Angels appear throughout the pages of Scripture, interacting
with people on behalf of God. It may
come as a surprise to some that no heavenly angel is actually named before the
Book of Daniel, and only two are named in all of Scripture! Some facts of Scripture stand out because of
their frequent mention, while others stand out even more because of the rarity
of their occurrence. The two angels
mentioned by name certainly catch our attention.
The Angel Gabriel
The first angel to be mentioned by name in Scripture is
Gabriel. The name means “mighty man of
God.”
[i] Gabriel
seems to be God’s messenger to impart understanding of what God has revealed or
is about to reveal. To Daniel, Gabriel
interprets the dreams God had given the prophet.
And
I heard the voice of a man between the
banks of Ulai, and he
called out and said, "Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision." (Daniel 8:16)
.
. . while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen
in the vision previously, came to me in my
extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. He gave me instruction and talked with me and
said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding.”
(Daniel 9:21-22)
Gabriel disappears from the divine record until he returns
in the Gospel of Luke. From Luke we
learn more about this blessed messenger of God.
Gabriel appears first to the aged priest Zacharias to announce that his
wife, Elizabeth, would conceive and bear a child who would become a mighty
prophet and prepare the way for Messiah.
The prophet’s name would be John, and he would be known as John the
Baptist because of his ministry of baptizing repentant sinners.
The
angel answered and said to him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence
of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. (Luke
1:19)
Six months later, God sends Gabriel on an even greater
mission: To announce the conception and birth of Jesus, the Son of God, to the
Virgin Mary!
Now
in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee
called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to
her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering
what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, "Do not be
afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. “And behold, you will conceive
in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. "He will be
great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give
Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and His kingdom will have no end." Mary said to the angel,
"How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel answered and said
to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called
the Son of God. (Luke
1:26-35)
Later, when Mary’s fiancé Joseph discovered that she was
pregnant and quite naturally assumed the worst, an angel appeared to him in a
dream, explaining the holy and divine nature of Mary’s conception and of the
child she was carrying (Matt. 1:20). Yet
the name of that angel is not given in Matthew.
To Mary, Gabriel appeared in person; to Joseph, some angel, perhaps Gabriel,
appeared in a dream. Still, Joseph
believed that God had sent that message through the angel in his dream, and he
took Mary to be his wife.
The Angel Michael
Michael, whose name means, “Who is like God?” is a very
different angel from Gabriel. Michael
holds a high rank in the heavenly realm, and he is more of a warrior. In Daniel, Michael is called, “one of the
chief princes” (10:13), “your prince,” that is, of Israel (10:21), and “the
great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people” (12:1). In Jude 1:9 he is called, “the archangel.” Michael
is the champion on the side of other holy angels who do battle against demonic
forces (Dan. 10:21).
In keeping with his role as a champion and warrior, Michael
appears in the New Testament standing up against Satan himself and later waging
a victorious war against him:
But
Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the
body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said,
"The Lord rebuke you!" (Jude
1:9)
And
there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The
dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was
no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown
down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the
whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down
with him. (Rev. 12:7-9)
While the name Gabriel in the Bible is given only to the
angel, the name Michael was given to ten ordinary men in the Old
Testament. Jewish traditions concerning
the Archangel Michael go far back in Israelite history.
It is appropriate that the only two angels to be named in
the Bible figure prominently in the life and work of Jesus, the Messiah:
Gabriel at the annunciation of Jesus’ birth, and Michael at Christ’s final
victory over the devil.
We must always guard against any semblance of worshiping
angels. But we should thank God that He
has provided these heavenly beings to be “ministering spirits, sent out to
render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews
1:14).
[i]
The Hebrew word
geber has the idea of being
valiant or mighty. The name Gabriel is a combination of geber
(mighty or valiant) + el
(God).
In my thirty-eight
plus years of ministry, I have received many compliments on my sermons – some sincere,
and some, well . . . But the compliment
that means the most to me came from a fellow missionary after I had preached at
a missions conference. The missionary
said, “You remind me of a professor I had at San Francisco (San Francisco
Baptist Seminary).” I knew immediately
who he meant because that same professor later took a position at Detroit
Baptist Seminary teaching homiletics, practical theology, and church
history. It was there that I had the privilege
of sitting at his feet: That professor was Eugene J. Petersen.
