle and good news. Watchmen is another term that God uses to describe people whom he anoints to fulfill angelic functions.
Only two angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel and Michael. Gabriel is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament and Twice in the New Testament. Michael also is mentioned only twice in each testament. That these two characters have enjoyed such lasting fame is evidence of the strong tendency to interpret the Bible literally. Interpreting them as real beings with names feeds the need to reduce spiritual matters down to something that can be easily imagined, replicated, seen and touched. Thus Gabriel and Michael have become icons of spirituality that people imagine are still out there somewhere in heavenly places doing what archangels do to bring messages and do spiritual battle for certain people whom God favors. Thus the myths about angels persists and even thrives in several religions. Judaism and Christianity have gone so far as to create a hierarchy of angels. Catholics, in their great need for tangible religion, have gone so far to make Gabriel and Michael saints.
Beyond these two famous named messengers, the Bible identifies many messengers who are not angels but are mortal men. As we noted above, in the Old Testament, they are alternatively called ambassadors and envoys, some of whom are sent by God to deliver warnings of judgment, calls to battle, comfort, healing and good news.
The ambassadorial role of God’s people is reinforced in the New Testament where we learn what the message to be given is about reconciliation with God and to explain the mystery of the gospel. Although prophets are not identified as angels, messengers, ambassadors or envoys, we see clearly from the functions of a TRUE PROPHET that they do serve God in these ways.