Earthly And Heavenly Angels

We begin with the reminder that angels are God’s messengers whom He sends to do His will and work, here on the earth. We acknowledge that God created heaven and earth and He is Supreme ruler of both. It is His desire, His rule and His way that His Sovereign Will be done on the earth as it is done in heaven. God’s messengers therefore, can either be heavenly or earthly.

We are still with our fully lighted text from Exodus 14: 19a. Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. Exodus 14: 19a. We have had many insights on this text and today, we are keeping watch on the angel, God’s heavenly servant and on Moses, God’s earthly servant. God has two messengers, as it were, with His people as they face this dilemma. There is the heavenly angel who is travelling behind the children of God. Along with the heavenly being, there is God’s earthly messenger who is leading the children of Israel. If an angel is God’s messenger then surely it is correct to see Moses as God’s earthly angel.

Let’s press this point home a bit more. Travelling behind Israel’s army is a heavenly being and leading at the front, is a human being. O, the unfathomable ways of God, His unsearchable paths, which clearly and with undivided authority, show His Supreme Lordship!

Oftentimes, we look for a heavenly being, some supernatural form or force, to help us in impossible dilemmas, while our Lord is showing us that we have all we need, in the very earthly vehicle or vessel, with whom He has placed us. Receive this illumination in this way, as you view, with different eye, what is taking place with God’s children, the Israelites. They are being led by Moses, an earthly vehicle, to a place that requires a heavenly vehicle to get them there. Why is this? This is so because they have come to the point where only a heavenly, supernatural being can help them. Watch them at the raging, terrifying, life-demanding, wicked and disastrous Red Sea.  

Look at your life, or your people’s lives even. See whether or not you are looking for some supernatural being to rescue you, save you, help you and take you safely over your own Red Sea. 

Clearly notice what is happening with God’s children. God knows that it is a very rough, touch-and-go situation for them, as they see it. He understands that they are afraid and totally helpless to save themselves from the organized, over-confident, advancing, formidable enemy, as they perceive it to be. God realizes that they only see utter destruction, before and behind them, as they think it to be. God sees and knows all of this about His children, for He knows them all. Sadly, God’s children do not remember who He is to them.

They do not remember all that He did in Egypt, to liberate them from the inhumane conditions under which they lived in slavery and bondage in Egypt, and the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh. So engulfed by fear are they, of their present Red Sea predicament, they have forgotten the Lord, their God and Father. They are not even aware that they have two of God’s angels with them. Indeed, they have His heavenly angel, who is presently travelling behind them and they have God’s earthly angel, Moses, who is travelling in front of them.

Pause for a moment! Are you, your family, your friend, your neighbour or someone you have been told about, facing a present, pressing dilemma?  May God, the Holy Spirit bring you the Light of inner spiritual sight to be strengthened and brightened in the knowledge that God is still Supreme Ruler of all things and all people. May your countenance be lit up with unalterable assurance that God is with you in His present angels.