Angels Volume 1 - Biblical Angels - Chuck Missler

well welcome to our second session as we explore the realm of angels and in the previous section we talked about the realm in general and we highlighted what we call the Berean challenge and that's to first of all set aside our misconceptions you know all of us inherently have perceptions coming from fiction from traditions from literature about angels and so a part of our problem in taking a subject like this is the set aside our misconceptions about our physical reality most of us have been substantially missed taught by the misguided programs in schools we haven't taken advantage of the advances of science where we've learned a great deal some shocking things about the reality of our what we call our reality our physical reality and we covered some of that in the first session and try to set up a groundwork against which to try to understand this strange world that I call the meta Kazem that world which is beyond the specific boundaries of the reality that we experience well and so we're now going to in this session move into biblical angels we can talk about the characteristics and limitations that we know from the truth of the Bible and we'll talk about some of the specific major players we encounter there so session 1 was just the groundwork from last time this time we're going to get right into biblical angels not fiction not English English literature not the silly little things you see on Christmas cards or Renaissance art and so forth but the reality of these creatures that are incredibly powerful and are there to minister to us strangely enough we need to understand that biblical angels and the first thing we have to focus on what do we know for certain we're not going to rely on occult we're not going to rely on the non biblical sources that pervade our libraries but there are ancient records that support the concept of a Nephilim these strange hybrids of the past every major culture deals with us and we'll be talking about that after we settle more groundwork for it but we're going to focus on the biblical sources the Holy Bible as a source of information that has uniquely confirmed itself by the fact that you can demonstrate that its origin is of extraterrestrial origin it is it is a supernatural and a source and it of course talks about angels all through it what can a nulls actually do and we're going to talk about the capabilities and also what they can't do some of the limitations and so we're going to talk about some super angels angels that are extraordinary called cherubim and Seraphim will talk about guardian angels I always thought that was just a a nursery tradition no it turns out their biblical Jesus makes reference to them and so forth so and we're going to talk about the major star players two of them that we actually know their names they have job descriptions in effect Gabriel and Michael and we'll talk a little bit about that as we go here but the word angel in the Hebrew Moloch actually is simply one who is dispatched with a message and we see that term used 196 times in the scripture over a hundred times its referred to as angels in the sense of a supernatural messenger of some kind but 98 times it's just the word messenger the term can be used just for a messenger and four times is even used for ambassadors so the term has its own ambiguities in the Greek translation of the Old Testament and in the new the word is Angelo's and that again it means a messenger or an envoy somebody who is sent implicitly from God and 179 times that's translated angels seven times just as messengers and the 7-letter seven churches make reference to these and some scholars think they're just the name for the passion of those churches but most scholars I think ascribe a supernatural role to them and so the Ministry of angels what do they actually do what are they there for and we know from Hebrews 1 that they continually serve those who will inherit salvation and if you're one of those the Aces are there to serve you whether you realize it or not they're real it's not just a euphemism or a cliche they're very live and real they reveal unknown truth there's a number of places in the Book of Daniel also the book of Acts where angels reveal something you didn't know before they give personal guidance all through the New Testament they protect you from harm there are cases where you are protected from harm you may not even realize it and they deliver us from our enemies in acts several places and so forth that's their ministry and it may be invisible but it's very very actually tent has tangible results and we see angels encouraging and strengthening Jacob was encouraged in Genesis 32 Daniel all through the Book of Daniel he is ministered by angels in Daniel 8 and 10 and so look at some of those specifically for their illumination Paul of course had frequent encounters with angels and they provided food for Elijah back in first Kings we see them all through the Bible ministering helping providing shielding strengthening and so angels guide us ourselves we learn from Genesis 19 they encourage us in judges 6 and the Angels deliver us as in x12 and elsewhere and they enlighten us and they empower us when you have a duty or a requirement angels often are dispatched to facilitate that empowerment and to protect us now this protection thing can be very very real and I'm going to recount the UA incident that occurred not many weeks ago to me personally and I was in Auckland for a critical meeting I because it was so critical I arrived there the night before stayed any convenient motel in anticipation of a very key meeting the following morning I woke up early still dark and it was raining and I went down to the place that would probably open for breakfast shortly and as I went down there I did something very foolish I took a little shortcut slipped on some rocks and had a very very bad fall and I as I realized I had really done something pretty stupid had a very bad fall I read I realized I couldn't see out of my left eye it was starting to swell and to make a long story short I thought I had lost the sight of my left eye fortunately it just got very very swollen and and it turned out later we discovered it wasn't that serious but we also it when I later talked to doctors it was clear that my glasses had protected my eye from any damage I had a very very severe head shock but it there was no damage to the cornea or the retina any of that there was no actual eye damage even though the swelling kept me from seeing for a while and what protected my eye clearly from the scarring was my glasses but as I began to assemble the events of my mind when I was startled to realize as I after I fell I obviously had to find my glasses and my glasses actually when I finally had enough light to see better and so forth my glasses were all more than ten yards away neatly put on a little ledge which I picked up and put on and later on discovered it was the glasses that had protected my eye for more serious damage and as we tried to later reconstruct what actually happened how I fell and what really happened the more we tried to do that the more puzzling it was because it was clear that the glasses had protected my eye and yet they were a substantial distance from where I fell and it may sound very corny and sin and so forth but I they believe that I have experience of some 91 in verse 11 12 says he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone and I was really startled to realize as I tried to reconstruct the events of that the darkness of that early morning that the protection I had kept me from having a serious injury could have been very very very serious I ended up going to the