What is the hierarchy of angels?

Fallen Angels. — Of angels we here again read. We have been taught how far above the elect angels was the Son, who entered this scene as a man, and as a man was made lower than them. But other angels there are, those who fell, having left their first estate. For apostasy reared its head among the angelic host, and some were carried away by it. How that began, and who were the leaders in it, is to us wholly unknown. Little indeed do we know about the angelic hierarchy. We know that there are different ranks among them — principalities and powers (Eph. 1:21). We know their number is very great (Rev. 5:11). Yet of names of any of them we only know but two — Michael and Gabriel. Of none others have we knowledge from Scripture. Men may speak of others as Raphael, etc. Doubtless He who calls all the stars by their names designates each by some personal appellation. From us, however, that is hidden. And of the apostasy just referred to little is it that we know. Gen. 6:2 mentions it historically. Jude (6) and Peter (2 Peter 2:4) acquaint us with the present condition of the apostates, as well as with the awful future before them. Then Paul, to complete our knowledge of this subject, tells the Corinthians that Christians will judge angels (1 Cor. 6:3). God then can, and will, punish the apostate angels. Had we been like them, awaiting our doom, which of us could have questioned His right and His justice in so acting? And what has made the difference between our future and theirs? Nothing but the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ. With what thankfulness, therefore, should we reiterate the sacred writer's statement, "He takes hold of the seed of Abraham" (Heb. 2:16). For of no angel is that true.

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.

There are evidently gradations in rank, as we read of Michael the archangel, who is spoken of as “your prince” (Dan. 10:21), showing that he had a special place in relation to the nation of Israel. There is, we may conclude, an apportioning of angelic service in a highly organized manner.

But who is Michael (who is like unto God)? This distinguished angel is named five times in the Scriptures (Dan. 10:13, 21; Dan. 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7). He seems to be the leader of the angelic hierarchy, as he is termed by Jude “the archangel,” and in Daniel 10:13, where Michael is first named, he is spoken of as “first of the chief princes” (see margin). In each of the five passages where his name occurs, and in their several contexts, the Jewish people are in question. Evidently he is the angel to whose guardian care the interests of Israel are committed. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of Thy people,” i.e., the Jewish people (Dan. 12:1). The period referred to by the prophet is the same time beheld in vision by the Seer of Patmos. The Great Tribulation is to be entered upon. But Michael makes it his business to see that Israel does not perish. “He (Jacob) shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7). Michael is a militant angel. The contests between Persia and Babylon were to all appearance decided by the generalship and force of arms of the renowned Persian, Cyrus, the prophetically designated overthrower of the Babylonian monarchy and the deliverer of the Jewish people from their lengthened exile of seventy years (Isa. 44:28; 45:1-4), but it was not really so. The movements of nations, their wars, politics, and social policy are shaped and directed by higher and spiritual powers. There are angels, good and bad, who are constantly influencing men and governments, and of this chapter 10 of Daniel is a conspicuous example. Wars and strife on earth are but the reflex of opposing spiritual powers in the lower heavens. The invisible struggles between the powers of light and the forces of darkness are real and earnest (1 Sam. 16:13-15; 1 Kings 22:19-23), and by the influence of these spiritual beings the world is providentially governed. Angelic agency toward the saints of God on earth (Heb. 1:14; Acts 12) is a generally admitted truth, but their action in determining the issue of battles and shaping national policy, and human interests generally, is not recognised as it ought to be. Of course all is under the wise, strong, and controlling hand of God. He is the supreme Arbiter in human life and history. In the chapter referred to (Dan. 10) Michael goes to the help of an unnamed angel who had wrought at the court of Persia for twenty-one days (v. 13). With the assistance of the archangel the destinies of Persia were directed, resulting in the two associated facts: Babylon the oppressor overthrown, and Judah the oppressed delivered. Michael, too, figures in the contest about the body of Moses. Satan sought possession of the body no doubt to ensnare Israel to worship it, as they did the brazen serpent (2 Kings 18:4). But no human hand dug the grave of Moses. Jehovah “buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day” (Deut. 34:6). Jude in a few energetic sentences informs us of the cause of dispute between Satan and Michael. Now the contest in our chapter in the Apocalypse is not one between two chiefs simply, as mentioned by Jude, but here the respective forces gather under their distinguished leaders. “Michael and his angels went to war with the dragon. And the dragon fought, and his angels.”

The intelligent spiritual beings who are constantly referred to in scripture as God's messengers both as carrying good tidings and, as executors of God's judgements. We know little of their nature: "of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire," Heb. 1:7; and man is described as being a little inferior to the angels. Ps. 8:5 ; Heb. 2:7. There are apparently gradations in rank among them, described as principalities and powers, of which Christ as Man is now the head. Col. 2:10. Twice we meet with 'archangel:' an archangel's voice will accompany the rapture of the church, 1 Thess. 4:16; and 'Michael the archangel' contended with Satan about the body of Moses. Jude 9. He with his angels will fight with the dragon and his angels and cast them out of heaven. Rev. 12:7-8. Gabriel is the only other name of an angel revealed to us: he appeared to Daniel, to Zacharias, and to Mary: he said that he stood in the presence of God. Dan. 8:16; Dan. 9:21; Luke 1:19, 26.

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).

