Do Angels Have Wings?

Hebrews 1:14, Psalm 91:11, Luke 15:10

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Do Angels Have Wings? This was a debate that I heard not so long ago, and basically it was asking the question in the Bible, do we actually find evidence that angels have wings? And so on the one hand, you have the argument that whenever you see the term angel in Scripture, whether it’s in the Old Testament or New Testament, you never hear that they have wings. But on the other hand, you hear about the seraphim and the cherubim found in Isaiah chapter six. And they definitely have wings. Those that are on the non-wing side of things would say that the angels are of a different sort than the Cherubim and Seraphim.

It’s kind of an interesting discussion and kind of maybe causes us to change our own preconceived notions of angels as well. But what I would say is probably bigger isn’t just knowing whether or not angels have wings. What is bigger is to know what angels are and what their purpose is. The word angel both in Hebrew and in Greek, so both in the Old Testament and New Testament, It means the same thing. It means messenger. And we see this in the Bible when we have the appearance of angels, quite often they are appearing as messengers of God. And they appear in human form with a bright white light, or dressed in white and so forth, and people are afraid of them, but they come and they share this message from God as he’s telling them what’s going to happen in the future, as he brings them comfort, as he gives them a promise, as he helps them with this messenger bringing this word to them.

But God tells us more in His Word, of course, concerning angels. One place where we find a bit more is in Hebrews chapter one verse 14 and it says, this

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent out to serve for the benefit of those who are going to inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:14)

You know, in that rhetorical question, we find out something more concerning the angels. We find out that they are spirit beings. So they’re these invisible creatures that God has made and what is their purpose? Well, they are created to serve, to serve God, but also to serve God’s people, to serve us Christians. All people who believe in Jesus as their Savior, who will inherit eternal life. And how did they do that? Well, one way they do that is, as we see in Scripture, they bring messages from God to his people. And we have examples of that in the Bible, but we see it in other ways as well. In Psalm 91 it says this concerning the angels.

Yes, he will give a command to his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. (Psalm 91:11)

God has also sent his angels to protect his people, to watch over them. And so often we hear about people talking about how angels protected them, maybe from a car accident or some other danger that was present. And certainly angels can do those sorts of things, but more importantly, it’s good for us to know what else angels do in that regard. They don’t just guard us from physical injury or things that might threaten our physical bodies, but especially our soul. We think about what Jesus said in Luke chapter 15

I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10)

The angels love what God loves. They want all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, just as God does. They don’t want any to perish but all to know their Savior, Jesus Christ. And so God has given his angels especially to watch over Christians, to protect them from spiritual harm, from evil forces that threaten them, that threaten to tear away their faith in their Savior, Jesus Christ. And I think about how comforting that is for us as Christians. To know that God not only has paid for our sins through Jesus death on the cross, he has not only guaranteed eternal life and resurrection from the dead through Jesus rising from the dead, he has not only given us the gift of faith by His Holy Spirit to believe, but he has also sent angels to protect us from evil forces that threaten our faith because he desires us to be with him forever. And he is watching over us, and he has given them ultimately for our good and for our comfort. Amen.