meeting all right it just looked like I had a swollen back I'm in a bad fight or something we didn't realize the seriousness of it until later and and as the doctors analyzed it and so forth but fortunately there was no permanent damage and it as and it's also what's strange is the the very glasses I'm wearing were the ones that somehow protected my the eye itself for what it's worth it I suspect there are many many times there were beneficiaries of intervention by angels that were not even aware of and we become aware of that only by really studying and realizing what God is doing and understand his purposes now the characteristics of angels angels are not abstractions or concepts they are actual personal beings what do I mean by that they have intellect we learned from Matthew 28 and first Peter 1 they have emotions they care in job 38 and Luke two and 15 we find references to that they have will they make choices they can make bad choices and will discover the the results of some of the Angels bad choices as we mature into in the study a little further and so not only are they personal but they're also spirit beings what do I mean by that they are not limited to material bodies they are distinctive in that they can materialize but they also are not limited to what we would consider a material body they can only be in one place at one time they're not ubiquitous they're not like God who could be everywhere they have locality and they can only be in one place at one time we learned from several passages they appear when we see them they usually appear in the form of men we don't see any case where they appear as a woman despite the use of that idiom in literature and so forth they always appear in the form of men sometimes in natural sight with human functions in Genesis 18 we see that and in the chapter follow in chapter 19 sometimes the angels are seen by some and not others and we we saw an example of that in 2nd King 6 and so forth we do know they do not reproduce nor do they die they can engage in reproductive mischief and we'll talk about some specific cases of that from the biblical text as we go now they do have physical reality we need to understand that they lead people by the hand in Genesis 19 they actually indulge in combat and there's a rather remarkable case of that in 2nd Kings 19 let's take a look at it here where they slaughtered a hundred and eighty five thousand Syrians in 2nd Kings chapter 19 in verse 35 it indicates that it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 104 scorn 5 is the Old English way of what we would say today and 185 thousand and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses so this was a serious assault in fact Sennacherib the king of Assyria never after that ever attacked Jerusalem again he was under the a unique protection and that was a major event in that adversary and so Seneca REM never again undertook an invasion of Jerusalem they had previously wiped out the northern kingdom but in going against the southern kingdom God protected them we're advised in the New Testament many of us have entertained angels unawares that's this very strange idea but it's in Hebrews 13:2 where Paul tells us be not forgetful to entertain strangers dangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares strange idea not only can they appear as people we could mistake them as people they're able to do that that's a capability they have and that may be strange in the absence of the background we gave you in the first session but we'll keep moving here and angels have attributes in a degree greater than man but less than God we make mistakes both ways they have more knowledge than man but less than God and they have more power than man but less than God so it's on the one hand we need to understand their reality but we also need to be sensitive to their limitations and angels are organized they're not random individuals on assignments they are ranked and organized one there's one Archangel we used term Archangel is actually one his name happens to be Michael and he's named in in Jude 9 and he shows up in Paul's letters also and there are also chief Prince's in other words in some sense some are more senior than others we'll explore a reference to that when we get into Daniel chapter 10 and there's a certain kind of angel that we call a cherubim in the Hebrew I think it's care of him it's it's got a hard say but we have a tendency to take the CH softly the cherubim a cherub is singular cherubim is the plural and it's a it's a cherub biblically is not a little plump baby with wings as is so often characterized in Renaissance art that's a literary fiction concept that it isn't it couldn't be more distant it wouldn't be possibly be more distant than that and the reality is and and in fact cherubim are assigned to guard the way to the Tree of Life when Adam is kicked out of the Garden of Eden so there's something very powerful and very fundamental about the cherubim and in fact one of the cherubim one of the cherubs was in charge of all the rest and got carried away on an ego trip and we know that one as Satan and he'll be a special focus of our study of course as we go on here we also encounter especially in the Book of Isaiah in fact only in this Book of Isaiah a flaming one of some kind called a Seraphim and the very word implies a source of light like he's a source of brightness and we encounter him in Isaiah 6 it's the only place we do but I'll show you why I think that's synonymous with the creatures that we see in revelation 4 in Revelation 4 we find some living creatures described appear to be very much identical with what Isaiah called Seraphim in Isaiah 6 and so we'll be looking at these more carefully the major players of course there's the first major player I want to talk about is a source of a lot of confusion frequently in the Old Testament we read of the angel of the Lord and most scholars infer from what we know about them that those references are not angel in the diminutive sense but it's an idiom of an Old Testament appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ before his incarnation when you don't really understand something you give it a fancy name so scholars call those theophanies or kris dolphinese in other words it's an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament before Bethlehem before he became a man and dwelt among us he was able to appear and participate in a number of events and that when he does so the term that we find in the text has been translated the angel of the Lord I want to emphasize that because what we know about him it goes far beyond what we usually find out about angels and so we'll call me that theophanies are in a special category if you will and but in the realm of angels as we think of angels Gabriel is one of the most frequently encountered guys and as we study his assignments and his actions we discover my inference that he appears to be primarily a messianic messenger he's usually announcing something that as something directly to do with the advent of the Messiah the Christ if you will in the old testament and the new that seems to be his main job another angel that has a name and apparently we can infer his job description is a guy by the name of Michael and he is clearly a military leader on behalf of Israel all his assignments are directly labeled in in those terms we're going to explore these senior ranks of angels cherubim Seraphim and so forth as a group we're going to discover that they have four phases and those four phases are in common to each category strangely enough and there's something very peculiar about that insignia those four phases that we associate with the cherubim one of those cherubim