What Angels do?

What exactly do angels do?

The Bible pictures angels as fulfilling four great roles:

1. They worship God in heaven. This is the most familiar picture of angels in the Bible. Most often when we see them, they are worshipping God. For instance, when Christ was born, the shepherds heard the heavenly host singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace goodwill toward men" (Luke 2:14). All the angels praise God; some angels seem assigned to this as a permanent duty.

2. They serve as messengers for God. This is what the Greek word for "angel" means. An angel is a messenger for the Almighty.

3. They war against Satan and his demons. We this most clearly in the book of Revelation, but you have glimpses of it in other places in the Bible, most notably Daniel 10.  Remember a crucial fact. Whenever angels and demons go to war, the angels of God always win because God is greater than Satan.

4. They offer special protection to God's people. Psalm 34:7 says, "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them." There are many cases of miraculous angelic deliverance in the Bible. For instance, when Lot was attacked in Sodom, the two angels struck the unruly mob with blindness. When Daniel was thrown in the lion's den, an angel closed the mouth of the lions so they would not harm him. When Peter was thrown in jail in Acts 12, an angel came to set him free.