6. THE SYMPATHY OF ANGELS WITH
CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIAN IN TEMPTATION.
"Then the Devil left Him, and, behold, angels came and
ministered unto Him."--Matt. iv. 11.
Resisted and discomfited in his every attempt to ensnare
and overcome the Son of God, Satan retires, ingloriously defeated from the
conflict, leaving our Lord Victor upon the field. "And, behold, angels
came and ministered unto Him." The angels’ sympathy with Christ in this
the hour of His long and exhausting temptation was singularly beautiful and
appropriate. He had been forty days and forty nights in personal and deadly
conflict with the Prince and Leader of the mighty host of fallen
angels. It was now graceful and proper that, retreating from the battle
vanquished and crest-fallen, good angels should take their place, and
in honor of His triumph, as in sympathy with His weariness and want,
minister-as angels only could-to the Lord of angels. What a spectacle of
marvelous and touching beauty! Methinks, all heaven must have looked down
upon the scene filled with awe, instruction, and praise!
"So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe
Of angels, in full sail of wing, flew nigh!
Who, on their plumy vans, received Him soft
From His uneasy station, and upbore,
As on a floating couch, through the blithe air."
The ministration of angels-or, messengers, as the word
signifies-occupies a prominent and important place in the history of the
world and of the Church. But in no point of view is their service so
conspicuous and interesting as in its association with Christ Himself. In
each of the most momentous events of His personal life, angels bore a
prominent and impressive part. They were commissioned to announce the
approach of the greatest event in the history of the universe-the
incarnation of the Son of God. And when that stupendous fact had actually
transpired, how sweetly broke their midnight music over the plains of
Bethlehem-"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men."
From the manger of Bethlehem we pass to the garden of
Gethsemane. We behold the incarnate God bowed in sorrow to the ground-the
blood-sweat upon His brow-the cup of trembling in His hand-and the cry of
submissive anguish on His lips-"If this cup may not pass from Me, except I
drink it, Your will be done." And then, in His soul-agony and bodily
weakness, "There appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening
Him." How instructive and touching the scene! It was the hour of
Christ’s greatest weakness. It was the focal point of His soul’s agony. It
was the brimming, foaming, overflowing of His cup of woe! As man-the Man of
Sorrows-He needed strengthening. From whence shall it come? His Father might
have strengthened His humanity. From His own Divine nature Christ could have
strengthened Himself. But no! the office was assigned to an angel!
Another element of humiliation was to be added to the cup; His humanity was
to be brought into so low a condition-so entirely separated from all the
resources of the Uncreated and Infinite-as to be cast in the hour of its
suffering and need upon the compassion and aid of the created and the
finite. And "an angel strengthened Him." Oh, how truly did He now
appear as "made lower than the angels." In what way the angels thus
strengthened their sorrowful Creator and Lord we are not told. But,
doubtless, they were commissioned to assure His human soul, thus bowed in
grief, that He was still an object of Divine favor; that, in love that cup
of woe was given; that, the promise that the Father would stand by Him in
the hour of His woe, should be fulfilled; that, glory and honor would crown
His sufferings and death; and that the joy set before Him-for which He now
was draining the cup, and soon was to endure the cross-was the complete
salvation of the people His Father had given to His hand. "And there
appeared an angel unto Him from heaven strengthening Him."
From the garden we follow Him to the sepulchre. Again
the angels are His attendants. They encircle His tomb. They sit, the one at
the foot and the other at the head, where His sacred body had lain. They
were the first to announce His resurrection, as they were the first to
proclaim His birth. "And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone
from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his
raiment white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became
as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye:
for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for He
is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Honored
celestials! Honored, above many, to be the heaven-commissioned body-guard at
the tomb of the Son of God! Holy watchers! what a mission must that have
appeared to you, when ye rolled away the stone from the door of the
sepulchre, and beheld the illustrious Prisoner on whom ye waited come forth
triumphant over the grave! Privileged, too, were ye to be the first to
announce to the world that He that was dead was alive again, and bore in His
girdle, henceforth and for ever, the keys of hell and of death!
From the sepulchre we follow the angels to the Mount of
Olives, the scene of our Savior’s personal and glorious ascension into
heaven. Again they form His guard of honor! Hovering around the Mount, how
eagerly they wait the moment when, springing from its summit, He should take
His heavenly flight. Clustering in a countless throng around His ascending
form, with shouts of triumph and paeans of praise they bore Him up to the
celestial gates, and then demanded for Him a Conqueror’s triumphant
entrance! "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. The Lord of hosts, He is
the King of glory." Oh, never was conqueror attended with such an escort, or
made an entrance so glorious and triumphant!
"They thronged His chariot up the skies,
And bore Him to His throne;
Then sweep their golden harps, and shout,
The glorious work is done."