turned bad got an ego trip and wanted to be equal to God and and he had a career that we're gonna explore especially because by the name of Lucifer or more commonly Satan he is designated in the text that at one time he was the cherub that covereth in other words the one in charge and it's from there that he got into trouble and he took some lieutenants with him we're gonna talk about a patent in apollyon which are terms that mean the destroyer and we'll also talk about Gog the king of the locusts and what are the what's all that about and we'll discover they are apparently some of his senior lieutenants under him but perhaps a notch more powerful than the rest we'll learn that about a third of the angels were involved in that conspiracy that caused them to get cast out so we're also going to explore a creature that we call demons and we're going to discover that demons are different than angels angels and demons appear to have different limitations different characteristics and exploring all those in fact in it we'll devote our next session to that and the first of these right Don down through the senior ranks and so forth we deal in this session and we want to leave these other darker topics to a separate session that will follow this one site we've got session 3 which will usher in the second half of our four part series on angels but the angel of the Lord let's talk a little bit about that guy when when we to Hagar we discover that in Genesis 16 she identifies him as the Lord an angel visits her and ministers to her to Abraham himself when the birth of Isaac was announced in Genesis 18 when he was about to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22 we've seen eight angelic encounter but most scholars infer from details and in the text that those were actually the angel the Lord on an idiom if you will of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and we see to Jacob we find he wrestles with an angel until he gets his blessing in that strange episode in Genesis 31 and there again whether it was that a normal angel or was it indeed the Lord Himself scholars have divided opinions about that and of course to Moses at the burning bush we Moses has this encounter with the Lord and we get the impression from John chapter 8 that Jesus identifies himself with that voice of the burning bush and the I am statement that was there given in Exodus chapters 3 and 4 and so those are Old Testament appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ himself and not to be confused with the messengers that populate many of the other passages he appears to Israel of course he led the Israel's out of Egypt and Exodus 14 and he led Israel through the wilderness for 38 years or anomaly 40 years in the in the rest of the Torah there he appears to bail him and his talking donkey in numbers 22 Joshua is he he approaches Jericho in Joshua 5 Joshua at the end of chapter 5 is after dinner apparently encounters a stranger and challenges him like a century and the stranger identifies himself to Joshua by asking to take off his shoes he's on holy ground and of course Joshua realizes that reminds him of the episode he had previous with Moses at the burning bush and some 40 years earlier and we begin to realize that the personage at the end of Joshua chapter 5 is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ when they ask you who fought the Battle of Jericho despite the musical it wasn't Joshua it was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ and that gets to be very very relevant for us to understand because almost every rule of the Torah is violated in the attack on Jericho they didn't rest the seventh day they march seven times around and so forth they kept silence for six that is it was at the last time that they shouted and the walls came down when you start studying the conquest of Jericho in the in the book of Joshua you discover if you look carefully that it's an outline of the book of Revelation with the decimal point moved over so to speak and so the the role of the leader there is very key in many many ways and that's a study in its own right but recognize that's far more than an angel that encountered Joshua there in Jericho Gideon's call as a judge in judges six Samson's mother Manoa has an encounter there again if you study that passage carefully the implications are that it's far more than a normal angel that was there and so so let's shift and talk about a specific guy by the name of Gabriel probably have one of our favorites because he's always on some very very pleasant errands and he identifies himself in the New Testament Luke chapter 1 he says I am Gabriel who stand in the presence of God what a privilege so he's one of the insiders he's a key guy and he was the angel that was sent to Daniel to explain the vision of the RAM and the goat very key visits in Daniel chapter 8 and perhaps even more profoundly in Daniel chapter 9 he's the one that gives Daniel the fabled 70 week prophecy he tells Daniel exact day that the Messiah was going to emerge to present himself as a king to Jerusalem and when you get to Luke 19 you discover we call the triumphal entry you discover it is on the very day that Gabriel had told Daniel so many centuries before so Gabriel was the one that delivered that and he's also the one that announced the birth of John the Baptist the advanced advanced guy for the Lord Jesus himself and then of course he announced the birth of the Messiah to marry in Luke chapter 1 also so he's always announcing things he's the press agent so to speak he's the one that is the advanced guy and but it's always in some way directly related to the advent of the Yeshua HaMashiach the Lord Jesus Christ and now the other guy that we see prominently named and and is out there with us is a guy by the name of Michael and I want you to notice with Gabriel there's no blowing of horns I don't know were cable boy or Hornet you see some of you see getting to a into into the tongue-in-cheek comedy world I have nothing to do with the biblical truth and Michael is another one Michael is not wrong about anywhere I don't know they even get the basis for it for for the parodies if you will know Michael is a key guy he is the Archangel and we see him so identified in Jude 9 and he's the guy that calls us in the rapture in 1st Thessalonians 4 the voice of the Archangel that's Michael and so there's a lot of scholastic debate what is it you're going to hear at the rapture well apparently it's Michael's voice what is he calling I believe he calls his each by name I think we'll hear our name call just I think the model there is when Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb but he in any case is a military leader on behalf of Israel and he is so identified he's one of the chief Prince's in Daniel 10 we're gonna look at that later he's described as your prince in other words he's a prince a leader an angelic leader specifically for the Jewish interests for Israel and in Daniel 12 he's the Great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people there again the children die people that's a King James term in the International Standard Version they've done something interesting the the children of Israel phrase in the King James has been translated in the International Standard Version as Israelis I like that even that's pretty cool and so so and when we get to Revelation chapter 12 there's a summary chapter that sort of summarizes the career of Satan and we'll be studying that in some detail in the next session but we'll notice there that there's a war in heaven described in verse 7 of chapter 12 there was a war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against and it was Satan the dragon and