Angels are NOT robots. They
are moral creatures
who can make moral decisions.
In this way they are like men. They, just like men, are made so that they are able to choose to NOT DO what they are supposed to do, or TO DO what they are not supposed to do. Also like us, angels are often allowed, beyond just choosing (within limits set by God), to do things which they should not. So it says of God,
“Behold,
he puts no trust in his servants.
He charges his angels with
error. ”
Job 4:18 WEB
So we saw in Part III “the prince of Persia” in Dan 10:13, and in that passage he is opposing the archangel Michael as he is trying to come to the aid of the prophet Daniel.
“15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones;
Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight:
16 How much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
A man who drinks iniquity like water!”
Job 15:15-16 WEB
When angels have sinned they
(again like men)
are often punished WITHIN TIME.
Peter argues that if God did not even spare the angels, how can anyone escape his sins.
“For
if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to
Tartarusa, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved to
judgment; ”
2Pe 2:4 WEB
Similarly, Jude speaks of these things.
“Angels
who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling
place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the
judgment of the great day.”
Jude 6 WEB
The leader of open revolt was
one called
Satan: the adversary.
Satan is spoken of as a cherub who was close to God in Ezekiel 28, as has been noted. Isaiah 14 is about the King of Babylon descending into torment, and the king of Babylon is treated as symbolic of the devil or Satan. It uses language here which it too exalted to speak of a mere man. It calls the one we call the devil or Satan as formerly being the “day-star, son of the morning!” Isa 14:12 WEB. This cherub tried to become THE GOD, and failed, and will be cast down to destruction.
“3 You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit on the mountain of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit. ”
Isa 14:13-15 WEB
But how blessed are those
angels who are
faithful to God.
20
“Praise Yahweh, you angels of his,
Who are mighty in
strength, who fulfill his word,
Obeying the voice of his
word.
21 Praise Yahweh, all you hosts of his,
You
servants of his, who do his pleasure.”
Psa 103:20-21 WEB
Not all do, but most of them do.
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901