209 There was war in heaven. Michael, the archangel, and his angels fought, and the dragon; and the dragon was cast out of heaven, entirely and finally out of that place of authority and power which he had held, as ruling the world: "the rulers of the darkness of this world." As to who Michael is, we have mention of this exalted name in Jude, as contending with the devil; and in Daniel, as that great prince who stands up as the ruler of providential power, in favour of the Jewish people, who are the central object of providence in the arrangement of nations. I do not see that it is revealed that it is Christ under a mystical name, but it is certainly the direct superior agent of God's providential purposes, and thus the immediate instrument of favour to His people in that character. The notion of archangels is not sustained in Scripture. There are seven angels, who stand in the presence of God, spoken of. But Satan was cast out, finally out of heaven; and the announcement given, that salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ was come; and the reason - that the accuser of the brethren was cast down. Satan, in his character of anti-priest, had been unceasing in his accusations against the brethren; though, in the course of God's dealings with the saints, during this time of trial, He had suffered their being even put to death here below; yet they had overcome their enemy there really as to all the questions which Satan could raise before God. The accusations were of no avail, through the blood of the Lamb. Satan could not overthrow their conscience; and by the word of their testimony they maintained the truth and righteousness against him as the father of lies. So that while the great High Priest secured their cause above, Satan as a liar and accuser, seeking to deceive, was baffled and overcome; as a murderer, was submitted to, till Christ took the power, and he was turned out. The manner in which accusations and persecutions are connected, in principle, may be seen in the history of the book of Job. Thereon the dwellers in heaven - for this was the ground and place of the enmity and conflict (see Eph. 1, 2 and 6) - are called on to rejoice, for this conflict is ended. Christ, as the great High Priest, might have sustained them in the conflict with the accuser: but now the conflict* was ended. This is clearly what concerned the church, in this matter, as identified with Christ in His priestly exaltation. Woe then comes upon the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea; for the devil, not yet shut up, but cast from heaven, is come down in great wrath, knowing he has but a short time. Here the second paragraph of this chapter ends: the first at verse 8, where the parties are stated, as we have seen, in the original idea and purpose; here the actings of heaven's deliverance from his power and the consequence of this to the church, which properly sits in heavenly places (and indeed all heavenly saints); then, verse 13, what the devil did when cast down to earth, after he was cast out of heaven.

198 Daniel 12:1. "And at that time shall Michael stand up," etc. He appears to be the prince of the angels, or the archangel. It is a custom to speak of archangels, but the word of God mentions only one, the chief of the angels. I am silent as to who it is, because the Scripture is; but however this may be, the intervention is a providential angelic one. Michael is there in relationship with the people of Israel. By this passage we learn who it is that will stand for the children of Daniel's people, as well as the excellency of this angelic power which God in His providence employs - " who standeth for the children of thy people." It is a time of trouble, as we have seen, and herein consists the difference of God's acting, as I have just considered it. There is now a providence of God which is a concealed government; but hereafter there will be a manifest and public rule by Christ, when everything will appear - a government direct from God. There is now a government of arrangement, by which all things are made to "work together for good to them that love God," and for the accomplishment of His purposes; but this action is usually a concealed one. In Esther we have a remarkable instance. The name of God is not found in the book; the Spirit has wished to shew that, whilst the Jews were in captivity, God had His eyes upon them, but that He acted in a hidden manner and would not name Himself in their midst.

Cherubim are thus indicative of the government of God upon earth; seraphim, of His nature.

We find them both in Revelation 4, where the living creatures are of cherubic character, but crying, "Holy, holy, holy." Seraphim, means, "burners."

In the first place, it must be observed that "the prince of the kingdom of Persia" is an angel; for Michael, termed in the same verse "one of the chief princes," and in Daniel 12. "the great prince" in connection with Israel, is known, on the authority of Jude, to be the archangel. If so, inasmuch as this "prince" of Persia is seen here acting in opposition to the mind of God, he is a bad angel, in fact, one of Satan's princes.. This will help us to understand what we find often mentioned in the New Testament, viz., that there are good principalities and powers (Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16, Col. 2:10; 1 Peter 3:22), and bad principalities and powers (Rom. 8:38; Eph. 6:12, etc.). It would seem, therefore, that Satan has imitated the kingdom of God,* and formed his gradations of rank and power according to the divine model. Having therefore seen that God had appointed the archangel Michael to watch over the interests of Israel in His providential government, Satan sent one of his angels to care for his interests in Persia, which at this time held the sovereignty of the earth, and consequently to frustrate, wherever possible, the activities of God upon the earth. In how far this mode of operation may continue during the day of grace we are not distinctly informed. We do find, however, that the Lord, during His sojourn on the earth, referred to the angels of little children, that Peter was delivered from prison through the instrumentality of an angel, that angels are "sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation and it is plain from Daniel 12 that Michael's office continues to the end. And in regard to evil spirits or angels, we learn from Ephesians that their activities and energy are ceaseless (see Eph. 2:2; Eph. 6:12) against the children of God. Moreover Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians says expressly, "Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us" (1 Thess. 2:18). We have, therefore, to count, when walking in God's ways and doing His will, upon the incessant and malevolent opposition of the Evil One through his emissaries; and it is to our loss when we forget this character of the enemy of God and of our souls, for we forget with it our need of being clothed with the panoply of God, and of constant vigilance against Satan's devices.