it was Satan and his angels so there's a war in heaven but the adversary of Satan is Michael and his angels so Michael is a commander of a military host of angels powerful guy and on behalf of Israel and people say aren't you worried about Israel when we visit there a lot no I'm not worried about Israel because he that keepeth Israel neither slumber nor sleep then of course is referring to God but I think it also includes Michael and so there is a strange thing about Michael though that raises a lot of questions because when we get to the book of Jude there's a strange illusion that Jude makes in his letter he's speaking of apostasy and so forth his likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise Dominion and speak evil of dignities so the point that Jude is that Jude is going to make is that we should not speak evil of dignities whether we agree with him or not we don't speak evil of them but the example he uses has to be one of the strangest examples in the entire Bible the example of the dignity he uses is none other than Satan and he says yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses there's not bring against him a railing accusation but said the in other words Michael apparently is in a contest with Satan over the body of Moses and that leads to a whole bunch of scholastic injections what that's what is that really all about nobody knows this the only illusion we have Jude's readers apparently were aware of this because he uses this as an example to make another point but yet Michael the Archangel areas identified when contending with the devil he disputed about the body Moses there's not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke you even in that contest he lets the Lord deal with Satan he doesn't deal with him directly appear in some sense now why is he disputing with Satan or the body of Moses we don't know that's a whole area of conjecture and he disputed about the body of Moses we do know that Moses did appear at the Transfiguration in Matthew 17 and both Moses and Elijah appear at the Transfiguration and we also suspect for a number of reasons that Moses will be one of the two witnesses that makes an appearance in revelation 11 and so most scholars assume that this in some sense relates to those appearances but that rate leads to a lot of other conjectures that go beyond our answers here these super angels that we're dealing with here we have the cherubim and will notice in the references of cherubim they appear to have four wings not just two is usually pictured but they're described as having four and they guard the Tree of Life in Genesis 3 and the the adorn the mercy seat and not only on the mercy seat in gold but also over them in very large manner in Solomon's Temple so they're used idiomatically quite frequently now the Seraphim we encounter in Isaiah six have six wings not four is that a big deal don't know but it clearly it's a distinctive and Messiah has a very very key opportunity to see the throne of God and he describes it in the sixth chapter of Isaiah and it's it's we don't know how many Seraphim there are there's a plurality of them obviously more than three in Hebrew of plural is always three or more and so in the Greek especially in Revelation chapter 4 we're going to encounter zoun which is the Greek term it should be translated living creatures some of your Bibles translated beasts it's not that word in the Greek at all and that needs to be correct the King James has a mistake in the vision of the throne of God that John sees and while he's went Patmos is recorded in Revelation chapters four and five and we encounter we had counters there these living things these living creatures and the Greek term he uses is Xun not theory on theory and is a vicious beast the beasts in Revelation 13 is a different word the living creatures chapter 4 is the words own so there's some confusion that gets created the King James because they use the translators use the word beast in both places and that's unfortunate but let's take a look there are two chapters that are quite detailed about the cherubim the throne of God as seen in the Old Testament especially by Ezekiel and it's a combination throne chariot thing and notice about it's all about Ezekiel and his wheels and what I've taken liberty of decorating my slide here with a reminder from our first session we're going to be I believe we're going to be dealing in what's called hyper spaces spaces of more than three dimensions you and I are familiar with Euclidean space linked with height we're used to a three-dimensional space but hyper spaces are spaces with more than three so we can have a two dimensional cube we can have a three-dimensional cube we could have a four dimensional cube and the one thing we discover when you go up a dimension beyond the dimensions we're familiar with it's very non-intuitive so I've taken the liberty of decorating the slide with a four dimensional cube unraveled in three dimensions that we talked about last session and also a Claudia manifold which again is a hyperspace kind of representation for mathematics I put them on a slide just to remind us that we're moving into what I believe is a space of more than three dimensions and so let's go into ezekiel chapter 1 the word of the lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest the son of Busey in the land of the Chaldeans by the river he bar and the hand of the Lord was there upon him and I looked and behold a world wind came out of the north a great cloud and a fire infolding itself and a brightness was about it and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber out of the midst of the fire so this comes out of the north it's very interesting I'm not quite sure why but the word north is usually used idiomatically at least to represent God and the source Satan aspires to be on the sides of the north whatever that means and I don't think it means a I don't think it's a geocentric term I think it's something much larger but that's a speculation on my part but it's usually that term is frequently used in Scripture to point toward the throne of God for some reason and so why is it I'm not sure but moving on and so and the brightness was about it and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber out of the midst of fire whenever we see the throne of God whether it's here or in Isaiah 6 it's always a source of light of flames fire or idiomatic of a very word seraphim implies that God or God is a consuming fire we were told in Hebrews 12 God is light John reminds us in his letters and appalled at the time of his conversion saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun in fact many scholars believe that's where he got his eye problem he apparently suffered from some eye problems later that seemed that we assume may have had something to do with the Damascus Road experience and so moving on and out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures and this was their appearance they had the likeness of a man now four living creatures and these are the cherubim that we're going to see amplified also in chapter 10 and so the likeness of man likeness means it's similar but not identical with be careful with that word likeness it's a talking about a simile here it's not a sin in them likeness expresses general form appearance a particular aspect so the two terms that both appear here and likeness appears 10 times the word for appearance 14 times they're not exactly the same one is more specific than the other and the Prophet senses the inadequacy of human speech to describe what we would call the inevitable difficult there's no way to express what he's going to deal with he's going to do the best he can it says