- Welcome to a grace DIGITAL Presentation.
In this video,
we shall be discussing the times when the Old Testament
showed us that angels are real.
Angels have always fascinated us,
although no doubt everyday routine makes us forget so easily
how real they are,
but every time we are tempted to forget
how real they are to us as believers.
The Bible is always available to remind us of times
when angels moved from being invisible heavenly beings,
to actually appearing to people,
so as to make God's counsel known.
Number one, Abraham.
Genesis 18:1-16 KJV says,
"And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre,
and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo,
three men stood by him,
and when he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the tent door,
and bowed himself toward the ground, and said,
'My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight,
pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched,
and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
And I will fetch a morsel of bread,
and comfort ye your hearts.
After that ye shall pass on,
for therefore are ye come to your servant.'
And they said,
'So do, as thou hast said.'
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said,
'Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it,
and make cakes upon the hearth.'
And Abraham ran unto the herd,
and fetched a calf tender and good,
and he gave it unto a young man,
and he hasted to dress it.
And he took butter, and milk,
and the calf which he had dressed,
and set it before them,
and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
And they said unto him,
'Where is Sarah thy wife?'
And he said, 'Behold, in the tent.'
And he said, 'I will certainly return unto thee,
according to the time of life,
and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.'
And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age,
and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying,
'After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure,
my Lord being old also?'
And the Lord said unto Abraham,
'Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying,
Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Is any thing too hard for the Lord?
At that time appointed I will return unto thee,
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.'
Then Sarah denied, saying, 'I laughed not,'
for she was afraid.
And he said, 'Nay, but thou didst laugh.'
And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom,
and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way."
Number two, Moses.
Exodus 3:1-5 AMP says,
"Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro,
Reuel, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,
and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness,
and came to Horeb, Sinai, the mountain of God.
The Angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a blazing flame of fire from the midst of a bush,
and he looked, and behold, the bush was on fire,
yet it was not consumed.
So Moses said, 'I must turn away from the flock,
and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burned up.'
When the Lord saw
that he turned away from the flock to look,
God called to him from the midst of the bush and said,
'Moses, Moses!'
And he said, 'Here I am.'
Then God said, 'Do not come near,
take your sandals off your feet out of respect,
because the place on which you are standing is holy ground.'
Number three, Jacob.
Genesis 32 AMP.
"Then as Jacob went on his way,
the angels of God met him to reassure and protect him.
When Jacob saw them, he said, 'This is God's camp.'
So he named that place Mahanaim, double camps.
So Jacob was left alone,
and a Man came and wrestled with him until daybreak.
When the Man saw that He had not prevailed against Jacob,
He touched his hip joint,
and Jacob's hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him.
Then He said, 'Let Me go, for day is breaking.'
But Jacob said,
'I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing on me.'
So He asked him, 'What is your name?'
And he said, 'Jacob.'
And He said, 'Your name shall no longer be Jacob,
but Israel,
for you have struggled with God and with men,
and have prevailed.'
Then Jacob asked Him, 'Please tell me Your name.'
But He said, 'Why is it that you ask My name?'
And He declared a blessing of the covenant promises
on Jacob there.
So Jacob named the place Peniel, the face of God, saying,
'For I have seen God face to face,
yet my life has not been snatched away.'
Number four, Gideon.
Judges 6:11-27 AMP says,
"Now the Angel of the Lord
came and sat under the terebinth tree at Ophrah,
which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite,
and his son Gideon was beating wheat in the wine press,
instead of the threshing floor,
to hide it and save it from the Midianites.
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him,
'The Lord is with you, O brave man.'
But Gideon said to him,
'Please my Lord, if the Lord is with us,
then why has all this happened to us?
And where are all His wondrous works
which our fathers told us about when they said,
'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?'
But now the Lord has abandoned us,
and put us into the hand of Midian.'
The Lord turned to him and said,
'Go in this strength of yours,
and save Israel from the hand of Midian.
Have I not sent you?'
But Gideon said to Him,
'Please Lord, how am I to rescue Israel?
Behold, my family is the least significant in Manasseh,
and I am the youngest, smallest, in my father's house.'
The Lord answered him,
'I will certainly be with you,
and you will strike down the Midianites,
as if they were only one man.'
Gideon replied to Him,
'If I have found any favor in Your sight,
then show me a sign that is in You who speaks with me.
Please do not depart from here until I come back to You,
and bring my offering and place it before You.'
And He said, 'I will wait until you return.'
Then Gideon went and prepared a young goat
and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour.
