Tag: angels

An Angel’s Limitation

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When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the surrounding area; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”
Genesis 19:17 (NASB)

There’s a fascinating view in the Jewish commentaries regarding angels:

An angel can only do the ONE thing it was tasked with doing: rescue, heal, bless, destroy, etc. Just one thing. That’s why two were sent in Gen 19. One to rescue Lot, and one to destroy the cities.

ויחזיקו AND THE MEN LAID HOLD [UPON HIS HAND]– One of these was commissioned to rescue him whilst his fellow was to overthrow Sodom; that is why it is stated (v. 17) “And he said, escape”, and it is not stated “And they said” (Genesis Rabbah 50:11).
Rashi on Genesis 19:16:1

And here as well:

ויוציאה, “they took him outside;” there is a letter ו missing before letter ה, to hint that only one angel, i.e. ויוציא, singular, the angel Gavriel, had been charged with the task of saving Lot.
Chizkuni on Genesis 19:16

Bridegroom

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So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry[a] his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
Genesis 19:14 (NIV)

[a] Or were married to

The rabbis debate over the size of Lot’s family. When his two daughters are first introduced, Lot says that they haven’t “known a man,” which sounds like unwed women.

But when the text introduces Lot’s sons-in-law, we are presented with interpretational challenges.

On the one hand, scholars point out that this word חָתָן (hatan) “son-in-law” most often means just that. They are married. The first twelve times (starting here in v14) this word appears in Scripture, it means “husband of the daughter.” They are married.

So the rabbis wonder: maybe these sons-in-law are married to other daughters who live elsewhere in the city and aren’t connected to the two at home. When the angels ask about family in the city, there are others out there: sons-in-law, other sons, and other daughters.

The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here — sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here.”
Genesis 19:12 (NIV)

Another view is that these “sons in law” are actually betrothed to the first two daughters, and that Lot was being a little tricky when he offered them to the mob. He was technically correct, but was being deceptive.

It is unclear. But what can we learn from the different interpretations?

If there is more family, perhaps it points forward to the Exodus, when some Israelites failed to obey the instruction to cover their doorposts with blood. Their firstborn sons were not spared, so it should be understood that just because you are family doesn’t mean that you are safe. You have to actually obey and exit the city, whether Sodom or Egypt.

But suppose these the men who are betrothed to the two daughteres first mentioned in the story. They are future husbands.

This word hatan is also translated “bridegroom,” and it points to God’s heart towards his people.

As a young man marries a young woman,
so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.
Isaiah 62:5 (NIV)

In this interpretation, we are shown an opposite. These wicked men of Sodom are anti-bridegrooms. Rather than rejoicing over and protecting their future brides, they don’t take Lot seriously. Their commitments to Lot’s daughters are meaningless, as they don’t stand with the daughters to protect them or be with them.

In this interpretation, these sons-in-law represent a corruption of hatan. Everything about Sodom is broken.

Blindness

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And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
Genesis 19:11 (NKJV)

When the angels blinded the men trying to get past Lot, the rabbis point out a couple of fascinating things about the word-choices here.

First, this isn’t merely physical blindness. Surely a blind person can find a door if they really tried. This describes a stupor.

The word choice verifies this. The story uses an uncommon hebrew word for “blindness.”

Ordinarily, the word used for “blind” is ivvare (עיוור), and it just means… blind. But here, the word is sanvare (סָנְוֵר), and it carries a sense of mental or spiritual blindness.

This word sanvare is so uncommon that it’s only used once more in the whole Bible, in 2 Kings 6:8-23.

In the story, there’s an enemy who surrounds the prophet Elisha in Dothan, and when Elisha’s servant’s eyes are open, he sees an army of angels with chariots of *fire.*

It’s where we get these lyrics to a famous hymn:

So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
2 Kings 6:16 (NKJV)

And then Elisha prays that God strike the enemies with blindness. With sanvare.

The blinded and confused enemies are then led by Elisha into Israel’s territory, but rather than have them killed, Elisha prepared a great feast for them.

In Sodom, we have a feast (Genesis 19:3), surrounded (19:4), blindness (19:11), people moved (19:16), and then fire (19:24).

In Dothan, we have surrounded (2 Kings 6:14), fire (6:17), blindness (6:18), people moved (6:19), and a feast (6:23).

Isn’t that interesting?

In the case of Sodom, we have what starts with a feast and hospitality, but it ends in fire and destruction.

On the case of Dothan, we have what starts out as the outlay of destruction by fire, but it ends in a feast.

What do you suppose scripture is teaching us?

As Messengers

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In Genesis 19, we read that two “angels” (malakim, or messengers) arrive in Sodom.

But after that, there’s nothing to indicate that they’re angels again until verse 15, when the text says the angels urged Lot to leave the city with his wife and two daughters. Every other time, they’re simply called “the men.”