everyone had four faces and everyone had four wings so they each had four faces each had four wings of the cherubim here and we're going to talk a lot about these four faces later on and I want to get to in verse ten they'll be identified for us and their feet were straight feet the sole of their feet was like the soul of the cast foot and they sparkle like the color of burnished brass and they had hands of a man under their wings on their four sides they and they four had their faces and their wings and the wings were joined one to another they turned not when they went they went everyone straight forward strange terms not sure exactly what it means but it's going to be emphasized again and again throughout these accounts and the creatures we believe symbolize the glory and power of God they turn not when they went we know from James and and God there's no variables returning that's an optical term meaning absence of parallax which is mathematically the same thing as being at infinity and no parallax the focus is at infinity and so the apparently could see in all directions and move in all directions without turning and that's sort of the the implication here and as for the lightness of their faces they four had the face of a man the face of a lion on the right side and the forehead the face of an ox on the left side they four also had the face of an eagle so there's a man a lion and a an ox and an eagle we're going to see these four phases show up again and again and again in the strangest ways so just put that you know it's the face of a man a lion an ox and an eagle we'll explore that later they seem to have some major significance if nothing else in the architecture of the Bible itself and we'll go through that as we go thus were their faces and their wings were stretched upward two wings of every one were joined one to another and two covered their bodies and they went everyone straight forward whether the spirit was to go they win and they turned not when they went and that's a strange again that may be just a hint of the hyper dimensionality that we're dealing with here I'm not sure and they turned that when they went see God is moving forward on undeviating Lee unhesitatingly toward the accomplishment of his purpose in the world today we need to understand that nothing will deter God from what he's going to accomplish nothing can sidetrack him at all it's part of the thought that may be included here as for the likeness of the living creatures their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps though there was a source of light they went up and down among the living creatures and the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightening so somewhat doing a movie here with special effects could go wild here but as like burning coals of fire and God is light of course and and Jesus himself said I am the light of the world these idioms are not accidental they're probably very very carefully chosen and and the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning now as I beheld the living creatures behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures with his four faces and the appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of Beryl and they then the four had one likeness their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel now that isn't very helpful the more you think about that it could be any of a lot of different things we think of wheels in many contexts of course of the wheels of the throne of the Ancient of Days is a reference from Daniel 7 it was obviously very prevalent in the basis of the upsell of the furniture in Solomon's Temple and the chariot and first chronicles of 28 wheels seemed to be could be wheels as we think of them or it may hit be their attempt to describe something that neither of us are familiar with and when they went they went upon the four sides and they turned not when they went there's that phrase again it or not when they went and again this may be a constriction of our misunderstanding of the dimensionality therein God is a God of intelligent purpose you and I are not living in a universe that is moving in the future aimlessly and without purpose and there's another fundamental we haven't spent a lot of time on I want to underscore it as we go here rammed randomness does not exist in nature there are two concepts in mathematics that we cannot find in the physical world one is infinity we can describe it we can postulate about it but we can't find any examples of what the universe is not infinite and large and we can't even get infinitely small we can't get below Planck's constant and smallness so ratso infinity doesn't is elusive in our physical world the other concepts that you can't find amazingly is randomness and that's what led to a new field of mathematics called the theory of chaos that randomness itself if you pursue it turns out to be quite elusive so that does not seem to exist in nature God has a purpose and everything he does God has a purpose for every atom which he has created and he has a purpose for you and the very fact that you and I are alive today reveals that we are to accomplish a purpose for God we have no idea what that might be but clearly he has a purpose for everything he's done and he's created you and he has a purpose for you and that's the great adventure in life is to discover what it is moving on as for their wings they were so high that they were dreadful and the rings were full roundabout them for and so they're full of eyes that's and the idiom expressing the omniscience of God as he rules his creation and the movements of his wheels and cherubim are congruent with his omniscience and all the speaks of God's constant working in the world his power his glory his purpose for a man as Providence is all wrapped up in these idioms here in dealing with the throne of God itself and when the living creatures went the wheels went by them and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up and they all this seems to speak of ceaseless activity and the energy of God and whithersoever the spirit was to go they went thither was their spirit to go the wheels were lifted up over against them the spirit of a living creature was in the wheels and so they guarded the throne of God as we will to see in chapter 4 of Revelation here shortly they protect the throne and that they do not allow man in his sin to come into the presence of God the Seraphim especially are there apparently guarding the holiness of God and they also indicate though in contrast that the way that man is to come when those went they went when those stood they stood and when those who lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up over against him the spirit of a living creature was in the wheels and the lightness of the firmament on the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal stretched over their heads above and the firm this word firmament shows up in Genesis of course very key word rakia it's not empty at the word actually means a solid expanse and it occurs 17 times in the scriptures we talked a little bit about that in our first session the whole idea of the heavens being having substance not not emptiness and so that parently here we're seeing a beautiful platform above the wheels and the chairmen containing the throne of God so there all this is all supporting if you will to throne under the firmament where the wings straight one toward the other everyone had to what which covered on this side and everyone had to which covered that side their bodies and so God is still on the throne his well-being accomplished in this world even if we don't see it and the complex movements of the cherubim and the wheels suggest how