The meat he put in a basket and the broth in a pot,
and he brought the food to Him under the oak, terebinth,
and presented it.
The Angel of God said to him,
'Take the meat and unleavened bread,
and lay them on this rock,
and pour out the broth over them.'
And he did so.
Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff
that was in His hand,
and touched the meat and the unleavened bread,
and fire flared up from the rock,
and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread.
Then the Angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
When Gideon realized without any doubt
that He was the Angel of the Lord, he declared,
'Oh no, Lord God!
For now I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face,
and I am doomed!'
Then the Lord said to him,
'Peace be to you, do not be afraid, you shall not die.'
Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord,
and named it The Lord is Peace.
To this day it is still in Ophrah, of the Abiezrites.
Now on that same night the Lord said to Gideon,
'Take your father's bull, the second bull seven years old,
and tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father,
and cut down the Asherah that is beside it,
and build an altar to the Lord your God
on top of this mountain stronghold,
with stones laid down in an orderly way.
Then take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice
using the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.'
Then Gideon took ten men of his servants,
and did just as the Lord had told him,
but because he was too afraid
of his father's household, relatives,
and the men of the city
to do it during daylight,
he did it at night.
Number five, Samson's parents' encounter
with an angel from the Lord.
Judges 13:3-22 AMP.
"And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman
and said to her,
'Behold, you are infertile and have no children,
but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.
Therefore, be careful not to drink wine
or any other intoxicating drink,
and do not eat anything ceremonially unclean.
For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son.
No razor shall come upon his head,
and the boy shall be a Nazirite,
dedicated to God from birth,
and he shall begin to rescue Israel
from the hands of the Philistines.'
Then the woman went and told her husband, saying,
'A Man of God came to me,
and his appearance was like the appearance
of the Angel of God, very awesome.
I did not ask Him where he came from,
and he did not tell me his name.
But He said to me,
'Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son,
and now you shall not drink wine
or any other intoxicating drink,
nor eat anything ceremonially unclean,
for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God
from the birth to the day of his death.'
Then Manoah pleaded with the Lord and said,
'O Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent
come again to us,
and teach us what we are to do
for the boy who is to be born.'
And God listened to the voice of Manoah,
and the Angel of God came again to the woman
as she sat in the field,
but Manoah her husband was not with her.
So the woman ran quickly and told her husband,
'Behold, the Man who came to me the other day
has appeared to me.'
Then Manoah got up and followed his wife,
and came to the Man and said to him,
'Are you the Man who spoke this to this woman?'
He said, 'I am.'
And Manoah said, 'Now when your words come true,
what shall be the boy's manner of life, and his vocation?'
And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah,
'The woman must pay attention
to everything that I said to her.
She may not eat anything that comes from the vine,
or drink wine or any other intoxicating drink,
nor eat anything ceremonially unclean.
She shall observe everything that I commanded her.'
Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord,
'Please let us detain you,
and let us prepare a young goat for you to eat.'
The Angel of the Lord said to Manoah,
'Though you detain me, I will not eat your food,
if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.'
For Manoah did not know that he was the Angel of the Lord.
Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord,
'What is your name, so that when the words come true,
we may honor you?'
But the Angel of the Lord said to him,
'Why do you ask my name,
seeing it is wonderful, miraculous?'
So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering,
and offered it on the rock to the Lord,
and He performed miracles
while Manoah and his wife looked on.
When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar,
the Angel of the Lord ascended into the altar flame.
When Manoah and his wife saw this,
they fell on their faces to the ground.
The Angel of the Lord did not appear again
to Manoah or his wife.
Then Manoah knew that he was the Angel of the Lord.
So Manoah said to his wife,
'We will certainly die, because we have seen God.'"
Number six,
Angel Gabriel delivered the answers to Daniel's prayers.
Daniel 9:20-23 AMP.
"While I was still speaking and praying,
and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel,
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God
in behalf of the holy mountain of my God,
while I was still speaking in prayer
and extremely exhausted,
the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in an earlier vision,
came to me about the time of the evening sacrifice.
He instructed me, and talked with me, and said,
'O Daniel, I have now come to give you insight,
and wisdom and understanding.
At the beginning of your supplications,
the command to give you an answer was issued,
and I come to tell you,
for you are highly regarded and greatly beloved.
Therefore, consider the message,
and begin to understand the meaning of the vision.'"
Let us pray.
Thank you Father for reminding me once again
through these Bible verses,
that your angels are real,
and that they are always watching out for me,
even when I can't see them.
In the name of Jesus,
I reaffirm my choice to live by faith and not by sight.
Amen.