The men of Sodom call them “the men.”
Lot calls them “the men.”

But the weird part is that even the NARRATOR calls them “the men.”

And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
Genesis 19:5 (NKJV)

See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
Genesis 19:8 (NKJV)

But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
Genesis 19:10 (NKJV)

h’anashim. הָאֲנָשִׁ֜ים. The men.

Perhaps we’re supposed to understand that for the men of Sodom, for Lot, and even for the reader, we’re meant to see these angels as completely indistinguishable from humans. We’re being told that even if we were there in the story, we would have also thought they were just men.

And with that, perhaps we’re meant to learn that God often speaks to us… through people. Words of encouragement, blessing, and even warnings can be from God, but through people who are acting as messengers. As malakim.

Three Angels, Three Women

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In Genesis 18, Abraham is visited by three “men” who are later revealed to be angels, or “malakim” in the next chapter.

In Genesis 19, there are three women described: Lot’s two daughters, and Lot’s wife.

Lot’s two daughters survive with him, but his wife dies when she is turned into a pillar of salt.

There were three women; two women live, one dies.

There were three angels; two angels are present, one is absent.

Perhaps this is related.

Flood and Fire

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But he urged them strongly, so they turned his way and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Genesis 19:3 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)

There are all sorts of links between the Genesis flood and the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the theme of alcohol afterwords is striking.

The rabbis point out that the word “feast” here in Hebrew means a “drinking feast.” That’s what מִשְׁתֶּה means.

A feast. Literally, “a drinking feast.” Lot offered them wine because he was fond of it himself.
Sforno on Genesis 19:3

The teaching isn’t that alcohol is “bad,” but perhaps it’s one of those things that people turn to after grief of loss, and when they do, it leads to greater grief and shame.

Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.
Genesis 9:20-22 (NIV)

One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”

That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
Genesis 19:31-33 (NIV)

This is a kind of idolatry.

Perhaps the angels abstained to give this hint.

Just the Crackers

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But he urged them strongly, so they turned his way and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Genesis 19:3 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)

It’s curious that the messengers of God ate the meal Abraham and Sarah prepared for lunch, but when they visited Lot, it is described differently.

According to the rabbis, the meaning of the text is that Lot prepared a great meal, just like Abraham did, but the messengers only snacked on the crackers. They abstained from the feast itself.

To Know Us

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“To know” is the way sexual intimacy is described throughout the Bible, but Hebrew word means so much more than that. It also carries the meaning of “experiential knowledge.” It’s not just knowing about something, but it’s also having lived it out.

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Genesis 18:19 (KJV)

‎Here in Genesis 18:19, God says “I know him” about Abraham. It is יָדַע. Yadah.

‎This says so much.

In the previous chapter, where Abraham and God entered a two-way covenant, with God committing himself to Abraham and Abraham going through the commitment of circumcision, we see a change. God is now with Abraham, not merely next to him.

I think “yadah” is the key to understanding what’s happening in Genesis 18. Perhaps the text isn’t showing us three men/angels with one of them being God. I know it appears that way, because only two men show up in the next chapter, but I think something else is being shown to us.

Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the [b]oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.
Genesis 18:1 (NASB)

Perhaps Abraham sees three men, but he understands that God is there in the midst of them. That’s why Genesis 18:1 is written the way it is. It’s not a chapter heading. It’s a statement of awareness, given the new in-dwelling relationship with God.

The chapter continues with the interactions of Abraham and the men, and then in the middle, God just shows up again in verse 13.

But the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I actually give birth to a child, when I am so old?’
Genesis 18:13 (NASB)

I think the right reading of the passage is this: when one of the men asked about Sarah, Abraham understood it to be God’s words, and that these three men were messengers of God.

Later, when the men leave to investigate the city, God tells Abraham that He will go to the city, and that if the outcry is not true, He “will know.” It’s that same word: יָדַע. Yadah.

I will go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me indicates; and if not, I will know.”
Genesis 18:21 (NASB)

‎But also, if it is true, wouldn’t God also certainly know? Either way, He will experience it. But how?

What does it mean to be a messenger of God? We typically think of someone who is God’s spokesperson to humanity, but doesn’t a messenger bring a message back to God as well? Don’t they return with a report of what has happened?

This makes me wonder if the true reason only two angels show up to rescue Lot isn’t because the third one is God, and that God remained behind. Remember, as messengers, they all three represent God.

Perhaps one actually went ahead first before the other two… and suffered violence.

For we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
Genesis 19:13 (NASB)

The two angels who came to rescue Lot were on a mission to get him out of the city. The text says they were set to destroy the city, not because of the attempted violence against them, but because of the outcry. The cries for help.

And this is what God knew. It’s what God experienced.

A God who knows our suffering is a God who experiences our suffering. When God says He knows Abraham, I think he’s also telling us that He knows us: our wounds, our pain, the violence we have suffered.