intricate is God's providence in the universe perfect harmony and order one can easily extrapolate from these comments and as and when they went I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of Great Waters it has the voice of the Almighty the voice of speech I think that's an interesting phrase to find here in this dimensionality the voice of speech as the noise of a host when they stood they let down their wings and I could almost footnote the voice of speech and put Psalm 19 the first nine verses of that fitting right in there the heavens declare the glory of God every every phrase there is replete with all the verbs of information Sciences but we'll move on here the voice of the almighty voice of speech remember the seven thunders in Revelation John was about to write so to see that I'll do it not so he currently understood it but he was not allowed to write it until they declare it so as a little mystery there that I'll leave with you to explore in Revelation 10 what are these seven thunders I suspect we are listed in Psalm 29 but that's a rabbit trail out you chase on your own sounds like the noise of Great Waters we find that phrase in the psalm several places and in Isaiah like the thunder of the Almighty the voice of God seven times in Psalm twenty nine I think those are the voice of the seven thunders actually and sound of a tumult like the sound of a host we find that phrase the word almighty by the way is a pre mosaic term for God it's used in all kinds of poetry and it's usually prefixed with el El Shaddai the the almighty nests of God actually and there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads and when they stood they had let down their wings and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man above it above opponent the appearance of a man and we recall one of the declarations of Jesus Christ that opens the Gospel of John is that the Word was made flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among us and on we go here and I saw as the color of amber as the experience of the fire around about within it from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire and it had brightness round about and the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain so was the appearance of the brightness all round about it this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord and when I saw it I fell on my face and I heard a voice of one that spake and that that's chapter one we're gonna skip a lot of it rested we're gonna jump right into chapter 10 of Ezekiel because he again picks up these topics to give us some perceptions of the cherubim and again so again we're talking about gods and I want to remind you I use these little reminders that we're talking about a hyperspace not three dimensions so we it acquires a certain patients in our part to try to understand Ezekiel's problem as he tries to find words to describe what it is he saw and I look to behold in the firmament there was a above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of a throne and so the throne was empty apparently and the chariot awaited the Lord's return he's going to describe the removal of God's glory from Israel in chapter 10 in the form of this leaving and that's what that's the that's the narrative event that's going on here and he spake unto the man clothed with linen and said go but in between the wheels even under the cherub and fill thine hand with the coals of fire from between the cherubims and scatter them over the city and he went in in my sight and the man clothed the linen that says is this is the gutta who if you will in this chapter that becomes the agent of destruction and that's an adverse assignment that he has go in between the wheels and between the cherubims and the word there is gal gal wheel it's a whirl or whirling whirlwind it's or anything and a gal gal is a some kind of a collective term for the whole contrivance it can be used of wagons wheels whirlwinds it's both singular but can be a collective describing the whole wheel work and so as you look at these things when you have wheels within wheels it can be all kinds of things that we don't normally imagine and so I have a good friend of mine is Robert de Sciglio is he's the guy that saved Apollo 13 he's a legend within the space industry he loves to talk about Explorer conjecture about Ephesians 10 these wheels within wheels he tends to see all these things as some kind of elaborate spacecraft and what I think what I usually argue with him about is it it's - I think it's it's waste of time to try to picture these things because we're dealing in a hyper space not the three dimensions that were relatively comfortable with and again the term here can be a singular plural where the singular is used as a collective but we'll move on here now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house when the man went in and the cloud filled the inner Court now this is the Shekinah glory this is the presence of God this is the presence of His Holiness the second off and in Egypt it was a cloud by day and a pillar by fire by night and it dwelt in the tabernacle and led the people for 40 years to the wilderness when the sheykh and I moved they would follow that was the way God moved them for those 40 years of the wilderness wanderings and that's what I think the cloud that is talking about here is equivalent to then the glory of the Lord there it is again went up from the cherub and it stood over the threshold of the house and the house was filled with a cloud and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory we're gonna see this glory leave the temple is the historical narrative that's going on here and the first half of this verse is a repetition of something what occurred in the previous chapter and the sound of the Chairman's wings was heard even to the outer court as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh and it came to pass when he had commanded the man clothed with linen saying take fire from between the wheels from between the cherubims then he went in and stood beside the wheels and again we have these idioms that are perhaps limited in our imaginations and one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims under the fire that was between the cherubims he took thereof and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with a linen and he took it went out in and there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under their wings and I looked and behold the four wheels by the chairman's one wheel by one cherub another wheel by another cherub and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of Beryl stone and that's where their appearances the a four had one lightness as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel so you got wheels inside of wheels here and when they went they went upon their four sides they turned not as they went but to the place whether the head looked they followed it they turned not as they went there's that strange thing again again God never has to come back to pick up something's forgotten he doesn't need to deviate from one side the other he never detours he goes straight forward today toward the accomplishment of his purpose in the world it's perhaps the idiomatic thought behind all this and their whole body and their backs and theirs hands and their wings and the wheels were full of eyes round about even the wheels that they forehead see all their flesh according to the mass erotic text implies that all their flesh in their backs in their hands and their wings and we're full of eyes which seems to confuse the cherubim in the wheels but the backs can be rendered as rims and hands of spokes confining the reference to the wheel so