What are the heavenly hosts?

We cannot intrude into things which we have not seen and must not make the attempt, nor seek to have a "religion of angels;" nor would this be the place to gather together the various teachings of Scripture regarding the host of heaven. It must suffice us to note that these beings, as their name both in Hebrew and Greek tells us, are Jehovah's messengers. They "excel in strength, and do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word" (Ps. 103:20). It is their happy privilege to worship and to serve, answering thus in some sense to the priestly worship and Levitical service of God's earthly children. In connection with this worship and service they are seen here gathered, as on some great occasion, before their divine Lord.

I may add that the same word which is rendered "hosts," e.g., Jehovah Tzebaoth [the Lord of hosts], Ps. 24:10, and Ps. 46:7, 11, and Ps. 48:8, is so rendered also of the hosts of the heavens in Ps. 33:6, and Ps. 44:9, our armies; and Ps. 68:11, "the company of those that published it." It is used of armies, angels, and created things as sun, moon, stars, etc.

Elisha had seen, as I said, these horses and chariots of Israel already. He knew that the God of Jeshurun rode on the heavens for Jeshurun's help, and he would have his servant's thoughts, in the present hour of danger, full of the same sense of this divine security. These chariots and horses of fire which fill the mountain, and which in the day of the translation of Elijah were accompanied by a whirlwind, were, I doubt not, a host or constellation of angels, those heavenly creatures, which, excelling in strength, stand in the presence of God, or go forth to minister on account of those who are heirs of salvation. For of them we read that "God maketh His angels spirits (winds) and His ministers a flame of fire" — and again, "the chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of angels." At the divine behest, they get ready to serve in whatever the exigency of the saint, or the occasion under the throne of God, may require. They formed a travelling chariot to convey Elijah to heaven, and to carry Lazarus to Abraham's bosom. They now form chariots of war, when Elisha is beleaguered by the hostile bands of Syria. Either singly or in company they visit the elect on earth, and either alone or in concert celebrate the joy of heaven in the audience of the earth. They have drawn the sword to smite a guilty city, or with the strong hand of love dragged the too reluctant one forth from the doomed city. They are either as winds or as fire. They are messengers of mercy, and executors of judgment, as "the Lord," who "is among them," may command. They attended on Mount Sinai when the law was published, and they hovered over the fields of Bethlehem when Jesus was born. And here, in their order and strength, they are as a wall of fire, a wall of salvation, round about our prophet.

Little is revealed concerning these wonderful hosts of the heavens, whether as to the magnitude of their numbers or the character and conditions of their life. The will of God being of necessity the law of life, wherever moral beings are found, we know they are kept, for every creature of whatever rank must be dependent. Servants of great and dignified rank they are, as seen both in Gabriel and Michael, and with different degrees both of authority and responsibility, classified and numbered for their respective services, they are spoken of as "mighty," "holy," and "elect." Far beyond man in strength, equally beyond him in power of transit, because not confined to a material body, and with interest and attention upon events in distant parts of the creation, they may be said to far excel the frail being who is confined to this planet (see Dan. 4:17; Luke 9:26; 2 Thess. 1:7; and 1 Tim. 5:21).

There are distinctions amongst the angelic hosts. They are distributed into various orders and ranks, but all, from the archangel down to the least, are servants. They have no relationship to God founded on redemption. They are servants, and never rise out of that position, nor do they desire it. The two great characteristics of angel life are unquestioning obedience and activity in service (Ps. 103:20; Heb. 1:7, 14). The “presence angels” is a familiar Jewish thought. They are supposed by some to be identical with the seven Spirits before the throne (Rev. 1:4), and by others the term is regarded as a borrowed expression from the apocryphal book of Tobit. Both are wrong. Why depart from obvious simplicity and force an interpretation for which there is really no adequate reason? What the angel Gabriel said of himself, “I am Gabriel, who stand before God” (Luke 1:19), is here said of these seven presence angels. As to the number, seven, they represent the full power of God in judicial judgment.

Thus the angels or "sons of God" are here seen for a moment or two, but exactly in the place and action which the general consent of all Scripture gives them. They are in attendance on the Lord in heaven, as those who had been forth, and were ready again to go forth, in the service of His good pleasure. For the whole Word thus bears witness to them. They are "ministering spirits," "ministers of His that do His pleasure." They are His hosts on high, and the Lord Himself is among them. Gabriel stands in His presence. The Seraphim attend His throne, and they are winged, either to veil their faces and their feet before the divine majesty, or to fly, like the wind, to execute the divine commands. All this is told of the angels throughout Scripture, and here the heavens are opened for a moment, and all this is seen and heard.

It is in the next three verses that his doings in respect of the "pleasant land" are found, the doings, indeed, to which our attention is specially directed as of great prophetic importance: "And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them" (v. 10). The first thing necessary for the understanding of this description is to ascertain the import of the "host of heaven." That the sun, moon, and stars are indicated by this term is seen in one of the Psalms: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth" (Psalm 33:6); and it is as plain from the Scriptures that the sun, moon, and stars represent, symbolically, ruling authorities — the sun supreme, the moon derivative, and the stars subordinate authorities. This symbolic significance is drawn from the actual functions assigned to the heavenly luminaries. In Genesis we read, "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [He made] the stars also" (chap. 1:16); and in Psalm 136 it says, "To Him that made great lights … the sun to rule by day … the moon and stars to rule by night" (vv. 7-9). In accordance with the emblematic meaning thus drawn, we have the sun, moon, and stars introduced in Rev. 12:1, and the stars in v. 4.*

The first three verses here are directly connected with Genesis 1. “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.” The work of the first creation occupied six days. “All the host of them” evidently refers to the innumerable host of stars and planets which are set by God in the heavens for the benefit of man on earth.

We do not meet with this name until 1 Sam. 1:3. It came in with prophetic testimony, faith laying hold of Jehovah's glory when Israel had corrupted themselves, and were in a weak and low estate. Scripture reveals that there is a mighty heavenly host, and principalities and powers in the unseen world. God is the God of them all, as well as God of all the elements of nature, which have often been used by Him to punish His enemies. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera." Judges 5:20. We read of 'the God of hosts' only a few times comparatively; it is mostly 'Jehovah of hosts,' and at times 'Jehovah God of hosts,' showing that it is in connection with Israel that God revealed Himself under this name. Jehovah of hosts dwelt between the cherubim. From the beginning of 1 Samuel these titles constantly occur to the end of the O.T. In Ps. 24:10 the Lord Jesus is shown to be "Jehovah of hosts: he is the king of glory:" cf. Eph. 1:20-21; Col. 1:16. The same title occurs in the N.T. as the LORD OF SABAOTH. Rom. 9:29 (in a quotation from Isa. 1:9), and James 5:4.

The conflict, then, is against Satan and his hosts, whatever the instrument used. Principalities and powers are spiritual beings in a position of rule with power to carry out their will. They may be good or evil beings; here they are evil beings, and their wickedness would seem to take a twofold direction. In reference to the world they are the rulers of the darkness of this world; in reference to Christians they are the “spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies”. The world is in darkness, in ignorance of God, and these spiritual beings rule and direct the darkness of paganism, philosophy, science falsely so-called, and infidelity, as well as the superstitions, corruptions and modernism of Christendom. The Christian is brought into the light, and blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. The opposition to the Christian takes, then, a religious character by spiritual beings who seek to rob him of the truth of his heavenly calling, beguile him into a path that is a denial of the truth, or into conduct that is inconsistent with it.