And he’s inviting us to know him.

Spiritual Beings

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So far, in my journey through Genesis 1-18, the spiritual beings I’ve found in the text include the following:

Elohim/YHWH (throughout the text).

Ruah Elohim (possibly) in Genesis 1.

Cherubim in Genesis 3.

Malak in Genesis 16 and 18.

Elohim is the plural-singular or royal-singular word that we translated as “God.” In Genesis, it never means “angels,” but later biblical books appear to use this word to sometimes describe angelic beings.

God’s name is YHWH (I AM), and he’s never physically described.

In Genesis 1:2, the “Ruah Elohim” is translated as the “Spirit of God,” and it appears to behave as a living thing (“hovering over the surface of the deep”) and is described as somewhat distinct from God.

This is hard to understand because God is… spirit. It is not entirely clear from the text. But also, when we get to Genesis 6 where God says “My Spirit will not content with humans forever…” it is very difficult to visualize!

The Cherubim (plural for cherub) are not physically described in Genesis, except that they (plural, so more than one) have been set in front of the Garden of Eden, and they block the entrance while wielding flaming swords. They probably don’t look like winged babies.

The Malak/Malakim is written as “angels” of YHWH, but this word in Hebrew means “messenger.”

In the text, they look human, first appearing to Hagar in Genesis 16, and later to Abraham in Genesis 18. Apparently, they can eat and drink and talk to people.

Later, we’ll read that they can grab hold of people, blind people, and they can apparently destroy entire cities!

But here’s the very interesting bit: as messengers of God, they appear to be able to speak as though they ARE God, despite NOT being God. When the malak talks to Hagar, he says “I will increase your descendants,” but this is something only God can do. But then in verse 13, the text clearly says it was God who spoke to her.

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
Genesis 16:9-10 (NIV)

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
Genesis 16:13 (NIV)

Likewise, when the malakim speak to Abraham (at this point in Genesis 18, they’re only identified as “men” and not yet idenfied as malakim until the next chapter), one says “I’ll return to you,” but when the time comes, it’s not the malak who shows up. It’s God.

Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Genesis 18:10a (NIV)

This idea of the malakim being able to speak as God and doing things on behalf of God makes me wonder about how God interacts with humanity.

Are the malakim “spiritual beings” that materialize in this world, or is God working through actual humans to show himself?

It seems like “spiritual beings” is the correct answer, because… well, fire from heaven and all that. They’re super-naturally powerful.

But doesn’t Elijah call down fire from heaven later on? As a prophet, was he not also a “messenger of God?”

I wonder.

Water and Bread

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Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and make yourselves comfortable under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, so that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do as you have said.”
Genesis 18:4-5 (NASB)

When Abraham first meets the three men (or angels!) in Genesis 18, the Rabbis note every word he speaks and wonder if there is prophetic meaning in them.

We know that the offering of water and bread is hospitality, but note the passive and active verbs used for each.

He says “let water be brought” and he says “I’ll bring bread.”

The rabbis say this is clear: the water is to be brought by way of some unnamed servant or messenger, whereas Abraham is offering to bring the bread himself.

And then they point to the Exodus.

In the Exodus, we read that when God provided water for Israel, He did it through Moses, first at Marah in Genesis 15, and later when Moses strikes the rock. God provides the water through… a messenger.

And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.
Exodus 15:24-25a (NKJV)

But of bread, God does it directly in the next chapter. It’s set up exactly like Abraham’s hospitality to the three men: A messenger will get the water, but I’ll get the bread for you.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
Exodus 16:4 (NKJV)

Now, notice back in Genesis 18:4, Abraham used the phrase “a little water.”

We just read past this and don’t pay much attention to it, but oddly, this word “little” first appears three times in Genesis in exactly this same way: “A little water.”

Each time, a messenger is involved:

Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
Genesis 18:4 (NKJV)

And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.”
Genesis 24:17 (NKJV)

Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,”
Genesis 18:4 (NKJV)

In the second two instances, this same messenger’s name is Eliazar, who has the task of seeking out and inviting the future bride of Isaac.

This hebrew word מְעַט (meh-aht) means little. Small. Fewness.

Water. Messenger. Smallness.

For the believer who sees a messenger in the wilderness, standing in the water and baptizing the Messiah, the words “he must increase, but I must DECREASE” suddenly ring.

And for the Christian who sees the Holy Spirit like a messenger of God, speaking precisely the words of God and revealing precisely the heart of God, the connection to this messenger and water gets clearer.

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NKJV)

And of the bread? The Christian will see the breaking of bread at communion as a symbol of the broken body of the Messiah, made available for us for salvation. Given freely, not through a messenger, but by God himself.

If the Christian is looking for a Trinune God, perhaps it’s not the three angels in Genesis 18 themselves that give it to us, but perhaps they function as three sign posts to tell us that it is near.