The word “angel” in the Bible is translated from the Hebrew word malach and the Greek word angelos, both meaning “messenger.” God sends angels to warn, comfort, and guide people by communicating his messages to them.
In the Sodom and Gomorrah narrative, we see angels rescuing Lot’s family (Gen. 19:1-15). In the Elijah story, God sends an angel during Elijah’s most painful and despairing moment to comfort him. The angel wakes him up and invites him to eat a meal (1 Kgs. 19:5-7). In the story about Daniel, we see several angels, including one who is held up from delivering a message for 21 days due to a conflict with a Persian ruler (Dan. 10:10-15).
The authors of Exodus record that angels directed and defended God’s people during their journey out of slavery and into the promised land (e.g., Exod. 12:23, 23:23). Angels also appear in dreams to guide humans to safety (e.g., Gen. 28:12, 32:1-2; Matt. 1:20, 2:13). And in the last book of the New Testament, John records a complex message from Jesus, delivered to him from an angel (Rev. 1:1).
There is a common thread in these (and many more) angel stories in the Bible. Angels are messengers, sent to protect and proclaim how people can enter the place of life they were built to flourish within. They want humans to trust and follow the one sending the message, to know how to live where Heaven and Earth overlap—where God and humans are united in peace. Ultimately, the angels’ messages tell us the will and the way of the Messiah. Angels do not tell us much about themselves, but they do talk a lot about Jesus.