there's some linguistic ambiguities in here that we don't have to spend our time on and as for the wheels it was it was cried unto them in my hearing a wheel and every one had four faces and I get here the four faces again the first face was the face of a cherub the second face was the face of a man the third the face of a lion and the fourth the face of an eagle and again we have four in this case instead of an ox which was the other pattern we have a cherub there that may be a textual problem I'm not sure we'll move on the cherubs were lifted up this is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar and that when the cherubs went the wheels went by them and when the cherubs lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth the same wheels also turn not from beside them and when they stood they stood and when they were lifted up these lifted up themselves also for the spirit of the living creature was in them and the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubims and so see we're going to see in the fog chapter the glory of God will actually move out of the temple to the top of Mount of Olives this is a in this vision Ezekiel is confronted with the departure of the Spirit of God from the temple and he's going to see in his vision that it will ultimately later return we'll get into that here shortly we're nicob ah the glory has departed that's from first samuel 4 and the cherubims lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight and one of they went out the wheels also were beside them and everyone stood at the door of the skate of the Lord's house and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above so we're witnessing here a reluctance almost like a reluctant departure the holy spirit is that we're leaving the temple but it's doing very hesitatingly the throne chariot moved to the east gate apparently of the outer court paused briefly on the Mount of Olives on the east side of the city and then left completely and later on in a prophetic vision Ezekiel will see the glory ultimately returned by the same eastern gates in chapter 43 but that's the Millennium that's a long time away yet this is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar and I knew that they were cherubims now here's a funny another one of these places both Serra Seraphim and cherubim are plurals but in the King James the translators muffed it they put an s on their cherub bim's is a redundancy cherubim itself is plural cherub is singular cherubim floral cherubims is a frankly a scribal error but but we'll get on here they each had four phases apiece every one four wings and the lightness of the hands of a man was under their wings and the lightness of the face was the same phases which I saw the river Chebar their appearances themselves they want everyone straight forward so cherubim these composite figures exalted approximate to the dwelling place of God they function several ways they guard the way of the Tree of Life in Genesis chapter 3 the and the ark in Solomon's Temple in first Kings six they engage in the adoration of God in connection with the mercy seat in the tabernacle and that's in excess 25 and 37 we see that echo through the Torah they support God's throne is another way to look at it here they form the chariot of deity when God moves they are somehow associated with his presence in that regard so we're dealing in a hyperspace at probably the extreme order that's why that may be difficult for us to visualize this as Ezekiel gropes for common things to describe these things but the Seraphim is another group that we encounter in Isaiah Sarah for Seraphim again singular or plural and it occurs only in chapter 6 of Isaiah but I think they're the same creatures we will encounter in Revelation 4 but a different name and so the in Revelation 4 and verses 6 7 8 we find living creatures that have the same characteristics and so but the way they show up in Isaiah in the year that King Uzziah died I say it says I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple brief sentence but profound insignificance Isaiah is treated to a view of the front of God above us stood the Seraphim plural again he's got the deso there each one had six wings with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly and one cried to another and said holy holy holy is the lord of hosts and the whole earth is full of his glory we know that God in His God he is he is unified as a singular and yet he is a plural the word Elohim is a plural and in Hebrew a plural is three or more and here we have them say holy holy holy that's regarded by most conservative scholars as an echo of the Trinity in the Old Testament and we're going to see that same thing being said in revelation 4 the throne of God there but this is the only place we have the Seraphim singled out how many are there we don't know there could be dozens we do know that each one has six weeks etc so they are there to parently to celebrate in a door and protect the holiness of God and it's a testimony of course to the Trinity and each one had six wings that's going to be C cherub been apparently have four but we're gonna see that these and the ones in Revelation have six for some reason we get to Revelation chapter 4 John writes and before the throne was a sea of glass like under crystal and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind there again very similar to the old testement description and the first living creatures was like a lion the second living creature like a calf and the third living creatures had a face as a man and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle and again the we got living creatures all the way through here see the word in the greek is xun which is a living creature it's not theory on which means a wild beasts that theory on is used in revelation 13 to speak of the two beasts of Revelation 13 they're a different term and so I've tried to correct that here and we have a lion a calf a man an eagle II set four phases again so I want to talk a little bit more about those four phases as we go here each for each of the four living creatures had them six wings abut and they're full of eyes within and the rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come and so these are the same as the Seraphim and Isaiah six let's talk about these four phases I think there's something profound confronting us here and we see them in Ezekiel one in 10 we see them in Revelation four but we're also going to discover they are in a strange way Amber's chapter 2 and in the they also profile the four Gospels so let's take a look at that vision of the throne of God we have four phases lion ox mane and Eagle will discover the camp of Israel when laid out would organize itself around four camps one was the camp of Judah one was the camp of Ephraim one was the camp Reuben and one was the camp of Dan all 12 tribes clustered three each into those four camps and we discover when we lay this out to scale that when the camp of Israel was encamped according to the instructions in the Torah they apparently at least in some sense were a model of the throne of God as replicated in the cherubim and so forth but there's something else that's worth mentioning something else you'll encounter as you were studying the Gospels I mentioned these four phases we have these four phases the lion the ox the man and the Eagle profiled the primary theme of each of the Gospels and was used by the early church as emblematic of those Gospels Matthew hey it presents us the Lion of the tribe of Judah mark presents Jesus in his other role the Mashiach Ben Yossef the suffering servant Matthew was mashiac Mondavi the royal royal line but marked the suffering servant look