In Genesis 28, Jacob dreams of angels ascending and descending on a “ladder.” The text does not specify what the angels are doing, but they are somehow participants in the vision that God gives to Jacob at Bethel. The angels were there to look in on what God was doing with Jacob, as Peter says they long to do (1 Peter 1:21), and – hence – to bear witness to the truth of God’s promises. This is the proper job of a messenger and a worshipper of the living God. It is crucial to understand that they are not the focal point of the scene – rather, the angels are there as a witness to what God is doing. Perhaps that is why Jesus tells Nathaniel that he also will see “heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). The angels are peripheral, yet they adorn the witness of God and communicate his messages when directed. For Jacob, the angels are early signs to him (“messages”) that he is encountering a message from the God of his fathers. Think of them like theme music. They let you know the show is starting. When there are angels, something exciting happens. They are not casual acquaintances.
For example, in Genesis 31, Jacob recounts that an angel had shared with him God’s message in a dream that Jacob should return to his home, saying, “I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the stone marker and made a solemn vow to me. Get up, leave this land, and return to your native land” (Genesis 31:13). Jacob is reminded by an angel of what God intends for him – in fact, the presence of the angel in the dream is part of the reminder that this message is from God, the God that Jacob swore to at Bethel where the angels ascended and descended before him. He is thus able to associate the presence of the angels with the presence of God.
Hence, as God guides Jacob back to the land, he encounters the angels again (Genesis 32). They become a sign for him that God would have him camp in that place. This encampment sets up the wrestling encounter at Peniel, in which Jacob wrestles with an angel during the night. In his prevailing with the angel, Jacob is blessed (Genesis 32:28). Jacob sees this wrestling as having “seen God face to face,” although he does not in fact see God. This incident highlights for us again the ambiguity of the angels in Scripture. Like Samson’s parents in Judges 13, there is confusion on the part of the characters between the angel (Judges 13:21) and God himself (Judges 13:22). Hosea makes it clear that Jacob struggled with an angel by clarifying a potentially ambiguous word with the clearer one: “as a man he struggled with elohim (usually God, but sometimes angel, foreign gods, or human judges); he struggled with malak and overcame him” (Hosea 12:3-4). This is the same clarification found in Genesis 48 when Jacob years later blesses his son, Joseph, “May the God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has delivered my from all harm – may he bless these boys…” (Genesis 48:15-16). As Moses tells us the story, he shows us the development in Jacob’s understanding of the LORD.
The difference between Jacob’s explanation of his experience in Genesis 32 and Genesis 48 has to do with the events of chapters 34 and 35. In those chapters, as Jacob comes to form a personal commitment to the Lord (“the God of Israel” Genesis 33:20), God reiterates the blessing to Jacob (Genesis 25:11-13). This message comes to him at Bethel, and there is no longer any mention of the angels. This transition is an example of the dynamism of Jacob’s character. For example, consider the dream that Jacob has at the end of his life when he is going to see his son Joseph in Egypt. At that time, God calls to him in a vision and speaks with him directly. No longer does Jacob’s encounter with God include the presence and sign of angels. Moses shows how Jacob has grown in his understanding and his relationship with the Lord. As Bible readers, we want to grow in the same way.
Hence, we must allow the narrator of the text to tell us how to understand what the angels are and what they are doing. This caution is best expressed by patience and by carefully distinguishing what a character says from what the inspired author of the book wants to say to us. Even when an author of Scripture tells part of his own story, as for example, Moses will do, there is still a difference between what the character knew at the time and what the author knows at the time that he composes his book under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.
Considering our reflection on the role of angels in Genesis, we can note something interesting about the Joseph story that concludes the book: the angels make no significant appearance in those chapters of the book at all. Joseph is not in the land that had been promised because of his capture and slavery in Egypt. Yet, God is with him (Genesis 39:21) so that he meets with success in trials, flees temptation, interprets dreams, and has great understanding. Even the pagan king confesses that Joseph has the spirit of God in him (Genesis 41:37) after Joseph tells Pharoah that God will enable Joseph to interpret his dreams. Joseph knows that his success is from God (Genesis 45:9) and that all his paths are guided by a God who keeps his promises (Genesis 45:5-7). His understanding is purer than Jacob’s had been.
The angels have delivered messages in dreams and visions, have guided and protected key figures in God’s stories, and highlighted the presence of God through their worship of him.
Excerpted with permission from Angels & Demons by John Gilhooly. Copyright 2024, B&H Publishing.
