Ordainers Of The Law

by HICKLING, S. | Category: The Ministry Of Angels | Apr 2007

The presence of angels at the giving of the Law seems to be unquestionable on the basis of the scriptural record. References to the Lord coming from Sinai and coming ‘from the midst of ten thousand holy ones’ (Deut.33:2) and to the thousands upon thousands of God's chariots, which ‘the Lord is among ... as at Sinai’ (Ps.68:17) leave us with little doubt in the matter. Neither should we be surprised at the presence of the angelic hosts on such an occasion as this, given their interest in the affairs of men, examples of which abound in Scripture.

It is only in the New Testament, however, that we learn of the ministry of angels in ordaining the Law. In Galatians 3:19, Paul speaks of the Law as, ‘having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator’. The word 'ordained', in this instance, simply means arranged, administered, put in operation or proclaimed. In his defence before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:53), Stephen also makes mention of the fact that the Law was received by the arrangement (the noun deriving from the verb translated 'ordained' in Galatians 3:19) of angels.

Paul clarifies the nature of the ministry of angels with regard to the introduction of the Law in Hebrews 2:2, where he refers to the Law as ‘the word spoken through angels’. In the disposition of the Law at Sinai the angels were, it seems, God's mouthpiece. They were the agents through which God's Law was delivered by the hand (margin) of a mediator (Gal.3:19) to God's covenant people.

But why were angels tasked with this tremendous responsibility of proclaiming the Law to God's people through Moses, the mediator? We do not know whether the angelic throng was visible to the people, but in arranging this exhibition of divine power at the institution of His Law, it seems that God had His people's frailties in mind. Whether or not the host was witnessed by the people, its presence at Sinai was accepted in Jewish tradition. Indeed, the Jewish historian Josephus writes that 'for ourselves, we have learned from God the most excellent of our doctrines, and the most holy part of our Law, by angels or ambassadors' (Antiquities XV.5.3). Josephus was making reference to the Greek philosophy that ambassadors were sacred when carrying messages to others. The implication in his remarks regarding angels is that, for the Jew, the Law derived a sacred authority by virtue of it being delivered from God by angels or divine ambassadors.

Stephen's words in Acts 7:53 also point toward a Jewish regard for the authority of the Law because of the involvement of angels in its delivery. The word translated 'by' in the phrase ‘you who received the law as ordained by angels’ refers to the consideration that influences somebody to do something. Stephen was essentially saying that Israel received the Law, being influenced by the authority of the ordaining angels or thinking it their duty to receive what angels were administering.

Israel's mediator was not one who could lay his hands upon both parties (see Job 9:33) and God knew that the people would constantly question his position and God's choice of him. It seems that God purposed the involvement of angels in the giving of the Law, recognising His people's weakness, so that the authority of such Law would be without doubt.

We must, however, remember that this was God's Law. It did not originate with the angels; they merely spoke the words that God had given to them. Indeed, a distortion of this truth seems to be at the root of the Colossian heresy, which encouraged angel worship and, according to F. F. Bruce, characterized angelic powers as the elemental spirits of the universe (see Paul's references to the ‘elementary principles of the world’ in Col.2:8, 20 and Gal.4:3, 9 - these were the rudimentary principles of the Jewish faith that ensnared the adherents to this heresy, whose regard for them seems to stem from their connection with angelic powers).

The apostle's words in Hebrews 2:5 may have been directed at those who were being enticed to return to observance of the elementary principles of Judaism because of a corrupt regard for the authority of angels. He reminds them that God ‘did not subject to angels the world to come’. Delivery of the Law by the mouths of angels gave good reason for Israel to pay close attention to it. How much more so then should the word which we have received, ‘at the first spoken through the Lord’ (Heb.2:3), cause us to pay much closer attention to it?

HICKLING, S. | Apr 2007
The Ministry Of Angels