neither he presents him as the Son of Man his humanity as his focus all the way through and John of course speaks of the eagle and so interesting enough and those of course are the four camps of Israel on the east west south and north of the camp so these four phases seem to have a significance go beyond our normal understanding here I want to take a quick glimpse of Daniel chapter 10 as we wrap this session up it's a glimpse into the dark side of all of this in the third year Cyrus the king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel whose name was called belter Shazzer the thing was true but the time appointed was long and he understood the thing and had understanding of the vision and in those days I Daniel was in mourning three full weeks that's going to be important I ain't no Pleasant Brad neither came flesh or wine into my mouth neither did i anoint myself at all until three whole weeks were fulfilled and in the four and twentieth day of the first month as I was by the side of the great river which is the then I lift up my eyes and looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with fine gold of UEFA's his body was also his like burrow and his face as the appearance of lightning and his eyes as lamps of fire and his arms and feet like in color to polish brass and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude now some scholars think this was Lord Jesus crisis or some reasons we don't think so we think he was a very senior angel whatever we'll move on here and I Danielle alone saw the vision for the men that were with me saw not the vision but a great quaking fell upon them so they fled to hide themselves therefore I was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for my communist was turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength yet I heard the voice of his words and when I heard the voice of his words then I was in a deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground and behold a hand touched me which set me up on my knees and upon my palms of my hands it's interesting every time the old testament when someone's confronted with something like this it's one of awe and humility face on the ground they're trembling and he said unto me o Daniel a man greatly beloved understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright for thee unto thee am I now sent and when he had spoken this word unto me I stood trembling and said unto me fear not Daniel for from the first day that thou did sit by hard to understand and to chase thy self before thy God thy words were heard and I am come for thy words in other words he's a response to Dana's prayer but who but the Prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one in twenty days but lo Michael one of the chief Prince's came to help me and I remained there with the kings of Persia now this isn't the king of Persia its ruling in Persia this is the power behind that King this is a supernatural agency that's holding him back and I mean there with the king is a Persian now I'm come to make me understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days for yet the vision is for many days now the king of the prints of the king of Persia withstood me and lo Michael came to help this is one reason I don't think this is Christ I don't think Christ would need Michael's help but this angel apparently needed Michael to help him get through because his being opposed by some creature here that's called the Prince of the kingdom of Persia we're gonna hear more about him in a minute okay and so and when he had spoken such words out of me I set my face toward the ground I became dumb and behold one like the multitude of the sons of men touched my lips then I opened my mouth and spake and said unto him that stood before me o my lord by the vision of my sorrows are turned upon me and I have retained no strength and how can a servant of this my lord talk with this my lord for as for me straightway there remained no strength in me neither is their breath left in me then there came again and touched me one like the parents of a man and he strengthened me and said old man greatly beloved fear not be peace be unto thee be strong yay be strong and when he had spoken unto me I was strengthened and he said let thy my Lord speak for thou hast strengthened me then said he knowest thou there for I am come unto thee and now I will return to fight with a prince of persia' and when I've gone forth lo the Prince of Grecia shall come but I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth that there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince Wow see what's interesting here he is apparently got sent to get through to Daniel and he's being blocked by some creature called the Prince of Persia and he gets help from Michael and it gets through he's come to give Daniel a vision in fact what he's going to give him is chapters 11 12 the climactic two chapters of the book Daniel but he points out that one I'm through with you I've got to go back and I not only fight the Prince of Persia the Prince of Grecia will come so what we the glimpse that we get here is that behind these world empires are angelic adversaries and there is a war going on that we don't know about there's a tension there and this guy had to fight through to get to Daniel to give him this message resisted by the power of the Prince of Persia and he also is in count ready to encounter the power of the Prince of Greece after the Persian Empire came the Greek Empire that's 200 years later but that's all a result apparently of the warfare that's behind the scenes in the meta Kazem if you will and so all of this is a prelude to two chapters the two climactic chapters of Daniel chapters 11 or 12 and so but the prince of the kingdom Persia withstood me one in twenty days remember he said up there earlier it's interesting that Daniel fasted for 21 days and it took this guy 21 days to get through the question we don't know the answer to but you can't help but wonder what if Daniel had terminated as fast after 19 days with that of men he didn't you know was is there a linkage somehow with Daniel fasting for 21 days and this guy taking 21 days to get through to bring the message to Daniel that's the Enigma one in 20 days well okay we've been through now the Berean challenge in general but also in the procession we've taken a quick walk through the the our understanding of angels in the general sense their capabilities and limitations and the specific lineup of the major players we have left the dark side for the next session because in the next session we're going to explore the dark side in session 3 the origin the career and the destiny of Satan we'll explore a couple of his key lieutenants and we'll always they also explore this strange role and mission of demons and how are they different from angels how are they dangerous what kind of vulnerabilities do we have what are the hazards we face that will be our topics for next time let's stand for a closing word prayer father we thank you for your word we thank you for the extremes you've gone to on our behalf we thank you Father that have resources we didn't even know about but we do pray father through your Holy Spirit and through your word you will illuminate what we need to understand about these resources you've made available to us and the hazards we may be facing as we commit ourselves into your hands in the name of Yeshua our coming King indeed amen [Music] you

Channel: Koinonia House

Views: 155,759

Rating: 4.8703704 out of 5

Keywords: jesus, christ, chuck, missler, koinonia, house, khouse, institute

Id: J2jBgl7QpP8

Length: 69min 37sec (4177 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 24 2020