But another-a final-and, in its circumstances of
solemnity and grandeur, more momentous and impressive ministration of angels
in the history of Christ, awaits its accomplishment. The angels will form a
distinguished feature in the Second Coming of the Lord. The same
celestial host who attended Him from His birth to His ascension, will
conduct Him back to earth, swelling His train and aiding His triumph. "The
Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels."
"And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." Who will not believe that in the great events thus
closing the drama of the world’s history, and consummating the glory of the
Church, the angels of God will take an essential and conspicuous share? But
let us return from this digression to the subject more immediately before
us-the sympathy of the holy angels in the hour of our Lord’s conflict
with Satan. "Then the Devil leaves Him, and, behold, angels came and
ministered unto Him."
In what way they thus ministered to the tempted
Savior is not stated. But can it be for a moment conjectured? Christ had
fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards was an hungered,
exhausted, and faint; for He was very man, as very God-and, as such, He
needed bodily nourishment. From whence would it come? He could work a
miracle and feed the famished thousands; but He was among the people as He
that served, who had come, not to be ministered unto, but to minister; and
to have exerted His Divine power in His own behalf now, by converting the
stones into bread, would have been a momentary triumph of Satan. From whence
then His needed nourishment? Angels brought it Him! Those celestial beings
who provided a repast for Elijah when, weary and fretful, he laid him down
beneath the juniper-tree to die, now brought food to the famished and
exhausted body of the God of Elijah, their own Divine Creator and Lord.
"And, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him." Oh, touching
spectacle of wonder and love! Never was such a royal banquet-never such a
host of celestial attendants-never so Illustrious a Guest! How grateful and
refreshing to the depressed and exhausted Savior must have been this
expression of angelic sympathy, and this supply of "angels’ food!" But, let
us not limit this expression of angelic sympathy with Christ to the
material. Doubtless, there was much more than this-there was spiritual and
mental refreshment. Would not these angelic students, who had studied the
mysteries of redeeming love-"which things the angels desire to look
into"-now seek to soothe and strengthen the human soul of the Redeemer in
that fiery ordeal through which He had just passed? They had been sent from
heaven charged with this holy and benevolent mission-to succour and comfort
the Son of God! Would they not humbly remind the Savior of the Divine
appointment of the trial through which He had passed-of the necessity of the
discipline-personal and official-to which He had been subjected-of the
untold blessings that would accrue to His Church-of the eternal glory that
would redound to His Father from the long, agonizing temptation out of which
He had just triumphantly come? In this way-bodily and mentally-would this
angelic embassy minister to the Lord of angels in a moment when, as the
God-man, ‘heart and flesh were failing’ through ‘manifold temptations.’
Turn we now from the sympathy of angels with Christ in
temptation, to the sympathy of angels with the Christian.
The ministry of angels is not a mere figure of speech,
or, simply a poetic sentiment, but is in reality a distinctly and divinely
revealed truth practically embodied in the history of the Church of God in
all ages, and personally in the daily experience of each individual member
of His Church. A single but expressive declaration of Scripture sets forth
this doctrine, and places it in the strongest light as a matter-of-fact
truth. After vindicating the superiority of Christ to the
angels-demonstrating thus the Lord Jesus to be Divine-the Apostle naturally,
and as an argument of their inferiority, thus, adverts to their office and
ministry in the Christian Church:-"Are they not all ministering spirits,
sent forth to minister for them who shall heirs of salvation?" We are
thus brought face to face with the fact. Can we draw any other reasonable
deduction from these words than this-that the whole celestial hierarchy is
engaged in the comparatively humble, yet, nevertheless, highly honorable
office of ministering spirits, or servants, appointed to aid the Church of
God, collectively and individually, in its history on earth? How that
ministry is exerted we are left very much to conjecture-the fact alone
standing out in the clearest possible light. But, taking the recorded
ministrations of angels as the standard of their present ministry, we may
arrive at an intelligent, and by no means sentimental, idea of the service
they now perform in the Church of God in its existing dispensation. In the
first place, we have their appointment. They are not self-delegated.
They are sent by Christ, their Lord and Creator, and this
conclusively proves their inferiority to Christ Himself. They do not assume
the office, but in a subordinate capacity-as the servants of the Church-are
appointed, commissioned, and sent by a Power infinitely higher than their
own. "Sent forth."
The objects of their ministry are, "the heirs
of salvation," i.e., the whole elect Church of God. Adopted into
God’s family, all believers are "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ
Jesus." They are heirs, expectants, or inheritors of salvation. These
include the whole Church of God-all the members of the one Church of
Christ,-whatever their distinctive badge among men. Christ, in the
dispensation of His favors-especially in His great salvation-recognizes no
denominational differences: but, if holding Him the One Head-believing in
Him, loving, serving, and following Him-all alike are acknowledged as the
"heirs, of salvation," for whom is reserved an "inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fades not away."
