In Part 5 we discussed whether all angels are possibly the same kind of being or if there are different kinds of angelic creatures. I used Part 6 and Part 7 to explain how there are, indeed, different types of angels. In Part 6 we discussed that some angels are definitely spiritual in nature. They don't have flesh and bones and people need to have a special ability in order to see them. In Part 7 we saw that some angels are definitely physical beings and do possess flesh and bones. With these angelic creatures, no special ability is needed to see them – they appear as men.
Try to refrain from making the mistake of believing that spiritual angels and physical angels are one and the same. Instead of believing that some angels are spiritual and other angels are physical beings, some people believe that they're all the same creature and that all angels are able to take on whatever form needed in a given situation, sometimes taking on a physical form and sometimes remaining unseen in the spiritual realm.
But we know from my last two posts that this isn't the case. If the angels that surrounded Dothan in 2 Kings 6:17 had been able to manifest themselves physically they could have calmed the fears of Elisha's servant right away. Instead, we read that the Lord had to first open his spiritual eyes so they could be seen. Also, if the angel in Numbers 22 could have exhibited a physical essence, the Lord would not have needed to open Balaam's spiritual eyes because he would've been able to see the angel's physical nature with his own physical eyes. But that's not how it happened. We can only extrapolate from the text that God provided for Balaam what the angel could not. The angel only appeared to Balaam after “the Lord opened” his spiritual eyes.
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One-Way Love
4 days ago
I'll have to ponder this concept that you have clarified here. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteHow can a being be purely physical? We are physical beings, for instance, but we have spiritual attributes as well.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that keeps bugging me is, like Gen 6:12, all flesh is corrupt. Could you discuss the meanings of flesh, the words translated as flesh, how this info jives with angels who are obviously not corrupt can be flesh? I'm sensing a similarity between the awesome power of God's creation such as the ferocious beasts who have no spirit. Perhaps angels are as diverse as the physical universe and as untamed and wild but in an eternal sense. This hints at the amazing power and creativity of God and his ability to create anything He conceives.
ReplyDeleteIt seems foreign to me that flesh would appear in heaven. Jesus has a glorified body in heaven I think and Paul says he's not sure what we'll look like when we go there.
ReplyDeleteanother component of this understanding of angels is they apparently scare the bejeebers out of us humans; even John in Revelations falls down in front of an angel; could one's reaction in their presence be so unphysical or unfleshly that there is no strength left to stand; this could explain the intense spirituality required to see an angel
ReplyDeletetest
ReplyDeleteokay; now I've figured it out
ReplyDeletebtw, the anonymous in the angels section is me
the anonymous in the light bulb is not
If worse comes to worse you can always sign your name at the end of an anonymous post . . . like this.
ReplyDelete- Stephen C.
that would be too ez!
ReplyDeletebut if angels made of flesh implies that human flesh may some day enter heaven or even that I can fellowship with God by non spiritual means, then I oppose the idea
ReplyDeleteEx 24 has an interesting passage about God and food and eating but I really don't know what it might imply other than fellowship and safety:
ReplyDelete9: Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,
Exd 24:10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.