The Ministry of Angels

An angel with a bagpipe?

On a recent visit to Scotland we spent time looking around Fort George, an army garrison built in the late 18th century, on the Moray Firth. In the Garrison Chapel there was in the main stained glass window an angel playing the bagpipes! Well, why not, for the Bible mentions angels with trumpets in Revelation chapters 8 & 9, so why not bagpipes in the heavenly realm. Some people say that the sound of the pipes is “out of this world”.

The Hebrew word translated angel is "mal'ak" whilst the New Testament Greek word is "aggelos.". In both languages, the word means "messenger," and is used to describe any agent God sends to do his will.
Angels have a ministry to perform on behalf of the Lord God Almighty and so do His ministers.
One other feature of note in the Garrison Chapel was the three tier pulpit (seen in the photograph below). This was unique and I wondered what the qualifications were to be allowed on the top level or even on the middle level!

Psalm 104:4 is quoted in Hebrews 1:7 – God “who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.”
The ministry of angels is to worship God and to carry out His commands whilst His ministers are to be on fire for Him. Perhaps the top tier was reserved for the one displaying the greater flame for His Glory?

In John 5:35, John the Baptist is described as “the burning and shining lamp”.
The need of the hour is that His ministers be aflame for the Glory of the LORD.
For those of us in ministry we should keep this ever before us – that we should burn for His Eternal Glory.

Two Bible passages, Psalm 34:7 and Matthew 18:10, indicate that God employs the ministry of angels to deliver his people from affliction and danger, and that the angels do not think it below their dignity to minister even to children and to the least among Christ's disciples. If we each have a guardian angel I trust that mine isn’t playing the bagpipes.