The Significance of Heavenly Messengers and their Relative Ranking (4 March, 2013, ADAR 24, 5773)
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In Hebrew the word for angel is Malach. This word literally means messenger. In the Bible a "malach" may be a human or spiritual entity. It depends on the context. Angels in the spiritual sense are messengers and intermediaries. Some are higher up the scale than others. The more elevated they are the closer to the Almighty will be those they deal with.
The People of Israel after they came out of Egypt had been promised that God would send his angel before them. This angel would have the name of God in him.
Exodus 23:
20 Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. 22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. 24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.
This angel would have the name of God in him. In effect this meant that God Himself would be speaking in a more direct manner through this angel than HE would through another at a lower level (Nachmanides, Malbim).
Later the People sinned with the Golden bull-calf. God was angry with them. HE said HE would send HIS angel before them. This time HE meant an angel at a lower level.
Exodus 33:
Then the LORD said to Moses, Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your descendants I will give it. 2 And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.
The Malbim explains that,
In this case the angel who was to go up with them was of a lower rank. He would be the equivalent of the angels who rule over other peoples. God says that HE wants to send this angel before them instead of going HIMSELF in order to save them from HIS wrath. The people were human. They had already committed idolatry once. They were liable to do it again. If however this angel of lower rank were to lead them then, if they sinned, they would not be punished so severely. Why was that?
Before continuing we should note that Moses did not accept the proposition of this lesser angel going before them. Moses pleaded with the Almighty who accepted his request and agreed to go HIMSELF before the people (Exodus 33:12-23)!
The Children of Israel were meant to be a special people. They were the treasure possession of God Himself!
Deuteronomy 14:
2 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
The nations of the earth however were ruled over by intermediary powers.
Deuteronomy 4:
19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day.
Here it says that the stars and elements of the sky belong to non-Israelite peoples. Elsewhere we see that the angels are collated with the forces of heaven.
Isaiah speaks of Hilel ben Shachar (translated as Lucifer) who represents both a military power in historical times as well as a spiritual entity in the Heavens.
Isaiah 14:
12 How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning! [Hilel ben Shachar]
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.
Every Nations has its own Guardian Angel who is responsible for that nation.
Isaiah speaks of the Final Judgement Day when the Almighty will punish the earthly powers as well as the spiritual ones in heaven that are parallel to them.
Isaiah 24:
21 It shall come to pass in that day
That the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones,
And on the earth the kings of the earth.
Daniel was told by an angel that he (the angel) would have to fight with the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Yavan (Greece). By Prince, as seen from the context, is intended a spiritual angelic being who represents a nation.
Daniel 10:
20 Then he said, Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come.
Each Nation has its own Guardian Angel (Moshe Luzatto, "Derek HaShem", p. 143 Aryeh Kaplan edition). The rulership of the national guardian angel is less strict and less direct than that of God Himself. It is as if since God has distanced Himself from the nation, and rules them though intermediaries then they will not be punished if they worship intermediaries.
Israel on the other hand would be punished because God Himself rules over them.
Amos 3:
2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth;
Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Tradition says that Michael is the Guardian Angel of Israel. Michael was once the patron saint of England before being replaced by Saint George. Michael was also consdiered the patron of Russia but in Russia we find few Israelites apart from the Jews, the Subbotniks, and Khazars who were of Israelite descent.
When the Israelites came out of Egypt and Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Torah they feared that Moses had disappeared.
They therefore asked Aharon to make elohim (i.e. powers or intermediaries) instead of Moses. They intended at first that they should have something to intercede for them. Their initial intention was not to replace God with something else but rather to replace Moses!
So too, when God said HE would send HIS angel before them HE meant it for their own good in order not to expose them to HIS future wrath if they should commit idolatry again. Moses however persuaded God to lead the people HIMSELF. This meant that the Presence of the Almighty would always be close to the Israelites. It also meant that if and when they sinned they would face severe punishment,
Amos 3:
2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth;
Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
When the Ten Tribes went into Exile they were divorced and disowned by the Almighty (Jeremiah 3:8, Hosea 1:10, Yevamot 17) .
[Jeremiah 3:8] SHE SAW THAT FOR ALL THE ADULTERIES OF THAT FAITHLESS ONE, ISRAEL, I HAD SENT HER AWAY WITH A DECREE OF DIVORCE;
The Ten Tribes were exiled because they worshipped idols and went in the ways of the nations around them (2-Kings chs. 17 and 18)..
They were being sent into Exile in order to intermix somewhat with the non-Israelite nations, to rule over them, and then evolve upwards dragging the Gentiles with them. This is what they did do.
It may be that the announcement of the Almighty concerning the Angel (of lower rank) he would send with the Israelites in order to save them from themselves came into effect with the Ten Tribes when they were exiled?
Henceforth for the duration of their Exile they were to have the spiritual status of non-Israelites.
They would therefore be at the level the Almighty wanted the Israelites to be at after the sin of the Golden Calf.
For this reason, from a Jewish point of view someone from the Ten Tribes may practise Christianity whereas a Jew cannot.
Obviously many Christians will not whole-heartedly agree with this explanation but it may be worth keeping in mind.
Christians should look at the bright side which is that this Jewish understanding of reality should enable Jews to work with Christians to spread knowledge of the truth of Israelite Ancestry amongst Western Peoples.
See:
The Angel of Israel and Joseph: Is it MICHAEL?