Their office, clearly, is "to minister." This, doubtless,
includes an individual and unceasing guardianship; protection in danger,
seen or unseen; counsel in perplexity; sympathy and support in sorrow and
affliction; succour and supply in times of need; mental and spiritual
strengthening when mind and soul are depressed and desponding; and above and
beyond all-and this is an especial, touching, and solemn part of their holy
ministry-attendance upon the redeemed spirit, in its flight to eternal
glory. "And was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom." We do
not see, nor can we explain, the mystic ladder that communicates from heaven
to earth, and from earth to heaven; but of this we are assured that by it,
descending and ascending, the .angels of God are continuously bent on
embassies of intelligence and on errands of love to Christ’s heirs of glory.
That the "family in heaven" is intelligently conversant of the history of
the "family on earth"-without any express revelation of the fact, but
arguing from analogy-I see no reason to doubt. Surely their interest in the
concerns and progress of the kingdom of grace below, cannot be totally
absorbed in the exclusive enjoyment of the kingdom of glory above. And if-as
we are told-"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repents"-we cannot reasonably doubt that the intelligence of the
conversion to Christ of our kindred left on earth-as conveyed by these
ministering spirits-must heighten the bliss and swell the song of the
"spirits of just men made perfect." And let it be borne in mind that this
joy in heaven is not confined to the angelic host, but, as it is expressed,
"joy in the presence of the angels of God over one that repents;" and
that, consequently, with that joy must blend the joy of the glorified
saints. Shall angels-strangers to redeeming love-thrill with ecstasy over
the conquests of grace on earth, and those who have been redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb be sensible of no emotion of gladness, and breathe no
joyous anthem of praise at the good news that the kingdoms of this world are
gradually becoming-and by the accession of their own kindred-the kingdoms of
our Lord and of His Christ?
But here our observations of the angelic ministry must
rest. Who can describe what their sympathy is when the fiery darts of
Satan-fast and flaming-fly thick around the tempted believer? If angels
ministered to Christ in the hour of His temptation, surely we may believe
that the same office is discharged in the case of all tempted in a like
manner with Him. Invisible and unheard, they troop around the person of
every saint of God, bent upon the high and holy office of tending upon them
for whom the Son of God sacrificed His own life. "The angel of the Lord
encamps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them." "He shall
give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall
bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone."
Still we must keep in view that they are but God’s messengers and Christ’s
servants, doing His will, accomplishing His purpose, and obeying His
behests. They are to be recognized, not adored; loved, not idolized;
revered, not worshipped. Infinitely above the highest angel in heaven is the
"Captain of our salvation," bending over us with a Divinely intelligent and
unslumbering care; and angels-His aides-de-camp-are only what He
makes them, and nothing more. If any creature channel flows with blessing,
He fills it; if empty, He exhausts it; reserving to Himself the sovereign
and inalienable power to do as seems good in His sight, that He may be all
and in all.
And yet how great the honor conferred upon the lowliest
saint of God, that these holy, intelligent, powerful beings, commissioned by
Heaven, should be his personal and constant attendants, fanned and enclosed
each moment by their silken, noiseless, and unseen wings. Oh, who can tell
how near, vigilant, and powerful, they are in every assault of Satan, in
every moment of danger, and in every hour of grief, diverting the winged
arrow-unveiling the concealed snare-snatching from some yawning precipice:
or, should the arrow have pierced, or the feet have stumbled, or the sorrow
have come-by some mysterious influence, we cannot now explain, but which
will be fully known hereafter-healing the wound, soothing the spirit, and
conducting our footsteps in the path of safety, pleasantness, and peace. And
if the Son of God, the Creator and Lord of angels, condescended to accept
the service of, and to be ministered to by, angels-if by them He was
supplied in want, soothed in grief, and strengthened in battle-should it be
thought a thing incredible that these same celestial beings should encircle
our path, and cluster around our dying pillows, ministering to us of their
love, succour, and sympathy? "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent
forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"
"And is there care in heaven? and is there love
In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,
That may compassion of their evils move?
There is!-else much more wretched were the case
Of men than beasts. But O exceeding grace
Of highest God that loves His creatures so,
And all His works of mercy doth embrace,
That blessed angels He sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked man, to serve His wicked foe!
"How oft do they their silver bowers leave,
To come to succour us that succour want!
How do they with golden pinions cleave
The yielding skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against foul fiends to aid us militant!
They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant;
And all for love and nothing for reward;
O why should Heavenly God to men have such regard?"