Angels-MINISTERING ANGELS

Ministering angels is a term subject to various interpretations. Some
Talmudists judge ministering angels to constitute the highest order in
the celestial hierarchy, the “hosts of the Lord.” Others consider the
ministering angels to be numerous and to belong to an inferior order.
Some consider ministering angels to be angels who give help, service,
care or aid, or fill wants or needs, especially those who serve as nurses.
When still others speak of ministering angels, they mean angels who
are sent forth from the court of God to carry out his commands.
The Talmud reports that ministering angels roasted meat and
cooled wine for Adam when he was in the Garden of Eden. These
angels would seem to fit into a category of servants. Angels are
described as God’s servants in Job 4:18, “Behold, he put no trust in his
servants; and his angels he charged with folly.” In Rev. 22:8, John,
having heard and seen the prophecies described in Revelation, fell in
worship at the feet of the angel who had shown them to him. The
angel told John that he should not be worshipped, as he was just a servant
of God as John himself was.
In addition to serving God, angels also serve the human race, as
noted in Heb. 1:14, “Are not all angels spirits in the divine service,
sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
Possibly the most well known ministering angel is depicted in the
twelfth chapter of the Book of Tobit, when the angel Raphael accompanies
Tobit’s son Tobias on his journey to Media from Nineveh. Upon
his return, Raphael instructs Tobias to apply fish gall to the eyes of his
father, who is blind. Tobit’s eyesight is restored. [And Raphael said:]
“God sent me to heal you. . . . As for me, when I was with you I was not
acting on my own will, but by the will of God” (Tobit 12:14–18).
According to Jewish tradition, God brought down from his highest
heaven seventy ministering angels, led by Michael, the greatest of
all angels, to teach languages to Noah’s seventy descendants.